Awesome PUGs

Working together, can achieve awesome things.

After acquiring the Shadowforge Key then getting lost I decided to research BRD before my next attempt, and discovered there's a short cut you can take that omits about 75% of the Instance. You just need to go for a swim, in lava. If you don't unlock the Shadowforge Lock the gate on the Dark Iron Highway stays open and you can go straight through to Lord Incendius and the Black Anvil, which is where you leap off and start swimming. This is also the short & fast way to complete Attunement to the Core, which I did at the same time. I'm not sure it's required any more, but either way I still have it :)

Going this way brought me out in the Dark Iron Dwarf-infested room between Doom'rel and Magmus, and as Magmus is the last Boss before Emperor Thaurissan's room you can see how much of the Instance it cuts out. After finding the torch bearing Dark Iron Dwarves, defeating Magmus, and clearing the Mobs in the Emperor's room I decided that while I didn't have the quest I would still leave Moira alive. I don't know why, because not killing her first just prolonged the fight as she healed and buffed the Emperor, but he still went down and with his death I got both the BRD Achievement AND the Classic Dungeonmaster Achievement.

And a Gratz from Paaco who'd logged on without my noticing.

He was now 66 and with my Classic Dungeons now out of the way I joined him in Nagrand where we tackled the Ring of Blood quests. We were able to get to the final Boss before getting our faces melted, so we called for help. A 67 Hunter responded, along with a 65 Pally who offered to Tank. No offense, I told him, but I think I better do it ;)

Even with 4 of us Mogor was still not a push over, in fact he ended up killing not just the 65 Pally but myself as well. The Pally wisely didn't release, and he said he got the Quest Complete message, but after running back to his body and Rezzing the Quest now showed as Failed. So we did it again. This time we all survived.

I'd told my son that after I'd completed BRD he could play but with him now on his computer and Paaco wanting to run an Instance I decided the boy could wait a little while longer, and that's how we found ourselves in the Auchenai Crypts. The Run went smoothly enough except for one Wipe when someone got Feared into two packs and we suddenly had a whole lot more Mobs than we were prepared for. Then after returning to the Instance one of the DPS had Rez sickness. I don't know how they had it, they just did, and then they dropped group. But one DPS is quick & easy to replace and we were back up & running in no time. Paaco was a shade on the low side for Auchenai Crypts, so this, combined with completing the two quests I had for the Instance which I'd shared with him meant that by the time the Run was over he was just a couple of bars from dinging 67.

With that I handed my PC over to my boy, bid Paaco adieu, and went off to make dinner. I let the boy keep playing after dinner but kicked him off at 8pm (time for him to get ready for bed anyway :P) Paaco and I again joined forces but after talking once more to Behsten, regaining my XP bar, and turning in several quests I was now 70 and so our choice of Instances in the DF Tool were rather limited.

We wound up in Shadow Labs with a 68 Druid Healer and two other Death Knights (Paaco is also a DK). Now I lurve me a Druid Healer, so I was happy to see her, and I was even more pleased when after the initial exchange of pleasantries (Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi) the Druid announced, "Great. Shadow Labs. Probably my least favorite of all the Instances in this game."

Was that a complete sentence? Oh...my...god! Someone in a Random PUG actually typed a complete sentence!

I quickly responded with, "I'm actually glad to hear that because that seems to indicate you know this Instance quite well, whereas I do not."

"I supposed that's one way of looking at it," she replied, and with that, we were off. Paaco knows what he's doing, and the other two DKs also seemed to know what they were doing. I'm really getting the hang of being a Tankadin and the Druid knew what she was doing, and was quite chatty to boot, and not just with instructions on what to do, tricky encounters, etc.

It was a very good group considering it was a Random PUG. Quite possibly the best I've been in to date. I've had some good experiences so far but this one was literally the very antithesis of the PUG from Hell. I won't say we didn't encounter problems because we did, every Run has them, even if it's just a random stealthed Mob that jumps the Healer. But we prevailed and when it was all done and we'd all earned the SLabs Achievement, nobody was in a hurry to drop group and everyone had only positive things to say about our time together.

"Anyone up for another Run?" asked someone, and everyone was. Nobody wanted to leave, and why would they? We were working well together, we were enjoying ourselves, and those kinds of PUGs are hard to come by.

It was quickly agreed that we'd Take 5 for bio, drink, smoke, etc, and when everyone returned we jumped back into the queue. Not that we were actually queued, it was more the Druid selected an assortment of Instances and let the DF Tool pick one at Random. And it chose Shadow Labs again :P

Somehow the Druid canceled the selection (not sure how) but we were given another choice, this time Botanica.

"I love Botanica!" squealed the Druid (go figure ;), and that clinched it.

By the time the Run was over I'd decided I liked it, too. But I also enjoyed Shadow Labs because the Boss fights in both Instances were more than just your standard Tank & Spank, they had variety. They threw a few curveballs to keep things interesting.

And did Warp Splinter, Bot's final Boss, really make things interesting?

Did he what! For a Tank his fight is business as usual, but for our three DKs they were running all over the place trying to bring down the Treants the Boss kept Summoning before they could get in to Heal him. Unfortunately quite a few made it in, and just as it seemed we were wearing the big guy down...pop! He'd get Healed, for as much as 25-40K at a time, every 45-60 seconds. That's a tough barrier to overcome for a group a little on the low side. And we didn't. We wiped.

That was when we discovered a neat trick with the DF Tool when you're in a group and have been assigned an Instance. You can click the Eye on your Minimap and an option comes up "Teleport to Instance" and it takes you straight back in. I don't know if it works if you're dead or not, but as you actually get GY Rez'd sans Rez Sickness) after dying inside Tempest Keep it definitely worked in our favor. That was a good thing for Paaco because at 67 the slack bastard (that's an Aussie term of endearment ;) still does not yet have his Flying Mount :P

Back inside we rebuffed, discussed strategies, and decided that when the Treants spawned all three DKs needed to lay off the Boss DPS and go hunting. That worked for a while (and this was a loooong fight) but with Warp Splinter at around 30K the Druid went OOM, and yet somehow I stayed alive. At about 20K I was crossing my fingers (not literally. Hard to Tank like that.) until some Treants got through and delivered a 25K Heal. On top of an earlier 40K Heal this can be rather demoralizing. And yet we still stayed in the game and I still stayed alive.

Slowly we wore the big guy down while Treants spawned, and got picked off. With Warp Splinter at about 20K again one of the DKs rushed in and started laying into him and his health started dropping faster. Keep in mind this is a 72 Elite Boss and my DPS were 67 & 68. Being 4-5 levels lower means a lot of their swings were missing. Down to 10K. The end was in sight. Stay on those Treants, I whispered, not daring to even type. Like the Druid I'd been OOM myself for a while now and was relying on my Blessing of Sanctuary to top it back up enough for a Holy Shield or a Hammer of the Righteousness.

Tank OOM. Healer OOM. Three Deathknight DPS 5 levels lower than the Boss, being diverted from DPS to stop him from getting Heals.

It may not sounds like it, but this was actually a really fun fight.

I'm not saying it was relaxing and a walk in the park, far from it. This was the balls to the wall fight where you have a chance at winning, not necessarily a good chance, but it's there and you know it's possible but you need to go all out to make it happen. Is it really a game if you have to work for your rewards? Is it really fun? Hell yeah, it is!

I've killed the four Hunter Demons. I remember each fight, or more specifically, I remember each successful attempt. I remember some of the Raid Boss encounters in which I've taken part. Not all of them, they weren't all memorable. But standing there victorious with the toppled Ancient lying in front of us? Knowing it only happened because 5 people were able to work together to overcome not an impossible task but a difficult one. This is a good memory, and this is why we play. For moments like this. The rewards are nothing but bits & bytes. All we defeated was a computer program. But the memories are real. The feelings are real, and the elation and rush from 'winning' is real. Even if we did nothing more than 'beat' a computer program, it still felt good.

"Anyone up for another Run?" someone asked.

If the group consensus was 'Yes' I was prepared to call in sick (and I actually am fighting off a cold, and my Boss knows it) but the replies came back. Got work in 6 hours, 4 hours, etc., and with that we all parted ways, knowing if we ever do Run together again it will be pure luck, for while the DF Tool allows Cross-server grouping, the ability to add Cross-server Friends to your List is not yet in the game.