Dire Aquatic Form

...game, that is. Me and Sharon dinged 70 last night, doing the Manaforge Ara stuff. She's got her flier, and I picked up a flier of my own for stuff like the Skettis bombing daily quest.

I also discovered, through some of the rewards from Netherstorm, and the resilience I overlooked on the Mok'Nathal Clan Ring, that once I get my base defense skill trained up to 350, I'll be uncrittable. I still have quite a lot of items to get to be Kara ready(12k hp 17k armor 16.5% dodge right now), but I'm definitely on my way. Farming primal shadows for my hat(and for Sharon's fel leather set) is going to suck, though. We need 32 between the two of us. I'm thinking maybe I'll farm Oshu'gun while she farms Void Ridge(since I need the crystal powders, and any greens I pick up will be thrown into the shredder that is her enchanting skill) and see how many primals we can bang out in a couple hours tonight.

I've also hit this kind of wall, and I'm not sure where it came from. The "Now What?" wall. We dinged 70 last night, and I figured we should head off on the Ogri'la chain, and discovered you need to do some five mans to open the dailies up. I'm not sure why, but it kinda floored me. Not in a surprised way, but in a...now what? sort of way. Okay, we're 70...now what?

It seems silly to me, because I've been 70 before. But I've run almost no instances in Outland as of yet, and I just kind of sat there, turning in place, wondering what the hell I should do. No more xp grinding. I could have asked the guild to see if anyone wanted to lend us a hand with the Ogri'la stuff(they're usually pretty awesome with that), but to be honest it didn't even really occur to me. To be honest, I'm still a little shaky on what to do now.

I think part of the problem is one of the major reasons I haven't done most of the instances in Outland yet. I was waiting for the people I was levelling with. Problem there is, we have somewhat divergent schedules. Now, I don't mean this to sound like they're holding me back and I blame them. To be honest, the main reason I held off on trying to do instances wasn't pressure from them to do so(there was none), but...more or less feeling like I should. I don't know, it's difficult to explain.

Now, I'm at a point where running 5 mans is going to get me stuff I need to be ready to step up into the guild's Karazhan runs. Plus, I really enjoy running 5 man content, especially as a tank. I know I need to get into guild runs, maybe even start some...but even thinking about it leaves me with this vague, nagging feeling that I'm leaving my friends behind, and I'm really not sure what to do about it.

On a more positive note, I believe at some point in the next couple days we'll be getting our Ogri'la stuff taken care of. Someone in the guild brought it up, and offered to help, so that should be taken care of.

And, in writing this, I've come to a decision. Tonight, I'm tanking an Outlands instance, come hell or highwater, friends, guild run, or pug. Update tomorrow with how it went.

So, I've been putting some thought into specs, and how I want to end up specced at endgame tanking, and I think I've come up with a spec that makes me happy. It's a bit unconventional, because I'm aiming for a spec that I can grind in as efficiently as possible. Here it is:

My Spec

You might have noticed that I have one point unspent. That is where you, dear readers, come into play. Well, there, and one other place. Where should I put this leftover point? I'm seeing four main options, although I'm open to suggestion.


Natural Shapeshifter
Handy for shift healing while grinding and pvp

Intensity
Because rage = awesome

Feral Aggression
I don't get hit as hard, and my FB hits harder.

Nature's Grasp
For pvp.


The other thing is, am I missing anything really awesome? Is there anything I've taken that I should probably pass on? It seems like a pretty solid tanking build to me, but I may have overlooked something, and am hoping you guys can lend me a hand and be a second set of eyes for me.

So, I was reading a post over at Blessing of Kings about how the endgame since pre-TBC has improved leaps and bounds for smaller guilds, and it's spot on. Those were dark days back then, when raiding consisted of 10 competent players and 30 half-afk button mashers downing bosses that took almost no strategy or skill in MC. Things got slightly better as new 40 man content was released, and the scene improved a bit with the release of 20 man raids, but it still left the smaller guilds that wanted progression without having to resort to ginvite spamming and trolling forums for new members. Dire Maul was a great addition, but sadly, it was the only one of it's type, and without new content it left 5 man and 10 man guilds with nowhere to progress except trying to field enough people for ZG and AQ20.

Nowadays, we have Kara and heroics to challenge the smaller guilds, and give them a path of content progression, and the release of Zul'Aman last month shows that Blizz cares about the smaller guilds, and providing content that more people can experience. As a casual raider, I have to say that really makes me confident with the way the game is going, and makes me question less whether or not I really want to drop the money for WotK. If things keep progressing like this, I definitely see myself staying with WoW for quite some time.