Necromagus

So I've finally beaten the game, using the alternative layout Kestrel cruiser. My loadout was: Maxed out shields, engines, O2, medbay and doors (naturally) Weapons pre-igniter, shield charge booster, engi med-bot dispersal (this was huge) Maxed out cloak (used to avoid drone surges and the 'super-weapon' of the final boss) Phase one and three: Burst Laser Mk. III, Glaive Beam Phase two: Burst Laser Mk. III, Small Bomb, Ion Blast Mk. II The fact that I went with 'unconventional' weapons for phase two saved my rear end. I also had a drone control with two Defense Drone Mk. II, but I never used them. I think the deciding factor was that I tried out new weapons and that I had gotten a lot better at micro-managing my crew. The fact that my repair team consisted of two Engis both named 'Jones' probably helped too. I was amazed how much the med-bot augment helped me out with emergency repairs during low damage moments in the final boss fight. I could cut power from my engines and pump my medbay and O2 up to full and go into breached rooms without worry, then have my engines back to full before the next enemy push. What really helped me out in the early game was picking up two scrap recovery arms early, and not giving up the last one until sector seven. Because the ship starts out with four weapons you'll probably end up with a maxed out weapons skill on one of your crew members by the time you hit sector two. That was a big help as well, especially since the ship is already quite potent in the early stages anyway.

Still getting absolutely shredded by the drones on the second phase of the boss fight. I've had plenty of fun builds though, most of which included the weapons pre-igniter augment. I like to put a cloak on top of it so I can quickly cripple my opponent's defences at the start, then throw up my cloak while my weapons recharge, following it up with either a finishing blow or at least completely remove their offensive capabilities. It can be tricky to set up a balanced selection of weapons, but thankfully the Artemis and mk. II burst laser provide a good start.

I had an incredible run with the Engi ship today, right up until I had to fight the flagship. I stacked three anti-ship drones on top of a fully upgraded shield, a stage two cloak and stage two doors. The few seconds of relief that the cloak bought me was incredibly useful, as it was usually just enough time to get my shields back up and reposition my crew as the situation dictated. I was also amazed at how good my build was at handling boarding parties, on top of the usual Engi upgrade that heals them throughout the ship. Most of the times I killed them off simply by opening the airlocks and forcing them to struggle through my blast doors. Plugging away at enemy shields with my ion cannon to clear a path for my drones worked pretty well right up until the flagship, where my inability to focus my offence ended up killing me.

So, no excitement for MoP at all? I queued for my first dungeon the moment it came out, then promptly got DC'd at the loading screen. An hour later I still hadn't gotten in, so I gave up and went to sleep. Hopefully I'll have more luck after class. For the first two weeks I'll be focusing entirely on getting my paladin ready for raiding: level 90 and professions (mining/engineering), reputation and VP/JP gear. Sorting out the relevant reputation factions and getting the daily quests done will probably be the most annoying part. Still, looking forward to it.

On the first lockout after patch 5.0.4 and account-wide mounts, the WoW gods saw fit to grace me with Reins of the Blazing Drake - the normal mode Deathwing mount. Unfortunately it dropped on my shaman, so I'll have to scrape together 4k gold to buy the required riding skill before I can add it to my collection.

Well, obviously the trailer will look incredible. Unfortunately that doesn't fix the problems caused by the fact that the game engine is well over a decade old. Still, stoked for Mists of Pandaria. It's going to be really interesting to see how the new system of daily quests changes the end game, and of course how the legendary questline plays out. Still, so many small changes (like the VP farming buff) that I'm stoked about.

Rogues are easily the most powerful PvE class now, by virtue of having their own set of legendary daggers. The quest chain to get them starts with a pair that's basically on par with normal T13 weapons (ilevel 397). After that they only get better. They're awesome in PvP too.

My guild is 5/8 Heroic now. Our progress is mainly slowed due to the fact that we're a low-population RP realm, meaning that most players are content to sit around in the Blue Recluse or the Pig and Whistle all day, if they even make it to 85. There are currently only five guilds on our realm that have even killed Madness of Deathwing on heroic. The end of expansion blues is definitely setting in. My main raiding characters: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/the-shatar/Branin/advanced - My main, protection/retribution paladin, and off tank to the guild's raiding team. http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/the-shatar/Brenwan/advanced - My resto/elemental shaman, mostly used in pug/alt raids. Other than raiding, my main activity in the game right now is soloing old content, mainly for the large gold drops. In the course of the week I usually solo all of T1, T2 if I can find someone to help me with Razorgore, Magtheridon, all of Serpentshrine Cavern except for Karathress and Vashj, all of The Eye except for Kael'thas, and all of Sunwell Plateau except for Kalecgos. The latter is probably the only truly challenging one. All in all it adds up to about three thousand gold a week. Not enough to gold cap any time soon, but enough to make a comfortable living and to have a nice buffer for when MoP comes out. I also recently built my own chopper off the gold I made.

Oh well, the offer still stands. Anyway, did level 15-20 on my trial account this afternoon. Fortunately the tanking mechanics came back to me pretty quickly, although it's still going to be tricky without Consecration. I guess I'll work on maxing out my professions until Wednesday. ~edit: It was picked up by an RL friend.