Just like Slave Pens the level 63-65 instance Underbog heavily reminds me about Blackfathom Deeps. Underbog is right next to Slave Pens in the Steamvaults, so that might be the reason for the resemblance ;-). This time we had a level 70 Night Elf warrior with us who just couldn’t seem to live with the fact that I stole his agro all the time… even though I was the group’s tank :P. He kept attacking the mobs before me or just attacked the ones I wasn’t tanking at the moment. Well, I guess this is something like: “my penis is bigger than yours” or something… I don’t know :D. Anyway, I still loved it and wanna thank all (except this weird little warrior) for this fantastic run again!
I know it’s been a while but don’t forget: it’s summer time :-)! Therefore I won’t be playing WoW that much anymore and even worse: I won’t have that much time to update my blog anymore ;-). But be rest assured, I’m still alive and I still love my tank Hekthor :P.
This time I wanna show you the level 62-64 instance Slave Pens in Zangarmarsh in the Outland. I really love this instance because of it’s similarity to Blackfathom Deeps. I like it if things look a bit “organic” and alive… if you know what I mean :-). Unfortunately my group could have been better for this run. We had a level 70 guy with us who constantly tried to steal the show and who didn’t quite stick to the “rules of engagement” ;-). For that reason the whole instance got a bit hectic sometimes and I really had to fight to keep the aggression on my side (as seen at Omen… I’m always the red bar). At the last boss (Quagmirran) the level 70 dude kept giving me strange suggestions/orders on how to tank him best. Well, it was my first time in this instance so I naturally listened to him. The result can be seen in the video :-). I moved him back and forth all the time while chatting with this guy to finally give me clear directions :-). What also really pissed me off was the fact that I’ve been in this instance for AT LEAST 15 times without getting the drop Bogstrok Scale Cloak from the second boss (Rokmar the Crackler). It’s such a great cloak for a tank and at the very first run a druid in my group got it instead. From there on I never had the drop again :-(.
The level 61-63 instance Blood Furnace is a pretty cool one actually. Unfortunately I had some dorks with me again, which diminished my sense of fun and teamplay somewhat. Especially the level 70 Paladin got on my nerves. From the beginning on two friends of mine and I made clear that I was gonna tank and that we just needed some damage dealers. He wasn’t really a damage dealer but with his level 70 equipment we thought he should do fine… and he really wanted to join us. Kind as we are we invited him along… mistake! As can be seen in the video he constantly advanced before me or tried to tank the mobs off me. Well we did it anyway and had - apart for this idiot - quite fun with this instance.
It’s been quite some time since my last instance and god knows I missed the feeling of fighting dozens of aggressive mobs and big bosses who were slamming with all their might at me :-)! The level 60-62 instance Hellfire Ramparts in Hellfire Peninsula was quite a shock to me in the beginning. Perhaps I was just not used to doing instances anymore or perhaps my party wasn’t the best out there or perhaps my equipment and my stamina wasn’t the greatest but I’m rather the opinion that those mobs were simply a lot harder than in any other instance I’ve done before. The first time I attempted completing Ramparts I died like six or seven times, four times at the last boss alone :P. In the video you can see that I defended my group-mates to my last breath… literally because I died together with him ;-). Even though the instance itself is quite small, it’s a pretty cool one which I highly recommend to anyone new to the Outland!
Yesterday was one of those days in WoW where I temporarily lost my drive for this game :-(. First I had to look for at least 45 mins to get a group for the instance Blackrock Depths (BRD)… which is amazing enough considering that I’m one of the - if not THE - most needed class in this game! Unfortunately I also did all other quests in the zone Burning Steppes already, so I was just killing mobs out of boredom while waiting for any replies.
Then, after I’ve finally found a group, it proved to be a total disappointment. Almost everyone was so impatient and just wanted to rush through BRD as fast as humanly possible. When I told them that I wanted to enjoy this instance and play it thoroughly they even suggested to relog with their main chars to give me a boost! Well, everyone might have a different view when it comes to “enjoying WoW” but for me it means having a challenge and trying to see as much as possible of an instance and NOT just following a group of level 70 chars ;-). I thanked them for their offer but declined neverthenless. They all grew more impatient by the minute and just wanted to go on without having to wait for me all the time. Of course they also started to attack pretty much every mob in this instance and wanted me to protect them :P. After about 20 mins the inevitable happened: the group got dissolved and I went back to the nearest major city to sell some stuff at the AH and to log off for the night.
I know that those moments are rather rare in WoW, but I also noticed - and heard from a friend of mine - that I must be prepared to accept that with increasing level more and more people just wanna level up as fast as possible without caring for the story and the whole gaming experience. I also know that lots of people are playing their already 5th or 6th alternative char or twink (an alt char which is “sponsored” by the main char) and just don’t wanna “waste” their time with all those quests etc. again. Well, let’s see what the next couple of days will bring…
The level 42-50 instance Zul Farrak isn’t the greatest I’ve been to but I liked it neverthenless. It gives you an Indiana Jones, mystical Egypt kind of feeling if you know what I mean :-). What I liked most about ZF is the part where you stand on top of the pyramid to fight against hordes of rushing mobs. That scene reminds me of Starship Troopers and the trap on this outpost where they gotta fight thousands of bugs… really great! Therefore I also decided to use the official Starship Troopers Theme song for this part in my video :-P! The end-boss-fight against “Nessie” was cool too of course but the pyramid scene beats it all ;-)!
Most guys I talked with don’t really like it but I enjoyed every single visit to the level 40-52 instance Maraudon. I like the atmosphere and the fact that it’s such a huge dungeon. This of course can also be quite annoying, particularly in the beginning. During my first two runs I constantly got lost and eventually killed while wandering around looking for a way back to my group :-). For the first time since obtaining the Berserker Stance I could actually have used it this time against the probably most beautiful princess ever :-). She used a fear spell which made me flee like a coward… well, perhaps it was just the stink of her farting at me who made my character wanna flee… who knows for sure :-P?! Of course I blew my first chance to shine using the Berserker skill big time :-). I didn’t know that she was gonna fear me and therefore didn’t use the skill either. Now I know that there is an option where you can see what a your enemy is currently casting but back then I had no clue what she was doing. Fortunately we had a pretty high level Shaman with us who dealt plenty of damage in my “absence” ;-).
It’s a real shame. I was looking so much forward to the level 33-41 instance Razorfen Downs after having spent some quality time in its predecessor Razorfen Kraul. What did I get instead? Some totally egoistic players who showed no team spirit whatsoever and never worked together :-(. Sometimes I actually got the impression they were pulling mobs from the exact opposite corner of where I was standing deliberately. Though I can’t even imagine why they should do such an act of selfishness. As far as I remember (it’s been a while) I didn’t even get any good drops to compensate the troubles I had with my group ;-). Why did I do it then you might ask? Well, back then I was level 39 and really eager to finally reach 40 in order to get my mount… so I even endured this torture :P! Now I’m too high level for this instance and I’m not sure how much fun it would be to solo it. But who knows, perhaps I’m gonna help some friend to get through this instance when he can’t find a tank or just needs a boost. I really liked the giant spider and the layout of it. In the worst case I’ll definitely do it properly with my alt char in the future somewhen ;-).
P.S. please do NOT look at my tanking skills this time, I was so pissed off that I didn’t really care about anything.
Finally, it’s time for another instance again :-). This time I went to the level 36 - 44 instance Uldaman in Badlands. The actual instance itself wasn’t that great but the drops and particularly the bosses were really cool! Just in case you’re wondering, the video shows me in two different groups on two different days. The first minute or so contains a rather not-teamwork-like group while the rest of the video shows me in a very effective group… at least in the end. In the second group we’ve been five people at first but one seemed to be a bit immature and decided to aggro as many mobs as humanly possible ;-). After one member of my group had a “little talk” with him about his behavior the guy decided to leave us in middle of the instance. Well, we were there already so we decided to continue without him… which proved to be a very wise decision. From then on the group has been a blast and we even succeeded in killing the last super-hyper-mega-boss :P! I also got some new, cool equipment which might - in some cases - not be the most fitting warrior stuff but firstly was it better than my previous equipment and secondly was nobody there who could have used it better. I got Ironaya’s Bracers of the Eagle, Revelosh’s Boots of Defense, Cragfists of the Bear and Field Plate Helmet of the Bear :-)! So you might say that I’ve been quite successful whenit comes to drops this evening :P.
Actually I’m not even that sure that this video only contains the Graveyard part of the instance Scarlet Monestary ;-). In total SM consists of four parts: Graveyard (28-36), Library (31-39), Armory (33-41) and Cathedral (36-44). All of them are at the same spot, which makes it even more difficult to distinguish between them in my opinion. Neverthenless they’re all beautiful and really cool instance parts with lots of action and cool mobs. Unfortunately my group wasn’t that good and teamwork wasn’t really a known vocabulary to them eithers… so the fun suffered a little bit from that :P! Good thing though that I’m still not too high level to enter the SM again, which I’m definately intending to to ;-). As a change I decided to use the original sounds of WoW instead of private music tracks. Don’t know what’s better so let me know your opinion ;-).
