Work is Hell

Of course the week I start a blog my workload goes crazy, and then I end up with no drama in my pugs to write about. I logged into my warlock on Wednesday, retrieved my heirlooms from my mailbox, and took the boat to Northrend. I queued up for a random and started doing some quests. I little while later I zone into Caverns of Time: Old Hillsbrad Foothills.

The last time I ran this it was a nightmare. The worst was when the tank would drop out after Thrall was in play. This time things went pretty smooth. We did lose Thrall once when the tank forgot about the second pack of mobs just down the hill from the entrance to the keep - they hadn't spawned yet and he jumped down the hill to take on the mobs at the bridge. We restarted the event and continued on. We made it all the way to the village when we lost Thrall again when the tank decided to eradicate the wandering patrols instead if hanging by Thrall. We had to wait a bit for Thrall to respawn just outside the village, but then we quickly finished up the run. People made mistakes, corrections we made, drama was not to be found. What a pleasant change!

Between the group and the few quests I did, I was almost to level 69. I hearthed back to Stormwind, picked up the Cold Weather Flying skill I neglected to get before heading to Northrend, and did the cooking and fishing daily to get the xp to ding. I took the boat back to Northrend and played a little game I like to call "Beat the Timer". It basically involves making my way from the Borean Tundra to Howling Fjord before the RAF queue pops so I can pick up the quests for Utgarde Keep before I have to zone in. I almost made it to Moa'Ki Harbor.

I zone into Utgarde and yet another run with no drama. We kill everything, everyone says thanks at the end, and it's over. All the asshats must be trolling trade chat I guess. I continue my trek to get the quests, and logon to my 84 pally on another account. I boost my lock through the instance, and after I turn in the quests I'm again very close to the next level. I hearth back to Stormwind and pick up the holiday breadcrumb quest. Goldshire is pretty dead and I'm able to get 20 eggs fairly quickly. Ding! I park my now level 70 lock in Stormwind and mail my heirlooms to the next alt.

Last night was raid night on my main, so I didn't think I would be able to level any alts. We seem to wipe on the trash and one-shot the bosses these days. The other hunter and I couldn't wait to try out our new and improved multishot on the trash. We finally have a somewhat decent AOE attack, but I still miss volley. Our mage is officially overpowered now - he blew both of us out of the water. Halfus and the dragon twins went down quickly, but we started having issues on the Elementium Monstrosity. The fight just wasn't going normally, so we decided to switch over to BWD instead of banging our heads against the glitches. Then one of our healers gets disconnected and can't get back online. We call it a night.

I hop over to my worgen druid and queue up as heals. I have really been enjoying leveling my druid healers. I get my near insta-queue, and enter Scarlet Monastery. I don't let anyone die, not even the lock who seems to be an aggro magnet or the two melee DPS who don't like to get out of Herod's whirlwind. The fact that I managed to keep everyone alive surprised me since I hadn't healed for a while and was also pretty tired. Another pug with no drama. What is this world (of Warcraft) coming to?

Cry Havoc!

Blackrock Depths of Hell was originally going to be published yesterday, but I was mentally debating the issue of publishing the names of the guilty. I decided that any calling-out will be reserved for the most egregious pug behavior - not just everyday pug annoyances. Some things can be taken out of context when you don't have all the facts. I've clicked on my UI and been dropped from a group, accidently clicked the wrong thing, and like everyone else I've been a new player.

I've also played roles that are out of my comfort zone, such as tank and healer. You can be a veteran player in one class or role, and still be a total newb outside of that experience.

I didn't play at all last night since most of my add-ons were in need of updating and I was too tired to deal with any post-patch issues. I have three WoW accounts; I occasionally multi-box and play with my kids on the other two. Now that 4.1 is live, I'll be able to send my heirloom items to my other 20 alts which will no doubt provide me with plenty of material for this blog.

Let slip the alts of war!

Blackrock Depths of Hell

I knew from the start that this was going to be a rough one. I was running my level 54 heirloomed mage through the RDF. My run the other day was Sunken Temple with a deathknight tank. A deathknight tank with an unholy spec and frost presence. Boy did that suck!

Fingers crossed, I entered the dungeon. Blackrock Depths. The tank and healer drop group immediately. Re-queue. New heals arrive. He wants a fast run because he doen't have alot of time. Why queue as a healer with a damn-near instant queue if you don't have time for a run? New tank after a short wait. he immediately charges the two mobs at the entrance. No hello, no ready-check, not even an "r?".

He proceeded to pull like a chihuahua on crack, zigzagging through mobs to the first boss. I can't even blizzard the packs, because he moves them before it can get two ticks in. I concentrate on slowing the fleeing, low-health mobs with frost bolts before they run off to get friends. The amazing hunter in the group kills them dead before they get out of range. Speedy goes line of sight, dragging mobs into the hallway before High Interrogator Gerstahn.

A blue BOE sword drops from one of the trash. Everyone clicks greed. Well, almost everyone. Mr. hyper speed asshat clicks need, even though he is wielding an heirloom sword that is better than the drop. To his credit, he does apologize and offers it up after one of the party calls him on it.

The healer is doing a great job of keeping him up though the chain pulls, and the hunter and I are rocking the DPS as he chain pulls to the boss. The other DPS is doing something. We just aren't sure what. I end up having to ice block because the tank can't keep aggro on the last room of trash, the boss's trash, and the boss. As we down her, my hopes are dashed when there is no dungeon completion banner or sack of loot in my inventory. This is going to be a long one.

How right I was.

As we make our way through the East Garrison, our wonderful tank says BRB and drops group. A pack is face pulled accidently and we drop them quickly. The healer drops group. Both are added to my ever-growing ignore list. The other DPS, whose name and performance is forgettable, says he doesn’t have time to wait and drops group. Two seconds later we have another tank, healer, and dps. We proceed through two pulls, and the tank leaves without a word.

He makes the list.

While we are waiting on the queue, a single pat is heading towards us. DPS backs off, but the healer just stands there. He pulls the mob and drops group. We easily down it, and decide that he was a dick. He also makes the list. We get a new tank and healer, and proceed through the West Garrison, downing General Angerforge and on to Golem Lord Argelmach. He drops like a sack of bricks. Tank number five proceeds to drop, leaving us puzzled.

Our druid DPS tries to tank while we wait in the queue, and we make our way to the Grim Guzzler. We down Hurley easily, but run into problems at the other door when somehow a group of patrons aggros and kills the druid. I manage to make it all the way back to the entrance with two mobs in tow thanks to blink. I zone back in and get halfway to the guzzler when we finally get a new tank. We proceed to wipe again at the door, and I again make it back to the entrance. We end up taking the mole machine past the Guzzler and proceed to the next boss.

The rest of the run is smooth. The tank knows the dungeon and we finish in about 20 minutes. After a total of two hours and six tanks I have dinged 55 and have used up my rested state on my mage. I teleport out and mail the heirlooms off to my next rested toon - my 68 gnome warlock.

Why

I decided to create this blog to document my trials and tribulations of leveling an army of alts through World of Warcraft's Random Dungeon Finder. It also gives me something to do when work is slow.