Shoulders... sort of... plus, a rant!

Last night's foray into the arenas started something like this:

(All paraphrased, as I'm not pro enough to Vent record)

Me: Hey, you want to do some 2's?
Warrior: Yeah sure, I've been thinking about it all day, after last night. .. (note: all we ran into last night was Shadow Priest/Rogue)
Me: Ok, let's queue up. What do you think our chances are of getting Shadow Priest/Rogue?
Warrior: I bet that's what we run into first.
Me: I'll take that bet. I'm thinking Warlock/Druid.
(Gates Open)
Me: Priest... Rogue... waaaaiiit... Shadow Priest! F&*%!! Way to jinx us!

(As an aside, every time we've gotten close to a 'milestone' rating, one of us has mentioned it, thus jinxing us, thus leading to a loss. Every damn time)

Well, after 12 games, we finally hit 1950 and stopped for the night. Warrior got his Vengeful shoulders, so now, aside from his totally ghetto Stormherald, he looks like a proper Warrior. No more fly away Merciless Shoulders! We'll probably continue the march towards weapons tonight, and hopefully we'll run into alot of bad Rogue/Priest and bad Warlock/Druid teams.

My 3's Shaman picked up his S3 Offhand yesterday as well and we're looking to push our rating even further now that he's got some serious weaponry. I can't wait to see how much damage he can crank out with WotLK and the new and improved Shaman Enhancement Talent Tree.

I also got a new piece of gear in a Heroic MgT run after our 2's run. Vial of the Sunwell finally dropped and I've been itching to get my hands on it to see what all the hubbub is about. The reason for nabbing it is that I am trying to find a reasonable second trinket solution to surviving double dps without completely gimping myself, by equipping Battlemaster's Perserverence, only to run into a drain team. Vial seems like a pretty awesome trinket, with that on demand 2k heal (or less with Wound Poison). However, it also has a pretty beefy 15 Mp5 for those long matches. I'll give it a whirl, because it HAS to be better than my current standard trinket: Seaspray Albatross. Which, incidentally, is essentially a dead albatross hanging from my neck against double dps teams.

Sadly, my Mage has gone to the wayside, as I am finding, with my nightly arena on my Druid, that I don't have time to play him. I wish I had alot more time and some consistent arena partners to play with on my Mage, as all of the WotLK Mage changes are looking incredible! Sadly, with no steady arena partners, I'm essentially relegating him to an AH mule. He does help me move an incredible amount of gems, however, so all is not lost. I am kinda pissed off that I didn't get any arena points on him last week, but, on the flip side, unless I get a real serious team, he'll never get any of the S3/S4 weapons/shoulders. I'm okay with this, as there's only one more piece of Brutal gear for me to get (legs), but with the expansion coming, I'm rather disillusioned with the returns on effort, especially if I don't play him regularly.

/rant
Honestly, it sucks. I put in a TON of effort into this character, starting him right before S4 started (70 in 6 days /played without the Recruit a Friend PL). From then till now, I have toiled over:
20Resil Medallion and 45Resil Medallion
All Guardians (Boot, Belt, Bracer, Ring, Neck), Vind Ring, Boot
S2 Staff, Helm, Shoulders, Legs, Chest, Sergeant's Heavy Cape
Brutal Helm, Chest, Glove
Leveled JC to 375
Revered with SSO for Helm Enchant and Crimson Serpent Trinket
60 Badge Cloak, Icon, Witch Dr. Wand
Revered with Sha'tar for Helm Enchant
Exalted with Scryer for Shoulder Enchant
All Epic gems

It just seems so sad to grind a character out, but have no one to play with...

Of course, my Priest and Rogue buddies left the game/server, so that could explain part of it... punks....