Archive for the ‘Horde’ Category

Ok, an odd occurrence tonight at the Argent Tournament. I’m working on becoming a champion of the gnomes, primarily for the rep gains.  Rep-wise, I’m currently exalted with humans, night elves and now dwarves (as of a week or so ago), so only the Draenei and gnomes are left, and I still want a mechanostrider. I picked up a Swift White Ram as soon as I hit exalted with the dwarves to go with my Swift Stormsaber in my collection of other races mounts.

Anyway, I was doing the Grand Melee daily quest to defeat three Valiants, but while dueling my first one, he started getting shot at with spells. A mage’s spells. I thought, “nice of you to help, whoever you are, but I’ve got it handled.” Anyway, once that first Valiant fell, I saw who was helping me. It was a random Blood Elf mage. Let me repeat that. A Blood Elf Mage. Blood-Elf. Y’know, of the Horde. WTF was he doing, helping me win?! What, was he a turncoat to the Horde? He didn’t do allot of damage, but it was enough to make it easier on me. I swear, I have no idea how the Horde thinks.

I was in two Wintergrasp matches today, one defensive and one offensive. The defensive one didn’t go so well. We lost, but more importantly I died over and over. I nabbed a number of kills but nothing to talk about. What amazed me was my more recent assault run I was on. Here’s how it went down.

I was in Dun Morogh nabbing eggs for my Noblegarden achievements when I got notified by my guild leader, who was on one of his alts, that Wintergrasp had just started and to come if I wanted to join. I got there in no time and… we won. That’s it. I was no sooner there then we won. It had to be the fastest match I’d ever seen, and not just because I came late. I saw we only had six tanks, but apparently that was enough. What, did the Horde sleep through this match? Obviously they didn’t, because in the minute or two between arriving and winning I got stunned and killed once by an undead rogue, and again by a Tauren warrior. I got one kill, but dying twice as much as I kill sucks. But, we won… and that’s what I go there for. Death to the Horde! lol

Wintergrasp. Again. I don’t know what my fascination is with that place. I just enjoy it so much! Anyway, we were defending in my latest match. I learned early on that I was able to solo level 80s at last. I took on a couple at full health and leveled them. At one point, a dwarf paladin just stood next to me as I dueled a troll hunter. What, was I a side show?  He did heal me after the fight, though, which was nice. At one point I was pounding on a blood elf death knight and had her almost dead when she healed up a good bit and cast Army of the Dead on me. No matter; I finished her off, which dismissed the extra undead. I also rode gunner on a Siege Engine for a while. At one point I was double teamed, but managed to finish off one of ‘em before finally being felled. I got more killing blows this match then ever before. This was partly because I realized something about my low DPS that I could fix (more on this later), but also due to my higher HP (I had 22k+ HP, raid buffs considered) and judicious use of bandages, heals and my bubble. I did try to use exorcism a couple of times out of habit, but naturally it was to no avail. We held tight for most of the match, but the Horde broke into the final section of the fort with about five or so minutes remaining. It was close, with them getting the interior keep’s door half down, but we captured all of the towers first, claiming another victory for the Alliance.

About my low DPS, I had been using Seal of Justice as my prot seal of choice for it’s stunning ability, but hadn’t factored in it’s effect on my damage output. I recently switched to Seal of Command (yeah, I’ve gotten that deep into the ret tree while prot) and I’m back up to around 1000 DPS from 600. I would use Seal of the Martyr but without Art of War’s ability to give me quick and easy heals, I run out of health too fast.

I forgot to post this yesterday, but I hit 1000g yesterday morning and bought cold weather flying, so the ol’ Rattle Bucket is back in the air! Blizzard actually made these things more obnoxious in patch 3.1, changing the sounds to be even more grating. Smooth move, Blizz. In other random news, I was doing a fishing daily (which happened to be in Lake Wintergrasp) with about ten other Alliance players when the Horde showed up. They didn’t attack us at first, just standing around taunting and posing. A hunter for our side opened things up, taking the first shot at a Tauren warrior on a Mechano-hog, which drew two Blood Elves out of hiding. A quick scrum ensued, with us killing the BEs and the Tauren running for the hills. We promptly went back to fishing, and I caught the 10 Terrorfish I was there for. I didn’t net much outstanding in the Bag of Fishing Treasures, just more Deviate Fish and Pygmy Oil. Later, all.

I was in Wintergrasp this morning, and besides learning that I was now able to collect the quests for Stone Keeper’s Shards, I learned what it’s like to be on the wrong end of Tenacity. The Horde had it stacked 9x, and it was a bear. I was getting one-shotted by mages, a Blood Elf paladin was holding a workshop by himself, and everyone was being slaughtered. We couldn’t kill enough Horde to get bigger tanks like Siege Engines and Demolishers because there weren’t enough Horde to kill, and those that were there were insanely overpowered. Once we had the big guns (mostly from killing the easy-to-kill Horde guard NPCs roaming around in the open), though, it was on and we took out both side walls to the keep. In the end push, with under five minutes remaining, I drove a siege engine into the keep and helped break down the final wall. We won, but I was far from safe. During the scrum at the wall my tank was destroyed and I was set upon by both Tactical Office Kilrath and Commander Dardosh at the same time. Two lvl. 80 elites at once!! People just walked past me like I wasn’t in peril or anything… just another day at the office. One fresh level 78 against two level 80 elites. Yup, nothing unfair there. The funny part? I didn’t die. lol I didn’t kill them, obviously, but I lived long enough to get out of their aggro range. It took all my mana (spent casting Flash of Light over and over, interspersed with an occasional Holy Light)  my Divine Shield and my Lay on Hands spell, but I lived. Yes! That was my biggest victory of the day. In a day where I killed Artruis the SOB, hit level 78 and beat the Horde at Wintergrasp while they were hugely buffed, living to tell the tale was my biggest success. And isn’t surviving what it’s all about?

In my first trip to Wintergrasp in two levels, I helped try and defend the keep from the Horde. I died twice but had six killing blows, leading to a 3-1 kill-to-death ratio. Not bad, but it was just a warm-up.

Tonight I ran a quick quest through the Scarlet Monastery, getting stuck there during a server hang. I was unable to interact with anything, and could walk straight through the warp wall. It was frustrating. Anyway, I was on my way back to Ironforge when I saw there were 5 minutes to the next Wintergrasp battle. I hearth stoned to Dalaran and joined the raid. In this battle, I killed 13 Horde and never died. Heck yeah! I stunned the Horde and killed them. It took a while to kill anyone, but with them stunned, they weren’t much of a threat. The game was also lagging like crazy, which could have contributed to my success. I chugged three Runic Healing Potions and a Super Rejuvenation Potion and went through two bandages, but I lived. With a 13-0 KtD ratio, it was my best match to date. Overall, we swept into the keep and took it with little resistance. I nabbed a handful more Wintergrasp Marks of Honor and traded them for a Wintergrasp Commendation, netting me another 2000 honor points. I also hit 500 honorable kills this match.

I think I like Lake Wintergrasp.

I returned to Lake Wintergrasp this evening. No, this wasn’t like my half-hazard return to Stratholme where I can’t really explain how it happened. I hearthed to Dalaran with under eight minutes to go before the Alliance was to defend the fort, but was quickly booted from the server. I logged back in, and by the time I got control of Gav, there was less then 30 seconds remaining. I ran like a bat out o’ hell to the portal, popped through, and prepared myself. I had bought a Flask of Endless Rage earlier, so I quaffed that, and buffed myself up. However, there was a sucky raid administration running the gig. Something like five minutes passed before I was able to secure an invite. In fact, no one was getting their invite requests answered. It made the first half of the battle very, vey sloppy, with no coordination. However, once the raid was intact, we put up one hell of a fight.

When I first got there, I first went around, hitting folks with my buffs and healing where necessary. When a wall fell, I went out and attacked a steam catapult. Bad frickin’ idea. I didn’t die, but it was damn close. I finished off one blood elf paladin who was already hurt, netting me a solo kill. Later, a troll warrior squared off with me, one on one, and although I stood my ground well (for having a five level disadvantage), I finally died. Once respawned I zipped back down to the gates, where the raid was finally coming together and I got my invite. Yay! Now buffed and ready, I was game to be aggressive.

I attacked whatever hordies came through the gates, healed some allies, and got another killing blow. I also blew up two siege engines with my Hammer of Wrath. In a strange anecdote, I once tab-targetted Blueyes, the blood elf paladin I had helped kill outside Stormwind, but wasn’t able to see him or close in to do battle. Anyway, around about the 10 minute mark, it seemed that we were driving them back. We were going to win! However, the Horde was simply re-routing their forces to the other side of the fortress, and with us chasing them instead of defending the fort, they had little resistance getting inside the walls. We fought hard, though, pushing them back out for a while. Finally, however, they were simply too much and they finally captured the fort with under five minutes left. Afterwards, I was attacked by a tauren warrior I’d fought earlier in the battle, but he was yanked away by a death knight, saving me. In a fitting closure, however, I was sought out in the post-battle scrum by the blood elf paladin I’d killed earlier, and we did battle in the now nigh-empty courtyard. It was touch-and-go for a while, with us exchanging judgements and seals, using all of our tricks to try and win. As he was finally overcoming me,  I backed  up into a newly spawned abomination (the horde’s guards), and was slain. Oh well. C’est la vie, no?

Anyone who has read my posts here probably remembers my epic PvP Nightmare post. Well, I had another dynamic encounter with the Horde, this time in Westfall. Here’s how it all went down.

I was in the Burning Steppes, leveling my two-handed axe and two-handed mace skills, both of which were very low (sub-50 per). I was attacking numerous foes and just letting Gav swing away until I died. I got them both up to around 200 when a whisper came from a guildie, asking me to run them through Deadmines. I agreed, being the nice guildmate that I am, and boarded the nearest gryphon to Westfall. I got there to find out that I was leading a level 20 Night Elf hunter (the one who originally messaged me) and a level 8 NE priest. A level 8 priest!! No level 8 should be running Deadmines! However, when I got there, there were more pressing matters at hand.

A level 70 undead rogue was attempting to raid Sentinel Hill, so I killed him, netting me the Know Thy Enemy achievement. I killed him about three times, protecting my guildmates, when reinforcements arrived. However, they were for him, not me. A level 64 Blood Elf mage rode in, and her and the undead rogue tag teamed to bring me down. Once rezzed, a level 80 Night Elf Death Knight and I teamed up and killed them. Word came down that a Tauren druid was incoming, but he was only around level 60 and therefore was an easy kill. Lastly, a BE paladin, level 80, rode in and got in a staring contest with me, but they never flagged for PvP and left. Funny, if I were them I’d have tried my luck on a foe six levels below me, but they – even with their ally’s help – wanted no part of me. Funny. During this, the two guildies I was to run through Deadmines died time and again, so I told the hunter to run for the Deadmines while I protected the priest – who had to wait two minutes to rez after dying so often – and brought him over. After finally getting them into the Deadmines (the priest died about four more times, forcing us to wait constantly), the hunter and I opted to head in by ourselves. It proved to be a wise decision, because the priest went AFK instead of rezzing. We – or rather, I -  mowed through the many miners, mages and such, and I bumped off the bosses, no problem. The hunter snatched up the goodies and loot, since I had no use for them. We cleared the dungeon, no problem.

Quick note: I just looked up the rogue on the Armory, and he’s another noted PKer with 23k PvP kills and is nearly fully equipped with epics, including two Merciless Gladiator’s Pummelers. Compare my sword, a Forge Cobalt Claymore, and there’s no contest. More comparisons include him having 11% better crit chance,  60 more points in hit rating, and him having almost as much HP as me. The fact that he performed so poorly against me and my mostly green quest gear – I killed him 4 or 5 times, dying once, and that was only when ganged up on – may have played a part in the lvl. 80 BE paladin backing down. I’m baffled as to how I beat him around like I did… in theory, he should have pounded me. I’m more proud now then I was before. lol Go Gav! I guess what I was being told during while that undead rogue was slaughtering me back in Darkshore was right; paladins are a good match for taking on rogues.

I’ve spent the majority of the past few days scrounging up parts for my new Furious Gizmatic Goggles, finally completing my gathering of parts this morning with the six pieces of Heavy Knothide Leather I needed. See the picture for the results.

Not long after, while in Stormwind, the town was besieged by a penny-ante raid of about six Horde. I got to the Valley of Heroes bridge at the end of the attack, but soon enough to help finish off one Blueyes, a lvl. 80 ret specced Blood Elf paladin. It wasn’t until I just recently looked up his stats on the Armory that I learned what I had helped kill. A noted PvPer with 9.2k PvP kills and a near full set of epic armor, including a Titansteel Destroyer. When I arrived he was at around 60% health, and had stunned a level 80 Draenei Death Knight. I rode up and he began backing down for whatever reason (to heal, readying an attack I don’t know yet, shear insanity, whatever) so I hit him with the same spell he hit the DK with, Hammer of Justice, stunning him. I few quick hits (seal, judge, crusader strike, divine storm) and he was turning tail. I tossed my Hammer of Wrath to finish the job, netting me 16 more honor points. I think the BE took maybe one swipe at me total. So, between myself, a couple guards and that temporarily incapacitated DK, we took down a tough foe and protected Stormwind. For tonight, anyway.

Gav was in Hellfire Peninsula yesterday, gathering Fel Iron for engineering work, when there was this dire cry in the general chat that two Horde members were taking the Overlook PvP point. I’m not sure why this was so awful, since they change hands several times a day, but I decided to go see if I could help. I learned they were a Blood Elf and a Tauren, both Death Knights, levels 58 and 62. As I said last post, I’m level 74 now. The level 58 BE ran for his life, but the Tauren stayed, fought, and died.He had no way of making up the twelve level difference, regardless of gear. I kinda felt bad, actually, because there was no reason for me to go there and kill him. The PvP point meant nothing to me, and it’s really for lower level characters to play with, anyway. However, I then remembered my nightmare in Darkshore awhile back, and how that Undead rogue slaughtered me over and over in an area he had no business PvPing in. Thus, I felt a little more, I dunno, validated in my actions. The BE came back, saw I was still there, and ran away again, while I stayed to capture the control point. Once I did, I took to my gryphon and flew up and onto the towers surrounding the site. The Tauren promptly rezzed (he was obviously waiting for me to leave) and opened a gate to escape. I let him, since he wasn’t a threat anyway and camping folks isn’t my style. However, I now know how it feels to be on the other end of a lopsided PvP matchup.