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A couple of adventures to write about:

Last week, Blizzard released Patch 2.01, which means that they’re officially updating the engine to account for the changes in Burning Crusade. There were some unfortunate side-effects, such as boats that go to places that don’t exist yet. But one of the biggest things for everyone is that the talent trees have changed again. The new talent trees now go up to 41 points for the ‘best’ thing, instead of 31 points (the old ‘best’ is right where it was, the 41-point talent is a all-new ability). This means that a lot of characters will no doubt be less “broad” than they were, spending ten points for their new ability, and loosing 10 out of whatever secondary set that had been developed.

Case in point: Dunain. He’s always been Marksmanship-spec, and now he’s lost some of his Survival and Pet training trees to the new Marksmanship ability (Silencing Shot – I’m not exactly mourning the choice). However, there’s a lot of overall changes to the Hunter talents, Dunain definitely isn’t quite the same as he was before. Overall, I’d say he’s doing a bit more damage than before (at least his critical hits have picked up a bit).

That night we did an impromptu Lower Blackrock Spire run. We started with three, picked up a fourth, and went back to three for the final bit when I went to bed (after doing the final boss – they were going back after the puppies). Still a bit late for me, but a lot of fun. We did well, and while we didn’t get what we specifically wanted, Blanc still got a good item.

This weekend, we did a raid into Upper Blackrock Spire. We’ve only recently gotten a key, so this was completely new for Blanc and I. We also had Grumbly (our guide), Blondiewood, Noxlux, Asclepius, Thermidor and Jariedthe along, as well as a out-of-guild hunter that Grumbly knew (I forget the name).

So, we did most of the Spire with 9 people, and did very well. Sadly, our spare hunter had an earlier bedtime than I did, and we lost him before getting to the end parts. We actually did quite well, and got The Beast. Blanc had a good night: Rend Blackhand dropped a Dungeon 1 piece for him, and The Beast dropped, and Blanc won, Finkle’s Skinner on the first try.

That left us with eight people and General Drakkisath. That did not go so well. Of course, I’m amazed that we got to him with barely any snags at all on our first try, and undermanned. And having a hunter (me) who’s completely unused to kiting doesn’t help. Main judgment is that we need the two extra people for DPS, and then we’ll see.

And in other news, last night I went adventuring with Farmishi and hit level 60 with her! (And immediately spent 60-70 gold on new skills….) The paladin talent tree hasn’t changed much, and since she was never meant to hit the bottom of any one tree (Protection/Holy split), she hasn’t changed much, but a lot of the special effects on spells have changed.