Status Report

Status so far as Aeth heads for Glory of the Hero:

• Chaos Theory - Untried.
• Respect Your Elders - Done!
• Volunteer Work - Done!
• Better Off Dred - Possible, but tricky.
• Less-Rabi - Possible, but tricky.
• Abuse the Ooze - Untried.
• Zombiefest! - Untried.
• Experienced Drake Rider - Untried.
• Ruby Void - Untried.
• Amber Void - Untried.

The hardest part about last night's efforts were getting past Prince Taldaram.  Oy!  Possible to solo, but just barely.  I ended up popping my Baradin Footman's Tags just before the first Vampric Embrace; then I used an Ice Block to survive the first flame spheres.  I just ate the next vampric embrace, but immediately afterwards, I popped Mirror Image so I could use Evocation to regain health.  I did my best (Blink & run!) to dodge the second flame sphere summons, and after that, popped all my cooldowns (Arcane Power, Time Warp, Tirande's Favorite Doll, etc.) to burn him down ASAP.  Ended up with the Prince down, and Aeth's health at something like 5k.  A very close thing.

Going back through WotLK content, I'm surprised at how gimmicky even the 5-man bosses are.  Well, not so much surprised, as in intrigued... with a couple of exceptions, their gimmicks aren't trivializable, even for an incredibly overgeared powerhouse like Aeth.  Most BC dungeon bosses go down so quickly that their mechanics don't really even come into play, or if they do, they can simply be ignored.  I wonder if that was a conscious design decision in Wrath, or if it's something that has just more or less evolved from the design process at Blizzard.

Moving Right Along

I've spent a couple of evenings earlier this week in Karazhan, working on Aeth's reputation with the Violet Eye. 

One run through all the way up to the chess event, followed by another partial run, got me to within about 1k of exalted.  Finishing off the quest chain that ends with killing Nightbane on the Master's Terrace let me finish that grind and got Aeth all the way to 999/1000 exalted... which means she now has 49 exalted reputations.  Only one more to go!

What to do now, though?  Just about the only way Aeth has of grinding out additional reputations is through raids - Molten Core, Ahn'Quiraj, Black Temple, etc.  Well, gee - Kara wasn't horribly difficult, honestly.  How hard could Black Temple be, really?

Two very quick deaths in the Black Temple in exchange for 36 rep makes it pretty obvious that the answer is something like "pretty freaking hard for a squishy mage".  Ouch.  Maybe a bit more thought will help divine the answer here...

• Bloodsail Buccaneers - killing Blackwater Raiders - 5k+ of them - to get to Exalted, then start in on killing 1600+ Booty Bay Bruisers.  Then worry about repairing reputations with the neutral Goblin factions.  Ouch.
• Darkmoon Faire - monthly quests.  Should get to exalted the next time it shows up.
• Ravenholdt - farming junkboxes.  Need about 800 more to max out at 999/1000 exalted.
• Hydraxian Waterlords - Molten Core - vanilla 40-man raid.
• Brood of Nozdormu - Ruins of Ahn'Quiraj - vanilla 20-man raid that gives almost no rep.
• Brood of Nozdormu - Temple of Ahn'Quiraj - vanilla 40-man raid.
• Ashtongue Deathsworn - Black Temple - BC 25-man raid.
• Scale of the Sands - Hyjal Summit - BC 25-man raid.
• The Ashen Verdict - Icecrown Citadel - WotLK 10-man raid.
• Avengers of Hyjal - Firelands - Cata 10-man raid.
• PvP Factions - no.  Just... no.  Holy cow - 3k+ WSG battlegrounds? Augh!

Hmm.  When "wait for a couple of weeks" and "farm junkboxes until your fingers bleed" are your two best options... maybe it's time to try and put together some classic raids.

Speaking of which, Aeth got to go along for a normal Dragon Soul raid last night, as we're trying to help out a guild mate who wants to get his Fangs of the Father.  It took a bit of effort to get everyone on the same page and down Morchok, but it was actually pretty simple.  What can I say?  I've got some good guild mates.  I'm happy because another weekly DS raid will give me and my erratic schedule a chance to pop in and raid with my guild.

Since I'm willing to wait to grind rep, and raids take time to organize and are kind of catch-as-catch-can for me, I'm obviously going to have some time to work on other things.  Like, say... Glory of the Hero? 

Yeah, yeah.  I know.  That's so last expansion.  Still, I've only got a handful of achievements I need for this meta, and it was pretty simple to knock out Consumption Junction last night.  Which leaves Aeth needing only ten more WotLK heroic dungeon achievements:

• Chaos Theory - Looks like it might be tricky, but possible.
• Respect Your Elders - Definitely soloable.
• Volunteer Work - A "kill them quickly!" achievement?  No problem.
• Better Off Dred - Potentially soloable... with 4 stacks of AB up, Aeth can probably one/two shot the raptors.  The problem will be collecting them quickly enough.
• Less-Rabi - Hmmm.  Can I kill him in 15 seconds, with one interrupt?  Let's see!
• Abuse the Ooze - Definitely possible to solo.
• Zombiefest! - Definitely possible to solo, but also definitely easier in a group.
• Experienced Drake Rider - I need to ride an Emerald and Ruby drake.  Huh?  Oh, yeah - I've done this about a billion times on Laenshield, not Aeth.  Huh.
• Ruby Void - Possible? Maybe. Certainly easier with a group.
• Amber Void - Possible? Maybe. Certainly easier with a group.

I'll give the easier looking ones a try tonight or tomorrow, and maybe see if I can pick up a partner or two for the ones that would be easier to accomplish in a group.  Oh, and maybe unpack my Baradin Footman's Tags and see if that's a help as well.

Onward!

The Forge Of Souls

Normal mode, solo.

Woohoo!

Not all the way, unfortunately. Bronjahm turned out to be able to take quite a bit of punishment. I popped my trinkets, put up Time Warp and Mirror Image, and commenced to blowing through my mana like there was no tomorrow. 30 seconds later, I had him down to about 30% health when my mirror images disappeared and he decided to start melting my face off.

I was completely ignoring the corrupted soul fragments, though. I suppose that if I paid attention to those, I wouldn't have had quite as difficult a time getting him down. I'm thinking that it might be worth it to (a) lay out some cash for some higher-end consumables, and (b) plop down 40 Tol Barad Commendations for a Baradin Footman's Tags. Depending on how survivable the footman is, a combination of Mirror Image followed by a Footman may give Aeth enough time to overpower Bronjahm.

Good news is that the trash packs were tough, but not so tough as to be overpowering. There are a couple of 5- or 6-mob pulls in FoS that were a bit hairy (as in, "finished off the last mob with 1% health"), but a using trinkets on cooldown and all of Aeth's many CC abilities helped keep those fights manageable. If I keep it up, I may be able to get her her own Battered Hilt.

So, making a complete SWAG, it looks like Aeth should be able to solo normal Wrath dungeons up to the Nexus (modulo any "you need at least two people to beat this boss" mechanics like Svala Sorrowgrave). Next up is trying to gauge heroic difficulty... I'm thinking to give Heroic Drak'Theron a try, and see how that works out. Maybe pick up an achievement on the way!

Raising the Bar

If you haven't heard, in patch 4.0.6, Blizzard changed the requirements for getting "The Exalted" title, and removed it from players that already had the achievement. The new requirement is apparently 50 exalted reputations.

Um. OK?

I'm not going to complain about this, really. I was planning on grinding out 50 exalted reputations (or more!) eventually, so it's not a big deal for me. It just means another couple of months before I get a title I'll never really wear (not so long as Aeth has Matron, at least).

On the other hand... with 4.0.6, we also got the achievement "Just Another Day In Tol Barad" for completing each of the 34 daily quests in Tol Barad. Some of which - I kid you not - I have seen only once, or have even yet to see, even after doing Tol Barad dailies for weeks. I've earned exalted rep with the Wardens twice over by this point, gathered enough commendations to get Aeth the Stump of Time and make good headway towards some of the other reputation items I'd like to get my hands on...

... and none of those quests count, apparently.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Now, that is a bit annoying. Couple that with the fact that you still can't Explore Tol Barad, and I've got to wonder if the folks at Blizzard have handed off TB development to a summer intern or something.

In other news... did my last Black Morass run with Aeth, and got her to exalted with the Keepers of Time, which got her her Burning Crusader achievement. Time to head into some Cata dungeons, I guess!

Or maybe not...

To finish of the evening last night, I ported to Dalaran and caught a taxi to Valgarde in Howling Fjord. A quick flight later, and Aeth was strolling into the normal version of Utgarde Keep solo, just to see what that was like.

About 20 minutes later, she was done. Trash mobs were approximately on par with the weaker non-elite Cataclysm mobs, but hitting for a whole lot less. I was using CC at the start, but quickly realized that was serious overkill. Even without mana shield up, I could down a pack of 4-5 mobs without dropping below 90% health. Of the bosses... Prince Keleseth? Downed without any trouble, even before he could summon any adds. Skarvald and Dalronn? Not an issue. Ingvar? It is to laugh.

Yeah, yeah - it was the entry-level normal dungeon in Wrath. At this point, Aeth seriously outgears the content. Still, it's amazing how easy this was. I'm sure Wrath heroics will be more challenging, but I'm not sure by how much.

Next stop, I think, will be the Pit of Saron on normal mode, to see how tough the high-end Wrath dungeons are. If that's doable, I'll have to give the Wrath heroics a try... maybe see if I can pick up some of the heroic achievements she's missing, like Chaos Theory and Less-Rabi. It would be a real kick to finish off her Glory of the Hero achievement by running solo or duo!

Burning Gold

So, what do you do when you've finished your Cataclysm dailies, look at your bags and realize that you have a few extra thousand gold burning a hole in your pockets?

Well, if you're an achievement hound, you head to Shattrath, of course! There you can spend a measly 1200g to get a Haris Pilton "Gigantique" Bag. Then fly to Zangarmarsh and drop 1600g on the Cenarion War Hippogryph. Two achievements in the space of 5 minutes, and it only cost 2800g. Not a drop in the bucket, but certainly more affordable thanks to the increased flow of gold in Cataclysm.

After that, since I was in Outland, I took Aeth out to solo some heroic BC dungeons. She managed the Old Hillsbrad Foothills, Black Morass, and Blood Furnace last night without much difficulty at all. At the end of it all, she had managed to pick up another three achievements. Woot!

Even better, along the way, she gathered about 7k reputation with the Keepers of Time - bringing her almost halfway to exalted, on track to get two more achievements: The Burning Crusader and one more step towards 45 Exalted Reputations.

Reputations aside, last night reminded me how fun doing older solo content can be. As a level 80 arcane mage at the end of Wrath, doing the high-end BC heroics solo was just a bit beyond my reach. Now, at 85, they're doable - still a bit of a challenge, though, especially for a squishy mage.

It's kind of odd, but the elites in the BC dungeons feel a lot like the non-elite mobs in Cataclysm. Their health is a little lower, and in some cases, their damage is way lower. In others, though - here I'm specifically thinking of the Heroic Blood Furnace - the trash mobs are still a challenge, even with the health and damage increases that Cataclysm has brought to the table. It makes me think that a little bit of dynamic tuning might make the dungeons even more interesting for solo play.

Maybe this weekend I'll head to Northrend and see what it's like trying to solo some of the entry level dungeons there, starting with Utgarde Keep. Or get a guild mate to join with me and forma raid group so I can see what Karazhan looks like, now that I'm level mondo. My gut feeling is that, even with the Cataclysm changes, both UK and Kara will be a significant - and very fun! - challenge.

Outland Dungeonmaster

Two down, one to go. Soloed the Botanica and Mechanar with Aeth over the last couple of nights, leaving only the Arcatraz. The final stage of the Mechanar, with the waves of mobs as you progress, was a challenge - but the 4.0.1 mage buffs were more than enough to handle that challenge (with a little care!)

Sale of librams et al. to those folks still working on the Insane title is going well. Demand seems slighter than I had thought, but with the new elemental invasion events, I expect that many people are taking the time to run through the new content while it's available.

Current rep grinds: Ogri'la, the Sha'tar, and Lower City. Plus I really need to give the Keepers of Time some love. Total of about 21 various dungeon clears to get them all to exalted. Completely coincidentally, I've got about 21 days of daily quests (minus the painful Relic Emanations) to get Ogri'la to exalted as well. So it looks like I'm pretty well on track to get my 40 exalted reputations just before the Cataclysm hits, so long as I can do my Ogri'la dailies and solo a dungeon once a day.

Aetherna, Hero of Northrend

So, according to the Armory, Aetherna's run Heroic Ahn'kahet (Old Kingdom) six times. In that time, she's never actually killed Amanitar, the optional mushroom boss. Which was the only boss she needed to get her Heroic: Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom achievement, which was the last thing she needed to become a Northrend Dungeon Hero. Sweet!

To cap off the evening, she hit Hellfire Peninsula and completed a bunch of Honor Hold dungeon quests that she had skipped while leveling. Aside from picking up a nice little chunk of Honor Hold reputation, she also managed to solo regular Blood Furnace.

Oh, and I've been inspired to pick up - and try to finish, as best I'm able - the Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest line. I'd barely started this when I was working on Loremaster, so there's a lot of interesting stuff to do here, starting with a Blackwing Lair run.

Reputation grind status:

• Brood of Nozdormu - 26346/36000 (hated)
• Keepers of Time - 810/21000 (revered)
• Honor Hold - 4187/21000 (revered)

Gotta remember to hit up the Sha'tari Skyguard and get a couple of new mounts, too, on the way to my Mountain o' Mounts.

Running Solo : Magister's Terrace

In my last post, I mentioned that Aeth had started to work on her reputation with the Shattered Sun Offensive. The number of daily quests available for this makes it pretty much a "spend the time, get the rep" sort of thing, but there's another way to get SSO reputation:

Run Magister's Terrace. (Normal mode, not heroic... I'm not insane. Yet.)

At this point, I've managed to solo (or two-man) quite a few instances with Aetherna. I figured Magister's Terrace would be another "trash is a pain, but doable, bosses are right out" sort of instance, like some of the other higher-end BC content.

Yowza. I was right on the trash mobs. Pulling a pack of 5-6 required a good use of polymorph, slow, frost nova and mirror image when things got hairy. Required some planning, but aside from that, it was just a matter of CC + making head 'asplode.

The bosses, on the other hand? Wow. Selin Fireheart went down on the first try. Clearing the room for an attempt at Vexallus was interesting, but once I managed that, I got him down to sub-5% on two attempts before doing a bit of reading and realizing that I need to hold off on my cooldowns until he hits his final phase. With a little different strategy, and perhaps a Flask of the Frost Wyrm, I think I can manage to take him out before he completely fries me.

The adds on Priestess Delrissa may be a bit hairy, but at this point, I'm fairly confident that I will eventually be able to make it all the way to Kael'thas. I don't know if I'll be able to take him out without assistance, but I'm certainly going to try.

Everybody loves me, baby!

Well... as far as Aetherna is concerned, at least the Cenarion Expedition does. Which brings her up to a grand total of twenty-five exalted reputations!

I'd have the hippogriff as well, but frankly, I'm not really interested in taking 1600 gold and throwing it off into the swamp just to get a cool mount that I'll probably ride once, then ignore because it's not a 310% ride. Ah, well.

In the course of things, this involved clearing the Steamvault... I did it once with a couple of fine fellows, then went back and did it solo (which was much more difficult, but obviously not impossible.)

After that, it was off to Northrend to spend some time repeatedly sticking a knife into the general vicinity of Glacial Boneguards. Half a dozen undead creepy-crawlies later, Aetherna picked up the last point she needed to reach 400 skill in daggers, which got her the Master of Arms achievement.

Once she got that, it was off to the Caverns of Time, where she got to attempt to escort an (apparently) suicidal Thrall as he escaped from Durnholde. Oh, joy! It took two attempts, but the second time through, Aeth managed to eke out a victory:

Two runs of Durnholde, followed by two incomplete runs of the Black Morass, and Aeth had picked up enough reputation to get her hands on a Key of Time... which let her get her final achievment for the weekend: Keymaster!

I'd forgotten just how much fun doing some of these achievements can be. I've never done Durnholde or Black Morass before. While I wasn't able to finish the Morass, I came pretty close on the last boss; with a little more effort on buffing (say, the right flask, and picking up Fortitude/Kings before heading in to the instance), I think it would be doable.

Next up? Hero of the Zandalar Tribe, maybe. I've got a list of achievements I think I'd like to work on, and now is definitely the time to knock off some of those old-world ones that might be going away in the near future.