How long has it been? Well, entirely too long, anyway.

Why haven't I been blogging? Well, besides being busy with other aspects of life, I've been too busy playing WoW!

It's a whole new game, folks, and if you aren't playing, now is the time to start.

Achievements are not my cup of tea, but they still add fun to the game for me, because I'm constantly getting to do things that otherwise would have been impossible, thanks to people completing Achievements.

Since I last blogged, here are some of my firsts:

Killed Kael'Thas in his 25-man incarnation (I admit, it was pretty easy with the boss nerfs/player buffs, but still epic.)


Broke 2400 DPS (on Gorefiend; the guy above me was the first ghost, thus the 7k DPS. I must point out, in fairness, that before he was ghosted he was right even with me on damage done.)


Killed Mother Shahraz and Illidari Council and got Illidan to phase 5. (Tonight, Illy... tonight.)


Leveled a Rogue to 47, a Shaman and Druid to 38, and a Paladin to 51. (In light of ongoing and upcoming events related to the Plague, I thought this image of Stratholme was poignant.)



You're still reading? Shoo! Go play!

Reliquary down! Mother to 46%

Whew! I am so tired. After a weekend out of town with friends, I came back to raid with KI and we killed Reliquary of Souls for the first time in five tries, then beat on Mother Shahraz four times, getting her to 46% before calling it for the night.

Boneweave Girdle for me, replacing Guardian's Chain Girdle.

Here's the WWS report. I'm going to bed!

What Shabula has been up to, other than movie-making.

Last night KI went into Black Temple and bumped off Gorefiend and Bloodboil. It took us a few tries to get the Bloodboil debuff rotations figured out, but we got him down with plenty of time to do attempts on RoS.

Reliquary went really well - we got to 4% on Phase 2, and we weren't really prepared to do Phase 3 (no Cauldrons of Major Nature Protection) so it was a great night off attempts. We'll be back in BT on Sunday night, and if we get a good turnout I think it'll be a kill.

Saiyuri was nice enough to run Survival spec last night, so we physical DPS had a field night - here's my one venture to the top of the meters, on the Gorefiend kill. The rest of the boss fights were mostly dominated by the Rogues - our Rogues are hard to top right now, but that's no complaint. It's nice to have someone to compete with.

This is a new DPS-over-total-fight record for me; I'm excited. This was with two Haste Potions in my potion cooldown slots - I'm currently popping a Haste potion with Bestial Wrath when Rapid Fire is not available, though I can't say with absolute certainty that that's the best time to pop it.

Next goal: 2000 DPS!

In which I make a movie.

Part of the reason for the dearth of posts, lately, is a secret project I've been working on - movies!

Oh, by the way... did I mention I'm in the beta? I didn't? Oh, silly me.

Here's my first effort, the only one that's finished - it's rough, but I really like how this played out. What happens is in no way scripted, and the fact that everything went horribly wrong and yet came out okay really shows off why Hunters are such a great class. In this first video, I've just tamed a Bear (literally tamed the Bear, flew south, and started filming.) Warning! This is beta stuff - don't watch it if you're very sensitive to spoilers.


Bear pet-tanking in the Wrath beta from Nick Slabaugh on Vimeo.

Future videos will be a bit more focused; this first one wasn't really meant for publication... I just loved how it happened to come out.

It's pretty clear to me that a Hunter or two with tanking pets could pretty easily tank normal instances - with Mend Pet alone, on a level-75 pet, it's this easy? Sweet.

What Bigredkitty says about Bears is true, out in Northrend - their Swipe ability often fails to connect because they spend a lot of time being attacked from behind. That said, the threat generated by Swipe, as I think was more than adequately demonstrated here, is nothing short of massive. Gorilladins are nice, but for tanking instances, I want a BEAR.

Only one question remains - is it Ooot-garde, or Uhtt-garde?