Monday (5 Oct) - Another One Bites the Dust

Monday (5 Oct) - Another One Bites the Dust

Like Borean Tundra earlier, JB ran into a shortage of quests in Grizzly Hills and had to find what was holding up her progress. Grizzly Hills only requires 75 quest completions to earn the Achievement, but they were getting hard to find. JB had flown all over Grizzly Hills looking for quests and finally had to come back to a small encampment called Granite Springs.

In the Borean Tundra, JB discovered that she was being stymied by a single quest, and it wasn't until she accosted the quest giver Feezix Geartwist and did the problematic mule hunt "Load'er Up!" did the rest of the quests she needed start to appear.

In Grizzly Hills it turned out that her problem was Budd. Budd hides in a small tent at Granite Springs. He uses a frying pan as a weapon. The quest is "Filling The Cages," and like "Load'er Up!" it's fraught with problems in getting a simple task accomplished.

JB was handed a cage when she accepted the quest, and was told to talk to Budd, who would help her accomplish it. The task was simple. Travel to a nearby troll camp. Tell Budd to smack a troll upside the head with his frying pan, then JB would run up to the dazed troll and toss him in the cage. Bring the captured troll back to Granite Springs and collect your reward. Most quests have 10-20 tips in wowhead on how to get them done. This one had 69 tips including a lot of helpful comments like "This quest sucks!"

JB hopped on her flying mount with Budd on her first try at this quest, but Budd promptly returned to his tent and refused that mode of transportation. A romp on her land mount got Budd halfway there and then JB lost sight of him. Yep, JB found him back at camp again. Other players trying to do the quest would lose him when they brought out a pet, or if they aggroed the troll Budd went to wack with the pan, or, well, just about anything will scare him back to camp.

Budd also has very little health, and on JB's third try when she simply tried to walk Budd to the troll camp, Budd nearly died from a single wolf bite. But JB finally managed to get him to the troll camp and they captured their troll.

Completing "Filling The Cages" then opened up a series of additional quests that, frankly, were almost as frustrating as Budd. The quests required several steps - killing mobs in multiple locations to collect vials of various compounds that then had to be combined with other vials and used at multiple locations. The quest information was maddeningly vague, the wowhead tips were full of conflicting information, and for once Questhelper was no help as it insisted on taking JB to the wrong locations.

Finally, though, they were done. Well, almost. JB had completed 74 of 75 quests. The last remaining quest was "Shade of Arugal." Time to go back and get that one done.

JB had beaten three of the four elites for that quest. Only Arugal remained undefeated. JB flew to Bloodmoon Isle and perched at the top of Arugal's tower, settling in on the right hand corner of the open air platform. Arugal held court on the round dais, his numerous disciples kneeling around him. JB's previous troubles with Arugal were the second wave of mobs that spawn. There were a lot more of them than on the first wave, and JB had yet to find a way to survive that attack. So she decided to try and avoid them all together. That was easier said than done, because soon after that second wave spawns, the npc Sasha comes to "help" and will aggro those mobs, causing them to attack and kill her, and then come for JB. Too bad JB couldn't just tell Sasha, "Look, I'd rather you stayed home and let me do this myself!"

From JB's position in the right hand corner she picked off the disciples on the right side of the room, leaving those on the dais stairs to her left alone, as well as any disciples up on the dais that might aggro Arugal if attacked. JB stood at max range, but still within casting distance of Arugal. I'd also set up a special combat bar with each spell that JB was using for this fight in order to accomplish three things - speed up casting, make sure I didn't forget a key spell (like not continuously dropping a grounding totem), and to help JB see the spawning mobs as early as possible.

JB dropped totems and tossed her first Lightning Bolt at Arugal. The two traded spell casts for awhile, with JB healing when needed, and then the first wave of adds spawned. When the adds spawn, Arugal Shields himself and stops casting. He's unhittable when Shielded, so the only targets and the only danger was the spawning mobs. Standing at max range, the theory was that the spawning mobs would not be in aggro range and wouldn't "see" JB.

JB stared hard at the mobs as they materialized on the dais, her itchy trigger finger dying to start taking them out. But she quelled the urge, and to her surprise and relief the mobs just stood there for a few moments, wondering why they had been summoned, and then - just faded away.

Woot! Arugal dropped his Shield and we went back to shooting at each other.

Here is where things get tricky. Technically the first mob spawn is the second phase of the fight, followed by the third phase where Arugal mind controls one of his attackers. Since there is only one attacker, however, he will not use the mind control spell. Still, that makes the phase a bit longer than the others, and JB, caught up in the fight, was a beat slow at seeing the second wave of mobs appear, which is the fourth phase.

There are many more mobs in the second phase, and they crowd the dais closer to JB than the first wave. JB was supposed to step back the instant Arugal cast his Shield, and before the second wave had a chance to target JB. JB hesitated. The mobs charged. JB died. Bummer.

On her second attempt JB watched Arugal and the dais closely during the third phase, not worrying about how much damage she was doing; just staying alive so that she could be sure she could see what Arugal's Shield cast looked like and see the signals that the second wave was coming. She again aggroed the second wave and died. No bummer this time, though, JB saw what she needed to.

On the third attempt JB stepped back at the right moment, and a small army of befuddled disciples milled about uncertainly on the dais.

From the left side Sasha charged up the staircase from the room below, aggroing the kneeling disciples that JB had intentionally left alive at the beginning of the fight. There were only two of them, enough to keep Sasha and her poor DPS going for awhile. She wasn't close enough to aggro the wave of mobs on the dais since she'd been intercepted by the other mobs. The second wave despawned, Arugal dropped his Shield, and JB burned him down.

Another elite bites the dust. And JB got her Achievement for completing 75 of 75 quests in Grizzly Hills. Lean in a little closer, JB wants to whisper something. "Wild only did 54 quests in Grizzly Hills. Tee hee!"

Later on in the day, JB moved into a new zone, the level 74-77 Zul'Drak. JB is 78% of the way to level 78.