Lots of updates

So...we finally downed Rag! After a good month or more of farming and crafting fire resistance stuff and doing all that...the guild managed to 1-shot Rag last week, and we 1-shotted him again tonight.


On our first kill, he dropped leggings of transcendence! I couldn't believe it! I'd been passing on prophecy so I could be on top for the next time prophecy pants dropped...but instead I managed to snag my tier 2 leggings! Awesome! I also got them the ZG enchant the same night...all in all pretty sweet:)


Then later that week, we did Ony and we got a double helm of transcendence drop! And what do you know...I still have enough dkp to snag one:) So now I have 2 of my tier 2 set already...pretty exciting:)


Unfortunately I wasn't able to even really enjoy getting my helm, as there was guild drama going on and stuff...so that was rather annoying. We're working on starting BWL, but right now I'm just kinda annoyed with the game and with a lot of stuff...guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I won't quit...but I think I might need to prioritize my playing time, or stop going to every 20 man raid or something. I think I'm just annoyed with the attitudes of a lot of players, and that type of thing. I seem to be pissed off when I'm in raids more than I'm enjoying it, and that's just not how I want to be. I play this game for fun, not to get angry or to feel like it's a job. Ah well...guess there will always be drama, whether it's irl or in-game...when you deal with people, you'll always have issues and annoyances.

Here's a current picture of my sexy self...

OMFG....It finally happened!!!

I GOT BENEDICTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I have been waiting months to be able to say that! On Monday, we dropped Domo and our first Eye of Divinity dropped! We had decided to award it based on lifetime dkp, so another priest and I rolled, and I won!!!! I was so psyched! Later that night I went to just see what the quest would be like, without any buffs or any preparation, and I died very very quickly:P So, went and did a little research, found a great video that showed the quest being done, and the next day I went and farmed up some pots and got some guildies together to go take a "real" shot at the quest. For some reason, I didn't think I'd succeed in that first real attempt...but amazingly enough I did! I was (and still am!) so very excited!!

Basically the quest requires you to save a bunch of peasants from skeleton archers, and you have to save 50 of them before 15 of them die. There was something like six waves of peasants, and while you're healing the peasants you're also being hit by waves of undead. The undead are easy to kill with some oils of immolation and a thorns buff, so the main thing is to stay alive and bring the peasants to safety.


The rest of the day was spent farming up mats to put the +55 to healing spells enchant on it, then Zenos and I pvp'ed a bit, watched the fireworks show (irl), and went to bed. All in all, a VERY fulfilling fourth of July! Couldn't ask for a better day to get my Benediction:)

The staff can be either Benediction or Anathema, and there is a 30 minute cooldown between "flipping" it from one version to the other.





























The picture at the top of the post is the Benediction part of the staff, this is how the Anathema side looks:


I'll use Anathema for pvp, with Benediction being used for raiding and everything else:)

Prophecy Shoulders

As Zenos mentioned, the guild has been doing great lately!! We recently downed both Onyxia and Domo, and we're starting to work on aquiring fire resistance gear so we can take down Rag too! I expect to see Rag in probably a month or so...we're going to need to start doing farming runs into MC however, since we're going to need tons of fiery and lava cores.

On Monday, both Zenos and I got our shoulders out of MC! This is my second piece of the prophecy set. Since I'm still really high on the dkp list, I shouldn't have to wait too long before I see another piece. I REALLY want the prophecy pants, so I might hold out for those. They would be a huge upgrade for me, since I'm still wearing Padre's trousers out of DM West.

Here's some screenies of my new gear:)

Wrath, Might, Bindings...

I have not had time to give an update on Zenos lately due to work and raiding. But, nonetheless, a lot has happened since the last post. Our guild has finally downed Onyxia and cleared all the way through Majordomo in Molten Core. The pace of raids are increasing, more loot is dropping, and we are making great progress. In fact, we even took a stab at Ragnaros the other night and took him down to 70% with a good portion of the raid naked! I think we may be closer to taking him down then most people realize. We even crafted most of the dark iron epics for the main tanks (270+ fire resistance ftw).

On that note, I have gained a great deal of new gear lately. The list is rather extensive, but the best items have been the Helm of Wrath, Pauldrons of Might, Onyxia Blood Talisman, and the left side of the Bindings of the Windseeker! Simply put, Zenos is really starting to look like a raiding guild's main tank. I have to admit, I almost feel bad for taking so much loot when other tanks could use some upgrades. But, I am the main tank and most of the other warriors are not as interested in the position. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it :)

Another point of interest, tanking Onyxia is actually rather challenging. The first two phases are simple for obvious reasons (as long as no one pulls aggro in the first phase). However, once Onyxia lands, grabbing her attention is incredibly difficult. Even with a full rage bar, spamming sunders, and attempting to rage out of the fears...it can still take 15+ seconds to lock her down. It's a scary situation when she is pointed at half the raid that long. I will have to experiment more and try to find the best way to get her attention quickly. Anyways, here are some screenshots of my new gear. Enjoy :)

Voodoo Doll

I received my priest ZG doll a week or two ago, just forgot to update the blog about it:P Anyways, after months of running ZG, I finally got my priest doll, which will allow me to do a specific enchant to some of my armor. I heard that some of the items might be changing in the next patch, but I'm not sure if that applies to the enchants or just the rep reward items.

Tier .05 Questing

Just last night I finally completed another step in the tier .05 upgrade quests! A quick explanation about what the tier .05 armor is and all that: I went and collected all of my Devout gear (tier 0), and in the most recent patch Blizzard put in a bunch of very challenging quests that allow you to upgrade the Devout gear, into a new gear set (tier .05). I had already completed the first couple of steps in the quest chain, which gave me the Virtuous bracers, belt, and gloves. Last night I received the pants, shoulders, and boots!

It feels great to be able to finally move forward on this questline, since I've felt like I have been stuck in the same place for quite awhile. The last two upgrades are for the helm and chest, and then I'll be done! The set itself is quite ugly (light yellow! how gross!), but I am wearing a few of the items, especially since the gloves and boots are epics. I also am wearing the shoulders, as they are a nice upgrade for me. I still can't wait to get all of my Prophecy set, but for now my equipment is holding up nicely.


This is what my character currently looks like...the biggest difference is the shoulders, as you can't see my new shoes.

Link to a better explanation of the tier .05 upgrade quests

Great Night in Molten Core

As Zarina mentioned, the guild did very well in Molten Core last night. One-shotted the first six bosses and managed to pull 40 people together for the first time. The highlight of my night, however, was that I received one of the bindings for creating Thunderfury. I never thought I would be in line to receive a legendary item, but I appreciate that the guild trusts me and wants to gear me up as much as possible. I posted a few screenshots of the item and the quest line.

Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker


Unfortunately, it will be quite some time before I see the item. I need the other binding, a drop from Ragnaros, and 10 Elementium Bars. The Elementium requires going into Blackwing Lair. Also, smelting the bars involves some expensive materials including 10 arcanite bars each! In the end, it will be worth the effort and I look forward to the day we take down Thunderaan.

Fun in MC:)

Tonight was an excellent night for our guild, as we saw our first 40-person MC run! Up until tonight, I think the most we'd ever gotten was 36 people, so maxing our run and having a wait list feels great! We 1-shotted every boss we did tonight, which was Luci through Shazz, leaving Sulfie and Golemagg for Monday's run.

What's even more exciting (for me at least) is that some Prophecy finally dropped! Finally! Up until now there had been virtually no priest drops since we started doing MC, and I must say that the priests were getting pretty annoyed by it, and disheartened. In fact, not only did Prophecy drop, but two pieces of it!! I was lucky enough to get the Circlet of Prophecy, and my other awesome priest friend got the bracers!


The helm was a huge upgrade for me, as I had been wearing the Crimson Felt hat up until now, which looked cool but had rather poor stats. While the Circlet of prophecy isn't very sexy, and it's not very aerodynamic, its got nice stats and matches my other armor:)

New Shield

Last night was quite productive for the guild and myself. We managed to take down the first three bosses in AQ20, with new people who have not been there before. I personally benefited very well from the run because of the drop off Buru. I posted a few screenshots below of my newest stats and what the shield looks like. The shield has a rather unique design, but looks very cool.



As for the guild itself, I am rather impressed with our accomplishments lately. I must admit that we have some people who are displeased with our progress or may not like the DKP system, but I hope it will all work out in the end. You always have to expect problems and you cannot please everyone, but as we start settling into a routine, I believe people will have less issues with everything. I just hope the officers can hold out that long :P

Current Status

I figure it would be helpful to bring any readers up to speed on the current status of our characters.

Guild

Our guild has been going up and down over the last few months. We keep merging with other guilds in hopes of creating a strong raiding guild, but alas, we just end up losing people and reverting to where we started. However, our latest merger with Jagged Legion has yielded some promising results. We typically have 20+ online and can generally pull together at least 30 people for our Molten Core runs. Still, as with all mergers, not everyone is content with the guild or the game and stops playing.

Unfortunately, the guild has become heavily reliant upon Zarina and myself since she is one of the primary healers and I am the main tank for the guild. We took a break from the game for about a week and a half due to moving, and the guild could not accomplish much of anything. Poor turnouts seemed to be the primary cause of the problems. However, once we returned to the game, the next Molten Core run saw our highest attendance ever with 35 people and we managed to kill the first 6 bosses, almost all on our first try. Assuming we have a similar turnout, I bet we will finish off Sulfuron and Golemagg on our next raid.

The people in the guild are friendly and I thoroughly enjoy playing with them. I can feel that some people are becoming annoyed with the guild's problems and I hope they stick it out. I know the guild will do very well in end game if we just get a few more people and put in our best efforts.

Server

As with most servers, Cho'gall has some problems as well. The primary one being a low population. The server was created about a year after WoW's release and as you would expect, it was affect by "reroll" syndrome when new servers were released. So, the server started out with a very high population, long queues, and after a few months we lost the vast majority of players.

In recent months, many players have been complaining to Blizzard about population problems and why they continue to open up new servers. We have been lucky to receive some blue responses mentioning the possibility of server transfers. So, I guess time will tell the fate of our server. Personally, I do not think the population is as bad as people make it sound, but we could certainly use some new faces.

Character

As for my character, I have collected some of the best tanking gear that you can get before entering MC, BWL, ect. I also have been lucky to receive pieces from the might set as a result of our MC runs. The guild tends to give me all the tanking equipment first since I basically main tank every instance that we run. Though, hopefully, this reliance on me for tanking will diminish some as time goes on. I am also working on collecting fire resistance gear for tanking MC and a DPS set just for fun (not that I can DPS well as a protection warrior :P).

Conclusion

Anyways, that is a brief rundown of where I currently am in the game. I hope to see more of the end game instances with my guild in the near future.

New pic

Here's a picture of Zarina, in Orgrimmar where I frequently hang out and chat with guildies:P

Newest Look

Pictures are always good, so here is a screenshot of my character in Orgrimmar.

Profile

I have also added a link to my profile. The links can be found on the right sidebar.

Hello all:)

Just thought I should say hi to everyone on our grand opening day:P I made a ctprofile of Zarina, so be sure to check out what I'm currently wearing!

I'll post some pics of my character soon!

Zarina's Profile

Grand Opening

FIRST!

Anyways, we have created this blog as a way to showcase our gaming experiences. Currently we are involved in a guild known as "Continuum" in the online game World of Warcraft. We play on the Cho'Gall server under the names Zenos and Zarina, hence the blog's title.

This blog will contain updates regarding our characters, the guilds progress, and whatever else we feel like when we have the time. Oh, and do not forget the pictures, plan on seeing quite a few of those.