Weekend (13 Sep) - Is it the Weekend Already?

Weekend (13 Sep) - Is it the Weekend Already?

Yes, I went from a Wednesday two parter right into the weekend. There was no ten man raid scheduled for Thursday. Wild showed up anyway, hung around until 7:30pm, but neither raid nor 5 man Heroic came to pass. So Wild crafted some herb bags for Happy to sell, picked up some more Elixir of the Frostwyrm that JB had made for me, and opened the guild bank to stare wistfully at the pattern for [Boots of Wintry Endurance] (which Wild was sill waiting to have sent to him) and called it an evening.

On Friday Wild was signed up for the 25 man run, which was headed back into ToC to take on a new encounter, Lord Jaraxxus. But the Mrs had a reunion invitation from her old work buddies at the city, so Wild had to beg off the raid for a night of beer, good food, and fine friends with lots of gossip about city politics. I'm not entirely sure whether they had enough raiders to run, but I hoped so. Wild wished he could have been there, but I have to admit the beer was good.

JB has been playing hooky from the Isle of Kel'danas and is off her pace to reach level 74. Someone needs to whip her back into shape. But I don't see anyone in the family willing to take her on.

(PS - This is JB, I played hooky for a reason. Find out in Part 2 why Wildshard hates me, the poor cuddly cow. )

Mel and EZ, though, have become fast friends. Mel took EZ into Ragefire Chasm for the 6th time, and this time Taragamon the Hungerer dropped [Crystalline Cuffs], the spell power bracers she wanted. Not sure whether she will wear those or go with the "of the Eagle" bracers she also has. The extra +int and +sta on the eagle bracers might be a better choice. EZ may try to weasel enchants for both from Wild.

EZ then took on a six part quest starting with "The Farstrider Enclave." She was able to do the first five quests solo, but for the finale Mel rejoined her to ensure a quick victory. The prize was [Dawnblade], the weapon EZ has decided to use, with it's +5 sta.

Then Mel and EZ hooked up yet again for another quest chain (seven parts) in the Hillsbrad Foothills called "Battle of Hillsbrad". This was not a quest series that EZ could do by herself, as all of the mobs being faced were from level 22-28. Even travelling between Tarren Mill and the quest areas were fraught with potential danger. For the first quest Mel escorted her back and forth, but that didn't work so well. Mel was so much faster on her mount than EZ that it was hard for EZ to keep Follow on. Too much time was lost getting Follow reset, or they moved so slowly EZ aggroed the various spiders, bears, and mountain cats that often crowd the road there.

The solution was for EZ to pop her Lightning Shield, drop into ghost wolf form, and outrun anything that aggroed on her. Even if they got close enough to attack, eating one of EZ's lightning balls from her shield was usually enough to discourage them. Worst case, when a cat would stun EZ and slow her down, she'd pop out of ghost wolf, drop an earthbind totem to slow down the pursuit, and then pop right back into ghost wolf form and scamper off.

Still, moving both EZ and Mel back and forth for seven quests took time. Mel killed famers, peasants, council members, and others around the Hillsbrad farms; cleared a mining cave to reach a boss to slaughter, and finally made a trip to Dun Garok.

Mel and EZ had heard about Dun Garok from Wild. Back in the day Dun Garok was packed tightly with elite mid-30s level dwarves. While this was not an instance dungeon, it was not a place you wanted to enter with less than a full five man group. There were tight turns, low ceilings, and danger everywhere. Coming out that underground dwarven stronghold alive was a real accomplishment.

The dwarves are still there. There are fewer of the them, though, and their highest level is 28. They are no longer elite.

Mel and EZ were in and out of there in five minutes.

After visiting Varimathas in the Under City to complete the quest series, EZ was awarded [Deadskull Shield]. This is a high armor shield that comes with +7 sta, which is a lot at this level.

EZ had to wait until Sunday to go after the final piece of her twink set, [Talbar Mantle]. Yet another quest series that can easily confuse players trying to that final prize.

There is no beginning quest to pick up, that's the first hurdle. EZ and Mel met up at the entrance to Wailing Caverns, waving hello to the Disciple of Naralex that waits just inside the instance portal. Leaving EZ with the Disciple, Mel moved through the instance hunting the four Bosses of the Fang: Lady Anacondra, Lord Cobrahn, Lord Pythas, and Lord Serpentis. At level 62 Mel could walk right past most of the trash mobs without any of them noticing. The Lords and Ladys of the Fang died easily once Mel found them. The only trouble Mel had was finding Lord Serpentis, but once on the right path, he died as well.

The Disciple of Naralex announced that with the death of the "fanglords" he will be able to awaken Naralex from his eternal slumber. Mel returned to the Disciple and she and EZ started an escort quest with the Disciple. Mel knew where Naralex slept, and had already cleared all the mobs between the Disciple and Naralex. However, the Disciple stopped twice during the escort where we were attacked by small waves of mobs.

Once we all reached a sleeping Naralex in a side chamber, the Disciple began the Awakening. Two larger waves of mobs descended on us while the Disciple was occupied. Once Mel dispatched them, a boss mob, Mutanus the Devourer, rose from the waters nearby. Mel killed Mutanus, who dropped a [Glowing Shard]. This states "This item begins a quest." Well, sort of. What it does is send Mel and EZ to the Barrens shoreside port of Ratchet to talk to Sputtervalve. Suttervalve has no quest, either, but does have a little "talk to me" bubble. Sputtervale tells the duo that they must find and talk to Falla Sagewind.

Off the two go, finally locating Falla at the of a large moutain near The Crossroads. She hands out a Nightmare Shard, and directs that it be given to Arch Druid Hamul Runetotem in Thunder Bluff. At last there is an actual quest to get, [In Nightmares]. Off to Thunder Bluff.

The Arch Druid finally delivered [talbar Mantle] into EZ's hands.

EZ is now pretty much fully outfitted in her twink gear. Wild had to put a Fiery Weapon enchant on EZ's Dawnblade, since Wild has not been able to come up with the bigger weapon enchants. Wild was last seen hunting down pre-BC guildie enchanters to see if they had those enchants.

EZ is all dressed up but she may have to wait to get into a battleground. The San Diego Chargers open the season Monday night and I'll be watching the game.

In regard to access to the Strat boards, I will wait to see if I can post this on Monday. As of Sunday afternoon - well, let me quote Sporting News:

"Sorry for the buzzkill, but this being the first Sunday of the new football season, our servers are getting hammered and it is affecting login functionality, blogs and the forums. Our tech staff has been working non-stop trying to prepare for this situation, but unfortunately the strain on the servers is too great. . . We are still aiming to play tonight's games as regularly scheduled, provided we do not experience more major login problems. The forums and blogs are being kept down for the time being as a precaution. "