Grizzly Hills is a nice forest filled with wildlife, giants, dwarves, the vrykul people and trolls. I didn`t find anything special on this map but I did like the Silverbrook story (they hide a dark secret) and the daily quest that involves burning mindless troll zombies at Drak’Tharon.

You`ll get to ride a badass dragon

and a pretty wild mustang.

Level: 76

Next map: Sholazar Basin. I told you I really like forests!

“Please don`t kill me, I`m scared!”

Apart from undead, the Scarlet people, the worms and the various wildlife you`ll find dragons. Lots of them.

Dead ones.

Live ones and sexy ones.

The dragon tower is impressing as well.

The Tuskarr`s return in another village on the shore. They are quite inventive, they found a way to use Carrot on a Stick.

You`ll come across a new version of Sylvanas Windrunner which I must say looks more adapted to the lore, because the old skin was that of a Night Elf. Also she looks more of an Elven Ranger now.

Might of the Dragonblight: 115/115 completed.

Level: 74

Going the the Grizzly Hills because I am not in the mood for Zul’Drak right now. I am a druid after all, I enjoy forests more.

Utgarde Keep is nice and easy. I also did the Nexus (nice music in there, Trance-like) and both spider instances. The feeling of large spaces is in there too, especially in Ahn’Kahet the Old Kingdom. Azjol’Nerb is very short and fast.

I met the Tuskarrs too, I plan on getting exalted with them for the penguin vanity pet. Despite the fact that a LOT of people were trying to kill the same mobs for the same quests, the respawn is fats. Two areas sucked, Ember Cluth (took me ages to put my claws on the little Proto Drakes) and Gjalerbron (the 2 Putrid big guys for the quests resawned in 100 years and the area was farmed by a lot of players). Apart from that, no complains. The quests in Skorn are nice too (cutting corpses in pieces) and the quests involving shit are back (Scare the Guano out of Them) - collecting bat poo. Seems that someone at Blizzard was really affected by 2 Girls 1 Cup LOL.

Best NPC on this map: McGoyver <Pro>. Need I say more?

The map has plenty flight points and quest hubs, make sure you don`t miss any quest. I completed the “I toured the Fjord” achievement (130 quests) but I estimate there are about 140 quests in the area so it`s unlikely you`ll have problems completing the achievement.

Level: 72. Next map, Dragonblight!

After TBC hit we saw a massive influx of people to Hellfire Peninsula, abandoning their posts in Azeroth to go on a killing spree looking for some old Night Elf Daemon Hunter. The dark portal flooded with bodies intermingled with each other; both Alliance and Horde who all wanted to go and see the new realm of Draenor.

Yes, there were hitches but it gave a good standing for the upcoming 1.5 years, which for me included some of the best raiding experience I have ever had with my Alonsopolitan guild.

No one I know in game can deny TBC gave us some excellent content free from skill level. The fight with Moroes was every bit as challenging and fun as the Kael’Thas fight when you were at equal gear level to the fight. However, never did I hear someone begging to go raid MC or Naxx. With the latter returning will we see that feeling emerge in raiders, or will as has been the case previously dungeons only be wanted in the case that you can level cooking there or there is some rare quest.

At the time of writing this I am sitting in Felwood herbing while my guild emerges into Northern Azeroth, describing how good LK is to those of us who can’t be there (due to Amazon’s lack of deliveries to Glasgow.) And I wonder, will TBC be ignored now? We have no use for Shattrath and there is no gear to be found that can match the lowest blues from level 80.

I myself will miss certain encounters from this period and believe we should not be so quick to abandon the place that gave use days’ worth of fun and IMO love in the way it helped us to our place in raiding!

TBC should not be forgotten and it is up to those who loved it to not let it be trodden upon by Blizz and Northrend. I say this while being abandoned in EK due to a significant lack of Expansions within my house, but will my tune change in a few days time? It probably will, but I like to think some of us will care for TBC that little bit more than LK, after all… it was the second place we ever dinged full level, let’s just hope being the best for a third time doesn’t get old!

A couple of months ago, we were a happy guild which had managed, despite being halfway between social and hardcore, to get into Black Temple and kill a couple of bosses. Now, since Kael was so difficult, we skipped him and left him for later - the idea being we’d come back just before Wrath to finish him off and get the title for every one.

Then guild drama ensued (I’m saving the bitter comments on backstabbers and the like), and after Kael finally died (on a run I couldn’t join) the guild tore apart, with most of the core raiders creating a new one.

Where did this leave Jen? On holiday, without the title and bewildered when she came back to find the place in pieces. I was pissed off (I still am, when I think about it), but I got over the social bit. No one’s forcing anyone to stay and if you feel another guild would be better for you, all right. It’s not like we were lifelong friends, and I still chat to the people I was closer to.

But why did you have to do it then and screw up my chances of having fun at the end of TBC? Yes, I am a selfish bitch.

We did manage to bring the guild back to life, despite the awful situation it was left in. We recruited a bunch of lovely people and started raiding again (after the nerf). We did very well considering the fact that most people weren’t very well geared.

And we took Kael to 2%.

Then, on the last day of possible attempts (i.e. the day before Wrath), most of the healers were busy. No healers, no run. No run, no dead Kael. And no title for me. (If you had the Vials quest in your log before the nerf, you could still get it if you killed the right people.)

I have a problem with this title, I know. It wouldn’t mean the same thing after the nerf. But I bloody deserve it, I wiped for Vashj and killed her, and I wiped for Kael and if it wasn’t for some… *ahem* person I would’ve been there for the second kill and gotten the title.

Now… not any more. We’ll all be on our way to level 80 and discovering new places to wipe in. Downing Kael would’ve been a great end to TBC (he’s very difficult even after the nerf), but it’s just not going to happen.

I’m drowning my sorrow in making money by selling pets on the AH. (Thank you Blizzard for the achievement.) Hey, I’m going to be a fail warrior without a title, but at least I’ll be rich!

I was a happy 50ish girl druid that always wandered what made all the mobs attack me even from the greatest distances. I have heard of aggro range and level differences but that did not quite explain the number of mobs that ususally decided to do some target practice with me.

Since the monsters on the same area were not enough, I even called monsters from far away places like the Lurker Below.

After a while I realised that something very wrong happened to me. I began to grow larger and had an orange glow all around me. Imagine how hard was for me to even enter a room. I had to dismount my trusty sabertooth because we were to big. (yes even my sabertooth had the same problems as me)

And eventually I began to have a stink cloud all around me. That stink started to attact a horde of undead warriors all around the land. (I am sorry to have caused all this fuss with the invasion and such).

So it was decided (against my will I might add - the guild and friends insisted, they were tired of helping me get out of troubles caused by my stink aggro) that I need to clean myself. Since I was a druid the first ideea was to use one of the moon wells that were around. Unfortunatelly my stink caused the water to come to a boil and we had to try ever harder methods like magic.

But all that was for nothing. The stink was still presend and now zombies started to appear everywhere I went. No place was safe from them. Then I remembered an old story a dwarf friend once told me. It was a story about their sacred fire of Ironforge so I decided to give it one more try.

And that did the trick. Now I look charming again as you can see from the picture below, I get a nice critical chance and I can go into Outland as a lvl 50ish druid.

So remember: from time to time do visit Ironforge and take a bath in the hot lava. You will feel much better after this.

Today was the fifth report of illness in the lower regions of the eastern kingdoms, Galatyr and I went south to meet with the lords of the area to discuss the cause, effect and treatment of the new disease among the populace of the area.

I still feel strange to be here, it was only 2 months ago that we were told to bar our gates to all but the most revered of travellers from both Westfall and Redridge to the east due to reports of strange happening in both provinces. The alliance may seem strong to those inside its home; however to those looking outwards it is seen as a crumbling state, although I dare not say it to anyone save those I trust most. This should be a time of rejoicing and happiness after the arrival of the missing king after 2 years, yet there are no celebrations: With the increase in all manners of evil activity it is with sombre duty my order sets out not to tell of greatness but of sorrow and misfortune to those who wish our coming, and eventually will cheer our departure. I feel more trapped in the keep than I ever have, as though it is now made to keep us in, and not vile creatures out.

After the king’s departure the Lords of Stormwind all but abandoned the sister states, fearful of the fate that behest both the overwhelmed Lordaeron and the now missing Dalaran. The king however does not embrace the other men as they were the kin that he should see them as, instead he shuns them and holds them at arms length. Most in my order agree with this treatment: most are pigs and wish only joy for themselves. Prince Menethil would be proud…

19th October

The meeting with the lords was to no avail. Of the 18 only 7 bothered to arrive, 8 of the missing nobles did not even send word of their condition or wishes, the 3 that did were vague and almost uncaring of their land. It was decided that the south shall be annex from the order’s duties; a move I see as both foolish and unkind. Of course the nobles insisted they still get paid their taxes in the name of Stormwind…they have no spine. The king has ordered the menace of the Defias to be ignored for the time being and all patrols along the border of the river to the south doubled. The people of Darkshire are no more cousins to us, but enemies to be mistrusted like the Orcs we are so indoctrinated to hate.

The group known as the Nightwatch –Some of whom I know to be very skilled and reputable paladins- have reported they need bolstering with supplies and men; we have been ordered to kill them on sight.

My own ears have heard rumours around the city when I am on my patrol, the festivities of hallow’s eve have been overshadowed by something the citizenry cannot see or hear but seem to be afraid of. Only time will tell what the light will give us in terms of hope, faith is not enough.

21st October

The goblins of the steamwheel cartel have been deemed unfit for commerce with as the supplies they send are found with traces of the disease that the surrounding area seems so unready to fight. Our saviour is however perhaps at hand: we have received word that the crusade in the north has been all but abandoned by the argent dawn and their numbers are to add to our own. They are experts at fighting these illnesses and their arrival brings hope to many of the citizens. Their appearance does however signal something far worse to come, why would they end their attack on lordaeron in all but the worst circumstances…are we their newest crusade?

I am ordered to reinforce the entry to Goldshire, the first defence of Stormwind. I am to take 20 men at a time when it is most important to protect the capital. I do not believe my superiors can be fully trusted, they seem very rare of late, only giving orders through letter and never seen in the king’s council. I dare not trust anyone, save myself.

22nd October

We saw them today for the first time in 2 years. It is as we have feared most, the Scourge has redoubled its efforts and with every citizen that dies their number increases. Why did we not see this, why were we not warned by those on the furthest outposts of the alliance. This is the first week in 2 years we have not heard from any of our sister states or the city in outland; Galatyr has deserted and gone to his home of Ironforge, he would not say why but I feel he fears for his family, and rightly so.

I do not know whether The dwarves have been effected by this new plague of undeath, as the attacks seem to be coming from the south….we seem to be the first hurdle.

23rd

We lost our first men today, both young and reckless they hurled themselves at yet another wave of the undead that assaulted our gates. Goldshire has been abandoned. We now sit in our wall, repelling every wave as if it is the last. They still come.

We are ordered to give every last ounce of our being into fighting the menace that has still not been explained to us. The argent dawn however are great sources of morale, their words give us hope in this time where none can be found in our souls.

There have been reports that the warlord Thrall has accepted the asylum of the lordaeron survivors under Jaina Proudmoore’s command, it is clearly not just the east that is suffering: water can also carry this affliction.

25th

The outer wall has been abandoned, we are over run. We have been ordered back into the keep to the north and to refuse entry to the dying citizens of Stormwind. They are dying and have no chance of help, even the knights of the dawn who swore to help us have deserted, fled back to the north to “fight a larger threat”, What is larger that the doom of 50,000 people?!! I hope they do not exile us to a death without rest or the light’s guidance, or it is their soul’s too that will perish with ours in the eternal dream.
The most disturbing thing stalking the streets of the city is not the dead but the warriors in black, I swear I have seem humans among the dead who are not attacked, bitten or clawed at. These men seem intelligent and armed; they do not fear the dead but embrace them and seem to hold sway over their movement. I believe these to be the new leaders of the scourge but I cannot. If I share my thoughts with anyone I will surely be killed, no man of the light can turn to darkness, and it is against his soul’s yearning to help those who do not see the light.

I feel these are my last hours before the fall of Stormwind, and I wish I could say I spend them valiantly…however I am hiding behind stone, my hammer laid upon the wall, clean and un-wanted.

They are coming…May the light be with us all.

26th

I have left my post to seek refuge in the tunnels towards Ironforge, they are many miles but it is our only hope to reach the city and hope it has lasted better than our defences stood. We have seen many strange things on our travels and heard worse…but one chills my bones more than any other.

The lich citadel of Naxxramas has mobilised and is spewing forth evil onto our lands, they attack all peoples, human, dwarf and troll alike, they do not care who they harm but what they can gain from this…they are raising an army to destroy the kingdom…and it is working.

27th

We are but 5 now, the rest, dead by my hand…bitten or worse in an attack last night…I still hear the screams as we walk…they are everywhere and all directions are filled with danger. The lake above us was a warm sight we it was reached, the relief of seeing blue not red water was a large one indeed

…

They have taken all sides and we now are outnumbered yet they do not attack, the black warriopr that accompanies them stalks their lines 60 yards from us, holding them back…

We will fail…and we will die

May the light give rest to my soul, if I shall have such a thing when I am at one with the lich.

There is no hope…there is no light…There is no salvation, only destiny…something I wish I do not have to face, alone or otherwise…in the dark or in the bathing glory of the lights true darkness.

I’ve been playing WoW for approx 3-4 yrs, playing various classes as mains and alts, unfortunatly i lost access to that account, it was in my Ex’s name, when we split up she wouldnt give me access to the account and changed the password and deleted my characters.(loosing the account gutted me more than loosing the girl), so ive had to restart from scratch.

I couldn’t stopped laughing while reading this! Modern breakups are not about sharing things anymore, right? Who cares who takes the refrigerator and who takes the TV set, it’s all about who’s having the warlock and who gets the hunter!!

Magtheridon’s Lair

GM: “Alright, the person who thinks it’s funny to pull the channelers before all five tanks are in position gets -DKP!”

All tanks get into position, countdown ensues, our MT wants to give himself Bloodrage but accidentaly presses the autoattack button and engages the channelers prematurely wiping everyone. A lot of laughing follows because our MT is the best player of our guild and we don’t skip out an opportunity to tease him about this failure.

Second try everyone is in position with hands far, far away from the keyboard until the fabled Anarya receives a whisper from someone and decides to answer back. Now my R key is right next to my fireblast hotkey and it was rather dark in my room and you can imagine what I accidentally pressed.

Nobody got to see the perpetrator of this pull but everyone notices a shy fireblast engage the event before time. WIPE! There were five mages in that group tonight

GM: “All mages /roll”
We all roll.
GM: “All mages will get that much -DKP if we have another wipe tonight!”

Needless to say it was a flawless kill next try.

Kael’Thas

First night on Kael’Thas so let’s learn the phases. Okay, advisors first and everyone knows what to do.

GM: “Do not even think about stopping to DPS when Thaladred has the gaze on you. Just kite him around the room and let the range DPS nuke him.”

Engaging! Boring speech, Thaladred the Darkener comes into play.
Gaze on Anarya!
Anarya runs around the room in cowardly terror.
Gaze on Anarya! (again)

By this time I had an acceptable distance from him and my ego kicks in that I’m still at 0 damage done. And being the respectful Arcane mage that I was at that time I twirl around and cast a Slow and decide to cook up an Arcane Blast.

Vent: “NO! Run, don’t cast any spells!”
Me: “Ah it’s okay!”
Anarya has died!
Raid: “Anarya you fail! Kek!”

I was a very tactic-obedient mage for the rest of the night.

Hexlord Malacrass

The more mages there are in a raid, the harder it is to keep a single target sheeped. That night in ZA there was only one mob we needed to keep sheeped and there were three mages. We didn’t kill Malacrass that night because, although we all had sheepwatch, every mage thought someone else would stop their DPS to resheep the mob before the duration expired. The sheeped mob always ended up one step from the shaman healer and it only took one second from when the sheep broke to when the healer died. Again and again and again! Wipe and wipe and wipe!

I like to believe that I learned to resheep in time since then.

More to come as I remember them.

I’ve been in a rather good raiding guild which achieved rather good progress and they even managed to get attuned to MH the fair way before the attunement nerf. This is on a server where progress was something that happened to other people (that’s the way on RP servers sometimes). Unfortunately it disbanded sometime this fall and their members left for other more-or-less “hardcore” guilds.

So along with Wiping with Anarya and some of the less-than-professional things I’ve done.

Void Reaver

So my very first time in a raid and the guild master is busily explaining all the tactics and I’m hiding there behind the rest of the crowd.

GM: “Blah-blah, heavy mobility fight, you will see a rather LARGE orb heading your way at a slow speed and DBM will announce that the Orb is on you. You don’t need to be a real genius to move away from it. No ranged DPS/healer should take any damage during this fight and no healer with heal anyone ranged. In this fight, no-one should die. Right, ready?”
Pulling!
Void Reaver has been engaged!
…15 seconds later…
Anarya has died.
GM: “Combat ress Anarya!”
…20 seconds later…
Anarya has died.
GM: “…”
Needless to say, it was a wipe eventually. Other people died as well (but I was first).

Second try, a FULL MINUTE this time into the fight: Anarya has died. I was already making myself very small and inconspicous over there. We didn’t kill him that night but the officers learned their lesson that I needed to be explicitly told to move away from the orbs. A few nights later I was scared out of my wits when someone hollered on Ventrilo: “ANARYA RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!!!” I was already out of the orbs range that time but the holler was scary anyway.

Gruul’s Lair

Easy fight, no problems whatsoever at any time. Except Anarya noobwiping on a farming run. I usually have this boulder I like to hug while I’m DPSing Gruul and there’s usually nobody around in range for Shatter. Except this one time when I was a bit careless and, after being tossed high into the air before the Gronn Lord’s Grasp I decided to blink my way back to the boulder. Unfortunately for me I decided to be smart and blink in mid-air so that I would halt by flying route and fall close to my spot.

Result: the little blonde mage is daintily flying through the air towards the tanking spot and decides to blink. Unfortunately I blink the wrong way since my camera was turned towards the center of the room and I land right beside Gruul. In a moment of panic I decide to run in a totally random direction and, 5 seconds later when I’m immobilized I’m positioned evenly beetween the tanks and the melee DPS who are all frantically typing words of praise for me:

“OMG NO!” “Oh shit!” “Get out of here!” “What the hell are you doing here, Anarya?!?”

Shatter– 15k points of damage and I singlehandedly kill 10 raid members. Cheers for me!

[to be continued]