Monday, March 31, 2008

Underbogged

The Elder got busy in the Underbog, the last of the Coilfang challenges for the time being. Like the Brood earlier in the week, the group was in the groove from the word go. Mobs were taken down with precision and lethal timing, with only one very early and very unnecessary wipe early in the piece. Once we had that out of our systems, it was smooth sailing.

Hungarfen

Fugg & Blackheathen had done their research, so we knew what was coming and how to react. Particularly useful when faced with someone like Hungarfen, who's AoE poison cloud is nasty one to get caught in.

Ghaz'an

This was a fun instance, and it was good to feel on top of the encounters, after a few shakey weeks with bad bosses. One of the major changes with Neitzsche has respecced Holy, which made a big difference to his ability to keep everyone standing. Note the lightwell setup before our final encounter for the night - ftw!

The Black Stalker

Not much loot on the night - the Elder seem to be getting unlucky with the drops of late. The best was a set of Needle Shrikes for Stroeb.

Blackfathom Sweep

After another long hiatus, the Brood got back into action with a sweep through Blackfathom Deep. And it was a sweep - we took in the broom and dominated everything in our path. We had hoped this would be a test, but the group is functioning pretty sweetly, so it was a cake walk in the end. Alas, despite appeals from the rest of the Broodsters to Guild Master Paxmortis, he declined to award Warmaster on the groups of being overpowered - will it ever ding!? Denmother is still just one clear instance from getting it...maybe RFK will be the decider.

Twilight Lord Kelris

Gelihast

Not much to report - some good loot was scored along the way, Xantir in particular leaving armed with Strike of the Hydra and clad in a suit of Tortise Armour.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Slave Penned

The Elder's adventures in Outland continued with a foray into The Slave Pens, a subterranean outpost of the Naga.

Neit scoring 7.6

Once again we progressed well until coming up against the giant crustacean Rokmar the Crackler. This guy packed a massive punch in the form of Grevious Wound, a bleed debuff that hits for 900 per 2 seconds until cured - no time out! Hence we had no choice but for Neit to focus 100% on Blackheathen, whilst we DPSers did our best to stay alive - not easy with a AoE Water Spit that killed Stroeb and Fugg time and again.

Every skelton tells a story

However unlike our last Nemesis, we definitely improved each time we approached the crab. Neit had resigned himself to respeccing Holy, and even resorted to the old skoool 'prayer' method before our last attempt...

Neit prays before our next attempt

...which worked!
Praise be to...

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Seventy /'sevuhntee/

We have a number of Guildsters - and one Guild contractor - approaching the magic number...any bets on who will ding first?

Blackheathen - 65
Beastheart - 66
Fugg - 66
Neitzsche - 64
Paxmortis - 63
Stroeb - 61

Even Rahjin (53) is an outside chance if he resigns from the rest of life...and everyone else quits!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Bloody Furnace

The second wing of Hellfire Citadel awaited The Elder on Thursday night. With the taste of vengeance fresh on our lips, the Blood Furnace residents stood little chance.

Incoming

Having said that, we did a good job of pulling every orc in the very first room, but somehow managed to stay up, largely thanks to Neitzsche - who had a sterling night and did plenty of emergency heals throughout.

The Maker awaits his...makers

An epic battle with Broggok, a huge floating beholder, was the highlight, where we first had to take down wave after wave of angry orc elites, culminating in a moment of respite when we sheeped the final orc to ready for Broggok. Who didn't last long.

You almost feel sorry for it...

...but not for it.

It was a pretty smooth run, no wipes (Warmastery approaches), and we had an epic final few moments. Just as we finished off the second last boss, we suddenly got the server flash: Restart in 15 minutes. Panic! We flew through the last stages of the instance, watching the clock count down.

As we approached Keli'dan, there was about 1 minute to go. No time to prepare, so we gave it all we had and managed to finish him off with literally 8 seconds left on the restart clock. Victory!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Great Nagrand Hunt

Beastheart has completed another epic hunt - the stats tell the story. Take special note of the Allies killed section - Beast was 65 when he did this, and took down a 70! FtH!!
Beastheart cleanses his spirit beneath Thunderbluff before the Hunt

The beauty of Nagrand

The Dangers of Nagrand

The mighty Clefthoof

The Rundown

51 gold spent in preparation on ammunition, pet feed, drink, food, bandages,
mana potions, healing potions and repairs.

8.5 hours spent hunting.

Arrows fired - 5186
Exp gained - 351122
Drink used - 49
Runecloth bandages - 7
Food used - 32
Healings pots used - 2
Mana pots used - 1
Deaths - 5 (4 to ganking)
Netherweave bandages used - 5

QUARRY:
Clefthoof - 36
Aged Clefthoof - 18
Clefthoof Bull -112
Voidspawn - 44
Air Elementals - 92
Earth Elementals - 45
Bull Elek - 1

Allies slain:
Human Warrior 70 - 1
Night Elf Druid 65 - 1

GREYS:
Aged Horn - 29
Brittle Horn - 9
Dirt Covered Fur - 34
Smooth Fur - 176
Elemental Fragments - 161
Elemental Shard - 10
Primordial Essence - 15
Primordial Core - 1
Crystalline Fragments - 47
Broken Longbow
Eroded Metal Bracers
Plate Shoulders - 2
Claymore
Leather Bracers
Stoppable Force
Plate Pants
Cloth Shoulders

Worth - 70g 89s 37c

TRADE GOODS:
Mote of Air - 38
Mote of Fire - 4
Mote of Shadow - 19
Mote of Earth - 24
Mote of Water - 18

Essence of Earth - 2
Essence of Air - 2

Knothide Leather Scraps - 240
Knothide Leather - 75
Heavy Clefthoof Leather - 86

Clefthoof Meat - 135
Oshu'gun Crystal Powder - 76

Netherweave - 56

Khorium lockbox

GREENS:
Blue Topaz Band of the Bandit
Feralfen Pants of Intellect
Daggerfen Bindings of Power
Blood Knight Gauntlets of Spirit
Mistyreed Pants of the Sorceror
Arachnid dagger of the Champion
Boulderfist Gloves of Strength
Moldavite Ring of Shadow Protection
Draconic Dagger of the Beast
Ancestral Hammer of the Elder
Slavehandler Cap of Stamina
Blood Knight Bracers of Nature Protection
Hauyne Ring of the Falcon
Feralfen Sandals of Arcane Protection

BLUE:
Band of Sorrow

GEMS:
Golden Draenite
Flame Spessarite

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Vengeance

Midnight's Children have extracted their retribution on the wyrm.

We worked our way back to him, calmly dispatching his minions, with a single goal in mind. Before the final engagement, we buffed, fed, and prepared - tactics, positions, timing. Everyone was nervous - actual nerves, not just excitement.

Enter the dragon

And it all went like clockwork.

Our Tank and melee DPS'ers engaged Vazruden when he landed, Paxmortis and his water minion sprayed Nazan with ranged DPS, and Neitzsche did a stunning job keeping Blackheathen alive whilst flame raged all around.

By the time he landed Nazan was down to 80% health, which was all the headstart we needed. We gave him everything we had, popped all our buffs and potions, and stayed out of the way of the fire. And there was a magic moment when we all realised it...we had him.


Vengeance. And an attractive kilt!

Friday, March 7, 2008

Wipefire Ramparts

The Elder set out last night for a quick jaunt through Hellfire Ramparts - by all reports a jolly ramble through some piddling orcs before facing a couple of vaguely troubling bosses.

How wrong we were.

Not having played as a group since dominating ST, you could see the rust peeling off as we begun. Stroeb in particular had a lot of trouble, going down several times through negligent health watching and shocking sap attempts. Being 59 in a bunch of 63's appeared to be a problem, and the Rampart residents sensed her coming a mile away.

Nevertheless we soon established a pretty good rhythm, and advanced through the foes without too much difficulty. Having said that, we did wipe on what should have been a nothing mob, and again when we pulled a few too many dogs. But that was all part of reestablishing our combo. And as was wisely observed, we were only wiping on mobs - the bosses so far hadn't caused us any problems, due to excellent preparation and research by Fugg & Blackheathen.

Famous last words.

We reached the second last boss, which sounded challenging but achievable. Swooping the skies above us were Nazan and his rider Vazruden, our targets. We first had to simultaneously take down their centuries, who with their dying gasps summoned y to the ground to face us. As he alighted, Nazan started dropping firebombs on us, which meant we had to keep moving to stop from being burned. Things progressed well - Vazruden's health dropped rapidly under our sustained DPS, while Neit kept Blackie up.

When Vaz realised his time had come, he summoned his steed to finish the fight. And here was where it all went haywire. Nazan has an incredible breath weapon, the Cone of Fire, which annhiliates all in it's path - 1500 damage in a single hit. He also had a disturbing and unwavering interest in our healer as soon as he landed. So we fought - hard, and long. It went relatively well - relative to all our following attempts that is. We wiped, but we did get him down to less than half health.

Midnight's first Nemesis

So we returned with confidence - quicker take down of Vazruden, faster attention from our main tank Blackie on Nazan, Neit focussing on Blackie alone, and Fugg, Stroeb and Pax DPSing like mad. Should work, right?

Stroeb got caught in the cone immediately, distracting Neit, causing Blackie to fall, followed in rapid succession by everyone else.

Back we went. This time Nazan's got to Neit's before any of us could land a blow, and again down we went.

Return, rinse, repeat. Many times.

Eventually we decided to give ourselves a break and finish off Omor, the other boss. Piece of pie. Hardly any comment - everyone's mind was on the fight to come.

Wipe.

Wipe.

We had one fight where Neit did a heroic job keeping Fugg up when the rest of us had gone down. As we watched, Nazan's health fell and fell whilst Neit and Fugg fought and fought. He was approaching 15% when Neit was caught in the Cone. Fugg fought the beast all the way down to 3%...

Wipe.

Regroup, repair armour, spend 40g on Greater Fire Protection Potions, buffs up, cooldowns up.

Wipe.

Wipe.

One last try. It's approaching 1AM. We can do this.

Wipe.

Aaaaaaarrrggghhh! Exhausted, demoralised, damaged, we retreated to Hellfire Peninsula to lick our wounds. It was over...for now. This was an affront to Midnight's Children, to the Horde, to our very survival.

Heed the words of Paxmortis, Guild Leader:

"Let us take them.
Let us use them,
Let us add to them with ice and steel.
Let this creature feel the Wrath of blackest Midnight born,
Let it taste its final breath and mar this land no longer.
Let us fat the region's kites with the beast's offal.

Midnight Children do not believe in rank or status. As such their guild leader has never issued an order. But I do now.

This Dragon must die. All the forces of this Mighty Guild will be bent to this end. No sacrifice is too much, no labour too strenuous. One Horde. One Guild. One Victory. "

Monday, March 3, 2008

God bless Rogues

So I'm levelling Stormsinger (my rogue) to train her as an enchant procurer.

It's a fun enough job. Find target, stealth, assault, eviscerate... It's like a mantra. Anyway, I'm doing the Arathi Highlands thing, whupping Raptors for their eyes, collecting heads from the Darbyrie Estate and snagging Syndicate emblems up at Northfold. Stealth, Assault, Evis... Rinse repeat. Corpses piling up so thick the whole horizon looks labelled in grey. Then there's a big white tiger.

On me. Chewing happily. Skulls are its level and the arcane shot that slams me down to 1/3 health seems to indicate a Hunter with intentions on wiping out my pretty Blood Elf existence. No choice. Vanish, praying that a poison spike doesn't give my stealth away by leaking as I run. Luck on my side.

Praise be the Rogue gods. I flick to combat log to catch the name of my wouldbe ganker and notice 4 names. I look around and realise that a 31 Hunter is getting escorted by a Skulls buddy. Both Night Elves. Yuk. Time to bug out and call it even... I'm watching on the combat log as they run around trying to find me - Track Humanoids, Track Hidden, Track Humanoids, Track Hidden... On off like a submarine sonar pinging for yours truely. Hunt for Red Eviscerator. But they haven't found me... I'm Sean Connery and they're a b-list English actor with a bad accent. The immediate danger has passed, I'm safe... And when a pretty young Blood Elf feels safe, her thoughts turn to pleasing herself with that most indulgent of vices - vengeance.

They lose interest in me. My interest in them is growing by the second. I notice they're farming Syndicate cannon-fodder and they're standing quite far apart. The 31 is confident as hell, pulling two at a time knowing that his Skulls buddy is there to save ass if required. But they started in the middle of a field and they're working outwards... Getting further apart. Skulls gets locked down in dealing with 3 Syndicate goons, 31 is taking on 2. He's going to win, but maybe he'll only have 1/2 hit points left after the battle. I watch. If I had streamers and face-paint you would have thought I was a Syndicate Super-fan. I'm praying for every hit-point these thugs can whittle off the Night Elf. One goes down, the next is soon to follow...

Now or never. Vanish has finished cooldown so the ejector seat is gtg. Move quick. 31 finishes off the last Syndicate and Skulls is moving back to regroup. All I'm gonna have is one shot. Cold Blood on. That's a guarenteed crit for you Rogue newbs... Moving in fast and low. 31 bends to loot the dead Syndicate -

Ambush! 630 damage. One shot and the fucker goes down. Right in front of Skulls the Bodyguard. L2play noobs. Hit Vanish before that big white tiger rips me in half and run like a bastard. Look back once -

Skulls is standing over the corpse of 31. I swear I can see the confused look on his face, but I know that's madness. In my mind's eye I picture a teenager whispering to his 'Escort' -

WTF!

God I love this game.
[Chris]