He Did What Now?

My blog is now a month old. I want to thank all those who have stopped to see what has been going on. This whole blogging thing has been damn fun and I can't wait to keep it going...BUT...Hoof n' Healz is moving. I am going to be dropping off of blooger and moving to wordpress. You can find my new home here

New and Improved Hoof n' Healz

So this will be the last post on Hoof n' Healz on blogger and I hope you follow me over to wordpress. Pardon the dust though, the move is still a work in progress but the main chunck of the blog has been moved.

Thanks,

Jager

Top 10 WoW Memories

Over at Blog Azeroth, Cathmore posted this idea for a shared blog topic…Your Top 10 WoW Memories. Now that I have given it some thought, here are my 10 in no particular order.

• Loading up the open beta client and logging in and thinking that this is nothing special. A couple of months and a trip to EB Games later I picked up WoW on the recommendation of my buddy. That was what now….3 or 4 years ago.
• Going into UBRS for the first time with my rogue. This was the first “real” dungeon I had gone into with a raid group. I will never forget seeing that two headed dog, The Beast and thinking to myself…”OMFG! We have to kill that thing!”
• Grinding away in Eastern Plague Lands as my rogue and getting an Epic Sword drop. Not only was this my first epic, it was a hug upgrade for me as a sword spec rogue at the time.
• Hitting 60 as my rogue. I was grinding in the plague lands when I dinged. For the life of me though, I can’t remember when or where he hit 70.
• Early world PvP. The battles that were had in South Shore/Tauren Mill just seemed so epic at the time.
• Starting my Horde Shaman as a last chance at staying with WoW. I started Jagerbombz after my life as the rogue came to a screaming halt. I was 70 with some gear and without a guild. At the time either no one wanted a rogue or they were all full on rogues. I started the Shaman with the single thought of going Resto thinking that being healer would finally allow me to start seeing some “end game” content.
• Hitting 70 with Jager. It was on a quest hand in for Papa Wheeler in Area 52. After that gold diminished I let out a sigh of relief.
• Getting guild summoned into Karazhan at 68 to be the third healer. What I thought would be a one time thing ended up being a weekly event that actually slowed down my leveling a little bit. I can proudly say that before 70, I had 5 epic Kara loots, I was honored with The Violet Eye and I had my first badge loot too. This is more a testament to my guild than it is to my “udder” greatness.
• Getting my Tier-4 shoulders. I know this isn’t that big of a deal, but this was my first foray at 25 man content and after 3 weeks I had enough DKP points for our combined guild run to get them. My god! Not only did I get cool shoulders, but I actually had DKP points!
• Shadow Labs. OMG, I think my buddy and our friends ran that so many times I could have done it blind folded. It seemed that every night for 3 weeks straight we ran that damn instance. They might not be the best memories, but they did have their moments. Plus, our healer friend was a shaman, and without him there would have never been a Jagerbombz.

Raid Night Spawns Progression

Since joining the raiding ranks of my guild, very little “new” territory was forged. On a weekly basis we would go to Karazhan, kill the bosses, get some gear and loot our badges. Now, there is nothing wrong with this, especially since each week find ourselves becoming better, faster and more efficient. We are quickly closing in on clearing Karazhan in a single night now; but the thirst for more lingers.

This thirst has led us into the depths of Zul’Aman. For two weeks now we have gathered on Sunday night for something new…new trash, new bosses, new loot. For a second week now we have been able to defeat the Bear Avatar, Nalorakk and can safely say we have him on farm status now.

After our kill we decided to bypass boss #2 to avoid another embarrassing run of the gauntlet and went off to what we thought was boss #3. We ended up taking a wrong turn and came face to face with Halazzi, the Lynx Avatar. After three attempts the raid was called, but we found success in our defeat.

• We learned that you must walk up the MIDDLE of the stairs leading to Halazzi’s room after a wipe.
• We were able to hold our own without one piece of Tier 5 gear.
• We were able to get to through the first phase of the fight when Halazzi splits and spawns the Lynx.
• Most of all, we finally were able to wipe on a whole new set of trash.

Hopefully each week we will continue to find success in this dank Troll infested hole.

Good job guys!

Karazhan Gear

When the work is slow and the mind wanders I like to head over to cafepress and play around. This time I think I might have stumbled upon a keeper.

I think I will have one made up to see how it looks. If things go well, these might end up making great x-mas gifts for the guildies.

Here is the shirt design in more detail.

Now I know everyone knows atleast one person they have met that needs this shirt. Maybe I should make the companion shirt too, the "I moved during Flame Wreath" shirt.

Karazhan Guide – Part Seven: Reading with Aran

This is part f seven of my short Resto -Shaman guides to Karazhan. Today we focus on the The Shade of Aran.

Curator is down and you are off to the library where you will be met with the angriest librarian I have seen since Mrs. Stingle my grade school librarian. Luckily, Aran doesn’t wield the 12 inch, metal edged ruler of +5 vs. children.

You will need to pay 100% attention to this fight. Yup, stop mashing that chain heal button for a second and get your face out of the keyboard. There will be a number of things that you will need to do on this fight other than just healing. You will need to know when to move, when NOT TO MOVE (Flame Wreath) and when to stun. Also remember that Aran has no agro table so anyone is free game to him, much like Dorothy in the OZ opera event.

Shade of Aran:

• It doesn’t really matter who you earth shield on this fight. Usually out of habit I will ES the tank, but you may want to put it on the lowest HP person in the raid to help heal a little bit.


• Drop standard Totems for your group. If you would like, you can drop the Grounding totem to absorb Aran’s Frost, fire or Arcane attacks, but I would rather have Windfury or Wrath of Air down to speed up DPS since most of Aran’s cast should be interrupted.


• Use rank 1 Earth Shcok to help interrupt Aran’s casting. Work out with the raid group who will interrupt which spells.


• Keep the raid topped off with Chain Heal, make sure not to let them get too low.


• Pop a mana pot when your mana is at 70%-75%, usually this will allow you to get another pot in during the end of the fight.


• When Aran pulls you into the middle of the room, get to the outer wall fast or the Arcane explosion will probably kill you.


• DON’T MOVE DURING FLAME WREATH! You will wipe the Raid.


• Avoid the Blizzard. If you get caught in it, you will be slowed down and will take considerable amounts of damage.


• DON’T MOVE DURING FLAME WREATH!


• Blood Lust at 25%. Try to do it after an arcane explosion. Having Blood Lust up when you are walking to the outer part of the room is just a waist.


• DON’T MOVE DURING FLAME WREATH!

This isn’t a very difficult fight, but healing/interrupt management is the key. This will be a good test of your ability to handle raid heals and management and your raid’s ability to listen to instructions and move when needed and not move when needed.

DON’T MOVE DURING FLAME WREATH!

Resto Shama Loot:

• Pendant of the Violet Eye

Next time we will go over the Guild killer known as the Chess Event.

Big Bad Mojo Time

Last night the guild went to test our mojo in Zul Aman. The main goal for the night was to get to Nalorakk and possibly kill him. Thanks to some good raid leadership we got to him rather quickly and if not for a misplaced tank and a one second to late heal, we would have gotten him down before the sacrifice. After the re-set we regrouped and took him down with relative ease. The drop was really nice...Fury for our enhancement shaman and everyone got there Tattered Hexcloth Sack from the "Promises, Promises..." quest.

After the buzz of our first kill we went to try our hand at the gauntlet to get to boss #2...and that is all I have to say about that.

We ended up going off and killing Nethspite and Illhoof (w/o warlock) for our second full Karazhan clear in the same number of weeks.

All in all it was a great night for the guild. It is nice to have a couple of really good weeks back to back. Now let’s hope we can get week three to be just as good.

Note: Apologies to the guildy we had to drop due to sign up priority. It was really hard to do and no one wanted to be the bad guy. It is just the first time we actually had more than 10 people signed up. I will make sure that we make it up to you.

Karazhan Guide – Part Six: Meeting the Curator

This is part f six of my short Resto -Shaman guides to Karazhan. Today we focus on the Curator.
Now that the front of Kara is cleared, it is now time to hit the back door and make your way to your first boss, the Curator. Technically Nightbane would be the first, but I will be dealing with that guide later.

Now this fight has no need for any special shaman tricks, your job will primarily be raid heals during the spark phases. The one thing to note is that is a very mana intensive fight and you will need to keep an eye on your mana usage as well as manage your mana regen abilities as much as possible to avoid being OOM during the last 10% of the fight.

Note: Arcane resistance is a big help on this fight, it isn’t absolutely necessary though.

Curator:

• Earth Shield the Tank and keep it up on him at all times, this will normally be the only thing you will be casting on the main tank.
• Drop standard Totems for your group.
• Keep the raid topped off with Chain Heal, make sure not to let them get too low.
• Pop a mana pot when your mana is at 70%-75%, usually this will allow you to get another pot in during the end of the fight.
• During evocation sit back and regen some mana, if needed drop mana tide if the casters are getting low on mana, especially the main tank healers. If done early enough you might have another opportunity to drop it again during the end of the fight.
• When Curator is at 25% and in evocation, pop Bloodlust. Timing is everything, you don’t want to Blood Lust when he is not in his evocation stage.
• If you are seeing DPS is a little slow, you can drop your Fire Elemental Totem to help out with DPS, it won’t be much but any little bit helps.

This isn’t a very difficult fight, but healing/mana management is the key. This will be a good test of your ability to handle raid heals and management of your mana pool. It may take a couple of times to get it down, but it will come with time.

Resto Shama Loot:

• Gloves of the Fallen Champion
• Dragon-Quake Shoulderguards

Now that we have met our host, it is time to take the tour and head off to the Library to meet the Shade of Aran.