Sprink Notes

That’s right. I finally have my second 80. ^_^ My little baby prot pally is all grown up, getting ready to tank real dungeons and everything. Almost brings a tear to my eye. Seems like it wasn’t that long ago she was running away from death knights in Stranglethorn, or walking through the Dark Portal, or holding her own with threat against two far over-geared 80s helping her with a dungeon quest.

Now, I’ve got to get her geared up well enough to survive in the later dungeons, and she has her work cut out for her. She’s going to be standing up against at least one 80 with pretty darn good gear and a penchant for the Lolstorm, and the rest (which may or may not be pugged, depending on if the old band can get back together) will be of unknown gearing and skill who may or may not be willing to deal with a fresh 80 looking for gear.

Which leads me to an interesting thing that seems to be happening for the upcoming Cataclysm:

There are changes afoot in the core 5-man group.

Derull, our Lolstorming Orc Warrior, isn’t changing at all. Which is good. Because we love him just the way he is, threat-stealing and mage-saving and all. As a side note, he also has a prot pally that can perform basic tanking duties in his current gear and normal tanking duties if he were to spend a little time away from the mirror and tanking his way to something a little more updated than the Red Sword of Courage. Tirralyis is going to pass her mentor up if he doesn’t stop slacking. ^_^

Vengilus, the Most Amazing DK Tank Evar(tm), is being swapped out for Arry, hunter extraordinaire and one of those who helped Tirralyis ding that last level. According to him, hunters are going to be far more fun to play come Cataclysm.

Amenthas, like Derull, is staying the same as far as I know for Cataclysm. So, my favourite pally healer will continue healing me through pulling aggro and standing in things I shouldn’t stand in. He would, however I’m sure, like to do some DPSing with his ret spec every now and again.

Gorbash, the DK DPS with a passion for bubblegum pop, may or may not be quitting the game. Seems the pre-expansion doldrums have hit him hard, and our 5-man group taking a break during that time due to scheduling conflicts hit pretty hard, too. Here’s hoping he sticks around just a little longer, at least.

So there’s the other players in this game. If we go by mains, we currently have a healer who might want to DPS, three other DPS, and a possible other DPS. We seem to be missing something…

Yup. A tank. And guess who has a freshly 80 tank just waiting in the wings? Which presents a little issue. Sprink is my main. I want her to have all the cheesements. Which leads me to believe we’re going to have to do things one of many ways.

Option 1:

Have Gorbash make/run a tank spec. I don’t remember exactly, but I think he may have mentioned that he had one or was looking to make one. What better time than Cataclysm? ^_^ Of course, this option hinges entirely on whether or not he continues to play.

Option 2:

God give you lemons? Find a new god. Or, more accurately, when life doesn’t give you a tank, find one. Isn’t that what the random dungeon finder thingy is for? The only downside to this option is our group is a little… unique. Sometimes, we’ll sit around after killing the first boss and just dance while chit-chatting over Vent. For like, an hour or something. I doubt a random tank is going to be cool with that, much less want to get in on it.

Option 3:

Running dungeons multiple times with multiple characters. This option is almost the one I have the most faith in working. For example, Derull, Veng and I all have viable tanks. Derull and Veng have swappable DPS, and Derull’s tank can double as a healer, only if absolutely necessary. ^_^ And now that I think of it, Veng has an alt that is my favouritest tree evar.

I think out of all of our options, the last might be the best shot we have… which isn’t that bad if you ask me. And so what if sometimes we have to pug somebody? As long as we keep our shenanigans to a middle range or lower, we should be fine. ^_^

So it looks like not just Azeroth is changing with the coming of Deathwing. Here’s hoping this cataclysm is all it’s cracked up to be.

In the meantime, who wants to run a fresh 80 through 5-man TOC a few times for some gear?