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.

WoW,...now available offline

A spin-off discussion from Tobold's Blog re: Ubisoft's DRM which allegedly prevents you from playing Assassin's Creed 2 if you don't have an active internet connection.

What if you could play WoW offline, then when you went back online the server brought your server character into par with your locally stored character?

Now obviously there would be limitations to what you could do offline. Clearly you couldn't Raid while you were offline, or do BGs, or even Solo an Instance, and the Farming of Mats, etc, would also be off limits. Basically your character would be restricted to in-City activities only, again with a few exceptions such as no buying items from the Auction House.

But why couldn't you access your Bank? Or use any Mats you happen to have on-hand to craft some items, or level your First Aid or cooking skill? Maybe you could even do a spot of Fishing. Those are all activities that would be hard pressed to be considered game breaking if you could perform them while off-line, such as...Tuesday mornings, during maintenance.

Your Boss has given you the day off but it's Tuesday! The cunning bastard knows it's Patch Day, and he's still not happy he caught his daughter hitting on you at the office Christmas Party (and thank God that's all he caught her doing. Nudge nudge, wink wink. Saaaaay no more!) and normally you would be forced to spend your day doing something else, except now you can play offline. (And no, you can't. I'm just making this shit up.)

Now you can level Fishing like you'd always planned to, with no annoying /Trade chatter in the background to distract you.

And when the server comes back online your game detects this and there's a brief period of downtime (or however long it takes to download the patch, and upload & synch your offline and online characters) and now you're playing the online game.

Could it work? Would it work? Would it still be prone to people cheating?

We know people will cheat any chance they get, and having your character stored on your local PC instead of on a server in Irvine (or where ever they are) would only make things easier. Which is why the server side program would need to verify any changes between your offline character and online character, and any changes that seem unlikely or impossible would be erased. Epics do not come in Titanium Lockboxes, you know. And for that very reason, just like accessing the Auction House, the offline opening of Lockboxes or any other containers would also be verboten.

So, could WoW be played offline in a very limited capacity? And would Blizzard, or any MMO developer for that matter, be willing to implement some form of offline play in their game, for when their servers are down, or you just can't get online?

I've played WoW...

it was called DDO.

Is it just me, or does the Dungeon Finder Tool make WoW very much a DDO-like experience? Forget flying 5 zones, catching a boat, flying another 5 zones, then riding halfway across the 6th zone to the Instance. (You kids these days! You don't know how easy you have it! Now git orfa mah lawn!)

Now you just sign up for a Random Instance (or one of your choosing), and kick back in town while the group is formed. And when you get a group, forget flying! Shazam! Just like that, you're teleported straight to the Instance.

Ok, so in DDO you have to walk to the Instance, but they're often located within seconds (maybe a minute or two) of the town gate, if not within the town itself.

Now I'm not begrudging WoW's DF Tool, if anything I probably really have run more PUGs in the past couple of months than I did in 3 years of playing. But while you lament the disappearing social side of WoW, were PUGs where you really got that? Isn't/wasn't your Guild the social part of the game, while PUGs were just a necessary evil?

It used to be that you got Instance-related quests and you'd try to scrape together a group from among your Guildmates, try to get a PUG together, or eventually drop the damn thing when you realized you were never going to get a Maraudon group together, while the Quest Reward that looked so great 5 levels ago would just be vendor trash now.

Now you grab all the Instance quests you can get, sign up, and within minutes (in my case, being a Tank) you're up and running.

I don't know why the 80 Hunter was bitching in /Trade the other night. So what if it takes you 30 minutes to get into a Random group? That's what you get for rolling pure DPS. And who says you have to sit there in Dalaran on your arse for 30 minutes doing nothing anyway? Get out and do some Dailies while you're waiting and before you know it your queue will have popped.

But if you're sitting in town twiddling your thumbs, instead of getting out and playing the game you paid to play, you've got nobody to blame but yourself if you're bored. He was your typical teenager. You know the one. It's a glorious summer day and what's he doing? Siting on the couch, staring at the TV, complaining: "I'm bored. There's nothing on. There's nothing to do."

Then get outside and play! But stay orfa mah lawn!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Steve's Healer blew past, dinged 80, and left me eating dust at 69. (Don't go there. Do NOT go there!)

Paaco, my old Guildie who rolled a Death Knight, started a new job this week and hasn't been playing as much, so like Steve did to me I flew past him and when he logged on he was still 60 but I was now (then) 65. Now he's 65 and I'm 69, but I've been taking it slow these past few days giving him a chance to catch up.

A couple of times over the weekend we had all five Guildies logged in and when my sister said we should do an Instance I suggested Shattered Halls (which I needed for the two Honor Hold quests) but she really wanted to do a Heroic and felt I was too low for that (I was still 68 at the time). I didn't care to do SH on Heroic either but saw no reason why we couldn't blow through a regular Shattered Halls, but that wasn't going to happen either. Instead my sis told me to hurry up and level to 70. Instead I hit 69 then decided as Paaco and I would probably see each other in-game more than I would my sister & her hubby, I would delay my progress to let Paaco catch up. I'm not in a hurry to hit 70, or even 80, it's going to happen so why not enjoy the journey along the way?

Dire Maul was an Instance I'd only ventured into a couple of times over the past years, so I decided to make my way to Feralas and get reacquainted with it. I will say that while Atlas is not perfect it's still a great tool for finding your way around unfamiliar Instances.

I acquired the Crescent Key from the Imp Pusillin and slowly worked my way through DM East, then North. DM West had to wait another day as despite being 10 levels higher than the DM Ogres they still hit pretty freaking hard so both DM East & North had consumed a lot of my play time. When I got into DM West the next night it took almost as long again as both East and North, but eventually I killed both the required Bosses and got my Dire Maul Achievement.

Scholomance was next on the agenda and after running through the WPL cemetery and buffing the druid farming there I was glad I didn't invite him on my Scholo Run because I made the same mistake I recalled making a long time ago: I didn't have Scholo's Skeleton Key. As I was walking away an 80 Blood Elf came running up but either he didn't have the key or he wasn't opening the door with me standing there, so I still couldn't get in. One visit to WoWWiki and I was off on my quest to add yet another almost useless key to my key ring. Fortunately gold is easy to come by, and I'm a Miner, so the 2 Thorium Bars and 15g fee to forge the Skeleton key in Un'goro Crater's volcano were a mere drop in the ocean.

Like DM, Scholo also took some time to clear although I probably could have skipped many of the Mobs that I chose to kill. A catch to killing Scholo's final boss and earning the Achievement is the Boss will not spawn unless you kill all 6 of the mini Bosses, but they were nothing compared to the might of the Indestructible Tankadin and they were soon all defeated. Darkmaster Gandling was not a tough fight, and his Shadow Portal spell were more annoyances than anything else, so while it took some time the result was still inevitable. With Scholo out of the way that left just three Instances on the checklist: BRD, LBRS, & Stratholme.

During this time I'd also done several Terrokar Forest quests, as well as upgrading my gear via some Northrend quests, so I was now dangerously close to hitting 70. I hadn't seen Paaco on for a couple of days and I didn't want him to log on and see me at 70, but I also wanted to Tank Shattered Halls (I had two quests for there) and so I felt a visit to Stormwind Keep's Behsten was in order. Money changed hands, he did a little 'something'...and my XP bar disappeared.

And with that I signed up and jumped into Shattered Halls. It wasn't necessarily a fast run but it was problem free, except for the DK dropping out after the first Boss, and the Huntard pulling about 500dps as I found out later when I reviewed Recount. FWIW I did around 850 as a Pally Tank while #1 & #2, a Frost Mage and a Boomkin, pulled around 1450 and 1200 respectively. For my troubles I wound up with a pair of green boots that were actually upgrades to the Blue pair I was wearing from Ramparts, along with a pair of new pants I can't equip until I hit 70 (which won't happen until I visit Behsten again).

LBRS was next on the Menu, and with it being an Instance I had done many times (enough to get the UBRS Key) it didn't take long for me to work my way through it. In fact except for a few Pulls I skipped much of the Instance and Bosses. When I saw the door to UBRS was opened I didn't even bother keeping the Gems for the UBRS key (which isn't really a real key, so it's not like I need it for my collection). Of all the old 60 Instances I think LBRS was probably the easiest by far.

Stratholme, on the other hand, was a lesson in humility, for it contained my one weakness. Casters. In large numbers. Casters in large numbers who never use Melee, or only when silenced, and usually that's not for very long. And so I died. Here I was thinking I'd run through the place, tear it apart, maybe even do the 45-minute Baron Run, and instead I got my face melted. Several times. Just lovely. I did get the Key to the City, as well as the Mailbox keys, and eventually I made it to the Baron. I was a little concerned because with his large Mana bar I was expecting a very tough fight, but the Baron uses Melee a lot and that just tickles my Tankadin. I was a little puzzled when he finally went down and I didn't get the Stratholme Achivement, so I opened the Tab and checked and...Stratholme has another Boss, and I need to kill both to get the Achievement.

Strath was not challenging. It was time-consuming, and it was fatal if I didn't take it carefully, but as long as I went slowly and carefully there were very few problems. And it was a good learning experience of what my Tankadin can, but more importantly cannot, handle. I'd found my Kryptonite, so to speak.

With Strath finally down that left BRD. I'd tried to Solo BRD on my 70 Rogue and failed but in spite of the humbling Strath experience I was confident my Pally could handle BRD. First on the agenda was getting the key, and that meant dying so I could get the Quest (tricky bastards, Blizzard), which I did by dropping off the top chain in Blackrock Mountain and splatting into the lava below. Coincidentally this puts you right next to the tunnel entrance to BRD, so after spirit running back and getting the quest I was able to Rez in a very convenient spot and be on my way. And I was right about my Paladin. Being both 69, and a Plate-wearing AoE machine, I quickly retrieved Ironfel then replaced the mystical Hammer and received the Shadowforge Key in return. Yet one more key added to the keyring. I don't know how we coped years ago when we had to carry all these keys around in our pack, or leave them in the Bank.

But with the key to BRD finally in my pocket it was getting late, and so the Emperor, the BRD Achievement, and the Classic Dungeonmaster Achievement have to wait for another day.

How to turn Ramen into Nomen

As in Nom-nom-NOMen (no, not "No-Men" :P) and thanks to TJ for coming up with that awesome name.

Take some grilled chicken. Or fried chicken, either works. (or raw chicken, but you'll need to grill/fry it first. Just get some cooked chicken somehow) You'll need about 1 breast's worth, or the meat from two drums, or the meat from two wings plus some other bits from some other part of the chicken (just as long as they're edible). Chop chicken up into bite-sized pieces. No, smaller; your mouth's not that big. Actually it is, but just chop the pieces smaller anyway!

Add cooked chicken (and if it's not cooked, cook it first. Didn't I already say that?) to your 2-cups of water (or however much your Ramen packet recommends. I'm calling it Ramen at the moment because it's not NOMen, not yet) and bring to a boil. If you want you can use chicken broth instead of water but water is cheaper and that's usually why you're buying/eating Ramen.

While water & chicken mixture are coming to a boil take some kielbasa, or your favorite sausage-flavored mystery meat product, and chop into bite-sized pieces. Didn't I say smaller? I like to quarter my kielbasa, then cut each length into 1/4" to 1/2" segments, but that's just me. Fry/brown pieces in a frying pan and when done (whenever you think they're done. I like my kielbasa almost blackened for that extra smoky flavor), place on paper towel and set aside to drain.

When water has come to a boil add Ramen (I told you. It's still only Ramen at this point. It's not NOMen yet!) and one egg, uncooked (unless you can't stand egg, or are allergic, in which case don't add it). Now keep an eye on it because unlike ordinary Ramen, NOMen has a tendency to boil over if you're not watching it.

If kielbasa (or similar sausage-flavored treat) has drained to your liking (and are you really that picky? You bought Ramen for Pete's sake!) add to NOMen, along with contents of flavoring packet, and...one slice of cheese. Feel free to omit most of these ingredients if you want, just realize it's not real NOMen if it's only noodles & flavored water.

Boil NOMen for 3 minutes, stirring and watching to make sure it doesn't boil over (and it will if you're not watching it), then carefully pour into a large bowl big enough to hold it all (or eat it straight from the saucepan if that's how you roll. Your house, your rules.)

And that is how you make NOMen. Enjoy!

Why do you hate Gnomer?

If you ran it in Vanilla, was it the level disparity between the start and end? Because (IIRC) originally it was close to a 10-level difference between the first Mobs and Thermaplugg (or maybe I'm just misremembering).

Was it that you couldn't do the Punchcard quest w/o getting that very first White Punch Card? (And why didn't Blizzard have Castpipe just give the player a White Punch Card when they accepted the Quest?) Was it that you often missed a Punchograph machine, and would get to Punchograph D and find yourself short a Red Punch Card?

Was it the confusing layout of the Instance? That you could get turned around (or just plain lost) without even realizing it?

Was it the large number of Mobs per Pull, which required a party to really work well together? Was it the Alarm Bots which wandered into your Party mid-fight, raised the alarm, and pulled two more Packs?

When you think about it, Gnomeregan actually has a lot more in common with the 50-60+ Instances, than it does with Blackfathom Deeps and Razorfen Kraul (also high 20s/low 30s Instances).

And is that actually the real problem? Was Gnomeregan originally meant to be on par with Scholo, Strath, and the Blackrock Instances?

Blizzard would never admit it, but given the complexity of the Instance, the large Pulls, and that completing all of the Gnomer Quest often required multiple attempts, it's actually possible Gnomeregan was originally designed with level 60 Players in mind (at least until some Blizzard Big Wig said, "Horde have RFK, and SM right outside the Undercity. We need something for Alliance.")

I actually enjoy going to Gnomeregan, and not just for the Achievement at the end. It's a very colorful, very well designed (if somewhat confusing) Instance into which someone put a lot of thought and attention. I would even argue that Gnomer has more character than Scarlet Monastry, which isn't saying much because there's not a whole lot to SM. Well there probably is, if you were paying attention, but all you see are walls and doors as you rush through. RFK has it's little piggy huts and the Crone's House on Stilts. RFD has a rocking out Skeleton Boss. Dead Mines comes with the awesomeness of Pirates, complete with Pirate Ship, while BFD has Naga, Cultists, and a battle with a 3-headed Hydra. And Gnomer? Gnomer has Planes being worked on by teams of Gnomes. It has Robots and Mechs. It has Radiated Gnomes. It has Radiated Gnomes in Mechs! The final Boss is a Gnome in a giant Mech!

Come on! Tell me this is NOT an awesomely cool Boss that someone clearly put a lot of time into creating.

Some of the best 29 Twink gear can be found in Gnomer, but can you get any Guildies willing to run you through? Many players harbor so much animosity for Gnomer that they'll refuse to set foot inside, not even on a capped Toon who could tear the place apart. Why is that? Why is there so much hatred for what is one of vanilla WoW's coolest Instances?

Why do you hate Gnomeregan?

Tanking vs DPS

I tanked Ramparts a couple more times without seeing a single upgrade or the Hellreaver Polearm. I also had a go at Tanking Blood Furnace and the first time was not quite a PUG from Hell, but it did include a pushy Healer who berated me for drinking. "If you're standing still you're wasting my fucking time!" he said. Yep, he actually said that, and so I Pulled. Massive pulls, pulls when I was OOM, I just kept running and pulling all the way to the The Maker's Room where I rushed in and pretty much Aggroed the entire room. And we wiped on the bombs that those Mobs dropped. Now the Healer wasn't so happy with the constant Pulling and wanted to take it slow. There's just no pleasing some people.

This weekend I've been running PUGs not quite non-stop but I kid you not, I've almost run more PUGs these past few days than I did during my previous 3 years playing. I've run PUGs so much I was actually starting to get a little tired of Tanking.

That was when the BIL logged on so I asked if he wanted to run me through Ramparts once or twice to see if we could get Hellreaver, and it finally dropped. I think that was close to the 10th time I'd been in there. He also ran me through Blood Furnace again to see if we could get anything and I'm not sure I did, at least nothing memorable.

With Hellreaver in my hands I switched back to Ret, then to level my Polearm skill (& relearn how to be a Retadin) I ran Stockades a couple of times. It was quite fun tearing through Stockades and I was pulling around 650DPS by the time I got my Polearm skill up, so I queued up for a Ramparts Run as DPS. It took several minutes to get in, not a terribly long time but definitely a little longer than queuing up as a Tank.

And now that I had Hellreaver I started to see it everywhere. It didn't drop again, but after running a couple more Ramparts and two more Blood Furnaces I was now seeing it in other players' hands, too.

The PUG Moment of the weekend was after the second Pull in Ramparts when the Tank said "sorry gtg dinner time", then stood around for a minute or two chatting before DCing. He didn't leave the party, he just DCd.

One of the DPS dropped out, then the other, leaving me, the Healer, and the DC'd Tank.

As the Healer berated the Tank for being an ass and not quitting the game properly I donned my Tank gear and began switching to my Prot Spec. "I guess I'll Tank," I said.

I right-clicked the DC'd Tanks profile and Orion be praised I was able to initiate a Vote Kick! Naturally the Healer agreed to Kick so with 2 of 3 Votes against him our DC'd Tank was gone. The Healer then re-queued us, and if you're wondering how long it takes a Healer and a Tank to get three DPS, it is not long, not at all. I think I'd barely agreed to Tank when we had our new group.

We breezed through Ramparts (as well we should, I know the damn place like the back of my hand now) then the Healer asked if we wanted to requeue for another run. I think one of the DPS stuck around, I agreed to Tank again, and with our group already having both Tank and Healer we literally went from Ramparts to our...random Dungeon? The Healer signed us up for a Random Dungeon? Oh boy.

We landed in Slave Pens, which I was sort of familiar with but hadn't been in for over 2 years, so I made sure to let our group know that, and said any tips/advice would be appreciated.

Just pull and we'll kill them, was the reply, and so we did, and in spite of the random Fears used by the Naga guards it was a smooth, wipe-free Run. I didn't get any Loot that I could use, other than a Priest/Holy Pally mace, and while it seems good for Mana Regen it's otherwise inferior to my Rampart's Shadowrend Longblade.

And after those numerous Ramparts and Blood Furnace Runs I finally hit Honored with Honor Hold, but I'm now 65 and still doing Hellfire Peninsula quests. I'll probably end up missing half the Outland zones (if not more) and going straight into Northrend, but as I've already leveling multiple characters into their 60s, as well as two 70s, I won't be missing anything. In fact I'd actually be missing out by NOT hitting Northrend as soon as possible.

And if you're wondering how I got in so much WoW this Valentine's Day weekend, it's not been the only thing I've done. I was off Friday and took the family to Universal Studios. We were there pretty much all day until the early hours of the evening, then Saturday we visited Leroy's in Monrovia for a too fattening but oh so good breakfast. Prices are easily comparable to Denny's but taste-wise they're beyond compare. Leroy's does amazing tater tots, which are simply heaven, and which I get with a veggie omelet so I can kid myself I'm eating somewhat healthy. It's not so healthy when I polish off the boy's pancakes because he couldn't finish them ;)

After breakfast we dropped the kids with the in-laws and the wife and I headed to a nearby outdoor mall where she hit Nordstrom Rack while I popped into Best Buy and almost bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Not for the wife! For me! Duh! She does the laundry, I do the vacuuming. That baby would be mine! Yeah, how many guys do you know that get excited over vacuum cleaners? Sure, there's Kryten, but he doesn't count ;)

And so what if I get excited over a vacuum cleaner? It's not like there's anything wrong with that. It's not like I'm taking double Polaroids and showing them to my mates ;)

Walk. Run! No! Don't Run!

Walking to the bus stop I come up to an intersection where a guy not quite paying attention steps into the crosswalk and starts crossing as the pedestrian timer counts down from 2 to 1 to 0, and the red hand stops flashing and stays solid.

Not-quite-paying-attention guy is suddenly paying more attention and he starts to run, not walk, the rest of the way across.

Paying-even-less-attention Guy is several steps behind NQPA Guy (which is who he is probably paying attention to rather than watching the lights) so when PELA Guy steps into the intersection the light is not only well & truly Red for him, it's now Green for the cross traffic.

PELA Guy takes one step forward as he starts to pay a little more attention, but he's not paying enough attention to not take a second hesitating step. He is paying enough attention that not only does he not take a third step, but he now takes a step backwards toward the safety of curb he's just left...which is why the bicycle courier zipping behind him almost takes him out.

As the cars start to pass in front of PELA Guy he takes a second step backwards, catches his heel on the curb, and is forced to take a third, very quick step back to avoid falling on his arse.

After a recent breakfast trip to a Denny's in Manassas, VA, President Obama has realized he originally gave We, The People a little too much credit, and after witnessing NQPA & PELA Guys' street-crossing tactics I'm not only inclined to agree with the President's revised assessment, but I wonder how he could have been so optimistic in the first place.


Obama Drastically Scales Back Goals For America After Visiting Denny's

And yes, I'm fully aware that ONN is not a real network. I'm not like NQPA Guy and PELA Guy ;)

The Indestructible Tankadin

In the Blue corner, from Coldridge Valley in Dun Murogh. Standing 4'5" tall and weighing in at 625 pounds (including his armor, shield, and sword), he's the Dwarf from the north! The Indestructible Tankadin! Put your hands together for Ambassadooooooor Bellllllmagaaaaarrr!

And fighting out of the Red corner, all the way from the Zangarmarsh Lagoon in the notorious, exotic, and oh so dangerous Outland. Standing 6'5" tall and weighing in at 550 pounds. He's mean. He's green. He's the Leader of the Darkcrest Naga! Give it up for Rajaaaaaah Haghazeeeeeddd!

I decided I wanted the Petrified Lichen Guard (a reasonably easy to obtain Sporeggar Rep-Reward Shield) so this evening I made my way into Zangarmarsh, a trip made a darn sight easier by getting my Gryphon at 60.

But on the way I stopped at the Cenarion Expedition's Zangarmarsh base and checked out their quests. Only two of the CE quests had items as a reward, so I picked up both of them (both Boss kill quests) because the rewards were clearly upgrades over my current items. My log showed they were not only both Orange to me (at 60) but they were also Group quests. But that's really only a recommendation, right?

The closest Boss was Rajah Haghazed and I flew overhead to check him out. He was currently spawned as a 63 Elite with 22,000 health. Quite a lot when compared to my Prot Pally in his new Ramparts gear, who self-buffed has approx. 6500. Apparently Haghazed also spawns as a 62 so it was just my luck to get the upgraded version. He had several Naga wandering around him, including two 63 guards (regulars, not even Rares) posted at the foot of his pagoda, but I was confident that if I could get him on his own I could take him down, especially as he's a Melee Mob, not a Caster.

First on the card was a Naga Witch, who I literally dropped in on. After she went down I took out a wandering water elemental, then pulled a nearby Taskmaster. That left Haghazed's two guards and when they saw me they abandoned their posts and came runnng over. They were tough but not a huge problem, and their defeat left the Rajah alone but not necessarily helpless. HoR/Avenger's Shield pulled him to my location and as he rushed me I hit him with a Judgement of Light and threw up Holy Shield, and then began a looooong, drawn out slug-fest where I did little more than Auto-attack while keeping JoL up on him, and HS up on me.

Haghazed starts the fight with a sword & shield which he drops at 50% in favor of a polearm, this decreases his armor but ramps up his damage. For the first half of the fight I took very little damage, and what I did take was mitigated by my Blessing of Sanctuary and healed by my Judgement & Seal of Light. It was only when Haghazed switched to his Polearm and started to hit a little harder that my Health began to slowly drop. Slowly though, so I wasn't terribly concerned.

This was not a fight between welterweights, who dodge and duck and weave and slip and slide around the ring. This was a fight between two heavyweights who stand toe-to-toe, slugging it out and trading blows until only one of them is left standing.

With around 2,000 health left I bubble-Healed back to full then resumed the attack on the much weakened Rajah, who now had much less Health than I did.

And that was when the Frostbolt hit me from behind.

The fight had been going on for so long that the Naga Witch I'd killed earlier had respawned and joined the fray. It was time to step things up. I hit Haghazed with another Judgement followed by a Hammer of Wrath and an Exorcism. 1-2-3! KO! The Naga Boss was down for the count. I turned to the Naga Witch and began pounding on her and she promptly froze me in place then ran screaming to a nearby Taskmaster.

This was clearly no longer a Marquis of Fantailer match between gentlemen; this was now WWE at its finest (assuming the word 'fine' can be used to accurately describe the WWE).

The Taskmaster enlisted the help of a Drudge but I knew from past experience that the little guy would scarper given half the chance (meaning as soon as the Taskmaster went down). I quickly finished off the Witch then gave the Taskmaster a thorough thrashing and just like that it was all over and the fat lady started singing. I'd just defeated an Elite Boss 3 levels above me, along with 2 of his lackeys, single-handed, but then they don't call me the Indestructible Tankadin for nothing. Actually nobody does call me that :P

For an encore I moved on to the second Naga Boss, the Witch Rajis Fyashe. That was a little more humbling. In other words she avenged the Rajah and handed my arse to me on a silver platter, finely chopped, with a little sprig of parsley on the side. I'm indestructible, not unmeltable ;)

I got a new set of Pauldrons from defeating the Rajah but I never made it to Sporeggar to start working towards my Shield because Steve logged on. I chatted with him for a bit, explaining last night's Run and my apparent silence, and he said it was all good and the situation was more amusing than anything else. Phew!

Still a Noob

After all these years.

After the previous night's Ramparts Runs all it took was two of the current Festival Dailies to ding 60, which got me a Gratz in Guild Chat. That surprised me because normally my sister & her husband aren't on at that time, but then I saw it came from Steve, the fourth member of our Guild and an old college friend whom the BIL and I had worked for a couple of years at his father's factory. (He also wound up dating an old GF of mine. Small world.)

We chatted briefly and I mentioned that I'd Tanked Ramparts the night before but didn't get the Polearm I was after (which would see me re-learning how to be a Retadin if I picked it up), and Steve offered to run me through a couple of times on his Druid, which I accepted.

I made my way back to Honor Hold and learned Flight (at 60! 60! That's 10 levels below 70! You kids these days don't know how good you've got it!) while Steve logged onto his 80 Druid and met me there. I'd entered the Instance when I realized Steve might not remember exactly which Portal was the right one, so I popped back outside just in time to greet him as he confirmed what I'd suspected.

Back into Ramparts we went and with me still being in Tank Mode I managed to pull Aggro a couple of times, so I almost died once or twice. Now I could have just stayed back, played it safe, and Looted the bodies, but I wanted to seem somewhat helpful so I tried to DPS when I could and catch the Runners. Steve apologized for almost letting me die and occasionally remembered to throw me a Heal, and I apologized saying I was still in Tank mode and hitting the wrong buttons (like 1 for my HoR & Avenger's Shield macro, instead of F1 for Consecrate :P).

We downed the first Boss and he dropped the 1H Sword I was keen to get, then we killed the second two Bosses who both dropped Caster gear. Out of the Instance we went, Reset, and back in again. This time a pair of Mail Leggings dropped from the first Boss, and when I examined them I realized that with their 3 sockets they would actually make a decent upgrade over my Plate pants from Maraudon.

The second Boss dropped a pair of socketed Mail gauntlets which, like my new Mail leggings, were also an upgrade over my current Plate pair. As Steve moaned about the crappy drops I said it wasn't too bad, that I'd got a new sword and two new Armor pieces, even if they were Mail.

The third Boss/es (Dragon & Rider) went down and once again my Polearm failed to appear. What's really annoying is the damn Polearm is lying there in plain sight, on the ground in Vazruden's cold dead hand. But can you pick it up? Of course not. If this were Titan Quest then yes! Yes, you can! But in WoW? Uh uh.

Outside the Instance I asked Steve if he had time for one more Run, but he apologized about the crappy drops then logged off.

And in the stillness after the storm of two rapid Ramparts Runs I became aware that Steve had been talking in Party Chat during both Runs...while I had been talking in Guild Chat.

With a growing sense of dread I opened the Guild Tab and looked through the list of names. Steve's Druid was not among them. His 40s Priest was in the Guild, and a second Alt, but that was it.

Inside the Instance most of our chatter had been situational so we'd often both discussed the same things (like my almost dying) at the same time, but the conversations we'd been having had actually been one-sided.

Since logging onto his Druid Steve hadn't seen a single word I'd typed.

It was getting late but I waited around for 20 minutes (while hitting the AH and Gemming my new Pants and Gloves), but there was no sign of Steve, neither on his Priest nor his Druid.

He'd just run me through Ramparts, twice, and from his point of view I'd not said a single word during either Run. I felt like a complete Noob. Here was an old friend helping me out with two free Ramparts Runs, and even though I did get upgrades out of it, Steve didn't realize that. From his PoV I'd just run along behind him, grabbed the free Loot, and hadn't replied to a thing he had said. I felt like a Noob, but also an ass.

I typed up an in-game email and sent it to both Steve's Druid and Priest, explaining the situation and apologizing to him for my complete and utter Noobness. Then I logged off and sent BIL an email explaining the same, and asking him to apologize to Steve on my behalf.

We used to have a running gag in my old Guild where it was acknowledged that I was the King Noob, and occasionally I'd get to pass the crown onto someone else who committed an act of Noobness, but I'd always end up "getting it back", sometimes just seconds later.

I've been playing WoW for 4-5 years now, but these two Ramparts Runs proved that I am still the King of Noobs.

Into the Outland

I finally got my Pally to 59 and decided to have a go at Tanking Ramparts.

Having not Tanked anything since Sunken Temple I spent 100g on several AH items, including a new Shield (I'm astounded that there's no decent Shields in the level 60 5-man Instances). Yeah, I could have run the first dozen or so Outland quests and upgraded for free, but for some crazy reason I want to run Ramparts first for the Rep & Gear, then do the Hellfire Pen quests. I actually got a couple of Drops from my HP Runs, but I can't use them until I hit 60.

My AH gear meant that self-buffed I had a shade over 5K HP, which wasn't a lot when my fellow party members all had around the same. Despite my low health the first Run went rather smoothly, although the DK and Warrior both wanted to pull & Tank (even though they'd signed on as DPS) while the Shaman kept scattering the Mobs just as I was getting them bunched up together. I only discovered it was the Shaman when the same thing happened on my second HP Run, and I asked what was going on.

My second run. Let's talk about that one. When the Shaman left to buy some water & other Shaman goodies, the Priest decided to make the best of the down-time by berating the Warlock who was wielding what was clearly a Druid staff. It looked like a paw/claw on a stick, and it was being wielded by a Gnome 'Lock (which meant the humor value was way up there, and I can appreciate that.) Being a Druid staff meant it also had a huge amount of Stamina on it, and I seem to recall Warlocks like Stamina, so no problem there. The Warlock defended themselves with "I've got nothing better", then went on the offensive asking why the Priest had (IIRC) a Resilience enchant on his Devout Bracers. The Priest said it was on there when he bought it, which got him a derisive laugh from the 'Lock. "I'd never buy that," he said. That pretty much set the tone for the next few encounters, so I was prepared for another PUG from Hell.

As we got close to Gargolmar the Priest was standing in a precarious place, just a little too close to the Watchkeeper's path, but being busy trying to hold Aggro I wasn't able to say/type anything. Of course the 'Lock did and told the Priest to watch out where he was standing.

"You play your toon and I'll play mine!" said the Priest, before complaining that we were moving too slow and should have been "done by now".

The warning signs were all there and yet it was still a shock to me when, just as I pulled Gargolmar and he began beating on me...the Priest dropped Group.

But without missing a beat, almost as if he knew it was coming, the Shaman switched from DPS to Heals, the fight continued, and we 4-manned Gargolmar.

What does he drop? Only the Pauldrons of Arcane Rage. Oddly enough the Warlock didn't Need them (perhaps he already had them) so after winning the Greed Roll they wound up in my Pack.

The Shaman put us back into the queue, volunteered to Heal, and within seconds we'd filled our third DPS slot and were back in business. The Run went a little slower than some might like, but it was also problem free, and I'd much rather a slightly slower, Wipe-free Run, than a faster Run where we over-Pull and Wipe once or twice.

If only the rest of my Party would accept this...

Why we do what we do

I read someone's Blog last week (and if they read this, please comment so I can link it) which discussed, primarily, achievements in gaming. The crux of the argument (if I understood it correctly) was whether or not you enjoyed certain activities within a game which netted you an in-game reward, and whether or not you'd continue performing those activities if you could just press a button and get the reward.

If you would continue to perform those activities after receiving your reward then it's obvious that you enjoy them, so continue playing away. But if you would stop performing these activities upon receiving the reward, and if the reward is little more than a pointless piece of fluff that does not serve to better your character, then why bother with it in the first place?

Nowadays in WoW if you're keen enough to visit practically every square inch of every zone in every land, you can get yourself an Explorer title. I'm sure there's something to be said for a low level player acquiring such a title, especially as setting foot in many zones would result in their almost immediate death, that is assuming they could even access some of the higher level zones. But why would you bother mapping all of the zones in the first place? Especially when you're speed leveling to Cap where SOP is hit the Zone's "Quest Hub", grab all available quests, then rush around and complete everything as fast as you can. And so what if you don't go to that south-eastern corner and the map remains blank at that point. If you needed to uncover it then a quest would have sent you there, but none did so you don't need to go there, right? Besides, you can come back later, at 80, with a fast Epic Mount, and fill the Map in then.

But a long, long time ago, a young Hunter (most likely in his high 20s to low 30s) ventured north from the Wetlands into the Arathi Highlands. After participating in a Raid on Hammerfall he moved beyond Arathi to Southshore, but he didn't stop there. He continued to venture forth up into the Alterac Mountains, on to the Plaguelands (yes, he was a Newb), and into Tirisfal Glades. With absolutely no reward to show for his effort, with no Title awaiting him, and no way of proving to anyone what he'd done (outside of screenshots and a blog, and screenies can be faked anyway), the Hunter was determined to uncover the entire map for every Zone he found, even if he died in the attempt. And he did. Repeatedly, and often. Mobs killed him. NPCs killed him. Other players killed him when, in his noobness, he fought back against city guards and Flagged himself.

Yet he stubbornly persisted in his quest (did we mention he was a Dwarf? Yeah, kind of goes without saying, right?) and eventually he did reveal every section of every Zone's Map, including those zones in which he had no right being, not at his level, and certainly not without a Mount. (He also found some Zones that didn't exist yet, which was both cool and eerie, traveling across smooth landscapes with nothing but terrain texture as far as the eye could see.)

He didn't go exploring for a Vanity Pet or a Title, and when he was done he had no way of proving what he'd done to anyone, nor did he need to or want to. It was enough that he knew he'd done it, because in the end he'd done it for nobody but himself, and for no reason other than "it was there".

A long time ago I played The Sims, and I was enjoying it up to a certain point, being when your Sim needs to have 10 Friends in order to receive their next promotion.. Yes, their Friends could just be Friends with the spouse/partner, but there needed to be at least 10. Because I'd continued playing the Newbie family (the couple you play in the Tutorial) there just weren't that many people in my neighborhood. I needed a new family. One with a lot of members. So I created a "family" with the maximum number of people, built them a box to call their own, moved them in, then called my Newbie couple over to visit. Before too long it was late (in the game) and not everyone was friends with my Newbies, but that was okay, there's always tomorrow.

Tomorrow arrived, and my Sim picked up the phone and called her new friends...and most of them blew her off. Even the ones she was actually friends with were reluctant to come visit.

"Well I did just paint the living room, and I was going to sit here and watch the paint dry, but I guess your place could be more exciting."

Geez! Don't break a leg rushing over here!

Hitting the "10-Friend Wall" meant no promotion, and no promotion meant no more money, which meant no newer, cooler, better stuff for my Sims.

So I found a cheat code to give me all the money I needed to build the biggest, best, baddest house on the block, filled with the coolest stuff. And I did. Then I looked at my huge house filled with crap that I hadn't "earned", and which my Sims hadn't earned, and I quit. I shut the game down.

A day or two later I booted the game back up, played for a minute or two, then shut it down again.

My Sims had all the money they needed. They owned the best of everything. There was...no reason to play the game.

Up until that moment I had enjoyed playing The Sims. Then I pressed that button and gave myself the Reward and that was it. The game was no longer fun for me. I know other people would have continued to play and found a new reason and way to have fun, but I didn't.

In one game there was no reward or recognition for what I was doing. Self-gratification was the only reward, and there was no way to short cut to the end. I did what I did for me, and I enjoyed doing it, and now I find myself doing it again, and still enjoying it.

In the other game there was a reward waiting at the end. And when I found a way to give myself that reward...I stopped playing. The game was fun right up until the moment I cheated. And the sad thing is I cheated nobody but myself out of the fun I was having. A more cynical person might say I wasn't really having fun, and that I just needed the cheat code to realize that. Maybe they'd be right.

Deadmines, how it should have been

After signing up via the LFD Tool I still did not get straight into a Run, and actually had time to clear the Defias camp west of SH, and even make a run around the farm (I had the Defias Bandana, and the Defias Trapper quests) before the Ready check popped up.

This time I had a Shaman on Heals, and a Mage with two Druids, and the run was smooth. Everyone let me do the Pulling and it wasn't fast although I deliberately pulled multiple Miners, and chain pulled a few Goblins, HoR pulling a second (& later a third) so they each arrived just as the previous Goblin went down. At the bottom of the Foundry's ramp we unintentionally grabbed a few too many Goblins and I had my work cut out for me trying to maintain Aggro using nothing but Judgements, HoR, and Righteous Defense. Fortunately nobody died and the Shaman even commented that she was having fun healing.

Smite was no problem, nor was Capt. Greenskin, or even Van Cleef. There were no wipes or even deaths (except among the Mobs ;) and no idiots with Heirloom gear who think they're King Dick. Just 5 people who knew their roles, did was expected of them, and got the job done in an efficient if not expedient manner.

If I haven't said it yet, I will now; I am really enjoying how easy the LFD tool makes it to get an Instance run together.

The Deadmines PUG from Hell

I wanted to have a go at Tanking the lower level Instances to see what I'd missed so I rolled a Draenei Pally (because Draenei and BElfs get a lot more Green gear from low level quests). I couldn't use the LFD tool until 15 but I waited until 16 (when I got Hand of Reckoning) to join the queue for RFC. After all, what good is a Tank without an actual Taunt ability, right?

RFC was a cinch, mostly because level 15 characters are starting to get a little too high for it and we were all 16 & up (inc. a 20 Warrior who signed up for DPS but acted like he was a Tank). Despite being a little on the high side for RFC I still got a reasonably nice blue 1H sword which was an upgrade even over my 2H weapon.

With RFC out of the way I hit Westfall in preparation for Tanking Deadmines. I could have just gone straight in via the LFD tool but I wanted the Van Cleef quest for the reward. (I also needed to stop at Stormwind to learn how to wield 1H Swords ;)

By the time I finally had the mission to kill Van Cleef I was level 18, which is a reasonable level to tackle Deadmines. But after signing up and volunteering to Tank I didn't get in straight away, and that was not something to which I had become accustomed. Then when I did get into a group one of the DPS declined the Run so we went back to the head of the queue.

Finally we picked up another DPSer and we were in. Myself, a 20 Warlock (in Heirloom gear), a Druid Healer, a Mage (calling himself Evilcaster), and a Rogue.

The Warlock was, to be brutally honest, an arse. And yet he was in Heirloom gear so he clearly should have known better.

While I was the designated Tank and thus should have been initiating the Pulls, the Warlock was doing his own thing and grabbing Aggro on multiple Miners. I was fighting to grab Aggro back when the inevitable happened. The Warlock drew too many Miners, along with a couple of Elite Defias Mobs, and we Wiped.

In Rhahk'zor's room before I could pull the Warlock sic'd his Voidwalker onto one of the Defias guards. I picked up Aggro on Rhahk and we managed to down the Ogre boss but it was a close fight. The Warlock then went missing. Not AFK, I mean he ran off. When he returned he claimed he'd gone to Solo the Pat that comes after Rhahk is defeated. By now that should have been more than enough signs and yet we continued on.

In the Smelting room we fought our way down the ramp while I fought the Warlock for Aggro. At the bottom of the Ramp I tried to carefully pull the nearby Goblins while the Warlock did his own thing, which meant running off and Aggroing the entire room.

"What the hell is he doing?" I thought to myself as he died, the Goblins swarmed us, and we Wiped again.

And then it appeared in Party Chat.

LEEERRROOOOOYYY JEEEEENKINNNNNSSSS!!!!
DAMN MAN THAT SHIT WAS TIGHT!!!

Yes, he actually typed that.

I got the Spirit Release and realized the 'Lock had Soulstoned me. And if I'd been in a better spot we might have been okay, but no. I'd tried to save the day and was in a bad spot to SS Rez.

After waiting for the Goblins to rearrange themselves I managed to Rez w/o attracting attention, but as I tried to Rez the Druid a Goblin spied me, summoned his little robot helper, and attacked. I took him down and was slowly working on his Robot when another Goblin heard the commotion and joined the fray, summoning a Robot of his own. I fought valiantly but to no avail and died a second time, and this time had no choice but to Release and run back from the GY.

On the way back in to the Instance I right-clicked the Warlock's profile and selected "Vote to Kick", and the message popped up "You are dead."

Crap. And because I'd SS Rez'd then died a second time, by the time I got back inside the group were some distance ahead of me.

Again I right-clicked the 'Lock and selected "Vote to Kick".

"Not in combat."

WTF???

I selected the Warlock and sure enough, he was targeting a Goblin. I made it back to the group as they finished off Gilnid and the Goblins. The door behind him opened and the 'Lock was the first player through. This time I was not surprised to see him round up a whole mess of Miners and Defias and cause yet another wipe, and just like that I was dead again.

As we ran back to the Instance our number was suddenly reduced to four and I could not believe my eyes. After causing multiple wipes the 'Lock had dropped group.

What an arse!

On the plus side I was now Party Leader. Awesome. I know Deadmines like the back of my hand. I'm Tank AND Party Leader. There's only four of us but I was pretty sure we could finish this. (In retrospect I should have re-entered us into the queue and picked up another DPS, but I did not do that. It's a learning experience though, right?)

I immediately typed in chat, "Thank heavens he's gone, because as soon as we were in I was going to Vote to Kick him!"

LOL was the only reply, from Evilcaster no less, who would actually prove to be a decent Mage when not being eclipsed by an idiot 'Lock.

The Druid and the Rogue remained silent, at least until the Rogue complained about her armor and weapons being broken. This was understandable because for some reason, every single time she Rez'd, she had Resurrection Sickness. It was only on our last Wipe that I realized she was not running back into the Instance to Rez, but Spirit Rezzing after each death. Oy vey!

Then when she ran to loot Smite's Treasure Chest not once but twice (after I Rez'd her and in spite of my saying "Wait!"), I realized we were running with a very young player or someone on their first Alliance toon...or both.

On the Rogue's second death the Mage followed the plan that I'd already announced, being Sheep one of the Guards and keep it Sheeped while we killed the second guard, then Smite, then the Sheep.

I Rezzed the Rogue yet again and seeing her run immediately to Smite's Chest for a third time explained that it was Smite's chest, not ours, we couldn't loot it. She was not happy.

We slowly killed our way up the ship and near the top, with the Rouge dead yet again (this time having fallen off the gangway and been killed by a Troll, or so she said), I saw Capt. Greenskin and his posse stroll past above us, stop, then start running back to the ramp down to our level.

"Follow me!" I typed (and thank heavens I'm a proficient typist. "Quick! Onto the wheel!" and I ran to the paddle wheel and leaped up onto it.

The Druid made it on with me but the Mage was a little slow. After killing him Capt. Greenskin's crew pursued us to the wheel and I watched, puzzled, as they stood on the gangway for several seconds and then...the Druid died. Just like that. I thought I saw a puff of flame on Greenskin as the Druid died, and with that Greenskin & his crew ran back to the top deck and continued patrolling.

Still not yet back the Rogue announced that she was going to repair her gear (which I'm pretty sure was almost all Red by now) while I rez'd the Druid & Mage. We established a plan to take out Greenskin, and after clearing the final ramp ran back to Rez the Rogue who had died yet again while trying to stealth in past a Pat.

We returned to the ship, made our way back up to the top, and following our strategy Capt. Greenskin & his posse died without a hitch. Now all that stood between us, victory, and that Deadmines Achievement was Van Cleef.

Knowing he comes with two Mobs (and respawns two more at 50%) I outlined our strategy then pulled him, and things were actually looking good right up until the Druid ran out of Mana and the Heals stopped coming. I died, then the Druid died, then the Rogue dried. With Van Cleef and one Mob left the Mage gave it all he had but it just wasn't enough. Van Cleef had less than 100hp left when the Mage finally died. (I really should have picked up a 3rd DPS, so being Party Leader this defeat was nobody's fault but my own.)

After running back to the Instance and seeing full respawns I realized it was time to finally call it quits, and when I told the other three I had to leave it seemed I was simply expressing what everyone was feeling and the group dissolved.

Does it change my mind about Tanking or cross-server PUGs and the LFD Tool? Hell no. We had one idiot griefer (but we moved past him) and one newbie (as opposed to a Noob!) who (I hope) learned from his/her experience with us, and yes, I spent a good part of my evening in Deadmines and didn't down Van Cleef, but I still had a good time (and learned a few things, too).

In the end I think this sums up PUGs. Some of them are great, some end in disaster, and some are just business as usual; successful, but not memorable. Sure, the arse hats are memorable and make you fear the PUG, but they're also few & far between, and if you let them keep you from PUGing Instances you're really only hurting yourself. After all, it's your $15. Why let someone else control your game?

Awesome Maraudon Run

A full clear, including Rotgrip and Gizlock, with just one Wipe.

After downing Celebras the Cursed our Hunter claimed it was his bedtime and logged off. Up until then it had been a very smooth Run so we decided to push on and 4-man the rest, but as we cleared our way to Landslide tragedy struck.

While fighting one of the many trios of Stegosaurus, a roving pair of Earth Elementals aggroed onto our Shammy Healer, and before I knew what was happening he was dead. I grabbed Aggro and the Shadow Priest tried to take over Healing but a second Pat of Elementals joined the fray and with 3 to 1 odds (against us) we were quickly overwhelmed.

Then, while running back in, both myself and the Shammy (who claimed to be on his first Toon, and just might have been, too) got lost, and we were forced to wait for a Rez before we could get back underway. This time the Dinos went down without a problem and when the Pats appeared I grabbed Aggro and we smashed them as well.

The rest of the run was a piece of cake.

Landslide gave up his Helm of the Mountain, which I Needed, won uncontested, and immediately equipped. The Princess was also good to me and upon her death bed presented me with a new pair of leggings. With her down the Shadow Priest thanked us for the run then bailed.

Fortunately the Shammy & Druid stayed behind so we leaped off into the water and took out Rotgrip, who dropped his cloth Shoulders. The Druid & Shammy rolled Greed while I passed. We then fought our way to Gizlock and a prolonged battle in which the Druid ran out of his fire and into a nearby group of Dinos, where she naturally died. I told her not to Release and with the Shammy healing me one-manned the Goblin Boss to his slow but inevitable death, after which I Rez'd the Druid.

I was hoping that by not Releasing she'd be able to loot Gizlock, and for my consideration toward my fellow player Karma smiled on me and Gizlock offered up his Shield. The Shammy was keen to roll Need on it but when I mentioned I'd like it he graciously passed and let me have it, uncontested.

With a new Helm, Leggings, Shield, and a Fiery-enchanted Jang'Thraze, my Pally is looking more and more like a real Tank.

The (almost) Indestructible Paladin

After finally finishing Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (a tragic, bitter sweet ending, and I'll say no more about it) it was too late to get a group so I ventured into Maraudon. Yes, all on my own.

I had a collection quest and I'd read that it was now possible to get the Drops outside the Instance, but the only Mobs that seemed to drop the Crystals were 46 Elites, and they were few & far between. When I ran across the portal into the Instance itself I decided nothing ventured, nothing gained, and in I went.

The Mobs were mid 40s Elites, just a level or two below me (at 47) but they were single Mobs and I already knew from the outside encounters that I could take them, and so I did, and one by one I began collecting the Crystals. I do plan to Tank Maraudon but if I get the collection quest out of the way first then I won't be competing with my party for Drops, so Soloing these quests is actually a smart (& considerate) move.

I also discovered I could very easily solo a second collection quest I had, so I began doing it too.

The only Mobs that gave me trouble were the Oozes. Slow moving and traveling in pairs they're very weak to Ranged DPS, but get close and their Nature-based melee attacks pack quite a punch. As a Paladin I don't have a lot of Ranged abilities, I have some but not many, but I was still able to slowly kite the Oozes around while dragging them through my Consecrate spell and hitting them with the occasional Judgement and Exorcism. Not even the pairs of Dryads that patrol the caverns gave me as much trouble as did the Oozes.

Eventually I had just one Drop to collect, and that was when I made a mistake. The plant I needed to revive (to get the Drop) was in a small pit, but the pit was filled with Oozes. Not just a couple, there seemed to be at least 6 of them in there. Rather than advancing deeper into the Instance and look for an easier plant, I foolishly jumped down, revived this one, then discovered getting back out the way I'd come in was impossible. While trying to run out through the Oozes I got dazed and almost before I could blink I was staring at the Release button.

Crap. As a Paladin, dying is not something to which I'm accustomed.

I released and ran back in. Fortunately I'd revived the plant before dying (an embarrassing death, so we shall speak of it no more) and so the the quest Mobs I needed to kill had spawned. Unfortunately they'd spawned in the pit full of Oozes, so there were LoS issues while trying to get off HoR. Fortunately I only aggroed the one Mob and it emerged from the Pit to quickly die to (the now Fiery-enchanted) Jang'thraze the Protector (because nothing says "defense" like a flaming sword ;)

With my collection quests now completed I headed back to turn them in, which dinged me 48. I still haven't Tanked ZF yet, so I need to do that before I level much more or I won't be able to get in via the new LFG Tool. I'm not working Friday so I can probably run ZF Thursday night. My only concern is the number of Caster Mobs in there, and those Trolls do like to run when low on Health, but at 48 and with a good Healer and DPS backing me up I'm confident we'll do alright. Stay tuned.

More adventures in Tanking

I decided to have a go at the Badland's Uldaman. It's an Instance I'm sort of familiar with but have rarely done, so I'm not terribly familiar with the trash Mobs or Bosses (and until last night I was still 'raiding' naked, with no Addons). Once again, almost as soon as I said "I'll Tank. Let's go!", the new LFG tool hooked me up with a group. Amusingly one of the DPS failed the Ready Check and got kicked out, sending us back into the queue, but with a Tank, Healer & 2 DPS in our group it took just seconds for them to be replaced and I was zoned into the Instance.

"Pull lots," came a whisper from someone in my party. I looked at their name, then moused over their icon. He was a Dranei Priest. I guessed he was our Healer.
"Okay," I whispered back.

The Buffs were being passed around as I started early by grabbing a sole Trogg who wandered into the entrance chamber. After downing him I applied my own Buffs, drank up, then got down to business.

The run went fairly smoothly except I picked up the Gni'kiv Medallion while someone else looted the Shaft of Tsol, and because we couldn't Trade across servers we had no way of creating the Staff of Prehistoria to summon Ironaya. In the caves beyond Ironaya's room we also got turned around and wound up near Entrance B and the Obsidian Sentinel, and so back into the caverns we went.

I was amused when the Priest asked us to hurry because he had a Raid to get to. Why sign up for a run if you've got a Raid scheduled not too far away? I guess he was expecting a faster run than what he was getting, although (IMO) it wasn't that slow (except for us getting lost). That was when Lady Karma slapped my face and I started to pull Spouse Aggro; we were going to the In-laws for dinner and now I needed us to hurry as well. Fortunately by now we'd made it to the final area with just a couple of Pulls between us and the Boss, so I knew there wasn't long to go.

Does everyone have Mana? Yes? Go. Go! GO! We rushed down the Ramp, killing everything that stood in our way. I did Uldaman years ago, with my Gnome Warrior Tanking. We'd wiped on the Boss because the stupid Rogue used his Combo points on Expose Armor, preventing me from applying Sunder Armor and being unable to hold Aggro on him Archaedas had run rampant over our group. It was not pretty.

This time I made sure I held Aggro, and despite constantly summoning reinforcements the Titan eventually fell. I completed all the quests I had, got the new ones, then was forced to burn my Hearthstone when everyone else dropped group and Ghetto Hearthed on me. But as I was eating with the In-laws it's not like I'd need to Hearth again any time soon.

The next day I decided to head back into Uldaman, but this time Solo. Now at 46 I figured I could take the smaller groups and get the Gems I'd somehow missed (for The Shattered Necklace quest). Prior to going in I downloaded and installed Titan and Atlas so now I would have an in-game Map of the Instance.

The going was slow but uneventful as I pulled larger and larger groups. After one massive battle where runners brought back reinforcements which almost resulted in my death (thank heavens I'd finally worked out what is required for a Pally to Bubble-Heal) I counted the bodies as I looted them and there were 12. Yes, they were 6 levels lower than my Pally (on average), but these were Elites, including a mini-Boss, not your run of the mill, garden variety Mobs.

This time in I picked up the Shaft of Tsol, so with the Staff of Prehistoria in hand and with Ironaya's room clear of trash, I decided to let her out to play. With around 15,000hp (6 times my own) it was a war of attrition that I eventually won, but not before the Iron Maiden engaged in some Dwarf Punting, kicking me from her room back into the entrance halls.

If the Priest had thought the previous night's run to be slow, he'd have died of boredom watching my Solo attempt. I gradually cleared the caves, found Grimlok, and this time got my second Gem. I also don't recall taking out Galgann on my other run, or if I just missed looting the Gem, but not this time around. Although I still had to look around for the sparklies, so maybe I just missed it last time. With the end in sight I pressed on and decided to see just how much of Uldaman I could clear.

Down the final Ramp I went with Golems and Dwarfs alike falling to my Crusader-enchanted Vanquisher's Sword. While I do have Jang'thraze the Protector (from when Shaun ran me through ZF) the 28-AP bonus on Vanquisher's would put the two blades on equal footing, except the enchant gives Vanquisher's a slight edge.

Outside Archaedas chamber I paused to consider the best Buffs for what I knew was going to be a very looooong fight. I decided Seal of Light and Blessing of Sanctuary were the order of the day, and hoped their sporadic and somewhat passive regen of my Health and Mana would see me through. Of my Auras I felt Retribution was my best choice, especially if Archaedas managed to summon multiple Mobs to aid him. And with that, I entered the room and began to release my foe.

As soon as he became clickable (instead of just scenery) I retreated towards the door and backed into a corner. Upon targeting the Titan I was actually a little daunted and wondered if I'd bitten off more than I could chew. Although he was 6 levels lower than me, he's still an Elite Boss with almost ten times my Health, and he summons Mobs to help him. Fortunately the combined damage from my Ret Aura, Holy Shield (w/ Mithril Shield Spike), & Consecrate meant his little buddies never lasted long. I didn't even need to target them but stayed on Archaedas the whole time.

As the Titan's health slowly dropped to where I began to think I might actually have a chance, a Golem appeared by his side. It was larger than the Dwarfs he'd been summoning and it didn't go down as quickly as them either. Slowly my own health began to drain away, then a second Golem appeared. With my health bar dipping dangerously low it was time to demonstrate just why people despise Paladins.

I popped Consecrate then...Bubble Heal! Then a second Heal! Now at full health I renewed Holy Shield then laid down another Consecrate. A third Golem appeared, maybe even a fourth, I couldn't tell; I was focused on Archaedas' health bar as it got lower and lower. I'd fought this fight just one night ago but couldn't remember what happened when he died. I hoped his death resulted in his summoned Mobs despawning.

Finally the Titan crashed to the ground and his minions did despawn. Not that I was worried about them, it just meant I didn't need to finish them off, too.

And just like that I'd Solo'd Uldaman. Yes, a nerfed Uldaman (versus its pre-BC version), but still not a walk-in-the-park Uldaman, not at 46. When I found I still somehow had a completed Staff of Prehistoria in my pack I decided to go back in using the LFG tool, but at 46 the game decided I was now too high for Uldaman. I'm also almost too high for Maraudon, another Instance I'd like to run, so with that I set off for Desolace to grab the Mara quests. By the time I got there and had rounded up all the quests it was getting late and like the night before I was once again drawing Spouse Aggro. It was definitely bed time. Mara will just have to wait.

I know some have lamented that the new cross-server LFG tool has taken away the social side of WoW, but IMO your Guild and server are there for socializing. If you want to kick back and relax then run an Instance with your Guildmates. If you want to get in, kick arse & chew gum without taking names, the LFG tool is a great addition to help people find Instance groups. It's also made the more out-of-the-way Instances like Maraudon and Dire Maul a lot more accessible, and I'm actually looking forward to running those in my 50s. IMO the LFG tool has breathed new life into lower level content, and people are now getting more WoW for their buck.

The Tank is in the House

Razorfen Downs, to be precise.

I took the plunge, grabbed 750G from the Guild Bank (I'm in a small guild with my sister, her husband, and an old college buddy), and bought the dual-spec thingy you can get at 40. I punched in my Prot build, then gritted my teeth and installed the 50g Mithril Shield Spike I'd just bought on the Green Shield I'd also just bought.

I switched to Action Bar 2 and populated it with the Spells/Abilities I thought I'd need as a Tank. I'm familiar with (or at least have read) the 969 Pally rotation, but that's for 80 Pallies; I'm 42. At this level my rotation turned out to be pull with HoR, cast Holy Shield, Consecrate, HS, Con, HS, Con, etc. with the occasional Judgement of Justice or HoR to stop/kill Runners.

It's only a few Spells, nothing like a Hunter's rotation. It can't be too hard, right?

I brought up the new LFG Interface and looked at it. I've got the Gear, I've set up my Action Bar, I'm a Tank now, right?

So what was I waiting for?

I felt I needed to put some "Tank-time" in first. I needed to be familiar with playing this way before I tried to actually be a Tank. Especially when other people were going to be relying on me.

I hadn't done SFK yet, not the whole thing. In my 20s I'd hit the courtyard for the Mats for my Pally Mace Quest but I hadn't completed the Instance. Being 20 levels higher than the Trash meant Soloing RFK should be a piece of cake, and it was. I think I only came close to dying once when I grabbed two rooms full of Mobs, including a Boss. (Or maybe that was the night before when I Solo'd Gnomer as Ret ;)

After killing Arugal and completing SFK I figured it was time, and I hearthed, sold all the crap I'd picked up, made sure I had plenty to drink (and boy! Would I need it!), then opened up the LFG window again.

No, I don't want to do a Random Dungeon, thank you very much. I've been reading up on RFD so...Specific Instance, select RFD. Check off "I'm prepared to Tank" and...I don't even think I had the option to "Join queue". I think as soon as I volunteered to Tank the only options were "Close Window" & "Enter Dungeon", because as soon as I hit the 'Accept' button the Ready Check popped up, and seconds later I found myself inside RFD.

Buffs? Pally Buffs. Blessings? There was a Warrior. I think I gave him Kings, or was it Might? I forget. Priest? Wisdom of course. Mage? The same. Shaman? Er...Wisdom as well? What if he's a Melee Shaman? Fuggit! He has a Mana bar, he's getting Wisdom, too!

"Who's Tanking?" someone asked.

"That would be me," I said, from my position on the floor (as if Dwarfs aren't short enough already. At least I was still as tall as the Gnome Warrior :P), where I was drinking my first of many Sweet Nectar pots.

I hadn't selected to Lead the Group (via the LFG window), just Tank, but the Tank still sort of leads, right? I looked around. Everyone looked ready. Mana bars are full? Check.

I typed, "Ready?" as someone yelled "GO! GO! GO!"

I took that as a Yes.

HoR to pull. Holy Shield. Consecrate, and the first 2-Mob pull died very quickly. I paused for a second as...the Gnome Warrior Charged into the next group with the other three players hot on his heels. Oh, okay. HoR again. HS again. Consecrate...again. It was chaos, but I seemed to have Aggro on all the Mobs. HS is up...Hit It again! And the second group died.

I rushed the third group. HoR. HS. Consecreate. Repeat (with HoR on the Runner) and...Low on Mana.

"Drinking," I said, as I guzzled another Sweet Nectar.

"You can pull more than that," someone said, and I probably could have, but I was a Newby Tank and Newby Tanks are nervous; we don't like to get in over our heads until we know how to swim.

We were almost halfway in when we grabbed several groups at once (I think someone got impatient and did that deliberately) and the AoE exploded. Fortunately almost all the Mobs in RFD are Melee (which is why I'd deliberately chosen it over SM for my Tanking debut) so it was easy to gather them up and AoE them down.

A few Mobs broke from the pack, but they weren't Casters, and in RFD the only Runners are Casters, so I selected a Mob and yes, he was targeting someone who wasn't me. I hit HoR and he ran back into the killing fields. I spun, trying to keep all the Mobs in front of me (can't Block from behind), while laying down Consecrate and popping HS as soon as it was up. More runners. HoR's not up! So hit Righteous Defense! And back they came. The AoE was filling the screen and then...it was over.

"I actually had to heal then," said our Priest.

I guess I really was taking things a little slow for him. Still, a wipe-free run is better than a fast, messy run with repair costs, at least in my opinion, but I'm a little conservative like that (as I am with most things in my life). This run was perhaps a little on the slow side, but it was also smooth (for the most part), and free of Wipes.

We hit Mordresh, the metal-loving Skeleton Boss, but before I could HoR him the Warrior body pulled a bunch of skeletons. More AoE ensued. Mordresh came down off his pile of bones. I hit him with an HoR while the skeletons around us exploded. Nothing could survive the AoE circle of death. I forget what Mordresh dropped but it was nothing I Needed.

We moved on and found Glutton, who dropped his Axe. The Shaman and I both Need rolled. He won. It was only a moderate upgrade to my current weapon so no big deal. I congratulated him and we moved on, fighting our way up the Ramp to Amnennar who dropped my Plate Helm. A horrible looking sky-blue Helm that resembles a Motocross Helmet more than anything else, but it was an Upgrade so I Need rolled. I think the Warrior passed. He was probably in his 30s and couldn't use it yet anyway.

I thanked everyone for the Run, and only now did I let them know it was my first time Tanking. There were general Thanks all around as the Priest offered me some words of advice.

"Remember you're a Paladin," he said. "Pull big! You're made for that."

"See ya," everyone said, and we all dropped Group and Ghetto Hearthed out.

I hit Stormwind and turned in the quest, "Bring the Light", which netted me the wicked looking Vanquisher's Sword. At 30DPS it's a significant upgrade over my Axe, better than Glutton's Cleaver, and is even a debatable upgrade over RFK's 2H Axe, Corpsemaker.

I Alt-Tabbed out to email my brother-in-law about my Tanking exploits but while I was tabbing back & forth (fact checking, I'm anal like that) I noticed he'd just logged on so I updated him in person (at least virtually ;)

I wanted a Fiery Enchant for my new sword but there were no Small Radiant Shards on the AH so that wasn't happening.

"How about Crusader?" the BIL asked, linking the recipe.

Large Brilliant Shards were a dime a dozen, but the Righteous Orbs were 45g each.

"Dude! That's 90g for an enchant on a mid-level weapon!"

"I'll do it for free," he said. "Where are you?"

As I typed "SW Bank" I began running from the AH to the Bank, and bumped into him coming the other way. "Well I was about to be," I said, laughing.

He hooked me up with Crusader then, wanting to complete the Quest "In the Name of the Light", we took off for Tirisfal Glades and the Scarlet Monastery, where I discovered when Crusader proc'd my DPS jumped from 75 to 95. Nice!

Shaun's 80 Pally obliterated SM Armory and Cathedral, and the two Instances provided me with a couple of upgrades, including a new Shield, a better-looking DPS Helm (off Herod) and a 2H Axe (for completing the Quest). I'm now in much better shape to Tank SM but first I want to farm RFD's Spider Boss for the Plate Chest piece he drops. With my new gear and the Crusader Enchant, if Shaun is not on tonight (19-hour time difference between us) I reckon I can Solo-farm him. And if I can't, I can always Tank it again :)

Pally Tanks

I'm level 42 at the moment (yes, I resubscribed, in case you missed that from my Phishing posts) and could respec Prot (I'm full on Ret, of course) or just shell out the 1K for the dual-spec.

From what I've read (& what I know of the Class) Pally Tanking doesn't seem too hard, I just haven't done it yet. Except for a quick Deadmines Run with my BIL on his 80 Pally I've solo'd all my Instances so far, including SM Library.

What I've been looking for are some good sites (other than EJ) or Blogs on how to be a Pally Tank, but pretty much everything I've run across talks about End Game and Tanking at 80. What I want is something to help me with Tanking now. I'd like to Tank SM, and I also want to do RFD so I can complete the Quest "Bring the Light", not to mention the Plate that can drop in RFD. The new LFG tool means finding groups for Mara and Dire Maul shouldn't be as hard as it used to be, and I really don't want to make either of those my first Tanking experience.

So, does anyone have any good sites where an up & coming Pally Tank could get some advice? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

Funny moments in WoW

A long, long time ago, while running Kara, our Guild finally made it to the Prince.

After a couple of failed starts our Tank declared that after grabbing Aggro he was having trouble getting into the recommended spot to Tank the Prince, so I suggested he get into place and I Misdirect the Prince onto him.

As everyone moved into their appropriate place I cast Misdirect on our Tank, then slowly approached the Prince, who is a very big boy, and as I got closer to him he just got bigger & bigger. It was an interesting optical illusion that, from my PoV, made it look like I was getting very close to him yet I was still outside shooting Range.

When I finally got close enough for my skills to light up I discovered I was also now close enough to body pull the Prince, which I did. As I stared down the lion's throat I frantically stabbed at my Arcane Shot key, and just before I became the first casualty in Yet Another Wipe it fired, Misdirect kicked in, and the Prince decided he liked the look of our Tank better than he did me.

But as if to highlight just how close I'd come to being crushed, as the Prince turned away my Hunter took a parting swing at him. Yes, with his Axe. The Prince had been that damned close.