Patch 1.12.1 was released on Tuesday, have a look at what's been done to the game this time.

On the WoW General forums, Eyonix posted a pretty decent Raid Tips Guide. Here's what he had to say:

Eyonix Wrote:

Hey guys, after reviewing feedback on the boards for good raiding tips, we're ready to show off our first iteration of our 'Raid Tips Guide'. We'd like everyone to take a pass at what we've written and provide some more feedback, to ensure that this guide covers as much as possible, is still very user-friendly, and most importantly makes sense and provides valuable information.

On that note, please have a look. ;)

Yeah, it's been a little while since my last update. Mainly, there hasn't been much to update with. While I was on vacation, double [Netherwind Robes] finally dropped, and one the following week. The guild also killed Anub'Rekhan (Nax) and Princess Huhuran (AQ40) while I was gone. Tonight, they have a full night of learning the Twin Emperors fight.

Last night, I was actually able to go on a ZG run, followed by a world dragon kill. Here's the notable loots:
[Cloak of Consumption]
[Jade Inlaid Vestments]

Last night was a good night for us. We cleared BWL for the first time on our new server, I got over a 10K crit from my Ignite tick, and I got loots.

First off, it was really something to do Blackwing with no lag. We weren't used to it. We've always used the lag, accepted its presence, and rolled with it. Had a wipe on Razorgore, since the mobs weren't standing around like normal, rogues pulled aggro on Vael, and hunters weren't getting the Tranq shot off fast enough with Ebonroc. Even with some wiping, we still did a full clear in 4.5 hours. It was actually our best run through the rest of the instance, kill-wise. People were actually assisting for a change!

For the 3^rd time in a row, I actually lived through the Nef encounter. I'm beginning to think that my problem was the [Limited Invulnerability Potion]s, since I always died when I used them.

New Loots!
[Mind Quickening Gem]
[Head of Nefarian] (turned into)
[Master Dragonslayer's Orb]

Now I go on vacation for a week and a half. Unfortunately I won't 'make it to the BWL clear again tonight (our server transfer wiped our saved raids clean). Hopefully, when Nef dies tonight, the #21 or #22 breastplate off him is Netherwind, because Nef is a bastard.

Last night was our first full BWL clear, all in a single night. We did run a little longer than normal, but chalk that up to Stormrage being retardedly laggy, and us having some retarded trash pulls. Nonetheless, we have one dead Nefarian in one night.

Tonight, we get to venture out into Naxxramas for the first time. Also, I'll get to test out my new Fire Spec. Ray asked one of us to go fire for the Scorch talent, and I jumped all over it. Hopefully I like it as much as I used to (I haven't tried any of the new Fire changes with the mage review). Maybe we'll get real lucky, and a [Ring of the Eternal Flame] will drop off some Naxx trash, and give me some more incentive to stay fire...

Yes, I've said it many times already, but this time it's the truth. After learning about how one of the talents I had in my 1.11 build, I changed my mind yet again, and I'm now officially set at a 11/0/40 build. The 1.11 patch notes are also up to date, which I linked to in my previous post.

Last night was a pretty fun night. We killed Ony, then went out on our own to farm mats and reputation to get attuned for Nax. So I did an Undead Stratholme run, got my Polymorph: Pig spell, helped clear a Scourge Invasion area with 3 other mages, and wrapped up the night with a pretty fun time in Scholomance. Even though we died a few times, having 1 warrior, 1 rogue, 1 priest, and 2 Ice mages, we cleared the whole thing pretty quickly.

Ok, this time I think I'm done... I swear. After seeing some mage videos, I think I want the Frostbite talent, which has a chance to freeze the target in place. I figured this would be nice for when I farm for stuff, so I've updated my Profile's talents.

Well, last Thursday I was hoping for double-Netherwind, but unfortunately not a single one dropped. Luckily, we were able to kill Nef before the major lag hit. On our way down to AQ40, the server decided to crash and go down for a bit. All of the chat functions worked, but people were disconnecting left and right. Casting/looting didn't work either. Supposedly, while this was all going on, Stormrage wasn't even in the list of realms to select. It came back up a little while later, but the raid was called for the night already.

Last week, I recorded 2 of our kills with Fraps, one of Ragnaros and the other of Nefarian. The Rag fight ended up being our best time... 14isih% before the suns, and a total of just over 5 minutes long. Rag was somewhere around 19m22s or so. I'm currently working on the Nefarian video, but my Rag one has been posted on Google Video. If you have some free time while in queue to WoW, why not take a look?

A couple of nights ago, we cleared BWL up to Nef, and I happened to get the [Netherwind Belt], which brings me up to 6 out of 8 on my set. All I have left are the [Netherwind Mantle] and the [Netherwind Robes]. Last night was way too laggy to attempt Nef, so we cleared MC in just over 3 hours. Tonight, he should be dead, and since one of the other mages can't make it on, I have about a 1.2% chance to get the robes (double drop... /me crosses fingers).

Site Updates:
I've been working on some new improvements for the site. One being an image gallery, and the other being a rewrite of the way the url is displayed. For the url thing, I just did this to try and learn a bit about mod_rewrite in Apache. As for the gallery, I'm using an embedded version of Gallery2, and I'll be making it live on the site sometime soon.

Well, on Tuesday we cleared Blackwing up to Nef, and we even got a decent pull on him. Last night, after a lagged-down wipe, and a mage-induced wipe (not me), we killed him again for the 2^nd week in a row. Here's what he gave us this time:
[Boots of the Shadow Flame]
[Breastplate of Wrath]
[Crul'shorukh, Edge of Chaos]
[Dragonstalker's Breastplate]


Also, the 1.11 test patch notes have been updated.

Last night, we went into BWL with high hopes from the night before. Unfortunately, things didn't start off well. We engaged a half-hour behind schedule. On the first few attempts, as soon as the event started, everybody had about a 6 second casting lag. We decided to give the Lair an hour or so to let the lag die down, and we went through a bit of MC.

This time, things went smoothly. Before we knew it, phase 3 was incoming. Everybody knew what to expect this time around... there were [Oil of Immolation]s, [Limited Invulnerability Potion]s, [Stratholme Holy Water]s, etc, etc, and in the end, it all payed off. Nefarian let out his last breath, and we became the 4^th horde guild on Stormrage to bring him down (Splintered Faction getting their first kill only 3 or 4 days before us).

I didn't get any loot, nonetheless, it was a good feeling to see him die. Congratulations to all of DPS for a well deserved kill.

Here's what Nefarian left us with:
[Breastplate of Wrath]
[Mish'undare, Circlet of the Mind Flayer]
[Neltharion's Tear]
[Robes of Transcendence]

Patch 1.10.2 went live yesterday, and it brought along some headaches. We started off in Molten Core, and moved to Blackwing Lair after we had some hunters to help kite. Vael was being a butt of sorts, because when he did the tail-whip, it could cause people to disconnect.

No loots to report, but I am now only 2 [Golden Pearl]s away from getting the Spellpower Enchant for my [Azuresong Mageblade], which I got 2 weeks ago. Damn pearls, last time I farmed them it took me 10 minutes to get both, and now it's taken over 4 hours of farming with nothing to show. Guess I should have just kept going last time...

As for the site, I haven't been working on it much. I upgraded a site that I host for some friends, so that has been a big task. The only real change that I can think of that I've done (besides site optimizations and administration things), is add some more custom things to the Itemstats tooltips, like this:

Last night was a good night for us. We finished MC with Domo and Ragnaros, and in BWL we got Firemaw, Ebonroc, Flamegor, and did a naked pull on Chromaggus to see what our breaths were this time. My highlight of the night, getting my 3 piece bonus on Netherwind:

[Netherwind Pants]

Last night, Stormrage decided to go down. A lot of us rolled Alliance on the Dragonblight realm to help pass the time. After Stormrage came back up, raiding continued and we downed Ragnaros.

Shortly after that, those of us that could stay went on to killing Vael in a pretty lag-free BWL.

Here's my loot from last night:
[Azuresong Mageblade]

Last night was an... interesting night. We had lag, like normal for any realm maintenance day, and Vael was being stupid, so we went to MC. The guild decided to let some alts come along, and it didn't go so well, but the interesting part was when the Instance servers crashed.

All of a sudden, it seemed like the world was about to go down. People kept running off into mobs, Raystlyn was spinning in circles, spells weren't casting. The odd thing was that we could all still talk. Eventually, it booted everyone. After logging back in, we all found ourselves free-falling through the world and dieing. Upon releasing, we were all in Tarren Mill (People in BWL ended up in Stonetalon).

Now normally, when you die in an instance, release, leave the group and run into an instance, it instantly brings you back to life. This time, it just warped me back to Tarren Mill, thus forcing me to take a Spirit Res and repair all my gear. Oh well, I got some good loots tonight:

• [Netherwind Bindings]
• [Ring of Spell Power]