Monday, January 28, 2008

Rapid Zul'Farrak

A city full of Sandfury Trolls is no picnic, but some of the Elder decided to brave Zul'Farrak's windswept sands a few nights back in a quick run through. Neitzsche, Blackheathen, Fugg and Stroeb geared up and galloped forth - though as we discovered, not all were geared quite right. Blackie seemed to be doing a lot of damage, but stayed alive less than he normally would. Turns out he spent the whole time in his DPS gear - FTL!

Neit introduced a newish tactic, using some kind of Jedi Mind Control to turn the enemy on themselves. We still need a little work on handling the mob once they wake up to themselves, but it's fun to watch as they wail into each other. And it goes without saying that Neit kept us all alive again.

There was something in the air that meant we pulled a lot of adds all night, but the group still managed to not wipe, though it got pretty close. The highlight was the epic fight against Ghaz'rilla, the three headed hydra monstrosity from the deep. Ghaz has an entertaining habit of tossing his foes in the air like playthings, and there were several times where we were all floating helplessly in middair whilst he mocked our efforts.

The fight seemed to go on for a long time, Blacky desparately trying to keep it's attention whilst Fugg unleased his Fury hammer blows. But this guy was tough - the combination of his attacks and the falling damage meant that both Fugg and Blackheathen went down. With only Stroeb and Neitzche left things were looking grim - but summoning all our strength and knowing we were watched by the spirits of our fallen Warrior bretheren, we harnessed the power of Midnight and together managed to finally bring down the beast.


Exhausted after the fight, we retreated to tend our wounds and started telling this tall tale to all who would listen...

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Maraudon Marauders

Thursday night saw a quorum of Elder - Blackheathen, Fugg, Neitzsche and Paxmortis - venture into the festering earth of Maraudon, with special invitee Stroeb joining the party in Dierdron's absense.

Maraudon drips with evil the moment you enter - shamblers, sludges, slimes and scion haunt it's fetid caverns. It's a dank and unpleasant place, though Neitzsche enjoyed himself collecting the Ghost Mushrooms that thrived down there.

We had the luxury of dual leaders, with Blackheathen and Fugg tanking their way through whilst controlling the targetting and pulls with military precision. Not a single add for the night meant we got through without wiping. There were a few deaths, but all due to careless play on behalf of the followers rather than mistakes with the lead. Hence both Blackie and Fugg have put themselves on the path to Warmastery.

One of the more troublesome creatures we encountered was the Creeping Sludge, a slow moving ball of green slime that has a devastating close range Poison Shock effect. The tanks and Stroeb kept their distance for this one, peppering away with ranged weaponry, whilst Pax did a beautiful job kiting the sludge around until it fell. We got the feeling Pax would have been happy doing this all night, but there were quests to complete!

All fell before our blades of fury, the tanks drawing all the attention which allowed Stroeb to backstab with abandon and Pax to bring down the heavens above. But of course it's all about the healing, and Neit shined by never letting anyone drop.

And, of course, there was the loot - there was so much to pick up that we had a few cases of Bag Rage (a genius expression coined by Denmother). Though we missed a few of the better drops, we did well enough:After several hours of delving, we reached the half way point by redeeming Celebras the Cursed. We left the minions of Maraudon to rue the day the Children of Midnight entered their realm, and fearing the day we return to finish the job.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Goblin Engineering sure can be dangerous

Blackheathen learns the hard way - check out the combat text lower left corner...

Monday, January 14, 2008

Guild Bank - Online!

I think this is new - from the official WoW Armory Guild page, you can now access the Guild Bank contents, and transaction log. wOOt - something to pass the time at work! Perma-linked in the Dept of Information now.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Brooding in Wailing Caverns

The Brood - Denmother, Dawnsinger, Haelo, Judelder & Xantir - ran their second instance last night, taking on the might of Wailing Caverns after a successful RFC run. Tales of raptors, slime, mighty druidic foe, and huge shambling horrors prepared us for the worst as we stood on the cusp of the descent - resplendent in the Guild Tabard.


Denmother led again, taking the party of 18th and 19th levels deep into the bowels of the Caverns. Drawing agro like a champion (except when Xantir's Paladinic "bravery" meant he couldn't help himself), and only taking a few wrong turns (thankfully Dawnsinger knew the route), it was another genius lead as once again we had zero deaths. Two in a row - one more and Denmother will be the recipient of the coveted (and as yet unawarded) Warmaster Triumph - "given to any guild member who leads three consecutive successful instance runs without wipes against foes of the correct level bracket".


Not that there weren't a few hiccups...Judelder had several near death experiences (and again saved everyone via carefully timed sheeping), and Haelo managed to run out of arrows 3/4 of the way in. A melee Hunter is not a pretty sight - at least her pet Splinter did an admirable job off-tanking. Dawnsinger again balanced keeping everyone alive, other than than when she was asleep and the time she<cough>fell down the ravine<cough>. Xantir was bestowed with the Snakeslayer epithet after taking down every (first level) snake he saw with a single fell swoop of his very mighty sword Sin'dorei Warblade.

We emerged older and wiser, and considerably richer:For the Horde!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Camping Darkmoon Faire

Darkmoon Faire is in Mulgore, just South of Thunder Bluff (see map), from today until Jan 14th - time to make some serious cash for the Children. Each of the items below can be auctioneed for way more than the vendor cost. As per Pax's suggestions, camp the vendors and try your best to acquire:

Herbs

Gems

  • All but Talasite

Leather

Feel free to use Guild funds, and deposit the goods into the bank once acquired. Remember to check both vendors. Respawn rates for these items is about 15 minutes. You have to keep opening the window to see new spawns, can't just leave it open and wait for them to appear.

Have fun...

Guild Charter

Chris's brilliant Guild Charter is now linked for reference in the Dept. of Information.

As suggested in the booklet, if you have character goals that the guild can help with, post them in the comments to this blog entry...

Uldaman & Dark Lady Silvanas Windrunner

Fugg has provided a couple of nice new screenshots:


Paxmortis, Fugg, Neitzsche and Blackheathen in Uldaman

Silentndead kneeling to the Dark Lady Silvanas Windrunner