cricket collection

Along with leveling a character of each class to the current level cap, one of my long-time WoW goals has been to raid-heal with each of the healing classes. Mists LFR has been an absolutely Golden Age for me in that regard. I have a healer of each class who has completed at least Terrace of Endless Spring from T14, all of Throne of Thunder, and Siege of Orgrimmar through the Sha of Pride.

As proof that I have indeed completed my Mists expansion goal of healing in LFR with each of the healing classes — and before Patch 6.0 wreaks havoc on my action bars and addons, too! — I now present a couture collection featuring that most charming of Siege of Orgrimmar healer loot drops, the Purehearted Cricket Cage.

Waterfall Cricket

Greenweave Mantle, Waterfall Robe, Councillor’s Sash, Replica Virtuous Gloves, Rejuvenating Scepter, Purehearted Cricket Cage
This Kun-Lai Summit quest reward robe matches the tailored Windwool set, which has a tunic chestpiece instead of a robe.

Hoodoo Cricket

Self-Reflecting Mask, Runetotem’s Mantle of Conquest, Jinxed Hoodoo Skin & Kilt, Hurricane Belt, Cenarion Gloves, Miniature Winter Veil Tree, Purehearted Cricket Cage
This outfit is based on Zazzy’s grand-prize-winning final round entry for JD Kenada’s Amazing Transmog Survivor competition. Kerisa already had the shoulders, chestpiece, and kilt of Zazzy’s kit — though as a Druid, she of course could not use the same belt.

Fire-Charm Cricket

Fire-Charm Mantle, Jinxed Hoodoo Skin & Kilt, Serene Yellow Belt, Grips of Slicing Electricity, Ethereum Phase Blade, Purehearted Cricket Cage, Veridian Cloak
A variation on Zazzy’s grand-prize-winning final round entry for JD Kenada’s Amazing Transmog Survivor competition. As a Monk, Koralyra could get the chestpiece, belt, and kilt easily — but she’d have had to farm for the lookalike T9 Druid shoulders, as Zazzy had. Fortunately, the glow of the T15-LFR Monk shoulders matches the Jinxed Hoodoo items just as nicely as the crystals on the T9-Horde Druid shoulders do!

Suncrown Cricket

Bog Pauldrons, Suncrown Hauberk, Myrmidon’s Girdle, Cenarion Reservist’s Legguards*/Green Iron Leggings, Green Iron Gauntlets, Tsunami Boots, Light’s Justice, Purehearted Cricket Cage, Xing-Ho, Breath of Yu’lon
So, yeah, I decided to get the Legendary Cloak for Kamalia’s DPS spec. Hopefully, it’ll make at least the first few levels of 90 to 100 a little easier, considering that I don’t (and won’t) have a Garrosh Heirloom weapon.

Jade Cricket

Jade set with Acid-Etched Pauldrons, Qon’s Flaming Scimitar, and Purehearted Cricket Cage
I put up with the Jade set being platekini because I love its unique coloration so much. I’d be much happier if it looked on my female character the way it looks on male characters, though!

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a mediocre healer’s thoughts on the proposed healing changes

I’ll admit, I’m not that great of a healer, and really, I probably never was. Kamalia scraped through Proving Grounds Silver by the skin of her teeth and still hasn’t gone back for Gold (let alone Endless/Proven!).

I made the Paladin get her own Proving Grounds Silver — it took several attempts — before I started taking her to LFR. I plan to do the same with the Priest, the Druid, and the Monk before I take them to LFR. This is not a new objective, sparked by the news that a Proving Grounds Silver will be required to random-queue for Heroic Dungeons in Warlords; rather, it is something I have planned to do with my healers ever since the Proving Grounds first came out and Ghostcrawler commented that in the future (i.e., next expansion) a Proving Grounds Silver might be required to queue for LFR.

Because Shaman have so few instant-cast heals — only Riptide and Nature’s Swiftness + [heal] when I first began raiding — I learned to be a turret. I never properly learned how to use Spiritwalker’s Grace; I’m always forgetting about it and realizing only later, “oh, that bit of the fight would have been a good time to use SWG”. I don’t always remember, the next time I do the fight, to use SWG at that particular point, either.

With my Paladin, running LFR, I forget to use Avenging Wrath, Guardian of Ancient Kings, and especially “Raidwall”, because I never can remember what the real name of that spell is. But I have learned to use my instant-cast heals on the move, tossing out Holy Shocks, Eternal Flames, and Lights of Dawn as I run out of the fire. When Patch 6.0 comes, I will have to unlearn that behavior.

Blizz is backtracking on the “smart heals”; I seem to remember that when they were first introduced they bounced randomly, and only later were changed to prefer the most-damaged player within range. The notion that ground effect and other AOE type heals should be most mana-effective when two or more players are within them, well, isn’t that how it should have been working all along? Even if I was not very good at actually choosing my targeting/placement? So, whatever. Maybe I’ll actually learn to be a better healer again in Warlords after the decay I’ve suffered since quitting regular guild-based raiding and becoming an LFR Tourist-and-Transmog raider.

To me, it seems like the most difficult part of the healing changes will be getting the DPS mindset to accept that it’s OKAY to be at less than 100% health some or even most of the time and not be continually whining for heals and blaming the healers for every wipe.

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Things My Characters are Wearing with their Shado-Pan Helmets

Leather

Shado-Pan Ninja (Monk)



Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Puncture-Binding Spaulder, Pozzik’s Vest, Red Belt of Gentle Persuasion, Nice Shorts, Bard’s gloves & boots, Stylish Black Shirt, Monk’s Staff
This outfit is adapted from Draynee’s Black Ninja Monk kit.

Shado-Pan Domain Keeper (Monk/Druid)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Shizzle’s Muzzle Cover, Leather Tunic of Eminent Domain, Red Belt of Gentle Persuasion, Honorary Combat Engineer’s Leather Trousers, Loramus’ Gloves, Prospector’s Boots, Spear of Xuen
The brick red and black colors of these Rogue T9-lookalike items awarded early in the Jade Forest questline just begged to be part of a Shado-Pan set. Due to the factional dimorphism of the T9 sets, this outfit is Horde-only. The Prospector’s chestpiece and leggings or the chestpiece and leggings from the same set as the shoulders & gloves could be used for a similar look.
Other leather-wearers might want to use the Burning Blade Devotee’s Cinch.

Shado-Pan Brewmaster (Monk)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Dark Warder’s Pauldrons, Vest of Welcome, Red Belt of Gentle Persuasion, Sunroc Pants, Swashbuckler’s Gloves & Boots, Tremendous Tankard O’ Terror, Ced’s Crusher
Most of my characters are tee-totalers because, well, I am. Way back when acheivements were the new hotness, Kamalia picked up several of the Brewfest acheivements, but she hadn’t bothered to get Brew of the Month — and thus the “Brewmaster” title — because she knew she wouldn’t actually be interested tasting the brews of the month themselves.
That was before I had a Brewmaster Monk, however. This year, Koralyra wanted the “Brewmaster” title, and so it fell to Kamalia, who was only one achievement short, to get the meta for the whole family.
The keg-shaped maces are probably my favorite Mists 1H-Mace design.

Shado-Pan Smoke Knight (Monk)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Righteous shoulders pants & gloves, Scouting tunic & boots, Red Belt of Gentle Persuasion, Aspirant’s Staff of Harmony
I originally designed this kit to go with the Ironpaw cooking accessories. Serendipitously, it also looks great with the Shado-Pan helmet!

Shado-Pan Mistdancer (Monk)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Spaulders of Determined Resolve, Mistdancer Vest Cord & Legguards, Bandit gloves & boots, Crimson Steel
The sigil and colors of this handsome fist weapon suggested the Shado-Pan to me — at least for a kit for my Monk. With other classes that use fist weapons, I’d go in different directions.

Shado-Pan Assassin (Rogue)

Replica Shado-Pan Helment, Shoulderpads of the Silvermoon Retainer, Scouting Tunic, Ruffian Belt*, Nightslayer Pants, Bandit Gloves, Defiler’s Lizardhide Boots, Black Swashbuckler’s Shirt, Amber Slicer of Klaxxi’ves, Wind Reaver’s Dagger of Quick Strikes
The shirt is an essential component of this outfit because it fills in a gap between the sleeves and the gloves.
The Bandit Belt would be a suitable replacement for the Ruffian Belt.
Why, yes, I did do Klaxxi rep with my Rogue just so that I could have both styles of Mantid trophy dagger to use in this kit.

Shado-Pan Wildshaper (Druid)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Thunderheart Shoulder Pads, Robes of Summer Flame, Vicious Leather Belt, Gilt-Edged Leather Gauntlets, Tian Monastic Staff
I decided pretty much immediately that I wanted to use this robe for my Druid’s Shado-Pan kit. Figuring out all the rest of the pieces, though, took quite a bit of iteration.
I don’t remember if I was offered the +Agi staff as a reward option from that Tian Monastery quest or if I had to switch my loot spec to see it. Whatever happened, I thought that the +Agi staff would have better Transmogrification potential with the rest of my Druid’s wardrobe than any of the +Int options — and I’d surely get a better weapon from some other quest later. So I took it, and now I am quite glad that I did.

Shado-Pan Blade-Dancer (Demon Hunter)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Mantle of Darkness, Primalstorm Breastplate, Blackwhelp Belt, Tough Mushanhide Leggings, T’wansi’s Handwraps, Prospector’s Boots, Cloak of the Untamed Predator, Shado-Pan Tabard, Misery’s End
Making a Shado-Pan kit that included both the hat and the tabard has been problematic for me because I couldn’t quite figure out how to manage the hue gradient between the bright, orangey, scarlet reds of the tabard and the deep maroon of the helmet scarf. The key to this kit, for me, was the pants; they brought in enough of the brighter red-orange hue to balance out the maroons from the other pieces I wanted to use.
I chose the chestpiece primarily to leave the arms bare with the tabard on and secondarily to look good with the tabard off.
For this outfit, I also used the Barbershop to change her blindfold to the simpler of the two red & gold Sin’dorei styles and to change the color of her tattoos from their usual dark green to black.

Mail

Shado-Pan Spiritwalker (Shaman)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Pauldrons of Wild Magic, Salvager’s Hauberk, Bloodspattered Sash, Heroes’ Earthshatter Kilt (T7-10s), Seer’s Linked Gauntlets, Suen-Wo, Spire of the Falling Sun
Umlaut Paradots‘ mail contribution to These Boots Were Made For Mogging reminded me of the Salvager’s Hauberk. As I thought about what kind of set I might like to make using this chestpiece, it occurred to me that the stripe detail, especially in the back, is somewhat similar to the stripe detail on the Shado-Pan NPC uniforms. Kamalia already had plenty of dark blue in her wardrobe, but she did not have much red in her wardrobe before I created this outfit for her!

Shado-Pan Beastmaster (Hunter)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Ravager’s Mantle, Warmonger’s Chestpiece, Bloodspattered Sash, Bloodmail* Legguards gloves & boots, Cloak of Beasts, Master Builder’s Shirt, Bronze Blaster
This is something of an “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” kit. Although I only really wanted the Bloodmail Legguards, I’d collected all the rest of the set by the time the pants finally dropped. I decided to keep the whole set, “just in case”, and dumped it into Void Storage. Now I’m glad that I did!
I borrowed the combination of the Shado-Pan Helmet with the Warmonger’s chestpiece from WoW Roleplay Gear.

Shado-Pan Serpent Rider (Shaman/Hunter)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Ordon Legend-Keeper Spaulders & Greaves, Tunic of Masked Suffering, Ebonhold Girdle, Bloodmail Legguards*, Grotesque Handgrips, Big Black Mace, Bloodforged Guard, Sawbones Shirt*
Mini-Kam has been working (when I feel like it) on collecting Skyshards, but she still has a few yet to find before she can tame Milau’s momma.
The shirt just fills in the midriff and elbows; the red in the shoulders and underarms is in fact part of the chestpiece.
Suitable weapons for Hunters to use with this kit might be the Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle or Heartstriker.

Plate

Shado-Pan Runeblade (Death Knight)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Blood-Soaked Saronite Plated Spaulders, Warlord’s/Warmaul chestpiece belt gloves & boots, Legguards of the Shattered Hand, Acherus Knight’s Shroud, Runed Soulblade
I didn’t want to just plop the Shado-Pan Helmet atop one of the black-and-red outfits I’d already made for Kregga — though it would certainly work well with either of them. The red-plum-blue tones of the Warlord’s/Warmaul set evoke the palette of the navy-and-brick-red version of the Shado-Pan NPC uniforms, and I’d been wanting to use those items in a DK set for some time. The DK shoulders added just the right amount of menace to the overall appearance.

Shado-Pan Dark Disciple (Death Knight/Paladin/Warrior)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Runic Plate Shoulders, Slavebreaker Chestguard, Thorium Belt, Hollowheart Legguards, Zaxxis Gloves, Bloodforged Sabatons, Cloak of the Dark Disciple, Rustic Workman’s Shirt, Rage Reaver
I could have just plopped the Shado-Pan Helmet atop the black-and-red “Blood Runes” outfit I’d previously made for the Underpowered Death Knight. It would have looked great, but I wanted to make a new outfit. As I looked through her available gear, I discovered that I really liked the way the browns of the quest reward items from the first part of the Tanaan Invasion questline looked with the dark brown wooden brim of the hat.

Shado-Pan Lightbearer (Paladin)


Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Runic Plate Shoulders, Alabaster Breastplate, Thorium Belt, Greaves of the Martyr, Bloodforged Gauntlets, Lavawalker Greaves, Redpine Cloak, Firestorm Hackblade, Bloodforged Guard, Stylish Black Shirt
This outfit is adapted from a striking black, white, and red ensemble originally designed by Honeypants of Mogoholic.

Shado-Pan Bulwark (Paladin/Warrior)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Shoulderguards of Empty Memory, Glory of the Defender, Ogre Beater’s Belt, Legguards of the Fallen Crusader, Grips of Arcane Imprisonment, Deathseed Crushers, Rescuer’s Cloak, Stylish Black Shirt, Firestorm Hackblade, Shield of the Void
As long as Mists remains the current expansion, items containing both red and black will always immediately suggest that they be used in a Shado-Pan Helmet kit. Mists was already well enough along when I leveled my Paladin that I saved these Cataclysm quest reward items for future use in a Shado-Pan kit. Although her first Shado-Pan kit didn’t need them, they came in handy to coordinate with this chestpiece, which dropped while I was farming the Hyjal raid for something else.

Shado-Pan Blademaster (Warrior)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Expedition Mantle, The Exarch’s Protector, Darkcrest Belt, Legguards of the Shattered Hand, Inferno Tempered gloves & boots, Gilded Thorium Cloak, Red Martial Shirt, Sturdy Yaungol Spear
Keija tried really hard to talk me into letting her use Hellreaver for her Shado-Pan set, even though I think it’s just about as overused a weapon as Judgement is a gear set (especially since Demonology Warlocks got that glyph that lets their Felguards dual-wield the things). Then, as soon as she’d actually tested how it would look, she capitulated and agreed to use the spear that matches the NPC weapon. I’ll just have to come up with some other set for her to use Hellreaver with.

Cloth

Shado-Pan Mystic (Priest)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Consortium Mantle, Amaranthine Robe, Silver-Thread Sash, Black Mageweave Gloves, Arakkoa Divining Rod, Inscribed Fan, Stylish Black Shirt
This outfit is largely inspired by the Shado-Pan Helmet set designed by WoW Roleplay Gear.

Shado-Pan Arcanist (Mage)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Nether Guards, Sparklight Robes, Girdle of Glowing Light, Black Mageweave Gloves, Unassuming Slippers, Rod of the Blazing Light
When I was originally designing this outfit in MogIt, I was struck by how well the T15-Normal Priest-lookalike Quet’zal’s Crackling Cord matched this robe. That item was well out of my solo-player reach, however, so I chose something else. Later, the rep requirements for many Shado-Pan Assault items were lowered, allowing me to gain the required reputation (Friendly) to buy the Valor Points version of the belt from a single clear of the first wing of Throne of Thunder LFR. Huzzah!

Shado-Pan Archmage (Mage/Warlock/Priest)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Mantle of the Elven Kings, Red Mageweave Vest, Sash of the Burning Heart, Legs of Ringing Echoes, Gloves of Tirisfal, Saltarello Shoes, Cloak of Passion, Dark Silk Shirt, Archmage’s Staff*
This kit resulted from the notion of using these specific pants in a Shado-Pan helmet outfit. I chose this tunic because it makes the red band at the top of the pants looks like an extension of the tunic rather than part of the pants themselves.
This staff came from the limited-time pre-Mists-launch version of the Theramore’s Fall scenario. There are several other staves that would look good with this kit, though.

Shado-Pan Summoner (Warlock)

Replica Shado-Pan Helmet, Mantle of the Corruptor, Simple Blouse, Fire-Cord of the Magus, Coven Britches, Black Mageweave Gloves + Wraps of the San’layn, Oilfoot Slippers, Shadow Prowler’s Cloak, Matsuba’s Breadmaker
More decadent Warlocks may prefer to use the Cournith Waterstrider’s Silken Finery.

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heeding the elements’ call

Laeleiweyn of World of Lae has kicked off a series of Alt Appreciation weeks to “celebrate all the classes!”

This week, it’s the Shamans‘ turn in the spotlight.

Once upon a time, in early Cataclysm, I thought to myself that if I love Shamans so much, I should do the same thing with Shamans as I have done with Mages, and have a Shaman of each race that can take up that class.

And so to Kamalia the Tauren Shaman, my beloved first and main character, and Keshona the Orc Shaman, rolled in mid-to-late Wrath to re-play the totem quests before they changed, I added Kilauea the Troll Shaman, Kryztalya the Draenei Shaman, Kermione the Goblin Shaman, and Kjerstin the Dwarf Shaman.

I had so very many alts and new alts at that time, though, that I soon started to feel severe alt fatigue. I just didn’t even want to think about leveling so many characters, so I deleted the Troll and the Draenei and the Goblin, along with a number of other characters who I didn’t have any interest in playing anymore. The Orc lasted several months longer, for sentimental reasons — I’d made a story connection between her and my Orc Mage as daughter and mother — but really, her purpose for creation had long been fulfilled. I eventually re-rolled the Troll, as I am rather fond of the concept of a lava-slinging Troll Elemental Shaman named after the great Hawai’ian volcano, but she hasn’t even gotten off the Echo Isles yet. Goblin and Shaman, however, didn’t really gel for me. The Draenei was not my first attempt at a Draenei Shaman; somehow the combination of Draenei and Shaman never quite felt comfortable to me (no offense to my friends who love their Draenei Shaman). I was really excited, though, to play a Dwarf Shaman. That combination of race and class seemed to make a lot of sense to me, especially when the origin of Dwarf Shamans from the Wildhammer clan was explained. So Kjerstin got to stick around.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’d really like to complete the Double Agent achievement someday — and I’d like to do it “the right way”, leveling an Alliance character from the beginning. I’ve decided that I want my max-level Alliance character to be a class & role I’m thoroughly comfortable playing in max-level group content — that is to say, a Resto Shaman. I’m also more interested in Dwarf-related lore than in some of the other Alliance races. Thus, Kjerstin is now outfitted in heirlooms and waiting patiently for me to bring the Double Agent project off the back burner.

I hoped this week to play her at least enough to get from 27 to 30 and pick up dual-spec. Between my internet being disconnected for half the week, leveling with another character for my next Dress Up! post that I haven’t quite finished, and our out-of-the-house plans for tomorrow afternoon & evening, however, it’s not likely to happen. *sigh*

Kamalia remembers dinging 50 in the middle of a Sunken Temple run very vividly because it meant that she finally had enough talent points to get all the way to the bottom of the Resto tree and learn Earth Shield. She was already running dungeons as a healer, though I think BTH might still have been in his short-lived moonkin phase. She’d been running with this wierd self-concocted build with talent points scattered somewhat willy-nilly across all three trees. Once she could get Earth Shield, she went Resto and never looked back — though she was very, very glad when dual-spec arrived and she could now do questing as Elemental. Being a caster comes more naturally to me than being melee does, so for a long time, I wasn’t particularly interested in playing an Enhancement Shaman. In the past year, I’ve decided that I would like to try it, so I switched mini-Kam’s questing spec from Elemental to Enhancement. Now if I could only convince her to get on the boat to Pandaria, then I could actually learn how to use it!

Meanwhile, Kamalia is still collecting Titan Runestones. Her progress has been slow because I’ve only felt like running Pinnacle of Storms in Throne of Thunder and Vale of Eternal Sorrows in Siege of Orgrimmar — and I haven’t been doing them every week, either. Even though each week that passes will make finding a group to do the battling the Celestials part more difficult, I’m struggling to muster up the motivation to LFR. I didn’t run any Throne of Thunder LFR at all until all four wings were open, so perhaps next week, when the last wing of Siege of Orgrimmar opens to LFR, I will start feeling like LFRing again. Part of my lack of motivation to run Siege of Orgrimmar LFR is that I haven’t felt like spending enough time on the Timeless Isle with Kamalia to grind out the 50 Epoch Stones just to get the first Vision in Time quest… and yet I don’t want to go into the Orgrimmar part of Siege without it.

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rolling will saves

Since last Wednesday, when Garrosh was defeated on Normal and the Siege of Orgrimmar ending cinematics were revealed, I must mentally roll a Will Save against the temptation to look at the spoilers every time I visit WoW Insider or check my blogroll. So far, I have been successful, but will I be able to hold out until the final wing of Siege of Orgrimmar opens for LFR on 22 October, over a month away? Perhaps BTH’s guild will defeat Garrosh before then, and I can watch the cinematic over his shoulder…?

I finally got around to taking Kamalia to the Proving Grounds on Saturday evening. I quickly discovered that I am not as 1337 a healer as I thought I was. I knew I had gotten sloppy raiding only in LFR, but even Bronze mode was more challenging than I’d expected — I was under 20% mana by the time it ended. I passed Silver mode by the skin of my teeth, drained dry of mana and desperately weaving Telluric Currents-enhanced Lightning Bolts with Healing Waves. By the fourth or fifth wave of Gold mode, I was already ooming, and as desperately as I tried, I could not keep both the tank and the standing-in-fire hunter alive. I am going to have to study up on How To Resto Shaman and keep an eye on Vixsin and Lodur to see if they write Resto-Shaman-specific guides to the Proving Grounds. To give myself something to work toward between when I decided Kam is finished with Siege of Orgrimmar and the next expansion, I had been contemplating setting a goal of getting the Gold certificate at the Proving grounds with all of my healers; after seeing just how difficult Gold mode is, perhaps it would be less frustrating to collect Silvers on all of them before I go for Golds on any of them.

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okay, Wrathion, I guess I don’t quit, after all

Since my first unsuccessful attempt at the Thunder Forge scenario about a month ago, Kamalia has been doing very little while I have focused on my alts. It turns out that I can really only handle doing LFR with one character at a time; with Kamalia stalled on her Legendary questline progress and time running out for T15 to be current content, I have been doing Throne of Thunder LFR with my Warrior, Keija.

Keija’s done decently well for herself. Her DPS is bottom of the barrel, around 55K on most boss fights, but she hasn’t been booted for it yet. She won both the head and shoulder tokens from her very first run through Pinnacle of Storms. These are actually the two T15 pieces I was least interested in, and I have been spending my coins futiley on the remaining tier token bosses. Keija has also picked up Lei Shen’s 2H axe, Malakk’s 2H sword, and Lei Shen’s awesome hat.

Meanwhile, Kamalia went to the Isle of Thunder to do the dailies once a week, mostly to find a golden treasure box and do the loot run. After she killed Metal Lord Mono-Han, there whelpling!Wrathion would be, loitering by the stairs up to the Thunder Forge, so she would stop and switch specs and make one attempt at the Thunder Forge scenario.

Today, I ate some Mogu Fish Stew and drank a Flask of the Warm Sun before starting the scenario. I dropped my Fire Elemental totem and popped Bloodlust as soon as the Sha Amalgamation spawned. I also kept Flame Shock rolling on the boss and kept Searing Totem down after the fire elemental’s time was up. I remembered to use Spiritwalker’s Grace during at least one of the kiting phases. This time, I got the boss down to 67% before the anvil clock ran out and I died. After I rezzed, I ate buff food again, and I was glad that my CDs had reset. On the second try, I kept my two meager DPS dots up more consistently and got the boss down to 32% before I ran out of anvils. Now, with my heart pounding, I tried one more time. I used Ascension on the pull this time to get the Celestial Defender healed up to full as fast as I could. The boss was down to just above 20% when I had to use the last anvil, but Fire Elemental Totem and Bloodlust were back off CD, so I popped both of those again and then the Lightning Lance spawned. I frantically looked around for it, grabbed it, hurled it — and then it was over. I won!!!

What a relief! I was starting to feel a bit depressed about being stuck at this stage of the Legendary questline, starting to feel bad about myself as a player for giving up on it. I do want my Legendary cloak, I do!

Now I have to do the Nalak part. As much as I’ve appreciated being invited to Nalak raids by Rades, I lag so horribly when I do Nalak with TTGF that I’d probably be a lot better off going with BTH’s guild the next time they decide to kill Nalak.

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Bluebird of Happiness

Bluebird of Happiness

Raven-Heart Headdress, Hide of Chromaggus, Polar Vest & Boots, Clefthoof belt, Stormrider’s leggings & gloves (N), Cloak of Cheerful Flowers
Kerisa longed for the Druid T11 shoulders from the first moment she saw them in early Cataclysm. I was too slow in getting her leveled and geared to raid, however, and she only saw the T11 shoulder token drop once before Firelands debuted. At that time, she passed on the token in deference to the Resto Druid leader of my guild’s alt run, saying that the raid leader deserved it more. Later, I selfishly wished I’d rolled on it normally. During Cataclysm, the BoE lookalike shoulders occasionally showed up on the AH, but I never felt like I could afford them. After Mists began, it was several months before I saw the BoE shoulders on the AH again — at which point I snapped them up just as fast as I could. Now, Kerisa is jumping for joy to finally, finally have these gorgeous shoulders.

Gossamer Moonlight

Gossamer Headpiece & shoulders, Mooncloth Robe, Sage’s belt & gloves, Dryad’s Wrist Bindings, Durak’s Wand, Dreamseeker Dandelion, White Swashbuckler’s Shirt
Kaohana was quite excited to finally have reached the appropriate character and Tailoring skill levels to craft and wear this beautiful robe.

Ow Mon, Me Eyes!


Crown of Flame (Normal), Skom Spaulders, Formidable chestpiece, Stormleather Sash, Felstone Leggings, Sundered gauntlets & boots, Amun-Thoth, Sul’s Spiritrending Talons (LFR), Eye of the Ancient Spirit (LFR)
This kit went through a few iterations before reaching its present eye-dazzling perfection. The first used the shield with Carapace Breaker in an outfit featuring just cyan and magenta tones. The second used the fist weapon with the Enamelled Disc of Mojo/Loa-Binder Disc and just cyan and orange tones. Presently, I thought to pair the Throne of Thunder fist weapon with the Mogu’shan Vaults shield and voila! The cyan, magenta, and orange are quite the blinding combination!

Dark Sunreaver Juggernaut

Great General’s Crown, Shoulderguards of Empty Memory, Druidic Guardian Plate, Goblin Girdle, Legguards of the Shattered Hand, Embercrusher Grips, Deathseed Crushers, Greatsword of the Sin’dorei, Sunreaver Onslaught Tabard, Red Workman’s Shirt
As Keija was questing through Hyjal, it occurred to me that the set she was collecting would coordinate rather nicely with the Sunreaver tabard. So I hung onto it, and, indeed, it did, mostly. The quest reward belt didn’t work very well with the tabard, but the Goblin Girdle which did go with the tabard didn’t go with the rest of the quest reward set. So I switched out the pants, too, and I think the result looks great with the tabard and decent without it.
This outfit is the “Dark” Sunreaver Juggernaut because I have a “Bright” Sunreaver Juggernaut planned for later.

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