Easy gear, for Shaman or Tank. Bring a healer. Or three.

Last night Msaker, Droonda, and our friend, Nachmahd, went to Netherstorm to run a little quest for Professor Dabiri at the Protectorate Watch Post. The quest chain is a mere 3 quests long, and the middle quest is a simple bombing run for which they provide the mount! The starting quest is called "Recipe for Destruction."

The rewards are lucrative. 20 gold and some nice gear. +88 Healing mail armor for the Shamans, and a +30 Defence trinket for me, the Warrior.

We spoke with Captain Saeed, who stands close to the Professor, and he brings a group of Ethereal soldiers with him, up into Mana Forge Ultris. There we square off with a huge voidwalker called Dimensius.

Tanking is simple enough. The healer's job undoubtedly tougher. I sundered and devastated and shield slammed and fun was had by all. Dimensius is slain and we go and collect our loot.

But Msaker isn't the only toon in town. What of Blackhoof, recent convert to the Restoration side of Shamanism? He could certainly use a +88 Healing chest piece.

So Blackhoof flies out and the 3 Shamans take the fight on. Droonda didn't tank, none of us did. We simply kept the Captain alive. And kept him alive. And kept him alive. And and and... Well, the sun's set, the cow's have come home, glaciers recede, advance, recede, bonds mature, investements accrue, seasons change, and we healed a little more.

Yes, it was a lot of healing. We healed in shifts, kept Mana Spring and Mana Tide totems down, and we pulled back and drank when we ran low, healing in shifts. Yes. You can actually back away to where you can simply sit and drink Draenic Water to restore your mana. Why waste a potion???

And in the end the Captain prevailed, and Blackhoof got himself some nice +Healing armor.

Funny part about this fight is that it seems the 2nd person on Dimensius' threat list gets to be a "mini bomb" That had them "blowing up" in a purple flash and hitting the cieling. In the last fight Nachmahd, our friend, was "the bomb." It was kind of amusing (that's how long a fight it is) to watch him drinking and blowing up and eating and blowing up. It got to where we was hanging out in door openings so he wouldn't be blow so high. First fight, unbeknownst to the tanking Msaker, it was Droonda that played this game.

All in all, an easy fight, even for three, provided you can get some good healing in. The three of us went with first two, then three healers, and it amounted to easy loot.

Later on Msaker returned to the Shadow Labyrinths. Easy. No wipes and every boss on the first try. And, again, no shield off Hellmaw, and no shoulders off Murmer. Good thing reputation with the Lower City continues to roll in.

Being 70 means Crush.

Being 60 meant I could log out anywhere I wanted. No more looking for Inns in which to stop. At 60, when 60 was the limit, I could log out in the bank in Everspring, dammit. Wherever I wanted. Nobody and nothing was the boss of me.

Now, being 70, means I can do stuff. I'm sought after. (Well, being Fury I'm not the Tank everyone really wants.)

Droonda has never been on a successful Ramparts run. Killing the Nazan the Dragon eluded her. Not last night.

New guildie in the Outlands. Druid. Level 60. Wants to run the Ramparts. It's early in the evening. So do we. While we wrap up a quest in the Blades Edge Mts he gathers a group. He's ready, are we?

We steal a bag from some big Gronn guy via a well-trained boar, and then drop our group and get invited to our guildies, and then get summoned.

Level 62 Warrior, Level 70 Pally, our Guildie, Droonda and I. "I'll Tank," I say. The Pally says "Don't worry about it. DPS, use a two-hander, whatever."

Now this is the same Pally I grouped with the night before in Shadow Labyrinths. Over 10,000 mana pool. And just an incredible healer.

Droonda and I were neck in neck in DPS, topping the charts. Everything got mowed down. The Pally kept us all alive and never dropped below half mana.

We kill the Rider before the Dragon lands. Then I Fury DPS'd Nazan the Dragon, with my The Planar Edge and Blackout Truncheon*.

Woot. Job done. And turning in the quest Droonda picks up a set of blue gloves. The same gloves Blackhoof has yet to replace. (Blackhoof needs to get out more.)

*The Blackout Truncheon procs a haste buff called Blinding Speed.

The Planar Edge is a 2.7 speed weapon. The Truncheon is 1.5.

When the Truncheon procs, the haste speeds that up to about 2.1 and 1.0. Same damage on the weapons, and noticeably faster. More DPS. It's an amusing off-hand.

Rain days are Ding days.

It rained Saturday. And that means between Friday and Sunday I got my last two levels and dinged 70 on Msaker, my Orc Warrior.

We, Droonda and I, were in Shadowmoon Valley, spying on the Legion's activities, when the moment came. Upon returning to Shadowmoon Village she gave me a loan of 200 gold and I was on a flying mount. Droonda herself is 68 going on 69, and is just a few more quests from being on a flying mount herself. Loan repaid, she's now over 1000 gold and is just counting the days.

And Blackhoof, newly rich again running ordinary quests, repaid her, and then bought himself, and Droonda as well, two Crystal Pulse Shields. Both are Enhancement Shamans, but when it comes time to heal, it doesn't hurt to have the best equipment for it. Blackhoof's got Mogor's Anointing Mace, and she's got the dagger reward off Durn the Hungerer. The CPS's are the best healer shields outside of Karazhan I've heard.

One highlight for Msaker and Droonda was our going to Karazhan and getting the first two quests towards getting our keys. With careful pulls our time in the Master's Cellar was mostly against a ghost, or two, and she being dual wielding Enhancement and I being Fury Tank, and we tested both the waters easily. Well, the testing part was easy. Actually getting there, and the well in particular, was not.

And with our friend Nachmahd's help we finished up some 3-player group quests down in old Nagrand. Summoning and killing Gurok the Usurper, the Elemental that the Warmaul's worship, and finishing the string of quests against the Forge Camp's for Altrius the Blind.

And what's the first stop of a 70 with goals on the Karazhan Key quest chain? Well, the first part in the Outlands? The Shadow Labyrinths. PUG, again, Msaker was tanking, two Hunters (great crowd control! No multi-shots!), a Mage, and a Priest. That was my first time into the instance with Msaker (and only once before with Blackhoof). And we did well. We killed Hellmaw, on the first try, dropped Pally plate, not the tanking shield I wanted, and the Inciter, killed on the first try, and he dropped a tanking trinket for Msaker. We cleared a little further into the place and at that moment the priest informed us "I've got to go." and hearthed out. I look at the group. /lol.

Someone knew someone and we shortly have a Paladin join us. I see her mana pool is huge. And Vorpil, killed on the third try, drops the Blackout Truncheon, which Msaker took to accompany his slow The Planar Edge. The last boss, Murmer, we didn't down. It was late, one of the Hunters had to go, and I really had to go. We gave it like 4 tries, but success eluded us. (Funny how Blackhoof's time there it was easy on the first try.) Oh, yes, a random mob dropped blue plans for the Felsteel Helm. Since I was the only smith, they came to me. Does not seem to be a bad helm. And only 8 Felsteel bars. (16 eternium ores being the holdup there. And I'm not 365 smithing.)

It was a good pug, my first time tanking the higher level instances, and overall I think we did okay. (Msaker did complete the two quests there and that'll get him bracers and boots, happily both with tanking attributes on them.)

Msaker will stay Fury/Prot until Droonda is comfortably 70 and we've gotten things accomplished. Then he'll go more into Protection, providing the instance running becomes regular.

*And* Arcarius picked up some pointers on instance running with a Hunter. Two Hunters kept a lot of trapped trash mobs frozen. Now the lazy elf just needs to get those Nesingwary quests done Nagrand and get a decent gun.

And it ended with a "Leeeeeroy Jeenkins!"

That was my PUG experience last night.

Msaker had been out mining. He and Droonda had just finished up a handful of quests up in Blade's Edge. He needed to find just one single Eternium Ore and he'd craft The Planar Edge.

Then in comes a whisper. "Do you want to run Slavepens?" I check my quest log. No Coilfang Quests. However, I had the intro quest, which leads to finding the lost guys quest, and that quest has you finding two of those lost guys in the Slavepens. "Sure."

It was a 64 Hunter doing the asking. When I join the party I see a 2nd 64 Hunter, and a 62 Warlock. Oh boy. "Guess we need a healer now :D" someone says. 10 points for the obvious there.

But I've got the shield, and I'm the tank. We've got DPS. Yeah, a healer is the last part. And they recruit a level 70 Paladin. Alright! We're going to do this. I'd been there before. We'd taken out the first guy, and wiped on the 2nd, the crab guy, until we called it. This time would be different.

You know, there are some subtle signs that things aren't going to go smoothly. Little clues that kind of foretell your destiny ahead of time. That sublime arrangement of tea leaves at the bottom of that teacup, or dried foam on the side of that beerglass, whose words, if you can read the language, spell out for you, in no uncertain terms, your future. Todays reading, brought to you by the Amazing Msaker, was "This is going to go badly."

Hunter runs ahead and multi-shots the first pack. She's apparently a Gladiator pvp-ranked member of a guild running Karazhan twice a week. This must be an alt. Who's never played a hunter in a group before.

The other hunter is no better. And apparently they don't have their pets on growl. I guess they'd figure I could just swoop in and gain all their aggro and then enough to hold everything on me.

Uh, morons.

The Paladin did okay. I was kept healed. He joined with a Mogor's Anointing Mace so I figured he must be Holy spec'd.

The Warlock. I'm sure he did something. Oh, yes. He'd fear adds. In an instance. That's something. You get to 62 fearing the crap out of things, so why stop?

We kill the 1st boss. The "Spellsword" drops. Looks spiffy. I figure the Warlock or the Paladin will want it. Though both are honest enough to say it's not an upgrade. Pally even says "I've been so wanting that sword for a long time." So everyone just random's it. Multi-shot Hunter wins it. "For RPing. Lol." Moron.

We get to the 2nd boss with just a wipe. And the 2nd boss then proceeds to wipe us again. 2nd try on the 2nd boss I go down again, but this time he's got 1,000 health left so he drops. Some healing mace drops. It's actually pretty cool looking. The Mogor's Anointing Mace is shiney and this thing is glowing, but in a nature way. But it's not a need for the Pally so it just gets /randomed. I win. It'll pay for repairs. But, damn, nothing in the place is an upgrade so I'm in here hoping for lucky rolls.

After Rockkor (or whatever the crab guys name is) we get ready to proceed. Multishot brings like eight back and we wipe. "WTF" says the Paladin.

Oh, yeah, the 2nd Hunter has run out of Ammo. We summoned him from Ratchet, but he's out of ammo. So he's there dual wielding. And after the wipe, and we're getting back health. "Ive got2go." He sits and zones out.

So then the Paladin complains "I can't ever get a PUG to clear this place." Pally must be an alt of someone too. Legolas was his name. Or something pretty close to it. Armory says he is a Hybrid, something/something/zero. Taking none of the defining features of Holy or Protection. Enchanter/Tailor. Now he complains? The last boss has Paladin pants on him, go figure, and he's annoyed that we won't get there.

I check the watch. It's 1 a.m.. It's been 3 hours now. These new instances were supposed to be short. I check the damage taken meter. Oh, yeah, I'm doing my job, with 90% damage taken. Pally comes in 2nd. I tell them "It's 1 a.m. so I've got to go too."

So the Warlock, I'll just call him Ignored now, he yells "Leeeeeroy Jeenkins." Whatever. And then I see a DOT land on a Naga, and six start cruising our way.

Well, that stunt cost me a gold and a half. As I wipe again. My tooltip on my durability meter, watching what 10% damage does to me. A death costs me a gold and a half. Five deaths this run.
BUT, I got level 69, I got the last Eternium Ore I need (until I can get my mitts on a primal nether), and I got some tanking experience.

Signs your run will fail: Your hunter runs forward and multi-shots to pull. Their pets don't growl. And your Warlock fears adds in crowded rooms.

"I'm not here to do damage. I'm here to live."

That's what Honorus tells the two warriors that have summoned him to the summoning stone outside of the Scarlet Monastery.

They've seen his little Knightly Longsword, and compared to the big axes on both their backs, they assume he's not going to do much with it.

"My wife is a Mage. She's the killer. I just live."

And that little Knightly Longsword, with a fast fast 1.5 second swing, that gets enough hits in to let the healing from my Seal of Light flow.

We had a good enough romp into the Scarlet Monastery. We first visited the library, where I only needed to find a book, and kill Loksley the Houndsmaster. The two warriors, Night Elves on Jumping Jacks, were literally bouncing everywhere and ensuring we never had a dull moment, with full and double pulls the routine. One of them was level 34 and the other 39. We also had a Draenei Priest along, and a level 32 Druid. The Druid later left and we replaced him with another Night Elf, this time a Rogue. Well we worked our way mostly to Daon, but in the last room they managed to get all the groups and we wiped. Coming back we realized there'd been a repop behind us. Game over. Well, I'd gotten my book, and we'd killed Locksley, so now what?

So they decided to try the Graveyard. Turns out there is a rare spawn in there that carries a rare sword. (The rare spawn was there but I lost the need roll.)

But here is where this little Paladin shone. The warriors would go to both sides and bring back groups of ghosts. This is where my Consecration spell came in handy. Over and over, and I stayed at the top in DPS. Not bad for a little sword, or Pally survivability. And at nearly 1900 health, if I'm remembering right, I had more health than even the 39 Warrior.

Hellfire Ramparts through the eyes of a Beastmaster.

Last night was Arcarius's turn into the Ramparts. So far I've taken an Enhancement Shaman on healing duty, and a Protection Warrior on tanking duty, so now I was going in as a Beastermaster Hunter on DPS* duty. (*I use "DPS" lightly because I achieve half of the numbers that BRK's dwarf, Damh, gets. I removed my damage meters last night, but I might reinstall them. I'm not one that prints them out in chat, "WOOT! LOOK AT MY LEETNESS!", but I do think knowing my relative contribution to the efforts (healing or damage) is important.)

Did I get sidetracked or what?? Anyway, using the Looking for Group tool I was relatively quickly matched up with a Mage (pink ponytailed fire meteor throwing mage), a 60 Arms Warrior ("No shield, I'm Arms. ... By the way, I don't have a shield."), a 64 Druid (Feral/Balance), and a 65 Paladin, of talent spec unknown.

So, I'm yanked from Zangarmarsh and wind up outside the instance. The LFG tool, and the summoning stone thing, are wonderous. So much easier going instancing with these tools. Good job, Blizzard!

The Mage is the party leader and we simply start. No marking. The first two pulls are easy, and we start into the Ramparts, and on the first or second dog packs we wipe. Ouch. All except the Arms Warrior who's managed to reach the exit. We recover and move on. That was our last wipe.

And I started by laying freezing traps, to immobilize one of a group, but the Paladin said he wanted to AoE them so just lay a frost trap. The Paladin had a shield and that worked pretty well. The Mage had a propensity for gaining aggro, but I'd jump to that as I could, sending in my new Ravager pet (loyalty level 2, noob) to protect her, and interrupt spell casting with Intimidation.

We got into a comfortable rhythym and that worked very well. The first boss was a joke. His first healer was melted, the second was grazing on grass, and he went down. The groups were easy enough, no challenges there. The demon boss was a cakewalk. The dragon was next.

Now, the dragon has wiped every party I've been in so far. And while Blackhoof has seen him killed, Msaker is missing that satisfaction. But this time, with this group, he dropped like he'd taken a whippit shot. His health dropped so fast I thought I was watching lame duck poll numbers. Flawless I thought.

That was a good run. I'm pretty pleased with that.

My new ravager... The former one, which I tamed for the Gore 8 ability, and the cool looks, was a green one with purple highlights. I named him Outlandish. He reached loyalty level 4 or so. But he wasn't all that. So I dismissed him right outside the Cenarian Expedition and tamed a new ravager. This one is all purples, with red glowing eyes. I named him, or her rather, Darkense. (It seems I may have mispelled that. It should be Darckense. Ah, well, no loyalty loved or lost there. A new one will be tamed tonight and properly named.)

Anyway, I can be pretty oblique sometimes. Anyone want to speculate why Darckense is the most chillingly perfect name for a Ravager?

I mean, I wasn't even really going there. I was looking for a good name, of a protaganist or so, and wound up spotting and settling on this one. And the reason behind it, and she's a Ravager, is perfect to a T. (And the source is an incredibly excellent read as well. Don't read too much background though, cause the spoiler is a Crying Game type twist. If you're at all into the genre it's one of my favorites.)

Transformation.

Msaker has been a Mortal Strike Warrior for some time now. In his 40's he was Fury, dual wielding for leveling goodness, but upon getting into Alerac Valley, and getting his mitts on an Ice Barbed Spear, he was specced for Mortal Strikes because that was good for burst damage and that's good in the Battlegrounds.

Yes, I had a shield, and I knew the basics of holding aggro, and I considered myself a "Tank." But sword and a board don't a tank make. Yes, I'd tanked Scholomance to good acclaim. But how was I going to stack up in the Outlands? Where, oddly, there are no Warriors tanking. (I see why, since Outlands is clearly Paladinlands with regards to plate gear.)

So, I stepped into the machine, journeyed to the Undercity, and became transformed. I am now a Tanking Warrior. Full Protection down to Devastate, some points in Fury for crit chance, and the rest of the points in Arms. I'm not sure if it's a typical build, but for me, it seems to fit the requirement. (I am now putting points into Iron Will after being stunned over and over by the Orcs in the Blood Furnace. I can't tank if I'm stunned.)

(Scene from the Blood Furnace. Yes, that is a Tabard of the Protector from the Dark Portal opening event.)

So, my first order of business of practice with the new build. Into the Armory wing of the Scarlet Monastery. I killed everything, including Herod, and then Thunderclapped his students. I never even paused. Into the Cathedral wing. I killed everything, looking for Scarlet gear for my wife's Paladin, and even started into the Cathedral itself, pulling, and killing, two at a time. Again, without a worry. I don't know if I can solo the Cathedral or not, but it looks awfully promising that I can. The build worked, and I've got my buttons set up decently.

So, test of fire, back to the Outlands for a real instance.

I didn't have any quest there, not having done the Ramparts yet, but into the Blood Furnace we went. A Resto Shaman for healing, a lock, mage, and somebody. Woot. One death and we cleared the instance.

So, still full of energy, positive rage, and after dinner, I returned, and this time went into the Ramparts, Paladin, Mage, Warlock, and Rogue with me. No deaths until we hit the Dragon. Woot. And this Paladin, Protection specced, healed like a Priest. I see now why Holy Priests are furious. This guy was main healing, and handled it great.

Protection Warrior Tank. This is going to be an interesting career move.

P.S. Devastate feels a lot like a Rogue finishing move. My MetaHUD puts sunders up like combo points, and while you can Devastate with any number, the more sunders you have, the more damage you do. But, rather than get cleared, the sunders are refreshed! So it's like finishing moves that you can do over and over. At least that's what it felt like.

Just the two of us. Happier wearing, not singing, the Blues.

I see the crystal raindrops fall
And the beauty of it all
Is when the sun comes shining through
To make those rainbows in my mind
When I think of you some time
And I want to spend some time with you

Halcyon is level 20. An up-and-coming Paladin. Ready to serve the Sin'Dorei causes. One new mission was laid before her by her Paladin Trainer. To acquire the materials for the Blood Tempered Ranseur, the trade-mark weapon of the cadet Blood Elf Paladins.

There was a part to be retrieved from Deathholme, but we would save that for another night.

The other parts appear to be slightly more difficult in getting. But Halcyon has friends. Powerful friends. She knows 800 pounds of bovine intelligence: Blackhoof. And, well, in the old world a level 65 Enhancement Shaman is a force to be reckoned with. If you happen to be one of the beginning instances.

So, our first target was Shadowfang Keep. He met in the Undercity, she porting in from Silvermoon City, and I from Shattrath City. We both hopped bats to the Sepulcher, and ran to the Keep. Rawr. (Sorry, but you get to feeling like that when you revisit old instances, particularly ones that gave you problems.) We make our way down to the jail cells, whack, whack, turn the dogs to bone. We speak with Sparky, the Keep's new (NEW?!?!) prisoner in the jail cells. He reveals the secret of where the ingot, the first material she needs, is to be found. In a box in the stables. I can't kill him, pink skinned human, (URGES!) and oddly, I can't lock the cell again. (Heh.) And then we speak with the Forsaken prisoner who gets us into the courtyard. And there I am unleashed rage, a Shaman on the warpath. I leave everything dead, and those already dead, they wind up deader. WOP WOP WOP WOP dead dead dead dead. Hooah! /flex. And there's Sparky, in new skin. Furry skin. Thin skin. Paper thin. Aw. Poor Sparky.

Halcyon enters the stables, her path cleared before her like she was royalty. I wish I had some rose petals to dust the path before her with.

And I decide it's just a minute or two more until we reach the ghostly Commander Springvale, so let's pay him a visit. And we leave Springvale pushing up daisies and Halcyon loots him. The Commander's Crest drops. (A nice, blue, level 23 Shield: [623 Armor, 13 Block, +6 Str, +3 Stam, +3 Spi]) She's dinged 21 by now, and in 2 levels she'll be able to use it. Nice. We shake the dog fur off our gear and make our way out and back to Tirisfal Glades.

The next step was the zeppelin flight to Orgrimmar, and into Ragefire Chasm. Halcyon happened to be on a quest there already, and the two tomes she needed quickly dropped. (What are Orc hooligans doing with reading material??) But the real goal was killing a named Orc and activating the orb behind him and summoning a demon. Demon summoned, and we've got his blood. Two materials acquired. When we departed the average intelligence, and beauty, of Orgrimmar's populace plummeted. (Blood Elves have behaved themselves remarkably well on Kirin Tor. The feared nekkid belf dance parties on the mailbox outside the bank never materialized.)

Next stop was to make the trip into the Night Elf lands. We ran to the Crossroads, picked up the flightpoint, then turned north for the long jog to Splintertree Post. That flightpoint in hand, we veered west and travelled around Astranaar ("Hello you lop eared bastards! Get into the sun more you freaks!" /wave - Life on a PvE server isn't all death and bloodshed!) to Zoram Strand. The last materials we'd get in the old world was the gem, and those drop quickly off the naga outside of the Blackfathom Deep's entrance.

It was a long night. Halcyon and Blackhoof visited three world instances, on two continents. And Halcyon is just short one material, the insignia of the Blood Knight. That task will fall to her and Sunstriker when next they return to Deathholme and complete the last of the missions they have there.

Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us, just the two of us
Just the two of us
Building castles in the sky
Just the two of us, you and I

(Just the Two of Us, 1980, by Bill Withers.)

P.S. My wife *hates* pugs and enjoys it best when it's just the two of us. And I love seeing her happy, wearing, not singing, the blues.

Running around Terokaar Forest. And back to Hellfire Peninsula and into the Blood Furnace.

Blackhoof, completing most all of the quests in Zangarmarsh, and dinging 64 in the process, graduated and moved to the forest around Shattrath City, Terokaar Forest.

Most all of the quests are easy enough to accomplish solo. Highlights include taking out the Firewing liaison in the Bonechewer Ruins. This wound up being the worst. I didn't die as I returned to kill Vindicators and those Warlock types, and I managed to kill the liaison easily enough as well, but as I grabbed my last Vindicator, standing in the back of the compound on the wooden beams of the dam, I must have pulled the Vindicator and a mounted patrol. They beat the stuffing out of me. I ankh'd and tried again, carefully backing away. And a Peon appears and the two of them start beating me like egg whites, and I don't make it. I come back and gleefully, no quest needed, slaughter that freaking peon, and the vindicator, and go collect my reward. As a Shaman none of the rewards mattered for that quest. Oh, well. The vendors will buy most anything.

The quests centered around the Cenarian Thicket were easy as well.

And a few quests took me to the Arakkoa sites where I slew more than a few of the feathered punks.

Dual wielding Grunt's Waraxes from Thrallmar, buffed with Frostbrand, I was doing about 200-220 DPS if I remember right. That's not too bad I guess. (Outland greens and blues at the moment.) Rank 1 Earthshock for spell interruption, and there was a whole lot of that going on in Terokaar.

The Cenarian Thicket quests took me to honored with the Cenarian Expedition. Woot. I returned and bought the Preserver's Cudgel, a really nice one-handed mace that looks like a massive totem and has +105 Healing on it. My old Staff of Dominance is a two-hander which had +40 Spell/Healing, to which I added a +55 Healing enchant. The mace has +11 Intelligence versus the +37 of the staff. But, it's a one-hander, so I can use the Landslide Buckler too. That too has +11 Intelligence, and +13 spells/damage. And the +3 mana/5s on the shield adds to the +5 mana/5s on the cudgel, and with +2428 armor, it's a clear winning replacement. Less +Int, but adding mana regen, so it's a great trade off.

And I was about to put it to the test.

Employing the Looking for Group tool I signed up for the Hellfire Citadel's Blood Furnace. Within minutes we were assembled. All of us mid-60's except the one guy we added, a level 70 Hunter.

The Warrior was level 66, and had run the Furnace for something like 30 times already. He just wanted one particular drop off The Maker. A set of plate gauntlets. I play a Warrior too so I know that this is 2nd piece of plate for the hands a warrior can get in the HP. So he was experience.

The Druid was level 61. He was in Molten Core Cenarian gear, and he was Resto, (Good for him!), and he healed like a madman.

We had a level 65, or so, Warlock.

The Hunter was level 70, and me, level 64 Shaman.

I signed up planning to heal, and I pretty much stayed in that gear for the run. That'd be full Earthfury + Landslide Buckler + Preserver's Cudgel. +196 mana/5s and +395 Healing.

I was more the "Other tank" on this run, since the Druid did some spectacular healing. I did spot healing, but more importantly, I did my best to pull unintentional aggro off the Warlock and the Druid.

And this group made the place look simple. Three bosses here, The Maker, Brogguk the eye, and Keli'dan the Breaker. The trash mobs were easily handled. The Warlock kept his charm active, and/or his banishes, and we really only ran into difficulty once. That was when the Warrior ran past a group to grab another. We survived, but it was crazy hectic there for a bit.

Basically I kept Windfury and Strength of Earth Totems down. We really didn't need to exercise more care. We ran the place, almost literally.

So well in fact, that when those gauntlets failed to drop the first time, we completed the instance and reset it, and tried again. Second time was a charm, and he at long last got his gauntlets.

I liked the Blood Furnace, and the story behind it. They made it very clear how the Fel Orcs came into being.

And Blackhoof dinged 65.

And, yes, I occasionally donned my Enhancement kit and tried DPSing. Sometimes 2nd on the DPS chart, occasionally touching the #1 spot.

When I first started dual wielding I was focusing on keep Windfury on the weapons. You know, Windfury Rank 4 on both. Ha! I got suckered. Because most self-respecting Shamans knew to keep different ranks so both have a chance to Proc. I started doing that and Windfury was proccing way more. SCT was just a spam of Windfury hits. Niiiiice. They said they've "fixed" that and I supposedly don't get these "double" procs anymore (Why the hell should the buff on the 2nd weapon NOT proc??!), but it still "feels" good and productive.

But against anything with any armor, that's not the best. Fire ignores armor, so Flametounge appeared to be a good buff. But what I found was Frostbrand was doing better DPS and as a bonus slowed the mobs down when they thought to run. And those Waraxes are 1.90 weapon speed, so reasonably fast. SCT was showing a good deal of Frostbrand spam too. SCT is just plain fun for a Shaman.

Next stop for Blackhoof will be to start on the quests down in the Bone Wastes. And with the Looking for Group tool, hopefully soon into Coilfang Reservoir.

Into, and out of, the Hellfire Ramparts. Looking for Group Tool works.

Blackhoof got some extended working hours last night. (The wife didn't feeling like playing.) So I returned to the marsh and recovered his body. Collected a few more spores sacs, rounding out to 20 again, and then I returned to Fahssn, the Sporeggar who is trying to protect their young by enlisting passersby. Turning those sacs in, and the Bog Giant tendrils as well, Fahssn indicated Blackhoof had pleased his race well enough that it was time to go visit them personally. Cowman in Mushroom Land. I checked out the quartermaster's offerings, sold some of the garbage Blackhoof had been holding on to, and then set out for more adventure.

The first mission was to kill a wasp called Blacksting for a troll in Swamprat Post. Something about big stingers impressing the ladies. *What* was the troll talking about? Heh. That was an easy enough task since this named wasp wasn't elite.

Next, while I was in that corner of the swamp, I turned to go visit the Lost Ones of Umbrafen (Shadow Swamp) Village. And slay a lot them. For a Broken back in the Cenarian Refuge. He'd do it himself, but he's old and/or tired. (Slacker!) These Umbrafen Lost Ones were a bit of relief. I felt strong again fighting these. I pretty much cut a swath through their huts to where their leader resided. About this time two Night Elves show up. A Warrior and a Druid. I don't make note of their levels but the Warrior is wearing his full Valor gear. We move in together, the Warrior and I, with the Druid hanging back in caster form. Kataru, both our targets apparently waited upstairs. The Warrior indicated that I should go first, (I had reached the house first. This guy was certainly polite!), so I did and he took out the Witchdoctor. Kataru is a rather easy kill. I sit down to drink some water and wait around so I could assist the Warrior when Kataru returned with another Witchdoctor. But then I saw the Druid was level 70, he was 62, they were in the same guild, and she was probably just healing him and not grouped with him to maximize his xp. I stood, waved, they waved, and made my way out. I was looking for a few more Witchdoctors when I saw a lonely looking Tauren woman sitting in one of the huts. Ah ha! A damsel in distress. Gentleman that I am, I ask if I could help her in any way. Of course I can. Escort her back to Cenarian Refuge. I'm actually done with my appointed task there so I agree. We make our way back to the road and only encounter two or three pair of Lost Ones trying to stop us. They die just as quickly as she helps too. We make our way back to the Refuge and she thanks me. There was even a reward for that, either a nice caster type necklace (what I should have taken, maybe) and a nice one-handed mace (what I did take). The mace had 48 DPS versus the 40 my axe that I was using had, an easy enough trade-off.

But, the title of this post alludes to something more than knocking out little quests. Let me get to that.

I figure I had all night, so why not try the Looking for Group tool? I haven't heard good things about it, but what did I have to lose. I picked Hellfire Ramparts, and two of the three group quests I had left in Hellfire Peninsula. A Troll Mage joined my party almost immediately. Level 62. "Sup" he says. "Hey." With me in Earthfury, we got some healing. With him we've got DPS and crowd control. Then Anaz, a Warrior, whispers me "Can you use a Fury Warrior?" "Do you have a shield?" "Of course." So I invite him. Level 62 Orc Warrior. Things are looking up. This tool works. Then I'm whispered by a Paladin. (Old School Horde thinking: "WTF? Pally?") Level 65 Blood Elf Paladin. "Kuljit said you could use some help?" I'm thinking tanking, and healing. "You bet." I invite him. Now things are really looking up. A Shaman whispers me but I'm thinking two Shamans... maybe we'd best hold out for a priest. "Alright." he says.

We're individually working on stuff while we wait for our 5th. Then my friend Nachmahd logs on and asks "What's up?" "Trip to Hellfire Ramparts. Want to go?" "Yep." Alright, in the case of friends and guildmates I'll make exceptions. ;)

A level 62 Mage, a 62 Fury Warrior, a 65 Ret/Holy Paladin, a 63 Resto Shaman, and me, a level 62 Enhancement Shaman with some decent healing gear.

And it starts out well. We sheep for crowd control and generally melt faces. The Paladin topped the DPS at 300+. The Fury Warrior came next with +240 or so. The Mage was below that. I was doing a mix of healing and casting and Nachmahd stuck to healing. He had the Warrior and I had the Paladin as our charges. We worked our way through to the first boss, Watchkeeper Gargolmar. They call that a fight?

He dropped some blue mail leggings, socketed. No Hunters in our group, and nice for an Enhancement Shaman, but with +Int that a Restoration Shaman might consider. Nachmahd told me to take them since I'm Enhancement. "You sure? We can roll on it." "Buy me a beer," he whispers. "Sure." Nice. My first socketed item.

But, bad news. The Mage has got to go. Roh roh. "Invite Doomrogg," says Anaz. That was the Shaman who whispered me earlier. Hell. Why not. We're doing pretty good.

No crowd control though. Two Enhancement Shamans (one with decent healing gear), a Resto Shaman, a Fury Warrior, and a Paladin. Do you think we quit? Nope.

It was sweet. We worked our way to Omor the Unscarred. This was an easy fight. And, in general, we weren't missing crowd control at all making our way through the mobs. And Omor drops this nice Caster staff. No mages, no priests. Hmm. Well, I've seen the Crystalfire Staff before. It's a nice looking staff. But I've got my Staff of Dominance still, from my Molten Core days, and that's got a +55 Healing enchant on it. It's still, I think, a slight improvement on the Crystalfire Staff, so I wasn't going to need it. Doomrogg was Enhancement, so he shouldn't have needed it if Nachmahd, fully Restoration, wanted it. (Nachmahd kept Anaz Earthshielded most of the time.) Doomrogg said he didn't need it, and Nachmahd said he didn't either (WHAT?!?!) and they started rolling on it. WTF? So I rolled on it, and won. Grats, Kadaj, the Paladin said, and the group moved on. Sheeyet. Nachmahd, my friend in real life, has been in back healing with a Cold Forged Hammer in one hand (which has some +Int and +Mana Regen) and his Immoveable Object in the other. "You need that. Take it." I start running towards the group. Nachmahd turns around and loots it. It's a wild upgrade for him if he's going to be healing. Kadaj asked "Did Nachmahd loot that?" I said "Yeah, he should have needed that." "Ah."

So now we've gotten to the last bosses, Vazruden, the rider, and Nazan, the dragon.

Well, the Paladin knows what we need to do. He's explained all the fights well. But we still wipe. Twice.

Three Shaman = three wipe recoveries. And a Fire Resistance Totem = Fire Resistance Aura. They don't stack, but we can have complimentary stuff up.

Anyway, first time, Nachmahd is standing in flames and he's trying to keep healing, but he's burnt to death. I'm hopping around like a jumping bean and healing, but those bosses aren't going down.

Oh, yeah, one thing I found funny. We're standing in back. And I see that Nachmahd still has his Hammer and Shield in hand. I whisper him "Why don't you have that staff equipped." "I'm in defensive mode." I'm taken a bit aback. "Huh? You aren't being hit." ... "If you're in back healing like this, go ahead and equip that staff. If you're out soloing than the shield might be fine." It takes a little bit but then that staff comes out. It's a damn nice looking staff too. I love the stuff that's got glowing auras all over it. The Staff of Dominance glows *and* includes the occasional lightning flash. The low rumble of thunder from a chain heal... this game rocks. (And now I'm wondering, as I'm writing this, where did he leave his Landslide Buckler? He's still got that, right??)

Third fight. Vazruden drops like he's been slipped some Rohypnol. And we're working on Nazan. We're avoiding the flames, but still... we lose the Warrior. We lose Nachmahd. We lose our Paladin. Roh roh. I see Doomrogg there, Nazan is really low on health, and then, booyah, he's dead. The dragon is dead. Anyway, third times a charm. A defensive plate item and a defense necklace are in the chest. Both go to Anaz. But, hot damn, we did it. Hellfire Ramparts. 3 Shamans, Warrior, and a Paladin.

Later, recovering in Thrallmar, I comment to Nachmahd that he's gotten a nice staff. And to keep the shield for soloing. "I'm a healer! I'm not soloing anymore." Heh. Blackhoof saluted him and he logged off. Blackhoof rode back out to where Anaz was and helped him with some Ravagers, and then we started working on the Giant Collosii. After the 2nd dies (Warrior+Shaman. Not bad.) we start on a 3rd. I've got adds and I can't heal as well, and he says "CRAP, I've got to go," and he dies and I die. He never came back.

I return to Thrallmar and decided it was a good night. Nachmahd's got a point. If you can party with someone, and you create some synergy with DPS+Healing, etc., do it.

And Shamans: If you're Enhancement, carry some healing gear. And if you're Restoration, carry some fighting gear. I've got like 7 points in Restoration, and all the rest in Enhancement. But my gear lets me heal real good. If you're Elemental then your +mana regen and +spell/healing is going to work either way.

Blackrock Depths.

The header graphic is appropriate. Last night we entered Blackrock Depths with a handful of quests in hand. Droonda, Msaker, Nachmahd, Senthris, and Azghul. All of Dark Ministry.

We did well. We wandered around a bit at the cells. Releasing prisoners but not knowing why or for what purpose. We got ourselves a Shadowforge key to the place. We killed a big giant reminiscent of a Fire Lord in Molten Core. Bael'Grum or something like that. Regardless of how the giant spells his name, he's dead now, and we've gotten his essence.

Instancing at 60 ... No more xp. At least in the Battlegrounds I can still progress. (If you can say having your clocks cleaned, over and over, by the Alliance, is progress.)

I must say, I played absolutely the worst Alterac Valley battle last night ever. The Alliance took, and defended Stonehearth Graveyard. And you know Alliance. They can defend a place with 3 to 5 that the entire Horde army can't retake. Because that's what happened. The Alliance captured every last thing in the game to capture... The tunnel was next. Good job Horde. I mean there was me, and me alone, looking for anyone else. And every point, and every point inbetween, there were small gangs of Alliance. I died a lot. "For the Horde." Yeah, that'd be my death.

I'm am so very psyched about everything I'm reading about the Burning Crusade Expansion. How quest reward gear will quickly equal that of Molten Core and beyond. Yowza. This is incredible news for players not in, or able to join, a big raiding guild. I'm still working for Rank 7 (or 8) just to grab the title Legionnaire or something better than Guard, and I'm close enough to Exalted with Frostwolf to finish that and grab an epic shield to help me get going in the Outlands on a good footing.

(New format courtesy of Blogger's new templates. I really like it. They've made the side bar management very easy. And publishing, and formatting are also very simple.)

P.S. I just created the moniker "Frostwolf Outriders" for that picture of Droonda and Msaker. Wow. So fitting. You've heard of the Warsong Outriders? Well, we're Outriders for the Frostwolf. (In keeping with our backstory, and Thrall's own life journey, and given we're bound for the Outlands.)

Tall, dark, and handsome. Short, bright, and perky. Yin and Yang. Arcarius and Winkydink. Alterac Valley goodness. Arathi Basin badness.

She thinks he's handsome. At least that's what little Winkydink, my wife's Gnome Warrior, thinks of Arcarius, my Night Elf Hunter. In the Stormpike tabard, with an Ice Barbed Spear, I'll let the little Gnome think what she will. (Gnomes have a bonus to their intellect stat, so who am I to argue?)

Msaker and Droonda were taking a break. Dreaming Orc dreams of Draenor, recovering from the battles of the week. So last night it was time for a little Alliance action. And when I say little I'm talking 3' tall with green pony tails. Winkydink, my wife's Gnome Warrior. Isn't she the coolest little thing? (No, wait, that's just a speck of dust in my eye. ... Ah, got it.)

Tauren health bonus not included, all races produce pretty much identically capable Warriors. She's reached level 20 all on her own because Warriors rock. Time for the Deadmines.

However, neither of us wanted another pick-up-group from hell experience with some guy "needing" loot for another character of his. Nuh, uh. Not us. So Arcarius decided to accompany young Ms. Winkydink to the Deadmines, and we'd go on our own.

If my level 45 Rogue can handle it solo, then a 51 Hunter should do fine. And we did. So much more effeciently than with a Rogue too. No wonder Hunters are the farmers choice for class.

Jaguarete came with us. She's my Cat, a tamed jaguar from the Swamp of Sorrows. She's level 50 and is trained to dash in and rip and bite the bad guys. She's trained pretty good. And Arcarius is fully invested in the Beast Mastery talent tree so Jaguarete is a very capable partner in crime.

I do have a boar in the stables as well. A recently tamed armored pig from Razorfen Kraul. Only level 28 though and I'll have to work on him. But his purpose will be to tank more than Jaguarete since boars have better armor and health than cats, just not the DPS. A real tank. The boar I named Parma. Which carries several meanings. If you are thinking "Parma Ham" very good. That's one reading of it. But if you're thinking "Small shield carried by Roman army skirmishers" you're actually more right. Since the boar will become my shield, and tank, and charge in to engage my enemies first, he is literally my skirmisher with armor.

Anyway, this is not my first time in the Deadmines. I know when *I* open a door, there's no back patrol heading our way. I know when *events* open a door then I know we'll have a patrol behind us that we need to take care of before proceeding further.

Where my Rogue used vanish a few times, and lots of bandaids, Arcarius and Winkydink basically watched Jaguarete do all the work. I of course I had to off a few shots to claim the kills, and I worked a little on my Polearms skill. Winkydink charged in now and then so her armor didn't rust up on her. Especially the big bosses. Mr. Smite: Here's Gnome in your eye.

None of the bosses were tricky in the least. Smite was pulled clear back on the dock, so by the time he'd gotten off his stun and run back for better weapons, and returned, we were waiting for him again. Up the docks, Winkydink staying a little to the back and on the outboard side, we just cleared the place like janitors after hours. Van Cleef? Do you need to ask?

Well, he dropped his Chest Armor. What Rogues and Hunters might enjoy, Winkydink merely sighed. We did get two pieces of the Defias armor set to pass on to Ombria, her Night Elf Rogue character.

At the exit Winkydink and Arcarius bade their farewells to one another, and Arcarius hearthed to Ironforge and prepared to engage in the wars.

Queueing up for Alterac Valley, usually like a 40 minute wait (1 minute wait, average, for my Horde characters), I also queued up for Arathi Basin, this being AB weekend.

It's absolutely pathetic. Alliance performance in Arathi Basin is embarrasing. On Msaker, in the 50-59 matches, Horde were undefeated. On reaching 60, he went once, and we won there too. It was tougher though. They got better gear, we got good gear too, but the Msaker has below average gear and suffers above average deaths. (Outlands, here I come!!)

But in the 50-59 matches, Alliance may as well just sit in Trollbane Hall and eat snacks. We start okay. ... No, we don't. We don't really need 4 trying to cap the Stables flag. Honest. To watch 4 guys run to the stables and all 4 dismount and try to cap the flag... pathetic. Because that's 3 that aren't on the offensive to catch the next flag.

Two out of the three matches, I thought we started well. We get the Stables, boy, do we! The rest split into two groups and we take the Lumbermill and the Blacksmith. We got 3, let's hold them. Nah. Defense is for wusses. (Ask the Horde about Defense in AV.) So, sitting on a victory, some folks ride off on their own. The mines (dead). The farm (dead). So the Horde are strategizing. Having some Horde characters of my own, I'm somewhat in synch with their thoughts. While the Horde watch us, the careful thinkers in their group, those studied up on Sun Tzu's "Art of War" and von Clausewitz's "On War" and Macchiavelli's ... you get the point, these Horde strategists are watching the Alliance and thinking "Damn, those guys are noobs. We're losing in AV to these guys??" The PvP'ers amongst them are probaly thinking "ROFLCOPTERZ WTFBBQPWNED!!111!one!" and ride out and win the game. Third game they actually five capped us.

Alterac Valley, an altogether different story.

We ride out of our mine. We ride straight for Snowfall. Actually first match I'm there they're all riding past. I ride up and capture it myself. It remains ours the rest of the match. I catch up with the group.

We then set about attacking Galv. First the Lieutenants outside, then Galv himself. We don't bypass Galv. Ever. We attack him with pretty much our entire force.

Now think, do the Horde ever take out Balinda on their push north? Never. They leave her like it was an aside. An optional thing to do. When they've got five folks to spare, that when they do it. When they're losing, they rush to grab these last few points of honor and rep.

Now the Alliance is quickly done with Galv and they take Iceblood. The whole groups takes Iceblood. By now most of the Horde has rode past and is at Stonehearth.

It's at this point where the stragglers are cut down at the chokepoints. For the Alliance it's as they're riding south at Icewing Bunker. For the Horde it's as they head north between Iceblood Graveyard and Tower. That'll occupy an army for a while. My experience has been Horde will have a lot of people killing a few. Alliance will have a few killing a few. Where are the rest of the Alliance then? Glad you asked.

After Iceblood GY is captured...

Let me add something at this point. While we wait in the tunnel for the gate to open, "we" being Alliance in this case, two games of the three, some silly person yells in /bg chat, "IB!!!". So, that is proof positive that Alliance employs strategery in this BG. Because that's just what we do. We take IB.

So, after Iceblood is captured we ride south again. This time Frostwolf Graveyard is captured.

Oh, yeah, there appears to be no Horde defenders at all here. None. Not at Galv or IBGY or FWGY. Where are they all? Farming HK's at the Icewing Bunker? That's what I see playing as Horde.

After FWGY is taken we enter Frostwolf Keep. There are no NPC defenders that I can see. Either they number so few, or they're taken out so fast. I, a level 51 Hunter, typically can ride from the FWGY to the bridge leading to the Frostwolf Relief Hut without worrying too much. If I'm taking arrows from the Towers I simply ride as far as I can. I help take out the FWRH guards and boom, phase 1 is done. Typically 15 minutes and the Alliance has taken the Relief Hut.

I have an addon which shows me who's gotten what and the progress on it. We've taken most of the map, in 15 minutes. Does that sound familiar? It should if you're Horde, and you're in Battlegroup 7.

So now we simply wait for the FWRH to cap and we get to work. There aren't a lot of Alliance with me in the Keep either. As Horde, it always seems everyone and their brother is assaulting Dun Baldar. As Alliance they just send a group down. The rest stay home defending.

On a good game, we pull Warlord's one by one. And then we go and get Drek himself. Being a slighly reduced crew, we do die a bit. Drek's a meat processer, and we're sausage. But we respawn quickly from the RH and quickly rejoin the action.

Horde, on the other hand, are usally beating on Van in a solid mass.

On a bad game I've seen several Warlord's come out, and when there's two of them running around our little group, it gets ugly quick. BUT we manage to pull it off and continue.

Last game we had: a Warlord left, Horde defenders recalling to the Keep (Thank's for the free HK's off you by the way.), and Drek. We're inside the Keep and it's a flurry of activity. I'm just firing shot after shot, always tabbing for targets. If you're a player, I particularly make sure to get you down.

In a race, Alliance wins. If Arcarius keeps going to AV I'm hoping I can get some PvP gear out of it. How bad can PvP gear be for a Hunter vs. the environment?

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Took a bit of a vacation. Down Florida way. Beachside condo place. Small. No elite Sharks patrolling off shore. No murlocs even. Just some porpoises out there. Seemed so ... safe.

Came back to find the new iteration of my guild downed Ragnaros. Twice! In a week! Wow. Not bad at all. That little shake up. A new guild name. A couple new faces, and wham, bam, we're doing stuff we've never done. Our first and second Ragnaros take-downs.

Last night I joined them again and we raided Onyxia. She's been giving us a few problems. We in fact had a new Warrior tanking for us. ("All those dots are driving me crazy! They keep bumping good debuffs off her." "The Warlocks are singing your praises in the Warlock Channel." :) Change isn't bad.) Onyxia went down in 15 minutes. It's been a while since I was there and they downed her. Maybe Blizzard toned her down a bit too?

Then, on the heals of that success, before we'd even left her lair, I made plans for AQ20. I needed to collect a little venom off Kurinaxx. Last two times we went, he'd been really tough. Last night, Onyxia went down, then Kurinaxx went down. I got my venom, and turned it in along with Venox's, and collected my new 2-H Mace. Yowza. What more could we do?

We then arranged a 5-man group to Live Strat. 2 Shamans (I healing, the other melee and backup), 2 Mages (more sheep than an Arab wedding), and a warrior. Woot. Got the Archivist (and completing that quest for me), we got 3 Righteous Orbs, some odds and ends, and the other Shaman got the Crown of Tyranny he was after. That took like an hour. So easy in MC gear.

And Sunday Oddity took Droonda, his wife, to the Scarlet Monastery. She and another Shaman, Me, a Mage, and a Hunter. The other Shaman was off-tanking and meleeing, and Droonda, my wife, was playing the healer. She 35, the rest of us 40+. (Highest was the Hunter at 44.) I was pretty proud of her when the Shaman remarked "At least she's not a noob." Meaning she was playing real well. (It got slightly frantic a few times, nothing bad.) We cleared every part of SM, got all the bosses, collected all the books. We did good.

And I suspect my level 16 Night Elf Huntress has gained another PvP rank. (80 HK's in one WSG on the Saturday I got back. And then a few more runs. Hunters are fun.)

It's all good. Who needs an expansion to enjoy this game well after a year play time?!

Druids to watch out for. Two wipes then a Paladin.

Wife and I were in Westfall. We wrapped up the Defias quests and escorted the Traitor to the Deadmines. We were ready to go after Van Cleef himself.

We ran back out to Moonbrook, she an 18 Druid, me a 19 Warrior. One of the group was a level 20 Druid. Rather, it was a level 20 cat. He'd joined us for the traitor and so, running alongside him, I asked how he liked the cat form. "Great! I love it!" Did he take the Feline Swiftness talent? "Huh?" "You know, run speed of 115% first point, 130% second point?" "Oh, where is that?"

We put the group together. A level 17 Priest, who did know his stuff, and a level 18 Rogue I believe.

As you are fully aware, level 20 Druids in cat form are immune to most forms of damage. As we zoned into the instance he runs ahead and aggro's a mob of workers and 3 of the elites. He was not immune to any form of damage. And we weren't either. We run back to our bodies. "I'm the Warrior, I'll pull, I'll tank." That's a reasonable request, isn't it? I've got a shield, I've got a Priest, two druids, and a rogue behind me. Except the 20 cat runs to the right aggroing as he goes, the rogue shoots at something to left and I simply stand there in stunned disbelief. Hell, at that point it's pretty much a Dance Off! for all the good resistence is going to do.

I message the priest "Take care." and the wife and I simply leave the party, take the spirit rez, and fly up to Redridge. A warrior and a druid are pretty handy together and we clear out a few of the quests there. But then we decided to take another stab at the Deadmines.

I'm whispered by a guildie of the new guild we (Freewind, Itarilde, Greenclaw) are in. "Deadmines?" "Sure. Got room for 2?" "No, sorry, only one." Well my wife, Itarilde, is aching to get back to Guild Wars so she says "Have fun."

The guildie is a level 20 Warlock. With us were an 18 Druid, a 18 Priest, and a 17 Mage or so. The guildie was first time ever in the Deadmines. The Mage knew the place. The Priest didn't say thing one. The Druid. ... I wonder if you see where I'm going with this.

We zone in, the Druid changes to bear form and charges. He's being beaten like pancake dough by a mob of defias stuff, he cries "Help" and I run back out of the instance with the others. We zone back in. "I'm the tank. Let me pull with my gun." "Shut up" the druid says. "I'm doing DPS." I run recap and in fact, tanking, I was #1 in damage output. The Warlock's Succubus was #2. The druid was #3. Whatever. I've also /ignored him. I think he added "I want to hurry this up because I power grind." Not being to hear his response I informed the group "This isn't grinding, it's an instance. Patient wins the day." Or something to that effect.

And it goes well. I don't get a lot of heals from the druid, but I pull the mobs, one or two at a time, and hold their attention tanking them. Very manageable for us. Before we get to Smite I've taken him off /ignore.

So far, so good. They get the adds, I pull Smite away from the boat and hold him. The adds dead we hurt Smite enough, and yada yada yada, Smite's dead. Some sword drops. Nothing special. I simply greed it. It's no upgrade. The druid is beside himself. Fourth time there and still no hammer for him. We work up the ramp and then we have our first blue item drop. It's a one-handed sword. I ask if I can need it. Nobody objects. So I do. So does the Druid. He wins it. At this point I should have told my guildie "Kick him or I'm out of here." But I'm new in the guild, there's more depending on finishing this than the druid (who's only there for loot anyway).

We continue on. The Warlock's succubus manages to be given a target on an upper deck. Next thing we know there's 20 defias around us. Most of us die except the mage who's ran up and jumped on the big wheel. We rez and return, and the mage jumps down. We proceed up the and manage to be wiped by Greenskin. We return to the instance and it's reset.

So we had this reckless Druid in catform, we had this Druid ninja looter, and we're getting sloppy. The druid has no reason to remain, and we get the offer from a Paladin in the guild who'd come and help. The Druid won't leave. "This is good xp" he says. But, at least he leaves, the Paladin joins us and we run up and get Van Cleef. (The place had respawned for the most part as well.)

The Cape of the Brotherhood dropped. Warlock, Priest, Mage, and Warrior there. (The Paladin is beyond that level.) They all greed it, and, nice guy that I am (I'm no Ninja Looter) I greed it too. The Mage came away with a nice +Agi & +Sta cloak. Wonder if I could have put it to better use and should I have needed it?

So, I turned in the head, got new mail leggings, and wondered how many runs to have the /random chance at getting the things I want by luck, and without the ninjas.

Druids in cat form are very viable. Like I already told you, my cat form Druid topped the damage charts on run by simply backstabbing mobs otherwise working on hunter pets. But a cat that thinks he's Superman, lose him like he was a leper or something.

Ninja Looters? Give them the boot immediately. They're only going to Ninja the next thing they want too.

Bugs amongst us.

My first exposure to the Silithids as an Alliance character was when Kinless, my Night Elf Hunter, began exploring Tanaris. Up until that point in his career the worst he had to fear from hardshelled beasts were the scorpids of Desolace and the spiders of Duskwood. Down in Tanaris a hive has apparently burst from the soil with skittering and flying creatures.

The Horde characters are exposed to the Silithids very early on. In the Barrens there are two Silithid area where adventurers are sent to collect eggs. As a warrior I was tasked to collect a twitching leg of one. In the Shimmering Flats there is another hive of them. In Un'Goro Crater, past Tanaris, there is yet another hive or two of them.

And down in Silithus they are everywhere.

If it sounds like an invasion of your home by roaches, it most certainly ought to, because it is. That's their plan, that's what these bug want. To take over Kalimdor.

If you at all play with your eyes open you will have realized the Alliance and the Horde are united in attempting to stop this. On Smolderthorn the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj are open and the portal to the ruinds of Ahn'Qiraj beckoned.

Too, promises of a nice ring, cloak, and weapon set, earned not as loot drops off the bosses per se, but from scarabs and idols found there in the ruins, and when presented with the necessary reputation, your gear to help fight them will be provided to you by the Cenarian Hold.

A new instance, our first time there. With the help of someone a bit more experience there than we could be, we managed to kill two bosses.

Kurinnaxx, the Sandreaver was the first boss we met. The sandtraps he uses were the worst trouble I had. They hurt, they silence, and a silenced Shaman taking damage is a very sad person. The raid did not survive this first contact. The second time we knew just what to expect, and we sent him back to the depths from which he'd crawled.

That was quite nice for us. Downing Kurinnaxx was easier than our first downing the Priestess Jeklikk (Bat Aspect) in Zul'Gurub. (Of course at the time we were geared with equipment from UBRS and Stratholme and such. Now we're in Molten Core equipment. Gear matters.)

After this battle we cleaned the ichor off the armor, divvied out the loot, and proceeded to the next encounter. General Rajaxx. The mighty Qiraji who commands the Qiraji armies in battle.

This was an interesting fight. Suffice to say we decided to let the Lieutenant General Andorov, a Human in the most minimal chest armor, and his four Kaldorei Elite Night Elves, looking decidedly more suitable for battle than their human leader, simply watch us initially. That involved taking down 7 successive waves of Qiraji Swarmguard Needlers and Warriors. The last member of each wave we kept alive as we fully recovered health and mana.

The last of the last wave killed, General Rajaxx comes out to attack us. The NPC's now join, or are asked, to help. This was a little confusing for me. My heals didn't seem to be working on me. There is an odd attack of the General's, but apparently his attack takes "half of your health." Half, then half, then half, then half = never actually being killed by it. This doesn't occur to me until I sit here recounting the event. Alas we did not succeed in keeping LTG Andorov alive this time. But General Rajaxx was ours.

Following this encounter we set out for the next boss. It was running late, but we did manage to get Buru the Gorger's shell off. But that wasn't enough. Not this time.

We all admitted the Ruins of AQ were a fun place and we look forward to our next forays into it's walls.

Onyxia Again.

In twentyfive minutes.

It used to seem impossible. Now it takes twentyfive minutes. Unbelievable! Gear matters.

No deaths.

Onyxia down! Another first for Requiem.

The guild has done it again. On an unschedule raid, with less than a weeks notice, some 39 of us got together in Brackenwell Village in Dustwallow Marsh. Our goal was to go trouble Onyxia again.

We'd been there a few times before. I was in on two or three tries. Last weekend they tried again. But last night the stars were aligned, the gear was arranged, the potions were bought and brought, and lady luck was smiling on us.

Our first attempt we took Onyxia down to 5%. Now common to this kind of fight, our health didn't outlast the damage we were taking.

Our second attempt, maybe we got comfortable, but she took a deep breath and wiped half the group.

Our third attempt was charmed. Down to 1% felt so easy. Everything was in synch. The whelps were being handled. I was in the Main Tanks group keeping totems down and everyone healed. I didn't survive but Onyxia dropped a breath or two after I did. Excellent! This is a good guild.

Hakkar killed. Good job Requiem.

I remember a long time ago when the gates of Zul'Gurub first opened. I was not ready to travel there yet, and the guildmates who were found out quickly how difficult it was.

Now, so many months later, I'm there with our first kill of Hakkar.

Sunday the guild eliminated the first two aspects that server Hakkar. The Bat and the Snake.

Last night we entered and took out the other three. The Panther (which we've done, but has stymied us for a while, but last night we did it first try), the Tiger (which took us four tries, but it's our first kill of him), the Spider (which we did before, but not reliably, but last night first try).

Phat lootz included the Will of Arlokk, the amazing cobra staff of healing. But I lost the roll. (Trying so often and when we succeed, and it drops!, I lose. :( ) But we learned and will go back often and it'll be mine someday.

After all the aspects were dead we were ready to confront, at long last, Hakkar, the giant winged serpent that inhabits the central temple.

Now that the Aspects were killed, he would not receive their buffs.

We wiped once, I'll be honest, but on our second attempt he died. (He basically killed himself, if you are familar with the strategy.)

What a thrilling, and all too late, night for the guild.

<3>

Agent of the Forsaken. Life on a PvP server. Life's not over until you're 60. Life ends at 60 rather often. Enjoy it.

Darkhoof took the night off. No doubt ruminating on some of the grasses of Mulgore, recovering from the blistering he got in Molten Core Wednesday night.

Oddity though, lazy Orc that he is, has been just resting up a storm in the Undercity. Level 38 and some amount of rested xp built up again.

It's time to hit the pavement Orcy boy. "Lok'tar!"

I make sure my gear is repaired, my bags are empty, I check the mail and grab the stuff that didn't sell and run it back to the Auction House again.

I'd got an invite to go later to Razorfen Downs but that companion-in-arms had not appeared in the realm yet.

I exit Lordaeron (Thanks, Human Race, for the nice city. Too bad we've got it now!) and turn westwards. I don't know why I decided to run, but I did, and I headed out to the Sepulcher.

On the road I saw some younger characters heading the same way. One had acquired a Worg and the Worg was chewing his butt but good. He might have kept going and the Worg might have lost interest except the Worg had managed to daze him. I got to within charge range and let that Worg have it. I looted the body and saw the Worg's heart was still collectable. I gave it to it's intended victim since I know he would shortly have a quest to recover more such hearts. I ran on after he'd thanked me and I'd cheered.

I reached the Sepulcher but then decided that what I wanted to do was clear up some quests in Hillsbrad. "Ganksbad" is what they should call it. Gank Mill and South Gank. :) I jest. But I also wasn't running there to PvP. I've got 40 to reach, and by gum, I will. Eventually.

First quest on the list was to collect a few more skulls from the pesky humans. The poor Deathguard in Tarren Mill, stuck there guarding the place, had sent me out to do his business. And his business had me collect him 30 skulls. Nice. Agent of the Forsaken is what I am.

I've seen leper gnomes. I've seen dark dwarves. I've seen Undead elves and humans and trolls.

We Orcs were torn from our homeworld of Draenor. We were once noble, we embraced nature and it's forces. But the Scourge came and corrupted us.

I guess unlike the other races, where pure representatives are still to be found, Orcs are, to a man, woman, and child, corrupted forms of our once noble selves. I'll be very happy if one day I can return to Draenor and find an Orc cousin who remains untouched by the scourge. Would he be a tusked brute driven to constant warfare? I think not.

But here I am. Product of the scourge. Tusked and with fire in my eyes!

So, Orc Think here: You need 30 skulls? Okee dokee.

And I also had to get some shards from some Forsaken traitors being held by, or in the protection of perhaps, the mages of Dalaran. And I needed to collect some stones off these mages and researchers as well.

Since Dalaran was closer to the Sepulcher than the village of Hillsbrad, that was my first stop.

The prison camp is easy enough to find. The guards are laughably inadequate to keep a warrior such as I out, and one by one the traitors met their end, leaving me with the shards they had sought to turn over to the Dalaran mages. The last of them was guarded by a mage who dropped a journal. It accounted her tests of the shard. It accounted her attempts to establish the material characteristics of the shards. It accounted for about 12 pages more than me, a brute Orc, cared to read. "Ah, maybe somebody cares back in Lordaeron!" Into the bags it went. "Zug Zug!"

I then moved out to the old city of Dalaran. Most of it's been bubbled, whether it is protected or devastated inside is a question. Outside it's only ruins with the odd Dalaran researcher wandering around. They carry stones for some purpose and I managed to pry a few from the more than few cold, twitching, fingers.

Now Dalaran is on the "run path" for the Alliance to go to the Scarlet Monastery. The Scarlet Monastery is the questing destination for both sides, from about the mid-30's to 40 or so. What that mean is every so often I'd spot Alliance, individuals or small groups, running past the place. One such Alliance, a Druid, ran rather close. I checked the level, 34 or so, and figured "Me Orc! Me have business to do!" so I turned my attentions back to the folks of Dalaran.

Now after this Druid had passed a Dwarf rode up on this massive Ram. (Them's good eatin'!) His level was ??. Karma, remember that? He waved, I waved, and he rode off.

And shortly I had the shards I needed, and the stones too. Next on my list of jobs was to collect 30 Human Skulls.

So I went to Hillsbrad Fields and I played out the neverending battle between Orc and Mankind and it took a while but eventually I had my 30 skulls. (How is it possible that these Hillsbradians don't all have skulls? What's up with that? Are they degenerates? What's holding them together??) While I whittled down the population, and whittled down their successors, I did see a few Alliance scurrying about. Usually at a distance, always moving the other way. Yay! (Ooh. I forget to mention I dinged 39 at Dalaran. Yes, the skulls quest is below my level, but a quest is a quest, I can earn reputation with the Undercity, and sometimes it just feels good to harvest skulls.)

Bags full of stones, shards, and skulls, I made my way to Tarren Mill and turned it all in.

A freind whispers me and asks if I need help in Stranglethorn Vale. You bet, I reply.

So I flew from Tarren Mill back up to the Undercity and then took the Zeppelin down to Grom'gol Base Camp in Stranglethorn Vale. This friend was Onaeveim who has helped me in the past.

Camp Nesingwary's is a little busier than normal. And while I hunted tigers and raptor and panthers there are more than one or two misunderstandings there between Horde and Alliance.

There was a ?? Rogue wandering the area. At one time I came within a hairsbreadth of me and another killing him. His vanish foiled since I'd put a Rend on him. And there! He lets out a last breath! As I let out mine. :( No Honor Kill for me. Later he'd find me alone and kill me without too much threat to his neck.

But I do manage to get a good bit of hunting accomplished. Ona joining me at times, other times ranging ahead, or looking for trouble behind. He encounters a Paladin and a Mage and makes a, most likely astute, assumption as to their possible sexual orientation. Further on we run into a hunter, or rather Ona does, and then this ?? Warrior runs into me, and then all hell breaks out. There's Ona, 60, me, 39, and like 4 Alliance, 2 or 3 ?? to me. "Darkhoof's got to come!" says Ona. "Okee dokee" says Oddity. Oddity leaves the world in the Spirit form, and Darkhoof comes alive in Orgrimmar (dust, not grass, he's been munching on it would seem). I, as Darkhoof now, astral recall myself to Kargath and then jump a pridewing down to Grom'gol. Before I land I see that Grom'gol is under attack. Good. Not far to go to find the fight.

There's Ona, surrounded by 4 Alliance, all level 60's, some younger ones, the Orc guards are out fighting too, some Horde players as well, and I run in, Frostshock one on him, and then a Flameshock and it dies. I'm rooted and then a 60 Hunter starts firing! I Frostshock! and Frostshock! and come free and knife the little guy to death with my Sorcerous Dagger! Earthfury gear for the win! (Since I'm not at all Elemental specc'd. I'm a healer. Not a fighter.)

It's raging. Back and forth. I do die twice. But I get 8 HK's. It's late and we'll have to leave soon. But Theido joins us. A guild Druid. And Ona and I change to Ghostwolf form and Theido gets into cat form and we run up the coast. Ooh, I'd hate to run into us. Little Gnome Warlock with pink Princess Leia buns? Left without the means to self-motivate. Night Elf Hunter lady. Remember us? We remember you!

And Ona says "This is what I'm talking about." Yeah. It was fun. I'm sure it was fun for the Alliance too. We live a little, we kill a little, we die a little. We need to have fun. (And keep company with at least one level 60 friend around.)

Tonight is MC Night. So grab your stuff, your ankhs, and get down to Kargath. We'll be leaving at 8:50 p.m. sharp. Or thereabouts. Don't forget to repair before you set out, Noob!

I start this thread hoping that I'll be able to add to it as the action tonight unfolds.

A run to Molten Core with Requiem, a horde guild on Smolderthorn.

(Well, I'll be taking you on the run we do on Wednesdays. We aren't "leet" enough yet to do it all in like five hours or so. Eventually, but not quite yet.)

It's T-3 hours now and I'm just getting this together so it's ready to go when I am.

I've got my, Darkhoof's, Astral Recall spell set to Kargath. There's a reason for it that I'll get to.

Too, the only real raiding I do nowadays happens to be in Blackrock Spire and Kargath is a far superior jumping off point than Thorium Point is. God, what a PvP nightmare that place is. Heh. Ever try to turn in 1,000's of Dark Iron Ore, 5 at a time, to some thick Dwarf while Night Elf rogues are prowling about? That's just no fun.

Okay, so it's 5 minutes before meet time and I am attempting to connect to the server.

Ummm. This happened last night while we wanted to go to ZG. And the last time. And the time before last.

Still connecting. What's up Blizzard? I was just on a realm. I move over to a low population server (Smolderthorn) and I can't log on? Vent's up so I tell my guildies I'll be a little late to Kargath. Others are experiencing the same thing. While I wait I'm already typing in the blog here. (I am now updating this since you can't type in a blog and heal your charges at the same time.)

But, no worries. I did manage to log on, and I was already in Kargath and I got an invite to the raid right off. Nice.

Darkhoof leaves the inn at Kargath and it's like the scene from a Turkish Bazaar. There are people everywhere! Two or three different guilds. Preparing to run Molten Core or Blackwing Lair or maybe just go to Upper Blackrock Spire or such.

I tracked down Lexia, our mage, and she gave me some of her wonderful water. Like mana, or ambrosia. Quite restoring to the mana pool. Lexia is usually very difficult to find. Yes, she's got some nice colorful robes on. Her eyes are like little beacons. She has a happy dancing little murloc as a pet. But imagine a slight Undead Mage amongst a sea of huge Tauren Shaman, Warriors, and Druids. It's like horns and manes is all one sees. A quick /target revealed she was close by so I open a trade window with her and in exchange for 5 snowballs she gives me 40 Conjured Waters. (I've got the snowballs to spare and she enjoys hurling them at Ona the Orc Shaman.)

I've got water, my gear is repaired, and so I kill a little time. I get my Worg Pup out, change into Ghostwolf form and run around like a mad dog.

I'm not much of a PvPer. But I'm undefeated in the ghostwolf vs. ghostwolf category. Such a simple and feral fight. No spells, no heals, no windfury procs, just good old teeth sunk into somebody elses fur. It's a slow fight, we 60 Shaman have a lot of health, but I whittle them all down eventually. Master of the Pack. At least in dog form.

I ran into an old friend and waved as he managed to defeat a Warrior. He is a Shaman. It's our healing powers that gives us an advantage. Kind of like a Paladins "bubble heals," our lesser healing waves can be improved with talents so they aren't as easily interrupted. With +218 healing I can recover a goodly amount of health while still fighting. (A 60 Warrior once found that out when we ran into him down in Stranglethorn Vale.)

At the appointed time, 8:50, we set off for Blackrock Spire. We like going as a group, because, like they say, United we stand, divided we fall.

We aren't alone as we enter the gates of Blackrock Spire. There is a pathway of skeletons down the ramp. Before I even leave the tunnel I'm rewarded with an Honor Kill. (I love when I get Honor Kills and I don't even see the death. This particular Honor Kill was a Knight-Lietenant.) Then another. I spot the red names now. One is on the floor under a mob of Horde. Dead or very short. Two more are on the rocks above the chain. A level 60 Mage and one other. I'm hoping it is not a Priest as I jump on the chain and move downwards. For the Mage I drop a Grounding Totem to absorb any spell he might thrown my way. Now a Priest, as I've already once told you, will Mind Control you and dump you in the lava. Halfway down the chain, out of habit, I drop an Earthbind Totem. Don't need anyone following me too closely now. "I need space!" I make my through the center and back onto the next chain leading to the bottom and at last get to the Blood Elf and his gem. I touch the gem and am transported into the Molten Core. (Outside the shimmering portal I can see the end of Blackrock Depths. I'm glad there is a shortcut to reach this place.)

Sidebar: As we collect inside Molten Core someone tells the story of a friend of his. His friend is just level 56, first time ever anywhere. Proud to finally be getting to go someplace as famous as Blackrock Spire, he makes his way here, across the Searing Gorge, enters the gates, comes down the ramp, and, first time mind you, is promptly mind controlled and run into the lava. The person telling the story then says as of that day all Alliance, of any race, level, or creed, will die if he can manage to get to them. At the point where a war becomes personal, watch out. Bad things start happening. For both sides.

Not all of us had left the same time. A handful of folks were asked to go repair. Some were asked to put their clothes back on and then told to go repair. I thank the gods that loin clothes aren't a removeable article of clothing.

While we wait in the entrance of Molten Core we hear people talking about entering Blackrock Spire. Uh oh. Those Alliance we ran into? They weren't there to cause a little trouble. They must have been gathering for a raid as well and in between our passing them and our stragglers reaching them they'd reinforced their numbers.

But, at 9 p.m., our appointed time again, we pulled the first Fire Lords.

These battles are becoming second nature now. And our Warriors and Hunters are confident enough to stay ahead of the game. The mana of the healers barely, and not always, restored before the next fight starts. But that's how it's supposed to be done. Just a moving wave down into Molten Core to the first bosses.

Now Molten Core has what we call "trash mobs". They include Fire Lords which are massive giants, made of molten lava. They usually come in pairs. Our raids always have a Main Tank and an Off Tank and no matter what your talents build is before reaching 60, if you're going to be of use, or want to be out front, you'll have a Protection Build to go raiding. Warriors are there to take damage, not do it. Mages, rogues, hunters, and elemental shamans, are there to do the damage.

Another form of trash mob is the Fire Elemental. These are like the elementals you might find in the Arathi Highlands. But immensely more powerful. Level 62 or 63, and Elite.

Then there are the Rock Elementals. You've probably seen these in Thousand Needles or the Badlands. And there's a few versions of each of these trash mobs. Some of the Rock Elementals run person to person and smash up people. Others have a big hit that sends everyone around them flying. (Think Matrix.)

Then there are the huge two-headed Core Hounds. Either individual, or in packs. And they have multiple talents as well. They might breath fire. They might stun the entire raid. They might send you scurrying about in fear.

All of these trash mobs, if handled wrong, can wipe out a 40-man raid.

How? you ask? Well, funny story from this very raid. We have two hunters out front. One pulls some elementals from one side, the other pulls some dogs from another. The classic "Doh!" moment. We're capable enough raiders that we can only but laugh at this. Too funny. "You pull." "No, you." "No, you." We're close enough to the entrance that a few survive by running back out of the instance. That could result in death anyway if the Alliance are right outside. On the way out a mage dropped dead next to me. He'd been dotted (damage over time had been cast on him) by something. Almost! Well, short of it, we survived, returned, rezzed, and were back in business.

We continued on into the Core on the way to our first boss, Lucifron.

One thing a little different than other instances. The respawn rate of trash mobs is very quick. You have maye 20 minutes and these things reappear! Don't stop! And don't forget to make a note of when you killed what. You don't want to be picnicing when something is due back. However, yay for us, we've gotten good enough that we move so fast we don't worry about keeping timers going.

We kill some more elementals and then prepare to fight the Fire Imps. (Right. Just like the Grell kin found in Darkshore. But level 62, Elite, and swarming in packs of a dozen.) This is usually the death of at least a couple of our mages, but this night the Imps fall under a whither rain of fire and frost and lightning. We run through them so easily this time.

Lucifron is there before us. And we're there for him.

There are some Core Hounds yet to remove from our way and then we prepare for the fight.

I'm in the Main Tank's group this run. First time.

And I die. Video can be found here.

But Luci goes down. And Cenarion Boots and Felheart Gloves drop. Every boss will drop at least two [epics].

After the loot is distributed we get going on the next task. This is to kill Magmadar, an even larger two-headed hound. Magmadar makes the Beast in UBRS look like a Chihuahua dressed in a funny little people clothes.

To reach Mag we need to go through some Core Hound packs. These aren't quite as difficult as the Core Hounds that wander about the Core, but they come in groups of five, and if you don't kill them all at pretty much the same time, the surviving hound will resurrect the dead ones. All five have to die at the same time, and then someone has to pour a bucket of water on the ashes to make real sure they're really dead for sure. "Only you can prevent wildfires."

There are like five or so of these packs. And we take them out one at a time. Our Warriors tank the dogs and everyone else rains hellfire down upon them.

Until we stand before the Big Dog. Magmadar. He's ... relatively easy. Not much to do here. The Main Tank beats on his nose and everyone just shoots stuff, casts stuff, or stabs him from close range. If you aren't the Main Tank, and you see teeth, it's time to lay up the damage!

Magmadar isn't just a big slab of beef though. He breaths fire and can launch this fire thing that lands on you like napalm. He casts a fear spell that has everyone not protected by a Stonetremor Totem running about the place like boys at Neverland Ranch. Even with a totem you'll initially run off. You simply come to your senses earlier. (Whew, Michael is out of town!) And he bites I suppose. I tend not to get too close. I drop my totems and keep an eye on our other casters mana levels, in case I need to drop a Mana Spring or Mana Tide totem, and otherwise heal the boss.

And then Magmadar goes down. So easy this time. 1 1/2 hours into our raid. Woot.

See the video here.

When we first started we would typically, on a Wednesday, only do Luci and Magmadar.

As we got better we could move to the next boss. At that point though all those trash mobs we'd cleared through earlier would be back. We'd have to fight all the way out to where we turn to the next boss. At this point we'd strip off our durability items (death causes damage, repairs cost money) and make a suicide run out. I.e. run and and be killed by the first mob. Then run back from Thorium Point in spirit form and then reappearing at the entrance with not too much harm done. (If you find yourself at Thorium Point, in spirit form, and you're surrounded by a mob other other spirits, and none of them are wearing anything, that's what they're doing. (If they've just wiped then they'd still be wearing their gear.))

But this time, we've done so well, we simply go back out the way we came. The Fire Imps have respawned but they are non-issues this run. And we find ourselves on the hill overlooking Gehennas area. And we start down.

It's not so bad. I used to seem impossible. But here we are like scouts on a hike. There are Fire Lords and Fire Elementals and Rock Elementals on the way to Gehennas but they're not tough. Gehennas has two guards and they're just seperately tanked, killed one by one, and then all attention goes to Gehennas. This is a tough fight. He's got his regular attack and he's got some curses he likes. One time a shadowbolt found me and hit me for 2,100 points of damage. Ouch. (Yes, being in the mere presence of a good rogue will cause about that much damage, but here on top of everything else, it's deadly.)

Gehennas goes down 2 1/4 hours into our raid. And it's all over. Booya.

And we aren't done yet.

Last stop tonight, kids, is Garr. A great big bunch of rocks piled on rocks.

This room is like a mall at Christmas time. There's a dozen trash mobs in the area. If you had one of these in your neighborhood it would fold onto itself and create a black hole. Heavy, man.

This is how we do Garr. Four Warlocks take and banish 4 of the 8 Firesworn who protect Garr.

Firesworn are Rock Elementals. Moving pebbles stacked on each other. But can they hit. And once you kill them they'll explode and everyone around goes flying. And if you kill one, you only make Garr stronger.

So the Warlocks banish and hold 4 of the Firesworn and keep them out of play. Four Warriors have the other 4 Firesworn. And then one by one the Firesworn are killed. As each is killed the group attacking the remaining Firesworn gets larger. When the 4th is killed all attention is turned to Garr.

And it was such an easy fight for me. I healed the Main Tank, kept the totems up, and since he took so little damage the healing easy.

But, as Ron Popeil says, Wait, there's more. Well, we are almost done.

On killing Garr the fights not yet over. Remember the four Firesworn banished by the Warlocks? One by one the banishment is broken and the Firesworn is killed. With the 8th dead then it's time to count the loot. I think another Earthfury Helm dropped and since I already had one, this raid didn't get me any loot. :) But it's fun nonetheless.

So, at end of the night we had taken down 4 bosses in 3 hours. That's 8 epics, or about 1 per group of 5. Would you invest 3 hours for an epic item? Sure you would.

With the last of the loot in it's new owners hands, the portals open to the Undercity and Orgrimmar and I step through. One moment in the Molten Core at Blackrock Spire, next in the dry streets of Orgrimmar.