He Returns!

Not much to say here, other than...Zev is back! In the form of his so-far level 63 DK, Zeltan :)

Wrath!! And other stuff.

Okay...a lot to talk about. But there's a long queue for Dath, so I'll be fine.

Firstly: The expansion, and everything that comes with it. I went to the midnight launch (thanks Moon)! Got home the next day, created a DK, Makolan. Now since I've got a lot to say, I'm going to try and summarise everything - so I'll just say that I love DK's. Especially the starter zones. And the gear looks great. The abilities are awesome, and more complex and interesting compared to spamming FoL/Steady depending on whichever character I'm logged onto. I'm Blood, at level 61, and the self-heals along with dps is pretty damn nice. 5-man runs of all DK's in Ramparts are fun. I'm not quite sure whether to level this guy or Elf, but I'm leaning towards huntering along to 80 before I spend too much time on Makolan.




And now for something completely different.

Northrend! Although I haven't done much here - neither toon's levelled yet and Adi still hasn't been touched - at least Elf's pretty close to 71. I'm hoping to get it tonight. Elf's replaced one of his rings, but no other gear's been touched yet. My skinning is 400-ish so far and my LW is somewhere around 390. Stampy the Gorilla is awesome for levelling - AoE-grinding with Thunderstomp, Volley, and 10+ mobs. I'm really looking forward to levelling through to 80 with Moon. I'm not sure about my overall feelings of Borean Tundra - I'm only about halfway through it, but there's already some things I like and some things I don't. The 'Kill X of Y' quests get a bit numerous, but it helps show off the zones you go to. I like the scourge-infected farm town and the mine, and the Mammoths are great for skinners and grinding, but a lot of the scenery seems to be a somewhat strange mix of Darkshore and Azshara. The mobs are all quite new, and the DEHTA quests are good. The mist effect from the titan-giant-thingies gets a bit annoying after a while. The Nexus is pretty cool, especially the last boss - the others are trivial for a well-geared group, but Keristrasza's stacking debuff, Intense Cold, adds some interesting things to the fight.

And now for something completely different.

This is a short one, but I love Devilsaurs. The shaking, the growing, all those other things melee people hate. My Devilsaur (named Cat) will likely be my DPS raiding pet for 80. I don't have any good screenshots of him in combat yet, but, just for good measure, here's a strange pic from when I was taming him.


And now for something completely different.

Another short one, but I may as well get the old news out of the way. We full-cleared ZA the week after 3.0, and Adirix got full-epic with his Dark Blessing mace from Zul'jin.

And now for something completely different.

Friends keep coming and going in WoW. Guildies join and leave. In the last month or so, I've had Obe and Red leave [:(], a Horde friend come and join the Alliance in the form of Doneath the Death Knight, Duskspeed rerolling a Death Knight also (with the name of Deathspeed. So creative). Zev's coming back in around a week, only to have the bad luck to have to leave for another 3 months again next April. (:P) Oh, and Obe and Red may or may not be coming back. If they are, none of us know whether it'll be tomorrow or in the next 5 years. Below - some screenshots of Obe's sendoff from me, Jondy, and Borg.






And now for something completely different.

The last thing for now...the queues! Dath'Remar isn't a low-pop realm in the first place, and is often full. But with WoTLK, the queues are insane (yes, I know all realms are probably like this, but testing each realm's queue length isn't exactly my idea of a good time). Just look at the picture...


All queues and no levelling makes Elf go crazy. 1531 queues are not good.

Anyway, that's what it was when I started writing this post...it's now at 715. And an estimated time of 141 minutes. /sigh.

Well, that's pretty much my summary of Wrath and all that's happened around the guild surrounding the release. I might add an extra pic or two later, and maybe another post if I've forgotten something, which I probably will have. And I'll try and post more frequently. I promise. =/

Bye for now,
Elf.

Guild Progression

Over the last few weeks, The Ancients raiders have been flying through the content. Here's a quick catch-up, gear, and recognition list; if anyone or anything is forgotten, please let me know.

Firstly: A bit under two weeks ago, a mix of our raiding groups 1 and 2 entered Zul'Aman for the second time. We got through the adds much better than the first time, and it showed on the boss, too... we downed Nalorakk within a shot or two, and congrats to Moonspirit on the Robes of Heavenly Purpose. Afterwards, we progressed onto Akil'Zon, the eagle avatar, and tried him a few times. We lowered him to 49% on our best shot, which, considering it was our first night at him, was a quite good effort.

Now, to get more recent: Last Thursday, The Ancients combined with guild Captain Sanders Shirt, as well as some pugs, to give Gruul's Lair a shot. It took a while to get started, but after an hour of getting more people and buffing up, we progressed to High King Maulgar. It was a long process, taking a fair few shots because of mage-tank problems, but we eventually got a replacement mage-tank who had done the fight before, and got the fight easily from there. I'm not able to congratulate anyone on the loot for this one, as I forget who got it. :P

Moving onto Gruul's, we had respawn problems, but managed to clear it. After, again, the buffing and tactic-explaining, we lowered him to 40% for a good first shot...then, our next try was an agonising wipe at 2%. By that time, there were respawns, so after also being on for quite a long time, we had to leave. Correct me if I'm wrong, because I didn't hear much about it, but as far as I know, the raid dissolved soon after, and Gruul, sadly, remained alive, even after a great effort from the raid.

Now, to the most recent, and maybe most beneficial achievement; The Ancients first full one-night clear! We could tell from the start - from Borg's enthusiasm in pulling - that we were aiming for a full-clear. But it went even better than planned...we progressed through all the bosses as we passed them, with lots of loot, BoJ, and void crystals. Zev complained, justifiably, of the lack of Paladin T4 Tokens from Curator, as the Warrior-Priest-Druid one dropped for what seemed to be the millionth time. Also, there was yet again no luck with the ring for Odayla and I... although, a few bosses later, at Netherspite, I got a leg armour replacement, with the Skulker's Greaves dropping, and nobody else wanting to roll on them. Maybe just because gemming and enchanting legs costs so damn much. :P

After just over three hours, we got to Prince, the last boss standing. No wipes so far, and many people having gotten gear already. We were just going for a perfect full clear...when a bad infernal placement wiped us. At 1 damned percent. Annoyed, but still determined, we rushed back up for a second shot, and downed him easy, for us first 1-night full clear! Grats to Odayla on the T4 Headpiece token.

And finally, one last piece of news: Zevon/Beanieone - the guild's fastest leveller, and maybe wit - is unable to play until November. Zev's been a great friend and rival to me for many months now. We'll miss ya until then, Zev :(

So, cyas till next post, guys.
Elf.