Macros, Macros, Macros

Oh, the beautiful thing that is a World of Warcraft Macro. They make our lives so much simpler, from freeing up action bar space to helping us crowd control better. WoW simply wouldn't be WoW without macros. Here is a collection of the macros that I use to make Azeroth and Outland a better place to play in.

Paladin Macros:

As a healing Paladin starting out at level 70, I found that I had all sorts of abilities and trinkets that I was almost never using. Because when is the best time to use them? If I use it now, what happens if I really need it before the cooldown is up? And so, they went mostly unused out of fear. Recognizing this as a problem, I decided to macro them into my two main heals so that I was using them ever time the cooldown was up. I have been very pleased with the results, and can't imagine playing the game having to manually pop my trinkets.

Not only that, but paladins use Librams (equipped in their ranged weapon slot) to do various things in various situations. Because they are considered weapons, they can be swapped in combat. So I also tied in the specific Librams to each macro so they are swapping themselves as needed.

Flash of Light Macro:

#showtooltip Flash of Light
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/use 13
/use 14
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();
/cast Flash of Light
/equip Blessed Book of Nagrand

This macro attempts to trigger my two trinkets (slots 13 and 14 on my character sheet), then casts Flash of Light and swaps in my Blessed Book of Nagrand Libram. It also turns off any error messages or sounds that result from not being able to use a trinket due to its cooldown not being up.

Holy Light Macro:

#showtooltip Holy Light
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast Divine Favor
/cast Divine Illumination
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();
/cast Holy Light
/equip Libram of Mending

This is the heal I pull out when someone is taking some major damage. It costs a ton of mana, but heals for a ton of health. Because this is my "oh shit" heal, the macro attempts to use Divine Favor and Divine Illumination. It then casts Holy Light while swapping in my Libram of Mending. This macro has done wonders for my mana conservation, both by reducing the cost of my Holy Light as well as returning Mana Per 5 after casting. As you can see, I've also made it ignore the error sounds and messaged that result in an abilities cooldown not being up.

Cleanse Mouseover Macro:

#showtooltip Cleanse
/stopcasting
/cast [target=mouseover,exists,help] Cleanse; [help] Cleanse; [target=player]Cleanse

Paladins have one of the best dispells in the game. It can dispell poisons, disease, and magic effects of friendly players. Because of this, we are often called upon to be quick on the Cleanse, and this macro helps me do it. It immediately stops whatever cast I'm currently involved in and attempts to cleanse whatever raidframe or character my mouse is hovering over. If my mouse isn't hovering over anyone, it casts Cleanse on my target.

Turn Evil Macro:

#showtooltip Turn Evil
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Turn Evil

Paladins have an under appreciated crowd control when facing undead or demon mobs. We can FEAR! I use this macro mostly on the Moroes fight in Karazhan to keep one of Moroes' guests occupied while the uncontrolled mobs are being burned down. Were you to listen in on our vent, you would likely hear me laughing maniacally, shouting "I am Lazz! I am Lockadin!".

What this macro does is sets your target as your focus and casts Turn Evil on them. Then, I can happily heal away while my feared target is running around like the chicken he is while I keep an eye on my Focus Raidframe to see when the fear is up. Seeing as the fear only lasts 20 seconds with a cooldown of 30 seconds, you have a 10 second window where the mob is running around free. If my raid isn't yet ready to deal with him, I usually bonk him over the head with my Hammer of Justice, then run to the opposite side of the room. By the time he's done being stunned and runs across to me, my cooldown on Turn Evil is up and I can fear him for another 20 seconds.

Also, if your focus is dead, hitting this macro will clear your focus.

Exorcism and Holy Wrath Macros:

#showtooltip Exorcism
/cast Exorcism
/equip Libram of Wracking

#showtooltip Holy Wrath
/cast Holy Wrath
/equip Libram of Wracking

Paladins have special damage abilities against undead and demon mobs. I have a special Libram to enhance these abilities (Libram of Wracking), so these macros simply swap that Libram in when I choose to use them. Easy peasy.

Consecration Macro:

# showtooltip Consecration
/cast [combat] Consecration; [nocombat] Consecration(Rank 1)
/equip Libram of the Eternal Rest

Likewise, I have the Libram of the Eternal Rest which enhances my Consecration ability. This macro simply swaps that in, with the added functionality that if I'm not in combat it casts my lowest rank Consecration rather than my highest. This, I've found, is a great, low mana, stealth detector in arenas and battlegrounds.

Maiden Macro:

#showtooltip Blessing of Sacrifice
/stopcasting
/cast [target=focus] Blessing of Sacrifice(Rank 1)

This is a macro I whipped up for the Maiden fight in Karazhan. It simply casts my lowest rank Blessing of Sacrifice on my focus (the tank). This blessing will transfer a small amount of the damage the tank takes to me, which will break me out of the stun Maiden does and allow me to continue healing when all other healers are incapacitated. Since it's important to keep it up, I added to stopcasting function to allow me to recast it the instant the cooldown is up, regardless of what else I'm doing or who else I have targeted.

Paladin Taunt Macro:

#showtooltip Righteous Defense
/cast [help] [target=targettarget] Righteous Defense

I'll admit, I don't go prot often (I'm not yet completely happy with my tanking gear), but when I do I've found this macro to be immensely helpful. You see, a paladin's "taunt" doesn't work the way warriors or bears taunt works. Instead of being cast on the mob, to pull him back to you, it's cast on the player and will pull up to three mobs off of that specific player to you. What this macro does is simply make Righteous Defense work more like a conventional taunt. You cast it on the mob, and it targets the mobs target (the player who just pulled aggro). I've saved many a crit happy mage or lock from an untimely demise with this beautifully simple macro.

Avoidance and Block Calculators:

Since I'm working on making my paladin uncrushable when he's specced Prot, I've been using these two macros to calculate my overall avoidance and my block percentage.

/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(”Need 102.4 combined avoidance. Currently at:”,0.8,0.8,1)
/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(GetDodgeChance()+GetBlockChance() + GetParryChance() +5+(GetCombatRatingBonus(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL) + 20)*0.04,1,0.5,0)

This macro calculates your total Avoidance. Just be sure to have your Holy Shield ability up before you use it, to give you a better picture of where you are avoidance-wise. A protection paladin needs 102.4 combined avoidence (block, parry, dodge) with Holy Shield up in order to be uncrushable.

If you are only interested in your Block rating, use this macro:

/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(”Block Currently at:”,0.8,0.8,1)
/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(GetBlockChance() + 20*0.04,1,0.5,0)

Hunter Macros:

Since I've already gone into tying your trinkets and special abilities to your "staple" abilities in order to make better use of them, I won't go into it here. Really, the applications are endless. Whether you want to tie your Beastial Wrath to your Rapid Fire if you are Beastmaster, or your Deterence to your Wingclip if you are Survival, just use your imagination and see what you can come up with.

The two macros that are most important to me as a hunter are my two pullshots. When I'm out questing and want to pull one mob away from a group I use this:

/cast Arcane Shot(Rank 1)
/stopattack
/stopcasting

A nice, simple, low aggro pullshot which allows my pet to easily pick up the mob.

Now, when I'm in an instance or raid and am in charge of trapping a mob, it gets a little more tricky. It's important that I stay on top of the trapped mobs hate list instead of the healer. So I use this macro:

#showtooltip Distracting Shot
/clearfocus [modifier: shift]
/clearfocus [target=focus, dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus, help]
/focus [target=focus, noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Distracting Shot
/stopattack
/stopcasting

So say I'm supposed to keep the Blue Square trapped. I drop a trap, the tank pulls once my 30 second cooldown is up, I target the Blue Square and hit my macro. The macro sets the Blue Square as my focus, then casts Distracting Shot on my focus. *Shooooop* Blue Square is trapped. I move away a little, drop another trap, and merrily start pew pewing on skull. Now, the silly healer is standing right next to the trapped mob and is steadily gaining threat on Blue Squares hate list. All I need to do to insure Blue Square will run toward me and my fresh trap instead of pounding on the silly healer is tap my macro again. I don't even have to change targets, as the macro will cast a Distracting Shot on whoever my focus is (Blue Square) and then stop casting. Trap breaks, Blue Square charges me, *Shooop*, trapped again. Rinse/Repeat. Once the pull is over, I only need to [Shift] hit my macro to clear my focus.

Warlock Macros:

Warlocks have two main forms of crowd control (besides fear): Banish, and Seduce. Since the only good crowd control is a focused crowd control, I use these two little macros.

Focus Banish Macro:

/clearfocus [modifier; shift]
/clearfocus [target=focus, dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus, help]
/focus [target=focus, noexists]
/cast [target=focus] Banish

Focus Seduce Macro:

/clearfocus [modifier: shift]
/focus [target=focus, noexists]; [target=focus, dead]
/clearfocus [target=focus, help]
/petstay
/petfollow
/cast [pet: succubus, target=focus, exists, harm] Seduction; Seduction

Both of these macros work the same way. They set your target as your focus, then cast the crowd control on your focus. Later, when you are busy blasting away at your DPS target you can reapply the crowd control without switching targets, as the macro applies the CC to your focus. Again, you simply Shift hit the macro to clear your focus after the pull.

These macros can also be easily applied toward Priests Shackle or Mages Polymorph. The focus macro is a powerful tool, making crowd control a cinch.

The Rolling Stones Macro:

/cast [nomod,equipped:wand] Shoot;[nomod,equipped:relic] Lesser Firestone;[mod, equipped:wand]Create Firestone
/equip [mod, equipped:wand]Lesser Firestone;[mod]Lesser Mystic Wand

I have noticed on my little lowbie warlock that none of the wands available to me have any stats. I can, however, make Firestones (and later Spellstones) that do effect my abilities. Sometimes, it is nice to be able to wand stuff, but the rest of the time I have found it better to run with a stone in wand slot (at least until I start picking up wands that actually have stats on them). In the meantime, I use the above macro. If I Alt hit it, it swaps between my wand and my stone (or makes a stone if I do not already have one in my inventory). If a wand is equipped, and I hit it, it shoots the wand at my target. If a stone is equipped and I hit it, it attempts to use the stone. The only annoying thing about this macro is I have to manually change the name of the wand every time I upgrade. Still, an interesting macro that has made my warlocking life easier.

I would like to leave you with a picture I love so much, it is now my desktop. Lazztastic: Champion of the Naaru, with his trusty Smolderweb Hatchling taking in the sights in The Eye for the first time ever.
EDIT: Speaking of non-cobat pets, one macro that I failed to mention is my Pet Randomizer Macro. Oh, the joy that is castrandom.

/castrandom Magical Crawdad Box, Worg Carrier, Smolderweb Carrier, Wolpertinger's Tankard, Egbert's Egg, Turtle Box

This macro will randomly pick which one of the pets I carry around with me is going to be joining me this run.

Perplexed Pink Pally

I must admit, I have a few issues with holy Paladin gear, post Kara. I don't understand the itemization, the set bonuses, and most importantly, the color! Why am I pink? I had picked up the BoJ shield a while back, and there was much joshing in gchat because the inside of the shield was a bright pink color. Everyone knew about Lazz's pink shield. But it was just the inside, so it was bearable. The outside was white which I thought fit with the Holy Paladin persona.

Then, I started getting Tier 4 pieces. Again with the pink! Granted, the pieces were mostly white, but every piece has glowing pink gems in them. Did Uther Lightbringer have some sort of pink fetish? You have to admit, pink is a very unmanly color.

Now, I've started to have mana issues due mostly to the itemization of the Tier 4 set (which I'll get into momentarily) so when Magtheridon dropped the Aegis of the Vindicator last night I rolled on it. It wasn't a typical guild run (we had a lot of people who couldn't show for various reasons, so we had brought in outside help), and as such I didn't have to spend any DKP for it. And the 11Mp5 looked very nice.

Then I started to hear some chuckles on Vent. "Uh...Lazz. Equip your new toy".

Arrrgh!

WTF?

It's pink!

Both inside and out! A bright, vibrant, Hello Kitty* pink.

Why is it Hello Kitty pink?

And I thought the guildies were laughing before.

/cry

Well, at least it boosts my Mana per 5, a stat that has been seriously shrinking since acquiring my Tier 4 set. You see, Holy Paladins have a talent called Illumination that returns 60% of the base mana cost of a healing spell every time it crits. Awesome talent. And when I was raiding Kara, it was a nice little addition to my mana regeneration repertoire. Paladins don't use spirit; we are completely dependent on our mana being able to regenerate while we are casting. We are a healing class that is designed to be constantly casting. So in Kara, I stacked the Mp5 and had Illumination to fill in the gaps.

The Tier 4 set, however, is apparently designed specifically for Illumination. Little to no Mp5, just lots of spell crit. Which, in theory, is great. But with every new Tier piece I get, I'm loosing mega Mp5, and it's starting to really hurt. My spell crit isn't at a place where it can compensate for the loss. In other words, 20% spell crit + 90 Mp5 while casting (where I'm at now) does not equal 15% spell crit + 160 Mp5 while casting (where I was). I find myself having to pot multiple pots on every boss fight, and I'm not pleased.

I guess I'm just not making the transition from Mp5 to Crit well. I plan to pick up the Greaves of Pacification once I have enough badges. Nice big Mp5 to snuggle up with. I will probably gem it with as much spell crit as I can, and get the best of both worlds. I already have the four piece T4 set bonus, so I don't need the T4 pants (itemized for spell crit, of course). I can use the DKP instead on The Eye of Gruul, and the Head of Magtheridon. I will also likely pick up the Band of Halos with badges. Hopefully, at that point I'll be happy with my mana regen.

I'll be happy with my regen, ecstatic with my +healing (currently just over 1900), but still confused about Holy Paladin Tier set bonuses. Honestly, I just don't get it! Ok, the T4 bonus is weak, but not completely useless.

2 piece bonus: Increases the amount healed by your Judgement of Light by 20.

4 piece bonus: Reduces the cooldown on your Divine Favor ability by 15 sec.

I use Judgement of Light on boss fights if our guild's one and only Ret Pally is in the raid. Other than that, it's not really useful, because in order for it to live up to it's full potential I would have to be melee hitting the boss to keep the debuff going. And I'm too busy healing.

As for Divine Favor, the set bonus actually prompted me to use it more. I've macroed it in to my Holy Light spell, so the first Holy Light spell I cast is always a crit. Since I only break out Holy Light when someone's taking some serious damage, a guaranteed crit on the first cast is nice. Nice, but not game winning.

Now, let's look to the future. Tier 5! I've heard BRK raving about the Hunter set bonuses. I wonder how great the Holy Pally ones'll be? My guild is on the brink of downing our first T5 boss, so I could maybe start to replace these weak set bonuses with some great ones.

2 piece bonus: Each time you cast a Judgement, your party members gain 50 mana.

Hold on a sec! Are you sure you're looking at the holy set? That looks like a good Ret Pally bonus, but it certainly couldn't be for the holy set.

...could it?

But. But. But. I can count on one hand how many times I'll cast a judgement in a raid. How is this a help to holy paladins? Yes, Mr. Raid Leader, you should take me instead of the priest to tonight's raid because I will cast a total of 4 judgements which will in turn give everybody in my entire party 200 extra mana!

Well, at least the four piece bonus must be good, right? I mean, in order to get four pieces of T5 gear you've basically gotta have SSC and TK on farm. That's an accomplishment that should be rewarded.

4 piece bonus: Your critical heals from Flash of Light and Holy Light reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by 0.5 sec for 10 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.

Really? You mean that once a minute one Holy Light cast will be half a second faster. That's great. Thanks.

Seriously, though. I don't get it. Color me pink and confused.

On a lighter note, this week is children's week, and I've endeavored to collect a cute little non combat pet on each of my characters. In my travels, I chanced upon another collector who had fed her orphan some growth hormones. Behold.

*if Hello Kitty pink isn't actually a crayola color, it should be.

Lazz IRL

Hello all. I know that I've been absent for a while now, but seeing as my readership isn't very high (hey Rabbit!) I didn't think you'd mind all too terribly. You see, I've been having a pretty rough and tumble go of things lately, and haven't been able to find the time for much of anything. I hope that has changed, and I'll be able to devote more time to this wonderful Internet community.

There are some changes that I intend, however. TJ says that if you are going to blog, you've got to blog about something interesting; something that isn't already blogged about on a hundred other sites. And if you have to blog about the same thing, at least do it in a different manner. Well, let's face it. I am not a big theorycrafter, and my guild is just now starting to tackle Tier 5 content. There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said a million times, by people far more eloquent than myself. The one thing that I do have going for me is that I'm Lazz, and there's just one me.

I'm fairly new to the Internet. Just over two years ago I had ended a pretty intense and lengthy relationship, and I had moved in with my brother to pick up the broken pieces of my life. At the time, I was reading a wonderful book called, "The Metaphysical Touch", by Sylvia Brownrigg, and it suggested to me that I might find a path back to myself on that new-fangled invention, the Internet. So, I started posting my thoughts on My-Diary.org, and later on Myspace. I met some great people who supported me through some really tough times in my life. People I've never met, but in many ways people who I know better than my close friends in real life. The power of electronic touch is powerful, man, and I don't know where I'd be today without it.

By the end of 2006 I had met a new girl, moved half-way across the country to live with her, and stopped "blogging". Not intentionally, I just kinda.... stopped. I guess that I had found other ways to fill that need, the most prominent being my new found World of Warcraft addiction and all the great people I had met therein. I still had an online support system, but now I could actually do stuff with them as well. Like kill furbies. Nothing more therapeutic than killing furbies.

Well, that relationship didn't work out either, and I recently decided to pack up and move back home. (Home being the entire province of Ontario, not necessarily a specific part....I move around a lot). But I miss the act of writing something about myself; writing something about my experiences. And then posting it where anyone can see. Not that I expect many people to stumble upon my little corner of the intra-web, and that suits me fine, but there's something in the act of posting that means a lot to me.

And lo! I already have a half started blog. Just a bit of tweaking in the title section of the page, and it's no longer a blog about Lazz's adventures in Azeroth, but also a blog about Lazz's adventures in real life.

Ok. It's been done.

It's been done a lot.

Not saying I'm gonna move mountains here, but I am uniquely Lazz. Hope it's enough.

Director's Note: Success!

If you remember, I started this blog not too long ago with the hope that keeping a log of my activities would help me focus. I have three main's on three servers, and was getting a tad overwhelmed at how to best use my time to efficiently progress all three.

Lazztastic: Being my most progressed toon in the "actively playing" category, he also required the most of my time. When I started, I had around +1200 to healing and was going for my Dungeon 3 Armor set which meant a LOT of instance runs. Enter an amazing guild, some changes to my RL schedule, and PRESTO! he's now at +1650 and in mostly Kara epics. I've also leveled his fishing and cooking abilities to the level cap (though Blacksmithing is still at the Thorium phase, and I haven't yet been able to bring myself to grind it up)

Locolazz: Originally started with the intent to power level him up with a friend to join another friend in exploring end game content, this project has kinda fizzled out. The other friend has instead rolled a warlock on Malygos (Lazztastic's server) to power level up. Which kinda sucks! Hunter's are definitely my favorite class to play, and now I've got two (a 70 horde on Malygos, and Locolazz is level 55) that I can't play a lot. I mean, I suppose I could play them, but to what purpose. Being a social creature, I like to play where my friends are, and at the moment, none of them are Hordies.

Lazztentious: I'm having loads of fun with the Anti-Pug experiment. My group mates are great, and the whole environment over there is friendly and inviting. Even when I'm not leveling with my fellow Yellows, I enjoy just fishing and chatting with folks from other groups via guild chat. The rest of my toons are meat and potatoes; my Poxic toon is dessert!

So what this post is trying to say, in a very round about manner, is that it's accomplished the goals I've set for it. That's not to say I won't keep it up, I'm having a lot of fun, but more to simply say, "Yay for me!"

Unrelated Story: A guildy is unsatisfied with his job. He said he wants to hand his boss a slip of paper with /jquit written on it. I lol'ed.

Act 3: Saturday Night Yellow

Folks, meet Lazztentious, the newest member of the Yellow Poxless Squirrel Squad. He's very excited to be a part of such a momentous project, and couldn't wait for the shenanigans to begin. Being a new addition to the group, he hadn't yet completed any of the RFC quests, so that was the first order of business. Unfortunately, Demotail couldn't make it so we were four-teaming it again, but not to worry, Rabbit, Fuller, Blackmyst and I brought the pain!

The play mechanics of the warrior is very different from anything I've ever done before, and will take some time to get used to. But it's also a very interesting play mechanic. I've been having a lot of fun just thinking about the best way to generate aggro, and what combination of skills will work best in which circumstances. It will help once I have a few more talent points to spend; at the moment I'm pretty rage starved.

RFC was a breeze. We've obviously already outgrown it, and I'm grateful to my teammates for running it again. Not only did it give me a chance to practice "gettin' all up" in the mobs faces, but the first boss dropped a beautiful Subterranean Cape that looks just great on Lazztentious. It's too bad Demo wasn't there, because the second boss dropped the Robe of Evocation that just screams Holy Troll Priest, but I'm sure there will be some great pieces in Wailing Caverns too.
After chewing up Ragefire and spitting it out, we decided to head to the Barrens to do a prerequisite quest for Wailing Caverns and help Myst out with a Druid quest. On the way, we met some wonderful Alliance characters, one in particular that gave us a lot of attention. Myst had at some point flagged himself for PvP, so he got the most attention of us all. He gave Alillan (the very strong and mighty 60something druid who attacked him) a good run for their money, but in the end he was ganked. Fuller tried to give him some help of the healy sort, which flagged him as well.

The end result was this very powerful Alliance corpse camping us for about five minutes until they finally got bored and moved on. I've got to say, I simply don't understand the "hey! let's go hang around the Barrens hoping to one shot flagged Horde" mentality.

After the pvp fun, we decided to climb a mountain. What else could we do? I love the detail that Blizzard puts into the game, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere up there. This next screenie is entitled, "Myst in the Mist".

I'm very happy with the Yellow team as a whole. Everyone is a strong player, able to think quickly on their toes and adapt to unforeseen events. If we pick up an unexpected pat, Rabbit is quick to sheep it, or Myst is quick to pick it up and offtank. And Fuller once again brought some amazing healing to the table, even if he's no long speced Resto. I can't wait for Wednesday, when Demo will once again join us and we can give the Wailing Caverns a try. Not only is there some great loot, but it can be a challenging Instance that will help us hone our crafts.

Next time, on Attack of the Killer Yellows!

Act 1: Sing-a-long

Karazhan loves me this I know
Cuz I get great loot each time I go
I reached revered with the Violet Eye
Though every time on Shade I die

Yes! Kara loves me!
Yes! Kara loves me!
Yes! Kara loves me!
My plus to healing tells me soooooooooooo!



Red Riding Hood's Cloak

Girdle of Truth

Heart Flame Leggings

Violet Signet

Drape of the Righteous (for my soloing set)

Light-Bearer's Faith Shield (BoJ buy)

Lazz = Happy Camper

Act 3: Four Squirrels, Two Bears, an Orc, a Forsaken and RFC

Oh, yeah! The Yellow "We gots squirrels" Poxless team took care of that nasty nest of Burning Blade in the caverns under Orgrimmar last night. Demotail had called in sick, so to speak, so it was just going to be the four of us. Rabbit and I were really pumped at being able to run RFC, as were our newest members, Fuller and Blackmyst. Myst had yet to pick up an Insignia, so off we went to that familiar cave east of Orgrimmar to kill some evil doers, expecting it to take a while (the drop rate, as you remember, is terrible). Not so! It dropped off the second guy.

Yippee! Back to Orgrimmar so he can turn it in and we can start the instance. Rabbit had been busy in her off time putting her leet engineering talents to work, and had created a Mechanical Squirrel for each of us. Interestingly enough, these squirrels were higher in level than we were! (we were all level 12 at the time)

I tried to take some screenshots of us outside the instance with our squirrels, but the little guys tend to get underfoot, so none of them showed up.

So, off we went to clear out this den of evil. Sure, there were only four of us, but we cleaned house. Rabbit, as always, was quick with the sheep, and having Myst along to offtank was great for the bigger pulls. Fuller did a great job with the heals, and whenever his mana diminished, Myst was quick to pop out and toss a few heals. All in all, it went very smoothly.

The beginning of the instance was a joke. Honestly, we just steamrolled through. Oggleflint went down without any problems, and we all picked up our Lost Satchel to return to Thunderbluff. Then upwards and onwards! We cleared through some Earthborer's and Molten Elementals on our way to the back of the cave. Easy peasy.

From this point on, it started to get a little tougher. The pulls usually consisted of a Searing Blade Warlock, his Voidwalker, and two melee mobs (either Searing Blade Enforcer's or Searing Blade Cultists). The general idea was to sheep the lock, I'd pick up one of the melee mobs and the Voidwalker while Myst off tanked the other melee. It seemed to go well, except for one point where we pulled more than we'd anticipated. The result was a wipe, and us taking a moment of silence as we ponder our skellatal remains. (the image is dark, I'm sorry. But the bleached white bones really stand out. Note the large Tauren skull)

After that, it was personal! We slaughtered Taragaman the Hungerer and looted his heart (he had four!). Not only that, but he dropped the Crystalline Cuffs, which Fuller got to augment his epic healing. Woot woot for phat lewt!

On to Jergosh the Invoker, who was also a piece of cake. Let me tell you, there was much rejoicing when he fell, though none louder than Rabbit who got to claim her Robe of Evocation. Grats Rabbit!

I always get lost trying to find the path to the last boss, but Myst knew the way! We carefully pulled our way up to him, expecting a tough fight. I mean, he's the last boss, right? Bah! No problem. He had two adds with him, but spaced far enough appart that I was able to pull them one by one. Bazzalan soon found himself alone and out gunned, and we took him down easily, then posed for pictures. And so concluded our Attack of the Yellow Squirrel Pox! We had all dinged inside the instance, and I believe we all dinged again turning in all the quests we'd done, so we're all level 14 now. Hopefully, Demotail will be able to catch up with us so she can show off her leet healing skills next time. I can't wait.

Oh! And I was able to upgrade my gear as well. Behold!

As an aside, I'm thinking of rerolling. I still want to be Yellow group's Main Tank of Agro Generating Greatness, but I think I would be contributing more to the group as either a warrior or a paladin. Mainly because I think Myst and I will be competing for gear as it stands now, and the mail/plate niche isn't currently filled in our group. Also, I would pick up herbalism/alchemy on my new toon, since there aren't any Yellows with a green thumb.

Problem is, I'm torn between the two classes. I would absolutely love to go Pally. I know the class better, and the AoE tanking abilities of a paladin would fit better in this group makeup I think. On the other hand, there isn't much Pally gear available to low level Horde, while there is a lot of Warrior gear. I've never played a warrior before, so it would be new to me, and the Troll racial (the race I would pick if I were to roll warrior) is much better than the Blood Elf one (the only class available for Horde Paladins).

Basically, I think I'm looking for advice. Personally, I'm leaning towards Paladin, but what would truely server the group better?