Instance runs FTW!

I will now put down my first runs though the first 4 instances I have run in the outlands.

I didn’t even get to run my first instance till I was 64. Then I finally got a spot in a ramparts run. Let me tell you I love the new format for the dungeons. Blizzard really did a good job with making the instances accessible to all and easily learned. At least the first few ones are. Not to sure about any past the slave pens.

The layout of ramparts is pretty basic. It forms a spiral with the last bosses being at the top and end of the spiral. Basic CC and high dps will see you though to the first boss and his buddies. He goes down pretty easy. You just have to watch out for his adds and not to tank him too close to the mobs farther in. I didn’t have too much difficulty staying alive thanks to some decent healing and a boat load of +sta on my gear. We progressed pretty fast through the ramparts and made it to the last platform in about 45 minutes. I remember asking the higher level who had run this a few times “How close are we to the end?” He states “about 10 minutes.” That’s just crazy yall we did a complete run in like 1 hour. We wiped once on the dragon boss because our tank did not know to get out of the fire. Second time we owned the dragon. The demon boss isn’t even worth mentioning he was so easy. We blasted through so fast we decided to hit the Blood furnace afterwards.

Blood Furnace rocks the hell. It is a beautiful instance with a crap load of detail. I really liked that it was a step up in difficulty and challenge. Just enough for you to screw up a few times but learn with out it being a huge loss of time. We did wipe a few times mostly from mistakes having to do with aggroing to many at once. We also wiped at the Door event when we were unable to take down one rooms add before the next opened up. We got through it the second time and were ready for the Floating eyeball dude. I think we wiped on him from the gas rings he puts out but I can’t remember. We got past him (second attempt?) and preceded down the spiral to the last boss. I realized I kept hearing some guy bitchin about being held captive. I asked the guide what it was I heard and he told me it was Megtheridon: The 25 mad raid in Hellfire Citadel. He was under us yall squirmin to get out and kill the ones holding him. Nice touch there. We make out way down to the boss watching for the stealthed rogues. Hehe these guys were fun to take down . I was high enough that I could spot them before they aggrod the group. All the way down we plow through the mobs till we reach the lower circular chamber. The last boss is surrounded by like 6 or 7 adds that have to be taking down first before battling the boss. Get this…the boss was a squishy. So were his adds. They all went down like a ton of bricks in no time. Boss lasted about as long as one of the adds. TOO MUCH DPS. Not.

Here’s another thing I liked about the new instances. The quick exits. Ramparts had a drop down to the entrance while ht Furnace has a long straight hallway to the entrance that only opens up when the last boss is killed. They made it so you could hit the instance as many times as you want and not have to deal with a huge walk back to the entrance. WTG BLIZZARD!

About a week after I got into the Furnace I was invited to go along with a group to the Underbog. This was a disaster as we did not have priest or a viable tank. We struggled all the way to the first boss Hungerfen. We wiped 4 times on this guy because the tank would not make big enough circles to got out of rang of the exploding mushrooms. When we finally got him down most were ready to call it a night. I just wanted out of there so I rolled out. I will need to go back there eventually jus for some quests and I would like to see it all the way to the end.

Last night I went to the slave pens. I think I will like this one too. Mobs are spaced so you don’t have to be too careful just careful of fear effects and kicks. Unfortunately I had to leave after 30 minutes do to real life drahma. This is a very doable instance and I think will be a lot of fun. I will update this in later posts as I explore these dungeons better

I feel like gabbin....alot.

It has been over a month since I deemed anything worthy of my time to write in this blog. I think I will try to crank out a few entries as I have had quite a few experiences. I’m gonna list some things I want to write about here so I don’t forget them.

First Ramparts run.
First Blood Furnace run.
First Underbog run
First Slave pens/partial due to RL commitments

Money
Quest for the Epic flyer.
Money makers I’m using (maybe, if they stay consistent)

Questing in out lands:
Hellfire, Zangermarsh, Terrokar Forest, Nagrand.


I started 2 new alts over the last month in order to get all the new content. I sparked up a Draeni Shaman and a Blood Elf Rogue. (The Rogue is on a PVP server so I can play with a Blogger Named Gitr) These 2 chars also are accompanied by my wife’s 2 new chars, a Draeni Warrior and a Blood Elf Mage. We are both part of a new guild on the PVP server. The guild is called Buttered Monkeys. I have never played on a PVP. Should be interesting. We have advanced our characters on the PVP server to almost 18. A few more levels and we will have to leave the safe area and venture out into the world where evil Alliance waits to gank the lowbies.

We also started some Draeni and hoofed them up to 14. I really like the shaman. I will have to practice a lot in order to not pull aggro from other player, AKA my wife’s warrior. I went with a healing build initially so I can help with the leveling. I sit back and heal with the occasional lightning strike. I still can manage to pull aggro if I’m not careful. It will take me some time to get back into a back line combatant role. Once she is able to get and hold aggo better I can start to lay on the damage.

I have reached 67 and am halfway to 68 on Mindkiller. Time spent is lost among the ether, no idea how long it has taken me. I do know that if I had the time to dedicate I could have reached 70 with in 2 weeks easy. Not because I’m that good but because of the abundance of solo able and easily group able quests available in the outlands. I did the majority of my leveling solo. Not by choice but by circumstances. I was late off the mark due to not having the BC. So I was a week behind everyone. With some real life issues I was and still am limited in my play time. I do however enjoy very much the new WoW. Very well done. I have purified the darkness in Hellfire, weeded all the evil from Zangermarsh., cut down my share of baddies in Terrokar Forrest, and hunted the beasts close to extinction in Nagrand. I will say this place is smoking hot with quests and things to see. Can’t wait to see it all.

I like chahhhhclate milk.

I have the expansion!!
One of my guildies had offered a solution to our cash flow problem.
At his job he gets free swag from local venders and corporate sponsors as well as stuff from his own company. One of the things he had received was a Gift card for a video game store. It had over one hundred dollars on it. He sent it to me an the wife expressly so we could get ourselves the BC. We happily agreed. Since these things have a time limit on them we wasted no time at all in running to the local store and scamin a few copies. I even grabbed the strategy guide just for giggles and I like those sorts of things. I thank you my friend and I will not turn down an opportunity to help you out in any way in game or out of it.

I have been in the outland for about 6 hours total at this point and am real close to hitting sixty-one. I have made over one hundred gold just from trash, quests and quest rewards that I can’t/won’t use. I see me having no trouble at all getting to afford the flying mount or even the epic flying mount. With my ability to grind out cash all I need now is a working understanding of the best available trash and where it is. This will come in time I’m sure so I will not be rushing it.

I am finding myself overwhelmed by the sheer number of quests in just the first area. Sure a lot are kill quests and chains but a few are more of the stuff I enjoy, like the “go here and pick this up and bring it back”. The bombing runs are the shizznit and I see myself hitting those over and over again for the fun of it. Too bad they don’t give rep or a small amount of coin. Thinking more about it they could have made the bombing run timed and if you can beat your time over and over again you should get a money reward and maybe some lewt. Hell even a hat or goggles that say you are a master bomber or something would be sweet. I like that there are in place guns and defenders of fortifications of all kinds here it really sets the mood of a grand fight for survival.

I also like the feeling of danger everywhere. The “in jeopardy’ vibe I get from the area is palpable. There is at almost no time, even in the “safe” city that you can get away from the feeling of being under attack and in a hostile environment. I do feel it has given a good mix of solo-able content and the more group-necessary content. That there is a real possibility of soloing it all the way to seventy is plain. I sure don’t want to do that but I can if I so decide to do so.

I have already replaced a lot of my armor and let me tell you, a blue chest piece I got from a quest is a ridiculously powerful item. It has double the t2 armor I think. It was also more juicy then the PVP chest epic. Crazy shit. I have yet to see a dagger worthy of replacing my Lobotomizer, but I have seen a few candidates for my off hand Thunderwood poker. I went back to this from the Electrified dagger since the proc wasn’t hitting often enough for it to be worth it. With all the new chunky stats on the new armors I have some crazy armor and stamina now I’m almost to 4k health un-buffed!! Although in the outlands where things hit harder I guess it balances out some. I am sure I will be hitting sixty one tonight and perhaps sixty-two tomorrow. At least I will try for it. I look forward to running the first new instance this weekend if I can as well.