As expected there was no Lady Hunter ten man on Thursday night. Wild was the lone member representing the group as 7pm came and went. Hopefully Bd will be able to return next week, and that Lady Hunter finds a computer/network connection that she can use.
So JB got some more game time, although she got off to a slow start. JB has been using an addon aid called Questhelper. It organizes the open and completed quests in JB's quest log and recommends the order in which to do them by streamlining all the back and forths that are part of questing. QH also marks the map with the location of each quest as well. It's a great time saver.
JB was very frustrated with Questhelper, though. The addon seemed stuck on two quests that wanted to send JB to all the wrong places on all the wrong continents. JB spent way too much time trying to "fix" the problem instead of just ignoring the thing and just doing the quests. JB aborted her first questing period, getting from 73% to only 82% of the way to level 77.
Later in the day a restless JB went at it again. I figured out what was wrong with one of the problem quests, completed it so it would go away, and ignored the other one by putting it as the lowest priority among JB's quests.
JB worked more quests in Grizzly Hills, and even picked up a caster DPS ring better than one she had. An actual upgrade! Not major, but still, it meant JB was getting into quests where it was possible the loot could be useful.
Then came the quest "Hour of the Worg." This is the final quest of a nice multi-part quest chain that ultimately took JB to Bloodmoon Isle off the coast of Grizzly Hills. A tall castle-tower sits at the top of the lone hill on the island, looking eerily like the castle dungeon of Shadowfang Keep where Arugal was defeated. At the top of that tower the Shade of Arugal makes his magic and his comeback. Guess the guy likes castles.
There are obstacles set before JB that she must overcome first, however. JB flew to the island, sailing over the non-elite worg mobs along the shore and landing at a small open area to the right of a winding path leading up to the tower. The encampment had what looked like one non-elite and one very elite werewolf named Selas. Elite, as in level 75 elite, just one level below JB. Well, JB had been feasting on those level 72 elites - now it was time to ratchet things up a few notches.
JB pulled and killed the non-elite. Being cautious on the first attempt, JB decided to open with her earth elemental and let it tank the elite while JB dropped totems and started shooting. I sorta thought the elemental pet would stay put until I actually sent it in. Oops, the boulder sized earth elemental charged right into Selas's lap, and died in seconds.
Well, that wasn't good. She also noticed that another non-elite had been hiding behind Selas and had joined the fight, but it didn't survive long enough to matter. JB got her totems down as well as getting off a Flame Shock and a Lava Burst, and them Selas on was her. Added to JB's repertoire were Lightning Bolt, Water Shield, and Lesser healing Wave whenever Lava Burst was unavailable. After a few frantic moments it became clear that JB could out heal the damage being done, and so it was only a matter of time until either Selas died or JB ran out of mana. With Water Shield always up and Selas doing mostly melee damage, JB was not likely to ever run out of mana. It took time, but Selas died.
JB moved up the hill to another encampment, this one occupied by Varlam, a level 75 elite human riding a large, fierce worg (wolf). There were half a dozen non-elites protecting him, but that protection proved useless as JB pulled and killed all of them without aggroing Varlem.
Same strategy, new boss, except this time JB didn't drop her elemental pet until battle was joined. The cooldown on JB's earth elemental was still ticking, so this time she used her fire elemental. Varlem went down faster than Selas, which meant either he wasn't as powerful as Selas or that JB was getting the hang of this. Hopefully the latter, because we were just getting warmed up.
JB moved to the top of hill and took a short flight around to the back, where the stable entrance was located. After killing two non-elites hiding from their foreman, JB faced level 75 elite Goremaw, a huge wolf with teeth as long as JB's arm. More bark than bite, it was another kill.
Three elites down, one to go.
The very top of the tower is open to the sky. A set of stairs opens up from below. Across from the stairs is a round dais raised by a few steps. Shade of Arugal stands toward the back of the dais. His many disciples, and there are quite a few, kneel on the stairs and on the dais itself. JB hadn't bothered to use the stairs, flying up to the top and landing in one rooftop corner near the stairs and well out of aggro range.
A View From the Top
JB commenced killing disciples. JB killed a number of them, but there were still three up when respawns started happening. Well, that's a bit irritating. JB kept at it, speeding up the kills to get ahead of respawns. There were only two disciples left, the two closest to Arugal. JB targeted the one slightly farther away, wondering if hitting it would aggro Arugal. It didn't, and that left just one. JB hit that one, and that got Arugal's attention. The battle was on.
Arugal's main weapon was Shadow Bolt, and he used it constantly. JB had dropped totems and started unleashing her own attack. JB kept up her self-healing, and things were going well.
Arugal Summoned a number of adds, more disciples, only this time in worg form. A couple of human form disciples also had respawned. JB fought them off, trying to keep some damage on Arugal as well, and dropping earth elemental to take some of the pretty serious incoming damage.
With the adds down, as well as JB's elemental, it was one on one again. But not for long. Arugal again Summoned adds, and this time JB did not have an elemental. JB killed most of the adds, but was finally overwhelmed and died with Arugal at 35%.
JB returned for another try. More patient mob killing to clear the room. This time JB knew the nearest disciple would likely aggro Arugal when she hit him, so JB tossed out totems beforehand and was ready when Arugal started shooting. Again, JB made good progress in this first round of the fight, but when the first adds spawned something went haywire. They did not attack, and then despawned - ie, they simply went away. Great luck for JB, right? Nope, because Arugal also reset back to full health and JB was back to square one. The attack resumed, and this time JB got Arugal to 20% health, but still, JB fell under the barrage of adds and the added shadow bolts from Arugal. One other item of note. There are far more adds spawning for the second wave than the first, but JB also got help from a spawning friendly npc named Shara. Obviously she didn't help enough.
Returning for a third attempt, JB noticed that she was 96% of the way to level 77. Killing all those adds at the beginning of each attempt had it's own advantages, pushing JB closer and closer to level 77.
JB also added a new spell to her rotation - Grounding totem. It is included in the set of four that JB drops at the beginning, but doesn't last very long. The totem redirects an incoming spell to itself, destroying the totem in the process but keeping it from hitting JB. It has a 15 second cooldown, and JB vowed to recast it every time the cooldown was up. That would mitigate the damage coming from Arugal at least a little.
With an elemental available, JB again fought Arugal, getting him down to 16% before dying once again. Making progress, but man this guy is tough! JB learned yet another bit of information. After the first wave of adds Arugal has a Mind Control trick, but he only uses it when there are at least two attackers - ie, at least two players attacking Arugal, or a player and pet. Hmm, it was possible that the elemental might have still been alive and could have been mind controlled, and could have been attacking JB instead of fighting the adds. JB has to attack his elemental if that happens, so it is one more thing to look out for. Surprisingly, if JB were to get mind controlled, she would likely kill her elemental, but at the same time the mind control spell also heals JB, so getting mind controlled is actually a good thing, if it's JB. Will have to keep that in mind.
On JB's 4th attempt she aggroed Arugal early when he tricked her by having two disciples close enough to aggro him. JB did not have an elemental available but recovered quickly and improved once again, getting Arugal to 14%. Still no kill, however.
Nearest two Disciples will aggro Arugal
JB returned yet again. This time the mobs stubbornly kept respawning, and there were always at least two hovering so close to Arugal I knew they would aggro Arugal. It was pretty late and JB got careless and short tempered. She chain lightning'ed all three of them, blasted down the adds, and went to work. But the prior battles had taken their toll, and JB fell once again.
It was time to assess the strategy, and come back after this bad boy another time.
Still, three level 75 elites were dead, and JB was confident Arugal would eventually join them. And soon.
After granting Arugal a short stay of execution, JB killed a few non-elites around the castle and DINGED! to level 77. She'll be back.
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