Monday, May 5, 2008

Cryptic

After several runs through the Mana Tombs, culminating in successfully escorting Cryo-Engineer Sha'heen for Blackheathen's tanking boots, the Elder moved to the next stage of the Auchindoun chain - Auchenai Crypts.

The Crypts are a much more straightforward run, with only two bosses and a host of Burning Legion minions. Having three 70's now, the mobs didn't pose many threats, and we got to the first boss without wiping (which for the Elder is quite an accomplishment, the trash always seem to get us at least once!). On the way Fugg picked up a nice set of plans for Felsteel Gloves, and Paxmortis scooped up a formula for +12 Agil to boots. Nice drops from trash!

There were a few interesting moments too when first Stroeb and then Blackheathen were mind controlled and started wailing in on our own party. Some quick thinking from Pax meant that we were soon baaa-ing merrily as sheep - much to the joy of Fugg who was both bearing the brunt of the infighting and also our nominated sheep breaker...

So we cleared the mobs, but Shirrak the Dead Watcher was a different story. A vast floating eye, he has a couple of nasty effects - namely slowing down all casting, and an AoE/bomb that wipes the melee DPS pretty fast. Still, on our first attempt, we got within 5% of having him down before running out of options. On our next couple, early wipes by Fugg and Stroeb left the rest of the team fighting a losing battle. But we finally nailed him thanks to a particularly brilliant Heal from Neit on Blackie at the 100hp mark, and Fugg's strategic bandaging retreats. Stroeb was, of course, dead, ftl.


As we moved on, the cry went out for Stroeb to have another attempt at her "sap without stealth" method, but alas she was a bit stroppy on the night and refused point blank. Thankfully. More mobs were polished off before we reached boss two, the shapeshifting Dranai Exarch Maladaar. This guy posed no problems - tank 'n' spank, with a few diversions when he summoned his pseudo "Blackheathen" and, later, a ghostly version of himself.

Not much of a drop from him, though Neit managed to upgrade her helm twice on the night - first lifting the Collar of Command from Shirrak, then looting a Raven Heart-Headress from a chest ftw!

Sunday, May 4, 2008

The Early Days

(Having recently upgraded to some +int gear, our legendary tank Blackheathen has learnt to write, and put pen to paper to create a brilliant early history of his WoW experience...)

First words that come to mind are L2P NOOB. We were the epitome of noobs when we first started WOW all those months ago. After many lunchroom discussions Michelle and Wayne (Dierdron) eventually managed to convince Fugg and Myself to enter into our first MMORPG. I must admit to taking more convincing than the others to join up lol, what did I do with all my time back then???

My first night on was unfortunately a Tuesday, server shutdown FTL. I still managed to get out and ding a few lvls, get pwned in a duel by a mage 2 lvls below lol and start gearing up with a few fantastic white, unsoulbound items WOOOT. At the end of my second night online I reached the dizzying heights of lvl 6 thanks to the help of our other mighty warrior, Fugg.

Thursday night, our first night meeting up the tavern at Brill, all the excitement during the workday building up to it (some of which even started viscous office rumours as I yelled out to Michelle before heading home, "Hey, see at the tavern at Brill at about 8:00 ok?")

Finally we all meet up, just the 4 of us at that stage, Fugg, Blacky, Helouise (Niet's mage main in the early days) and Dierdron. This was the first time I had ever ventured out of Deathnell and seeing Helouise at lvl 10, a full 4 lvls above, I must admit to being more than a little intimidated. Finally we managed to group up, hours later I learned how to use party chat, FTL.

So, off for our first little adventure as a party. Murlocs were on the menu as we continued on our first of many many many apocothery quest chains. As you can imagine, party tactics, any tactics, aggro etc, were all things we would learn about much later. Needless to say, Blacky and Fugg made their way back from the graveyard in good time. Not something that would always be the case. Fugg had one particularly humorous episode where he was running around lost as a ghost for a considerable length of time before learning how to use the minimap and the arrow to guide you back to your corpse. Starting an alt much later I can't quite figure out some of the paths we used to take getting back to our beaten corpses at the infamous Agamand Mills. They really aren't very far but somehow we managed to make it into a 5 min round trip lol.

We slowly progressed through the Tirisfall glades, moving with WASD and mouse clicking lol FTL. We also began finding bits and pieces of info on the net and learnt a little about how to play our classes and roles in groups etc. We also started hearing rumours of the mighty RFC, an instance??

It was around this point that our Mage, the mighty Paxmortis arrived on the scene and Helouse left us to be replaced by Neitzsche, the ugliest, deadest, baldest headed priest ever. Now with a full party of 5 we were ready for an assault on the Scarlet Monastary, at lvl 12 lol. Sure we were getting one or two shotted but hey come on guys, one more try?

After a few weeks came our first trips into Silverpine Forest, "man you have to go check out Silverpine, have you been? there are like lvl 12 Wolves in there LVL 12!!!!!!!!!". So began our progression away from our birthplace of the Deathnell. Somehow we managed to get ourselves up to the Sepulchre and wtf there are bats? There is some quest to go to a place called Undercity, where the hell is that? So off we go on our first bat ride, WOOOOOT what a rad experience. But then hey what is this place?, how am I ever going to find my way out of here? Ok don't wander too far, just hand quest in and jump on the bat back to the safety of the Sepulchre, phew.

Silverpine was also the home to our first nemsis, Son of Arugal. A roaming lvl 24 elite (nerfed to 20 elite in patch 2.3, this game used to be hard lol) that killed us all, over and over, as a group or individually.

A few memorable moments in Silverpine include Dierdron, down at the wreck, drowning inside the wrecked boat unable to figure out how to swim up. Paxmortis blowing up Moonrage Whitescalps (werewolf type mobs) with exploding sheep, oh the irony lol. As well as action packed group fishing sessions. After finishing up a few quests at the Sepulchre one night we all jumped on a bat to head to UC much to the dismay of Fugg who was left standing at the bat handler unable to fork out the 10 copper for the bat ride.

Around this time that we also began to get rolling with our professions and skinning, mining and making dynamite, armour, bags out of all the copper, stones, cloth and beasties we came across. Helouise and Paxmortis even started making gold, GOLD!!!!!!!!!!

Some of us, Dierdron was the first I believe, discovered Zeppelins and a whole new continent. Soon enough we began to venture into the infamous Barrens, the land of CHUCK NORRIS. This was the scene of my first meeting with the mighty Beastheart, until about lvl 60, always this almighty being of godly power, sooo many lvls above.

Apart from a little adventuring into the Barrens we continued to work our way through Silverpine and edge ever closer to the magic lvl 20. We soon began talking up our chances of getting some revenge on Son of Arugal. Our first few attempts ended in dismal failure but finally, after a few more lvls we got him. Ok guys, lets take him out, buffed, everyone ready, CHARGE. It still took us a while and I think I may have even died the first kill but he was down and we got to feast on his bloodied flesh. WOOOOOT, what a moment. Maybe not to be surpassed until Nazan in Hellfire Ramparts.

Finishing all the group quests in Silverpine was a great moment and one that would very rarely be repeated. We were soon to learn that there are just too many areas and too many quests to do them all. This was also the end of questing in Horde territory. A whole new world of getting ganked by ?? allies awaited us, especially as we took our first few innocent steps into the notorius Killsbrad I mean Hillsbrad Hills.

More to follow.

Blackheathen

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Ding.

And Blackheathen - never has a Tank been more excited. And watching him nosedive his new flying machine into the ground never grows old!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Ding. Ding.

Two more graduate to the School of Seventy - Fugg first, then Neitzsche. Both last seen flying around Outland at great altitude!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The Magic Number

We have a winner: Beastheart dinged 70 at 02:35 this morning! Our first seventy FtW!!

Congratulations and may the wind always be at your back. Beastheart is a legend on Barthilas, and Midnight's Children have prized the alliance forged between Beast and Paxmortis. Though Pax might be a little miffed by Beast getting there first!

In other progress news, Blackheathen & Fugg are both at 68 now, with Neitzsche not far off the pace on 67, and Paxmortis at 66. Stroeb, as usual, is tailing behind on 64, whilst Rahjin has entered Outland at 60. And as befits his class, Silentndead is sneaking up on 58.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

An ordinary day of fishin'

I'd studied the form guides, listened to wiser fishers than I will ever be, lined my trusty FC-5000, baited up, and re-consulted The Bass And You. It was time. The Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza awaited!

For those unfamiliar, the SFE is a true test of an angler's skill, and the rewards are great - from the legendary Arcanite Fishing Pole to the Hook of the Master Angler. Held along Stranglethorn coast, it attracts all comers searching to perfect their art, and catch a couple of stacks of rare Tastyfish.

I started in Grom'grol, and immediately joined the swarms of anglers with poles being tuned and tactics discussed. Ally gankers were having a field day before the competition started, taking down innocent twinks with glee. This didn't bode well for the competition itself - how can you fish when you're being one-shotted?

But, interestingly and perhaps surprisingly, once the fishing begun, the ganking stopped. Once again our humble pastime achieved what nothing else could, with Horde and Alliance monentarily declaring a truce...to fish.

I started well, finding and emptying a couple of pools all to myself. The Tastyfish squirmed in my bag and the rod twitched in my hand, as fish after fish was landed.

Pirates fish too

Before long though, the traffic started to appear. And so did the dubious tactics - this fellow was leaping about in the water, diverting attention and making it very hard to reel my bobber in when it jumped.

Side by side in perfect harmony

I had racked up about 17 fish when the competition ended - alas! But I could sense something else was out there, and fished on for a few more pools. There was something beckoning, something Nat Pagle had taught me about. Using a special Mormyshka lure, crafted from the finest materials, I landed the elusive Keefer's Angelfish.

So rare are these fish that the Fishbot 5000 in Booty Bay swapped it for something magical...

Lucky!

Nice hat

The SFE was a great experience, and there's plenty more rewards for those that are attuned. Perhaps some fellow Guildster's will join me next time - a competition within the competition!

"We're ok, he's down..."

Our fearless leader, Paxmortis, decided enough was enough and wrenched the mantle of command from Fugg and Blackheathen last Thursday, leading the Elder through the spell drenched Mana-Tombs.

Mana flows

This all came about because, as most have realised, Paxmortis now has a mic, much to the horrordelight of all who roll with him. His running commentary was a revelation, and kept everyone well focussed for the night. Pax introduced some nice new features to the run. The best was the ingenious use of smoke flares to set pull and ranged positions in the kill zones. Certainly helped for positioning, and led to a more structured setup.

Pandemonius

Unfortunately for Pax's Warmaster ambitions, we had a few wipes on trash as usual. But we managed to take care of the Bosses pretty smoothly, wiping only once on Pandemonius, and not at all on Tavarok. Blackheathen also starred, taking on Mana Leeches all on his lonesome, whilst Fugg and Stroeb cheered from the sidelines. Fugg's classic "can I get a heal" after one particularly nasty Leech encounter left Blacky with 51HP was perfect.

Tavarok

Stroeb got her first taste of being a sheep thanks to some mob casters, Fugg spent an entire fight trying to control his Tonk Tank instead of his axe (leaving Pax to threaten to replace all Fugg's enchants with Intellect buffs to make him the smarted warrior around), and perhaps the highlight was Pax's calm assurance that "We're ok, he's down..." whilst we were being cut to pieces by an add he hadn't seen.

The final Boss, Nexus-Prince Shaffar, proved a real challenge. His three companion Ethereal Beacon's caused all sorts of problems as we needed to take them down before they summoned Apprentices, who packed a nasty Fireball punch. Blackheathen did a masterful job tanking the Prince himself, and Neit more than kept him up. But the DPS brigade kept getting overwhelmed by the summoned nasties. We tried various tactics - concentrate on one, take one each, pull them away from each other - before a final attempt led to an epic victory. Pax's voice control directed the DPS traffic, which allowed Fugg and Stroeb to alternate between the Beacon's and the Prince. Neit and Blacky meanwhile kept the Prince busy, and we steadily wore him down - and we steadily went down too. First Stroeb (as usual!), then Pax, then Fugg, and Neit.

In the end only Blackheathen was left standing when the Prince finally died, and even he went down thanks to some leftover trash. But the boss was down, and it was a sweet win.

Once again no loot to speak of (other than loads of dull +intellect gear, as befits the mana rich atmosphere), and we failed on the escort quest on the way out that would have given Blackheathen a nice pair of tanking boots. Maybe next time!