Level 40
Cordolvar has reached level 40. Unfortunately his string of deaths remains unbroken. I’m getting a little tired of Maraudon.
Quick Stats
| Since Last Update | Total | |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 2 | 11 |
| Dungeons Tanked | 3 | 30 |
| Levels Gained | 1 | 40 |
Progress Made
I had a late start getting going last night, and I was already a bit frazzled. As a result my performance was not optimal, and it showed. I had a semi-avoidable death, and a few blunders that I probably could have avoided if I had been clearer-headed.
The evening started off well, Cordolvar teleported into Maraudon: Earth Song Falls and the party made a clean sweep of it, including the bonus boss, Rotgrip. Having Levitate cast on you can really alter how you jump or fall from heights. I had the misfortune to learn this while dropping down in Maraudon and overshooting my target by quite a ways and needing to run back up. Fortunately the party was in good humor (and it didn’t hurt that I wasn’t the only one).
Next up was Scarlet Halls, which I know I’ve done at least once before, though I don’t remember Armsmaster Harlan. Perhaps my previous groups skipped him? I’m pretty sure he’s not required. Well, I now know who Armsmaster Harlan is, especially his Blades of Light spell, which was my downfall.
Some quick searching on the ‘Net shows several1 ways2 to deal with this spell however, so next time I’ll be better prepared. I don’t think that quickdungeon.com spends enough time on Blades of Light’s mechanics, but that said, I hadn’t consulted it before the fight anyway. I’m tempted to get caught in Blades of Light again so I can try and use Intercept to get out.
Then it was back into Maraudon, this time Foulspore Caverns. On a simple pull of four Noxious Slimes Cordolvar took a dirt nap. These mobs hit hard. I remember we had two melee DPS in the party, so I’m guessing they got too close, took a bunch of damage, and the healer was probably freaking out trying to keep everyone alive, but didn’t have the throughput to keep all three of us alive. Even if you’re just running this dungeon on normal—as I am–Noxious Slimes are a tough fight. For next time, I think I might try to use Thunder Clap’s slowing ability to kite them a bit more. It might help reduce Cordolvar’s damage while hopefully not costing the party too much DPS.
Random Notes
- 👎 No gear upgrades.
- 👍 Faster horse. Not that I use it much.
I learned that the Illustrious Guild Tabard doesn’t reward reputation for monsters killed in dungeons, whoops. Oh well. All it really cost me was a bit of time spent in Love Is In The Air and the Darkmoon Faire, so I can’t really complain.
I took a few minutes to train my riding skills, so I have a fast horse that I’ll almost never ride.
I’ve gained the Ignore Pain power, which end-game players will tell you is a rage dump, but at my level it feels like it should be more of an “oh no” button. Cordolvar doesn’t have tons of rage in general, though I wouldn’t say rage is a problem either. Experimentation will show me the way. My initial hypothesis is to use Ignore Pain whenever Shield Block is on cooldown.
UI Modifications
I did some searching around Revenge Trigger, hoping to be able to better blend my weak auras with the default Blizzard spell alerts, but I didn’t have any luck. I was hoping there would be similar spells for Shield Slam and other abilities whose cooldowns can be reset via a proc from another power, but I had no luck. I also did a few Internet searches, trying to find out if there was a simple way to accomplish my goal using weak auras, but I had no more luck there. I do have one more idea though, if the proc is reported as an event in the combat log, I should be able to use a custom trigger condition to prevent my weak aura from activating. Right now I’m not doing any combat logging though, and I’m not sure I care enough right now to set it all up and do the analysis. I guess I could do it while attacking a dummy though, which would make it pretty simple to test. Maybe I can find a published combat log somewhere and just look at that to find out if it’s possible.
I’m still not totally happy with my nameplates colors, but I haven’t come up with any better ideas yet. Perhaps blue? Maybe I’d like the green for aggro, red for no aggro defaults if I could add an obvious texture? That way I’d know that green nameplates with a barbershop pole texture were still enemies. Maybe I could configure a red border on an otherwise green nameplate? Maybe I’ll disable KUI Nameplates altogether; I don’t feel like I’m reliant on them. While they help with the monsters you can see, it seems like the monsters you’re worried about are the ones that you can’t see!