• Not much raiding over the last week. Just the weekly three times and one venture into ICC as a healer, which did not end well. Two of the three healers on the run were alts (mine and another Hunter) and neither of us were really prepared for how healing intensive the Marrowgar encounter is.
• Randoms every day. Honestly I’m getting a little tired of them. It has gotten a little better since I cut back to one random a day per 80 (unless a guildie needs help of course).
• I jumped back into leveling my Paladin over the weekend. Decided to re-spec him to Prot, picked up a shield and one-hander off the AH, and jumped into the queue for low level randoms. So far it’s going pretty well. The XP is nice and I’ve already picked up several blues that are more suited to tanking.
• While my gear says I can heal in ICC, the above mentioned experience tells me otherwise. I need to work on my technique and maybe rework some gems and enchants. Some research will help with itemization problems, but the technique is going to be more difficult. Outside of raids, the best practice is going to be Heroic Halls of Reflection.
• I’ve been tanking heroics for about a month now and feel I have developed a pretty solid grasp on it. Now I want to move on to raids. I know it will be much more difficult, but I need to do it for the challenge.
• Back in real life, the wife and I took the kids out on a local Geocaching adventure yesterday. While the baby didn’t get much out of it (he slept the whole time), my four year old had the time of his life. It is definitely something we are going to have to do more often.
• Been playing with specs on my Hunter lately. Been specced Survival so long I can play it in my sleep. Now I’m trying to wrap my head around Marks.

That’s all I got, now give me yours.

• Icecrown Citadel raid over the weekend. I am now 4/? in ICC-10 on my Hunter.
• Got lucky in ICC and scored two upgrades: the Njordnar Bone Bow from Lady Deathwhisper and the Hauberk of a Thousand Cuts from Deathbringer Saurfang. And if everything goes well tonight and I can get a run for the weekly raid I will have just enough Frost Emblems to pick up two pieces of Tier 10 (the gloves and shoulders).
• Also on the gear front, my Death Knight now has four pieces of Tier 9 which rounds out his tanking set quite well (his DPS set is a whole other story) and I’ve managed everything I can get outside of raids for my Shaman’s Resto set and have started to pick up emblem gear for his Enhance set.
• I’ve all but dropped out of the glyph business. There has been so much competition and undercutting on my server right now that it isn’t even worth my time to post glyphs. I still have my inventory of glyphs sitting on bank alts, so there is a chance I may get back in that particular game at a later date once the market thins out some. Until then I’ll just keep raking in the gold other ways.
• Now that my toon’s main sets are pretty squared away I’ve began trying to put together their off-sets. The Shaman’s Enhance set mostly just needs gems and enchants, but I still need to farm some stuff for the Death Knight’s DPS set.
• The guild has started to run regular ToC-25 runs on Saturdays. While fun, it has also helped remind me why I like 10-man raids better. If only 25-man loot wasn’t so tempting…

Well, that’s all I got on my mind. What’s on yours?

• 3.3 couldn’t come at a better time for me. Just this past weekend I finally managed to complete 25-man Trial of the Crusader. It may have been a PuG, but the group was mostly made up of one guild and there were five from my guild (including me). Granted I didn’t get anywhere in the heroic versions of ToC, but I’m not a hardcore raider either.
• Also received a compliment last night (at least I’m taking it as one). Said guild who ran the ToC PuG whispered me saying they were “impressed with my performance ToC-25” and offered me a slot on their raid roster for Icecrown. I thanked them, but declined the offer. I’ve made too many friends in Soulbound and like running with them too much.
• My little Death Knight tank is coming along real well. According to WoW-Heroes he could step into 10-Ulduar and hold his own. I plan to hit the random PuG feature in 3.3 pretty heavy with him to get him geared up to raid ToC and Icecrown with.
• Even after clearing ToC-10 week after week and trying my hardest to do ToC-25 PuGs I have yet to get a trinket to drop for my Hunter. He is still using a Mirror of Truth and Greatness deck. (Yes I could buy the Trinket from the Triumph vendor, but quite frankly, it’s a piece of crap). Hopefully Icecrown will hold better luck for me.
• My little Rogue alt has stalled out at 18. That grind through the 20s just plain sucks, so I am going to do my best to do it all with rested XP. My paladin on the other hand is coming along rather nicely. He’s made it to 34 so far and after a sketchy start has turned out to be quite fun to play.

Well, that’s all I’m thinking right now. What’s on your mind?

• Mount changes FTW! I have several low level alts that will benefit from this greatly, and I can’t wait to get my level 72 Death Knight a flying mount to speed up his grind through Northrend.
• I can finally prospect all that Titanium Ore I have been collecting over the last month or so. Now I just hope that I can get a decent return on investment.
• I broke down and started doing some of the Argent Tournament dailies. I don’t fly all over Northrend, I have just been doing the one’s in Icecrown. I don’t do them every day, but I figure spending some time there will help me out in the new raid.
• Business has been booming lately. I have slowly been expanding into new markets and profits have went up accordingly.
• To be honest, my alts are screwed. Between farming up the Jeeves schematic and farming 5-mans for Conquest badges (so I can get geared up for the new raid ASAP) I will be spending a lot of time on my Hunter. Well, I’ll probably spend a fair amount of time farming badges on my Shaman also since I really want to get him geared up also. But the rest are going to be parked for a while.

Well, that’s all from me for now. Time to get through the daily grind at work.

• Ran a few instances on my Shaman as DPS. I’m slowly learning how to play Enhance in instances. Biggest thing I have noticed? Scrolling combat text makes it hard to position correctly. If my adventures as Enhance continue something will have to change.
• No Ulduar last weekend, but I did run in two different Naxx-10 groups, one with my Hunter and the other with my Shaman. Both were successful in their own way, and loads of fun
• It may be bad, but I find myself whispering random Hunters I see and trying to give them advice on what gear and enchants to change. (Why do people think spell power is useful to Hunters?) I try to be as tactful and non-pushy as possible. So far I have been getting mixed responses. Some thank me for the advice, and even go on to ask specific questions, while others become outright hostile.
• I’ve been slowly stockpiling Titanium Ore in preparation for 3.2, here’s hoping that it pays off in epic gem sales.
• I’ve reached the point where one alt with 4 32-slot Inscription bags can not hold my inventory of glyphs to sell. I either need to cut back on some of the less profitable glyphs or set up another alt to sell glyphs also.
• Thinking about going back to a fresh UI and and building a fresh one. My current one is becoming too cluttered.

Well, that’s all for now. Time for me to head off to bed and get some sleep.

• Progression in Ulduar over the weekend, with two upgrades for me (can’t remember the names, armory Santyn to see them). Hours of wipes, but I can’t even begin to describe how much fun those hours were.
• Gold. I’m slowly making it, yet also spending it. The gem market is starting to die down. I think this is because many of the more hardcore players are done getting upgrades until 3.2, meaning low demand. But I have been investing in Titanium Ore to prospect. Not actively hunting it, just keeping an eye on the trade channel for good deals.
• I don’t know what I would do without Inscription. Lately, glyphs are the largest source of income for me. Well worth the gold I invested to level it.
• Naxx-25 over the weekend too. I had a blast completely decimating the meters. Personal best of 6k DPS on Loethab.
• Parenting advice for Hunters out there: when the raid wipes but you manage to live thanks to Feign Death, read a book to your kid while waiting for everyone to run back in.
• Not much alt time lately, been spending too much time doing other stuff. I’m going to have to remedy that. I really want to play some of my alts in end-game content.

Well, that’s all I have for now. Now tell me what you’re thinking.

• More maintenance today, with more realms getting hardware upgrades. I am retracting my previous guess of 3.1.2 today. I don’t think it will drop until all the hardware upgrades are done.
• It’s been a little slow on the raiding front for me lately, but there is a Ulduar-10 run scheduled for Wednesday. I can’t wait.
• My server went down last night. So I popped over to Ner’zhul to say hi to Amava and Matticus, then started working a DK through their starting area to kill time.
• I really miss Amava’s blog. Hopefully my small prompting will encourage him to revive it.
• I fail at scheduled weekly posting. I promise the next installment of Hunting Tactics will be out soon.
• I’ve been leveling Inscription as my DK’s second profession. So far I have gotten it up to 200. I don’t have an Herbalist, so all herbs have been coming from the AH. I’m just hoping I can at least break even by selling the junk I have to make to level it.
• I did join in on a successful guild run of VoA over the weekend, downing the new boss on the first try. Let me just say the new boss is way more fun than the old one.
• I tried leveling my Paladin, but I’m just not ready to grind through the old world again yet. So I have decided to work on my Death Knight. As of last night he is up to 63 and just started in Zangarmarsh.
• I healed a normal Gun’Drak for my friends in my alt-guild. It went great, and I think I am getting their interest primed for moving up into heroics.
• The biggest problem my friends in my alt-guild have? They under estimate themselves. These guys know their class and are solid players. With a few craftable gear upgrades and a few things from normal level 80 instances, they could be rocking heroics.
• My gem business is holding pretty steady. It’s not making me a millionaire overnight, but the income is pretty steady.

Well, that’s all I got. Now give give me your thoughts.

• Server upgrades and extended maintenance today? If 3.1.2 didn’t drop today, but I bet it will next week.
• More Naxx and no Ulduar over the weekend. Sure, Naxx is fun and all but I really want to see the new content. Just need to get guildies (and me) geared up more.
• I’ve been doing loads of healing on my Shaman. Several heroics, and even a Naxx-10 and OS-25.
• Graphic glitches suck, especially on movement intensive fights. Namely Sarth. It is impossible to dodge flame walls when they pop in and out of existence.
• See previous point for why I ALMOST completed OS-25 on my Shaman, after two wipes I bowed out so they could find another healer. No point in continuing if I was just going to die right away.
• I’m starting to play the AH some. Mostly trying to make money off the professions I have already dropped a ton in to level. I’ve made a little profit so far, but nothing to brag about.
• I think I have settled on my Paladin to level next. Now I just need to decide if he will be an Inscriptionist or Alchemist. Both offer potential AH profit, but Alchemy would probably be more useful to me.

Well, my mind is dry-heaving now so I better stop. What’s your mind spewing?

• I’m home from vacation at last. Florida was nice, but I missed the (relative) peace and quit of my own home. And my bed. I missed my bed the most. I hate sleeping on someone else’s bed. Even if it is comfortable. Yes, it is all in my head.
• More maintenance today. I don’t have a clue whether another patch is coming or not. I really need to catch up on things.
• I am so close to 80 on my Shaman. This has prompted me to start researching gear for him. If anyone knows a good guide for gearing a fresh 80 Resto Shaman leave a link in the comments. I want to get him in heroics as fast as possible.
• Now that I am back at work, Tuesday morning downtime doesn’t bother me as much.
• The Survival shot rotation got a little more complex in 3.1, more on that later.
• I’m trying to decide what alt to level next. My Death Knight is sitting at 60, but I really suck at playing him. But all my other alts are in their 20s. I’m leaning towards working on my Paladin, since he just got to where he is fun to play. Plus I already bought the heirloom shoulders for him.
• Of course those shoulders could just as easily be used on my Death Knight. Decisions…..

Well, that’s all I got on my mind today.

• Extended maintenance today. Last day of my vacation that won’t be spent driving and I can’t play until 2:00 pm local time, or later if they extend maintenance.
• Believe it or not, another patch is being pushed out today.
• The patch notes for today look very similar to the one’s from last week. Especially the talent reset part. Do we get another talent reset?
• My Shaman is getting awful close to 79. Hopefully he’ll be to 80 in another week.
• Noblegarden started and I haven’t even thought about participating. Follows the trend of me ignoring almost all in-game holidays this year.
• Boy I bet the down-time today is really eating at the masochists going for the Violet Proto-Drake.
• I’m going to try and go to Kara with some friends Sunday. People going range anywhere from 70 to 80. Should be a real quick, but insanely fun run.
• Should I take my Hunter or Shaman to Kara? Both would be OP for the place. I’d like the achievement on my Hunter, but the Shaman might be wanted for the healing.
• Honestly, even though I wanted to play this morning, I’m glad Blizz is actively trying to fix bugs instead of waiting to try and fix them all with one patch. I think the hot-fixes and mini-patches might be the better way to go.

Well, dryer just dinged at me, time to go fold clothes so they can be packed up. Catch back up with everyone Friday.