Wild and family are chafing at the bit to get some game time, but they've had to cool their heels as real life has been pretty busy the past few days.
However, I ran across an old blog that I thought had disappeared into the computer ether. It was a back story to a guild that I started early last year called the Grunt Foundation. I decided to merge the back story into the original threads reporting on this group so that the complete story of the "GF" was all in one place. I felt that the story, which takes place far from the adventures of Wildshard and company, deserved to be preserved in it's entirety.
For regular readers who are already familiar with this special project, I've updated and added a few things to it, but for the most part all I've done is set the back story into context with the actual events. Still, it may make for an interesting re-read without having to sift through all of the old original posts.
For newer readers and Wild's guildie friends, I think you'll be intrigued by the premise that birthed the Grunt Foundation, the adventures of the group, and get a peek into a game life outside that of the Wildshard family.
The first section is complete. I will add more over the next couple of days until finished.
A reminder - as with all blogs, the newest entry is at the top, so start reading at the bottom of the list of posts to begin the story from the beginning.
http://gruntfoundation.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Friday (25 Sep) - All Jezzibael All day
Friday (25 Sep) - All Jezzibael All day
There was again no Friday night raid, with an attendance of just 16. So let's move on.
JB had a very active day and is dying to tell us all about it.
JB began her day in the Borean Tundra, 56% of the way to level 76. She needed to complete thirty more quests in the Tundra to reach 150 and earn the Achievement.
The problem JB faced was - Where were all those quests? Everything seemed to point back to Taunka'le Village and Chieftain Wintergale. The Chieftain should have quests for JB, but he stubbornly refused to reveal them. JB was about to give up when she caught the name Feezix Geartwist. JB, who was standing just outside the abode of the Chieftain getting a breath of air, could just see Geartwist off to her left, surrounded by some quite smelly mules that were interfering with the fresh air JB was trying to get.
Wild had warned JB about the gnome, who pleaded with new arrivals to find and return lost mules. Half the time the mules would run off and the other half Geartwist would refuse to acknowledge that they'd been returned. Feezix Geartwist was a waste of time. JB kept staring at him, though. He did hold the only quest left undone in the Village, called "Load 'er Up!". Figuring she would come to regret it, JB took Geartwist's quest and went looking for the lost mule.
The mule was pretty easy to find, but getting the balky thing back to the Village was stroke inducing. The first one couldn't resist blundering into range of critters looking for a snack. The mule panicked, spilling it's stores all over the place, which guaranteed Geartwist would not take it back. JB finally got a mule back to the Village in more or less reasonable condition, and waited for the acknowledgement. Geartwist seemed to be looking in every direction but where the mule was, which was right in front of him. JB almost gave up a second time, but as she turned away so did the mule and suddenly Geartwist smiled triumphantly and welcomed the pack laden mule home.
When JB completed "Load'er Up!" Chieftain Wintergale suddenly had tasks for JB to do. The suddenly appearing quests had nothing to do with Geartwist or mules, so why they hinged on completing the mule quest I don't know. JB didn't care, she was back in business!
Not far from Taunka'le Village is the temple city of En'Kilah. The city is home to all manner of abominations controlled by an evil priesthood. Chieftain Wintergale sent JB into that city again and again, raising the stakes each time. The final quest, "Breaking Through," pitched JB against three elites, all level 72s.
The temple city has three towers that JB had delved into pretty thoroughly, burning down whatever got in her way. For this final quest, however, she used a teleport device sitting somewhat incongruously in an open courtyard just inside the city walls to the right. The teleport transported JB to the floating fortress overhead. After killing numerous non-elite mobs, JB located Vanthryn the Merciless. To account for the higher damage output of an elite, JB inserted quick heals (using Lesser Healing Wave) in her spell rotation when in between Lava Burst shots. Vanthryn wasn't too hard and he died.
The second elite, Luthian the Vile, put up the same plain vanilla attack as Vanthryn and suffered the same fate.
That left the third and final elite, Prince Valanar. JB carefully cleared the many mobs from around him so it was just him and her. JB was, of course, dropping sets of four totems for each of the elite fights, and a typical attack rotation started with Lightning Bolt, followed by Flame Shock and then Lava Burst. JB got in another LB and a heal while waiting for Lava Burst to come off cooldown, and then it was another FS and LvB. Somewhere during that very effective rotation JB forgot about a Prince Valanar ability called Soul Deflection. It's a channeled spell that is very easy to see - if you are looking for it. Soul deflection reflects incoming damage back on the caster - the caster being JB, of course. JB's LBs and FSs and LvBs aimed at Prince Valanar came winging right back at JB, and the Lava Burst crit big time. JB killed herself, hearing Prince Valanar laughing at her stupidity. It made her mad.
The second time around it was JB's turn to smile wickedly at Prince Valanar every time he cast Soul Deflection. JB just stood there and healed until he was done, and then hammered him with another Lava Burst. Prince Valanar died.
The last quest in that series also finished up Taunke'le Village. The escort quest led the members of the village to another area in Dragonblight.
JB had made it to 87% and had completed 136 quests, still 14 shy of the needed 150. But JB now knew where there were new quests, quests which she had bypassed so long ago she'd forgotten about them. The area is not labelled on the map, but the small encampment is just off the road from Amber Ledge and is clearly visible. It's the D.E.H.T.A. encampment, a very extreme animal activist group that will actually turn hostile on anyone, horde or alliance, that comes into their camp with the blood of animals on them. JB made nice with them, and spent a goodly amount of time rescuing baby elephants, killing poachers (they didn't mind you coming to the camp with people blood on you), setting traps that the trappers themselves would get caught in, and wiping out various compatriots of the great hunter, Nessingway, who they viewed as the devil incarnate. JB had to face yet another level 72 elite, which she pshawed as "been there done that" and then gunned him down. That DINGED! JB to level 76.
There was still that pesky Achievement to get. JB had 149 quests done. The D.E.H.T.A. folks did have one more quest left, involving another level 72 elite, but this time the elite would be riding a wooly mammoth. JB was supposed to ride her own mammoth to fight the elite, but she didn't like the controls, plus Come on! he's only a level 72 elite. So JB let the elite ride around on his mammoth looking grand - and then JB shot the mammoth out from under him. Then it was just him and JB - and half a dozen non-elites piling on. The elite went down, and JB sliced up the rest.
JB got her Achievement for doing 150 quests in Borean Tundra.
JB hasn't decided yet which zone she'll pitch her tent in next. Wherever she goes, though, she'll be having fun.
There was again no Friday night raid, with an attendance of just 16. So let's move on.
JB had a very active day and is dying to tell us all about it.
JB began her day in the Borean Tundra, 56% of the way to level 76. She needed to complete thirty more quests in the Tundra to reach 150 and earn the Achievement.
The problem JB faced was - Where were all those quests? Everything seemed to point back to Taunka'le Village and Chieftain Wintergale. The Chieftain should have quests for JB, but he stubbornly refused to reveal them. JB was about to give up when she caught the name Feezix Geartwist. JB, who was standing just outside the abode of the Chieftain getting a breath of air, could just see Geartwist off to her left, surrounded by some quite smelly mules that were interfering with the fresh air JB was trying to get.
Wild had warned JB about the gnome, who pleaded with new arrivals to find and return lost mules. Half the time the mules would run off and the other half Geartwist would refuse to acknowledge that they'd been returned. Feezix Geartwist was a waste of time. JB kept staring at him, though. He did hold the only quest left undone in the Village, called "Load 'er Up!". Figuring she would come to regret it, JB took Geartwist's quest and went looking for the lost mule.
The mule was pretty easy to find, but getting the balky thing back to the Village was stroke inducing. The first one couldn't resist blundering into range of critters looking for a snack. The mule panicked, spilling it's stores all over the place, which guaranteed Geartwist would not take it back. JB finally got a mule back to the Village in more or less reasonable condition, and waited for the acknowledgement. Geartwist seemed to be looking in every direction but where the mule was, which was right in front of him. JB almost gave up a second time, but as she turned away so did the mule and suddenly Geartwist smiled triumphantly and welcomed the pack laden mule home.
When JB completed "Load'er Up!" Chieftain Wintergale suddenly had tasks for JB to do. The suddenly appearing quests had nothing to do with Geartwist or mules, so why they hinged on completing the mule quest I don't know. JB didn't care, she was back in business!
Not far from Taunka'le Village is the temple city of En'Kilah. The city is home to all manner of abominations controlled by an evil priesthood. Chieftain Wintergale sent JB into that city again and again, raising the stakes each time. The final quest, "Breaking Through," pitched JB against three elites, all level 72s.
The temple city has three towers that JB had delved into pretty thoroughly, burning down whatever got in her way. For this final quest, however, she used a teleport device sitting somewhat incongruously in an open courtyard just inside the city walls to the right. The teleport transported JB to the floating fortress overhead. After killing numerous non-elite mobs, JB located Vanthryn the Merciless. To account for the higher damage output of an elite, JB inserted quick heals (using Lesser Healing Wave) in her spell rotation when in between Lava Burst shots. Vanthryn wasn't too hard and he died.
The second elite, Luthian the Vile, put up the same plain vanilla attack as Vanthryn and suffered the same fate.
That left the third and final elite, Prince Valanar. JB carefully cleared the many mobs from around him so it was just him and her. JB was, of course, dropping sets of four totems for each of the elite fights, and a typical attack rotation started with Lightning Bolt, followed by Flame Shock and then Lava Burst. JB got in another LB and a heal while waiting for Lava Burst to come off cooldown, and then it was another FS and LvB. Somewhere during that very effective rotation JB forgot about a Prince Valanar ability called Soul Deflection. It's a channeled spell that is very easy to see - if you are looking for it. Soul deflection reflects incoming damage back on the caster - the caster being JB, of course. JB's LBs and FSs and LvBs aimed at Prince Valanar came winging right back at JB, and the Lava Burst crit big time. JB killed herself, hearing Prince Valanar laughing at her stupidity. It made her mad.
The second time around it was JB's turn to smile wickedly at Prince Valanar every time he cast Soul Deflection. JB just stood there and healed until he was done, and then hammered him with another Lava Burst. Prince Valanar died.
The last quest in that series also finished up Taunke'le Village. The escort quest led the members of the village to another area in Dragonblight.
JB had made it to 87% and had completed 136 quests, still 14 shy of the needed 150. But JB now knew where there were new quests, quests which she had bypassed so long ago she'd forgotten about them. The area is not labelled on the map, but the small encampment is just off the road from Amber Ledge and is clearly visible. It's the D.E.H.T.A. encampment, a very extreme animal activist group that will actually turn hostile on anyone, horde or alliance, that comes into their camp with the blood of animals on them. JB made nice with them, and spent a goodly amount of time rescuing baby elephants, killing poachers (they didn't mind you coming to the camp with people blood on you), setting traps that the trappers themselves would get caught in, and wiping out various compatriots of the great hunter, Nessingway, who they viewed as the devil incarnate. JB had to face yet another level 72 elite, which she pshawed as "been there done that" and then gunned him down. That DINGED! JB to level 76.
There was still that pesky Achievement to get. JB had 149 quests done. The D.E.H.T.A. folks did have one more quest left, involving another level 72 elite, but this time the elite would be riding a wooly mammoth. JB was supposed to ride her own mammoth to fight the elite, but she didn't like the controls, plus Come on! he's only a level 72 elite. So JB let the elite ride around on his mammoth looking grand - and then JB shot the mammoth out from under him. Then it was just him and JB - and half a dozen non-elites piling on. The elite went down, and JB sliced up the rest.
JB got her Achievement for doing 150 quests in Borean Tundra.
JB hasn't decided yet which zone she'll pitch her tent in next. Wherever she goes, though, she'll be having fun.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday (24 Sep) - Wild Tries a Pick Up Group
Thursday (24 Sep) - Wild Tries a Pick Up Group
Wild was in game getting an enchant cast into a scroll for Ando and playing musical chairs to get some of the mats for it from various bags and banks. There were only three or four guildies around, but one of them was a friend and guild officer, Ck, the powerful shaman who has been recently running with Lady Hunter's group on his rogue alt. Wild whispered him, asking if he had access to the bank tab that held the guild patterns. He did, and Wild asked if he could grab the pattern for [Boots of Wintry Endurance] while he was in Dalaran and mail it to me. Wild was in Thrallmar at the time or I would have gotten it from him directly. Since patterns aren't free, Ck asked what arrangements had been made. Wild explained that the pattern (and the runed orbs) were already promised to Wild. Wild had the orbs, but not the pattern, and had agreed to pay the dkp for both, although I would send the pattern to Feraldruid, who as a leatherworker would be able to craft the boots for me.
With all that worked out getting the boots was no problem, and later that day Wild received them in the mail. Wild then sent the pattern and all the mats to make it to Feraldruid. Wild thanked Ck for the help.
Not long after that Wild got a new whisper from Ck, asking if I wanted to join him to heal a Pick Up Group (PUG) for 25 man Vault of Archavon. Wild hesitated a moment, because I think it will lock Wild out of Friday's guild raid if we planned to do VoA. Hopefully it will not become a problem. Given the trouble with getting guild raids going, I felt Wild should grab the opportunity while it was there.
The VoA PUG was mostly full but as with many such groups was lacking healers. Wild was the second healer they'd enticed to join them. It took about ten minutes to gather up three more, and the raid leader decided that five would be enough. There was no vent channel for the raid (although I suspected that the raid leader's guild was running vent for their own folks), and Wild had trouble figuring out who the healers and the tanks were. So did the raid leader, who had all the healers sound off in raid chat so he could see who we were. The two tanks were named, but they did not use any addon to separately display them, which made things a little messier as well.
The raid leader named the tank healers (the two paladins) and the rest of us were assigned groups to heal. It was an odd way to break down the assignments, but ok, I'm game. There were only two druids, Wild and a moonkin.
Koralon first, the raid leader told us, the newest and toughest of the three bosses in VoA. There was no description of the fight, apparently assuming that everyone knew what they were doing. We engaged.
I have to admit it was very weird being in a 25 man raid where I only knew two other raiders (a guildie hunter had also joined us). Neither were in the group Wild was healing, but I kept an eye on them and included them in my pre-emptive rejuv healing rotation.
Wild got some good practice moving around in the tight confines of Koralon's chamber and managed to avoid most of the pools of fire while surviving the few I did get hit with. Wild was the last raider standing when we wiped with Koralon at 3%. Not a bad first try for a PUG.
We went at him again, same as before, but again fell short, this time at 4%. Still a very good shot, but there were already grumblings that we were getting worse, not better. Some of these raiders were very impatient and quick to complain. The DPS was deemed to be "very good" but were asked to pay more attention to staying out of the fires. DPS raiders immediately claimed that they were watching the fires and it was not an issue. Us healers having to keep them alive knew differently. The real problem, though, was that the tank healers kept dying.
Neither Wild nor the other druid had cast our battle rezzes, as that decision is really up to the raid leader. So the raid leader directed that if a tank or tank healer goes down, battle rez them right away. Not a problem.
The raid leader really didn't have a good healing strategy in place, and so we started volunteering what we would do. For Wild, I went straight raid healing while maintaining hots on both tanks.
We started our third attempt. As always, we took tremendous damage but this time lost only one raider early and the moonkin battle rezzed him. Frankly, I didn't notice if he was one of the healers or not, but I knew the tanks and tank healers were still alive and keeping Koralon busy. Wild was hit a couple of times with the fires, but got out of them in time. Then, with Koralon under 5% health his healer died. With most of the raid still in good shape, Wild stepped in and began main tank healing. The dead pally healer was not in range of a battle rez, so Wild would have to move to do it, and by the time I got the rez off and he got enough mana to be useful, Koralon would be dead. Wild ignored a terse whisper from the raid leader to BREZ PALLY! and kept healing, and Koralon went down.
Koralon drops really, really nice loot. Unfortunately, there was nothing there for a resto druid. The pally healer that died on the third attempt went offline and never came back. What, because I didn't rez him? Oh well. We were down to four healers.
Four healers are enough for Emalon, the raid leader announced. And with the high level of DPS we have this will be an easy fight. Well . . .
We wiped on our first attempt at Emalon, as the off tank had a lot of trouble managing the adds. We lost another raider after this failed attempt. Another DPS raider joined us, learned that we had already killed Koralon, and did an about face and left. We tackled Emalon again with 23 raiders. We wiped again with Emalon at 23%. The raid leader wanted to switch the tanks for a third try, so that a more experienced tank could handle the adds. This wasn't a guild run, though, and frustrated raiders started packing up their gear. "I'm out of here," one said, and then one of the raiders started making nasty remarks about the "pvp" gear the raid leader was wearing to a raid, and the bickering started a general exodus. We were done.
"Dam, now I'm locked into a failed PUG VoA," someone muttered. My sentiments, exactly. All of these players are now locked out of joining any other VoA, so why not stay and finish the job? Wild will have to see what comes of Friday.
Wild didn't have to worry about being locked out of anything for the Thursday raid as we did not have one. Feraldruid let Wild know that neither Lady Hunter or Bd would make it in game. A couple more from our regular group showed up, but we had no tank so couldn't even do a five man heroic. No one hung around once it was clear we would not be raiding.
One who did stay around just long enough was Feraldruid, who picked up the pattern Wild had sent him and made Wild his new boots. Those new boots were the highlight of his evening. Not since he got the ruby slippers from Dorothy on the Kara Oz encounter has be been so happy to get a new pair of shoes. Wild still has those slippers, too. And late at night, when no one is watching . . . well, never mind.
JB got in some more questing on the Borean Tundra. She got around enough to earn the Achievement for exploring all of Borean Tundra. Oddly enough, though, she did not get the achievement for doing all the quests. JB has to complete 150 Borean Tundra quests to get that achievement, and has completed 120. Since no quest hub shows any more quests available, I'll have to do some hunting to see where those extra quests originate from.
Wild was in game getting an enchant cast into a scroll for Ando and playing musical chairs to get some of the mats for it from various bags and banks. There were only three or four guildies around, but one of them was a friend and guild officer, Ck, the powerful shaman who has been recently running with Lady Hunter's group on his rogue alt. Wild whispered him, asking if he had access to the bank tab that held the guild patterns. He did, and Wild asked if he could grab the pattern for [Boots of Wintry Endurance] while he was in Dalaran and mail it to me. Wild was in Thrallmar at the time or I would have gotten it from him directly. Since patterns aren't free, Ck asked what arrangements had been made. Wild explained that the pattern (and the runed orbs) were already promised to Wild. Wild had the orbs, but not the pattern, and had agreed to pay the dkp for both, although I would send the pattern to Feraldruid, who as a leatherworker would be able to craft the boots for me.
With all that worked out getting the boots was no problem, and later that day Wild received them in the mail. Wild then sent the pattern and all the mats to make it to Feraldruid. Wild thanked Ck for the help.
Not long after that Wild got a new whisper from Ck, asking if I wanted to join him to heal a Pick Up Group (PUG) for 25 man Vault of Archavon. Wild hesitated a moment, because I think it will lock Wild out of Friday's guild raid if we planned to do VoA. Hopefully it will not become a problem. Given the trouble with getting guild raids going, I felt Wild should grab the opportunity while it was there.
The VoA PUG was mostly full but as with many such groups was lacking healers. Wild was the second healer they'd enticed to join them. It took about ten minutes to gather up three more, and the raid leader decided that five would be enough. There was no vent channel for the raid (although I suspected that the raid leader's guild was running vent for their own folks), and Wild had trouble figuring out who the healers and the tanks were. So did the raid leader, who had all the healers sound off in raid chat so he could see who we were. The two tanks were named, but they did not use any addon to separately display them, which made things a little messier as well.
The raid leader named the tank healers (the two paladins) and the rest of us were assigned groups to heal. It was an odd way to break down the assignments, but ok, I'm game. There were only two druids, Wild and a moonkin.
Koralon first, the raid leader told us, the newest and toughest of the three bosses in VoA. There was no description of the fight, apparently assuming that everyone knew what they were doing. We engaged.
I have to admit it was very weird being in a 25 man raid where I only knew two other raiders (a guildie hunter had also joined us). Neither were in the group Wild was healing, but I kept an eye on them and included them in my pre-emptive rejuv healing rotation.
Wild got some good practice moving around in the tight confines of Koralon's chamber and managed to avoid most of the pools of fire while surviving the few I did get hit with. Wild was the last raider standing when we wiped with Koralon at 3%. Not a bad first try for a PUG.
We went at him again, same as before, but again fell short, this time at 4%. Still a very good shot, but there were already grumblings that we were getting worse, not better. Some of these raiders were very impatient and quick to complain. The DPS was deemed to be "very good" but were asked to pay more attention to staying out of the fires. DPS raiders immediately claimed that they were watching the fires and it was not an issue. Us healers having to keep them alive knew differently. The real problem, though, was that the tank healers kept dying.
Neither Wild nor the other druid had cast our battle rezzes, as that decision is really up to the raid leader. So the raid leader directed that if a tank or tank healer goes down, battle rez them right away. Not a problem.
The raid leader really didn't have a good healing strategy in place, and so we started volunteering what we would do. For Wild, I went straight raid healing while maintaining hots on both tanks.
We started our third attempt. As always, we took tremendous damage but this time lost only one raider early and the moonkin battle rezzed him. Frankly, I didn't notice if he was one of the healers or not, but I knew the tanks and tank healers were still alive and keeping Koralon busy. Wild was hit a couple of times with the fires, but got out of them in time. Then, with Koralon under 5% health his healer died. With most of the raid still in good shape, Wild stepped in and began main tank healing. The dead pally healer was not in range of a battle rez, so Wild would have to move to do it, and by the time I got the rez off and he got enough mana to be useful, Koralon would be dead. Wild ignored a terse whisper from the raid leader to BREZ PALLY! and kept healing, and Koralon went down.
Koralon drops really, really nice loot. Unfortunately, there was nothing there for a resto druid. The pally healer that died on the third attempt went offline and never came back. What, because I didn't rez him? Oh well. We were down to four healers.
Four healers are enough for Emalon, the raid leader announced. And with the high level of DPS we have this will be an easy fight. Well . . .
We wiped on our first attempt at Emalon, as the off tank had a lot of trouble managing the adds. We lost another raider after this failed attempt. Another DPS raider joined us, learned that we had already killed Koralon, and did an about face and left. We tackled Emalon again with 23 raiders. We wiped again with Emalon at 23%. The raid leader wanted to switch the tanks for a third try, so that a more experienced tank could handle the adds. This wasn't a guild run, though, and frustrated raiders started packing up their gear. "I'm out of here," one said, and then one of the raiders started making nasty remarks about the "pvp" gear the raid leader was wearing to a raid, and the bickering started a general exodus. We were done.
"Dam, now I'm locked into a failed PUG VoA," someone muttered. My sentiments, exactly. All of these players are now locked out of joining any other VoA, so why not stay and finish the job? Wild will have to see what comes of Friday.
Wild didn't have to worry about being locked out of anything for the Thursday raid as we did not have one. Feraldruid let Wild know that neither Lady Hunter or Bd would make it in game. A couple more from our regular group showed up, but we had no tank so couldn't even do a five man heroic. No one hung around once it was clear we would not be raiding.
One who did stay around just long enough was Feraldruid, who picked up the pattern Wild had sent him and made Wild his new boots. Those new boots were the highlight of his evening. Not since he got the ruby slippers from Dorothy on the Kara Oz encounter has be been so happy to get a new pair of shoes. Wild still has those slippers, too. And late at night, when no one is watching . . . well, never mind.
JB got in some more questing on the Borean Tundra. She got around enough to earn the Achievement for exploring all of Borean Tundra. Oddly enough, though, she did not get the achievement for doing all the quests. JB has to complete 150 Borean Tundra quests to get that achievement, and has completed 120. Since no quest hub shows any more quests available, I'll have to do some hunting to see where those extra quests originate from.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Wednesday (23 Sep) - Playing with Giants
Wednesday (23 Sep) - Playing with Giants
Well, I screwed up Wednesday night. I was out getting some errands taken care of and the time just got away from me. Wild missed the raid invite time. I'd signed up for the raid, so I made no excuses. It didn't help that there weren't enough folks to get a raid going, even if Wild had made it on time. We are really going through a bad stretch in regard to our raiding.
JB had better news to report. She DINGED! to level 75! This is a major level increase for JB because she gets Lava Burst, a powerful new spell to add to her arsenal. Her DPS has been a pretty mundane 1k or so during questing. JB really hopes the new spell, along with the Glyph of Flame Shock to complement it, will bump that up. JB is working the final quest hub in Borean Tundra, called Taunka'le Village, where there are a lot of quests. After that, though, JB will have to decide where to move to next. I'd also like to get her into some of the early Northrend dungeons, where she can get some group experience and hopefully start picking up better gear.
JB has been playing around with elemental glyphs. There have been a number of changes and additions to shaman glyphs and it was an interesting challenge to find out which three major glyphs to use. Glyph of Lightning Bolt was the clear hands down must have glyph, which JB already has. Then there are four other majors that at one time or another were considered must haves, even though there are only three slots for major glyphs, and one of those is already filled with Lightning Bolt. The Glyph of Flametongue Weapon seems to be out of vogue for pve, now, so JB dropped that off her list. There was a long discussion about when Glyph of Flame Shock should be used, ending basically in Yes, use it unless you have a Tier set bonus that would take precedence. JB has no Tier pieces, and she has Flame Shock in the bank, so that will be added. JB then had to choose one of two remaining glyphs for the last slot: Glyph of Totem of Wrath or Glyph of Lava. I liked Glyph of Lava for unscientific reasons - it worked in the background without the need for any additional casting or mana use. However, it appears that at JB's level and gear, the Glyph of Totem of Wrath is better. That suited JB as well - she already has the Totem glyph, and the Wrath glyph can't be made by Philly and is currently way over-priced on the AH. So JB ended up with glyphs are Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock, and Totem of Wrath.
JB wrapped up her questing in Borean Tundra late Wednesday night while DER was doing his own questing on the other side of the continent in Howling Fjord. There is a quest in the Fjord that involves killing a number of level 70/71 elite giants that trek through a fairly heavily populated area of the forest there. DER enlisted JB's aid to help kill them. JB had yet to visit Howling Fjord and had no flight path there, but that was no problem. JB jumped on her flying mount and navigated the several minute flight to DER's location.
DER had warned JB that the giants hit very hard, but JB had to test them herself. Used to easily killing the non-elite mobs during her own questing, JB plowed right into the giants without the least bit of subtlety - strength against strength. It worked on the first couple of giants, although the giants were battering JB hard. The extra adds from the many mobs in the area didn't help, either. We got the quest done, but not before two ignominious deaths for both of us. Kiting the giants would have worked better, or JB could have slipped into enchancement spec if she really wanted to go toe to toe, but Meh, it worked out all right. :)
DER continued on with this questing, but JB had to call it a night. She is 30% of the way to level 76.
Well, I screwed up Wednesday night. I was out getting some errands taken care of and the time just got away from me. Wild missed the raid invite time. I'd signed up for the raid, so I made no excuses. It didn't help that there weren't enough folks to get a raid going, even if Wild had made it on time. We are really going through a bad stretch in regard to our raiding.
JB had better news to report. She DINGED! to level 75! This is a major level increase for JB because she gets Lava Burst, a powerful new spell to add to her arsenal. Her DPS has been a pretty mundane 1k or so during questing. JB really hopes the new spell, along with the Glyph of Flame Shock to complement it, will bump that up. JB is working the final quest hub in Borean Tundra, called Taunka'le Village, where there are a lot of quests. After that, though, JB will have to decide where to move to next. I'd also like to get her into some of the early Northrend dungeons, where she can get some group experience and hopefully start picking up better gear.
JB has been playing around with elemental glyphs. There have been a number of changes and additions to shaman glyphs and it was an interesting challenge to find out which three major glyphs to use. Glyph of Lightning Bolt was the clear hands down must have glyph, which JB already has. Then there are four other majors that at one time or another were considered must haves, even though there are only three slots for major glyphs, and one of those is already filled with Lightning Bolt. The Glyph of Flametongue Weapon seems to be out of vogue for pve, now, so JB dropped that off her list. There was a long discussion about when Glyph of Flame Shock should be used, ending basically in Yes, use it unless you have a Tier set bonus that would take precedence. JB has no Tier pieces, and she has Flame Shock in the bank, so that will be added. JB then had to choose one of two remaining glyphs for the last slot: Glyph of Totem of Wrath or Glyph of Lava. I liked Glyph of Lava for unscientific reasons - it worked in the background without the need for any additional casting or mana use. However, it appears that at JB's level and gear, the Glyph of Totem of Wrath is better. That suited JB as well - she already has the Totem glyph, and the Wrath glyph can't be made by Philly and is currently way over-priced on the AH. So JB ended up with glyphs are Lightning Bolt, Flame Shock, and Totem of Wrath.
JB wrapped up her questing in Borean Tundra late Wednesday night while DER was doing his own questing on the other side of the continent in Howling Fjord. There is a quest in the Fjord that involves killing a number of level 70/71 elite giants that trek through a fairly heavily populated area of the forest there. DER enlisted JB's aid to help kill them. JB had yet to visit Howling Fjord and had no flight path there, but that was no problem. JB jumped on her flying mount and navigated the several minute flight to DER's location.
DER had warned JB that the giants hit very hard, but JB had to test them herself. Used to easily killing the non-elite mobs during her own questing, JB plowed right into the giants without the least bit of subtlety - strength against strength. It worked on the first couple of giants, although the giants were battering JB hard. The extra adds from the many mobs in the area didn't help, either. We got the quest done, but not before two ignominious deaths for both of us. Kiting the giants would have worked better, or JB could have slipped into enchancement spec if she really wanted to go toe to toe, but Meh, it worked out all right. :)
DER continued on with this questing, but JB had to call it a night. She is 30% of the way to level 76.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday (22 Sep) - Patch Day Makes the News
Tuesday (22 Sep) - Patch Day Makes the News
Patch 3.2.2 made news not so much for the release of a scaled up version of the Onyxia encounter, but for the massive lag and unplayability of the game on Tuesday night. It is still early evening as I pen this, so things may improve, but waiting more than two minutes just to get mail to appear is a little too much. It also took three tries and ten minutes to get logged in in the first place. I'm predicting there will be no raid tonight.
I do have a little bit of extra news from JB's Monday questing in the Borean Tundra. JB was very productive, completing nearly every quest at the quest hubs of Warsong Hold, Garrosh's Landing, and Amber Ledge. JB is currently working quests out of Bor'Gorok Outpost. The rewards from these quests brought back unpleasant stories from Wild when he was levelling. Caster loot was almost always cloth, while the leather gear would inevitably be designed for feral/rogue, ignoring the needs of both resto and moonkin specs. JB has been finding the same discrimination. Quest drops with mail armor are almost always for enchancement spec or hunters. And since the leather gear she might take as an alternate for mail is aimed at feral/rogues, little of it helps JB's elemental spec. It's not too bothersome yet, as the gear level is not up to par with what JB currently has, but once she gets into the higher level zones it will really start to get irritating.
JB also discovered something which greatly improved her questing. JB has a swift flying mount (she got hers even before Wild did), but cannot use her flying mount in Northrend until she reaches level 77, when she will be able to buy the Cold Weather Flying skill for 1,000 gold. So imagine JB's shock and surprise at seeing a level 70 player at Amber Ledge flapping about on a flying mount!
That required some investigation, and JB uncovered a change made some time ago that had slipped our notice. The Cold Weather Flying skill can be purchased by any level 80 player, ie, Wild - and given to any Wild family member (on the same account) at level 68 and higher. It didn't take JB two seconds to get 1,000g to Wild, demanding to know why she hadn't been told about this and insisting he buy her the Northrend flying skill, like NOW.
Wild groused that who thought anyone but Wild was going to end up in Northrend? JB seemed perfectly happy on the Isle of Kel'danas farming rep for her new Jewelcrafting future. At a glare from JB, though, Wild hastily produced the flying skill.
Thanks in part to the speedier questing that comes with a flying mount, JB is now 81% of the way to level 75.
PS - The difficulty in logging in and the terrible lag persisted and there was no raid. Rolling restarts are planned for early Wednesday morning as Blizz attempts to fix things.
Patch 3.2.2 made news not so much for the release of a scaled up version of the Onyxia encounter, but for the massive lag and unplayability of the game on Tuesday night. It is still early evening as I pen this, so things may improve, but waiting more than two minutes just to get mail to appear is a little too much. It also took three tries and ten minutes to get logged in in the first place. I'm predicting there will be no raid tonight.
I do have a little bit of extra news from JB's Monday questing in the Borean Tundra. JB was very productive, completing nearly every quest at the quest hubs of Warsong Hold, Garrosh's Landing, and Amber Ledge. JB is currently working quests out of Bor'Gorok Outpost. The rewards from these quests brought back unpleasant stories from Wild when he was levelling. Caster loot was almost always cloth, while the leather gear would inevitably be designed for feral/rogue, ignoring the needs of both resto and moonkin specs. JB has been finding the same discrimination. Quest drops with mail armor are almost always for enchancement spec or hunters. And since the leather gear she might take as an alternate for mail is aimed at feral/rogues, little of it helps JB's elemental spec. It's not too bothersome yet, as the gear level is not up to par with what JB currently has, but once she gets into the higher level zones it will really start to get irritating.
JB also discovered something which greatly improved her questing. JB has a swift flying mount (she got hers even before Wild did), but cannot use her flying mount in Northrend until she reaches level 77, when she will be able to buy the Cold Weather Flying skill for 1,000 gold. So imagine JB's shock and surprise at seeing a level 70 player at Amber Ledge flapping about on a flying mount!
That required some investigation, and JB uncovered a change made some time ago that had slipped our notice. The Cold Weather Flying skill can be purchased by any level 80 player, ie, Wild - and given to any Wild family member (on the same account) at level 68 and higher. It didn't take JB two seconds to get 1,000g to Wild, demanding to know why she hadn't been told about this and insisting he buy her the Northrend flying skill, like NOW.
Wild groused that who thought anyone but Wild was going to end up in Northrend? JB seemed perfectly happy on the Isle of Kel'danas farming rep for her new Jewelcrafting future. At a glare from JB, though, Wild hastily produced the flying skill.
Thanks in part to the speedier questing that comes with a flying mount, JB is now 81% of the way to level 75.
PS - The difficulty in logging in and the terrible lag persisted and there was no raid. Rolling restarts are planned for early Wednesday morning as Blizz attempts to fix things.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday (21 Sep) - A Bagful of Notes
Monday (21 Sep) - A Bagful of Notes
One note on the weekend - JB DINGED! to level 74 and did the small quest chain which granted her access to Dalaran, the central city on the continent of Northrend. JB set her hearth and did her first cooking daily from Dalaran. She had to pass on the fishing daily, though, as she would have had to enter the pvp zone of Wintergrasp - at level 74 she would have been quickly killed and corpse camped big time. JB also did a pretty severe cleaning out of her gear bags and bank. Eighteen pieces of gear, long past any possible use to JB, were vendored. JB's enchancement gear set was lovingly stored in the bank instead of in her bags. That clears up a lot of space, increasing the room in JB's carry around bags from 25 to 44. JB also rediscovered her Murloc Costume, acquired two years ago when I attended Blizzcon. At the time the costume was soulbound to JB alone. With some changes since then, the costume is now account bound - and Wild is asking for it.
JB is currently working through the quests in the Borean Tundra. They are a little under her level, but that helps get them done faster.
JB is 20% of the way to level 75.
Note #2: Wild sent a PM to guild leadership monday morning regarding the boots pattern that he still has not received: "Hey Rh, sorry to bug you once again in regard to the recipe for Boots of Wintry Endurance. I know the guild likes to present such things prior to raids, but seriously, I asked for the runed orbs and the pattern on 8 Aug, six weeks ago. How many raids since then could I have been wearing them? Feral druid, who is a leatherworker, is ready to make them the instant I provide him the pattern. I have the mats, the enchant, and the gems. Please, could you just mail it to me?
Your friend with the tattered Rainey's Chewed Boots,
Wild
Wild heard back from Rh the same day, acknowledging the mix up and that twice they planned to present the pattern to Wild at raids where we did not get enough raiders to run. The pattern will be sent to Wild through the in game mail. I hope Wild has it in time for Tuesday night's raid.
Note #3: The Wild Family, after much consideration, has invited several current and former guildie friends to view and participate in the Wild Family Tales blog. Welcome!
Note #4: Ando and Mel powered their way through the Deadmines Monday night, doing a quick clear and getting Ando some final pieces of twink gear for the level 19 bracket. The power hitting and healing druid now sports such a massive amount of spell power I believe she'll be listed as a potential cause of global warming. ;-)
Ando and EZ plowed through five Warsong Gulch matches on Monday night, winning four of them. EZ is still learning the craft of melee pvp to complement her spell and totem casting, but her footwork is improving and she stayed among the top 2-3 in total damage as well as in killing blows. Ando led every match in total healing, keeping the rest of the team alive and chasing those flags. Alliance hunters who made a point to try to stop Ando's healing by sending their pet to get into Ando's face found EZ in their face. Pet forgotten, the hunter either fled or died. We are still allowing xp to gained in these matches, but will be moving up to full twink battlegrounds soon.
EZ also wanted to thank Ando for the duels in between the WSG matches, which let EZ work on things where she is still having trouble.
Note #5: Tuesday morning maintenance became a patch day, with the release of patch 3.2.2. The big news in this patch is that the pre-expansion single boss encounter with the dragon Onyxia has been scaled into a level 80 encounter in 10 and 25 player versions. It's the same fun fight, according to the patch notes, and what I really like is that some of the the loot drops are the same as the level 60 loot, only scaled up for level 80s. The Brood Mother will also be dropping a very rare 310% speed mount. Let the grinding begin!
Note #6: Finally, the guild website is currently suspended. That usually means a mix up in payments, and I expect it to be back up quickly.
One note on the weekend - JB DINGED! to level 74 and did the small quest chain which granted her access to Dalaran, the central city on the continent of Northrend. JB set her hearth and did her first cooking daily from Dalaran. She had to pass on the fishing daily, though, as she would have had to enter the pvp zone of Wintergrasp - at level 74 she would have been quickly killed and corpse camped big time. JB also did a pretty severe cleaning out of her gear bags and bank. Eighteen pieces of gear, long past any possible use to JB, were vendored. JB's enchancement gear set was lovingly stored in the bank instead of in her bags. That clears up a lot of space, increasing the room in JB's carry around bags from 25 to 44. JB also rediscovered her Murloc Costume, acquired two years ago when I attended Blizzcon. At the time the costume was soulbound to JB alone. With some changes since then, the costume is now account bound - and Wild is asking for it.
JB is currently working through the quests in the Borean Tundra. They are a little under her level, but that helps get them done faster.
JB is 20% of the way to level 75.
Note #2: Wild sent a PM to guild leadership monday morning regarding the boots pattern that he still has not received: "Hey Rh, sorry to bug you once again in regard to the recipe for Boots of Wintry Endurance. I know the guild likes to present such things prior to raids, but seriously, I asked for the runed orbs and the pattern on 8 Aug, six weeks ago. How many raids since then could I have been wearing them? Feral druid, who is a leatherworker, is ready to make them the instant I provide him the pattern. I have the mats, the enchant, and the gems. Please, could you just mail it to me?
Your friend with the tattered Rainey's Chewed Boots,
Wild
Wild heard back from Rh the same day, acknowledging the mix up and that twice they planned to present the pattern to Wild at raids where we did not get enough raiders to run. The pattern will be sent to Wild through the in game mail. I hope Wild has it in time for Tuesday night's raid.
Note #3: The Wild Family, after much consideration, has invited several current and former guildie friends to view and participate in the Wild Family Tales blog. Welcome!
Note #4: Ando and Mel powered their way through the Deadmines Monday night, doing a quick clear and getting Ando some final pieces of twink gear for the level 19 bracket. The power hitting and healing druid now sports such a massive amount of spell power I believe she'll be listed as a potential cause of global warming. ;-)
Ando and EZ plowed through five Warsong Gulch matches on Monday night, winning four of them. EZ is still learning the craft of melee pvp to complement her spell and totem casting, but her footwork is improving and she stayed among the top 2-3 in total damage as well as in killing blows. Ando led every match in total healing, keeping the rest of the team alive and chasing those flags. Alliance hunters who made a point to try to stop Ando's healing by sending their pet to get into Ando's face found EZ in their face. Pet forgotten, the hunter either fled or died. We are still allowing xp to gained in these matches, but will be moving up to full twink battlegrounds soon.
EZ also wanted to thank Ando for the duels in between the WSG matches, which let EZ work on things where she is still having trouble.
Note #5: Tuesday morning maintenance became a patch day, with the release of patch 3.2.2. The big news in this patch is that the pre-expansion single boss encounter with the dragon Onyxia has been scaled into a level 80 encounter in 10 and 25 player versions. It's the same fun fight, according to the patch notes, and what I really like is that some of the the loot drops are the same as the level 60 loot, only scaled up for level 80s. The Brood Mother will also be dropping a very rare 310% speed mount. Let the grinding begin!
Note #6: Finally, the guild website is currently suspended. That usually means a mix up in payments, and I expect it to be back up quickly.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Friday (18 Sep) - Old School Magic: Blackrock Depths
Friday (18 Sep) - Old School Magic: Blackrock Depths
To quote the first sentence in the Comments section of wowhead: "Blackrock Depths is the largest instance in the game."
BRD is Old School; ie, pre-expansion, vanilla WoW. The dungeon follows no linear path, providing numerous entry ways into and out of areas. Some areas require a key, the shadowforge key, obtained through quests, in order to access them. There are boss encounters that also must be unlocked via quests. There is an arena like area called The Ring of Law that has been duplicated and expanded multiple times in later releases and expansions, the latest example of which is Trial of Champions/Crusader in the Argent Coliseum. There is even a bar where you can get drunk and pick a bar fight, which unlocks yet another boss. That's assuming you've been able to find the bar (it'll take the shadowforge key) and know the secret to opening the barred door.
There are 21 - yes, twenty-one - special encounters in BRD. This is a five man dungeon - just five players in their level 50s finding their way through the deeper bowels of Blackrock Mountain.
Back in the day Wild had made a number of forays into BRD on specific quests. Wild never saw all of it, but two runs were memorable in different ways. Wild has always been an enchanter, and one of the great fire resist and armor trinkets in the game at time could be crafted only by and for enchanters: Smoking Heart of the Mountain. The crafting recipe could only be found among the loot dropped by Lord Roccor in BRD. Not only that, but the crafting of the trinket itself had to be done at the Black Forge inside BRD. Battling BRD to get that recipe and then crafting the trinket was a huge accomplishment for Wild, and helped pave his way to Molten Core. The second memorable venture into BRD was not so successful, and proved just how difficult the place can be. A group wanting to make a "quick" BRD run could not find a healer. A friend of Wild's was with that group and convinced the group leader to invite Wild, over her misgivings. Wild had healed trips into BRD before with guildie groups. They were tough runs, and players died, but we were successful. This run was a disaster, with delays and changes in players that spread over a couple of hours of mostly non-playing. When we did finally get in, the group could not handle it. After our first wipe we realized that there was no one who could resurrect players - back then druids could only rez a player when in combat, and then only once an hour - and the graveyard run was one of the longest in the game. We made little progress and finally had to give it up. Wild's hat is off to any group in their level 50s that attempts this dungeon. The loot is abundant and awesome, and very much worth the effort when level 60 was the cap, and you knew you'd paid your dues coming out of there.
DER, Red's level 68 death knight, and JB, Wild's pick for the next level 80 in the family but currently at level 73, decided to dive into BRD on Friday night. The night was already late when we made the decicion, kind of on the spur of the moment, to go.
Prior to that, DER and JB had been in game for some time, but due to special circumstances were somewhat limited in what we could do. JB graciously allowed a visiting eight year old daughter of a close friend to take JB for a spin around The Isle of Kel'danas and in Shattrath. DER, bless his heart, babysat the little girl for more than an hour, engaging her in conversation over guild chat and thoroughly entrancing her. Of course, DER also tried to goad her into killing JB, and she was definitely up for the idea, using the Aldor elevator as the means. But she thought flying was such great fun that every time she walked JB off the elevator to her expected death she'd decide to fly instead. JB seemed quite content to let the little girl lead her around. This was certainly a side of JB that Wild had never seen before.
Eventually Mom and daughter went home, and DER and JB cooked up the idea of heading over to BRD.
Just getting to the dungeon is a chore. There are two entrances to Blackrock Mountain, but the only one Wild ever used was the one from the Searing Gorge side. The outpost of Kargath in the Badlands is the jumping off point, with a short ride from there to Searing Gorge. DER and JB got their signals mixed up, with DER first flying to the Burning Steppes, which comes at the Mountain from the other direction. DER has a - ahem - distant alliance relative more familiar with the Burning Steppes entrance. We both found our way to the entrance, however.
Once inside, we had to climb up on and then walk down a long, massive chain stretched across a long fall to a deep, frothing torrent of lava. Walking that chain for the first time was one of the scariest things Wild had ever done. There are days that Wild feels very jaded toward his world at the advanced level of 80. But JB felt a little of original wonder, awe, and even fear, of this place, the first time she set her foot on that chain.
Neither one of us fell off, and we then wound our way down through a series of stairs and rooms that suddenly opened up to a raw, rail-less rock ledge that twisted and turned around blind corners, one misstep away from an equally dangerous fall to the lava below. And then there was a second chain to navigate. JB promised not to mention that DER did fall off this chain. Oops, sorry DER. :D
JB had to stop for a moment, overwhelmed by the stories Wild had told her. THIS narrow ledge, and a small alcove at it's end, served as the waiting area for raids heading into Molten Core. Imagine two, three, or more groups of both horde and alliance, each group forty raiders strong, packing this tiny area. Raiders routinely fell off into the lava. Pvp battles were frequent and magnificant, powered by bored raiders hoping for a chance at MC. Wild waited here, week after week, hoping be one of those chosen.
Molten Core was not our destination, however. I'm not sure DER or JB would even be admitted, but regardless, that place would eat us alive.
JB shook off Wild's memories. Just before reaching the end of the alcove there is an opening leading to a large cavern. Numerous minions of the mountain, all non-elite, crowd the place. DER and JB easily bypassed them or, if they were in the way, one shot them. Remember, though, that a level 50s group would have to fight and navigate their way through this cavern just to get to the entrance to BRD. Nothing is easy here.
Once outside the entrance, JB spied Pyros, an elemental elite not exactly part of BRD, but one that JB and DER couldn't resist taunting and then killing. The real adventure was about to begin.
DER and JB had only the stories of their elders to guide them, having never been inside the place. JB, who shares Wild's aversion to a sense of direction, quickly turned to DER to find their way through the place. Every mob in BRD are 50s level elite, with some of the bosses at level 60 (at least they used to be until nerfed down a bit). Back in the day dungeons served up a lot of trash mobs. Just getting to a boss required a lot of effort. For BRD, one could say that in spades. There were literally armies of mobs marching inside BRD. Entire caverns crawled with them. Every passage was lined with mobs; every corridor, every nook and cranny, held mobs.
At DER and JB's high level and small aggro radius, we could march by many of them without getting any attention, but even then the sheer number of them and their constant shifting around triggered attacks on occasion. After wandering a bit aimlessly for awhile, we began clearing some of the mobs just so we could tell where we'd already been. It's very easy to get turned around.
After a very long time we had managed to bag only two bosses. A word about combat - the mobs and bosses in BRD are no match for a level 68 and 73. Either of us could solo BRD. That said, even we could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers and bad luck against stuns, interrupts, and silences at critical moments. We weren't careless, but there is a certain thrill in seeing partners fighting back to back against group after group of aggroed mobs, one group drawing another into battle over and over until you can't even see the ground for the piles of bodies.
DER decided it was time to get the shadowforge key, which neither of us had. It took a little while to complete the quest series, which included a battle in the Ring of Law (our third boss kill).
Now we could open doors that had been denied us, and we started to encounter more and more of the richness of the dungeon, and, of course, bosses to add to our now growing list of kills.
We kept at it, relentless if not thorough, but eventually ran out of bosses to kill. If we had done and seen everything, we would have been rewarded with the BRD Achievement, but that necessary proof still eluded us. One thing we knew for certain was that we had yet to find the bar. Wild's memory and direction were not reliable, despite the fact that JB knew he'd been there more than once. JB suspected that the ale served there had also served to muddy Wild's memory even more so than usual.
After endless backtracking and retracing of steps, we narrowed the location down to a specific corridor which we could see but could not figure out how to get to. Though frustrated, there was never even a thought about giving up. Running our route again, we finally recognized a landmark we knew hadn't been encountered before, and located the entrance to an area where we could hear the murmur of a crowd of happy drinkers. The door leading to that area was ajar, but it wouldn't move and we could not pass. We retreated and fussed about some more. We played with gears and levers and poked at corners. Things moved, crashed, or refused to respond. Somewhere along the way we remembered that after all that poking about we hadn't actually gone back to see if any of that had changed the door situation. We trooped back and - the door was wide open. Success!
We found the bar. The place was crowded with yellow tagged npcs. Not hostile, but still ready for a fight. We accommodated them, starting not just one, but two bar fights. And had a blast knocking heads together and making a shambles of the place. While at the same time collecting what we needed to move on.
We'd lost count of how many bosses we had killed. We knew we were getting close to the end, though.
We came upon a huge chamber with massive columns filled to the brim with mobs. Through trial and error we learned that there were two huge braziers we had to light from torches dropped by these mobs. It was a bit nerve racking the first time we aggroed a group, as that group drew other groups. We killed them in droves as we looked for the braziers and finally had to separate as the chamber was just so vast. We found and got the braziers lit, and despite the scores of dead, left just as many still alive as we moved into the chamber of the final bosses in BRD - Emperor Thaurissan and Princess Moira Bronzebeard.
The long hall leading to the Emperor's throne was lined with mobs. A second floor, open to the hall below, was also full of yakking mobs. We had paid little attention to strategy when fighting the bosses, but we did know that in theory we should kill all of the mobs before engaging the Emperor. We had been at this for a long time, though, and we knew this had to be the end. We cleared maybe half the mobs from the first floor, and then decided to ignore the rest, figuring we could just slaughter the remainder along with the two bosses. We didn't figure on the fact that not only would this aggro the mobs still left on both floors of the hall, but also all of the mobs we'd left unkilled in the vast chamber we had come from. Even had we known that, I doubt we would have done anything differently.
We attacked Emperor Thaurissan. We didn't know that the Princess would heal the Emporer, either, or that the Emperor has an ability which makes him immune for ten seconds at a time to all forms of magic damage.
As I said, we attacked the Emperor, and a rising tide of mobs began flowing toward us.
We fought. And we fought. And we fought some more. It was a glorious battle. We focused on the Emperor at first, but he seemed frustrating difficult to kill, and the crush of a million little hits was starting to sting us.
JB cast heals hampered by the constant battering. Bodies mounted, but the ranks of mobs never seemed to diminish. They just kept coming.
JB lost track of the Emperor, but saw the Princess fall. DER was getting dangerously low in health, and JB was was not far behind. JB lost DER. JB killed many, many more mobs, but in the end even she fell.
JB had a trick up her sleeve. JB waited for the remaining mobs to retreat, and them reincarnated. She tossed a heal on herself, dropped her elemental pet, and started to rez DER. Then a couple of mobs rushed back and attacked. JB brushed them off, but the rez had been interrupted. And the brief respite was over as the Emperor attacked and another flood of mobs returned. JB was too low in health and mana to maintain the attack for long, and once her elemental went down she did, too. JB took some satisfaction in taking many more with her before she fell.
DER and JB rezzed at the graveyard and returned. We pre-cleared what was left of the mobs and then made quick work of Emperor Thaurissan. We were done.
It was 2am. But we had cleared all 21 bosses, earned our Achievement, and had a gloriously bloody time doing it.
To quote the first sentence in the Comments section of wowhead: "Blackrock Depths is the largest instance in the game."
BRD is Old School; ie, pre-expansion, vanilla WoW. The dungeon follows no linear path, providing numerous entry ways into and out of areas. Some areas require a key, the shadowforge key, obtained through quests, in order to access them. There are boss encounters that also must be unlocked via quests. There is an arena like area called The Ring of Law that has been duplicated and expanded multiple times in later releases and expansions, the latest example of which is Trial of Champions/Crusader in the Argent Coliseum. There is even a bar where you can get drunk and pick a bar fight, which unlocks yet another boss. That's assuming you've been able to find the bar (it'll take the shadowforge key) and know the secret to opening the barred door.
There are 21 - yes, twenty-one - special encounters in BRD. This is a five man dungeon - just five players in their level 50s finding their way through the deeper bowels of Blackrock Mountain.
Back in the day Wild had made a number of forays into BRD on specific quests. Wild never saw all of it, but two runs were memorable in different ways. Wild has always been an enchanter, and one of the great fire resist and armor trinkets in the game at time could be crafted only by and for enchanters: Smoking Heart of the Mountain. The crafting recipe could only be found among the loot dropped by Lord Roccor in BRD. Not only that, but the crafting of the trinket itself had to be done at the Black Forge inside BRD. Battling BRD to get that recipe and then crafting the trinket was a huge accomplishment for Wild, and helped pave his way to Molten Core. The second memorable venture into BRD was not so successful, and proved just how difficult the place can be. A group wanting to make a "quick" BRD run could not find a healer. A friend of Wild's was with that group and convinced the group leader to invite Wild, over her misgivings. Wild had healed trips into BRD before with guildie groups. They were tough runs, and players died, but we were successful. This run was a disaster, with delays and changes in players that spread over a couple of hours of mostly non-playing. When we did finally get in, the group could not handle it. After our first wipe we realized that there was no one who could resurrect players - back then druids could only rez a player when in combat, and then only once an hour - and the graveyard run was one of the longest in the game. We made little progress and finally had to give it up. Wild's hat is off to any group in their level 50s that attempts this dungeon. The loot is abundant and awesome, and very much worth the effort when level 60 was the cap, and you knew you'd paid your dues coming out of there.
DER, Red's level 68 death knight, and JB, Wild's pick for the next level 80 in the family but currently at level 73, decided to dive into BRD on Friday night. The night was already late when we made the decicion, kind of on the spur of the moment, to go.
Prior to that, DER and JB had been in game for some time, but due to special circumstances were somewhat limited in what we could do. JB graciously allowed a visiting eight year old daughter of a close friend to take JB for a spin around The Isle of Kel'danas and in Shattrath. DER, bless his heart, babysat the little girl for more than an hour, engaging her in conversation over guild chat and thoroughly entrancing her. Of course, DER also tried to goad her into killing JB, and she was definitely up for the idea, using the Aldor elevator as the means. But she thought flying was such great fun that every time she walked JB off the elevator to her expected death she'd decide to fly instead. JB seemed quite content to let the little girl lead her around. This was certainly a side of JB that Wild had never seen before.
Eventually Mom and daughter went home, and DER and JB cooked up the idea of heading over to BRD.
Just getting to the dungeon is a chore. There are two entrances to Blackrock Mountain, but the only one Wild ever used was the one from the Searing Gorge side. The outpost of Kargath in the Badlands is the jumping off point, with a short ride from there to Searing Gorge. DER and JB got their signals mixed up, with DER first flying to the Burning Steppes, which comes at the Mountain from the other direction. DER has a - ahem - distant alliance relative more familiar with the Burning Steppes entrance. We both found our way to the entrance, however.
Once inside, we had to climb up on and then walk down a long, massive chain stretched across a long fall to a deep, frothing torrent of lava. Walking that chain for the first time was one of the scariest things Wild had ever done. There are days that Wild feels very jaded toward his world at the advanced level of 80. But JB felt a little of original wonder, awe, and even fear, of this place, the first time she set her foot on that chain.
Neither one of us fell off, and we then wound our way down through a series of stairs and rooms that suddenly opened up to a raw, rail-less rock ledge that twisted and turned around blind corners, one misstep away from an equally dangerous fall to the lava below. And then there was a second chain to navigate. JB promised not to mention that DER did fall off this chain. Oops, sorry DER. :D
JB had to stop for a moment, overwhelmed by the stories Wild had told her. THIS narrow ledge, and a small alcove at it's end, served as the waiting area for raids heading into Molten Core. Imagine two, three, or more groups of both horde and alliance, each group forty raiders strong, packing this tiny area. Raiders routinely fell off into the lava. Pvp battles were frequent and magnificant, powered by bored raiders hoping for a chance at MC. Wild waited here, week after week, hoping be one of those chosen.
Molten Core was not our destination, however. I'm not sure DER or JB would even be admitted, but regardless, that place would eat us alive.
JB shook off Wild's memories. Just before reaching the end of the alcove there is an opening leading to a large cavern. Numerous minions of the mountain, all non-elite, crowd the place. DER and JB easily bypassed them or, if they were in the way, one shot them. Remember, though, that a level 50s group would have to fight and navigate their way through this cavern just to get to the entrance to BRD. Nothing is easy here.
Once outside the entrance, JB spied Pyros, an elemental elite not exactly part of BRD, but one that JB and DER couldn't resist taunting and then killing. The real adventure was about to begin.
DER and JB had only the stories of their elders to guide them, having never been inside the place. JB, who shares Wild's aversion to a sense of direction, quickly turned to DER to find their way through the place. Every mob in BRD are 50s level elite, with some of the bosses at level 60 (at least they used to be until nerfed down a bit). Back in the day dungeons served up a lot of trash mobs. Just getting to a boss required a lot of effort. For BRD, one could say that in spades. There were literally armies of mobs marching inside BRD. Entire caverns crawled with them. Every passage was lined with mobs; every corridor, every nook and cranny, held mobs.
At DER and JB's high level and small aggro radius, we could march by many of them without getting any attention, but even then the sheer number of them and their constant shifting around triggered attacks on occasion. After wandering a bit aimlessly for awhile, we began clearing some of the mobs just so we could tell where we'd already been. It's very easy to get turned around.
After a very long time we had managed to bag only two bosses. A word about combat - the mobs and bosses in BRD are no match for a level 68 and 73. Either of us could solo BRD. That said, even we could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers and bad luck against stuns, interrupts, and silences at critical moments. We weren't careless, but there is a certain thrill in seeing partners fighting back to back against group after group of aggroed mobs, one group drawing another into battle over and over until you can't even see the ground for the piles of bodies.
DER decided it was time to get the shadowforge key, which neither of us had. It took a little while to complete the quest series, which included a battle in the Ring of Law (our third boss kill).
Now we could open doors that had been denied us, and we started to encounter more and more of the richness of the dungeon, and, of course, bosses to add to our now growing list of kills.
We kept at it, relentless if not thorough, but eventually ran out of bosses to kill. If we had done and seen everything, we would have been rewarded with the BRD Achievement, but that necessary proof still eluded us. One thing we knew for certain was that we had yet to find the bar. Wild's memory and direction were not reliable, despite the fact that JB knew he'd been there more than once. JB suspected that the ale served there had also served to muddy Wild's memory even more so than usual.
After endless backtracking and retracing of steps, we narrowed the location down to a specific corridor which we could see but could not figure out how to get to. Though frustrated, there was never even a thought about giving up. Running our route again, we finally recognized a landmark we knew hadn't been encountered before, and located the entrance to an area where we could hear the murmur of a crowd of happy drinkers. The door leading to that area was ajar, but it wouldn't move and we could not pass. We retreated and fussed about some more. We played with gears and levers and poked at corners. Things moved, crashed, or refused to respond. Somewhere along the way we remembered that after all that poking about we hadn't actually gone back to see if any of that had changed the door situation. We trooped back and - the door was wide open. Success!
We found the bar. The place was crowded with yellow tagged npcs. Not hostile, but still ready for a fight. We accommodated them, starting not just one, but two bar fights. And had a blast knocking heads together and making a shambles of the place. While at the same time collecting what we needed to move on.
We'd lost count of how many bosses we had killed. We knew we were getting close to the end, though.
We came upon a huge chamber with massive columns filled to the brim with mobs. Through trial and error we learned that there were two huge braziers we had to light from torches dropped by these mobs. It was a bit nerve racking the first time we aggroed a group, as that group drew other groups. We killed them in droves as we looked for the braziers and finally had to separate as the chamber was just so vast. We found and got the braziers lit, and despite the scores of dead, left just as many still alive as we moved into the chamber of the final bosses in BRD - Emperor Thaurissan and Princess Moira Bronzebeard.
The long hall leading to the Emperor's throne was lined with mobs. A second floor, open to the hall below, was also full of yakking mobs. We had paid little attention to strategy when fighting the bosses, but we did know that in theory we should kill all of the mobs before engaging the Emperor. We had been at this for a long time, though, and we knew this had to be the end. We cleared maybe half the mobs from the first floor, and then decided to ignore the rest, figuring we could just slaughter the remainder along with the two bosses. We didn't figure on the fact that not only would this aggro the mobs still left on both floors of the hall, but also all of the mobs we'd left unkilled in the vast chamber we had come from. Even had we known that, I doubt we would have done anything differently.
We attacked Emperor Thaurissan. We didn't know that the Princess would heal the Emporer, either, or that the Emperor has an ability which makes him immune for ten seconds at a time to all forms of magic damage.
As I said, we attacked the Emperor, and a rising tide of mobs began flowing toward us.
We fought. And we fought. And we fought some more. It was a glorious battle. We focused on the Emperor at first, but he seemed frustrating difficult to kill, and the crush of a million little hits was starting to sting us.
JB cast heals hampered by the constant battering. Bodies mounted, but the ranks of mobs never seemed to diminish. They just kept coming.
JB lost track of the Emperor, but saw the Princess fall. DER was getting dangerously low in health, and JB was was not far behind. JB lost DER. JB killed many, many more mobs, but in the end even she fell.
JB had a trick up her sleeve. JB waited for the remaining mobs to retreat, and them reincarnated. She tossed a heal on herself, dropped her elemental pet, and started to rez DER. Then a couple of mobs rushed back and attacked. JB brushed them off, but the rez had been interrupted. And the brief respite was over as the Emperor attacked and another flood of mobs returned. JB was too low in health and mana to maintain the attack for long, and once her elemental went down she did, too. JB took some satisfaction in taking many more with her before she fell.
DER and JB rezzed at the graveyard and returned. We pre-cleared what was left of the mobs and then made quick work of Emperor Thaurissan. We were done.
BRD achievement
It was 2am. But we had cleared all 21 bosses, earned our Achievement, and had a gloriously bloody time doing it.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Thursday (17 Sep) - Wild Returns to Five Man ToC
Thursday (17 Sep) - Wild Returns to Five Man ToC
For those who read the comments section of Wednesday's post, you know I gave you an early look at the results of the Thursday raid. It pays to read the comments, too!
Our raid leader was running late Thursday night, so feral druid started a group with Wild. I had a list of all those who attended the Tuesday raid, so I took the raid leader role and began invites. Such as they were. Only three regulars turned up, and that included the late arriving Bd. Of the five non-guildies who had run with us on Tuesday, only one was in game and he needed to finish another raid he was on before he'd be able to join us.
In the end we scrounged up a couple of folks and decided to go do Heroic 5 man ToC. The 5 man ToC is called Trial of the Champion (to be always confused with 25 man ToC, which is called Trial of the Crusader). Assuming we could beat 5 man ToC in heroic mode, we planned to go slumming and clear the normal 5 man ToC as well so that alts could get some gear.
Most of the newer Dungeons have different versions, almost always having the same encounters - the same layout, the same bosses, etc. The only difference is tuning it for the version - a few more or a few less trash mobs, or an extra ability for a heroic boss and so forth.
One would expect, then, that Toc 5 man and ToC 25 man would be the same, adjusted for the version, just like the others.
Not so. Friday's post covered all of what Wild has seen in ToC 25. Heroic ToC 5 man was nothing like that. Heroic ToC 5 man has a special jousting session that must be won before the real bosses show up. And the bosses are not the same. Other than the fact that the two versions take place in the same Coliseum, everything else is different.
The contest can only be started by talking to an npc announcer. That initiates a very, very long (Yawn . . .) preamble where each raider is announced (to cheering from the fans in the stands and an explanation of the event). Wild decided to master knitting and the language of sanskrit while we waited for something interesting to happen. Oh yes, and that still left plenty of time for us to saunter over to a weapons rack and pick up a lance, and then select a steed to ride. Once mounted up on the steed, commands appeared that we would use during the first phase of the event. The most important command was the defense command, because keeping three shields active over the course of the fight was the best and mostly the only way to leave the battle astride your steed instead of flat on your shield.
When something did finally happen, it was only interesting the first time you saw it.
There are five Grand Champions, of which three are randomly picked. The three Grand Champions make a great show of riding into the Coliseum, to more cheering from the stands than we got, each Champion shadowed by three lesser champions. Adding that up, we are looking at twelve mounted bad guys.
Now, having put us all completely to sleep, one of the Champions sent his three lesser champions right at us. Wild started awake, checking his defense. Dang it, I let it expire! and started frantically mashing buttons. The lesser champions aren't too hard, though. Wild jousted with my chosen target, Charging for extra damage and then using a maneuver which knocks off one of the opponent's shields. Wild isn't the most coordinated of jousters, but I held my own. As soon as the first three were defeated, another three were sent in, and then the final three lesser champions.
With all of their lesser champions defeated, the startled Grand Champions decided it was best to take us upstarts on as a group, and all three rode after us. Those who've done this fight a few times know that the Grand Champions are the same bosses we will have to fight on foot after defeating them on horseback. Since each Grand Champion has different abilities once on foot, there is an order in which they are defeated in the mounted phase. Wild had no clue, so I was happily galloping around tilting my lance at any Champion I could get in range of.
When a Grand Champion is knocked off his mount, he will try to get to another mount located along the sides. The Champion has to be trampled to keep him from mounting up again. All three Champions have to be dismounted to complete the first phase.
We finally got them all off their horses, and then it got really confusing for Wild. We were all unceremoniously thrown from our horses. We were getting attacked on the ground by the now on foot Champions, and someone yelled for us to run out of the instance. Four of us made it, but one disconnected and went offline.
Once we were all back in game, we re-entered the Coliseum. The three Grand Champions were standing around, wondering what the hold up was all about. We engaged and killed them on foot in our normal gear and using our normal abilities. That concluded the first phase, and a chest became available for us to loot the one item inside. This is heroic level gear (ilevel 219) so this is good stuff. Wild would not get to disenchant anything here as every piece earned went to someone who could use it.
In phase 2 we waited to see who we would get. There are two possible bosses, only one of which we will face. This night it was Eadric the Pure. Eadric has two tricks, a Hammer that does significant damage on random raiders, and a spell called Radiance, which is extremely deadly but has a very simple defense - don't be looking at Eadric when he casts it.
About thirty seconds into the fight one of the raiders laughingly asked Wild, "Are you healing us with your back to the raid?"
"Of course," Wild replied, "I don't have to be looking at your ugly mugs to heal you. :P " Radiance was absolutely no problem for Wild.
We killed Eadric, picking up two epics from Eadric's chest. There was a very nice one hand mace called [Muriel's Sorrow] that Wild initially passed on as it could not replace the staff Wild already had. No one else could use it, though, and I thought it might br worth a second look, so I held on to it. I can tell you right now I was very glad I did, because that mace was good enough to become Wild's new main weapon in moonkin form. I liked the look, too.
The final encounter in 5 man ToC is the Black Knight. There is considerable lore behind the Black Knight, who was killed early in the storyline but is now back as a resurrected Undead. We were just interested in killing him.
The Black Knight flew into the Coliseum on his skeletal flying horse, landed and jumped off. He had a heated conversation with the npc announcer, who seemed to be refusing to aid the Knight. The Black Knight slew the announcer right there in front of us and the now rabidly cheering fans, turning the slaughtered announcer into a ghoul. The Black Knight turned to us and the battle was joined.
Wild cast his first heal a tad early, not quite sure how much damage the Black Knight would be dealing on the tank. The heal attracted the ghoul, who came over to gnaw on Wild. The tank got him off me, though, and the Knight started spamming shadow damage spells across the raid. Much fun was had, and the Black Knight died. Then, like a page from Monty Python, the Black Knight rose again as a skeleton and called upon the death knight spell Army of the Dead. Instead of just one ghoul, we now had an army of them gnawing on us. Death knights also have an ability to cause ghouls to explode, which is the height of comic relief in many raids. Wild wasn't amused by all the gore being splattered all over his gear. We kept killing and healing and the ghouls and the Black Knight went down again.
And then here he came again. Give me a break! The Black Knight was now a ghost. More group wide shadow damage and a special treat for a targeted player of an extra 200% damage. Wild healed through it all with one tiny exception. As the Black Knight fell for the third time, so did Wild. I wasn't paying close enough attention to my own health bar. Sigh. I got a rez and we divvied up the loot. Wild had completed Heroic 5 man ToC.
After that we still had some time. The tank, Bd, and Wild stayed in the group for stability while the other three players scooted off to grab their alts and return. We cleared normal ToC three times so that the alts could gear up. Wild did get a few drops to DE on those runs, and they go into the bank to help others in the raid group as needed.
ToC is fun and pretty quick to do. Wild would love to do it more often.
A quick word on Friday's 25 man raid. There wasn't one. We had 15 raiders. I know the guild is trying to address the issue. I know we go through periods like this, so we all have to be patient. For personal reasons, though, I had really hoped we would have enough. Wild noticed that the pattern for the boots Wild has requested from the guild bank is now gone. The guild likes to hand out guild items prior to raids. Wild made sure that all of the mats to make the boots, plus the two gems needed and the mats for the enchant were all in Wild's bags before the raid. But the raid never got off the ground. I really wish I could get those boots!
For those who read the comments section of Wednesday's post, you know I gave you an early look at the results of the Thursday raid. It pays to read the comments, too!
Our raid leader was running late Thursday night, so feral druid started a group with Wild. I had a list of all those who attended the Tuesday raid, so I took the raid leader role and began invites. Such as they were. Only three regulars turned up, and that included the late arriving Bd. Of the five non-guildies who had run with us on Tuesday, only one was in game and he needed to finish another raid he was on before he'd be able to join us.
In the end we scrounged up a couple of folks and decided to go do Heroic 5 man ToC. The 5 man ToC is called Trial of the Champion (to be always confused with 25 man ToC, which is called Trial of the Crusader). Assuming we could beat 5 man ToC in heroic mode, we planned to go slumming and clear the normal 5 man ToC as well so that alts could get some gear.
Most of the newer Dungeons have different versions, almost always having the same encounters - the same layout, the same bosses, etc. The only difference is tuning it for the version - a few more or a few less trash mobs, or an extra ability for a heroic boss and so forth.
One would expect, then, that Toc 5 man and ToC 25 man would be the same, adjusted for the version, just like the others.
Not so. Friday's post covered all of what Wild has seen in ToC 25. Heroic ToC 5 man was nothing like that. Heroic ToC 5 man has a special jousting session that must be won before the real bosses show up. And the bosses are not the same. Other than the fact that the two versions take place in the same Coliseum, everything else is different.
The contest can only be started by talking to an npc announcer. That initiates a very, very long (Yawn . . .) preamble where each raider is announced (to cheering from the fans in the stands and an explanation of the event). Wild decided to master knitting and the language of sanskrit while we waited for something interesting to happen. Oh yes, and that still left plenty of time for us to saunter over to a weapons rack and pick up a lance, and then select a steed to ride. Once mounted up on the steed, commands appeared that we would use during the first phase of the event. The most important command was the defense command, because keeping three shields active over the course of the fight was the best and mostly the only way to leave the battle astride your steed instead of flat on your shield.
When something did finally happen, it was only interesting the first time you saw it.
There are five Grand Champions, of which three are randomly picked. The three Grand Champions make a great show of riding into the Coliseum, to more cheering from the stands than we got, each Champion shadowed by three lesser champions. Adding that up, we are looking at twelve mounted bad guys.
Now, having put us all completely to sleep, one of the Champions sent his three lesser champions right at us. Wild started awake, checking his defense. Dang it, I let it expire! and started frantically mashing buttons. The lesser champions aren't too hard, though. Wild jousted with my chosen target, Charging for extra damage and then using a maneuver which knocks off one of the opponent's shields. Wild isn't the most coordinated of jousters, but I held my own. As soon as the first three were defeated, another three were sent in, and then the final three lesser champions.
With all of their lesser champions defeated, the startled Grand Champions decided it was best to take us upstarts on as a group, and all three rode after us. Those who've done this fight a few times know that the Grand Champions are the same bosses we will have to fight on foot after defeating them on horseback. Since each Grand Champion has different abilities once on foot, there is an order in which they are defeated in the mounted phase. Wild had no clue, so I was happily galloping around tilting my lance at any Champion I could get in range of.
When a Grand Champion is knocked off his mount, he will try to get to another mount located along the sides. The Champion has to be trampled to keep him from mounting up again. All three Champions have to be dismounted to complete the first phase.
We finally got them all off their horses, and then it got really confusing for Wild. We were all unceremoniously thrown from our horses. We were getting attacked on the ground by the now on foot Champions, and someone yelled for us to run out of the instance. Four of us made it, but one disconnected and went offline.
Once we were all back in game, we re-entered the Coliseum. The three Grand Champions were standing around, wondering what the hold up was all about. We engaged and killed them on foot in our normal gear and using our normal abilities. That concluded the first phase, and a chest became available for us to loot the one item inside. This is heroic level gear (ilevel 219) so this is good stuff. Wild would not get to disenchant anything here as every piece earned went to someone who could use it.
In phase 2 we waited to see who we would get. There are two possible bosses, only one of which we will face. This night it was Eadric the Pure. Eadric has two tricks, a Hammer that does significant damage on random raiders, and a spell called Radiance, which is extremely deadly but has a very simple defense - don't be looking at Eadric when he casts it.
About thirty seconds into the fight one of the raiders laughingly asked Wild, "Are you healing us with your back to the raid?"
"Of course," Wild replied, "I don't have to be looking at your ugly mugs to heal you. :P " Radiance was absolutely no problem for Wild.
We killed Eadric, picking up two epics from Eadric's chest. There was a very nice one hand mace called [Muriel's Sorrow] that Wild initially passed on as it could not replace the staff Wild already had. No one else could use it, though, and I thought it might br worth a second look, so I held on to it. I can tell you right now I was very glad I did, because that mace was good enough to become Wild's new main weapon in moonkin form. I liked the look, too.
Wild's new Mace
The final encounter in 5 man ToC is the Black Knight. There is considerable lore behind the Black Knight, who was killed early in the storyline but is now back as a resurrected Undead. We were just interested in killing him.
The Black Knight flew into the Coliseum on his skeletal flying horse, landed and jumped off. He had a heated conversation with the npc announcer, who seemed to be refusing to aid the Knight. The Black Knight slew the announcer right there in front of us and the now rabidly cheering fans, turning the slaughtered announcer into a ghoul. The Black Knight turned to us and the battle was joined.
Wild cast his first heal a tad early, not quite sure how much damage the Black Knight would be dealing on the tank. The heal attracted the ghoul, who came over to gnaw on Wild. The tank got him off me, though, and the Knight started spamming shadow damage spells across the raid. Much fun was had, and the Black Knight died. Then, like a page from Monty Python, the Black Knight rose again as a skeleton and called upon the death knight spell Army of the Dead. Instead of just one ghoul, we now had an army of them gnawing on us. Death knights also have an ability to cause ghouls to explode, which is the height of comic relief in many raids. Wild wasn't amused by all the gore being splattered all over his gear. We kept killing and healing and the ghouls and the Black Knight went down again.
And then here he came again. Give me a break! The Black Knight was now a ghost. More group wide shadow damage and a special treat for a targeted player of an extra 200% damage. Wild healed through it all with one tiny exception. As the Black Knight fell for the third time, so did Wild. I wasn't paying close enough attention to my own health bar. Sigh. I got a rez and we divvied up the loot. Wild had completed Heroic 5 man ToC.
After that we still had some time. The tank, Bd, and Wild stayed in the group for stability while the other three players scooted off to grab their alts and return. We cleared normal ToC three times so that the alts could gear up. Wild did get a few drops to DE on those runs, and they go into the bank to help others in the raid group as needed.
ToC is fun and pretty quick to do. Wild would love to do it more often.
A quick word on Friday's 25 man raid. There wasn't one. We had 15 raiders. I know the guild is trying to address the issue. I know we go through periods like this, so we all have to be patient. For personal reasons, though, I had really hoped we would have enough. Wild noticed that the pattern for the boots Wild has requested from the guild bank is now gone. The guild likes to hand out guild items prior to raids. Wild made sure that all of the mats to make the boots, plus the two gems needed and the mats for the enchant were all in Wild's bags before the raid. But the raid never got off the ground. I really wish I could get those boots!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Wednesday (16 Sep) - Deadly Night of Highs and Lows
Wednesday (16 Sep) - Deadly Night of Highs and Lows
The guild 25 man raid is at least running again. We were not able to fill the raid Wednesday night, but we were able to maintain 23-24 raiders for the whole evening, even with a few coming late or leaving early. It wasn't as good as it should be, both in numbers and class makeups, but we went with what we had. There were only six healers, so surveydrood switched from his usual moonkin spec to resto for the evening. This guy is good at whatever he does, and I believe he heals regularly for his ten man group, so he is both well geared and experienced. We also had a third resto druid, EC, who gets better every time Wild runs with him. Late in the evening we would add a fourth resto druid. With the two moonkin that made it six druids, making up a quarter of the raid. Go droods!
We had assembled at the Argent Tournament grounds, intending to head into Trial of the Crusaders (ToC). Raid officers huddled in a private vent channel talking about whether we had a good enough makeup for ToC, and considered switching to Ulduar. But Rh, the co-raid leader with surveydrood, lobbied to give us a chance in ToC. The gear was better and we needed as much experience as we could get. As Rh explained when the decision was announced, if we wipe and it looks like we just don't have the right mix of raiders, we'll move on. But we're already here at ToC, so let's take some shots at it!
We buffed up and got ready to go. Wild has explained the three part encounter before, so let's just let the first attempt play out as it happened.
Wild was assigned main tank healer to one of three tanks, and asked to HoT the other two as well. Since this encounter includes three boss fights, healing assignments changed depending on what we were fighting.
Gormok the Impaler stepped through the opening saloon doors to the central floor of the Coliseum, and we engaged. Wild starting stacking HoTs on the tanks and helping to raid heal, keeping one eye on my charge, the main tank, and another eye on the health of the raid. Another eye watched Wild in case Gormok tossed a face eating snobold my way, and for the first time in a number of these fights Wild got one. A spot had been designated for the snobold afflicted to run to, and Wild did that with alacrity. DPS raiders blasted the snobold off of Wild even as Wild continued healing the main tank. Wild needed a fourth eye to watch out for the fires that are laid down by the snobolds. "Stay out of the fire" has become a joke on the fact that so many of the newer raids use this form of attack over and over again.
Not everyone survived Gormok, but we were flush with battle rezzing druids and we got the two dead raiders rezzed in time to see Gormok fall.
"Move toward the doors!" the raid leader called out as the snake twins, Acidmaw and Dreadscale, slithered through. The tanks had to pick up the two jormungers quickly as we'd had problems in the past with healers and DPS not staying range of the moving tanks. Wild was hot on his tank's rear as he engaged Acidmaw, and the rest of the raid moved into position. While the two snakes are engaged, the main thing to watch out for are the debuffs, burning bile and paralytic toxin, which the two snakes cast on random players. The two very deadly spells can only be cleaned when two raiders, one with the toxin and one with the bile, get close to each other, which neutralizes both spells.
Acidmaw and Dreadscale burrowed underground, and raiders scattered so that the snakes would not emerge in the middle of a large group. As soon as they surfaced again the tanks re-engaged, hoping that the DPS gave them time to re-establish aggro before the shooting started. The raid reformed around the new positions of the snakes and we went another round. Twice the snakes submerged, and the second time they emerged we killed one of them. The surviving snake, whichever one it was, submerged a third time, but we didn't give it a fourth. The second snake died.
No time for cheering, because here came Icehowl. We'd only lost one raider against the snakes, and again he was battle rezzed. Icehowl is a straightforward fight with Wild worrying only about two things. Icehowl blasted the entired raid, throwing us all up against the walls and stunning us. That was one. Fixing his eye on one of the raiders, we could see his huge muscles bunch up for a Charge. Wild was craning his head at right angles to his position, and as soon as the stun broke he ran pell mel about ten feet just in case Icehowl was headed in his direction. Icehowl Charged and butted his head against the wall, missing his target and stunning himself. For fifteen seconds DPS rained destruction on Icehowl.
Icehowl recovered, and we faced several more iterations of that. Icehowl also spews an icy breath in a large cone that freezes those caught in it for several seconds, and which also cuts off healing. That was the second thing Wild worried about. Wild had been studying Icehowl, trying to predict which direction he turned when using his icy breath, because no matter where Wild stood he always seemed get caught in that stream. Wild may not have totally figured it out, but it did look like Icehowl always turned toward the center the of room, wherever he happened to be. The breath always followed a Charge, too, so Wild made sure that after every Charge he ran to Icehowl and his tank along a path toward the wall and not in the middle. Wild was only hit once early on and was able to stay out of it the rest of the way.
Icehowl died. The short-handed raid with the wrong makeup one shot the first encounter in ToC. And did it with every raider standing at the end. That was the high point of the night.
The raid leaders had assumed that it would take a few attempts to either beat this encounter or figure out we weren't going to beat it this night, and the plan was to move from ToC to VoA, the raid inside the pvp zone, Wintergrasp. Horde controlled it and we wanted a crack those bosses which drop T9 gear.
With our one shot victory, though, we had made time to see how we would do against the second encounter in ToC, Lord Jaraxxus.
The Lord Jaraxxus encounter, according to wowhead, "is significantly more complicated" than the earlier encounter, but is "still a relatively easy fight." I beg to differ. Over the next hour Wild would learn to hate this guy and this fight.
On our first attempt Wild was totally confused. Was it incinerate flesh that caused fires under me and did that turn me green or was it legion flame? Which one did I run away from and which one was I supposed to stand still for? The raid had to be very spread out, yet every raider had to be in range of at least two of the three healers designated to heal those who got incinerate flesh, because if they didn't receive 60k in healing in under 12 seconds, the raider exploded, doing massive damage to the whole raid.
Don't stand any closer than 15 yards to another raider or Fel Lightning will jump from raider to raider. Oh by the way, Volcanoes are going to erupt, spewing three infernals who'll run around killing people until the off tank can get control of them. Wild got to see a lot of those mounds of moving rock in his face. Want more? How about a Nether Portal which spawns a Mistress of Pain? Yep, lots of fun and games in this fight.
We made five attempts on Jaraxxus. The good news is that Wild did finally figure out how to tell the difference between the stand in one place incinerate flesh and the "move is an arc toward the wall while leaving flaming pools on the ground" legion flame. We had a terrible time with the Fel Lightning until we grouped up in pairs and stood at specifically assigned spots. That meant two raiders would always be hit, but only two raiders. Wild learned to play the dangerous game of Dare, where Wild and his partner held position, nervously watching for all of above, and only moving when forced by imminent death.
Surveydrood, who has accepted the unpopular role of telling raiders what they did wrong, kept driving home the point to "stay out of the fire." Wild seemed strangely attracted to it, however, and kept dying. Wild was finally cautioned to "heal himself" even before the tank if that's what it took. We couldn't afford to lose healers.
Chastised, Wild vowed to take that to heart on our fifth attempt, even though it violated rule #1, "the tank shall never die." Midway in the fight, Wild's partner, also a healer, got legion flame, and he didn't move. Wild made a belated dash to get away, but we both died.
We got Jaraxxus to 5% health on that fifth attempt, with two healers missing in action. We came SO CLOSE! I hate Jaraxxus and I hate those fires down below. So take that, Bob Seger.
We had pushed the time envelope as far as we could and we had to get over to Vault of Archovan. Our main target was the newest boss in VoA, Koralon.
Despite Wild's erratic play, Wild had been leading all healers in total healing up to the fifth attempt, but being dead half the fight took it's toll and he dropped to 4th. Of the seven healers, though, it was kind of nice to see druids holding positions #1, #4, and #5, with our healing leader shaman at #2 and a pally at #3.
Koralon was worse than Jaraxxus. The fires in that fight kill in about two seconds if you don't move; the chamber is small so you not only have to watch for fires hitting you directly, you have to make sure you have a safe line of flight away from other pools of flame; even the floor is fire colored, making even seeing the flames for a color challenged druid difficult; and since everything Koralon does is fire based, the whole room is constantly engulfed in orange, yellow, and red.
We made three attempts and Wild died every time. On two of those attempts Wild died twice, having gotten rezzes. Wild wasn't the only one, but I really got tired of hearing in raid chat the weary voice of surveydrood: "Wild's dead. Somebody got a rez?" I know surveydrood had to bite his tongue to keep from adding, "Again."
On our three attempts we got Koralon to 4%, 12%, and 8%, spitting distance each time of beating him. But we came away empty handed.
Wild hung on to 4th in healing with surveydrood taking the #1 spot. Kudos to EC, too, for healing his way past both the pally and Wild and finishing 3rd. So druids finished the evening with the #1, #3, and #4 spots.
The DPS was truly impressive. Top honors to the 5k club:
#1: hunter, 5496 DPS
#2: DK, 5281 DPS
#3: melee shaman, 5004 DPS
This is one night Wild hopes to forget. However, we will be doing it all over again come Friday. I can't wait. Groan.
The guild 25 man raid is at least running again. We were not able to fill the raid Wednesday night, but we were able to maintain 23-24 raiders for the whole evening, even with a few coming late or leaving early. It wasn't as good as it should be, both in numbers and class makeups, but we went with what we had. There were only six healers, so surveydrood switched from his usual moonkin spec to resto for the evening. This guy is good at whatever he does, and I believe he heals regularly for his ten man group, so he is both well geared and experienced. We also had a third resto druid, EC, who gets better every time Wild runs with him. Late in the evening we would add a fourth resto druid. With the two moonkin that made it six druids, making up a quarter of the raid. Go droods!
We had assembled at the Argent Tournament grounds, intending to head into Trial of the Crusaders (ToC). Raid officers huddled in a private vent channel talking about whether we had a good enough makeup for ToC, and considered switching to Ulduar. But Rh, the co-raid leader with surveydrood, lobbied to give us a chance in ToC. The gear was better and we needed as much experience as we could get. As Rh explained when the decision was announced, if we wipe and it looks like we just don't have the right mix of raiders, we'll move on. But we're already here at ToC, so let's take some shots at it!
We buffed up and got ready to go. Wild has explained the three part encounter before, so let's just let the first attempt play out as it happened.
Wild was assigned main tank healer to one of three tanks, and asked to HoT the other two as well. Since this encounter includes three boss fights, healing assignments changed depending on what we were fighting.
Gormok the Impaler stepped through the opening saloon doors to the central floor of the Coliseum, and we engaged. Wild starting stacking HoTs on the tanks and helping to raid heal, keeping one eye on my charge, the main tank, and another eye on the health of the raid. Another eye watched Wild in case Gormok tossed a face eating snobold my way, and for the first time in a number of these fights Wild got one. A spot had been designated for the snobold afflicted to run to, and Wild did that with alacrity. DPS raiders blasted the snobold off of Wild even as Wild continued healing the main tank. Wild needed a fourth eye to watch out for the fires that are laid down by the snobolds. "Stay out of the fire" has become a joke on the fact that so many of the newer raids use this form of attack over and over again.
Not everyone survived Gormok, but we were flush with battle rezzing druids and we got the two dead raiders rezzed in time to see Gormok fall.
"Move toward the doors!" the raid leader called out as the snake twins, Acidmaw and Dreadscale, slithered through. The tanks had to pick up the two jormungers quickly as we'd had problems in the past with healers and DPS not staying range of the moving tanks. Wild was hot on his tank's rear as he engaged Acidmaw, and the rest of the raid moved into position. While the two snakes are engaged, the main thing to watch out for are the debuffs, burning bile and paralytic toxin, which the two snakes cast on random players. The two very deadly spells can only be cleaned when two raiders, one with the toxin and one with the bile, get close to each other, which neutralizes both spells.
Acidmaw and Dreadscale burrowed underground, and raiders scattered so that the snakes would not emerge in the middle of a large group. As soon as they surfaced again the tanks re-engaged, hoping that the DPS gave them time to re-establish aggro before the shooting started. The raid reformed around the new positions of the snakes and we went another round. Twice the snakes submerged, and the second time they emerged we killed one of them. The surviving snake, whichever one it was, submerged a third time, but we didn't give it a fourth. The second snake died.
No time for cheering, because here came Icehowl. We'd only lost one raider against the snakes, and again he was battle rezzed. Icehowl is a straightforward fight with Wild worrying only about two things. Icehowl blasted the entired raid, throwing us all up against the walls and stunning us. That was one. Fixing his eye on one of the raiders, we could see his huge muscles bunch up for a Charge. Wild was craning his head at right angles to his position, and as soon as the stun broke he ran pell mel about ten feet just in case Icehowl was headed in his direction. Icehowl Charged and butted his head against the wall, missing his target and stunning himself. For fifteen seconds DPS rained destruction on Icehowl.
Icehowl recovered, and we faced several more iterations of that. Icehowl also spews an icy breath in a large cone that freezes those caught in it for several seconds, and which also cuts off healing. That was the second thing Wild worried about. Wild had been studying Icehowl, trying to predict which direction he turned when using his icy breath, because no matter where Wild stood he always seemed get caught in that stream. Wild may not have totally figured it out, but it did look like Icehowl always turned toward the center the of room, wherever he happened to be. The breath always followed a Charge, too, so Wild made sure that after every Charge he ran to Icehowl and his tank along a path toward the wall and not in the middle. Wild was only hit once early on and was able to stay out of it the rest of the way.
Icehowl died. The short-handed raid with the wrong makeup one shot the first encounter in ToC. And did it with every raider standing at the end. That was the high point of the night.
The raid leaders had assumed that it would take a few attempts to either beat this encounter or figure out we weren't going to beat it this night, and the plan was to move from ToC to VoA, the raid inside the pvp zone, Wintergrasp. Horde controlled it and we wanted a crack those bosses which drop T9 gear.
With our one shot victory, though, we had made time to see how we would do against the second encounter in ToC, Lord Jaraxxus.
The Lord Jaraxxus encounter, according to wowhead, "is significantly more complicated" than the earlier encounter, but is "still a relatively easy fight." I beg to differ. Over the next hour Wild would learn to hate this guy and this fight.
On our first attempt Wild was totally confused. Was it incinerate flesh that caused fires under me and did that turn me green or was it legion flame? Which one did I run away from and which one was I supposed to stand still for? The raid had to be very spread out, yet every raider had to be in range of at least two of the three healers designated to heal those who got incinerate flesh, because if they didn't receive 60k in healing in under 12 seconds, the raider exploded, doing massive damage to the whole raid.
Don't stand any closer than 15 yards to another raider or Fel Lightning will jump from raider to raider. Oh by the way, Volcanoes are going to erupt, spewing three infernals who'll run around killing people until the off tank can get control of them. Wild got to see a lot of those mounds of moving rock in his face. Want more? How about a Nether Portal which spawns a Mistress of Pain? Yep, lots of fun and games in this fight.
We made five attempts on Jaraxxus. The good news is that Wild did finally figure out how to tell the difference between the stand in one place incinerate flesh and the "move is an arc toward the wall while leaving flaming pools on the ground" legion flame. We had a terrible time with the Fel Lightning until we grouped up in pairs and stood at specifically assigned spots. That meant two raiders would always be hit, but only two raiders. Wild learned to play the dangerous game of Dare, where Wild and his partner held position, nervously watching for all of above, and only moving when forced by imminent death.
Surveydrood, who has accepted the unpopular role of telling raiders what they did wrong, kept driving home the point to "stay out of the fire." Wild seemed strangely attracted to it, however, and kept dying. Wild was finally cautioned to "heal himself" even before the tank if that's what it took. We couldn't afford to lose healers.
Chastised, Wild vowed to take that to heart on our fifth attempt, even though it violated rule #1, "the tank shall never die." Midway in the fight, Wild's partner, also a healer, got legion flame, and he didn't move. Wild made a belated dash to get away, but we both died.
We got Jaraxxus to 5% health on that fifth attempt, with two healers missing in action. We came SO CLOSE! I hate Jaraxxus and I hate those fires down below. So take that, Bob Seger.
We had pushed the time envelope as far as we could and we had to get over to Vault of Archovan. Our main target was the newest boss in VoA, Koralon.
Despite Wild's erratic play, Wild had been leading all healers in total healing up to the fifth attempt, but being dead half the fight took it's toll and he dropped to 4th. Of the seven healers, though, it was kind of nice to see druids holding positions #1, #4, and #5, with our healing leader shaman at #2 and a pally at #3.
Koralon was worse than Jaraxxus. The fires in that fight kill in about two seconds if you don't move; the chamber is small so you not only have to watch for fires hitting you directly, you have to make sure you have a safe line of flight away from other pools of flame; even the floor is fire colored, making even seeing the flames for a color challenged druid difficult; and since everything Koralon does is fire based, the whole room is constantly engulfed in orange, yellow, and red.
We made three attempts and Wild died every time. On two of those attempts Wild died twice, having gotten rezzes. Wild wasn't the only one, but I really got tired of hearing in raid chat the weary voice of surveydrood: "Wild's dead. Somebody got a rez?" I know surveydrood had to bite his tongue to keep from adding, "Again."
On our three attempts we got Koralon to 4%, 12%, and 8%, spitting distance each time of beating him. But we came away empty handed.
Wild hung on to 4th in healing with surveydrood taking the #1 spot. Kudos to EC, too, for healing his way past both the pally and Wild and finishing 3rd. So druids finished the evening with the #1, #3, and #4 spots.
The DPS was truly impressive. Top honors to the 5k club:
#1: hunter, 5496 DPS
#2: DK, 5281 DPS
#3: melee shaman, 5004 DPS
This is one night Wild hopes to forget. However, we will be doing it all over again come Friday. I can't wait. Groan.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Tuesday Part 2 (15 Sep) - At Last, Ulduar Ten Man (Really)
Tuesday Part 2 (15 Sep) - At Last, Ulduar Ten Man (Really)
Without the help of another guild, we would not have been able to run Lady Hunter's ten man on Tuesday night. Our co-raid leader, Bd, has an alt in another guild, and occasionally raiders from that other guild have joined us. Bd had sent an in game mail to all the regulars letting us know that he intended to fill in the raid with folks from the other guild if we did not get a good turn out.
Well, our raid was a half and half raid, with five regulars and five more joining us from the other raid. P-Jo couldn't join us, but we got a well geared holy paladin who Wild has raided with a couple of times and proved to be very good. For our third healer we got a druid making his first Ulduar run. Our regular off tank was absent as well, and so another raider new to Ulduar, a protection paladin, was tapped to off tank. For DPS we had a moonkin, rogue, warlock, death knight, and a melee paladin. The mix of players was very good and Wild quickly took a liking to the new raiders.
Since paladins are better tank healers than raid healers, Wild assigned the pally healer to the main tank. Wild took off tank healing, and asked the new resto druid to raid heal and to handle the special situations that every boss has. That would work well throughout the night.
We did not set hard mode for any of the encounters as Bd wanted to get through the early bosses so that we could work on those we hadn't mastered yet. Flame Leviathon was up first, as always, and we destroyed the big tank on our first attempt. One down.
We made a detour to an optional boss, Razorscale, because we usually have good luck against the dragon. We wiped on our first attempt, and P-Jo, who was listening in on vent even though she couldn't play, told the raid to "Bring out the kitties!" Most of us have cats of one sort or the other as in game pets, and we dutifully released them from their kennels to join us. Of course, they can do no real damage, but we use them as good luck charms. The kitty charms worked - Razorscale fell on our second try. Two down.
Wild worried a little about the next boss, XT, because of the robot's Tantrum, which can severely damage the whole raid. With the pally focused on healing the main tank, Wild and the other druid healer had to really pour on the heals during tantrums. It worked out fine, though, and XT went down. Three down.
With things going very much in our favor we turned to another optional boss, Ignis. Two good tanks are needed for this fight, one to handle Ignis and be able to kite him around the room along a designated path, and the other to race after spawning constructs and perform a somewhat complicated series of actions and movements to kill them. Bd decided it would be better if he did the constructs, so the pally became the main tank. Raid wide damage by Ignis is even worse than with XT, and Wild needed to be able to raid heal, so the pally healer got to be the main tank healer for the pally tank.
There were too many working parts for the newer raiders to take in on the first attempt, but we still got pretty far along before wiping. Once again, though, we had it down by our second try and killed Ignis. Four down.
After dealing very smoothly with some difficult trash mobs, we went face to belt buckle with the very giant Kologarn. We have a couple of kills against him, but this is still an iffy fight for us. Not on this night, though, as he went down on our first try. Five down.
Our moonkin had to leave and we brought in a healing shaman. We asked the new resto druid to switch specs to moonkin, and we were back in business. Wild didn't even offer to go moonkin as I knew Wild's heals were needed.
We could have taken a third detour to try the Iron Council optional encounter, but we only had an hour left and Bd was anxious to get some attempts in on Auriaya, the Cat Lady. We have yet to kill her.
We decided to try a new strategy that required moving from spot to spot in a circular pattern. This helped keep Auriaya from stacking spawning cats on us. For this fight it is critical to stay grouped closely together, preferably with the cat lady facing toward us. Wild had a hard time having to continuously change position, getting out of position more than once, which got Wild killed and other raiders as well.
We tried three times against the Cat Lady, and while we didn't do that well, wiping pretty early each time, it was practice that we needed.
Since we changed healers partway in, there were only two of us for the whole evening, and we were pretty well dead even with each other.
#1: Wild, 2054 hps, 34.2% of the healing
#2: pally, 2365/32.4%
The other resto druid was healing at around 1500 hps when he swapped out to moonkin. The shammy was also around that number. Both did fine as the third healer.
I don't have any DPS stats for the night as I forgot to reset the meter after Flame Leviathon, which badly screwed with the results.
Long after the raid broke up and Wild was back in Dalaran, Wild noticed that he was still wearing the Argent Dawn Commission trinket. He'd done all of Ulduar without his usual healing trinket, losing over +100 spellpower. Sigh.
Wednesday - Before the planned 25 man run for Wednesday night, Wild had to scratch his Scholomance itch. Now that Wild had some idea of how things were laid out in there, he planned to find out where this place was keeping the other 11 bosses he didn't see the first time. Wild was able to move faster through the nearest rooms, tagging the patrols and pulling them to a clump of mobs to AoE down with Hurricane. Wild moved so smoothly from group to group he had to stop for mana to regen periodically (Hurricane is a great spell against lower level mobs, but it does use a lot of mana).
Wild found doors and side rooms the second time through that he hadn't seen on the prior visit. More bosses appeared - and died. It wasn't long, though, that Wild found himself outside the room with the wooden door and those spell immune skeletons. Not these guys again. Druids are a very versatile class; there has to be a better way to deal with them. There was, and Wild's strategy took best advantage of all of a druid's tools.
First, Wild switched to caster form and cast all of his HoTs on himself - lifebloom, rejuv, and regrowth. Wild then dropped into bear form while those HoTs were still ticking and Charged the room, rounding up every critter in there; undead, skeletons, even a spider or two, not to mention the rats. When Wild had them all in one place he switched back to caster and let his three leetle friends loose on those skeletons. Wild refreshed his HoTs and shifted into moonkin. Then blasted what was left with Hurricane.
Pause for effect.
All was unearthly quiet in that room. Not a creature was stirring, not even a level 1 rat. Every mob was dead. That's how you do it.
It was a good strategy, one that Wild discovered he would need again. Wild found another basement room that was sectioned off into four long corridors. All four of those corridors were filled with undead and skeletons. Using his caster-bear-caster-moonkin strategy, Wild rounded up mobs one corridor at a time and burned them down with the Force of Nature trees and Hurricane.
It took Wild exactly 90 minutes to do a complete clear of Scholomance, killing all 13 bosses and every living and unliving soul in the place. It took four minutes for Wild to find his way out. :)
Even before turning in all the scourgestones Wild collected, his rep improved from 9223 to 11748, leaving him needing just 252 rep to Revered. Turning in the scourgestones did the trick. Wild now has a +15 spellpower to bracers enchant usable by low level players.
DER and Wild are planning a few old school dungeon crawls together. There is the chance for some gold and goodies, as well as getting the achievement, of course, but it's mostly for the fun of seeing places that some of us never got to experience.
Without the help of another guild, we would not have been able to run Lady Hunter's ten man on Tuesday night. Our co-raid leader, Bd, has an alt in another guild, and occasionally raiders from that other guild have joined us. Bd had sent an in game mail to all the regulars letting us know that he intended to fill in the raid with folks from the other guild if we did not get a good turn out.
Well, our raid was a half and half raid, with five regulars and five more joining us from the other raid. P-Jo couldn't join us, but we got a well geared holy paladin who Wild has raided with a couple of times and proved to be very good. For our third healer we got a druid making his first Ulduar run. Our regular off tank was absent as well, and so another raider new to Ulduar, a protection paladin, was tapped to off tank. For DPS we had a moonkin, rogue, warlock, death knight, and a melee paladin. The mix of players was very good and Wild quickly took a liking to the new raiders.
Since paladins are better tank healers than raid healers, Wild assigned the pally healer to the main tank. Wild took off tank healing, and asked the new resto druid to raid heal and to handle the special situations that every boss has. That would work well throughout the night.
We did not set hard mode for any of the encounters as Bd wanted to get through the early bosses so that we could work on those we hadn't mastered yet. Flame Leviathon was up first, as always, and we destroyed the big tank on our first attempt. One down.
We made a detour to an optional boss, Razorscale, because we usually have good luck against the dragon. We wiped on our first attempt, and P-Jo, who was listening in on vent even though she couldn't play, told the raid to "Bring out the kitties!" Most of us have cats of one sort or the other as in game pets, and we dutifully released them from their kennels to join us. Of course, they can do no real damage, but we use them as good luck charms. The kitty charms worked - Razorscale fell on our second try. Two down.
Wild worried a little about the next boss, XT, because of the robot's Tantrum, which can severely damage the whole raid. With the pally focused on healing the main tank, Wild and the other druid healer had to really pour on the heals during tantrums. It worked out fine, though, and XT went down. Three down.
With things going very much in our favor we turned to another optional boss, Ignis. Two good tanks are needed for this fight, one to handle Ignis and be able to kite him around the room along a designated path, and the other to race after spawning constructs and perform a somewhat complicated series of actions and movements to kill them. Bd decided it would be better if he did the constructs, so the pally became the main tank. Raid wide damage by Ignis is even worse than with XT, and Wild needed to be able to raid heal, so the pally healer got to be the main tank healer for the pally tank.
There were too many working parts for the newer raiders to take in on the first attempt, but we still got pretty far along before wiping. Once again, though, we had it down by our second try and killed Ignis. Four down.
After dealing very smoothly with some difficult trash mobs, we went face to belt buckle with the very giant Kologarn. We have a couple of kills against him, but this is still an iffy fight for us. Not on this night, though, as he went down on our first try. Five down.
Our moonkin had to leave and we brought in a healing shaman. We asked the new resto druid to switch specs to moonkin, and we were back in business. Wild didn't even offer to go moonkin as I knew Wild's heals were needed.
We could have taken a third detour to try the Iron Council optional encounter, but we only had an hour left and Bd was anxious to get some attempts in on Auriaya, the Cat Lady. We have yet to kill her.
We decided to try a new strategy that required moving from spot to spot in a circular pattern. This helped keep Auriaya from stacking spawning cats on us. For this fight it is critical to stay grouped closely together, preferably with the cat lady facing toward us. Wild had a hard time having to continuously change position, getting out of position more than once, which got Wild killed and other raiders as well.
We tried three times against the Cat Lady, and while we didn't do that well, wiping pretty early each time, it was practice that we needed.
Since we changed healers partway in, there were only two of us for the whole evening, and we were pretty well dead even with each other.
#1: Wild, 2054 hps, 34.2% of the healing
#2: pally, 2365/32.4%
The other resto druid was healing at around 1500 hps when he swapped out to moonkin. The shammy was also around that number. Both did fine as the third healer.
I don't have any DPS stats for the night as I forgot to reset the meter after Flame Leviathon, which badly screwed with the results.
Long after the raid broke up and Wild was back in Dalaran, Wild noticed that he was still wearing the Argent Dawn Commission trinket. He'd done all of Ulduar without his usual healing trinket, losing over +100 spellpower. Sigh.
Wednesday - Before the planned 25 man run for Wednesday night, Wild had to scratch his Scholomance itch. Now that Wild had some idea of how things were laid out in there, he planned to find out where this place was keeping the other 11 bosses he didn't see the first time. Wild was able to move faster through the nearest rooms, tagging the patrols and pulling them to a clump of mobs to AoE down with Hurricane. Wild moved so smoothly from group to group he had to stop for mana to regen periodically (Hurricane is a great spell against lower level mobs, but it does use a lot of mana).
Wild found doors and side rooms the second time through that he hadn't seen on the prior visit. More bosses appeared - and died. It wasn't long, though, that Wild found himself outside the room with the wooden door and those spell immune skeletons. Not these guys again. Druids are a very versatile class; there has to be a better way to deal with them. There was, and Wild's strategy took best advantage of all of a druid's tools.
First, Wild switched to caster form and cast all of his HoTs on himself - lifebloom, rejuv, and regrowth. Wild then dropped into bear form while those HoTs were still ticking and Charged the room, rounding up every critter in there; undead, skeletons, even a spider or two, not to mention the rats. When Wild had them all in one place he switched back to caster and let his three leetle friends loose on those skeletons. Wild refreshed his HoTs and shifted into moonkin. Then blasted what was left with Hurricane.
Pause for effect.
All was unearthly quiet in that room. Not a creature was stirring, not even a level 1 rat. Every mob was dead. That's how you do it.
It was a good strategy, one that Wild discovered he would need again. Wild found another basement room that was sectioned off into four long corridors. All four of those corridors were filled with undead and skeletons. Using his caster-bear-caster-moonkin strategy, Wild rounded up mobs one corridor at a time and burned them down with the Force of Nature trees and Hurricane.
The Skeletons DIE!
The Trees Win
Nice Pattern
Nice Pattern
It took Wild exactly 90 minutes to do a complete clear of Scholomance, killing all 13 bosses and every living and unliving soul in the place. It took four minutes for Wild to find his way out. :)
Even before turning in all the scourgestones Wild collected, his rep improved from 9223 to 11748, leaving him needing just 252 rep to Revered. Turning in the scourgestones did the trick. Wild now has a +15 spellpower to bracers enchant usable by low level players.
DER and Wild are planning a few old school dungeon crawls together. There is the chance for some gold and goodies, as well as getting the achievement, of course, but it's mostly for the fun of seeing places that some of us never got to experience.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Tuesday (15 Sep) - At Last, Ulduar Ten Man (maybe)
Tuesday (15 Sep) - At Last, Ulduar Ten Man (maybe)
Wild happened to catch in game a good friend and enchanter who I had been looking for. Wild called her Lady Rogue when she was running with us, but she moved on some time ago, and now she is leaving the server all together. I thought she'd already gone, but she told me her last day would be this coming Sunday. I hoped she could do one last favor for Wild - check her enchants to see if she had either of the pre-BC weapon enchants the twinks wanted: +30 spellpower or +22 intellect. Sad to say, she had neither enchant. The search continues.
Along the same lines Wild decided he wanted to get the +16 spellpower to gloves recipe, another pre-BC enchant. The recipe could be bought once Wild attained Revered rep with the Argent Dawn. Wild is at Honored with 5275 rep, and needed to get to 12000 rep to reach Revered. After taking a look at what things Wild could do to gain rep, Wild settled on Scholomance as his best choice.
Scholomance is a pre-BC 5 man dungeon for level 60s. Scholo requires a skeleton key to gain entry, something Wild started to get long ago through a quest series but never finished. Wild never made it into Scholo when Wild was a 60, either, and without a key Wild never tried to solo it.
Many Argent Dawn quests begin in the Bulwarks, a small encampment on the border of Tirisfal Glades and the Western Plaguelands. Once Wild got his bearings (as his time time in this area started coming back to him) he figured out that he had stopped questing here after getting four of the six quests required to get the key. Most likely that was because the 5th quest required killing a heavily protected elite in the dangerous town of Andorhal. Well, there was nothing that could give Wild pause in Andorhal now. There was another piece of history that needed to be corrected as well before Wild could start grinding rep. A significant part of increasing faction with Argent Dawn is the turn in of scourgestones of various types. These stones drop off of the undead mobs throughout the region, but only if you are carrying an Argent Dawn Commission trinket. Wild had long ago destroyed that trinket to make room for other (probably just as useless) items. It was an easy fix as there was an npc near Andorhal that would give Wild another one.
With a new trinket and the skeleton key, Wild went in search of Scholomance. If you look at a map of the Eastern Plaguelands (EPL), located to the east of the Western Plaguelands (duh!), you will not see Scholomance. It took a few minutes for Wild to ferret out the fact that Scholo was on the island of Caer Darrow, which was in the middle of a large lake in EPL.
There was no road to the island. Wild could find the lake's shoreline and swim across to the island, or he could take a shorter shoreline swim and then follow a ridge of land to a land bridge that connected to the island (but otherwise went no where). Wild took the land bridge.
I'd browsed through the information about Scholo, including descriptions of several ways to work through the dungeon. Having never seen the inside of the place, it was very confusing. Since the idea was to kill everything inside for the faction rep, Wild decided it didn't much matter which way he went or what path he followed.
Wild trotted through an open archway and up a semi-circular road to the entrance.
Wild's first look at the exterior of Scholomance
The swirling entrance beckoned, and Wild went in. There was a short wood floored ramp from the entrance to a closed wrought iron door. Two level 59 elites guarded it. Wild one shot them both.
Wild moved further inside. What he found was a darkly lit mansion full of large, exquisitely furnished rooms packed with groups of mobs busy with whatever it is mobs do. Wild imagined a group of level 60s entering here, knowing that they would face endless trash mobs before ever seeing their first boss. And there are plenty of bosses - 13 of them, in fact. Groups could spend a very long time in here.
Here's a sample of what different areas looked like as Wild worked his way through the trash.
The Chamber of Summoning
The Great Ossuary
A room full of neutral npcs
Wild was pleased that the trash mobs were in convenient clumps of 3-4. Wild simply walked into their midst and cast Hurricane. A few seconds later the group was dead. Wild moved from room to room, each time having to use his key to open the door to a new area. Bodies mounted and Wild's bags began to bulge with the loot he was collecting.
This process went smoothly until Wild made his way down to the basement and discovered a door that opened by itself. After having to unlock every previous door, seeing one open by itself was a bit eery, as I'm sure it was meant to be. The smallish room on the other side of the door was packed with mobs, both undead types and skeleton mobs. On the far side of the room was a closed wooden door, another oddity since every other door has been the wrought iron type.
Ok, no biggy. Wild calmly walked through the right half of the room, making his way to the wooden door in the opposite corner, bringing with him the couple of dozen mobs he was aggroing on the way. Once they were packed in banging away on Wild in his chicken suit, Wild cast Hurricane. It was funny watching the bodies start to fall. All of the undead mobs died. The skeletons, called "risen aberrations", didn't. Hmm. Interesting. Wild cast another hurricane. The skeletons still didn't die. Matter of fact, they didn't seem fazed at all by Wild's best AoE spell. Wild tried all of his spells - they had no effect on them. Wild then noticed that elite mobs twenty levels below Wild can still start to hurt if there are enough of them. Wild hotted himself up with heals, but he was down to 50% health and this wasn't funny anymore. Wild popped his Nature's Swiftness spell to get a bigger gulp of health. The action was attracting more mobs from the rest of the room and Wild figured he should find a safer place to deal with this little problem.
Wild moved out of the room, bringing a large cadre of skeletons and a few other undead with him. Wild's instant heals were not going to be enough to keep Wild alive, and longer cast healing spells were taking forever to cast due to constant interruption by the tons of skeletons surrounding Wild. Wild was down to 32% health. Come on, a bunch of level 60s is NOT going to kill me!
All the time Wild was trying all of his tricks, he was of course auto-attacking with his staff. And that seemed to be doing damage. Ok, some positive news, plain vanilla melee attacks work, but it would take forever to kill them all that way, and Wild wasn't sure that he had forever to do it. But he had friends who could speed that up. Wild cast Force of Nature, bringing three trees to life, and my leetle friends dispatched the whole lot of them in about ten seconds. So caster classes beware - as I learned by going and reading up on these risen aberrations, only physical attacks and holy spell attacks work - they are immune to everything else.
Wild avoided the remaining mobs in the room and opened the wooden door. Force of Nature has a long cooldown and Wild wasn't messing with more skeletons while it was not available. The next room was full of more skeletons - no, I'm just kidding. It was full of neutral npcs who did not bother Wild. What a nice change of pace.
Wild spent well over an hour in Scholo, and found only two bosses, Rattlegore and Ras Frostwhisper. Both were easy to dispatch, and gave up extra rep. This is one huge place. Bosses give 50 rep, while each mob gives 10 rep. Wild was completely out of bag space and out of time.
Wild got a lot of green gear and several blues to disenchant. I even got a BOE drop of a Magister's set piece that Wild sent along to Philly. Wild also got two drops of what used to be a very desired weapon enchant called Lifestealing that can only be gotten in Scholo. Wild learned the spell and then sent the other one to Happy to sell.
Wild started the day with 5275 rep with Argent Dawn. After Scholo and the turn in of the scourgestones he'd collected, Wild was at 9223. Since some of that was quest turn ins that Wild can't get again, I think it will take two more trips to get to Revered.
In Part 2 I'll let you know how Ulduar went - or IF Ulduar went, given the problems with attendance that we've been having.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday (15 Sep) - The Return of PvP
Monday (15 Sep) - The Return of PvP
EZ fretted all Monday evening as she was forced to wait until after the Monday night football game to get some game time (a thoroughly unimpressive start to the season for the Chargers, despite a 24-20 win).
It was past 10:30pm server time before the game was over. Ando was on, back from his own extended absence, and was still in need of a pair of bracers from Ragefire Chasm. Mel volunteered to help, and after a half hour and four runs, Ando had his bracers.
EZ and Ando decided to turn xp back on, paid their 10g to the rogue that hangs out with the battleground masters, and signed up. With xp turned on we had a better chance of getting a match, and with our almost complete twink gear set, we should have an edge against lower level and lesser geared opponents. Of course, the alliance would also have their share of almost twinks.
A glitch in the invites to the battlegroups put Ando in a match without EZ for several long minutes. A spot opened up midway through the battle, though, and EZ joined the horde team.
EZ has had a rough time figuring out pvp from a DPS perspective. Wild has been primarily a healer over the course of his long existence and so has not been much of a help to his family in learning the DPS or pvp ropes. Sage advice from both Red's and Myst's cadre of pvpers have helped and EZ continues to draw on their experience and knowledge. Like all new things, though, it's practice, practice, practice that builds the reflexes and improves the decision-making in the heat of battle.
EZ has gone through a number of phases since first embarking on the pvp lifestyle as a DPS instead of a healer. She was very gung ho to be a melee pvper, and built a gear set heavy in +agi to raise her crit for those Fiery Weapon and Flametongue enchanced close combat assaults. That approach ignored a major element of a low level shaman - EZ's offensive spells. With little spellpower, her spells such as Earth Shocks and even her spell enchanted blade were much less effective. Melee crits alone were not enough to survive in the pvp battlegrounds, a fact supported by additional research by Red and confirmed by EZ's problems in her earliest visits to Warsong Gulch.
EZ started over from scratch, building a new gear set heavy in spellpower but also not ignoring stamina (to keep herself alive) and mana (the juice that fuels her spells). EZ rebuilt herself from the fashionably color coordinated wardrobe of +agi "Fanglord" gear to a look more like a young mage wearing her mother's too large robes. The mismatched set of gear had the stats, though, and EZ began learning a new approach. Now it was Earth Shock, drop totems, escape with ghost wolf to heal, lightning bolt when the enemy runs, and so on. There was more of a ranged DPS feel to it than the in-your-face melee.
That was how EZ fought in that first WSG battle. With help from Ando's healing, EZ did fairly well, getting 6 killing blows (KB) in that match, more than a Wild toon has ever gotten in a single match. Not that that is much of an accomplishment; I've seen Red get many many more than that. But it was a start. We also won the match.
EZ made another major mistake, however. She forgot about her blade. Playing a pvp shaman properly is not a matter of all melee or all ranged DPS, it's using spells and ranged attacks as well as wading into the fray and letting Dawnblade, EZ's fast, fiery dagger, slice and burn opponents still disoriented from the ranged attack. Ando reminded EZ of that.
EZ did her best to incorporate all this advice filling her head. In the second match the allies got off to an early lead and it appeared they might have the edge in higher level, geared toons. They soon became frustrated by their inability to kill Ando, though; between his bear form armor, self-healing, rooting the enemy in place, and escape artist travel form, he could not be brought down. I think Ando carried and capped the allie flag at least two of three times in the match, which we eventually won.
For EZ, she still needs lots of practice getting a routine down and reacting faster to events on the field. For now, she remains a somewhat klutzy work in progress, which she will readily admit to with a smile. "It's all fun," EZ says. "I can't wait to do it again!"
EZ with an unidentified blood elf "friend" that seems to like EZ's new garb
EZ fretted all Monday evening as she was forced to wait until after the Monday night football game to get some game time (a thoroughly unimpressive start to the season for the Chargers, despite a 24-20 win).
It was past 10:30pm server time before the game was over. Ando was on, back from his own extended absence, and was still in need of a pair of bracers from Ragefire Chasm. Mel volunteered to help, and after a half hour and four runs, Ando had his bracers.
EZ and Ando decided to turn xp back on, paid their 10g to the rogue that hangs out with the battleground masters, and signed up. With xp turned on we had a better chance of getting a match, and with our almost complete twink gear set, we should have an edge against lower level and lesser geared opponents. Of course, the alliance would also have their share of almost twinks.
A glitch in the invites to the battlegroups put Ando in a match without EZ for several long minutes. A spot opened up midway through the battle, though, and EZ joined the horde team.
EZ has had a rough time figuring out pvp from a DPS perspective. Wild has been primarily a healer over the course of his long existence and so has not been much of a help to his family in learning the DPS or pvp ropes. Sage advice from both Red's and Myst's cadre of pvpers have helped and EZ continues to draw on their experience and knowledge. Like all new things, though, it's practice, practice, practice that builds the reflexes and improves the decision-making in the heat of battle.
EZ has gone through a number of phases since first embarking on the pvp lifestyle as a DPS instead of a healer. She was very gung ho to be a melee pvper, and built a gear set heavy in +agi to raise her crit for those Fiery Weapon and Flametongue enchanced close combat assaults. That approach ignored a major element of a low level shaman - EZ's offensive spells. With little spellpower, her spells such as Earth Shocks and even her spell enchanted blade were much less effective. Melee crits alone were not enough to survive in the pvp battlegrounds, a fact supported by additional research by Red and confirmed by EZ's problems in her earliest visits to Warsong Gulch.
EZ started over from scratch, building a new gear set heavy in spellpower but also not ignoring stamina (to keep herself alive) and mana (the juice that fuels her spells). EZ rebuilt herself from the fashionably color coordinated wardrobe of +agi "Fanglord" gear to a look more like a young mage wearing her mother's too large robes. The mismatched set of gear had the stats, though, and EZ began learning a new approach. Now it was Earth Shock, drop totems, escape with ghost wolf to heal, lightning bolt when the enemy runs, and so on. There was more of a ranged DPS feel to it than the in-your-face melee.
That was how EZ fought in that first WSG battle. With help from Ando's healing, EZ did fairly well, getting 6 killing blows (KB) in that match, more than a Wild toon has ever gotten in a single match. Not that that is much of an accomplishment; I've seen Red get many many more than that. But it was a start. We also won the match.
EZ made another major mistake, however. She forgot about her blade. Playing a pvp shaman properly is not a matter of all melee or all ranged DPS, it's using spells and ranged attacks as well as wading into the fray and letting Dawnblade, EZ's fast, fiery dagger, slice and burn opponents still disoriented from the ranged attack. Ando reminded EZ of that.
EZ did her best to incorporate all this advice filling her head. In the second match the allies got off to an early lead and it appeared they might have the edge in higher level, geared toons. They soon became frustrated by their inability to kill Ando, though; between his bear form armor, self-healing, rooting the enemy in place, and escape artist travel form, he could not be brought down. I think Ando carried and capped the allie flag at least two of three times in the match, which we eventually won.
For EZ, she still needs lots of practice getting a routine down and reacting faster to events on the field. For now, she remains a somewhat klutzy work in progress, which she will readily admit to with a smile. "It's all fun," EZ says. "I can't wait to do it again!"
EZ with an unidentified blood elf "friend" that seems to like EZ's new garb
Monday, September 14, 2009
Weekend Part 2 - Jezzibael's Night Out
Weekend Part 2 (13 Sep) - Jezzibael's Night Out
Late sunday afternoon (after the football games) JB was in game getting some elixirs made. There was the usual chatter on the trade channel and JB paid little attention to it. She was about to log off, when something caught her eye. A possible dungeon run.
Hmm, JB wondered. I wonder? she said to herself. Then another thought struck her. Isn't there an attunement required for that place? JB took a peek and learned that there used to be an attunement, but it's now optional. Well, then JB could go on the proposed run if she wanted. At least she could let them know she was interested.
In the latest trade chat post, the organizer of the run said he was looking for two healers and one more DPS. Now or never, JB told herself, and sent off a /whisper: "level 73 elemental shaman avail if you still need DPS."
A few moments later JB got an invite. JB packed up her gear, cleared a few things out of her bags to make room for (hopefully) some dungeon goodies, and took flight from the Aldor Inn at Shattrath. Her first stop would be Orgrimmar, and then by zeppelin to Stanglethorn Vale, and then another flight to Swamp of Sorrows. From there JB would travel by mount to her destination.
Figured it out, yet? JB can be a tease. JB had been invited to Karazhan.
Two things one should know:
(1) JB has never done a dungeon with anyone other than her immediate family of toons and guildies. JB has never, ever, done a dungeon at anywhere near her own level, where dying was an actual possibility; it was always to help lower levels get something they needed. So this was virgin territory for her.
(2) Wildshard is a veteran of Karazhan (Kara for short). He's done more runs in there than he can count. But there was a time when he could only dream of getting into Kara. The attunement quest chain was brutally long, and it took real life months before Wild finally earned entrance to what was the top tier ten man dungeon in the game at the time. Going through those doors was a huge event for the max level 70 druid. Thinking back on it might even bring a tear to his eye.
SO HOW DARE THEY MAKE THE ATTUNEMENT OPTIONAL! Wild roared when he heard.
Now you know why Wild hates JB right now. A few days without seeing his elixirs from JB showing up in the mail will likely change his mind. Plus, unless he relents, JB won't tell him all the wonderful details of the run.
So you'll hear it here first - right now.
Kara. Perhaps Wild's favorite dungeon. It is a ten man dungeon rated for level 70. Although level 68s and above could enter, in Wild's day no one under 70 would have gotten an invite as it would have been too tough. There are twelve encounters, each with their own unique challenges. There are tons of trash mobs to fight or sneak past. It's located in Deadwind Pass to the North of the Swamp of Sorrows. JB arrived on her mount and stared in wonder at the tall, narrow, black castle rising from a town of ghostly undead. A huge door of thick steel barred the entrance. There was no longer an attunement, but someone still had to have a key to open it.
Someone did. We entered.
The Proof:
JB was in Kara. I couldn't believe it. We had a full group of ten. Two were level 80s, including a paladin who swore he could solo the place. A level 76 resto druid would be healing, and the rest of us ranged in level from 68-73.
There were maybe three of us who had some experience with Kara, and of those only JB remembered her way around (by way of Wild), which had to be a first for Wild's directionally challenged family.
After the mass slaughter of the initial trash and the first boss, however, few people wanted to listen to directions or strategy. We were a mob ourselves.
Still, the Boss hunter Attuman and his horse Midnight fell to our mob rather easily. JB would have liked for targets to be marked to help with her still rookie elemental spec, but that wasn't done. JB hoped she could target off of the main tank, but most of time there was really no one tanking, since everyone just rushed in and started killing things. Other than the healer, JB, and a mage, the rest were melee types, which included four death knights.
Players died, and the healer and JB did all of the rezzing after the fights, even though there were two paladins with us as well. JB was the only shaman, so I got to play with totems quite a bit, and hitting the shaman's big combat buff, Bloodlust, was very cool.
We made our round-a-bout way to Moroes, finding the second boss almost by accident. Moroes has four elite guests with him, standing on a low dais just out of aggro range from the entrance. A huge table heavily laden with food separated us from the dais. The edges of the room were full of mobs. The actual strategy calls for clearing all the mobs first. Moroes is then tanked and pulled out of the fray while the guests are targeted and killed. Moroes is always last or second to last to be killed.
We still had a third of the room full of trash mobs when the tank targeted Moroes. Moroes and the four guests charged us. JB, still learning this tab-targeting thingy, targeted the healer boss quite by accident, although that was the one we needed dead first. JB was the only one hitting her, however, and the boss lit into little 'ole JB. Surprisingly, JB wss able to heal through the damage and still pop shocks and lightning bolts on her until others joined in and pulled her away.
It was a rabble fighting a rabble. Three died (all of the under 70s I think) but we killed everything in the room. JB picked up a mail healing belt that she figured out later wasn't quite as good as the one she was already wearing. Oh well, she was the only mail wearer in the group.
We made a couple of wrong turns getting to the Maiden, the third boss. JB and the mage found ourselves both going in the right direction (with the others belatedly catching up). We struck up a conversation in whispers, wondering how anyone in this raid ever got to the levels they were at. Obviously not by running raids.
The strategy for Maiden - oh, never mind. The tank pulled her and we all just piled on. It was a little shocking how easily we killed her. She has some nasty AoE's and a Silence, but the ten of us just overwhelmed the giant. Again, a couple of raiders died, more from carelessness than anything else.
Raiders rushed off after the boss kill, aggroing things in three different directions while the raid leader was trying to distribute loot. JB missed the loot roll, and when I scrolled back through my chat log to check what had dropped JB winced at what I found. JB hesitates to say this, since Wild will go berserk a second time, but [Shard of the Virtuous] dropped. This main hand mace was often the only reason some raiders came to Kara. It only dropped from the Maiden, and only rarely even then. For a level 70 it was the best healing weapon in the game at the time. Even now it would be an upgrade to JB's current weapon, although not for very long once JB levelled. Having it, though, would have been incredibly cool. It took Wild weeks and weeks and weeks of Kara runs before he won a roll for it. He wore that mace a long, long time.
The master looter for the raid was also pretty distracted, and the mace went by accident to a death knight. Healers and even casters should die a little inside, knowing that. DKs don't need it, can't use it, can't even sell it other than to vendor it. But he had it and wouldn't let it go. What a shame.
We found our way to the Opera Event, aggroing things willy nilly and then slaughtering them. There are several encounters possible for the Opera Event - this night, it was the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy and her Yellow Brick Road companions lined up in front of us as the curtains rose on the stage, and JB thought about the strategies Wild had learned. Oh, what the hell, JB thought, and opened up on Dorothy. We killed Dorothy and her dog, the Tinman, the Scarecrow, and the Lion, and when the Wicked Witch turned up we killed her, too.
After that, there was just no stopping us - except they didn't know where to go next. So, the mage and JB led them backstage and on toward the next boss. There was an easier way, but Wild's Kara group always took the longer route because there was gold to be had that way, and I could no longer remember the short route.
We bumbled our way to the Curator, a large mechanical arcane guardian who struts up and down a long hallway. That hallway is full of pretty tough mobs, and even veteran groups lose raiders just on the trash mobs. Mobs are pulled in small groups of 1-3 from the hallway into a small antechamber to be killed. We did none of that. We killed the mobs closest to us, and then raiders starting rushing into the hallway after the rest of the mobs. It was only a few seconds later that Curator stomped down the hall and joined us.
I thought we were all going to die. There were too many trash mobs still about so JB focused on downing them, self healing when needed. The druid healer was plenty busy with the melee on Curator. There were a dozen things we should have been doing; instead, it was brute force and our health and mana pool vs his. Half the raid died, but we turned out Curator's lights.
JB whispered the mage, "we took on both the mobs AND Curator at the same time!"
"Yea," he whispered back, "I thought we were going to wipe."
We moved on, but it seemed the mage had seen enough. Without saying a word to the raid, he left the raid and hearthed out of Kara.
"Who am I going to talk to now?" I whispered him.
"lol," he replied. Then, "I just couldn't do it that way. Not when I know how it's supposed to be done."
JB stayed, but the mage's departure started an exodus. By the time we got to Illhoof, we had only seven in the raid. Without even slowing to talk about it, the level 80 pally waded in and we followed.
Illhoof has a companion, Kil'rek. Killing Kil'rek increases the damage done to Illhoof, until Kil'rek respawns. Keep killing him in order to kill Illhoof faster. Only JB seemed aware of this, and single-handedly brought down Kil'rek the first time. Two more raiders left the raid in the middle of the fight, including our tank. Cowards! We fought on.
JB was running out of mana, and had already used a potion. The mana regen totem could only do so much. Kil'rek had respawned and JB had him down to about 10% but had to wait several seconds to recharge mana for each blast of a lightning bolt. Two of the five remaining raiders were dead, and JB found herself pulled to Illhoof and into his Chains. Wild must not have mentioned that part. JB's health began to drop as the chains choked the life out of her. Someone had to break the chains to free JB or she would die. The two other surviving raiders were busy trying to kill Illhoof. JB died.
JB timed it as best she could, reincarnating herself (as only a shaman can) and trying to gain back enough health and mana to rejoin the fight which still raged around her. It was no good, though, as JB was quickly Chained a second time and died again. Two more raiders left the raid, leaving just three.
The other raider died, leaving only the level 80 pally - the one who swore he could solo Kara. Here was his chance.
JB did not think three raiders would be enough to go deeper into Kara, as the bosses get trickier and there are fewer of us to pick on. I told them I was leaving, and released my corpse so I could run back. When I got back and rezzed, though, JB found herself stuck between the outer door and the inner, unable to come inside and with no key to unlock the outer door. JB then noticed that the 80 pally was still alive in there.
"Are you still in combat?" I asked in raid chat. The dead raider that was still in the chamber answered.
"Yes, he is, he's still fighting Illhoof. He said he could solo him." The inner door would not open as long as we remained in combat.
Fascinated, JB watched the pally's health and mana bar for some time. He was good, I'll give him that. He wouldn't kill Illhoof before the Boss Enraged, though, I was pretty sure of that. And I didn't think the pally could long survive 7k damage fire bolt spams once that happened.
JB didn't want to see it. She left the raid and hearthed back to the Aldor Inn. JB would rather remember that pally soling Illhoof than think of him falling to the Boss's Enrage. And for all JB knows, that pally is still in there fighting Illhoof, refusing to give up.
JB's xp went from 55% to 58% of the way to level 74. That's less xp than she gets for a thirty minute run through the Isle of Kel'danas, but it was better than nothing.
JB's DPS was not very impressive, but then she only has +743 spell power. Out of 8 raiders doing DPS:
#1: DK, 1922 dps
#2: DK, 1359 dps
#3: Mage, 1344 dps
#4: DK, 794 dps
#5: JB, 659 DPS
For her first ever raid I suppose she did ok. And she certainly had a lot of fun.
Late sunday afternoon (after the football games) JB was in game getting some elixirs made. There was the usual chatter on the trade channel and JB paid little attention to it. She was about to log off, when something caught her eye. A possible dungeon run.
Hmm, JB wondered. I wonder? she said to herself. Then another thought struck her. Isn't there an attunement required for that place? JB took a peek and learned that there used to be an attunement, but it's now optional. Well, then JB could go on the proposed run if she wanted. At least she could let them know she was interested.
In the latest trade chat post, the organizer of the run said he was looking for two healers and one more DPS. Now or never, JB told herself, and sent off a /whisper: "level 73 elemental shaman avail if you still need DPS."
A few moments later JB got an invite. JB packed up her gear, cleared a few things out of her bags to make room for (hopefully) some dungeon goodies, and took flight from the Aldor Inn at Shattrath. Her first stop would be Orgrimmar, and then by zeppelin to Stanglethorn Vale, and then another flight to Swamp of Sorrows. From there JB would travel by mount to her destination.
Figured it out, yet? JB can be a tease. JB had been invited to Karazhan.
Two things one should know:
(1) JB has never done a dungeon with anyone other than her immediate family of toons and guildies. JB has never, ever, done a dungeon at anywhere near her own level, where dying was an actual possibility; it was always to help lower levels get something they needed. So this was virgin territory for her.
(2) Wildshard is a veteran of Karazhan (Kara for short). He's done more runs in there than he can count. But there was a time when he could only dream of getting into Kara. The attunement quest chain was brutally long, and it took real life months before Wild finally earned entrance to what was the top tier ten man dungeon in the game at the time. Going through those doors was a huge event for the max level 70 druid. Thinking back on it might even bring a tear to his eye.
SO HOW DARE THEY MAKE THE ATTUNEMENT OPTIONAL! Wild roared when he heard.
Now you know why Wild hates JB right now. A few days without seeing his elixirs from JB showing up in the mail will likely change his mind. Plus, unless he relents, JB won't tell him all the wonderful details of the run.
So you'll hear it here first - right now.
Kara. Perhaps Wild's favorite dungeon. It is a ten man dungeon rated for level 70. Although level 68s and above could enter, in Wild's day no one under 70 would have gotten an invite as it would have been too tough. There are twelve encounters, each with their own unique challenges. There are tons of trash mobs to fight or sneak past. It's located in Deadwind Pass to the North of the Swamp of Sorrows. JB arrived on her mount and stared in wonder at the tall, narrow, black castle rising from a town of ghostly undead. A huge door of thick steel barred the entrance. There was no longer an attunement, but someone still had to have a key to open it.
Someone did. We entered.
The Proof:
JB was in Kara. I couldn't believe it. We had a full group of ten. Two were level 80s, including a paladin who swore he could solo the place. A level 76 resto druid would be healing, and the rest of us ranged in level from 68-73.
There were maybe three of us who had some experience with Kara, and of those only JB remembered her way around (by way of Wild), which had to be a first for Wild's directionally challenged family.
After the mass slaughter of the initial trash and the first boss, however, few people wanted to listen to directions or strategy. We were a mob ourselves.
Still, the Boss hunter Attuman and his horse Midnight fell to our mob rather easily. JB would have liked for targets to be marked to help with her still rookie elemental spec, but that wasn't done. JB hoped she could target off of the main tank, but most of time there was really no one tanking, since everyone just rushed in and started killing things. Other than the healer, JB, and a mage, the rest were melee types, which included four death knights.
Players died, and the healer and JB did all of the rezzing after the fights, even though there were two paladins with us as well. JB was the only shaman, so I got to play with totems quite a bit, and hitting the shaman's big combat buff, Bloodlust, was very cool.
We made our round-a-bout way to Moroes, finding the second boss almost by accident. Moroes has four elite guests with him, standing on a low dais just out of aggro range from the entrance. A huge table heavily laden with food separated us from the dais. The edges of the room were full of mobs. The actual strategy calls for clearing all the mobs first. Moroes is then tanked and pulled out of the fray while the guests are targeted and killed. Moroes is always last or second to last to be killed.
We still had a third of the room full of trash mobs when the tank targeted Moroes. Moroes and the four guests charged us. JB, still learning this tab-targeting thingy, targeted the healer boss quite by accident, although that was the one we needed dead first. JB was the only one hitting her, however, and the boss lit into little 'ole JB. Surprisingly, JB wss able to heal through the damage and still pop shocks and lightning bolts on her until others joined in and pulled her away.
It was a rabble fighting a rabble. Three died (all of the under 70s I think) but we killed everything in the room. JB picked up a mail healing belt that she figured out later wasn't quite as good as the one she was already wearing. Oh well, she was the only mail wearer in the group.
We made a couple of wrong turns getting to the Maiden, the third boss. JB and the mage found ourselves both going in the right direction (with the others belatedly catching up). We struck up a conversation in whispers, wondering how anyone in this raid ever got to the levels they were at. Obviously not by running raids.
The strategy for Maiden - oh, never mind. The tank pulled her and we all just piled on. It was a little shocking how easily we killed her. She has some nasty AoE's and a Silence, but the ten of us just overwhelmed the giant. Again, a couple of raiders died, more from carelessness than anything else.
Raiders rushed off after the boss kill, aggroing things in three different directions while the raid leader was trying to distribute loot. JB missed the loot roll, and when I scrolled back through my chat log to check what had dropped JB winced at what I found. JB hesitates to say this, since Wild will go berserk a second time, but [Shard of the Virtuous] dropped. This main hand mace was often the only reason some raiders came to Kara. It only dropped from the Maiden, and only rarely even then. For a level 70 it was the best healing weapon in the game at the time. Even now it would be an upgrade to JB's current weapon, although not for very long once JB levelled. Having it, though, would have been incredibly cool. It took Wild weeks and weeks and weeks of Kara runs before he won a roll for it. He wore that mace a long, long time.
The master looter for the raid was also pretty distracted, and the mace went by accident to a death knight. Healers and even casters should die a little inside, knowing that. DKs don't need it, can't use it, can't even sell it other than to vendor it. But he had it and wouldn't let it go. What a shame.
We found our way to the Opera Event, aggroing things willy nilly and then slaughtering them. There are several encounters possible for the Opera Event - this night, it was the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy and her Yellow Brick Road companions lined up in front of us as the curtains rose on the stage, and JB thought about the strategies Wild had learned. Oh, what the hell, JB thought, and opened up on Dorothy. We killed Dorothy and her dog, the Tinman, the Scarecrow, and the Lion, and when the Wicked Witch turned up we killed her, too.
After that, there was just no stopping us - except they didn't know where to go next. So, the mage and JB led them backstage and on toward the next boss. There was an easier way, but Wild's Kara group always took the longer route because there was gold to be had that way, and I could no longer remember the short route.
We bumbled our way to the Curator, a large mechanical arcane guardian who struts up and down a long hallway. That hallway is full of pretty tough mobs, and even veteran groups lose raiders just on the trash mobs. Mobs are pulled in small groups of 1-3 from the hallway into a small antechamber to be killed. We did none of that. We killed the mobs closest to us, and then raiders starting rushing into the hallway after the rest of the mobs. It was only a few seconds later that Curator stomped down the hall and joined us.
I thought we were all going to die. There were too many trash mobs still about so JB focused on downing them, self healing when needed. The druid healer was plenty busy with the melee on Curator. There were a dozen things we should have been doing; instead, it was brute force and our health and mana pool vs his. Half the raid died, but we turned out Curator's lights.
JB whispered the mage, "we took on both the mobs AND Curator at the same time!"
"Yea," he whispered back, "I thought we were going to wipe."
We moved on, but it seemed the mage had seen enough. Without saying a word to the raid, he left the raid and hearthed out of Kara.
"Who am I going to talk to now?" I whispered him.
"lol," he replied. Then, "I just couldn't do it that way. Not when I know how it's supposed to be done."
JB stayed, but the mage's departure started an exodus. By the time we got to Illhoof, we had only seven in the raid. Without even slowing to talk about it, the level 80 pally waded in and we followed.
Illhoof has a companion, Kil'rek. Killing Kil'rek increases the damage done to Illhoof, until Kil'rek respawns. Keep killing him in order to kill Illhoof faster. Only JB seemed aware of this, and single-handedly brought down Kil'rek the first time. Two more raiders left the raid in the middle of the fight, including our tank. Cowards! We fought on.
JB was running out of mana, and had already used a potion. The mana regen totem could only do so much. Kil'rek had respawned and JB had him down to about 10% but had to wait several seconds to recharge mana for each blast of a lightning bolt. Two of the five remaining raiders were dead, and JB found herself pulled to Illhoof and into his Chains. Wild must not have mentioned that part. JB's health began to drop as the chains choked the life out of her. Someone had to break the chains to free JB or she would die. The two other surviving raiders were busy trying to kill Illhoof. JB died.
JB timed it as best she could, reincarnating herself (as only a shaman can) and trying to gain back enough health and mana to rejoin the fight which still raged around her. It was no good, though, as JB was quickly Chained a second time and died again. Two more raiders left the raid, leaving just three.
The other raider died, leaving only the level 80 pally - the one who swore he could solo Kara. Here was his chance.
JB did not think three raiders would be enough to go deeper into Kara, as the bosses get trickier and there are fewer of us to pick on. I told them I was leaving, and released my corpse so I could run back. When I got back and rezzed, though, JB found herself stuck between the outer door and the inner, unable to come inside and with no key to unlock the outer door. JB then noticed that the 80 pally was still alive in there.
"Are you still in combat?" I asked in raid chat. The dead raider that was still in the chamber answered.
"Yes, he is, he's still fighting Illhoof. He said he could solo him." The inner door would not open as long as we remained in combat.
Fascinated, JB watched the pally's health and mana bar for some time. He was good, I'll give him that. He wouldn't kill Illhoof before the Boss Enraged, though, I was pretty sure of that. And I didn't think the pally could long survive 7k damage fire bolt spams once that happened.
JB didn't want to see it. She left the raid and hearthed back to the Aldor Inn. JB would rather remember that pally soling Illhoof than think of him falling to the Boss's Enrage. And for all JB knows, that pally is still in there fighting Illhoof, refusing to give up.
JB's xp went from 55% to 58% of the way to level 74. That's less xp than she gets for a thirty minute run through the Isle of Kel'danas, but it was better than nothing.
JB's DPS was not very impressive, but then she only has +743 spell power. Out of 8 raiders doing DPS:
#1: DK, 1922 dps
#2: DK, 1359 dps
#3: Mage, 1344 dps
#4: DK, 794 dps
#5: JB, 659 DPS
For her first ever raid I suppose she did ok. And she certainly had a lot of fun.
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