Thursday (1 Jul) - Now, Where Was I?

Thursday (1 Jul) - Now, Where Was I?

Ok, so I haven't popped up in here since early Tuesday, but I have my excuses all lined up - the Mrs birthday on Wednesday; our wedding anniversary on Thursday; having to suddenly hunt up a new refrigerator, only to have that derailed when our car broke down; two and a half hours in the dentist chair; and of course getting ready for our July 4th party.

Despite my oh so full (of it) schedule, there were a few things accomplished in game this week.

Wild did get into ICC10 on Tuesday night. The plan was to clear the first four bosses in ICC and then go explore the new raid dungeon, Ruby Sanctum. The turn out was light for the raid, and the MM guild only fielded one raid instead of the two we have been able to put together for the last few weeks. We managed to get through Marrowgar, Deathwhisper, and the Gunship without too much trouble, but Saurfang was again a problem for us. I think we get too wound up for this fight. The group we had was clearly geared and experienced enough to beat Saurfang, but we struggled. Part of the problem was simple bad luck on our first attempt. We were sailing along quite well when Wild got Marked. Being Marked means taking constant heavy damage that can't be debuffed in any way. Wild was main tank healing already, so Wild had to pick up healing himself at the same high level that he was healing the tank, plus keep up a large amount of raid healing since we were using just two healers. Wild was managing that just fine and we started getting excited that we would take Saurfang down on our first shot. Then our other healer, a priest, was also Marked. Very bad luck, for now the priest had to maintain heavy healing on herself and on her tank target as well. As we got Saurfang closer and closer to dying, the healing pressure got worse and worse. Both of us, Wild and the priest, started getting behind. Wild even used his innervate on the priest to help her out, but the damage kept growing and both of us were in full chain healing mode. The priest went down first, then her tank, and we unraveled and wiped. We tried three more times but botched things up every time. It just wasn't our night. We never got a chance to hit up Ruby Sanctum as we had run late.

Wild learned something interesting during the raid. The warlock in the raid had about 100 frost badges and was talking about what gear he should buy with it. He planned to spend 95 of them on a pair of boots. However, the upgrade was only a minor one and he was grousing about having to use all those badges for such little return. What else could he buy with them? Well, remember those boots Wild tried to talk Happy into spending 8,000 gold on? Well, read on. One of the other DPS casters suggested to the warlock that instead of buying the frost badge boots, he should consider having a much better pair of boots crafted. Those boots are called [Deathfrost Boots] and those boots are the ones Wild wanted to buy. Wild had never bothered to find out that those boots weren't a drop in ICC, but were crafted by Tailors from a recipe that came from ICC. Wild got excited that an MM guild tailor would be able to craft the very boots Wild lusted after.

Wild looked up the recipe to find out what materials were required to craft them. The materials started with 6 ebonweave and 6 spellweave cloth. Wild could make those himself with mats he already had. So far so good. The other mat needed was 5 primordial saronite. Now we know why those boots cost so much. Primordial saronite is hard to come by. The warlock was happy, though, because he could use frost badges to buy the primordial saronite to make the boots he really wanted. Wild, however, did not have enough frost badges to buy one primordial saronite, much less five of them. Wild turned to Happy.

Without even opening up the AH Happy started complaining. Primordial saronite sells for 800g plus each on the AH! That's 4,000 gold! Wild applied pressure. Well, it's a lot less than 8,000 gold, Wild told him. Buy me the saronite, or buy me the boots. Happy bought the saronite. Wild learned later that Happy made a good deal on them, too, getting all five for 650g each.

Wild packaged up all the mats and sent them via in game mail to the raider that had suggested the boots be crafted. Wild even included a 100g tip to have them crafted. A day later he got email back from the raider. Wild opened it up to get his new boots - but all he got back were his mats and his 100g. "I'm sorry," the raider friend wrote Wild, "but I don't have the recipe for the boots, I was just making a suggestion that the warlock have someone make them." Wild wanted to have a tantrum, but it was his own fault for not clarifying things up front. And no, the raider friend told him, he didn't know if anyone in the MM guild had the recipe.

With his anticipation now completely deflated, and wondering what he would do with all those expensive primordial saronite, Wild decided to check on just how rare that recipe was, and whether he could find a guildie in either guild that might have it. Imagine Wild's surprise when he learned that the recipe could be purchased from a vendor inside ICC - for one primordial saronite. It's a tailoring recipe. Have I mentioned that Wild is a tailor? For one primordial saronite and the mats Wild already had, he could make those [Deathfrost Boots] himself. Which is exactly what Wild went out and did, saving himself some 4-6k gold in the process. This morning those same boots Wild is now wearing were listed at 12,000 gold on the AH. Wild is considering making another pair - to sell.

Wild also got another pleasant chore accomplished. Remember Sethekk Halls and the Raven Lord? The quest chain that Wild botched up for a good friend because I hadn't finished the quest chain? When Wild got around to really researching where things went wrong, I learned that he had in fact completed all of the quests required to face that special boss in heroic Sethekk Halls, Anzu. All that Wild was missing was an item called an Essence-Infused Moonstone. Wild needed that moonstone in order to Summon Anzu. By all accounts Wild should have had that moonstone on his keychain. He didn't. So I visited the quest giver that handled all the quests in this chain to see where things were broken. When Wild talked to the quest giver, the quest giver's first question was, "Did you lose your moonstone? If so, ask me for another one." It was that simple. Wild had his moonstone. No, Wild hasn't gone back to Sethekk Halls to Summon Anzu yet, but as soon as I hook up with my shaman friend we are going to do just that.

Philly found her way into her first Wintergrasp battle early Friday morning in what seems like two weeks. We were on offense, but things looked really bleak with less than 15 raiders in what is usually 40 or more. Attacking the fortress with those small numbers was probably fruitless. Philly was specced for pvp healing, but in several skirmishes she found herself DPSing nearly as much as healing because of the small numbers. We worried at the alliance defenders, but weren't making much progress in breaching the fortress's defenses. Nobody had bothered to start making vehicles, so Philly built herself a catapult to harry the alliance with. I'd wanted a siege engine, but we could not make those yet. The catapult was fun, but I didn't have much support and the allies destroyed it. While most of the horde pvpers continued to mix it up outside the fortress walls with the alliance, Philly rode back to the vehicle shop. A siege engine was just emerging from the shop with a horde pvper behind the wheel. Philly jumped on and took over the gunner controls. The smart driver took the siege engine to the western walls as all the allies were occupied on the east side. Our single siege engine pounded and pounded on the walls while Philly killed the few npc hostiles around and destroyed the pair of enemy cannons so they couldn't be used against us. When we burst through the outer walls there were only a couple of allies in view, and they both died under Philly's assault with the siege engine's mighty guns. We needed to bring down another wall to get to the central area where we needed to be. We started blasting down that wall and were finally joined by additional horde pvpers on foot and mount. We were still the only vehicle. The wall went down, and as we crashed through we led in most of the horde team. Our siege engine ground it's giant tracks up the stairs to the massive door that protected the heart of the fortress. The engine slammed repeatedly against the door and Philly blasted the allies all around us. We were taking damage, but the doors went down, and behind that door was our final target. Both the siege engine rams and Philly's guns trained on that target and destroyed it. The Horde had won using only a single siege engine.

This was the first time in numberless dozens of battles that any of the Wild family had been in on that ultimate kill. Philly was ecstatic over the special win and went out and bought an i264 pvp ring with the honor points she'd won.

The in game action is still going to be slow as the next real life adventure is our annual trip with the RV to visit relatives on the east coast. But there should be a good bit of action in July before we go, so stay "tooned"!