Inferno to LFR and Back Again

I feel so horribly behind both here and with my Blog reading.  So please forgive me for anything important I may have missed…  Blame Laz and D3!  😉  But things are starting to mellow out, and I am seeing opportunity to get back to a semi-regular schedule again, one where I am more balanced in WoW, D3, and writing.  Yay!

First of all and most importantly, I felt Cymre’s recent account hijacking deserved a moment’s response from me.  I read about it just late, late last night, and I saw this morning it already appears Blizzard has come through to restore things!  But I wanted to let Cymre know even though I did not respond in a timely manner, I did become aware of what happened, and to see her so distraught broke my heart, her being one of the bloggers I greatly respect.

Just know, dear, even though we may not respond regularly (guilty) or comment on pertinent issues when we should (guilty), you still have silent supporters.  ❤

On the Diablo 3 front, Laz and I are now Level 60, and we are currently working on Inferno Mode.  Whoa.  Just whoa.

The Butcher

We are to the Butcher.  Damn that guy.  He is my Diablo bane.  He is a ranged player nightmare… especially the squishy azz glass cannon that I am.  Every time he shouts or throws a chain (or ten) or charges… you are sure to find me face down, frying in the grate fires.

Laz and I already have a Butcher track record – so far his record is 3 for 3 on mostly soloing the Butcher in a two person cooperative game and I am 3 for 3 on faceplanting most of the fight.  Normal.  Nightmare.  Hell.  And he would have gone 4 for 4 last night, but apparently Inferno Mode Butcher has an enrage timer.  After so long, the fire grates begin to ignite faster until they get to the point where the entire room is on fire.  <sigh>  Nice…

Not quite covering the room yet, but you get the idea. heh

Screw you, Blizzard.  As if I do not hate that fight enough already!

Inferno Mode in Act Ias already hellish, but as long as I can keep myself in a positive money flow, I am meeting the challenge with a mostly positive outlook (and some coaxing from Laz).  Laz and I have made a pact that after four deaths, we evaluate and decide whether we are close enough to finish what we are working on or to skip it.  Skipping involves Laz dragging the pack to a far corner of the map we can avoid, and us continuing on.  99% of these evaluations involve Elite Rare or Champion packs, but that last 1% was the Butcher last night.

Yes, that is right – the Butcher is the 1%.  heh

Many of the Elite packs have horrid skill combinations, and now they have both more minions (usually because they are stupidly close to other packs of mobs) and an obnoxious enrage timer.

After so long of being in combat, this awful Death’s Head pops over the heads of the mobs and your character, and your life quickly ebbs away.  I imagine the mobs hit harder too, though, this is hard for me to calculate, since I am usually one-shot either way.  Add this to the game update of mobs regen’ing at a rapid rate whenever they leave combat (ie. we are dead and running back) AND the fact that consecutive deaths equal an ever-growing revive timer… and I was starting to think that Inferno Mode was just too much for me.

But yesterday, Laz and I proved that even all of these stupid, awful mechanics can be met and beat and surpassed, and we progressed through the entirety of Inferno Act I… right up to the Butcher… gaining and maintaining our 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor several times.

For those who are yet unaware, Nephalem Valor stacks are obtained at Level 60 by killing Elite mobs – either Rares or Champions – but not from storyline elites (which need a different glowly color IMO).  Nephalem Valor increases your Magic Find, and so far, having these stacks is the only way I have noticeably seen Level 60 items dropping.  They also increase your gold drops.  Since hitting Level 60, and playing with these stacks, I have started to see gold stacks surpassing 500 gold and even more recently 1000+ gold drops.  These drops are from chests, destroyed objects, mobs and bosses.

Phat Lewts!

The other thing Laz and I were up to this weekend – LFR.  The goal: capping Valor and desperately seeking (Susan? no…) the DPS trinket that even yet still eludes Laz.

Saturday was our initial attempt.  The first half of Dragon Soul was not too big a deal, it is easy enough.

We did wipe in Yor’sahj’s room, twice.  First because the tank decided to flex his e-peen and pull two packs of oozes twice in a row – the first was likely accident, the second was obviously on purpose.  And second, because some jackazz DPS decided to pull the boss while we were still doing trash.  He was removed pretty quick.

The second half was quite astounding, though.  We had queue after queue of 2 of 8 and 3 of 8, until finally a fresh raid popped.

I zoned in dead… surrounded by Twilight Flames.

<sigh>  Laz and I gave it one more wipe, ending exactly as what we had zoned into.  Only this time, I was able to witness my death before it happened as the platform slowly grew more and more covered with pink flames until I had nowhere safe to stand.  Then, we left.

Last night, after some face planting on the Butcher, we were determined to queue for the second half.  Since we were both Valor capped and only looking for Laz’s trinket, we agreed Spine and Madness were out.  (I feel a tiny bit bad, but after our LFR experiences this weekend, not too bad.)

I zoned in dead… surrounded by Twilight Flame.

You may feel I have already stated that sentence and posted that pic, and I have, and with it you likely witness a similar bafflement to myself and possible exclamation of “AGAIN?!”

I could not help but cringe, but Laz and I stayed positive – maybe the tanks had started the event and left?  <shrug>

The next attempt at the Twilight Drakes succeeded, and we fought Ultraxion.  DPS was abysmal (except for my sexy Pally of course) but the healing was fairly solid and pulled us through.  The Blackhorn fight killed several, because people did not feel it was necessary to stack for Twilight Onslaught… I only saw maybe half the raid on any of the stack points.  But we succeeded.

No trinket.

Today is Tuesday and reset day (AKA a WoW player’s beginning of the week).  😉  So Laz and I plan to have another go at LFR, to see if we can get his trinket.

Wish us luck!

~ Effy

Final Thought: I will get you Butcher!  You best believe it.

Final Final Thought: Logging onto WoW for LFR this weekend made me realize OMG, my UI is so horribly crowded!  Fixing this is high on my list right now.

Song for Today: No real reason, except cuz it came on Pandora and I like it, though, I am super sad that it is no longer the theme song for House.  That is my jump-the-shark moment for that show.  heh

• Posted in: Diablo 3 ♦ Effraeti/Effræti ♦ Hrothgar ♦ Lazheward/Lazhewerd ♦ Personal Thoughts ♦ Raiding ♦ WoW Stuff ♦ Ylenia
• Tagged: Nephalem Valor