Πέμπτη 1 Ιανουαρίου 2009

the Westfall train

There we were at Westfall at level 12 or so trying to level up, me and my companion in wow and RL. It was quite a dramatic change of enviroment for the two of us after the green woods of Elwyn Forest to have to quest in the dead dry fields of this land. But every adventurer must adapt and fight his way up to the top of the best. Killing Defias and Gnolls that is.

I am a paladin and she was a warrior. Most of the mobs were orange or red to us so we had to be very careful not to get too close to them and gain agro. Now, agro was something I never fully understood what it was until then. I read about it in the battle chest manual but still I didn't figure out what it was and how it worked. English is not my first language as u may have understand by now.

Neway I think it has to do with your level compared to the level of the mob and how dangerous u r to it, yes? Something like that.

I turned out to be of no importance to the mobs in Westfal because they all agroed on my wife's toon, the warrior. At first I was thankful to the gods of Azeroth. Who wants to be chased by coyotes and murlocs in the midle of nowhere with no ally NPCs nearby to hide behind? Not me. oh no no. But then I kind of got frustraded. I mean why her and not me? Was I not a threat to them? Did't my shiny mail armor had any effect on them? Didn't my two-handed stone mace scare the bee geeses out of them? I am as deadly as this lvl 12 warrior! Come on!

It is really irritating. Me, the Knight of the Holy Light, the protector of the weak, the pride of Stormwind... was no threat to a murloc... tsk tsk tsk...

Itried blessing of strenght, judgments, I even tried mocking them, giving them the finger, yelling bad words at them. Nothing. My wife the warrior was a serious AGRO MAGNET. The mobs would spot her from miles away.

Ok I know what u might think. It should be the smell. Yes warriors smell. They smell bad. I don't believe they ever bathe. It is something about their class... Paladins have spiritual attunement. Warriors have an awful smell. I tried explaining this to my wife but all I got from her was a "not tonight honey, I have a headache" ban.

Well I just had to live with this. I could get no agro at all. Agro was the wifie's job. I would just have to get that copper nod for her while she was busy trying to flee from a coyote.

Hey!... that doesn't sound bad at all!

So there we were somewhere close to the coast of Westfal infront of a copper nod:

me: Who's turn is it?
her: Mine. U just mined the other nod in the mine. This one is mine (ah, lol)
me: ooook then sweety. All yours. No Gnolls in the horizon.
her: k, watch my back sweety.

Calendra receives copper ore
Calendra receives rough stone
Calendra receives copper ore
Calendra receives Shadowgem


her: woohoo!

Calendra is in combat

her: umm... honey?
me: yes dear?
her: there is a mob hiting me? Why is there a mob hiting me?
me: oh yes... see, I was checking the quest log and...
her: can I have hand of protection now sweety?
me: oh, yes, sure... ummm... hold on a sec aaaah...
her: it is that button with the yellow leaf inside a blue circle....
me: oh but ofcourse. I just rearranged the action bars and...
her: JUST GIMME THE SHIELD!


Calendras casts hand of protection (yes we even have common names! isn't that cute!?)

me: Ok hon' now run like the wind baby

Calendra runs like the wind
Calendra still runs
Calendra picks up another mob


me: Oh hon' watch out! I think u r heading towards a Gnoll camp

Calendra pulls yet an other mob
... and an other
... and an other

me: Ok baby u are doing just fine. Just keep running (away from your husband plz)

Hand of protection fades

me: oook then... u still have some chances...

Calendra is dead

me: u don't mind if I mine that copper nod for you, do you?
her: ...

It was funny yes. Well funny to me. And perhaps to neone else who witnessed that weired train. My companion was the locomotive and the countless mobs behind her were the vagons.

All abooooard!

It's aaalways a rogue... or a hunter... (or a mage, warlock, druid, shaman...)

I am Calendras. A lvl 70 Prot Paladin. I have crappy gear and I am quite inexperienced in the world of Azeroth. Commonly known, a noob. Never done Arena, Warsong, raids and tough dungeons.

I am the kind of player who gets his kicks out of wow by doing silly, safe, boring stuf. I like to farm gold. I like to explore. Doing quests. Dueling my wife, a lvl 70 arms warrior with a shield. I play wow to relax. I hate stressful situations. And I hate losing. Dying that is. I love to fly with my griffon and see the world from up above. Weird, but I love it.

Ne one in Azeroth is better than me. All classes. All races. And when it comes to dueling I politely step back and keep on minning copper and rough stones in Elwyn Forest.

But what if a lvl 60-69 toon offers me a duel? Hmmm...Tempting... Oh wait a minute! He must have those purple things on him! I don't have any. I must inspect him!

And I inspect.

Only to find out that he only wears some blues.

Now this is the ocession where the "yes" button screams at me "accept to duel allready!" And I accept the duel.

He was a level 67 hunter I think. I was sure he couldn't take me. I am lvl 70 for crying out loud! I can't be that crappy!

10,9,8...

First I would use this buff and that seal...

...7,6,5...

oh! I must drink that portion and cast this scroll...

...4,3,2...

and then I will stun him and judge him and...

...1,0...

His pet charges me. And stuns me. Oh, yes. Hunters have pets. How could I forgot that. They come with the set. They quest together, they hunt together, they duel together, they sleep together. Even if it is a boar. Big pigs that is.

And this one was a boar. It's dps was quite low and didn't worry me. Ah the heck with the pet. I'll go for it's master. Who was mystiriously stepping backwards. The woosh! ha!

Itried to get to him. But couldn't move. I was inside a block of ice I think. Hunters do that? I thought it was a Mage thing. Anyway I had to wait for it to fade. In the meantime boar and hunter were hiting me.

Then tried to approach the Hunter again. Stunned again. Ah I get it now... He wanted it the hard way. What do u do if u want to piss off a hunter? Kill his pet. I clicked his boar and started leveling it's green bar down...

80%... 70%... 60%... 50%... 60%... WTF???

Who was healing the pig? Was it the hunter? But... but... how!? he stands yards away! Was he tossing it Purina bars?

ok ok then I knew: Hunters can heal their pets. Told u I'm a noob. Time to change stradegy again. Stun the boar and get the Hunter maybe? yes! Boar stunned and my cool toon was then running towards the smelly Hunter. "hehehe! no feign death will help u now!"

As I was approaching I noticed him not making any moves. Just stood there. I thought he was trying to help his poor piggy and make it charge me again. Or he just paniced.

None of the above. He had set up a trap. Aaaand got me frozen again....

That was it. There was no way I could reach him. I tried Divine shield, chased him, shield fades, Pala steps on trap, hunter poisons pala, boar charges pala blah blah blah...

All I had to do was wait for the yellow text at the lower left corner to appear:

Hunteerdk has defeated Calendras in a duel

So embarashing...

We are the only class with no ranged dps, aren't we not? Even Warriors and rogues can use bows and rifles. Why not Palas as well? Warriors even have that thing which makes them super fast and charge an enemy from a long distance and stuns them. That is a super anti-hunters ability, yes? Why couldn't Palas have it! Or at least this poor noob pala. :(

I hear Holy paladins have that skill, holly shock? It is a very popular ability. They even call the paladins with that ability "Shockadins". Some Palas even spec Holy just to get that ranged spellcast. It would look goooood in my spellbook.

the only ranged attack ability I have apart from the Avengers Shield is my rockets. I got them at a very low level from a quest in Elwyn Forest. I think engineers make them. I buy them from the AH every time I come across them. They inflict 30 fire damage. I can hear u laughing. I use them to pull. ok?... >:(

How to kill a Fel Reaver: It is all about Team Work.


There we were. Me a lvl 70 noob prot Pala and my wife a lvl 70 noob arms Warrior with a shield (?!) in Honor hold, Outlands. We were supposed to kill a Fel Reaver and get a key to unlock Shattered Halls dungeon. Yes we were supposed to do that some levels ago but... we ARE noobs.

Fel Reavers as u may allready know, are some giants made of steel. Big robots that is. They are tough and really big. Some smashing blows are usually enough to give u a corpse recover run.

Neway, we had two unsuccesful tries before we decided to look into wowhead for some other less painful tactics.

There were some people there who did killed a Fel Reaver by gaining agro and leading it to a roaming caravan of mounted ally's elites somewhere in Hellfire P. Mounted elits. In Hellfire P. Don't u just hate it being a noob? Where the heck were those elites!?

We decided to do it our noobish way. Camped near Honor hold and waited for a Fel reaver to appear. Then we planned to drag the robot ontop of the hill of Honor hold and let the NPCs and ally guards do the rest of the job for us. Quite simple plan, yes? Waiting there. Waiting. Waiting. When sudenly the earth started to rumble. Yes it was a Fel reaver allright.

me Paladin: Ok honey, u see him? Go get him baby.
her Warrior: Oh why me?
me: U go get him baby! I heal.
her: but your horse is faster. U have that aura thing that gives u extra mount speed.
me: yes and I will use it to catch up with u. Just go before he gets away!
her: Oh ok then...


and off she went. The Reaver aggroed on her allright. My wife leading the race, behind her the robot and behind them, me. I never imagined saying that...

She was heading for the cliff where Honor hold was. She got a few blows and her green bar got a little short. I just had to heal her. Got off my Charger and tried to give my baby some of my Holy Light. Damned casting time. She was out of range. I just stood there watching her go up the hill getting smashed by the Fel Reaver. There was a lvl 58 death knight dwarf next to me:

dwarf: Look at her go... she won't make it to the top.
me: shut up. We are winning.
dwarf: oh ooops! Lost her mount! She wont make it man.
me /sighs

My sweet Warrior was dead, lying half way up the path to Honor hold.

Same thing again. This time we decided to both run infront of the mob so that if one of us got dismounted and killed then the other would keep running up the hill. It worked!

I got killed by the Reaver but my Warrior companion kept on marching towards Honor hold! Woohoo! Go baby go! Victory was so so close! Just a few more yards and the NPCs would aggro on it! Just a few more yards! Just a few more... WTF!?!?

She made it to te top allright with the Fel Reaver behind her but the hold's guards just stood there watching her get killed! OMG! Come on u wooshies! Do something! Protect the hold! For the Alliance and stuff!

Hopeless! They weren't making any moves. Just like there was nothing to attack. The robot was smashing my wife right outside the inn.

me: Baby, get him over the flight master! There are many NPCs there!
her: I can't move!
me: Oh come on! it's some feet away!
her: Thunder stomp! cant mooove!


Paladin was coming to the rescue. My corpse was very near to the graveyard, got there in time, rezzed and gave her Lay on Hands. Her green bar was full again but I was oom. Not a very good thing. Specially when u r a Paladin. A noob Paladin that is...

The Reaver was smashing me now. I was watching my health going sadistically down. I got paniced. All Palas panic. It is a class thing. And what Palas do when they panic? Yes. They bubble. They bubble and heal. But how to heal when oom? I was trying to figure that out when I saw my companion gaining aggro again. Soooo... I gave her Hand of Protection. That was the solution to the riddle. How to kill a Fel reaver. I was bubbled. She was Protected. The robot just HAD to smash something.

That was when it noticed there were some other potential victims nearby. Guards. Oh, and other toons. 55's, 60's 65's. Lots of them. They all started nuking it. Mages, rogues, warriors, pets, imps... all of them. It was a feast party. The Reaver was smasshing that, hitting this... 50%, 40%, 30%... It was down.

We got what we wanted and thanked everyone.

me: Thank u legollashelf! we couldn't have done it with out your... ranged dps
hunter: np m8, got any meat?
(classic)

Number one chance for many low level toons up in Honor hold that day to get to kill a Fel Reaver yes?