My Guild Officers have announced that our Kara Runs for the non leets. ( Za Runs for the officers and Core raiders) will now be 2 x ZA teams. Its official We are over Kara,
Wait… I’m not. I’ve missed out on 3 Weeks of a Decent Kara Run because I was being socialable for one of those nights and there were too many Dpsers and not enough healers and tanks to do more then one Kara run the other 2. So I’m moaning a little because one Kara Clear would have netted me the Badges I need for the next self obtainable Weapon Upgrade of that Badges Dagger. The Scryer’s Blade of Focus which has more +spell Damage and Stam then my Current Dagger the Nathrezim Mindblade.
So after being told at 830 Invites were over… I was like. Crap. One more run and It would have been mine. The Mats for Soulfrost are waiting for me in my Bank tab, just waiting to be lovelingly applied to the new blade. – Besides being a little miffed.. I had turned down a ZA offer outside guild an hour earlier in the hope I would get Kara. I’m not moaning too loudley because I did get to do progression runs this week – so its a catch 22 – I don’t need any loot from Kara.. so I really shouldnt get priority which is fair,
So In a bid to get badges I thought I’d try a pug. I do the whole Looking for group thing, and get two invites straight up – I’d only seen one guild around, and I figured I’d try that group.
“Ts or Vent I ask? -”
“Nope.”
“Opps..” Main Tank says ” I have to go.. ”
“Darn” Says another team memember, thats the 2nd Main Tank we’ve had leave.
I say.
” Guys Im sorry, but this seems rather disorganised, and I’d rather not lock myself out for a week on a run that is having so many issues so early.”
So I left, and I don’t feel bad. I would only do a Non Vent raid like Kara with people I already knew. Not with a pug. Its a preference, and I am a firm believer that 1 voice is better then 10 people trying to strategise if they are new to the raid in Chat.
In addition, they were pugging a Main tank – twice… and no immediate hope for replacement.
Did I want an easy badge run – Yes and no.. I didn’t care if it were a full clear and I don’t mind dying in the name of learning…. – I just didnt want to waste my time.
So No Kara for me this week.
On the flipside a person who I found while pugging Kara some months back – asked me on sunday night to come to a Gruls Raid – I thought about it – and thought why not – there was no scheduled raids and even thought I hesitated that this would be their 1st guild attempt at Gruls – I figured they seemed organised enough to have a decent shot – the difference in my faith was I knew 2 of the people in the raid, including the Raid leader, and they were filling in dps holes, not healers or tanks which can be volitile..
and we went – and 2 shotted High King.
and had 2 attempts on Grul. Rock fall and Shatter can be a pain to get used to, and not many in the raid had done the fight before.. 34% on the 2nd attempt, which was decent, they now have a better idea. They have the dps to get him next time.
So Highking gave me a badge … taking me to 135 – only 15 more to go.
I need to do more herorics.. just have difficultly findning a non guild group as everyone wants mages and warlocks for specific fights.. Priest CC doesn’t seem to count, so in a 5 man a Shadow Priest is not the 1st choice often, and also maybe I’m over Pugging.. Less good people are pugging… and all that does is perpetuate the lack of progression on the Guilds that just don’t have the numbers or the gear..
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
One of the best heroics as a shadowpriest is Magister’s Terrace – pulls are made a great deal easier with an SP mind-controlling a warlock, husk or physician. The warlock does a huge amount of damage, the physician does a decent amount, and the husk can tank a couple of mobs as long as you use their potion ability, followed by tab-targetting a couple of mobs to pull them to you with flame/frostbolt.
The last pull before Kael was dreaded by most of the people I run with, but with shadowpriest it’s made a huge amount easier – MC the warlock, offtank a mob (usually killing it before the group are finished) then assist where required. Just don’t do as I did last time and swap out your MC macro for netherweave nets with Delrissa (give me my trinket, damn you!) and forget to swap back! :-S
This is what worried me if I ever want to do any sort of end game content. Not only are the requirements to even be able to do a raid pretty high for a casual player but, by the time I get there, 99% of guilds will have moved on to even higher level content I’m not equipped for. There’s already raids I’m likely to never experience such as Onyxia and Molten Core, but even Kara is old news at this point.
I understand the need to please the hard core players but there must be a way to do it that doesn’t lock 90%* of the player base from ever seeing the content.
Sorry for venting in your comments but it wouldn’t be appropriate for my blog so.. 🙂
*percentage pulled entirely out of my ass but hopefully it’s at least semi-accurate.
I started Kara back in the day in alot of PVP Blues and Plums – It wasn’t ideal, but considering that a Heroric at that point was way beyond me, and ignoring all the people who say you can’t use PVP gear for PVE… it was a better base then being all greens and quest blues but that then forces people to go into a Pvp grind which can be very time and frustration intensive.. One suggestion I guess to address the equipment issue is have more obtainable crafted items.. AND or reduce the cost of the mats to make them. Eg most of the created gear – be it cloth leather or plate ect ect.. use things like Vortexs, Primal Mights, Nethers, and unless you have a Endgame Alt who can afford to buy them they aren’t obtainable.. untill at least you start doing Dailys..
I don’t think my guild will be stopping Kara runs for a long time. There are so many options for bage gear that I don’t forsee us not needing the 20 or so badges per week from Kara.
We are doing 2 or 3 Kara groups per week, Mags/Gruuls once a week, SSC twice a week and sneaking in ZA runs here and there.
As for gear, clothies have so many options the could skip Kara. I’ve been helping my son gear his mage and his friend gear his Lock. For example on the Lock, Shadoweave for 3 items, Belt of Blasting, Spellstrike pants and hood. You are almost geared beyond Kara with those and some rep gear.