My guild scares me.

There's nothing we can't do. Tonight, on it's 2nd serious Razorgore attempt, they kill it.

I say "they" because, mid-raid, I gave up my spot for another Shaman. I figured if we were learning, he could learn some too, yada yada yada, they down him next try.

First try we'd gotten all by 8 or 12 eggs. Second try we got all the eggs and Razorgore to 69%. I left the raid then to give my spot to someone else. Some minutes later they announce Razorgore went down.

My guild scares me how good they are.

Sadly, I missed the 1st Rag kill, I wasn't there the 2nd time they took him down, and now I missed the 1st Razorgore kill.

Next Friday. They're going to have to pry me out of the raid group with iron crowbars or something. I'm going to be there and get the screenshot.

Why is that Shaman in MC gear beating up on piglets outside of Orgrimmar?

Ah, he must have respecced.

In anticipation of a move overseas I'm making a few adjustments in playstyle. Since we started raiding, since about October of last year, I've been Restoration specced. 0 in Elemental, 11 in Enhancement for the 2-Handed Axes and Maces, and 40 in Restoration, giving me the best in healing and the raid-important Mana Tide Totem.

And I heal real well. Only +350 Healing now but I still manage to top the healing charts raid after raid. It's not even *if* I am going to top the healing chart on a raid. I do, every raid. Granted I'm not decursing like the Priests are, but I hold my own really well against Benediction equipped Priests. It makes me feel like I'm contributing to the raid so I knocked myself out healing.

The other night we 5-manned Live Strat. I was the only one healing. I never dropped Mana Tide Totem once.

But, lord knows, I couldn't melee worth a dang with that build. And if I am going to be 6 hours ahead of server time my days of steady raiding with my guild are over.

So, last night I redid my talents. 0 in Elemental since I'm really not much of a caster type. 28 in Enhancement taking Flurry, Parry, Improved Windfury, and Improved Rockbiter. 23 in Restoration getting me Nature's Swiftness (and an insta-heal every 5 minutes), Improved Ghostwolf (to help me skidaddle), and the reincarnation every 40 minutes (instead of 60) talent.

Before I could work on maces the guild went to AQ40. Happily, I'm on top of the healing chart again. HOWEVER! I ran out of mana slightly more quickly it seemed (though geared in my MC healing gear) and no means of getting it back. (And those winged things suck mana out of you anyway, so hardly a good test.) The real test on how this impacted my healing will be our weekly MC raid. I suspect I'll come down some on the chart, but I'm shooting for the #1 spot nonetheless. (That's my goal.)

Anyway, after we left AQ40 I returned to Orgrimmar and began beating up on stuff to get the Mace skill up. (The Doomulus Prime I got as a quest reward at the Hold.) Ona, a shaman guildie msg'd me "RFC ya noob." Oh, yeah. "Good idea!" So I took my mace through Ragefire Chasm getting the skill up to 220 or so. If RFC is good, how would the Wailing Caverns be? With my Zulian Stone Axe I got my 2-H axes skill up to 230 or so, and my 2-H maces skill up to 260.

When Flurry procs, and your hands go red, and you get this real satisfactory THACK and the thing just drops like a sack of potatos. Sweet. I was playing around with Rockbiter buff (first time in ages!!) and got some record crits, and with Windfury (444+1002+1024 in a single swing!) and I ran through WC wacking every boss, killing the dinosaur, and then rescuing, again, that sleeping druid guy, I was walking tall.

Oh,I've run people through WC in Resto spec, but it took a few more swings to kill things. With this build I'm one-shotting Druids of the Fang really often. (I also collected the leggings and chest armor of the Fang. I might farm WC and complete the set. For grins.)

Anyway, that's why I, a MC geared Shaman, was seen outside of Orgrimmar last night, wacking on piglets. Every time I respec my 2-H Axes and 2-H Maces skill is dropped back to 1.

And those piglets? Don't worry, they're okay. I checked on them later and they were all back snuffling about in the dirt. I left before visions of a BLT overwhelmed me again.

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?!

Postscript of a guild. Or?

It was bound to happen. The usual end-game guild on the edge of a meltdown, forced to respond to new conditions, unable to go forward wearing it's old clothes.

A "casual" guild meant too many had become too casual in their raiding. That's completely untenable. You can't be casual in showing up to raid Molten Core or Onyxia's Lair. "Ah, why bother with the sign-ups, I'll show up, if they got a spot, great, if not, meh, not a loss."

Enthusiasm goes a long way. In the heady early days where we first entered the Core and the Lair everyone wanted to come along. And they slowly got geared up, and then, what's the point? Better to sit a raid out, or three, to let other people get their phat lootz. Now it's a job. Now it's raiding to gear up other people. We're disenchanting Nightslayer gear now. We've got three Giantstalker Belts in the guild bank.

So attendance falters, the people that do show up have to work harder, to make up for a lack of people, or to make up for the lack of experience among the new people. And even the people willing to show up, their attitude changes. "Hey. Not 40? Let's call it and I can go PvP." Or "Oh. I just discovered I have a family. I can't raid past the 2nd boss. You understand."

The new plan is to create a hardcore Raiders only guild. (With alts too. Huh?) But the old guild won't go away, it'll house the casual players. (Casual *and* raider won't be in the same sentence anymore.)

Collectively this guild rocks. The skill of these players is incredible. I sincerely hope our reinventing ourselves finds us successful in Blackwing Lair shortly.

This is the "make or break" moment. I'm curious to see how it will go.

Good Lord. Patch Day Again?

Albeit a small patch it still means I can't log on after loading it.

Was wanting to create a character on Sen'jin to check out the Bloggers. Might be fun. (And I would not be the oldest for a change! Woot!)

But, Alas, it's Tuesday at Blizzard and the servers are down. They're up. They're down. They're up. They're down. ... ...

When does the Fat Lady sing?

I've been browsing blogs for a few months now.

What I find surprising, but is no surprise really, is how reaching 60 can be quite a let down for some.

I remember when Kinless reached level 40. The noob hadn't been really trying to raise cash in anticipation of that day, and all of a sudden he had a requirement to find 90 Gold to buy his mount.

What's a Hunter to do? Grind on monkeys in Stranglethorn Vale. I spent a couple of days there if I remember it right. Just rolling through the apes and cats and skinning every last one of them. I crafted the leather (free) into leather goods (cost of thread) and sold them to the vendor. (I wasn't very Auction House saavy back then.) Well all this grinding also served to give me a lot of xp. I was level 43 when I finally dinged 90g. I travelled to Darnassus and bought the white spotted riding Tiger.

There I was! Woot! So I rode to the noob area thinking "Look at me! Look at me!" I jumped around the area a bit. Then I rode back to Darnassus, hopped the flight to Auberdine, and sailed to Menethil. Then I rode to Ironforge, and entered it's halls. I'd made it. Woo. That was a lot of work, getting that money to get that mount. But I'd done it. Yeah.

Hmm. Press the space key and the riding tiger yawns. Move forward and press the space key and he'll jump. On a run, if you jump, and twist midair, you can do a 360 in the air before landing again. And ... that was it.

Okay, ride to a raid on Splintertree Post from Astranaar, with the leet on their mounts, that was pretty good. But otherwise? It was okay I guess.

It was kind of a let down actually. I don't know, I was expecting a new game I guess.

I took a Dwarf Hunter, levels 18-22 to Warsong Gulch. For the hours I spent there I got Sgt! Woo. So I went to the quartermaster. The Sgt's cloak wasn't available to me until level 30. What's up with that? It's a piece of cloth. So he got deleted and I made a hunter that could Shadowmeld while her cat stealthed. That would own. But I don't play her much.

I've noticed some other Blogs, dutifully record ding after ding in their quest to 60. But when they reach 60, what then? They find they had a life, or their game card expired, and otherwise what was the point of all that time spent? :/

I was an altoholic on four servers. I now play on just two. I've got 3 Warriors on two servers. A Shaman, two Druids, two Hunters, a Priest, a Warlock, a Mage. A Rogue. Another hunter. (Last two I don't play on the other two servers.) Two Paladins on two servers. Okay. I'm still an altoholic. This is what lets me keep playing this well after a year of buying it and let's me hold out for the Expansion.

I found that some who'd appeared to be on the brink of leaving at 60 seem to rediscover the game by simply trying something new in the game. They made an alt, for example.

If I can no longer raid MC with my guild due to scheduling problems, I'll probably respec from Resto into something more Solo based. I'll go from the top ranked (healing output) healer on our raids to do 5-man PUG stuff, inspired by a video which has a Shaman tanking General Drakkisith. My level 60 Shaman will effectively become a new alt, going Resto to Enhancement will be like a new (again) class. Maybe try my hand in the Battlegrounds. Get a set of PvP gear and put the Earthfury into the bank for the day I might rejoin the raiding.

If you've just dinged level 60, or 40 even, and you see the Fat Lady lumbering up on the stage, but you like the game but you question still playing it, don't worry. Just try something new for a change.

Tell me why? I don't like Tuesdays. Tell me why? I don't like Tuesdays. Tell me why? I don't like Tuesdays. I want to shoot the whole day down. Down, down, shoot it all down.

Silicon chips inside their servers got switched to overload...

To borrow from the Boomtown Rats.

Yes, it was patch day. Patched to 1.10. Woo hoo! Well. My level 24 Priest will get to respend her talents, but no big deal. My Shaman gets nerfed some in that he can no longer airwalk with his sentry totems.

I was looking forward to logging onto my Paladin (Daltaville, husband of my wifes Paladin, Sichelgaita. But of course.) and spending the time in Elwynn fixing my add-ons, and watching a rain event with any luck.

And so I paid bills, trolled the guild's forums, downloaded Planetside: Reserves (see the Van Hemlock link for the details), and actually got to fire that up and get killed a few times before I went to sleep.

I have Civ IV and actually started two games. It's just not the same. I lasted five minutes before I checked to see if the servers were up.

I wanted to lay the smack down on those whiskered kobolds in the Jasperload Mine! I want to see my Druid dance in cat form. I really wanted to get my add-ons fixed/resolved before Molten Core tonight.

And the silicon chips inside their servers
Got switched to overload
Oh, and nobody's goin' to go to Elwynn today
They're going to make them stay at home
And the gamers don't understand it
Blizzard was always as good as gold
And they can see no reason
'Cause there was no reason
And what reason do they need to be shown?

Tell me why - I don't like Patch Days

What's in a name? How I named my (currently held) alts.

Kinless, semi-retired, Night Elf Hunter, Argent Dawn (RP): I actually picked this name for him because seeing a hunter was supposed to be a solitary sort, and it was my first WoW character, and I knew noone on the server, and it had this melancholic tone about it. Kinless, without kin. Blizzard's name police actually changed it on me. To something random looking starting with an A. They invited me to respond, and so I did. I cited the use of epithet's throughout history as my precedent. Longshanks for Edward I of England. Longsword for William, Duke of Normandy (the Conqueror's greatgrandfather). So they restored the name. A little later he got an invite to a guild called, ironically, The Kindred. It was fitting but in his retirement he's since become Kinless again.

Darkhand, semi-retired, Night Elf Rogue, Frostmane (PvP): This was a rogue. He's a Night Elf. Darkhand. What else could it have been? I'd pulled him out of his retirement once to go solo the Deadmines. As I was riding there I got a whisper. "I hate you." "Huh?" "You stole my name." "No, I've had this for six months now." "Jerk. That was my name." /ignore (some dwarf thing).

Bohemond, semi-retired, Human Paladin, Frostmane (PvP): Crusader name for a Paladin. I was actually whispered in-game saying it was a good name. Bohemond was a legendary giant. Mark, son of Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, and of the Hauteville dynasty of Normans, later become known as Bohemond.

Darkhoof, active, Tauren Shaman, Smolderthorn (PvP): I left Darkhand on Frostmane and created a Horde character on Smolderthorn. Darkhand became Darkhoof so my friends would recognize me. In keeping with the name he's got a black coat of fur and black horns. I gave him the pleasant face, blue eyes, and he does not wear the nose ring of the subjugated cow.

Oddity, active, Orc Warrior, Smolderthorn (PvP): An Orc. What kinds of names did they have? Thrall. Gazz. Zugzug. All so brutishly simple. But Orcs weren't always the brutes as we know them as today. They came from Draenor, another planet. Wait, he's an alien. A space alien from another planet.

This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

Space Oddity - David Bowie.

So I gave him purple hair, he's got a Tuxedo in the bank, and I gave him the most reasonable Orc face I could. He's a bit of, if you'll allow me, an Oddity.

Darbanville, semi-active, Undead Priest, Smolderthorn (PvP):

My Lady D'Arbanville,
Why do you grieve me so?
But your heart seems so silent
Why do you breathe so low,
Why do you breathe so low?

I loved you my Lady,
Though in your grave you lie
I'll always be with you
This rose will never die,
This rose will never die.

My Lady D'Arbanville - Cat Stevens

Yes, I made an character to use the name I loved from the song. I even managed to get her a rose.

Morticai, active, Undead Warrior, Kirin Tor (RP): The undead was human once. They have all sorts of human names. Morticai uses Mort, for death, so Morticai just seems to be a natural name for a dead guy.

Mortiangelo, semi-active, Undead Priest, Kirin Tor (RP): In my backstory, he's Morticai's brother. Both took new names after succumbing to the plague. Originally they were Caius and Angelos (Emperors of Rome and Byzantium) since their father was a bit of a fantasy buff and there was this Empire once upon a time founded on the shores of a vast sea in the middle of the earth. (Get it?) Morti-angelo also sounds a little like Angel of Death.

Makeda, semi-active, Troll Hunter, Kirin Tor (RP): Makeda, the name of the Queen of Sheba who had relations with King Solomon of the bible. I wanted to make a Troll Hunter. The guys are just so gosh darn ugly. The women though have a nice exotic look to them. Orange eyed, orange haired, the least tusky of the race. Exotic like the Queen of Sheba. Makeda was made.

Greenclaw, active, Night Elf Druid, Kirin Tor (RP): The Druids are all about the Emerald Dream. Emerald = Green. Feral spec'd Druid for soloing goodness. Greenclaw. Too, most elves have a fanciful first name and then a very nature feature sounding last name. Whisperwind. Silvermoon. Etc. So Greenclaw is actually a better last name than first.

Freewind, active, Night Elf Warrior, Kirin Tor (RP): Again, in keeping with Elven naming I struggled to find something that involved a pale moonlike movement. Wind had to be in the name. We arrived at Freewind. It turns out there's also a song that kind of fits.

The howling wildwind blows, eternal freedom calls
Its soul is running free from care
Its spirit's wild and free flowing in the wind
The taste of freedom's in the air

Freewind Rider - Running Wild

He's darker skinned with white hair tied back in a pony tail. (Warrior chic.) His wife, Itarilde, a Druid, is pale with the same brilliant white hair. (Her name from Tolkien, meaning something along the lines of "Shining Bright.")

Procyona, active, Night Elf Hunter, Kirin Tor (RP): This is my hunter elf. She's a loner, as most hunters are.

Her name was inspired by my wife wanting to reserve Halcyon for her Blood Elf (when the day comes.) Halcyon is either a Kingfisher bird, or the state of being calm and restful (as in a nesting Kingfisher who's magic has calmed stormy waters.) I thought it was the name of a star.

So I thought of Procyon, which is the name of a star. And it meant, I looked it up after thinking of it, "before the dog." Procyona was the feminization of it.

PROCYON (Alpha Canis Minoris). The eastern anchor of the Winter Triangle, Procyon is the luminary of Canis Minor, the smaller dog, and at magnitude zero (0.34) is the sky's eighth brightest star. At a distance of only 11.4 light years, it is the 14th closest star system, which largely explains its brightness. The Greek name means "before the dog," as in northern latitudes the star rises before Sirius, the "Dog Star," and its constellation Canis Major, announcing their quick arrival.

Sounds like a great name for a hunter. Now I need to get out and tame Timber, the white wolf that prowls the lake outside of Iron Forge. (But first I need to reach level 10!)

Lastly, I reserved the name Kaelcyan for my Blood Elf character. It's close enough to Halcyona (since Halcyon had already been reserved), and the Kael- prefix is typical Blood Elf. Cyan is the color that's kind of blue.

SO, as you can see, I do put a little thought into the names I've chosen. Sometimes the name comes quick and it's the character that follows. But I've got a reason for each.

I so hate seeing names like "Idontheal" on an RP server. Or "Generalpain" or "WTFPwndjoo" on the PvP servers. Yeah, my wife and I have been playful with names. We made a troll couple on Runetotem once. Gumbo (me) and Jumbalaya (her).

All I ask of the World of Warcraft gaming community: Spend more than 10 seconds on the name. Please? Oh, pretty please? Do you not care? You're named Boiledbunny and you're level 60? Why did you bother? Did the Playstation break and you had a spare 6 days?

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.

"Prophet up in ten." Here's a slight grind in the making.

Last night Darkhoof travelled down to Silithus in support of the Cenarian Hold's efforts to fight the Qiraji. Commander Mar'alith, a Night Elf of some stature, has word of some problems, and he's also lost his wife.

I traveled south to Bronzebeard's Encampment and acquired a few more quests.

And the war is non-stop with the various hives surrounding the Cenarian Hold. My log is full of Combat and Tactical quests to do in these hives.

So I ride out and catch up with the group. They are familiar with the terrain and the quests and we set right out to the first hive. As we move into the hive one of them says, in vent, "Prophet up in ten." "We've got time for this," says the other and indeed we do. I have gotten the Silithid hive brain for the hive, and have gotten the glyph rubbing, and even spoke with the Night Elf scout hidden in the hive. But we ride out, like our hair was on fire, in search of the prophet. She is found, killed, and the pages of text distributed between us. To the next hive we ride. As we enter another report on the Prophet. Basically, as we quested, I rather, they were helping me get to The Calling, they monitored the Prophets spawn time. In other words we were killing the Prophet and taking care of what business we could waiting for her to respawn. Why? Cenarian Hold reputation and the nice rewards therefrom. Eventually I got all the glyph rubbings, a hive brian from each hive, and we found, and unfortunately needed to kill, Mar'alith's wife.

(Funny aside. When I found the Regal Hive glyph I spotted an Alliance Night Elf Priest sitting next to the glyph. I hoped she was afk, but she seemed to be in a safe spot, not aggroing the Silithids. So I ran up to take the rubbing. Alas, that was no Alliance Night Elf Priest, but Natalia herself. We wiped and spirit rezzed in The Barrens!!! Once we got back we were unflagged. Those hives are special zones unto themselves.)

Darkhoof turned the quests in and we kept at the Prophet spawns for a little bit longer. We hit the Prophet, took her texts, and rode up to kill Vyral, another quest I had. With that done we rode back down and killed the Prophet again. Here's a new use for the Core Hound timers we only needed for a couple weeks.

Camping the Spawn until we're Exalted. Pray the Outlands aren't delayed too much!!!

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.

Scenes from Azeroth.

Water Run for Aqual Quintessence in Azshara.

Sergeant Ogresson and Sableclaw in Stormwind City.

Warsong Gulch. Silverwing Sentinels. 2,543,400 reputation needed till friendly.

Ha, ha. Just kidding. Only like 2,200 needed till friendly. And that's after a whole lot of battles.

Ogresson, my Dwarf Hunter. He's a soloist, and not otherwise involved with a lady friend like my other characters on Kirin Tor are. He's out there, with his pet, earning levels and fighting in Warsong Gulch on behalf of the Silverwing Sentinels, a group of Night Elves who have sworn to not rest until every last Orc is thrown out of Warsong Gulch. (I.e. kill them and send them packing to their cemetery. Preferably over and over.)

He's level 22 now and returned to the Gulch last night for some battlegrounds action. At 22 he's also at the bottom of the level range for the battles he finds himself in. However, he's a tough s.o.b., with some mean pets, and he found himself at the top of the kills lists. Not bad for playing "D".

He did well during the 18th & 19th levels, battling without the aid of Aspect of the Cheetah to chase runners down, or Freezing Traps to protect the flag. And he scored highly in those matches as well.

All told, after 3 or so matches (and winning the last one after a long drawn out battle) last night he'd gotten 205 Honor Kills. And he was tops in the Kills list again. (Silverwings never said exactly how those Orcs were to be removed. Bodybag sounds fine to me. Scum.)

And that last battle, the one where we were tied, was a doozy. We had their flag up on our roof. And they had our flag up on theirs. Defenders of the flag on our roof were me, a Warlock, a Mage, and the Dwarf Rogue Lady who was holding the flag. I kept the entry under freeze trap lock. Very effective. (Kneeling down looks like I'm placing traps - for you sneaky types wondering if that's a trap I'm laying before you. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't.) They sent a Rogue after us. A stealth capable Druid. A low level Mage, a high level Mage. I'd gotten so many kills on these same battlegrounders that I wasn't even getting "educated honor" for them anymore. At last we got our flag back and we capped theirs. WOOT! Hard earned tastes sweetest.

But earning reputation. What's the deal with that? I have to eat and sleep and hold down a job. Exactly what's it take to get friendly with these folks? They have faction rewards for the level 10-19 Range. A nice ring, for Exalted. EXALTED! I can't even get friendly with them.

On the pet front, I've done well. I tamed Ressan the Needler, an albino bat that roams in Tirisfal Glades right outside the Undercity, when I was level 12. He's a fun pet, rather rare, moreso for an Alliance Hunter. He's learned Growl, Bite, and Screech. Last night, as he clung to the faces of our enemies like Clingwrap to a pudding, I kept hearing that piercing Screech, Screech, Screech. (Such an annoying death I'm sure. Big bat wings buffeting you, that screeching in your ears, my arrows in your back. Zounds! Pray for a quick deliverance to the cemetary!) I named him (her? You check.) Sorrow. The other pet, downgraded I'm told by Blizzards nerf-bat was Takk the Leaper. A dark green with purple mottling Raptor that I tamed north of Ratchet in the Barrens. Named him Sableclaw. He appears to be decently fast. Not overwhelming.

An armored boar out of Razorfen Kraul remains in my future I think. Till then, Sorrow and Sableclaw will see you, yes, You! Mr. Orc, in Warsong Gulch. :)

World of Warcrack. The game goes on. And on.

I'm sure any player can appreciate what an addiction this game could be.

It's not that there's been nothing going on, it just that so many different things are going on it's hard to catalog it here.

Darkhoof continues in the weekly raids to Molten Core. He missed last weeks Onyxia run where the guild finally took her down again.

Last night we wanted to do a little World PvP. Not PvP per se. Our plan was to raid Stormwind City. We hit the Cathedral and attempted to take down the Benedictus guy there. He was tough and the guards zerged us worse than Murlocs. We did manage to get the guards all down but then resurrected again down in the crypts below. This was in fact our initial staging area. And as we were gathering our numbers, now this is deep deep down below the Cathedral mind you, what happens? Some level 53 Dwarf Warrior just happens to wander (WANDER!!!!!) down into our midst. Since we're on his turf we can't touch him. He starts dancing, and hoping to maybe distract him, I show him a few Tauren dance moves. Like I said, Benedictus is real tough, we didn't get very far. (Our raid, a team building exercise, was kind of small. Too many feared the possibility of what getting 1 DK would do to their hard earned Honor Rank. (I heard 1 DK = 1/4 of your rank lost.) So after rezzing we left the Cathedral and moved to the Tram station.

Now, Shamans, have a nice advantage here. I was following our main tank, keeping him healed, and dropping Earthbind Totems. I was one of the first to reach the station. We took the train to Ironforge and made our attempt on the Gnome King. For a short guy he's pretty tough. And, zounds!, the guards zerged us here too. And the worst enemy was the Ironforge LAG! I zoned into Ironforge and wound up dead. I resurrected and returned to the station side. Whew. There was someone causing some trouble and I followed him, and managed to rezone back into Ironforge. When the screen appears I'm already dead. Now the tunnel is full of some high level alliance. I run back from Kharanos (I am very familiar with these places) but it seems a little strange seeing them as a dead Tauren. The snow is even whiter to a dead man's eyes. I resurrected in the Ironforge tunnel and make a run for the portal back to the Tram station. The lag is so bad that it won't zone me though I'm running against it. I'm cut down again. I didn't reach the Tram station, but instead I'm brought back to life in Elwynn Forest. Live and no rezz sickness. While the rest of the raid is attempting to recover, somewhere, I head to Redridge. I greet a few of the Alliance players I meet there. (Hello. Meet FROSTSHOCK!) Then a Mage introduces me to Polymorph and FIREBALL. I rezz in the nearby graveyard and then make my way to Darkshire. (The raid is still gathering itself somewhere.) I visit the undead crypt. Yeah, you thought those skeletons and ghouls were tough. Heh. Did you expect to find a bored 60 Tauren Shaman in there? You could have zerged me. United you stand, divided you fall.

But at last I hearth to Kargath and we reform a smaller raid group. This time we're off to find the real King of Stormwind. Apparently he's being held on an island off Theramore, protected by Hydra's, Naga's, and some Gnomes. We're an MC raid crew so we didn't have much trouble getting into the jail on the island. No King. We did give our source a hard time for it. :) And then we came across a Gnome called Weevil. How hard could he be? He was level 63. Well, our Main Tank called out "He's resiting my taunt" and then he got Mind Controlled by this Weevil. He did a Shield Slam for 999 against one of us. He one-shotted another. This is our former Main Tank! The Weevil guy was hitting us for, oh, 14k I heard one hit was. Apparently, as it turns out, this guy is designed to be taken on by BWL raiders working on getting the Scepter to open the AQ gates. We encountered him on a lark with 12 people.

With that as the evenings conclusion we returned to Orgrimmar. (Where the server shut down on us.)

So I went to Kirin Tor to do a little business.

On Kirin Tor I've already told you about Morticai, my 24 Undead Warrior, and perhaps Mortiangelo, my lvl 9 Undead Priest. (These play across from my wife's Zauberin, a level 22 Undead Mage.) We'd already made Greenclaw and Zaniah (NE Druid and Warrior) and Freewind and Itarilde (NE Warrior and Druid) there. We've now made Grimtounge and Theodora (Human Warlock and Priest), and Weisenheimer and Minkypoo (Gnome Mage and Warlock). I've also made Ogresson, a level 20 Dward Hunter. His pets include Dottir, the white bear that ate some Dwarf Pilot, Sorrow, a rare white bat I tamed outside of Brill, and Whambam, a boar that I used in Warsong Gulch because he has a nice little charge/stun move going for him. I wanted a Horde side Hunter and created a Troll Huntress, Makeda. My wife made a Troll Shaman named Nzhinga. I thought two hunters working in Tandem would be affective so she created an Orc Huntress named Amazulu. And so I created an Orc Warlock named Unkulunkulu. And, unbeknownst to me, she'd also created a Dwarf Paladin named Tapfer.

These are the twelve steps of World of Warcraft Anonymous.
1. We admit we were powerless over WoW; that our lives have become unmanageable.
2. We come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
... Oh, wait, got to go. The guild's thinking of raiding ZG and I need to repair and get some potions made. I'll finish this later.

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.

Droonda and Oddity visit Shimmering Flats. Pick up broken goblin parts. Wonder if goblin engineering is really all it's cracked up to be. (All the parts would say "Yes" to that question.)


We had gotten a note from some Orc warrior in Orgrimmar to go visit another Orc stationed at the edge of the Shimmering Flats, that vast expanse of salt and crusty beats at the bottom end of Thousand Needles.

There was something up that involved the insects we know as the Silithid. Folks know them early on because a small hive can be found in the barrens south of Camp Taurajo. Our next place to encounter them is in the western end of the Shimmering Flats. There is a large hive area in sands of Tanaris, and yet another below the swampy waters in Un'Goro Crater. Like stepping stones leading to a war, the largest concentration is in Silithus, and what nightmares await us beyond the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj?

But Oddity and Droonda weren't taking on the armies of the Qiraji. We were going to simply harvest some parts off a few randomly skittering about bugs.

They are curious things. Sometimes you can kill one quite close to a neighbor. Other times you attack one that is all alone and they'll call for help and you find yourself surrounded by them and running for safety. Being a level 38 Warrior it was not a difficult quest. (There is a follow on quest attained by collecting a bug part.) Oddly, we entered their hive there, with the glowing egg sacks hanging from the cieling, and we dispatched these creatures here one by one. I even mined a few ooze covered mithril veins, so it was more than just bug parts.

We returned to the Orc stationed on the border and concluded our business with him, given, of course, the quest to follow-up elsewhere again.

But the evening was early and the expanse behind us was calling. I thought Droonda might enjoy seeing the Goblin racing track. While there we were given a few quests to accomplish and we set out accomplishing them. Killing Basiliks, killing scorpids, collecting goblin racing machine parts.

Those parts were scattered everywhere. And yet folks trust those Zeppelins?? And yet the other alternative for cross-world travel is boats, and who builds boats? Ever been to the Dead Mines? Right! Goblins. It's therefore no small wonder that every now and then, when you're expecting a comfortable flight across the world, you will instead find yourself falling from great heights into the unknown. You may remember the recall so many months ago, when Captain Placeholder was brought in while the boats, and the Zeppelins too I assume, were being worked on.

With all those quests accomplished what was surprising was there was no fights with Alliance. There was something in the local defense channel. Some Night Elf Druid had attacked someone while they were fighting something but the Druid was run off without a death. I later saw the Druid, level 30, and on seeing me and Droonda he immediately changed to cat form and disappeared. We encountered a level 31 Dwarf Hunter in some big water filled blast hole but we're banking karma so we let him be. I know that someday that Dwarf Hunter will plant as many arrows in our back as he can, and I hope the karma I've banked will find him squashed flat, like some Looney Tunes 'toon, by Sulfuras, The Hand of Ragnaros, wielded by an avenging guildmate. That mace is coming. I see the descending shadow now.

And while we watched the start of one of the races a ?? Night Elf Warrior appeared. She rode around but did not dismount. And then her ward appeared. A level 39 Night Elf Hunter who appeared to be speaking with the same goblins as we were. Walk tall, carry a big stick, and have a level 60 guildmate cover your six. [Recipe: For Success].

After the races we headed back. I continued on to Stonetalon Peak and did a few circuits of the Charred Vale to mine some more mithril and iron.

The hammock in Sun Rock Retreat was a welcome sight.