Weekend Plus (9 Nov) - Bits and Pieces

Weekend Plus (9 Nov) - Bits and Pieces

Not to bog this down with a lot of Auction House stuff, but Philly had a short, interesting conversation on Saturday night while working on her glyphs. It only takes about twenty minutes to get through the AH stuff with both Happy and Lost. Philly, however, has to deal with over a hundred single items that have to be reviewed, priced, and posted one at a time. Posting and reposting and making new ones and checking prices and ... well, it just takes so much time! Philly had already been at it for maybe forty minutes when a stranger whispered her. The name was Lysanther, a level 29 blood elf paladin. Philly was becoming numbingly familiar with the names of all the regular glyph posters and this wasn't one of them.

Lysanther: "Most of those glyphs you are posting are being underbid by Gakuenalice btw"

Philly thought about that, briefly, posted a few more glyphs, and then responded.

Philly: "and your point?" She sent back. Because, really, what was the point? Bids get underbid. Then I underbid them. It goes like that, and occasionally someone will want to buy something, and hopefully yours will be the lowest price. All I could think of was this person must be the main or an alt of this other poster he mentioned and didn't want me underbidding him.

Lysanther: "because you're and azzhole so continue posting"

Continuing to post was what I was intending to do. Still assuming he was also selling glyphs, Philly responded again.

Philly: "Like you keep posting?" That hit a nerve.

Lysanther: Lysanther ignores Philly.

The guy or gal had put Philly on "ignore" so that I would not be able to send him whispers anymore. Funny, he was the one who started the conversation. Philly didn't know who this was or care, so being ignored by him was fine by me.

But I decided to find out if the other player he mentioned was actually an alt. Philly checked the name, and learned that he was a level 1. Yep, definitely someone's AH alt. Philly decided to say hi.

Philly to Gakuenalice (hereafter referred to as Alice): "Hi, having fun with glyphs tonight? I am."

Alice: "yep" I waited.

Alice: "anything else?"

Philly: "Nope, just seeing your name a lot. Good luck and have fun!"

Alice: "u 2"

Philly: "thanks"

That was the end of our conversation. Alice seemed nice enough. So I'm still not sure what all that was about. But it passed the time while Philly continued to post her glyphs, often underbidding Alice while Alice was underbidding other bids that Philly had made. As at least a dozen other glyph sellers were doing as well.

The dang things don't sell very fast, now, and the prices are starting to fall faster. Opening up the mailbox and seeing page after page of expired glyphs is getting depressing, even though Philly is still making a decent pile of gold each day. Philly's not sure it's worth all that effort, though. She'd rather be off killing something.

Speaking of killing things, Wild decided that it was time to start farming Anzu. Wild may be the only druid ever to start the Anzu quest chain when it was established during the Burning Crusade expansion and still not have it done when Patch 4.0.1 came out. The quest chain was required in order to get the new flight form ability for druids. The final quest was to kill the raven god Anzu in Heroic Sethekk Halls, which Wild never got around to doing because later on the requirement was waived and Wild got flight form without having to complete it.

There was another reason to complete the quest, though. The Anzu boss dropped a mount called "Reins of the Raven God." Since Anzu could only be Summoned by a druid who had completed the quest line, and because there was less than a 2% chance of the mount dropping even then, the Raven God mount became one of the rarest mounts in the game.

Anzu was a popular boss to farm, obviously. Wild was never cared that much about collecting a bunch of mounts, so Wild never thought about attempting it with a two or three man group. Wild's long time shaman friend, though, was trying to get the mount and back in July Wild hooked up with him to give it a try. Unfortunately, Wild screwed that up because he'd forgotten to bring a special orb or something that was required to complete the last quest and Summon Anzu. Wild wasn't interested enough to pursue it further and that was pretty much the end of it.

More time passed, and Patch 4.0.1 came out. Buried in all those huge patch changes was a small change that involved Anzu. Wild did not hear about it until days later. Anzu had been made a permanant boss in Heroic Sethekk Halls. He did not need to be Summoned, and anyone could go and take the bird on without having to bring a druid. Wild was seeing the bird mount a little more often now, and started to appreciate just how rare and beautiful it truly was. And despite the fact that now anyone who can kill Anzu and also get lucky on the drop can get the mount, to Wild it is still a "druid" mount. And Wild now wanted it.

To find Anzu, Sethekk Halls must be set to Heroic. It is a five man level 70 rated dungeon, with mobs around level 71/72 and bosses somewhat tougher. A level 80 can solo Sethekk Halls (SH), but even a level 80 can get killed in there. Wild has cleared Sethekk Halls before solo, but only in normal mode. Anzu doesn't appear in normal mode. So, Wild has never seen Anzu in the flesh (or, more appropriately, feathers).

Sunday night Wild decided to rectify that. Wild was almost waylaid right at the start, as a guildie wanted him to heal an ad hoc ICC raid. Wild was all ready to help out, but then it got canceled and Wild was free again. Wild headed for the Outland city of Shattrath, and from there flew to the Auchenal Crypts, where Sethekk Halls was located.

Wild, in his cat form, can stealth through most of SH without disturbing any of the hostiles in there, but the first boss, Darkweave Syth, can see through stealth. Wild forgot that little fact, and when I tried to slip past him Wild found himself in combat not only with Syth, but also with all of the many mobs in the room that came running in to aid him. Frankly, Wild should have died. In straight up combat, Wild can heal through just about anything mobs of this level can throw at him, but there are birds that can silence spell casting and other mobs that have a nasty stun that Wild cannot stop. Too many silences and stuns and Wild can't get enough self healing. But Wild was lucky. The mobs died, and so did Syth.

Killing a boss and a roomful of elite adds actually bolstered Wild's confidence that maybe Anzu wasn't going to be as tough as he'd read it would be. Wild went back into cat stealth and padded his way to Anzu's room.

There he was, standing in the middle of the room. Waiting. There were no other hostiles. This would be mano a mano. One on one. There are three statues set around the room. Maintaining a heal over time spell on one or more of the statues helps with the fight, but Wild wasn't sure he needed the help. I'd read up on how to tackle this bird, but it was tricky and I must admit that I really only had a vague strategy, along the lines of "let's attack him and see what happens."

Wild attacked. And Wild died.

Ok, so a little more finesse is needed.

Having to stealth through two-thirds of the dungeon after getting rezzed at the graveyard was a real pain. The third boss, Talon King Ikiss, guards a locked door that's a shortcut back into the dungeon. All Wild had to do to open that door was kill him. So Wild stealthed past Anzu and into Ikiss' room. Ikiss was a straight tank and spank type of fight and Wild killed him easily.

Now it was back to Anzu. This time Wild tried to follow the time tested strategy. It went like this:

Wild buffed as he usually did, and then cast a rejuv HoT on the Eagle statue, which deals damage to Anzu as long as the rejuv is active. Rejuving the hawk statue would have reduced the incoming damage from Anzu, but Wild found himself much too busy to deal with the statues after the fight started. Wild cast Hots on himself, and then thumped Anzu with a Starfire spell. Anzu charged at Wild and I cast the instant attacks Moonfire and Insect Swarm, followed by Wild's armor increasing spell for protection from the ferocious melee attack Anzu delivered on Wild. Wild went to a Wrath spell spam and was feeling pretty good about the amount of damage I was doing, and Wild wasn't even in moonkin form (so that I could heal more easily). Wild knew there was a point that he was supposed to move to the other side of the room. When was that? Anzu turned ghostly and stopped attacking. Oh yea, now I need to move. Wild got halfway across the room when a storm of birds descended on him. They weren't elite, though, Wild remembered, and used his AoE spell Hurricane to burn them down. As soon as the last bird died, Anzu returned to sold form and rushed at Wild. Dang it, I forgot to re-heal myself before all the birds died and Anzu attacked again. No problem, I'll just heal . . . oops, Stunned! Wild stood and watched Anzu pound him, health dropping dangerously low. The stun ended and Wild fought to get heals on himself. A Curse! The curse Spellbomb rapidly burned up mana and dealt damage with every spell Wild cast. Luckily, Wild can dispel the thing and did so quickly. And was promptly stunned again. Anzu turned ghostly. The birds returned again. Wild stood his ground and wiped out the birds. He started to heal himself when Anzu came back to solid form again and immediately hammered Wild, stunning him once again. Oh dear, that's why Wild should be moving to away from Anzu when he goes ghostly - to get some breathing room to heal. Wild mustered all the resources he had left, but Anzu killed him again. Wild kept learning and practicing, dying a third time.

Wild killed Anzu on his fourth attempt. The Reins of the Raven Lord didn't drop. The effort cost Wild 32 gold in equipment repair bills. Wild plans to keep trying. The dungeon can be run only once per day.

Monday - Wild made his second trip into Heroic Sethek Halls, and this time was able to kill Anzu on his first try. It was still a little dicey, with Wild getting down under 20% health at one point, but it worked. Wild went to the trouble of getting full buffs this time - Mark of the Wild, Fortitude scroll, stamina food, and a spell power flask. I also made a macro so that I could engage the Eagle Spirit more efficiently. Finally, I discovered I wasn't using one of my moonkin spells. Starsurge is a new spell from the patch that I'd completely forgotten about. Add all of that up and Wild should get Anzu down even quicker with more practice.

And, no, the raven lord mount did not drop.

Tuesday - Wild made his third trip to Heroic Sethekk Halls and again killed Anzu on his first try. No mount. Wild pretty much has this fight down now, although the randomness of the stuns and silences could still trip Wild up if he gets too nonchalant about it. It takes several minutes to bring him down, so Wild can't just overpower the bird like he can with the other two bosses. It's also too bad that the gear Anzu drops is so ugly. Much of it is named for the Raven God and Wild initially thought it would be a good idea to build a set of cool looking gear to wear should he ever get lucky enough to get the mount. But the gear looks terrible and Wild just disenchants it and sends the mats to Happy to sell.

Happy has been living at Silvermoon City for as long as he can remember. It's quiet, there's no lag, and the Auction House, Bank, and mailbox are all close together. However, two high level alliance have taken up almost permanent residence themselves for the past several evenings. The pair have been slaughtering the AH auctioneers at both Auction Houses, corpse camping them for long stretches of time. Silvermoon City is out in the boonies and there are usually no horde level 80s around to chase them off. Happy finally had enough of it and moved his operation to the Undercity on Monday night. It might not be permanent, but the Undercity rarely gets raided by the Alliance and I've never seen the Auctioneers there targeted. Happy will stay awhile and then decide whether to move back or not.