Heroic Intimidation

Time to Queue

I was still well short of the gear needed to queue for End Time. I wasn't overly excited about using PvP, fearing it would be an instant kick from most groups, but now I had enough gear to try queuing for a regular Cataclysm Heroic.

I have to admit I was more than a little intimidated by the idea. I know how groups in WoW can be, especially to someone who actually could use the gear that drops. I knew my DPS was going to be low, and I mentally prepared myself to be kicked out of the group.

The queue came up and I got Heroic Deadmines. I had run it many times on my Warrior and Hunter. Never on my Paladin. This was in-progress group about to pull the big robot boss. The tank asked me to drive the robot. Well, at least no one would question my DPS. I did okay, no one died. The boss dropped a two handed mace. I was still using the axe you get for completing one of the chains in Earth Elemental zone. The Warrior tank asked if he could roll on it for his PvP set. I hit need, but didn’t comment. I’m not sure if he rolled on it or not, but I won it. Upgrade!

We finished the entire instance, and I even got a couple of achievements, including the one for finishing the dungeon. I guess people just quietly accepted me. With the hutner doing 30k dps, I guess they figured we were okay. 

Throne of Tides

The next one I got was Throne of Tides. Again, I knew the place from my other toons. My DPS as still south of 10k, but the mage and hunter in this group were also in that range as well. The tank, a Death Knight, was leading the entire group.

I guess I shouldn’t be so focused on my numbers, but I just hate the idea of being dragged through something or being a boat anchor that holds the rest of the group down.

I did get a comment on my title. For a while on Honors, I’ve been going around with Hand of A’dal. Old player. Old title.

I picked up a Relic on this run. i can’t remember if they changed relics to be used by Shamans, Paladins and Death Knights before I left or after. 

In each run, at least one person asked for grace because they hadn't played the toon they were on in 9 months to a year. Finally I asked if they were just changing toons for the expansion, or were coming back to the game. In every case, they said they were returning players.




Despite the two runs I was still short of being able to try End Time. I talked to my friend and he told me to check to see what I could buy with Justice Points. Apparently now Firelands gear was available. I had enough points to buy the chest, so I did. Then I saw someone advertising to sell the Justice Point bracers for just 200g. That was about 10% of my funds, but I bought them anyway. 

Stiffed by Trolls

I gemmed it up and queued again. This time I got Zulu'Gurub. Uh Oh. It was a rather long haul. The Paladin tank didn't know the dungeon and the Resto Shaman had to talk him through it. I did okay. I died on the snake boss after getting painted into a corner. Somehow the group didn't kick me. The other bosses weren't too bad, but I ended each fight with Forebearance after using my Bubble (oh how I've missed you on my Warrior/Hunter). Long Arm of the Law helps a ton on Zanzil, and Holy Wrath is great on the final boss. 

I got really excited when it looked like we had a shot at killing the final boss. He drops a sweet axe. I knew the Paladin tank might roll on it, but I would still have a shot. 

After two wipes, we got him down, but he dropped two staves. 

When I logged off, I was still about 9 points short of the iLevel needed. I’d really like to see End Time before my free time is up, but I'm going to have to make a decision this weekend. I may just make up those last two points with PvP gear and go for it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Just buy the pvp gear and leave it in your bags. The newer heroics are really fast and no one will notice at all. You don't even need to equip the items for them to count towards your ilevel. You can literally do 2-3 new heroics in the same time it takes to do 1 ZG or Deadmines.
Elladrion said…
As a melee dps you can get away with actually using the pvp gear. There's so much strength that as long as you reforge it so you get hit and expertise capped you can do 12K+. I've done it on a few alts until they get some decent pve gear and it's rarely an issue.

I would suggest transmogrifying it into something else, you sometimes get people that look at your gear before they bother looking at your numbers. I've had people doing lower dps than me try to get the group to kick me, and I've had people that couldn't care less. It helps if you say something at the start of a run about just getting back/hitting level cap o rqueing up for a regular heroic nut being given a new one (happens all the time once you get the ilevel, even if you don't want it) and offering to drop group if people feel your dps isn't up to snuff. Very few groups ask you to if you're up front about it and performing adequately.
Christopher said…
I wish there were 3 dps like you in every heroic run. I don't run them often, but when I do it's never the new guy in sub-par gear that makes my kick-finger itch, it's the gogo pull the boss before the healer catches up stand in the fire and complain guy that slows the run down and makes it unpleasant. Don't let the wannabe elitists pull that shit, if they were half as good as they think they are you could be afk the whole run and it wouldn't be a problem.

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