Monday (9 Nov) - Violet Hold

Monday (9 Nov) - Violet Hold

Violet Hold is a level 75-77 dungeon beneath the city streets of Dalaran. Dragon soldiers of the Blue Dragonflight have set up a series of portals underneath the city which they are using to invade Dalaran. The mission - keep them from breaking out of the underground warren and gaining access to the city. VH is one modest sized circular chamber with several portals located in alcoves cut into the walls.

DER and JB, after participating in a victorious Wintergrasp battle, were looking for mischief and found it in Violet Hold. DER lobbied for players to join the two using the Looking For Group tool, and surprisingly quickly we had three volunteers. Joining level 77 DER and 80 JB were a level 79 shaman, a level 77 paladin, and a level 73 shaman. Three shaman in the five man group. The youngest shaman immediately announced that he was the healer.

The three that joined DER and JB were not in Dalaran and for some reason seemed to have trouble finding their way back. One didn't know where VH was, and the young shaman was too low level to have found his way to the floating city yet, which requires a quest. Someone had a warlock toon, so we asked if he'd swap toons long enough to summon the young shaman to Dalaran. Sure, he said, but you'll have to tell me how to do a Summons. Huh? A warlock who doesn't know how to do a Summons? That had to be a first, since it is a primary ability of a warlock.

So here we were, DER, JB, the warlock, and the 79 shaman standing in a busy hallway outside VH. Nothing is happening. The warlock asks what he should do. The 79 shaman tells him to look through his spellbook. None of us know what the name of the Summons spell is. For a few moments more nothing happens. He starts casting spells, and JB starts to giggle under her breath as none of the spells are the Summons spell. This guy really doesn't know the spell. Most of the spells JB doesn't recognize, but then he hits on the "candy" spell. Warlocks can make healthstones, which are like an emergency heal. The spell graphics are very like that of the Summons, so we cheer him on and tell him he's getting closer. Plus we all got "candy," a plus for the group.

Finally, he finds the right spell and the warlock creates the head height, black, tombstone looking edifice that is a warlock's Summoning Stone. We summon in the young shaman, but we have to do it twice before he thinks to click on the request for summons. We are still waiting for the paladin, but three of us (the 79 shaman, DER, and JB) go into VH. Well, two of us did. DER found that the closed stone door through which we must pass won't open for him. DER apparently hasn't done whatever quest or event is needed to be able to open those gates. [Note - I looked this up after the run. The quest DER needs is "Discretion is Key" which can be acquired from Rhonin in the Violet Citadel right in Dalaran]. Any time we needed to leave and come back into VH, JB had to let DER in. Hmm, JB is a troll. Maybe she should have been charging a gate fee. ;-)

The three of us were standing inside VH, watching a scripted battle play out for us while we waited for the other two. There is also a friendly npc nearby, so gregarious DER chatted her up. And she obligingly started the dungeon for us. Oops. Portals started opening, and elite mobs spilled out. The door behind us would no longer open. We killed through three waves, I think, and then a group of elites finally overwhelmed us. We didn't put too much effort into it, knowing we would just reset so that the other two could join us. If we had been serious enough about it, and if JB had gone to full healing, I think the three of us could have challenged the instance.

After what amounted to the usual delays and settling in of a PUG, we were at last all together in VH and ready to go. We started the event.

The battle starts with six waves of mobs, mostly dragonkin. Singly and in groups, they appear out of random portals. The pally was tanking, and he chased down the mobs when they appeared while the rest of us moved in. By the time the six waves were down, the 73 shaman was already telling everyone - several times - you guys rock! You don't even need any healing! Which wasn't totally true, but it was true the trash mobs weren't much of a challenge.

The seventh wave is one of six possible bosses randomly chosen. JB didn't pay that much attention to which boss it was. She simply targeted off the tank, blazing away at the boss with her spells. The 79 shaman was enhancement so he would always drop totems and then wade into the fray. JB also dropped totems, but stood at range to cast her spells. DER also went toe to toe with the boss. The boss went down without a lot of fuss.

Were we done already? Nope, another six waves started spawning, and we went through it again. A second boss spawned, and again we brought him down. Then a third wave, and the final boss, which is always Cyanigosa, a large blue dragon. Cyanigosa is a little more interesting, with an AoE and an aggro wipe and flame breath and tail swipe, but in the end she was no more dangerous than the other bosses. Now we were done.

Wow, I think we are a bit over levelled for this dungeon, noted the paladin. Yea, said DER, want to do it again? We all did. After all, everyone but JB was still earning xp, and DER even picked up some loot, as did a couple of others. It was a pretty good group, although the young shaman didn't seem to know much. JB and the 79 shaman whispered to each other about him (shaman gossiping about another shaman) and we decided that he was either very young, very drunk, or both.

On our second run through DER volunteered to tank and the pally wanted to heal, so with that new arrangement we crashed our way through again. Only once did we get into trouble, when on the boss Xevozz we wiped. Wiped? No! Apparently the young shaman, who was supposed to be DPSing instead of healing, had been healing, so the pally switched to DPS. But when we got to Xevozz the young shaman decided to stop healing. No one realized it until we started dying. I think he got bored with how little healing there was to do, and decided that we were such an uber group that we really didn't need any healing at all. It was pretty funny, actually.

We all rezzed at the nearby graveyard right in the city. All but the young shaman. He wanted a rez. He probably didn't know where the graveyard was, which was ok. As a shaman he could also have used his reincarnation spell, but whatever. JB rezzed him when she got back in (after letting DER in the door. :P ).

We cleared the dungeon a second time. We had a good time with a pretty decent group. DER tried to get them to move on to another dungeon, but two had to leave and we broke up.

There was also some Wintergrasp battles, and DER picked up some loot from the marks of honor he's been earning. JB was also in the WG battles. She's been trying different things, learning more about it, and for this battle settled in as a cannon gunner. There are several gun emplacements along the outer walls of the fortress (we were defending) but the popular ones along the front are quickly taken when the battle begins. So JB found an unoccupied one along the eastern wall. I knew that alliance passed this way from one of their graveyards, but I didn't know how much action she would see. No problem, JB just wanted to play with her cannon.

The cannon can swivel and elevate, but it can't move. It can also be targeted and attacked, and the cannon are prime targets early in the battle because they can do a lot of damage to the siege engines that must come in range of them to batter down the walls.

Things were pretty quiet on JB's side of the fortress, though. She experimented with the cannon, discovering that it has considerable range. When an alliance workshop started churning out vehicles, JB could see them chortling along the roadway (chortling? I think I meant trundling) far from her position, yet still in range of bombs lobbed at them on a long, high arc. That kept her busy enough, and when the occasional mounted allie came galloping by, JB hammered them at close range while they dashed this way and that, killing about every other one. There was another gunner off to JB's left, even farther from the action up front, and a third on the top floor of the front corner that had a good view of both the front and JB's area.

Things quieted down even further, and JB started wondering how the main battle was going. She considered leaving the cannon and rushing into the fray, eager to gets some hands on action. But another group of allie vehicles came pouring out of the workshop, so JB tossed her high lobs at them, expecting them, like all the others she'd seen, to shortly move out of sight as they headed for the front.

These, however, turned in a different direction. JB kept lobbing bombs at them, and in a few moments it became apparent where they were headed. The allies were trying a flanking movement and were headed right for JB's position, probably intending to take the vehicle workshop on JB's side of the fortress. The big engines powered closer and closer, looming larger and larger, as JB and the other two gunners ripped into them. Alliance on foot and mount were also among the vehicles, trying to protect them from any horde players. There were only a couple of badly outnumbered horde out on that field. For now JB couldn't help them - she was trained on the siege engines, as they must be brought down to keep them from breaching the walls. For several minutes the firefight was intense. Engine after engines exploded and broke apart. Two reached the walls, partially breaching them, but we held as the last of the attacking vehicles crumpled under the barrage of cannon. The alliance in the vehicles were now on foot, and JB mercilessly gunned them down.

The battle was ticking down to it's final seconds. JB didn't know how close the allies were to breaking through at the front, but if this was a normal battle the heat of the fight would be at the control room, the ultimate goal of the attackers. JB was about to jump from her cannon when she was suddenly attacked - from within the fortress! Apparently the allies were deep enough inside that they discovered JB at her post. It was a short fight and JB lost. While she was rezzing, though, the horde held, the timer ticked to zero and we still owned Wintergrasp fortress. JB loves WG.