There are no humans in Hunter Fortress. Bean is a blood elf. Shevils is a goblin. Speak and See are trolls. But Hunter Fortress has been inhumanly good since the formation of the team. Last week our perfect string of victories without a single defeat was intact. It was an unprecedented accomplishment.
It all came to an end on Tuesday night, as eventually, all things must.
See was indisposed and unable to make it, but the team has run with three members several times without breaking stride and we had every confidence. The first match was Warsong Gulch. We fought hard, but Shevils kept dying and there always seemed to be more of them than us. It was a strange coincidence that all three of us died exactly 8 times each, and all three of us had exactly 41 honor kills each. It was that kind of night. Even when we fell to 0-2, Shevils still thought that we would find a way to win it back, but the Alliance team had six players who could heal, two of which were priests, and between the healing and the priest shields it took forever to kill anyone. It was a scary sight, seeing an entire enemy team sporting shields every time we engaged. We lost 3-0. Our first loss ever.
Our second match was Arathi Basin. To put a positive spin on things, this was Bean's very first ever Arathi Basin match! Our team got off to a pretty good start, capturing three bases to the Alliance two and holding steady long enough to think that we would hold those bases until the end. Shevils and Bean held the Lumber Mill with a couple of others, defending it from attack several times.
Our lead in bases didn't last, however. One of our bases fell to the Alliance, and I don't think we ever got that one back. The Lumber Mill came under vicious and constant attack, and changed hands several times. The back and forth coupled with the deaths separated Shevils and Bean. Bean ended up back at the Mill with two others, doing a great job of holding on to it while Shevils hooked up with Speak to attack the Stables. By that time the Alliance had more bases than us and our points lead started to dwindle.
We fought back, earning a tie in bases for a bit. The stables remained in Alliance hands despite several attempts to capture it. It was a very hard fought campaign, but we lost by a slim margin, 100 resources short of the 1600 we needed for victory.
Hunter Fortress gave a great accounting of ourselves, with Shevils leading the Horde in killing blows (22) and Speak leading the Horde in total damage (over 17k). Bean's solid defense at the Lumber Mill kept the Horde in the fight until very near the end. Yes, it was another loss, but it was not from lack of effort.
It was time for Bean to turn in, and time for the team of Kire and Sista. But Kire had a new partner on this night. At level 45, Java felt that he was ready for some pvp and dungeon running with Kire.
The Hunter Fortress were Horde, battling the Alliance. Since Kire and Java were Alliance, perhaps our luck would be better than that of Hunter Fortress. It was not to be. It seemed like a pretty hard luck battle to Java. We went down 0-1 early in the Warsong Gulch match, battled seemingly endlessly, but then Kire made a successful run, capping a flag and tying it up 1-1. We couldn't keep the Horde out of our flag room, though. We killed the flag carriers four times, but they just kept coming. We grabbed their flag several times, but couldn't cap it. Seven times the horde killed our flag carriers as we tried to get it back to our base to cap. We lost 3-1. Kire (42k) and Java (39k) were third and fourth in damage among the Alliance, but we were both beaten out by the other two paladins (64k, 52k) in the group. It was not our night for pvp on either side of the war.
We hoped for much better luck in our dungeon runs. We even had a plan. It was time to go after our first relic. That hole in our gear chaffed at us both, and we were now - almost - at the level where we could earn it. The "almost" part belonged Java who, at level 45, was one level short of being able to get into Stratholme, the dungeon that held the quest we both wanted to do. Java was only 35% of the way to level 46, and without any rested experience left (Java's power leveling over the past several days had ended any chance of rested xp) we wound up doing back-to-back dungeons in Dire Maul North. We had a mage in that group (was he actually in both runs? It seemed so) who couldn't help pulling mobs and he died several times while creating havoc in the process. We were all getting flustered by it, to the point Kire asked the mage if he enjoyed screwing with us or if he was just that klutzy. The mage said something like "a little of both, I guess." We didn't kick him, and it smoothed out eventually, but it seemed we were a little out of kilter in both runs, even though we finished them.
What did go outstandingly well is that we killed Captain Kromcrush both times we faced him. This is the boss mob that usually requires the Ogre Suit to slip past him without a fight. Last week we wiped on him several times trying to kill him. Not this time. We had a great healer, and Kromcrush was crushed. Twice.
Java made it to level 46, and we specifically signed on for Stratholme. The dungeon is rated for level 48-51; Java's level 46 was the minimum level to get in. Java's tender years showed in the battles. He had a lot of misses, deflects, and blocks that kept his attacks from hitting. We had a better group than the two we'd had for DM, but Stratholme is lined wall to wall with mobs and traversing through them created a constant danger of aggro. Some of the squishier players in the group started complaining about the tank (Kire) not pulling mobs off of them. However, we were dealing with sometimes dozens of mobs at a time and both Kire and Java were doing our best to keep them rounded up. Players who draw aggro have a responsibility to kite the mob that's hitting them to the tank. I don't know how many times Java had to leave the center of the fight to take a mob off of a player who was just standing there wringing his hands.
The complaining was a minor event, though, when it came to perhaps the funniest thing I've ever seen in a random dungeon run. Sorry, Kire, I just have to tell this story.
We were working through a series of bosses when one of our group got mind controlled, and the mind controlled player used what I think was Iceblock on Kire. Kire was engulfed in a large block of ice, stunned into immobility for several seconds. Java could barely see Kire inside the ice, it was that thick. We still brought down the boss.
Kire was still encased in ice. He started moving. One should not be able to move when encased in ice. We waited for the ice to melt. It stayed stubbornly frozen solid around Kire. Hmm. The giggles started.
Kire tried combat. One, to see if he could actually fight inside the ice. Two, hoping it would break up. The answer to part one, can you fight? Kire said - it seems so, as he started killing mobs. The second question, will the iceblock go away? was no.
Kire tried logging out and logging back in. That didn't work, either. Kire seemed resigned to finishing the dungeon encased in ice, as we continued to fight our way through the dungeon. I have to admit, though, that while Java kept his silence, inside Java was laughing hysterically to the point of tears. Just looking at that block of ice tanking a mob would start Java up again.
Somewhere along the way, the ice block went away. I think Kire teleported out and back in and that might have done it.
"Iceblock" Kire
Strat is a lot of fun even without the added iceblock attraction, and we pretty much cleared the huge place. Both Kire and Java got our first relics. Java also picked up two other gear upgrades and saw some others he would love to have from Strat. We should be hitting up that place again. Java can't wait to see "Iceblock" Kire in action again. :P
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