random static

Last night, the static group got together for our regularly-scheduled run. We were scheduled to run Auchenai Crypts, but then we got a wild hair: There have been a lot of well-written articles about the dungeon finder for end-game content, but what about for the lower dungeons? Let's experiment!

First dungeon: Underbog. I've always had a soft spot for this dungeon, but not for anything intrinsic to the dungeon. Honestly, it makes me think of Underdog, the theme starts in my head, and I'm off to a happy place.

Honestly, I was a little surprised to see this one pop up. We cleared it a few weeks back and I put it firmly in my rear-view mirror. We were all either level 64 or 65, though, which I guess is right in its wheelhouse. The dungeon itself wasn't much of a problem, minus a couple overpulls, and I got myself a decent cloak. Although, I do quibble with its name: as a fire mage, I'd prefer that it be called the Cloak of Firey Death. Rays.

As a reward for using the dungeon tool, we each got a little gold and a Satchel of Helpful Goods. Well, "helpful". I got a necklace with strength and...something else not helpful for a mage. Agility, maybe? Turbulent necklace of the vendor-me-for-extra-gold, at any rate.

Second Dungeon: Auchenai Crypts. Worried that it might not come up in the random finder, we decided to just queue directly for Crypts. Less than a minute later, we were all inside the dungeon, which was *amazing*. I'm completely smitten with the instant teleport mechanism. I don't know how much of our limited play time we would spend traveling from the closest major city to the dungeon but it was certainly more than we spent last night. Plus, now I don't have to open portals for folks at the end, saving me money on reagents. ;-)

The dungeon itself was fun and even a little tricky to navigate. Three of our group had run it before to varying degrees, back in the Burning Crusade days, but I didn't remember specifics of the pulls or the fights. The only part I really remembered was the bridge of doom in the middle; I only remembered that because I had three-manned the dungeon with a couple other 80's a few months back, and one of us got knocked off. Hehe. As usual, there were a couple of hairy pulls, but we didn't have any significant difficulties. No good loots for me, but our priest healer got a nice new staff and our shammy picked up some caster mail.

Third Dungeon: Crypts, redux With our primary goal accomplished, heady with success, and with plenty of time left in the evening, we threw ourselves on the mercy of the RNG for another dungeon. Laughter rippled over vent as the Auchindoun loading screen popped up and we found ourselves deposited back into the Crypts. A few fireballs and blizzards later, we had dropped the Exarch again and were itching for more. Helpful satchel reward this time was cloth shoulders with a reasonable enchantment, but not superior to the ones I already had.

Fourth Dungeon: Mana-Tombs With a good 30 to 45 minutes of play time left we threw ourselves into a fourth dungeon. "Wouldn't it be funny if we got Crypts again? Wait, that's the Auchindoun loading screen..." Heh. We had demolished Mana-Tombs (that hyphen still looks odd) the previous week, so it was still fresh in our minds. I picked up a nice new wand, which made me a happy troll.

Summary (tl;dr): Four dungeons in two and a half hours. Teleport in/out is *amazing*. Bonus items are essentially worthless to this group, since we're pretty well-geared from dungeons and dungeon-related quests, but extra gold is always nice. And, for this level range, Death Knight tanks are overpowered. Having a DK tank is really like having an extra DPS. I'm pleased to say my DPS was greater (blizzard ftw) but she slipped by me on total damage done late in the evening. I'll get her next time. And speaking of next time, we're off to the Caverns of Time, after a little leveling. There's a rumor that Thrall needs to be rescued from a bunch of stinky humans. We're on it.

the trailer we should have seen

Thanks to the Ancient Gaming Noob for sharing!

3x80

Rise of the Kirin Tauren

nothing like waiting

until the last minute. From Monday evening:

morning brew achievement

Despite earlier protestations to the contrary, I logged on to Wara this morning while I finished my morning Diet Coke. In my mailbox was the last new brew of the year:

still alive

Wow. I haven't written in...what? A month? Fail.

I'm still playing WoW, but far less obsessively than I did a year ago. Or six months ago, for that matter. I no longer feel that burning need to log in before work and run a few dailies, so that the evening is free for more "serious" adventuring. I'm in a great guild, full of people who are fun to hang out with, but my /afk schedule has been so hectic that I haven't been able to raid on a regular basis and am feeling rather left out. And I'm seriously tired of just doing dailies every day, for my entire play session, so Wara just doesn't get played.

I'm still leveling alts, and enjoying being able to pop in for an hour or so and make progress. My death knight is at 80 and is just sitting, for many of the reasons mentioned above. The former poxic warlock has been getting most of my time these days; she hit 70 last week and is pushing through Borean Tundra. The pally and hunter are both in the low 40s, questing in Stranglethorn, which has been hella-confusing at times. I keep forgetting which toon has done which part of which quests and, as they're both blood elf females, there's a lot of deja vu.

I think I'm having the most fun with my mage in the static group. The group is very much in the old poxic tradition, where these characters are essentially only played together. Also, as with the purple poxers, we're leveling almost exclusively through dungeons. Passing through Uldaman and Zul'Farrak was fun but distinctly bittersweet. Seeing Maraudon for the first time was a blast and completing the Sunken Temple was very satisfying. We're about to hit a series of dungeons I haven't run much, if at all, and I'm looking forward to each of them.

All that said, I'm getting a strong case of wanderlust. I've joined Beau and the gang at MMO Voices, where there's a nice community developing, including a rotating "Game of the Site". When I joined, the game was Runes of Magic, so I have that sitting on the laptop for exploration this weekend. The current game is Ikariam, a browser game that I'm actually familiar with. Come say hello to Waradwen, on the Iota server!

new forms

Like every druid and his brother, one of the first things I did last night was to select my new forms. Unlike every druid and his brother, however, I did not pick either the white or black forms, which were everywhere in Dalaran. I may give in to peer pressure later, but for now I'm digging my new furs.

Patches?

We don't need no stinkin' patches!

Actually, this one sounds good. I'm really looking forward to the new boomkin spell twisting mechanic...perhaps that'll help my mediocre DPS. It sounds like heroics are the order of the day!

another sweet hat