The Farstrider Scout

 I left out one major event that occured from yesterday’s post, since I felt it deserved a little more coverage…

Spurred on by one of our newer guild mates, the Blood Wolves stormed the keep at Menathil Harbor yesterday evening, wiping out the guard before retreating across the bridge while under assault from reinforcements from Ironforge.

This is different from our normal fare for several reason.  Typically, both sides stick with some of the more remote outposts: Astranaar, Splintertree, Crossroads, Hammerfall, Tarren Mill, Southshore, etc.  Menathil is at the back of Ironforge, and is a major travel hub (or at least it was when I was on Alliance side) due to the fact that the majority of Alliance flight points travel through there, and it has connections with Kalimdor.  Also, the only targets we killed were inside the keep, and from a roleplaying standpoint, of military value only.

This was our largest group formed to date as well, with 7 people – 6 from the guild, 1 outsider.  Athanaric and I snuck in to scout while the rest of the group was forming up in Hammerfall, and the place was nearly deserted, but once we were all together and attacked, reinforcements arrived in minutes, but only after taking out everything within the keep.

This is the point where we came to the conclusion that without endless guards spawning, without a sure chance of victory, many times the Alliance will not fight.  A few lowbies tried to assist in taking us down, but a combination of explosives, traps, and pets took them down rather quickly.  /salute for their efforts though.

This is also the point where we realized that we need healers in our guild, since at the moment we’re composed of mostly hunters and warriors, with the occasional warlock and paladin…  So if any healers are looking for a guild……

The word looks odd when you write it more than one time, but that’s why this post is so late.  Started off this morning with nothing to say, decided I’d have something later on…  And so I put it off, and ended up getting so wrapped up in the game that I forgot about posting until it was time for bed.

The morning started off rather slow, with just a few BG’s – EotS for the daily, and a few AV matches with 1 win, 2 losses.  The last match had over 8 people sitting AFK in the cave!  Got fed up with that, so I moved on to other things.

Went up to Netherstorm to have a whack at “You, Robot“, and, as I was essentially petless, Negatron stomped us soundly.  Apparently when it says 3 are recommended, you probably need 3 to do it.  So I put myself up as looking for a group to do that, and threw in Steam Vaults and Shattered Halls for good measure.

The Steamvaults invite came first, so we went, failing to get anything we really wanted aside from the second Kara key fragment.  I’ll be going again, I’m sure… and again, and again, and again.

By that time, several guild mates were on, so I enlisted their help in downing Negatron after bringing them up to speed so we could all do the quest.  It was a close fight, but Negatron was toppled, and the three of us walked away, victorius, wearing our [X-52 Rocket Helmet], and I now have a macro to be paired with my flying machine:

/s Engine failure!
/panic
/s We’re going down!
/s EJECT!  EJECT! EJECT!
/em pulls the ejection handles.
/dismount
/use X-52 Rocket Helmet

Trust me, the results are spectacular.

Level 70, baby!  Awwww, yeah! /flex

Went on a Shadow Labyrinth run for the first time with some friends, mostly to get the first key fragment for Kara, but also in the hopes of downing Murmur.  It was rough getting to him, with 3 wipes before Blackheart the Inciter.  2 of them I managed to feign death and survive, but only barely, and of course my [Goblin Jumper Cables XL] were on cool down, since the healer had died right after the first wipe, so no soulstone was available.

All in all it was a good run though, despite the lack of worthwhile gear dropping.  The tank though, passed up everything, despite his growing repair bill.  I got lucky, with only 5 gold on repairs…  But that was somewhat offset by the stack of pet food I had gone through, not to mention the 3200 some arrows I went through… Yes, that’s right, 3200 arrows.  I drained the top two rows of my quiver twice, restocking midway through the instance with my arrow makers (That bow I have is a killer on arrows).  Those things are the greatest thing since sliced bread for a hunter.

That didn’t quite get me to 70 though, but 2 quests in Shadowmoon Valley, and 900 gold later, I was winging my way over Nagrand to help fight at Halaa.

That is what battlegrounds seem to be, so I’ve decided to level to 70.  The good thing is, I have all the marks I need for armor, with the exception of Alterac Valley, which should be slightly easier at 70.  I hope.

Aside from a few hours yesterday, things have been running smoothly – I managed to do a solo-LBRS run to finish off the quest “Mother’s Milk” and get the [Worg Carrier] and [Smolderweb Carrier]. This was done using a combination of sheer luck, and Koneg’s solo LBRS worg taming guide from Petopia.

What inspired this madness?  We went on a 5 man LBRS run with a friend and a few of her guild mates to get the worg carrier, kill one of the bosses, and get some blacksmithing patterns.  Keep in mind, LBRS used to be one of the instances that you had to go through to get your dungeon gear before BC…  Gear which was made obselete by Outland greens.  None of these people that I went with (no offense intended, should any of them actually read this), had any clue what it was like going through and having blues drop that I would have liked to have so many, many moons ago.  Kind of sad, really.  In my opinion, Blizzard should retool all the old high level instances for new loot, and make them able to be completed by a 5-man…  Or just make them completable by a 5-man. 

Seriously – BRD, LBRS, UBRS, DM, MC, BWL, and Onyxia were rendered useless, or at least near useless (I’ve heard of tanks using [Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker] on Gruul to keep aggro.) with the advent of Burning Crusade.  People really only go to places like these for specific reasons at this point, or because they’re tired of running Outland instances.

What do you say, Blizzard?  How about it?

Hit 69 last night shortly after a Crypts run, completing my goal of getting there before the 28th.  I also managed to complete some mini-goals: 375 mining, crafting my [Dimensional Ripper - Area 52], [Zapthrottle Mote Extractor], and [Goblin Rocket Launcher].  Finally got to break out the [Crystalforged War Axe] I’ve had sitting in the bank for a month (Man, is it ugly.) thanks to a friend, and I’ve just hit 800 gold on my bank mule, thanks to the mote extractor and finding a [Schematic: Adamantite Arrow Maker].  [Primal Air] sells for around 18-20 gold on Moon Guard, and no one seems to sell the arrow makers (either that, or they go so fast that there are never any up). In a day or two I could buy my flying mount and associated training if I wanted to.

So now I have a new goal, and with it, a dilemma.  I would like a full set of Gladiator gear.  I would have preferred a full set of the old High Warlord’s chain, because I think it looks better, but that’s gone now.  In any case, I have a choice – hit 70 in the few days of leave I have left, or hit the BG’s and start farming marks and honor?

Either way, I’m going to end up levelling eventually, because Vree still needs to level up, I’m going to have to keep mining for adamantite to keep my arrow supply stocked, and I don’t really plan on not doing instance runs since some of the gear I have could still use improvement.  It’s still a tough decision though.

That is all.  Thank you.

So you’re out in the middle of Nagrand, flagged (or you’re on a PvP server), minding your own business, happily killing off the local wildlife, when BAM!  Out of the blue you get jumped by someone.  What do you do?

This is exactly what happened to me yesterday.  I didn’t even realize I was still flagged from a previous altercation in Halaa, when I got jumped by a level 70 druid.  I managed to best her, but just barely, and her two friends that showed up shortly after were not happy.

But I pose that question because I’m curious.  I know that every situation is different, and things never play out the same way twice, unless the person you’re fighting isn’t smart enough to learn from their mistakes the first time.  But I also know that those first few seconds, those first reactions, as your basic instinct of “Fight or Flight” kicks in, are crucial to the outcome of the fight.

Me?  I hit scatter shot as soon as I was able, started running, and dropped a trap on my way.  You know the opening cinematic where Illidan says “YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!”  Yeah, he was talking to me.  I had no clue I was flagged, I wasn’t even paying attention to tracking, just happily plinking away at talbuk and clefthooves. 

The rest of the fight played out relatively quickly.  She didn’t fall for the trap at first, so I hit her with Serpent Sting so she couldn’t restealth, and sic’d Vree on her.  Shortly after, she decides she’s going to fall into the trap, and I start moving off again, heading for the road.  I get far enough away to drop out of combat, so I switch trinkets quick, right as I spot her heading my way in flight form.  I’m on the road by this point, so I drop a trap, and stand on it.

This is another key thing that I’ve discovered – If you can shift the fight so that you’re on a field of your choosing, playing by your rules, it increases the chance that you can win.  This particular road was the one running along a ravine, with the Ring of Trials on the other side.  I knew that if things went sour, I could just jump off the cliff and hit my [Parachute Cloak].

Predictably, she charged into my trap in bear form, so I moved off and opened up on her from a decent range, at which point, she made her biggest mistake – she shifted out of form.  She was already low on mana, but so was I, but the little she had got taken away by Mana Tap and Viper sting.  A druid with no mana is a dead druid. and so she was.

 Had I known she had friends on the way, I would have run as soon as she hit my trap, and kept going, but I didn’t, so I was sitting there, licking my wounds, and I get blindsided by a Draeni warrior in full Gladiator gear.  Granted, everyone and their mother has it by now, but at 67, there’s not much I can do to compete with that.  Seconds later I was dead, so I headed back to my body with my flag toggled off, and bailed out over the cliff.  At only two kills from levelling, I didn’t want to be bothered with PvP, even if it went against my character.

So, to Peche – Good fight.  I hope you learned something from it…  To Silentkiller and Turel, I look forward to the day when I can spit on your dishonorable, camping, lifeless bodies.  <grin>

Oh, and to Rhecca – I’m glad you finally figured out that I was piling those clefthoof bodies in one spot for you to skin!  Hate to see it go to waste.

Servers are down, oh what ever shall I do?

No more trying to post before I go to bed, for starters.  At least while I’m on this holiday schedule.  This is the last one.

I promise.

Today was yet another good day.  This karmic goodness has got to end sometime, but I don’t want it to just yet.  Went on an Underbog run with a good group, and managed not to wipe at all.  It came close a few times, but not quite.  I ended up being in charge of crowd control once we got past the Naga.  Hooo boy, what insanity.  The druid wasn’t able to Hibernate things effectively, so I ended up using Scare Beast in addition to my traps.  It worked out well enough.  The Black Stalker was kind enough to drop the [Shamblehide Chestguard], which pretty much just added 3 gem slots I didn’t have before.

I finally managed to collect enough [Oshu'gun Crystal Powder Samples] for my first [Halaa Research Token], and hit a dilemma.  I’ve got over a hundred [Halaa Battle Tokens] already, courtesy of Golavar’s Halaa events, so I could either purchase a [Marksman's Belt] now, wait until I get another Research Token, and get the [Marksman's Legguards], or stick with what I’ve got: [Dreadhawk's Girdle of the Hunt] and [General's Chain Legguards].  Neither is much of an upgrade, but they’re the first items available to me with resilience on them, and in the case of the pants, it has a yellow socket in which I could place the [Sublime Mystic Dawnstone], which I can afford right now, or save up the honor for an [Inscribed Ornate Topaz].  I tend to PvP a lot, so this might be a benefit, but I really don’t know.  I’m also not sure how it would effect my PvE time either.  Overall, based on what Ratings Buster states, and my own thoughts, the pants I have now are better, but it should probably be subject to more scrutiny.

The server problem seems to be fixed, but I’m going to bed.

More news at 11!  Stay tuned!

Between the power supply on my computer going on the fritz, requiring a 4 hour trip to the nearest Staples and back, running through Sethekk Halls, and joining the Couriers of Compassion in a Winter Solstice torchlight vigil/march from Tranquilien to Undercity, I didn’t really have time to post yesterday.  It was definitely hectic.

The Sethekk Halls run was definitely rewarding, with Darkweaver Syyth coughing up the [Sky-Hunter Swift Boots], which will be a nice upgrade in two levels, and a good match for the Beast Lord set, should I ever manage to get it.  Of course, we also picked up [Terokk's Quill], which was a decent upgrade, despite the fact that I had to give up being able to become self sustaining from mana oil.  I was extremely dissapointed in my performance on the run though.  DPS was about on par with previous instance runs, but I managed to cause the only wipe we had, and my traps kept on breaking, either from my own arrows, or from some unknown force.  Fortunately, I was usually prepared to re-trap (which almost always got resisted), have Vree off-tank, and/or kite.  The only redeeming thing was that I talked to the healer afterwards, and she said I did fine.  Huge weight off my shoulders.  Has anyone else had a problem with their traps repeatedly breaking early though?

The vigil march was kind of a last minute thing – I wouldn’t have found out about it if my wife hadn’t asked me for some [EZ-Throw Dynamite], which she “used” since she didn’t have a torch.  So I followed her, and things picked up from there.  It was a nice event, taking us about two or two and a half hours to go from Tranquilien to Undercity.  The emphasis was to take time to honor those that had fallen in the fight between the Blood Elves (High Elves at the time), Humans and the Scourge.  Vree and I ended up running point most of the way, constantly cycling through undead/humanoid/beast tracking and burning down anything that even looked like it might get close.  The aggro range on a level 2 player is HUGE!  The effort definitely seemed to be appreciated, and one of the characters remarked that Arvelen weilded a devine weapon…  Just doing what I do best, that’s all!

Didn’t quite make it to 67 like I had hoped I would.  The computer going on the fritz was a big contributor, but it’s back up and running now.  Very frustrating, since the power supply was probably less than a year old.  But, it’s back up and running now, with no other problems.  Bits and pieces of the story I talked about are coming together, som hopefully I’ll have something to post by (late) Monday.

Edit:  Apparently I forgot the title… heh…

Progression towards my goal is going well…  I managed to finish off most of 65 before getting an invite into a Auchenai Crypts group made up of 2 mages, 2 druids, and myself.  It went smoothly, with only one wipe on the eye guy.  I would have died earlier in the fight from falling damage if it hadn’t been for my Parachute Cloak.  The second try we downed him without a hitch, pushed on through to the end and Exarch Maladaar.  Short, sweet, and simple.  Unfortunately, no loot dropped worth rolling on, and I ended up getting out-DPS’d by one mage, and the druid tank, but it pushed Vree over to 65 (she’s been consistantly one level behind me ever since I got to Outland), and myself up to 66 and Friendly with the Lower City.

With 66 came Kill Command, one of those post-60 skills I’ve been itching to try out.  So, I pulled up WoWwiki’s entry on hunter macros, looked around a bit, and finally came up with my own macro:

/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/petdefensive
/petattack
/cast [target=pettarget] Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()

It’s basically just a supplement to my original pet attack macro that will cast Kill Command whenever it’s up and my pet is attacking, while suppressing any error messages when its not.  It needs a little tweaking so that Vree doesn’t run off willy-nilly whenever I accidentally mash it, but aside from that, it works well enough for me.  The nice thing is, with my fast bow, Kill Command is up more often than not, and I’m usually waiting on the cooldown just so I can fire it off again.  Here’s to hoping I’ll get another group tomorrow and I can try it out.

Side note:  I’ve got a story brewing in the back of my head..  I should have written the ideas its based off down when I first thought of them, but I’ll try and have something in a few days.