Andromache: The Witching Hour

Ravens victorious!

2009-11-10T09:33:54Z

Last night, on our second visit (and our fourth attempt of the evening) the Ravens downed Malygos, Aspect of Magic, ending the Nexus War (as far as our participation goes at least). On each attempt phases 1 and 2 went like clockwork save one stupid mage (that would be me) getting splatted. The first couple of phase 3s were chaotic, but we steadily improved and despite a couple of deaths (stupid mage again, and our tank) the rest of teh team were able to bring Big Blue down. Killing him also elevated a number of Ravens to the rank of "Champions of the Frozen Wastes", and there was a certain amount of title swapping going on ...

Technically, as Leafshine mentions, that means the Ravens have completed the vanilla Lich King content (so only 2 - soon 3 - patches of stuff to work on). As it was still early, we decided to head to Ulduar (which many of us hadn't seen) and promptly smacked Flame Leviathan (on the first attempt) and Ignis (on the second). Both fights were pretty smooth, though getting an achievement for being stuck on Ignis' molten "crotch pot" (as it was quickly named by the group) is a bit icky. Decent loot was had by all (including an upgraded off-hand for Andro!).

It was getting late by this point, and rather than learn a new Uluar boss fight we decided, after a bit of peopl swapping, to head to Wintergrasp and assault the Vault of Archavon. A number of us have done the bosses there in PUGs but we'd only ever done Archavon as a guild (and a couple of attempts on Emalon, defeated by the timer). Cue three one-shots (Archavon and Emalon bloodless, and Koralon with a smattering of casualties. Cue more loot (or shards in the case of Archavon's stuff), though persuading young Blayse to keep the Mage Tier9 trousers proved to be something of a challenge (there were three of us present - Blayse, Magariz and myself - all of whom lusted after the trousers). We also got a Grand Black War Mammoth for our troubles (grats to Deacus!) After something of an absence I think future visits to VoA are likely.

(Add to the raid success a quick 5-man trip to COS - with Deacs giving people a ride in his new Mammoth-taxi - wherin Andro finally managed to win the bronze drake!)

All in all, an excellent evening.

A little digression: the Dragon Age

2009-11-06T10:26:55Z

I've long been a fan of Bioware's RPGs and autumn/winter 2009-2010 is a particularly good time with Dragon Age released this week and Mass Effect 2 at the start of 2010.

Dragon Age: Origins was preceeded by a character generator and if you're online uploads your current gear/achievements (and pics) to an armoury-like part of Bioware's sire. I put together three characters earlier in the week - Andromache, a human mage, Buliwyf a dwarf warrior, and Maebh an elven scout (sound familiar :p) and last night Andro's adventures began.

So far it's pretty good, if linear, with the right mix of fun and challenge and looks great (with your character dynamically updated to reflect personalisation/dress - how things have progressed ...). The combat is very tactical - being an offline game you can pause the action, plot what your party members will do and then let things run (until you want to adjust things). It's also bloody. After one adventure I was left wondering if the school had showers and a laundry. It doesn't look to be pulling many punches with it's 18 rating!

I presume there's a separate start for each class - my adventures to-date have solely been in the mage school (the Harrowing, a mage test, and another adventure with a fellow student) which wouldn't work for other class/race combos. I'll find out when Buli and Mae head out into the world!

Expect more pictures/comments as things progress

What a difference a week makes

2009-11-03T12:19:09Z

I was off work last week, ostensibly on holiday but in practice suffering somewhat from the lurgy. There were a couple of days I just slept, but I also got in a fair chunk of WOW playing.

Monday saw a return to Naxx and after tanking the first couple of Construct Quarter bosses

with Buliwyf, Andro swapped in and was able to kill the last two bosses and "complete" Naxx (and get the achievement). We sailed through until Thadius and then proceeded to wipe a number of times. A router failure by one of our healers meant we had to rejig things and bring in a replacement, but after a couple more goes we prevailed. The last attempt went like clockwork. Practice makes perfect?

Something else we did repeatedly last week was the Headless Horseman. Both Andro and Buili had everything they wanted from him, though Andro, as a mount and pet collector wanted the Horesman's mount. It dropped twice for us in the fortnight, both times when Buli was tanking. First time out it went to young Magariz, the second to Buli (so Andro is now green with envy!)

Andro did, however, finally manage to complete Rapid Defense at Wyrmrest Temple and to complete a number of achievements in the AV and IoC battlegrounds (we even won IoC a couple of times - the Ruin/Emberstorm battlegroup is horribly biased against the characters of Ruin as we're cross-faction and either up against other Ruin players (where the chances are even and the numbers favour Alliance) or facing a dozen German PvP realms (which henerally means a loss for the Ruin players, both Horde and Alliance).

My third major character, a Draenai hunter named Maebh (Mae for short) finally hit 60 and in her second AV managed to find a picture of Foror and Tigule (which Andro, with a zillion AVs under her belt, has singularly failed to do :) She also learnt to fly, which makes life in Hellfire Penninsula a much more pleasurable experience than Buli or Andro had. Though force of will (and willingness to wander outland in nothing but a tabard and lingerie) she completed all of the Hallow's End achievements bar getting the cloth had. After six days of trick or treating she was forced to admit defeat and wait until the 2010 season!

Also in hellfire Penninsula is my Orc DK, Clavain, who was originally created as a means of bolstering the funds of my younger hordelings but who as instead set out to explore the world (and principally so I can see the Horde-side of Outland and Northrend before Cataclysm hits). He went to Outland at 58 and, being broke, can't fly like Mae but that's not slowed him down much. He did die once in Silithus when I went (through five years force of habit) to the Alliance flight master and, upon clicking them, was swiftly butchered.

Finally, last night saw the Ravens go onto The Eye of Eternity for the first time. The first few times were chaotic but we soon learned the phase 1 fight (and are getting there on phase 2). Out few attempts at Phase 3 were disasterous, but it feels quite doable and we're hoping for a return trip (and success) next week. As light relief Angeliqa (who grew up horde-side as a blood elf before defecting to the Alliance) set her black tabby to wandering Malygos' domain, chased by the Stinkers a couple of us owned. Very odd to be fighting the Guardian of Magic and his minions with love-crazed cats and skunks dashing about the platform (antics based on Pepe le Pew for those who don't know it).

Yesterday also saw two new recruits to the Ravens, the first not known "in real life" but only through the game. Historically we've been fairly restrictive on recruitment, but fallign numbers (due to people moving Horde-side, to other severs, or stopping playing) has prompted a more open (if still cautious) recruitment policy to ensure we have the numbers for raids. There'll probably be a couple more shortly, after which point we'll take stock and see how numbers go for our raids.

In other news

2009-10-26T00:28:13Z

Been somewhat under the weather these last few days, but a couple of fun things thus week:

Buliwyf and associates went for a wander in Blackwing Lair but took the opportunity to sort a few things in Blackrock Spire. The Leerroy! achievement was one such thing, and Buli (who was tanking) decided to play it safe and get all of the whelps in the room. He failed, but as you can see it was still and impressive number (apologies for the tooltip!)

Andro, on the other hand, decided to return to Winterspring and Felwood to put paid to some teddies. This was the subject of a post a loonngg time ago, but the rep gain is somewhat better now and though tedious, was completed relatively easily.

Truth is in the eye of the beholder

2009-10-26T00:12:53Z

On thursday night by tanking associate Buliwyf accompanied Leafshine and some other Ravens to Heroic Nexus. A small debate ensue as to whether Leafy (in bird form) was sat on on the stone or in it. Leafshine made her case quite elloquently for the former. As the following gnomish image-grab shows, from master Buliwyf's case the latter was true.

I suspect one or other of us may have to much ale, and as a dwarf who knows his limits its not Buli :)

Brr, it's cold in here.

2009-10-16T08:58:24Z

I was pootling round Dalaran (as you do after being thrashed on the Isle of Conquest again) when I spotten a message from my good friend Breanni of the local Pet emporium. It seem's that I'd been selected to look after another of her strays, a baby penguin named Mr Chilly. Me and the young chap immediatel bonded over a bucket of raw mackerel and a jingling ball.

I'm glad to say he looks a lot calmer than his cousin Pengu who always looks rather demon-possessed.

How do you kill that which is dead?

2009-09-29T10:36:55Z

With 9 men, and a big stick.

Last night the Ravens made their first foray back into Naxx in about a month (having held the raid IDs since we cleared the four wings) and promptly spanked Saphiron (for the loss of two characters, one of whom was me .. oops!).

Kel Thuzand proved a bit tougher and we bounced a few times. We were getting closer though and despite one of our number having to drop out, we carried out trying, and on the fourth or fifth attempt (having finally sussed the spacing, target priority and add-pickups) we managed to down Kel and "complete" Naxx.

As it happens, I still have two bosses to do (in the Construct quarter) to be fully complete, but hopefully those'll be attained when we next come back to the floating citadel - I suspect the next few weeks will be The Eye, Onyxia and our first steps into Ulduar!

Aion: an Eternity of QQs

2009-09-28T15:50:52Z

I decided to add Aion: Tower of Eternity to my stable of "backup" games but have made an interesting discovery: The "Eternity" of the subtitle is the time taken to get on to the servers. Arriving home yesterday evening I decided to take my Assassin or Sorcerer out for a spin, only to find there was a 2 hour logon queue on the servers. Every server (believe me, I tried them all). Had I realized this before applying my Live serial number to my Aion account I'd have held off until there were enough servers to meet demand (or the demand had fallen off).

Now, I can understand their point of not having too many servers at launch (that then become ghost towns) but having 13 full servers, each with 2000 people waiting (after 2000, it doesn't let you queue) sends a pretty bad message at launch. As I mentioned the other week, Aion isn't a bad game (though it's no WOW), and is a darn site more fun that Age of Conan, but charging a premium for the game (it retails for £45, usually discounted to £30-35 compared to £20-25 for WOW or WAR, both usually available for £15-20) and then not giving people the chance to play is cheeky in the extreme.

NCSoft's advice so far has been "try another server" (though all are in the same boat that I can see) or "come back later" (great for those with a limited play time ...). I'm sure they'll get it sorted eventually, but at the cost of how many subscribers I wonder.

Boozefest

2009-09-22T09:59:06Z

Brewfest is here again, and Ironforge (and Origimar) are full of drunk characters weaving their way around invading dark iron dwarves and scoffing pretzels and sausages while wearing leaderhosen or dirndals.

As ever there are a host of achievements and having reached a grand total of 190 Brewfest Tokens yesterday Andro logged on this morning to take her total to 200 so she could buy the last thing she needed - membership of Brew of the Year club - earning her the title of Brewmaster.

Gaining the Brewfest meta-achievement was the last thing she needed for the "What a Long, Strange Road it's been"... meta-achievemnt (i.e. completing all the achievements for all the major festivals). The reward for this is much sought after: a Violet Proto-drake (a 310%-speed mount) which means Andro can join that club who "accidentally" go AFK on the landing platform in Dalaran to desmonstrate the size of their 'mounts.'

The magic of other worlds

2009-09-14T10:19:07Z

Wow wasn't the first MMO I played (I dabbled very briefly with Ultima and EQ before playing Star Wars Galaxies for about six months and then EQII for a while) but it is the only one that's held my interest for a long period of time. I've occasionally dabbled with others when disenchanted (FF XI, Matrix, Eve, Conan, WAR, City of Heroes) but most haven't caught my attention.Some I really hated (Matrix, Conan) and others, while cool, didn't get me returning for more (FF, Eve, WAR). LOTRO is an exception and is the only "backup" MMO I return to semi-regularly (and is the only other MMO I've hit max-level in), but even that has never quite gripped me in the same way as Warcraft. After the disaster of Conan (and the nice, but ultimately unfulfilling WAR) there's been a bit of a dearth of new MMOs recently, but like buses suddenly several come along at once: Champions Online and Aion.

Champions is a superhero game, based on Steve Long's RPG of the same name. Character generation is pretty comprehensive and you can build yourself everything from a Hulk to Jean Gray, from Wolverine to a mini-gundam. Most of this is cosmetic - and some pretty wacky results are possible - though there are a range of custom "power templates" and the ability to create new ones by mixing and matching. I ended up creating one melee character, and one ranged spellcaster.

Things got off to a bad start with a host of server lag issues at launch though things seem to stabilize and I was able to give things a whirl. There's a single tutorial level before heading out into the wider world which I imagine might grate after a while, and upon completing the tutorial there are two principal areas you can visit - Canada (vs hordes of undead) and the South West (vs Mutants). Both have an initial campaign section that needs to be worked through before more of the zone opens up (rather like phasing in Wrath) which works fairly well. The level design seemed to work well with a broad range of powers and the quests, though following several broad themes, seemed to work well. However, the world design is such that there are high level mobs almost adjacent to low level ones - as I found out the hard way when my feral fox was chomped by a Wolf 20 levels higher than the ones she was hunting. All in all, it's not a bad game - and seems more forgiving that City of Heroes (whose XP debt I found really offputting). I do wonder about its longevity though - by the teen levels my enthusiasm was starting to wane, though someone who is more into superhero comics might get more out of it.

Aion is a fantasy MMO by NCsoft, the people who brought you Lineage II and Guild Wars. I Played in the Beta for this (rather than live play like Champions) but it was generally a smoother experience. In many regards it plays like Guild Wars, MMO edition - lots of very pretty characters but an oddly constrained world (it's a little odd to get to level 10 and be able to fly, only to find whole zones were flying is barred or to bounce off invisible walls in the air ... or to drown when going into water beyond chest deep). There's a strong EQII vibe too, with four broad classes available to each of the two factions (Mage, Rogue, Warrior, Cleric), each specializing into two classes after level 10 for a total of 8 plable roles. There didn't appear to be much in the way of non-cosmetic character diffentiation, beyond gear (limited choices) and "enchantments." Likewise, there doesn't seem to be any functional difference between the two factions (save in their physical appearance) though each has a distinct starter zone and possibly their other play regions. I only reached the teen levels so I don't know if it's possible to get into the other faction's regions or only into the contested "abyss". If you can't, it'll further shrink the world. Oddly, the use of the zones (in the starter regions at least) is patchy. Some are scarcely touched - you run through them (and they're very pretty) but there's little to encourage you to explore - and others are grossly overused. I think this is a side-effect of the westernization of the game - the Korean original has been around since late 2008 and had, I gather, considerably fewer quests (presumably the ones that are the linked "campaign" ones). The lesser quests may be the additions for version 1.5 (the Westernized edition) to cut down on the grinding that is so prevalent in Korean games, hence the somewhat erratic use of the space. Nonetheless, character progression works well (though gear choice is very limited initially, but very pretty) and there were only a few points where things were challenging (and then often due to the need to get drops or for a kill to register ... one "kill 3 XX" quest turned into a "kill 20" because the third one wasn't recognized ... great fun).

Oh, and it's very pretty :p

In both Aion and Champions I didn't really progress to the meat of the game, but with Aion - unlike Champions - I did find myself being drawn into the setting and wanting to go further. I don't think either is a "WOW beater" (though there was plenty of WOW-dissing in Aion, much as there was in Conan and War, and bad-mouthing of "noobs" and the harrasment of others, which goes to show that Warcraft doesn't have a monopoly on bad behaviour) but I suspect Aion will get a substantial player base among those wanting something new and shiny (and pretty) to play (and exploring new settings is why I play other games), though whether it will rival Warcraft (with or without Cataclysm throwing a spanner in the works) is another matter - it just feels too constrained to me (though those enjoying PvP may have fun in the Abyss).

Hour of the Wolf (Worgen?) SPOILERS HO!

2009-08-22T01:42:39Z

It's coming up on 4am and I've been up the best part of 24 hours due to family issues, but I thought I'd put my inability to sleep to some use (though apologies if sleep deprivation makes my spelling, grammar and logic even more ... interesting ... than usual).

So, Cataclysm is confirmed. No great surprises there, though some of the details are quite interesting - the Guild Leveling and Path of the Titan look like neat new twists, and the races and class-race combos look set to inject new life into the game. I really like the idea of advancing the lore and shaking everything up, but in considering the impact of Deathwing's return I came to a conclusion:

Cataclysm isn't just an expansion, it's WOW 1.5 by another name.

An expansion would build on the setting, adding new content to that which already existed. Yes, there may be changes to classes and zones and quest, but in many regards these are nips and tucks (pretty big cosmetic surgery in some cases, but essentially evolutionary rather than revolutionary).

Cataclysm meets the criteria of an expansion by adding new levels, zones, races (etc) but it also changes the entire playing experience. We're not talking just "your talent trees are different" or "there are more quests in Dustwallow" we're talking a revamp of pretty much everything. Geography and quests will change, there'll be changes to character stats that make the amalgamation of spell damage and healing look like childs play (no spellpower - all derived from int, no mp5 - that'll be spirit, no defence - that'll be talents, etc). We're talking pretty much a rebuilding of the game from the ground up (hence my thinking of it as WOW 1.5 - it's not a wholly new "WOW 2", but its so radically different as to be distinct from classic/BC/WotLK).

One part of me applauds the vision - the willingness to go in and make changes, applying the lessons of the last five years and giving the players a number of things they've asked for while using lore (Deathwing's return) to justify them - and is excited by the lore and gameplay potential, but another part of me worries. The scale of what's being considered is vast and stands a good chance of making the waves from the introduction of DKs look like a storm in a teacup. If it works, great, but how many people will be driven away by having to (once more) unlearn the game and start afresh.

Wholsesale reboots can be phenomenally successful (just look at Star Trek and Galactica) but the last game that had its innards ripped out and remodelled died a painful and lingering death (I'm thinking Galaxies) as players defected to the next generation of MMOs principally WOW). It would be ironic if WOW met the same fate (and I'm not suggesting it will, but the risk is there - I have more faith in Blizzard than SOE though).

Tangental to this that this remodeling of the game will render large chunks of the game 'lost' to those who've not experienced them in their original form (as ever the case with updates and expansions, but were talking about a vast scale here) and the core zone/quest changes will be rolled out to all players with the expansion providing access to the races/levels/new zones. With The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, some mechanics may have changed but fundamentally the world wasn't changed; you still spent ages hunting the Defias messenger in Westfall or hunting furbolg in Winterspring. In Cataclysm, that may not be the cases. Old timers may discuss the epic journeys to hand in quests in Auberdine, while new arrivals luxuriate in the new Darkshore quest hub .... (okay, not that that's a bad thing per-se - the point is to 'fix' stuff that's broken - but it'll had a whole new dimension to "remember when ... discusssions" (and thinking of how the Loremaster Achievement would be tracked makes my head ache :p)

(it would be great if the whole 'legacy>new' change was done via phasing, much as the rumors of re-conquering Loredaeron suggested a week or two back, but I guess that'd cause too many problems and shifting the cataclysm from a 'world event' to a more personal level wouldn't really fly)

Now, you'd think that after spending a vast amount of effort remodelling the 1-60 experience you'd want to give players the chance to see all the hard work (and they're talking about 'new experiences' through the new class race-combos) so the comments I've seen about "no new character slots" seems very odd. It's tantamount to saying "you 5-year vets with 10 characters .. neenah!" Yes, the addition of Blood Elves, Draenai and Death Knights did much the same, but those were elements of the relevant expansion, not a core part of the expansion/revision. I can see a lot of spirited debate on the character slot issue ...

Wowkillers

2009-08-06T10:17:32Z

There's been a lot of talk of games that will depose WOW as king of the MMO genre - Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning - but by and large they've come to nothing. Not that they're bad games necessarily (well, excepting Conan) but they lack a certain something.

The latest contender being touted is Aion, a Korean MMO that's getting a western workover (a process in which several people I know are working on, though I'm no more likely to get any insight from them as I do the people I know who work at Blizzard ...) but I'm sceptical.

The game that I think does pose a threat - due to the source material of the game and the pedigree of the developer, Bioware - is Star Wars: Old Republic. I came to MMOs through Star Wars Galaxies, and was gutted when that game fell appart, so I'm eagerly awaiting Old Republic (due, I believe, in 2010). The gameplay clips I've seen look good, but as ever with Bioware it's the cinematics that leave your jaw on the floor

WowStats: DPS vs Damage

2009-07-07T17:14:26Z

There was a discussion on one of the forums I frequent this week about the relative merits of DPS and Total Damage. I say discussion, as there was the usual degree of name calling about which was most relevant. In fact, as someone who spends all day crunching numbers I can happily say both are, and neither are.

(Sorry for the egg-sucking lesson for those who do understand basic stats, but for those who don't ...:)

DPS is a measure of damage over time. The more damage you do in a given period of time, the higher your DPS score. However, this can be skewed - a mage who does a single 10k hit on a mob with an instant cast and who is then splatted may appear to have a high DPS rating (depending on how you calculate the time element of the DPS stat), but in fact they made only a minor contribution to the fight.

Total Damage is an open-ended stat that does what it says on the tin - it adds up all the damage inflicted during the fight/raid/whatever. However, the significance of that varies a lot - a 3 hour raid will naturally have a higher total damage than a 90 minute one (and the same with a 10 minute fight vs a 2 minute one) .. you'd hope at least.

In reality, you want to look at both - high DPS and high total damage = result. High DPS but low total damage, or low dps but high total damage are going to be less helpful in a raid (the former is dependant on how long there was active contribution to the fight, the latter on the need to down in a fixed period, e.g. enrage timers) and a low-low result is pretty obviously a bad thing.

Of course, when deciding on who to involve in your Emalon pug you can't really look at exhaustive raid stats and, assuming they're not a complete muppet who'll die to the first rockfall, DPS is probably going to be close enough (so, horseshoes, handgrenades and pug-forming) but if you're looking at your own performance over time, or your associates, you need to look at a broader range of stats, for which I'd heartily recommend Wow Web Stats (though there are other alternatives I've not investigated at yet).

PvP Frustrations

2009-07-06T08:57:17Z

I'm pretty much a middle of the road player - I'm not in a raiding guild off doing Ulduar and hard modes, but neither am I what Gevlon would call a slacker (though moron, possibly). My main interest is PvE, questing and instancing with my friends, but I also enjoy the odd bit of PvP in Battlegrounds (AV, SoTA and AB mostly) and Wintergrasp. I won't pretend to be a good PvPer - dogged would be the best description - but I like to think I have some idea of the what to do. It's surprising how many don't though.

In AV I know the importance of taking the towers (and defending them until they're capped) and of denying the same to the enemy. All too often though, people are in a frenzied rush to get to the enemy boss, or else are stood in midfield beating up on the opposition (which is a really efficient way of reducing their reinforcement count ...) and so tower defense comes down to a pair of clothies trying to hold off a horde hit squad .... A lot of times the battle is nothing more than 30-40 individuals running at disparate targets while the enemy seems to be working as a well-oiled machine, picking off lone Alliance troops (or even uncoordinated groups). I'm sure they're not really as coordinated as they seem (unless we're up against a big pre-made) but even a modicum of coordination and tactical thinking can be devastating when you're up against the zerg that is the Alliance in Ruin (or Emberstorm as it is now). It would be nice, for once, to see a measure of coordination on the Alliance side - it happens occasionally by chance, but all too rarely - but I suspect the cries of "we've lost" or "you noobs ..." will continue instead - it's much easier to QQ than to try and solve the problem.

Historically, the Ruin battlegroup has struggled for numbers and balance - we were a (small) mix of pvp and Rp realms (and some newly opened servers) and thus starting battles was always a chore, and when they did kick off there was a good chance that one side (usually the Horde) was grossly outnumbered. A month or so back Ruin was merged with several populous German PVP realms (Emberstorm), which has had two effects on BGs: Firstly, there are a lot more of them (benefits of a larger population). Secondly, because of the way cross-language BGs work you never find yourself teamed up with the Germans (though we have a server of Italians in Ruin so it'd make little difference ...), only opposed by them. As a result, you either find yourself facing off against other Ruinites (so the old imbalance issues arise) or - more often now - partial group of Ruin Alliance/Horde players vs a full opposition group from the German realms. The prior situation was unacceptable, but beyond all comprehension the new situation is even worse! Indeed, one of my associates who is more into PvP than I am decided to move server rather than put up with the situation in Ruin/Emberstorm (though he found the mirror situation there - .many more Alliance than Horde; I presume there were 'technical' reasons why the BG mergers weren't done in more sensible manner ... not that it isn't galling to see the possibilities.)

Which leaves Wintergrasp. That actually runs quite well (and the win/loss balance isn't as one-sided as it was). Yes, there is lots of tactical muppetry and the horde usually has Tenacity (so not much chance of the "Against the odds" achievement for the Alliance at present) but all in all it remains fun. However, having the WG quests go weekly removed some of the impetus for playing (unless you're after Wintergrasp tokens, though to be honest there's not a lot to buy ,,,) which I guess was Blizzards aim to try and smooth out the numbers taking part. I'm not sure how the upcoming 3.2 changes will play out here though, with WG becoming a pseudo-Battleground with restricted player numbers (though I'm not sure having a 100-a-side hardcap will make too much difference on Steamwheedle Cartel).

News from Azeroth

2009-07-05T16:50:54Z

Not too much news on the raiding front - the usual guild outings to OS10, VOA10 and Naxx - with steady progress in the latter. The current work, after our exploits in the Arachnid and Construct quarters, is learning Heigan's Safety Dance ... what fun :)

There've been some other developments recently, starting with completing my fifth Champion at the Argent Tournament and receiving the Crusader title, then retro outings to Molten Core and Blackwing Lair. Having seen what they were like, I think I can start to appreciate how tough they must've been at the correct level.

Returning to Northrend, I finally completed For the Alliance (I did 2 cities a month or so back

and the final two - plus some I'd already done - this morning.) Cue the obligatory 'Singing Bears' in Dalaran :)

After than, there I tried to get my weekly 25-man in and joined an OS run (which took almost as long to deal with the loot as it did to kill all the mobs, not that there was anything for me) and then joined a VOA25 run starting with Emalon. These have usually been wipefests, but

the DPS was looking pretty good, and after the obligatory 'pay attention' wipe (and bickering) we did manage to get the Raid Wiper down (and after than, Archavon was a piece of cake).

All in all a good morning's work!