Fresh from my Nathanos kill, I giddily decided it was time to properly skill up my new weapon skill a bit before I actually needed it for more than being a stat stick. For once I knew just the place to go.
In the ass-end of the Eastern Kingdoms there's the Blasted Lands, home to the Dark Portal. It sits menacingly inside a crater with various demony things standing silent vigils or generally skulking about the place, lowering property values. Around the rim of the crater, mixed in among felguards taking their felhounds for felwalkies, are Servants of Razelikh. What makes them special is that these level 57 thingies can only be killed when you have some quest gadget I have yet to see. For my purposes, they are immortal target dummies that hit back.
The execution was ridiculously simple: pull a Servant and let Fluffers tank while I swung every 3 seconds and change. Periodically heal Fluffers. When mana is nearly completely gone: dismiss pet the pet, get another couple of hits in, and feign death to reset. All total over 35 minutes were spent fighting the same mob and I only had to reset twice. Somewhere in the middle of all of this, a warrior wandered up and tipped me a gold to shoot it for a while himself to raise his bow skill. Periodically he'd stun the mob and throw a bandage on my pet, so that helped keep things going.
The only sour moment was when I realized in my haste to make with the slashin' I had forgotten to buff my intellect, which would have helped out a bit. Still, I was pleased that I had gone from 1 to 240 and change with very minimal effort. About ten minutes after my warrior buddy skedaddled, I left to join an Upper Blackrock Spire (UBRS) raid a guildie was organizing. Oh boy, a chance to progress my Onyxia attunement!
I made my way to Blackrock mount, climbed a giant chain suspended over molten lava, scurried along a narrow ledge, then hopped onto a balcony mere meters from the portal. As a paladin and I awaited the arrival of the rest of the team, I joined our Discord and mused at our party composition. Out of ten people we had no mages or warlocks and I was the only hunter. It was Plate Mail Central with a couple of priests healing. Blinkers, our raid leader, said that we'd be making use of my trapping skills, since we had no other form of crowd control. This set me into a panic.
You see, I've never actually "trapped". Although I bought the skills, I can count on one hand the number of times I've ever actually used the ice trap to any effect. Worse still, I could only place the trap at my feet-- I couldn't throw them like I could in retail. I hastily alt-tabbed to see if Trap Launch was a thing I'd forgotten to pick up, if it was a talent in the Survival tree or what. I could find nothing. Well, maybe they wouldn't REALLY need crowd control? We'll see.
It started off very rocky for me. The first section of the dungeon is fighting in very close quarters, which was fine for everybody else-- they were all melee. My damage was horrifically low as I tried to edge myself into a firing range without "butt-pulling" other packs of hurt. The next sets of mobs were worse as they constantly charged and knocked back ranged players. I steadfastly resolved myself to be a good hunter regardless. Growl off. Passive pet. Dismiss the pet before trying to sneak around mobs or drop from ledges.
We avoided a couple of bosses. Our prize was at the end of the dungeon and we were focused on getting there in more or less one piece. By the time we had made it to and downed the next-to-last boss (which thankfully was cake for ranged DPS), we had had only a few deaths and I was breathing a sigh of relief.
"Ok, Magrom", the raid leader said. "I'm going to need you to trap square." Oh, God.
"You are aware I can't throw traps right?" There was a brief pause and then laughter. "Yes!"
"The thing is... I've never trapped before." There was a pause and then a lot less laughter. "Well, not in Classic at any rate."
The raid leader responded matter-of-factly, "Ok-- time to learn, I guess."
Turns out, it's cake. Place an ice trap out of the area and when the tank pulls, use Distracting Shot to peel the marked target off and run it over the trap. Flawless execution the first time and every time afterwards. W00t! I'm now more useful!
Impressed (and likely surprised) by my quick uptake, Blinkers then asked if I was ok to kite the boss. "Never done it before, but I'm willing to try!" A person who used to main hunter years ago explained and it was close to what I imagined it to be. Set your Mark to speed boost, distracting shot to aggro the boss, run like the freakin' wind, and shoot it a couple time along the was to hold aggro. When the adds are death, feign death.
I buffed. I shot. I ran. I shot more. I ran like a freakin' schoolgirl on fire. Then I got caught on the dungeon terrain for a moment and then I was really on fire. The boss had caught up to me, stunned and then engulfed me with flames. As I ran around uncontrollably seconds from a fiery end, the raid leader called out. "Ok! Adds are down. You can feign death now."
"Ok. I'm not feigning."
"Oh? Oh. OH!"
The rest of the team finished up the fight and I was the only casualty. As I lay on the cold stone floor, I mused that this is how Fluffers must feel as the usual Noble Sacrifice. My UBRS trial by quite literal fire was complete.
After a quick resurrection, I scooped up some blood from the boss. We called it a success, hearthed out and disbanded. I returned to Winterfell to do the final series of corpse runs through the Cave of Draconic Hell and turned in the blood to the quest-giver.
She smiled and handed me a necklace in return.
Magrom triumphant! I'm now attuned to Onyxia's Lair.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Monday, October 21, 2019
Whither Moonglade?
Ran a dungeon (Stratholm-- live side) with a mostly guild group. It was kind of nice getting a feel for the classic dungeon vibes again. Looking back on it, this was my third dungeon run and it went fairly smoothly with a couple of wipes near the end when we got a bit cocky and patrols overwhelmed the tank and healer. Still, the run gave Magrom significant upgrades for his head and boots.
Afterwards, cleaning out completed quests left me fairly close to level. There were a few "travel to the ends of Azeroth" that were just hogging space in a quest log that stays near to bursting with dungeon, elite, and raid quests, so I opted to do what I could.
One long flight to Darnassus later, Druid Staghelm started me on a long go here, do that series of quest chains. After be-bopping through Daggerear Central, I was given a task to go to... MOONGLADE?
I had actually forgotten about the zone. As far as I was aware, outside the Lunar Festival in retail it held no purpose whatsoever. It always struck me as a waste of a zone and a city and I've long suspected there were plans for it, but they were cut short due to budget or time. A search through Questie's database raised an eyebrow. There were all of 6 quests attributable to the zone. Well, it looks like I'm doing them!
The second surprise was when the Moonglade quest sent me to... SILITHUS? I thought there were no quests whatsoever there yet, but to my surprise there was at least one "feeder" chain that led into it. This short chain had me riding back and forth to kill spectral druids for some reason I probably should have read. The important thing (to me) was that every time you killed something, a level 57-58 wasp would spawn in. Lovely. Fortunately, it was enough to nudge Magrom over to the hump into level 59. Home stretch, baby!
Fast forward through a Silithid-infested tower invasion and I'm winging my way back to Moonglade. With a 13 minute and 13 second flight time, I'm starting to miss the teleportation Strev had. The quest line ended somewhat abruptly with mention of a book that was under some bug goo that was in an ancient version of the Night Elven tongue. My expectation is that after a little while a translation would show up in my mailbox, as it has for several other quests, but alas-- no such love here. It is literally the end of it all. I find that to be a bit... unsatisfying.
I flew over to Winterspring to see if I could ninja 10 frostmaul shards to complete an elite quest there. Testing the waters, I found Fluffers simply couldn't keep up with the damage the Frostmaul Giants were dishing out. Consequently, Fluffers made The Supreme Sacrifice a few times as I gathered rocks a few inches from very one-sided beatdowns, flopping as necessary. In time, I gathered all ten (of course) with minimal fuss.
Of note, in the area I found a satyr named Lorax who only spoke in gibberish. I would love to know what he was yammering on about.
Obviously, he speaks for the trees.
Leaving all of that behind me, I joined a guild group for Strat, live side, which netted me my BiS boots and a near-BiS polearm. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to wield polearms, but a dwarf in Timberline Arms in Ironforge told me I could seek such training in Stormwind. I needed to go there anyway to pick up a quest chain that would eventually pit me against the undead asshole Nathanos, so I was ok with the diversion.
Master Woo Ping *cough* in Stormwind taught Magrom all he needed to know as far as "how to hold a long stick with a bit of metal on the end", but actual proficiency would be left to the battlefield. So, with no skill in my chosen weapon, I went forth to slay "the" Nathaniel Blightcaller.
Major props to Stickman for both the Nathaniel raid invitation and the patience for a few minutes while I got caught up on the quest series to actually do it. The quest rewards a seriously nice wand, bow, or shield-- all of which were quite worthless to me. But Nathaniel? I hate that guy so much. Filling him with bullets was a wonderful end to the day.
Little did I suspect there would be so much more ahead...
(continued tomorrow)
Afterwards, cleaning out completed quests left me fairly close to level. There were a few "travel to the ends of Azeroth" that were just hogging space in a quest log that stays near to bursting with dungeon, elite, and raid quests, so I opted to do what I could.
One long flight to Darnassus later, Druid Staghelm started me on a long go here, do that series of quest chains. After be-bopping through Daggerear Central, I was given a task to go to... MOONGLADE?
I had actually forgotten about the zone. As far as I was aware, outside the Lunar Festival in retail it held no purpose whatsoever. It always struck me as a waste of a zone and a city and I've long suspected there were plans for it, but they were cut short due to budget or time. A search through Questie's database raised an eyebrow. There were all of 6 quests attributable to the zone. Well, it looks like I'm doing them!
The second surprise was when the Moonglade quest sent me to... SILITHUS? I thought there were no quests whatsoever there yet, but to my surprise there was at least one "feeder" chain that led into it. This short chain had me riding back and forth to kill spectral druids for some reason I probably should have read. The important thing (to me) was that every time you killed something, a level 57-58 wasp would spawn in. Lovely. Fortunately, it was enough to nudge Magrom over to the hump into level 59. Home stretch, baby!
Fast forward through a Silithid-infested tower invasion and I'm winging my way back to Moonglade. With a 13 minute and 13 second flight time, I'm starting to miss the teleportation Strev had. The quest line ended somewhat abruptly with mention of a book that was under some bug goo that was in an ancient version of the Night Elven tongue. My expectation is that after a little while a translation would show up in my mailbox, as it has for several other quests, but alas-- no such love here. It is literally the end of it all. I find that to be a bit... unsatisfying.
I flew over to Winterspring to see if I could ninja 10 frostmaul shards to complete an elite quest there. Testing the waters, I found Fluffers simply couldn't keep up with the damage the Frostmaul Giants were dishing out. Consequently, Fluffers made The Supreme Sacrifice a few times as I gathered rocks a few inches from very one-sided beatdowns, flopping as necessary. In time, I gathered all ten (of course) with minimal fuss.
Of note, in the area I found a satyr named Lorax who only spoke in gibberish. I would love to know what he was yammering on about.
Obviously, he speaks for the trees.
Leaving all of that behind me, I joined a guild group for Strat, live side, which netted me my BiS boots and a near-BiS polearm. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to wield polearms, but a dwarf in Timberline Arms in Ironforge told me I could seek such training in Stormwind. I needed to go there anyway to pick up a quest chain that would eventually pit me against the undead asshole Nathanos, so I was ok with the diversion.
Master Woo Ping *cough* in Stormwind taught Magrom all he needed to know as far as "how to hold a long stick with a bit of metal on the end", but actual proficiency would be left to the battlefield. So, with no skill in my chosen weapon, I went forth to slay "the" Nathaniel Blightcaller.
Major props to Stickman for both the Nathaniel raid invitation and the patience for a few minutes while I got caught up on the quest series to actually do it. The quest rewards a seriously nice wand, bow, or shield-- all of which were quite worthless to me. But Nathaniel? I hate that guy so much. Filling him with bullets was a wonderful end to the day.
Little did I suspect there would be so much more ahead...
(continued tomorrow)
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Miner Diversions
Hit level 58 while finishing a few final quests in the Eastern Plaguelands. I returned to Ironforge and decided "what the hell"- I'll train up all of the stupid skills I've been sitting on that should be bumped up. That was about 50 gold and change. Then I said to myself "Hey, let's hit the AH just to see if there's a better axe or something or maybe some armor got a little cheaper." That's when the floor fell out of my personal universe.
The BiS Hunter gun, Dwarven Cannon, normally sells for three to four hundred gold. Someone had just listed one with a 220g buyout. I hit that 'buy' button so hard, so keyboard buckled. Add about tree fiddy for a scope and I'm sitting below fifteen gold. YIKES!
At this point panic mode sets in. I don't NEED gold-- in fact there's about 25 sitting idly on my bank alt, Hiddenpocket, but something primal kicked in and I decided I NEEDED MONEY NOW, presumably to keep from starving to death or something. For the billionth time I cursed myself for dropping Skinning, and decided to play to my strengths.
I lacked the capital to effectively corner a market or flip rare mats and I haven't been paying enough attention to ancillary markets to know what particular mats are needed for what potions or enchantments. By god, I'd do this old school and farm some freakin' metal. There's a reason I've kept mining all this time. Well, the promise of profit and my sheer mule-headedness.
I'd pick picking nodes here and there where I could find them in EPL, but they were sparse. It's a well-populated zone. Winterspring was simply nightmarish to navigate AND it was covered with people. So I needed a high-level zone no one cared about.
Holy crap. I knew one. SILITHUS! Prime time on Saturday and just four players were there-- cloth types that were farming elementals. I grinned and took to the skies. Let's see what fortunes may await...
From the FP I fell north into a hidden elite mob. Hilarity ensued. Within 5 minutes I had found my first arcane crystal, worth 40g or so on the marketplace. Things were looking up. As I circled around the zone, I felt as though I had stumbled into a secret area granted only to a privileged few. The mobs were in the upper 50s so when I bothered to fight, the xp was rewarding. I tucked into tunnels when I felt as though my pet would be able to buy me at least 2 hits on a rich vein of thorium. As I explored, I learned what dives were ok to recover from and which would involve earning a 10 minute timeout. This was somewhat compounded when I discovered there was no place to repair gear in Silithus. The blacksmith isn't added until the quests are added in later. Terrific.
I paused to try my luck with some air elementals, since Essences were always consistent sellers. I've had streaks of bad luck before, but 20 in a row dropped absolutely nothing. A check on the forums shows that I wasn't the only one that's happened to, so that was a bust.
After a lap, I've decided that my first five minutes were the best five minutes and retreated to Ironforge to lick my wounds and sell what I'd gathered
The BiS Hunter gun, Dwarven Cannon, normally sells for three to four hundred gold. Someone had just listed one with a 220g buyout. I hit that 'buy' button so hard, so keyboard buckled. Add about tree fiddy for a scope and I'm sitting below fifteen gold. YIKES!
At this point panic mode sets in. I don't NEED gold-- in fact there's about 25 sitting idly on my bank alt, Hiddenpocket, but something primal kicked in and I decided I NEEDED MONEY NOW, presumably to keep from starving to death or something. For the billionth time I cursed myself for dropping Skinning, and decided to play to my strengths.
I lacked the capital to effectively corner a market or flip rare mats and I haven't been paying enough attention to ancillary markets to know what particular mats are needed for what potions or enchantments. By god, I'd do this old school and farm some freakin' metal. There's a reason I've kept mining all this time. Well, the promise of profit and my sheer mule-headedness.
I'd pick picking nodes here and there where I could find them in EPL, but they were sparse. It's a well-populated zone. Winterspring was simply nightmarish to navigate AND it was covered with people. So I needed a high-level zone no one cared about.
Holy crap. I knew one. SILITHUS! Prime time on Saturday and just four players were there-- cloth types that were farming elementals. I grinned and took to the skies. Let's see what fortunes may await...
From the FP I fell north into a hidden elite mob. Hilarity ensued. Within 5 minutes I had found my first arcane crystal, worth 40g or so on the marketplace. Things were looking up. As I circled around the zone, I felt as though I had stumbled into a secret area granted only to a privileged few. The mobs were in the upper 50s so when I bothered to fight, the xp was rewarding. I tucked into tunnels when I felt as though my pet would be able to buy me at least 2 hits on a rich vein of thorium. As I explored, I learned what dives were ok to recover from and which would involve earning a 10 minute timeout. This was somewhat compounded when I discovered there was no place to repair gear in Silithus. The blacksmith isn't added until the quests are added in later. Terrific.
I paused to try my luck with some air elementals, since Essences were always consistent sellers. I've had streaks of bad luck before, but 20 in a row dropped absolutely nothing. A check on the forums shows that I wasn't the only one that's happened to, so that was a bust.
After a lap, I've decided that my first five minutes were the best five minutes and retreated to Ironforge to lick my wounds and sell what I'd gathered
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Forging Ahead
Magrom stood above the forge, silent and tired. He mopped rivulets of sweat away with a soiled rag. Even discounting the trip to Gadgetzan to pick up the last of the needed schemata, it had taken hours and so much gold to finish. So much gold. That was what pained him even in his moment of triumph. He held aloft a thorium bullet. "I'll t' sell lots o' these t' recoup it all.", he muttered.
Dropping the shell into a sack with thousands or others, he grinned wryly, finally allowing himself some sense of self-satisfaction. He knew his skill at Engineering was now unparalleled. He'd spend the evening in the tavern, celebrating the proper way.
Midway through his fifth ale, his party-of-one was interrupted by a boisterous group of adventurers clamoring at the bar, screaming at Innkeeper Firebrew for "Trick or Treats". Oh, bugger i' all, Magrom thought glumly. Tha' explains all th' fookin' pumpkins." He decided to deal with that after just another few tankards...
--
Indeed, the Hallow's End celebration has begun in Azeroth and even though Classic has a very stripped down version compared to retail, it has one major prize everyone wants: 16-slot BoP bags that randomly drop off any undead level 50+. Visions of filling my lots with delightful pumpkin bags delighted me. I'd take the extra bags and use them for my bank. Heck I'd go ahead and buy the rest of the bank slots when that happens. My older non-soulbound bags would be sent to an alt who couldn't farm bags for themselves. It'd be a GRAND ol' time in the Plaguelands.
Except it wasn't. Somewhere in my zeal, I'd neglected to account for the fact the drop rate would be somewhere around the odds of Magrom soloing Onyxia in his skivvies. By the end of the night, I'd not even heard a rumor of anyone getting one of these fabled bags and for my own part I had nearly ground out an entire level in the Plaguelands (both sides) questing and killing so many undead. Well, if nothing else, at least I was earning Argent Dawn reputation.
Dropping the shell into a sack with thousands or others, he grinned wryly, finally allowing himself some sense of self-satisfaction. He knew his skill at Engineering was now unparalleled. He'd spend the evening in the tavern, celebrating the proper way.
Midway through his fifth ale, his party-of-one was interrupted by a boisterous group of adventurers clamoring at the bar, screaming at Innkeeper Firebrew for "Trick or Treats". Oh, bugger i' all, Magrom thought glumly. Tha' explains all th' fookin' pumpkins." He decided to deal with that after just another few tankards...
--
Indeed, the Hallow's End celebration has begun in Azeroth and even though Classic has a very stripped down version compared to retail, it has one major prize everyone wants: 16-slot BoP bags that randomly drop off any undead level 50+. Visions of filling my lots with delightful pumpkin bags delighted me. I'd take the extra bags and use them for my bank. Heck I'd go ahead and buy the rest of the bank slots when that happens. My older non-soulbound bags would be sent to an alt who couldn't farm bags for themselves. It'd be a GRAND ol' time in the Plaguelands.
Except it wasn't. Somewhere in my zeal, I'd neglected to account for the fact the drop rate would be somewhere around the odds of Magrom soloing Onyxia in his skivvies. By the end of the night, I'd not even heard a rumor of anyone getting one of these fabled bags and for my own part I had nearly ground out an entire level in the Plaguelands (both sides) questing and killing so many undead. Well, if nothing else, at least I was earning Argent Dawn reputation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)