Wutteät SL Season 2 (Week 2)

Wuttëat had a busy first week of season, with world content, m+, raid and crafting. Even with lower item level drops in m+, we did a bunch for ingame score and vault it felt like. Had to tank raid. Sorted out a korthite crystal farm on all alts.

The second week was a lot less intensive. A tank was found for raid, so I was off the hook there. Found out you didn't need reputation nor a quest nor 80 korthite crystals to learn the recipe for Vestige of Origins, so the amount of Korthia I did dropped. m+ dried up some so didn't even manage to get 3 vault options. Think it might have been my least played character for the week, even. Until after I posted this, when we did a 5 dungeon session which filled the vault and pushed Wutteät up on playtime.

Since last time in world content

Rushing through the assault on wednesday, tormentors and running circles in korthia until the bar is complete is pretty much what I did the last 2 weeks. The world boss has nothing of value so, and is a lagfest so already stopped doing that one.

I did 2x Torghast both weeks, but as expected getting 4 stars in layer 11 was more of an issue on tank than dps, if not lucky with powers and/or rng with stuff that gives bonus points like having both a chest and saving someone. Hunter was easier to get score with. Should perhaps try Havoc.

Since last time in m+

Managed to do one of each dungeon on both Tyrannical and Fortified, and fill up the vault both weeks as Vengeance in guild groups. Which was the main point, since getting good upgrades at the start is so important.

Also did a couple of keys as Havoc in week 1, but put prio on alts the second week to get valor for hides for crafting.

Scoring runs since last time

De Other Side 15 (+) [Fortified] & 11 (+) [Tyrannical] *241 points*

Was not expecting to time a 15 in week 2! Fortified De Other King's Rest 15 trash with grievous has always been an issue. But made it through without any major mishaps. But with the season change the two worst pulls are no longer back to back at the start with the current route I made, so the back to back CD intensive fights and often the keybreakers don't happen. Since you can collect all the tormented buffs before the worst trash pull and Hakkar, the sting is somewhat gone on fortified at least. I also did this run muted by accident... But believed they heard me the entire run as they kept doing the stuff I asked them to do, including saying "yes" at just the right timings. Kinda funny when you find out after the run...

Also timed a DOS 11 on Tyrannical the first week I forgot to screenshot it seems, and can't remember anything but Hakkar being a pain even on an 11 Tyrannical without Pride.

Sanguine Depths 14 (+) [Fortified] & 13 (+) [Tyrannical] *241 points*

For a dungeon that everyone else seems to hate, Sanguini Linguini keeps being a safe option for score for us. Some trash was rough on the fortified and bosses took ages and hit like trucks on tyrannical but I feel these were the cleanest keys we had these past two weeks.

Halls of Atonement 13 (+) [Tyrannical] & 14 (Deplete) [Fortified] *230 points*

The place keeps being fairly easy to do, but the timer is very tight, especially without a venthyr. Aathma has switched, so for the more regular group this might be easier this season than the last to push. The golem trash ability buff and the caster mob buff also made some pulls harder that were already hard, so tyrannical might be the best scoring run here for the season for us.

As a case in point for how tight the timer is, we had one accidental affix mob pull at the right side golem, and even with one of the mobs dead and the affix mob not resetting health as the only mishap, we missed the timer with seconds on a 14.

Mists of Tirna Scithe 13 (+) [Fortified] & 11 (+) *228 points*

Two of the more annoying sets of affixes in Mists made the place more annoying than it usually is. Some of the mobs with raging hits like a truck, and some of the pulls with inspired mobs are just nasty, especially when you cc and your group is used to you never ccing and you have muted yourself so nobody gets the warning :D

Spires of Ascension 14 (depleted) [Tyrannical] & 14 (+) [Fortified] *238 points*

Kyrian Airways on 14 Tyrannical was kinda spicy, not because of the bosses, but because of raging mobs. At the start one of the casters pretty much oneshot people when raging. The last named mob before last boss when raging also just killed the whole group with the constant aoe.

In comparison, even the 14 fortified had the same mobs be much less of a hassle. The raging is just so brutal on some trash, especially when not that geared.

Theater of Pain 15 (depleted) [Fortified] & 11 (+) [Tyrannical] *231 points*

Theater keeps being a hassle, not because of fights being horribly hard anymore (besides the lich boss on high tyrannical), but the never ending logistics nightmare on the platforms up to the lich boss. It's not the getting knocked off platforms that kills these runs, its the someone clicks portals when waiting for someone to come back, or getting knocked off a platform early and waiting for a res instead of running back, or a multitude of other things.

Obviously I wrote that, and we tried a 15 TOP monday night after originally writing this post, and we cut wait time to two ring out situations and no waiting, but still was almost 3 minutes short on timing.

The Necrotic Wake 12 (+) [Tyrannical] & 13 (++) [Fortified] *232 points*

I don't remember much of the Wake runs we had, except first boss taking so freaking long without Bloodlust nor Pride. Will not run this dungeon much this season either I reckon. And when having limited time for keys like this week, it's hard to put prio into doing a run here.

The fortified version is just so much easier even in premades, the 13 just melted while the 12 tyrannical was cutting it close...

Plaguefall 11 (+) [Tyrannical] & 13 (+) Fortified *229 points*

Another low prio dungeon. It was an 11 on Tyrannical so went smooth, and did not discover pain points. I nagged for the original key to get lowered, but a 12 or 13 would most likely have been fine.

A fortified 13 appeared on monday after posting this originally, and just narrowly missed the 2 chest. Not really sure if there were any proper pain points here either.

There has been some ruckus over the nerfs to some of the mobs in here; the plagueborers. But since I never really tried to maximize that I did not really notice the change much.

Overall

Vengeance score: 1870

Havoc score: 190

Pretty happy to land a 15 timed. Also had my time in the sun on the server rankings...

Dropped to 4 now, but unless a lot of last season DHs were FOTMers that are now playing Guardian Druid dropping out of top 20 is gonna happen fast with the reduced playtime.

Since last time in raiding

It looked kinda spooky for the first raid to happen. But with me filling tank and Muffin being dug up for the other spot, the raid happened. The second week another tank was dug up so I was off the hook again. I must admit I did not find the return to raid tanking fun at all. It was all my old impressions coming back. The whole taunt swap thing. Some bosses essentially just being that. On other bosses, the good old tank rage came back when dps started standing on me with shit. Especially on painsmith I was ready to unsub when people kept killing me or the other tank with the chains. This shit is just not fun. But oh well. It's in the past now :)

Progress fights

Tarragrue; I thought the boss could be taunt ping ponged - but either the taunt didn't happen or he fixated. Not sure which. But it was dead in one attempt.

Eye of the Jailor, or should I say the Eye of Odin? I liked that lore bit. Was killed in one attempt.

The Nine. Only remember not having any visual aid or warnings about stacks of the swap mechanic. Had to drag the one coming down out of some shield thingie, but that was it. Took one try?

One of my favorite characters in the game; got to love the tragic stuff. This boss I found pretty good because the tank mechanic had a bit more to it. Timing the dispel however kinda made a mess of tank plans, so kinda happy I don't have to deal with that on heroic. Wiped once here I think.

Soulrender. This was a bit too much of a pushover, think we did a lot of stuff wrong but still killed it.

Painsmith progression. We struggled mightily, but the dps on the balls were just too low. Muffin could get through the balls with the tank mechanic due to being venthyr, but I couldn't which meant giga raid damage if it was my turn and they didn't kill the ball. Add people with chains not getting time to move either, and it was a mess.

Overall

Normal raid status: 5/10 killed.

This week in crafting

Reached crafting rank 4 umbrahide armguards and unlocked the crafting of Vestige of Origins to upgrade crafts to 5 and 6. I crafted a rank 5 for my primary legendary, and sold 2 rank 5 on the AH (to fleecers). A third has not sold, as the fleecers have detected that the market for rank 5 legendaries is not there, and have started dumping their entire stock to flood the market instead.

To be fair, I assume most non-crafter aren't going to pay for a rank 5 when they can just skip the rank and get rank 6 asap.

The dedicated leather farming night (with audiobook) was dropped both weeks due to other people suggesting group content. So need more discipline there to make more progress on crafting. Had some help from Ulveblomst with crystals, and both Ulveblomst and Taralei donated some leather, which was really helpful. The amount needed for all the crafting is just insane...

Navarim also crafted some rank 2 cloaks, making some headway into getting to rank 4. Not sure if I just wanna buy a lot of silk on the AH or not yet.

This week in alt leveling

Hollowfury the alliance death knight has reached the lofty heights of level 53. Season start not leaving much time to level as expected. But at least I always have rested...

Thought of the week

Done way too much stuff on alts to farm Korthite crystals. The assaults and the renown weekly is a large chunk of time for 1 guaranteed crystal and a chance for one on assaults. I am really sick of this farm now, so just gonna get the 80 I need to craft max armguards on this and a max cloak for my hunter.

The same goes for capping valor on alts to buy callous hides with. It feels really bad to skip gear progress on characters early in the season to funnel materials to a main. It also means a lot of playtime on characters that aren't going to do much for the time being either, which is a downright waste. At the end of season when geared, sure this is something to dump valor on. But not at the start...

Lesson of the week

I tried the Manastorms trick again in DOS, but it seems very random. Some runs I got all bombs, some I got 1 or 2. Perhaps some trick to where you spamclick, but not figured out.

When on my horde DH, I learned that this mechanic doesn't happen on a timer, but on max energy. It changed from season 1 how many pools it makes before doing the sinlight, so I was offguard being used to the combo it did previously. Or I have just gone mad, not sure. But at least now I can check when to move away.

There was also this second boss in Plaguefall trick I learned; you can root or cc the damage reduction slime away from both boss and the bomb if you want to shave some time. Not sure it's needed but if we ever tryhard PF higher than 15 it's a thing to consider.

Mount of the Week

Not actually sure how I got this, but it's the closest thing I got to competing with Mollie right now.

Goal Progress

m+ goals

1870 IG rating out of 2000 goal (+1870 rating) - progress.

raid goals

5/10 normal bosses tanked out of 10/10 goal - progress.

Soft goals

Kyrian Renown 48 out of Kyrian Renown 80 goal (+6 renown) - progress.

1 rank 5 Vengeance Legendary out of rank 6 Vengeance Legendary craft goal (+1 rank) - progress.

No Havoc crafting - no progress.

Able to craft rank 6 leather wrists out of rank 6 goal (+2 ranks) - complete!

228 iLevel out of 246+ goal (+4 iLevels) - progress.

Summary

Actual content progression has been good, including crafting.

Gear progress not been so good. 5 bosses killed in raid resulted in zero gear and zero shards. Over 20 m+ runs has resulted in 1 useful drop (that Ulveblomst traded me) and 2 filler items. The vault gave me a 249 ring which is on the lower end of the useful ring scale, and two even worse options I would have taken stygia over. Thankfully the gear has not turned into a hindrance yet since we timed a 15 anyway. But it's a bit annoying.

Since a tank was found for raid, I guess those goals are met.

RIO changed their scoring system to match the ingame score, so those goals are forfeit. Slightly annoyed they did that, would have liked them to keep the old to compare.

All in all it's been a good couple of weeks with plenty to do, only issue has been group logistics.

Stats

Main Spec: Vengeance (228 iLevel) [1870 score]

Offspec: Havoc (227 iLevel) [190 score]

Main Secondaries: Haste (25%) & Versatility (12%)

Legos: Scorched Soul Shackles (rank 5), Collective Anguish (rank 4)

Soulbind: Pelagos (Combat Meditation - Repeat Decree - Focusing Mantra - Fel Defender - Cleansed Vestments - Growing Inferno - Viscous Ink - Let Go of the Past - Adaptive Armor Fragment - Better Together)

Raid Prog: 5/10 Normal Sanctum.

Professions: Leatherworking (max) & Enchanting (max)