Thanks to one of my guildies who set the raid up, and the other 9 who all joined, I have a new mount!

On Saturday, my guild had a second 10 man Ulduar run for the “Starcaller” Title. For the longest time, I think there was only 1 person with the key to Algalon’s room. Many raid sign up posts have been made in the past, but no one seemed interested and the sign ups were always short.

Until two weeks ago, our first group of 10 guildies successfully defeated Algalon on their last attempt of the one hour timer. Their victory must have sent a surge of excitement through everyone because now there was more interest in taking Algalon on and the sign ups were flowing .  Not to be outdone, there was a followed up defeat  for Yogg +1 the next day.  This time, I had been called to help and the 2nd wipe and a mind control of yours truly, 5 guild members in finally had their Rusted Proto-Drake mount. This achievement also put me 4  Hard Modes away from my Rusted Proto, but I still didn’t think I would complete the requirements in time.

Since excitement was high for Algalon, we had another go this past Saturday.

Our night began with Hard Mode Flame Leviathan. A few of us went down, but those who remained fought kept on battling and sealed the victory. Next was Ignis for a speed kill and then off to XT . We blew through him as if we all had one had tied behind our back. Through the portal and up the stairs, the raid cleared out the  trash and a quick turn to the right just before the stairs to Kologarn lies Algalon’s room. I felt very lucky just to be inside, the surrounding atmosphere is amazing. I didn’t have a lot of time to take everything in before we began the battle which is on a 1 hour timer. Being the good raider, I made sure I read up on the encounter before hand, but experiencing it is another. Fortunately we had some Starcallers from the last run and they were able to help us rookies get up to speed. With 5 to 6 attempts under our belt, we defeated Algalon with 10 minutes left on our timer.

But there was no time to celebrate our victory and watch the in-game cinematic play out in Dalaran, there were other bosses in Ulduar that we had to contend with. One by one we battled our way through – Hard Mode Iron Council, Hard Mode Kologarn, Hard Mode Auriaya,  Hard Mode Thorim and Hard Mode Hodir. All went down in one shot. When we reached Freya I was slightly nervous due to the many failed attempts I participated in the past. Our group was stellar as we blew through each guardian phase without a hiccup. Hard Mode Freya was defeated on the first attempt.

Next was Mimiron. Finally we were allowed to push that big red button in the back of the room that reads, “Do Not Push.” His Hard Mode challenge, Firefighter, was a bit tricky but we managed to beat him in three attempts. Out of all the Hard Mode events, this was my favorite.

By now, it was late in the evening but we all pushed through the packs of trash on our way to General Vezax. The fight was quite simple, if  you find dodging shadow crashes easy, and he was one shot too. Another Hard Mode one shot under our belt.  With one achievement left for me and another guildie the group decided to finish with Razorscale’s Iron Dwarf Medium Rare. It’s not the most challenging but long.  With five minuets left on the Razor’s enrage, my guildie and I reached the 25 crispy Iron Dwarves needed. We pushed him to the enrage for a few more Dwarves for some other guildies (I had 10 Dwarves cooked from a previous attempt) but fell short. Quicky we rezzed up to restart Razor for the last needed. Finally I had my Rusted-Proto Drake.

It was decided after Razorscale that we would continue Yogg +1 the following day to help the other two raid members with their final achievement for new Drakes. We knocked this out before our Sunday raid, and this time I managed to keep my insanity the entire time. Yogg + 1 was the final one shot for our group.

The evening was meant to be short with just a Starcaller run with no other Hard Modes other than Levi and XT, but I was very thankful that my guildies were willing to go the distance.  We made Ulduar our B**** .

I have heard tales of a beast in Howling Fjord. A massive bird, a king of his kind. For some strange reason I feel it’s my duty to seek this bird out and end his waddling reign of terror.

Just look at those red, beady eyes. The smug and sinister look on his beak. King Ping, your time is near.

Like so few people in this game, I actually enjoy fishing. I can’t explain why, I just do. Needless to say I have tried week after week, month after month to win the Booty Bay Fishing Contest. Finally, all that hard work paid off.

I won the contest  today (11/8) within 13 minutes after the start of the contest. How? A lot of it was luck. I picked an area where I had zero competition and at one point of the contest had 5 Tastyfish pools around me.

Previous to my win I had developed some tactics over the past few months.

1.) Learn to bind to the Booty Bay Inn. As soon as I had my fishing line in the water to catch my 40th fish, my finger was on my hearthstone key. Just don’t forget to rebind to Dalaran afterward.

2.) Carry plenty of Water Walking Elixirs. If you’re a DK, Shaman or Priest you have your water walking built right in. I found water walking a lot easier than having to stick to land. It also helped me angle myself if the glare from the water made it difficult to see the pools.

Now here’s where being a Hunter has some perks:

3.) Aspect of the Cheetah. Kind of a gimmie for quick dashes between pools.

4.)  Learn to Eagle Eye. I found out that traveling to pools eats up time, especially if there is more than one person fishing from it. With Eagle Eye I can hop around scouting my next place without having to backtrack much. Shamans have a very similar Eagle Eye spell too while Warlocks can probably Eye of Killrog.

5.) If you’re an engineer – rocket boots for the win!! Even if you throw this enchant on a crummy pair of boots the speed boost is super nice if you see a fishing hole in the distance.

6.) Tastyfish macro. This allowed me to keep easy track of the fish I caught.

#showtooltip Speckled Tastyfish

7.) Make sure your Auto-loot is on. The faster you can loot that fish, the faster you can get your line back in the water.

8.) Check your politeness at the door. During the contest it’s every man for themselves, don’t be afraid to be a little aggressive and fish from someone’s pool.  The only time I would leave a fished at pool alone if there was more than two people there. Outside the contest if someone was fishing at a pool I always leave it all to them and move to an open one.

8.) Pay attention to pool spawns. Sometimes you’ll find a pool of fish that is cut off by the terrain. Don’t even waste your time trying to pull fish from it.

9.) If you are a hardcore fisherman and REALLY want to win, keep a journal. Seriously. I have notes jotted of tactics that worked, didn’t work, where I found the most competition, places where I fished, how long into the contest when a winner was announced, and I even sent tells to the winners to ask where about they were fishing. This helped me to plan out my attack and where I would fish.

10.) Persistence and Luck. Don’t get down on yourself if you don’t win right away. Keep track of what you did wrong and what you did right and what you will change the next time. Keep at it and you’re bound to win. I did it.  ^_^

Foxx finally received her Hallowed Helm but cannot get a Sinister Sqashling to save her life it seems. Wulf has no problem. Yes, that’s Wulf’s bank with THREE Sinister Squashlings. They are mocking Foxx.