Cataclysm: 3 Weeks In

Go me, I did ding 85 and yes I still had my T10 robes (although all other epics had gone /cry)

Well the first 3 weeks of Cataclysm have passed and it is really about time I started to talk about it I guess. I have been very busy playing and have had some time off work but now the main buzz has settled.

I did not do the mad zerg to 85 many friends and guildies did, day 1 was spent farming ore and herbs on my druid to fund my profession levelling and I managed to get him to 82 just doing the farming piece. Days 2 and 3 were spent gathering, levelling professions and levelling Evlyxx through quests and dungeons. Healing the Throne of the Tides and Blackrock Caverns present no real challenge but they did show signs of advanced strategy and that is only good for us all.


Friday was spent levelling; again a combination of questing and instances.Stonecore and Vortex Pinnacle were beaten and once again they were not particularly difficult to heal but were great fun to run. I managed to hit 85 on Friday afternoon questing in Twilight Highlands /flex. I was a few points behind the heroic threshold so that evening and the weekend were spent in the 85 dungeons Halls of Origination, Grim Batol and Lost City of the Tol'Vir (on normal mode gearing up). and with the gear I had acquired along the way and from my stash of 4000 Justice Points I was able to get into heroics.

The first trip for our guild group was a real education, Vortex Pinnacle, I was expecting it to be tough but we soon realised that a minimum rating to enter for all was not a ticket to complete. The trash in there hit very hard, harder than I remember TBC hitting. The main problem however was my mana pool and healing power.My tank had 150k HP, my Heal cost almost no mana but only providess 7000 healing every 2.5 seconds. I couldn't keep the tank up without using my big slow heal which cost way too much mana and if DPS took damage they simply had to die if a Heal and Renew combo didn't fix them up (more on this tomorrow).

We bounced around a few instances killing what bosses we could which was usually the first one or two before hitting stumbling blocks like Altairus and Karsh Steelbender, the main stumbling block was amy inability to keep the group up long enough for the boss to die. This was not the face-roll that Wrath had been and was simultaneously frustrating and fun. We finally managed our first guild heroic achievement With a Vortex Pinnacle clear on 15 Dec quickly followed by Throne of the Tides and the Lost City of the Tol'Vir on the same day.