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The only WoW run this last weekend was yet another BRD run on Sunday. The main motivation was that Dunain had built up a large amount Dark Iron Ore, and wanted to do a bar run to get Thorium Brotherhood rep and get it out of his inventory. So more of a regular group, no Farmishi this time.

It went… okay. The Lyceum is just trouble. We did do a Jail Break for Jariedthe as well as a complete run for the Emperor. Only 3 Captains in the back this time, giving us 5 total for the run. Official count: Anvilrage Captains: 31, Plans 0.

The main attraction on the weekend previous was a Dire Maul West run. Very interesting and challenging.

The main thing that goes on there is deactivating a bunch of large crystals that are powering a field that is holding a powerful demon in check (which you then kill, of course…). These turn out to be guarded by a ring of mana elementals (they look like a blue version of the normal fire elemental model). Once we had cleared the front area, we got our first crack at one of these. The elementals stand in a ring around the crystal, and it goes out when the last elemental is killed. We pulled one, and his two neighbors pulled with him, but not the rest of the ring.

It was a painful wipe.

They take enough damage to require some effort to put down, do decent physical damage from the looks of it, and just way too much shadow or nature spell damage (depending on the exact type). If you’re wondering why DM East is the toughest of the three parts of Dire Maul, I don’t think you need to look any further than these elementals. We did get a couple of them, and after that we were able to pull one of the ‘edge’ ones, and were able to take out him and the one buddy that came with him without any trouble.

So, you can imagine our enthusiasm when we got through a few other parts of the instance (including a fairly nasty group of ghosts), and got to the next crystal. However, this time only one elemental pulled. Careful examination shows that there seems to be one or two that are positioned slightly further away from the others, and that’s how you ‘crack the ring’.

Overall, not bad for our first time in. One or two full wipes, two partials (I feigned for one, and one I managed to down the last enemy right before he would have gotten me and turned on Noxlux), and a couple single deaths.

This marks the last “full” five-man area we hadn’t done yet. There’s some things we haven’t done, and certainly some bosses we haven’t defeated, but we’ve seen the main content. Our next plan is for a Dire Maul East run to start catching up several people who haven’t done it yet.

Okay, it’s getting so I can’t remember what all we’re doing.

However, our most recent foray was (yet another) Blackrock Depths run. was not feeling well, and for once, there was no Blanc, Micca, or Shrimpette present. And for once, I was the party leader. Well, kinda, I guess I’m more of a ‘yeah, that sounds good’ type. Anyway it was Farmishi (who’s now 53, two levels up from last time in here), Blondiewood, Jariedthe, Thermidor and Noxlux. First task was doing a jailbreak run for Thermidor, who’d gotten his evidence last time. With monsters in the front area being green even for Farmishi, that went smoothly, and the jail break went well. We then proceeded to the bar (picking up the Windsor’s evidence for Jariedthe and Noxlux on the way), and got Hurley Blackbreath and a quest for Farmishi (but not the eyepatch Jariedthe is wanting). And then out the back for the Emperor. A bit tougher, but by this point, the unusual team was ‘gelling’ pretty well, and we kept moving at a good clip.

Then we got to the Lyceum. Which is a very different proposition. We did okay at first, getting one torch lit. Then the hour-long party buffs went out, we bogged down attempting a rebuff and got swarmed. As ususal, Farmishi was the last one down, but just doesn’t have the ability to finish off this kind of group on her own so she can attempt resurrecting party members. The second try also wiped from a bad set of circumstances without even seeing a torchbearer. The third time was the charm, we located a torchbearer, kept moving and got the doors open no problem.

After that, it was pretty simple. Fighting at the far end of the corridor of flamethrowers really helps. The Emperor fight was not bad. The main problem being that I just could not keep Moira’s attention, and she wanted to pick on Noxlux. Oh, and there were five captains (plus two from the jailbreak), so Anvilrage Captains: 26, Black Dragonscale Leggings plans: 0. (sigh) Farmishi got a couple of minor equipment upgrades, and Flame Wrath, a replacement for the venerable Blight.

Saturday (the day before) was an epic Stratholme run, where we effectively did both dead and live sides. It started… not so well, with some wipes. We did pull it together though. The first part was going in the back door, and effectively tracing the path of a 45-minute Baron run, without actually worrying about it (thank goodness, with our wipes). However, we did get through it, and we actually took down Baron Rivendare on the first try.

After that we crossed over to the ‘live’ side. This was to allow Noxlux to catch up on quests, and for the rest of us to get the head of Balnazzar (which starts a quest, and only after you turn in a quest to kill the guy next door…). That went fairly smoothly, especially compared to what the first couple attempts were like. After that we attempted another try at the “Hoarde” door, and wiped against the mini-boss there before calling it a night.

There’s been more, but I have to admit it’s mostly slipping my mind….

Okay, I’m joining in on the fun, and posting a visual guide to my WoW characters:

First, my main, the little curmudgeon known as Dunain:

This isn’t quite true to life. There should be ale-stains on the tabbard….
And, as you can see…. Lance is huge….

My primary alt is Farmishi. She’s an old character of mine. …And after hearing all the sniping at Blizzard about how skimpy much of the female Plate armor is, she had to give it a try. (In the culture she’s from formal dueling armor looks like it came out of Outlanders, so it’s not a problem to her.) However, by and large, it’s just not that bad. She was happy with the Jade armor set, but her current equipment (3 levels later) is down to just the shield, everything else has been replaced. She’s also an armsmaster. That is, she keeps up with every weapon skill she has, and keeps one of each kind on her. Currently a level 51 Paladin, here’s her show armor, her current adventuring armor, and all her weapons:

My main for Minions of the Fickle Moos is a Troll frost mage named Malzina. After the last two, I don’t play on her as often as I’d like. I certainly like the movement control.

I also started a Night Elf warrior named Merisan with the idea that she would keep Smudge from having to always play Blanc. (We’re a bit short on warriors.) At my rate of play, Blanc should be able to retire in three years or so. I really like the two-handed action pose here….

Cylisia is a Night Elf priest, little sister of Blanc and constant companion of Honesty. She is a little unstable and prone to bouts of megalomania. Thankfully, Honesty is a stabilizing influence on her. She’s also going Discipline spec, and boy does she need it….

My member of Invaders of the Pass is a low-level undead warrior named Euphaline. The plan is to try out some PvP with her, but we’ll see if I get that far. Shotalia is a low-level Tauren shaman on Uldum, who I created to talk to an old friend, who has unfortunately had to quit due to financial issues. Fredregund is my first WoW character, still a mere level 18 Tauren druid on Dragonblight. She’s the one that got me sucked into WoW in the first place, before I created Dunain to go help out Blanc, because it was obvious that he needed someone to clean up the messes he was getting into…

I have a few other characters scattered about, but these are all the ones that I’m likely to play at any given time. And generally, I stick with the Minions of the Fickle Muse and Moos.