Tuesday Night (12 Apr) - Paladin Twins

Tuesday Night (12 Apr) - Paladin Twins

Hunter Fortress was short a hunter for the weekly assault on the Alliance, but that is a temporary situation and the team should be back to full strength next week.

Speak, Bean, and Shevils continued to terrorize their opponents, as we do each week, winning both Warsong Gulch matches. Speak led both matches in killing blows and damage, but Shevils has been a little off lately and could do no better than fourth. Bean continues to gain experience, getting the fire hose treatment in learning pvp combat, something it took Wildshard literally years to figure out (and still learning). Bean is fearless and aggressive, a combination that makes her deadly when she has a target in her sights, but is still working on getting her targets tagged more quickly and consistently.

The Paladin Twins, Kire and Java, then took center stage. The pair took on Stratholme for our first dungeon, clearing through it with ease. The same group seemed to want to go again, and for our second random dungeon we got Stratholme again. Although this time, it was Stratholme Live. This was a treat for Java and the Wild family as a whole. No one in the Wild family had ever done the "Live" section of Strat. The "Live" section is just that - all of the mobs are living beings. In the other part of Strat, the part I am used to, the humanoid mobs are Undead/Scourge. Hence Strat "Live" and Strat "Dead."

We started in what looked like Strat "Dead" but Kire opened a door that led into an area that looked nothing like the dead side of strat. Instead of the dark, dingy, and dirty streets and falling apart structures of the dead side, the Live side was almost blindingly bright and clean. The look and feel and even the layout was very much like what the Scarlet Monastery looks like, up to and including the human hostiles we were facing. That makes sense, because Strat was once one of the great cities of the Humans. That changed when Arthas destroyed most of it. The scourge took over the greater part of the city (the dead side) and the Scarlet Crusade took over the smaller Live side.

Before we even got started, two of the group, including the healer, decided to leave. That left Kire, Java, and a warrior. After clearing two groups of Scarlet Crusaders, Kire felt that we could three man the place if we wanted to. Sure, we agreed, let's give it a try!

It was awesome! We plowed through that place killing everything in our path and downing bosses like they were trash mobs. Kire and Java could heal themselves, of course, and between the two of us the warrior rarely got hit as we kept aggro off him. In his excitement at seeing something new, Java forgot all about the many quests he'd picked up at the start. When we finished up Kire helped Java locate the various items I'd failed to grab on our push through the dungeon. One thing I have to keep reminding myself of is that many of these "classic" dungeons have had their maps upgraded. In vanilla WoW the dungeon maps were so convoluted as to be almost impossible to navigate (Wild's opinion). The new maps are much cleaner and easier to follow. An even better improvement is that the location of each quest requirement is placed on the map as well. Java just has to remember to look at that map!

Java's DPS showed serious improvement now that he has his new polearm. Java was previously averaging 300-350 dps. On the Tuesday night Strat runs Java averaged 497 dps. Kire, having to handle tanking duties without a healer and only three total players, had to be a little more careful, but still came in with 405 dps. The warrior breezed through behind us with 228 dps.

We weren't done, yet. Time for some battlegrounds pvp.

Alterac Valley - The random BG finder sent us to the 40 man per team AV to get us started in a big way. This was only the second time Java as been in an AV battle. Java and Kire stayed together as much as possible, but in a battle as vast as AV there were many times we got separated. With the many objectives that count toward victory it's always been a bit confusing to tell who was winning or losing. The goal is to kill the opposing npc General, but I think a team can win without that kill as well. That seems to be what happened in this match. Java was actually inside the building attacking the opposing General (along with many others) when the match ended and we lost. Kire could probably explain this better than Java. One interesting tidbit that I never knew about AV - all the Wing Commanders (npcs) in AV are named after characters in "Top Gun." For example, the character "Maverick" played by Tom Cruise has an AV npc counterpart named "Mulverick."

Eye of the Storm - Java is also still learning the ins and outs of this 15 player battleground. The alliance team was very disorganized and so spread out that half the time Java didn't know where he should be attacking or defending next. Even when Java and Kire were able to hook up together we were always out manned and outgunned. That didn't stop us from wading into battle, and the horde always paid a heavy price, but most of the time we could not dislodge them. It was another loss.

Arathi Basin - Ah, finally, a place Java knows and understands! Another 15 player battlegound, this match is a matter of controlling the most bases in order to accumulate enough resource points to win. In one match we just murdered them, winning 1600 pts to their 750. Can't remember ever seeing one so lopsided. The second match was a lot closer. The Horde gave us fits through about two-thirds of the fight. Java defended the Stables for a time, usually with just a priest and a rogue for support. The Horde launched several assaults on us with as many as six attackers. Java kept them very busy while the rogue sliced and diced and the priest kept all three of us alive. No one took the stables from us. Kire led many of the assaults on enemy positions. Every few minutes Java would see an announcement: "Kire is attacking the Mines! Kire is attacking the Blacksmiths! Kire is attacking a submarine sandwich!" Ok, maybe that last one was Java. :P

All in all a fantastic night - 2 WSGs, 2 Strat runs, 2 ABs, 1 AV, and 1 Eye. Wow. Kire is now level 52, I believe, and Java is at 54.