I have 2 RAF alts that I got to 61 and just kind of left them there a long time ago.  I am now using the Dungeon Finder to burn off rest XP and level them a bit.  Most of my group have been good and things go smooth.  Not all of them go so well.

Mid 60s I ran into the issue where all the tanks queue up for is Mana Tombs and a few of them just bail after the first boss does not drop the item they want.  That frustrates me when people abuse the system like that.

I just got out of a group where there was this interesting hunter.  We did a hand full of pulls and the healer bailed.  Things were fairly smooth so I think he just had to go.  We tried to re queue, but this hunter kept canceling.  After the 4 time, he said “no Mana”.  Once he was at full mana, he selected a role when we queued.  He realized his mistake in thinking it was the ready check when I pointed it out to him.  He also asked if there was anyone that healed mana.  I made him a stack of water.  I was unable to make the fruit he needed for his pet though and that did disappoint him.  This guy was a raf slave that got handed a mid level char.  His gear was a good 10-20 levels behind his level for most slots.

I decided the runs go the smoothest when I run my frost mage with improved blizzard.  Every pull is an aoe fest and Blizzard dominates the stuff I am running.  Even when I do pull off the tank the slow effect allows the tank to get them back easily.  When the tank can’t get it back, I start another Blizzard in front of the mob and they die before they get to me.

I tried to aoe as fire but I didn’t like to be that close to the mobs.  The mobs can kill me before I know I even have agro.  With blizzard, I stand at max range and have room to land 2 more blizzards before a mob can attack me.

PTR notes are up and a few quick details jumped out at me.

Tailoring cloth cooldowns are removed but the glacial bag has a 7 day cooldown.

Inscription glyphs will only take one ink.

Runed Orbs Recipes will take less mats.

Titansteel Bar cooldown also removed.

And a few glyphs had adjustments.

The drop rate of Frost Lotus, from herbs in Northrend, has been increased by 50 to lower prices.  Starts next reboot.

MMO-Champoin

Expect a shift in Frost Lotus, flasks, and other herb prices.

I finally hit 80 on my warlock.  It is both exciting and disappointing at the same time.  I love that I am done with leveling on him.  I got all my spells so my character progression is done.  Not onto gear progressions.  This is where the reality sinks in.  I need to start raiding again.  Well, I should gear up a bit in heroics first but thats the next real step.  And I don’t feel like raiding yet.

When I play casually, I am on a low end laptop in the family room.   I hang out on the couch with the laptop in my lap.   Yesterday I had the TV on in the background and the kids on either side of me helping me play.    They would help me find the yellow “Mysteries” above people’s heads as I head into a area to turn in completed quests.  Or they would point out the snakes or spiders I was hunting.  My wife was able to get some reading done and the dog laid at our feet.  Well, not exactly at our feet.  More in the kennel across the room but having her at the feet paints a nice calm picture.

Raiding throws all that out the window.  It’s a race of the clock.  Every piece of time has its place.  Getting ready for the raid, checking auctions, time with kids, supper, bed time for the youngest, and in the right place for invites.  Mid raid I slip away to put the oldest to bed quickly so I am not missed.  My game machine is in the back corner of the basement.  To use the restroom or get drinks mid raid, its up the stairs and across the house.  Then the wife is already sleeping when the raid is over.  A raid slot can get competitive and I am a loyal raider.  I feel it is my responsibility to make every raid I can, then life starts to get scheduled around raiding.

Now you have these chunks of time that have real value to you.  Time you gave something else up for to be here.  Then it becomes frustrating when others don’t respect that time.  I don’t care if you are talking about pugs or guild raids.  Guild raids can be a more demanding schedule but they get stuff done and you can count on the raid.  Pugs are all up in the air, but if its not working for you that night its easy to bail.

I could easily drop 40,000-60,000G on the new BOE stuff and a Battered Hilt.  But if he isn’t raiding yet, that gear will not help him out that much.  I may just pug a raid here and there and call it good.  I think I have a Rogue with some rest XP that needs burned off.

While I was running around leveling my warlock I decided to try a random group instance.  After a long wait and almost getting a group, I was bumped to the front of the queue.  That put me into a group that was 1/2 done and struggling.  As I got there the group cycled a few more members.  We got a new tank and another DPS.  Other than the tank and healer bickering about how bad the other was, the group moved at a steady pace.

They did comment on how crappy my stats were at 74 for the high gear score I had.  I guess the BoA items must add a lot to gear score at my level.  My stats are pathetic.  I have under 9k health and mana.  I did hold my own on the charts.  Not sure how though.

I started out as destruction because thats what I was leveling as for the last hour.  I felt clumsy in the group.  My rotation went out the window and I was pulling a god deal of agro.  I must have been front loading the damage too much.  I also struggled to manage my mana/health.  So I made the switch to affliction 1/2 way into it.  Affliction is much more natural for me to play.  I spent most of the time leveling as affliction and raided another lock as affliction at 60 and 70.

I knew my dps would suffer a little on trash but I would survive much easier and felt better with agro.  I found that my damage didn’t go down all that much.  Mobs were living long enough I could spread the damage around a bit.  On the last boss (single target) I pulled top damage at 1086 dps.  My damage for the run was about 920 dps.  I know that not all that much, but I remember kicking level 80′s from groups because they could not pull that much damage.  You really have to wonder what they are doing at 80 to suck that bad.

The shaman healer claimed he needed the cloth robes.  So he asked everyone to greed and trade with him.  I rolled need as the only cloth in the group and I was replacing a green.  Good luck getting me to pass it for someone I don’t even know.  He tried to make a stink about it but the group would not let him.

My 2nd group later on when I was 75 was just pro.  Great tank, great heals, and went fast.  I watched my damage closer that time.  I stayed destruction the whole time this instance.  I was 1381 dps for the run.  On a few larger single target mobs at the end I saw 1700 and 1900 dps.  I did have better party buffs this time though.

I remember trying to get groups on my leveling characters and it just never happened.  What I like about this option is that it keeps working to fill the group.  I hate being that guy that has to find people to finish a run.  When a tank drops it finds a tank.  I know I only ran this once so it may not be as smooth every time.  So far so good.

You can’t just cut me off with no warning.  This last week I discovered the Military channel on my Dish.  I usually have enough stuff on the DVR.  Without playing wow,  I was watching more tv and running out of DVR content.  I just started watching some stuff on the military channel.  Snipers, sappers, and special ops stuff.  Then this week the whole channel just vanished.  I check the full guide and its listed as a channel that I don’t have a subscription for.  So I had a free week preview and they cut me off without me even knowing it was only a preview.  So what does this have to do with Warcraft?

I dusted of my Warcraft account today.  So I figured I would post an update.  I’m not saying this is my return to WOW, but I do have the day off and the wife is out of town for the weekend.

First thing I ran into was the patch that was released this week.  Something that I have done many times before.  While it was loading, it reminded me my add-ons were out of date too.  I use the curse updater to manage a good deal of my add-on updates.  When I opened the curse client, I also had to update that.

So far I like the changes I see to the Curse updater.  The new UI is much cleaner.  When updating the add-ons, it no longer does that little pop up progress bar.  It just does it now.  Its a small detail, but it just acts more professional now.  Now that its loaded, I see 22 things needing updated.  I tell it to update all and it finishes about the same time as the patch.  With my authenticator out, I’m ready to roll.

I do a quick check on my banker.  He had 850 gold sitting the mailbox waiting for him.  So I tossed a few things up I had sitting in my bags and called it good.  I didn’t log in to work the AH.  Then I am left with what to do next.  I’m planning on avoiding my guild members. (I know I should have been kicked by now, but my guild don’t kick people).  So that rules out my 2 80′s for now.  I do have plans on making my Warlock my main.  He is only 73, but I know he had some changes this patch.  So the Warlock it is.

As I log into my lock, I remember that he was one of my glyph mules.  4 inscription bags and wearing a suit.  First thing I need to do is clean him up and send him out into the wild.  After I got him out into the wild, I realized how much I have neglected him.   He was not far from 74 so I finished out the level and headed in for training.  Lots of spells needed to be trained.  I also picked up epic flying and a 2nd spec.  I honestly don’t think I needed the 2nd spec for my warlock, but it can’t hurt.  And talking about neglect, this lock only has an imp and a voidwalker.  I intended to keep this guy affliction and the only pet I needed was the imp for Dark Pact.  I don’t need those other pets yet but I know I will if I ever get this guy in heroics/raids.

So my first day playing in several weeks I was able to blow a lot of gold and burn off a about a level of rest XP.