Slain by Elf

Before patch 2.3, I, as my warrior Tiger, was lingering around wondering when I'd finally be able to rescue Marshall Windsor from his prison in Blackrock Depths when I realised that, being level 70 and all, I would be able to manage it with just a little bit of help. I'd tried it solo before, but being a protection warrior and lacking some damage-dealing capabilities and healing I'd been overwhelmed at one point and didn't feel like fighting my way back again. As luck would have it, two companions, Grimlor the paladin and Mellica the mage, were around and neither had ventured to see the dread Onyxia or explored the dungeons necessary to gain access to her cave. A quick pair of invitations later and we were heading to Blackrock Mountain.

First on the adventure agenda was to visit Windsor, and after Grimlor found a crumpled up note we had good reason to do so. He sent us off to kill a couple of people, which we did, and as we were heading deeper in to Blackrock Depths we decided to complete a second attunement whilst we were there and so nabbed a fragment of the core. Giving that back to some elf chap we thus became attuned to Molten Core, now freely able to enter the fiery depths of the world, as long as we take some more friends. But that was just a side quest, and so we head back to Marshall Windsor with his tasks performed.

Now we break him out of gaol. We clear a path from his captors, but Windsor has apparently been trapped inside for too long and is itching for a fight, as he manages to seek out anything moving that we haven't killed and starts smacking on it until it stops moving. It would be fine if he'd just admit that he had some pent-up rage, but he kept on shouting cries of redemption and other such nonsense, which was a bit of a cop-out. With some hefty firepower from Mellica and nifty healing and smacking of maces by Grimlor, and with me at the front keeping all the mobs focussed on my solid but surprisingly skimpy full plate armour, we chopped our way through the mobs with ease.

We took the news of Windsor's release to Stormwind, where he met us. We were greeted as some kind of saviours, with guards of all ranks bowing down before Windsor and being astonished to see him alive and in the city. With Windsor calling out to Lady Prestor that her days were numbered, for some reason, we attract a fair bit of attention as we stride purposefully through the city to Stormwind Keep, and have a full retinue as we reach the throne room. Windsor confronts Prestor and, to our amazement, she transforms in to the dragon Onyxia before our eyes, flying away as the king's guards turn in to dragonkin bent on our destruction. Windsor is more than their equal, and with our new level cap of 70 we too are able to engage them meaningfully. They are all killed with relative ease.

Now we get sent around the world in order to craft a talisman that will grant access to Onyxia's cave in Dustwallow Marsh. Once we have the base pieces we are told we need to imbue the talisman with the blood of Drakkisath, the boss in Upper Blackrock Spire. This presents a little problem, as none of us have the key to UBRS. But never fear, this weekend is all about going new places and exploring, so we decide to get the key! We head in to Blackrock Spire, and head down instead of up. We are quite capable of taking on each mob in the depths of the Spire, and find the four gems needed to make the key to the Upper Spire. Then more travelling, as the key to the Spire is formed, and another dragon is slain (by an elf, naturally).

With the key in hand, we head back to the Spire. This time we head upwards, and start hacking and burning our way through the orcs and dragonkin who clearly have some kind of animosity towards each other, as when we kill orcs the dragons don't help, and when we kill dragons the orcs don't help. If they teamed up no one would likely bother either of them. A quick Leroy Jenkins moment in the hall of eggs leads us up and on to Rend, and we get to wave at Victor Nefarius before we kill his buddy and dragon mount. We stop off to say hi to The Beast, but we caught him at a bad time, and his stupid random fears and knockbacks are enough to convince us to leave him alone and we continue on to General Drakkisath.

We get to Drakkisath's chambers with relative ease, encountering strong resistance but nothing that overcomes the three of us. We've got a well-oiled killing machine in our trio, and it's wonderful to be so well matched and capable, knowing that each of us plays our role as a professional. The General doesn't look happy, and he has a couple of lieutenants to keep us busy. We chat for a bit about whether this is too much for just three of us, and decide to give it a go. Alas, it is too much, again because of the special abilities the general possesses, conflagrating me, as the tank, and with only three of us attacking that leaves not much option for where he attacks next, either the squishy dps caster or the important healer. We ask for help.

Help turns up in the form of another friend, a warlock. Making us four, and giving us the power to chain-fear one of Drakkisath's lieutenants, we head back to his chamber. This time, with one less mob to tank and some more, shadowy firepower, the General and his dragonkin are despatched. The warlock gets some new robes as a memento, and we help ourselves to the dragonkin's blood, needed for the talisman. Oh, and whilst we were heading up there we stopped by the quartermaster in Blackrock Mountain and got some orders. By doing so, and branding ourselves on the object behind Drakkisath, we become attuned to Blackwing Lair. It is attunement weekend, after all.

We head back out and start travelling again, finding the person who can bind all the objects in to the talisman, with which we are proudly presented. Three instances, two continents, and many dragon kills to our belts and we finally have access to Onyxia's Lair. And all of it, bar one final boss, achieved with three people.

The highlight of the weekend was popping in to Molten Core to face the two Molten Giants at the start. As a lark, the three of us decided to take on the pair of them, to see what we could do. I tanked the two giants at once, Grimlor kept me alive, and Mellica threw her arsenal at one and then the other. It was quite a challenge, with them being so big as to fill my field of view, and their stuns and knockbacks needing to be mitigated as well as keeping up enough threat on both of them so that the healing aggro didn't pull the second from me and Mellica's damage didn't pull the first on to her. And it wasn't that smooth, but it was the first time my companions had set foot in the Core and the first for me as a warrior. The first giant fell! The second chased us out of there, although at least one of us was a ghost by that point. Even so, we had killed in Molten Core! I had tanked two Molten Giants simultaneously, and we had killed one of them with only three people!

What an enjoyable weekend.

This entry was posted on 11th December 2007 at 2.53 pm and is filed under World of Warcraft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.