Ulduar!

With Cataclysm looming so close Kuanchichi and Mornara are looking at achievements they want to have done. In particular they would both like to have a 310% mount and to have killed everything in Ulduar.

I, personally, am of the opinion that Ulduar has the best story/art in the entire Wrath expansion. Naxx is recycled, and TOC is a big round room. Icecrown Citadel gives Ulduar a run for it's money. I like ICC, but I feel that the story in Ulduar is just so well done. And it's certainly more epic than either the Blood or Plague Wings of ICC. Ulduar has the keepers and Yogg. Though XT I could happily throttle.

Anyway, Kuan and Mornara are on their way towards Rusted Proto Drakes. They still have a ways to go, but I think we have a chance of getting it. Granted the harder ones are left, but hey, you've gotta start somewhere.

End of Expansion Raiding

I'm not really sure when the release date of Cataclysm is. First I heard Nov 2, now that's "slipped" and it will be around the first week or two of December. Honestly I think that Dwism is partially correct, and Cata won't come until the shiny has been all the way worn off of Starcraft. Blizzard doesn't want to cannibalize their own subscriber base.

Now in the interim, Darkfall has been a bit slow on the raids. We've reduced to 10 man raids. There are a bunch of people who want to just kill LK and some people who want to do heroic modes and some other people who want to do achievements. It's making the 10man ICC a bit annoying.

Last night for example there were all three camps in the raid. About half of the people wanted to do some heroic modes and the other half wanted to do heroics and/or achievements. We failed at heroics and at achieves. It was rather lame. We did a terrible job of gelling as a group, so our attempts at heroic Marrowgar were 3 wipes before we called it and went back to normal mode. This is after one-shotting him two days previously. I'm not sure if it's sadder that we couldn't get him to start with or that we gave up after 3 tries. We almost had the Rotface achieve, but someone didn't want to do it so they merged their slime with the one I was kiting instead of forming a new one.

Anyway we got through the first 8 bosses. All that is left are the Blood Wing, Sindragosa, and LK. It wasn't a bad night of raiding, but it was boring and several achievements that easily were within our grasp were not done.

Continued Whispers

The Lich King is still talking to Mornara. Even after she's finished the quest to collect souls in ICC, she's still using the axe, and so still technically collecting souls.


The Lich King whispers: Come to me, pretender! Feed MY blade!

So, yes, Mornara is quite freaked out by the Lich King.

Arena

Last Saturday, the 18th, Kuanchichi and VIljo went to the arenas! I kept taking screenshots because every time we won was a new record.




We even beat a warrior pally combo. I was so pleased! Stupid pallies almost always bubble just before we kick their butts. And then they heal up while their partner knocks one of us out. :( But not this time! This time we smacked the pally around.





I hate double rogues. Hate hate hate. :( Violation by daggers is just not my idea of fun. But this time we managed to beat the dreaded two rogue combo!






At this point we realized we'd won 7 in a row. Unfortunately we stopped to think about the shiny achieve for winning 10 in a row. Of course realizing that we were close to an achieve and having broken 700 rating meant that is was now time for us to face a very well geared and coordinated druid/death knight team. Regrettably they smashed us. :(



Ah, well. We still went on to win our last two matches.




So now we're sitting pretty on 716 rating. Kuan has enough rating to get the lovely pvp totem. I think the next rating goal is around 1300 or so. That's when you can start getting the pvp weapons and such. Heh, well we'll work on it...

.......

Also that warrior and pally from our 2nd match are on Hyjal. When we were all done with our matches I still saw them standing around the arena master. I might have thrown a few snowballs at them... Bwahaha! Stupid alliance. :D

Twilight Drake

Monday night, or technically very early tuesday morning, Mornara and Kuanchichi went to OS25. It was a three drake zerg organized by a priest friend of ours. She was on her mage alt, Fellicea. Mornara was main tanking, and amazingly enough we killed the dragon on the first try.



Let me rephrase that. The first time I ever take Mornara into OS25, she main tanks the dragon with 3 drakes up. And not only that, but I then go on to WIN THE ROLL for the Twilight Drake.



I was not expecting that. I rolled of course, and had hope, but honestly it was Mornara's first time on OS25, I thought that it would take serious farming to get it. Not just stroll in the for the first time and then walk out with a drake.

Though I was amused by someone trying to buy it from me after I won. I'd like you to note the order of events in the following screenshot.



Yeah, not about to sell my lovely new drake. The same guy tried to offer 18k for it, but really there isn't any price I'd sell an awesome mount like this for.

Troll Recruits

Part of the effort to retake the Echo Isles involves drumming up support. Literally. You've got to take Vol'jin's drum and go convince some trolls to join the war effort. When you've got a bunch you all ride back to Sen'jin Village. It's pretty cool to see trolls on the old style mounts.

Raid Leading

Last Tuesday Kuan and I logged on for Darkfall's evening raid. I brought Mornara since we've had a pretty sever shortage of tanks. Hellshot, the GL was setting up the raid. He had too many people who wanted to come, but not nearly enough for a 25man. So we were doing a ICC10. Suddenly Hellshot decides that since so many undergeared people want to come he'll drop out. And just like that I'm main tanking and leading a 10man raid.

It was actually a pretty successful raid. We had a little bit of a problem to start with getting people who wouldn't disconnect. But once that was sorted out it all worked out. We entirely cleared the first three wings. Our only wipe was on BQL the first time we tried her. There was some confusion and we ended up with two vampires running about. But other than that it was a pretty smooth run. We even one shot princes when the other tank hadn't ever done that fight before.

Anyway while running from Festergut to Rotface we randomly triggered the second trap. We weren't expecting it, but I managed to react in time. This is what a well tanked and well AOE'd group of mobs should look like when dead:

Finding the Bar

A long long time ago, I was lost in Black Rock Depths (BRD). I wandered around the Prison Block and the Ring of Law. I fought my way through the Quarry and the Dark Iron Highway. I could see the Bar (aka the Grim Guzzler), but I had no fucking clue how to get to it. Shortly after that I was trying to get attuned to Molten Core. After several corpse runs and the other mishaps that result from trying to ask the Dark Irons for directions, I finally found my way to the place to lava hop to get attuned.

Those two experiences convinced me to always learn my way around a dungeon. Always always always. So I remember pretty much every dungeon I've been in (aside from Maraudon, fucking Maraudon). I can easily lead the way through Dire Maul. The Outland dungeons are laughably easy to navigate. The Northrend dungeons are also cake to find your way around. I know where the bosses are in ZG and I'm pretty sure I could get around MC. UBRS, LBRS, and even BRD are no problem.

In fact BRD I know so well I can give directions in gchat. I don't remember why Zephon was trying to get to the bar. I think maybe he had some rep turnins to do there? Anyway, Tylara and Kairon were helping to retake the Echo Isles. So while we did that I gave Zephon some directions:





I believe that he did eventually take a break from dwarf and gnome slaughtering to actually go to the bar.

Retaking the Echo Isles!

The Echo Isles section in southeastern Durotar has been phased to allow players to participate in Vol'jin's effort to retake them from Zalazane! Of course Kuanchichi and Viljo were there for it. I'm pretty sure both Clara and I felt this was the most exciting thing to happen in game since the Venomhide Ravasaur.

It's set up like a mini Wrathgate, but with better voice acting, and since it's not available to Alliance, it's a Feat of Strength. I won't say more becuase of the spoilers, but honestly I don't think any event related to WotLK has nearly as good voice acting as the interactions between Vol'jin and the other trolls; not even Wrathgate. And this event has a lot of voice acting. If we're getting a representative sample of the upcoming Cataclysm, I am quite excited.

Here, Zalazane is telling Vol'jin to go blow, basically.



The cadence and actual pronunciation of the trolls, btw, don't match the emphasis and spelling in the text at all. It's a spot of cognitive dissonance.

Grammar

A pet peeve of mine is people who say u instead of you, ne1 instead of anyone, or other similar leet stupidity. I really believe that the time it would take to add the extra two letters is more than compensated for by the time that everyone reading has to spend trying to decipher what someone actually meant. To that end I present this:

Image copied from http://i.imgur.com/PCHNZ.jpg I have no idea who originally came up with this, but he or she is awesome.

War Wolves

Kuanchichi and Mornara racing in to Zul'Gurub on their War Wolves.