Soloing at 85

I've recently seen some people posting about soloing 80 content at 85 such as heroic dungeons and raids.  Someone will always come up and say something about how DKs and Paladins can already solo many of the 80 heroic dungeons which is true but people seem to keep forgetting about Hunters.  I don't know about the other Hunters out there but I've been soloing 80 heroics since before ICC came out.  Give the Hunters some love.  When it comes to soloing we rock in any thing that does not require healing as well.

Soloing at 85 will not be a great deal easier then it is now.  Sure, we will have some higher stats and definitely some higher life totals but we will not be doing considerably more damage, at least on the entry phases of Cataclysm end game.  From what I have seen people are only doing end game DPS on the beta roughly equivalent to what we can currently achieve in ICC with the buff.

Where exactly does that leave us?  We will be doing slightly more DPS then we are now.  It will be like carrying that 30% buff with you everywhere you go.  Now think of what we are capable of doing at the moment and add 30% more damage to it.  Is that really enough to make classes that can not currently solo things be able to solo them?

I think not.  I will use myself as an example being I know what I have done and how I did it.  Factoring in carrying around the 30% buff and much higher life totals that 85 will bring us I will think of what I have been able to solo and what I have not been able to solo.

I've soloed Nexus, DTK, Gundrak, UK, CoS, and VH.  I am sure I can solo more but I have not really tried to.  I did all of those before ICC even came out, before I ever even stepped foot into ToC, Ulduar was my top gear when I did those. 

I am doing roughly three times the damage now that I was back when I first soloed them.  So does that mean that I can solo them easier?  Somewhat.  Faster?  Absolutely.  Doing more damage makes things die faster which makes following mechanics and managing pulls a lot easier being you down things faster.  It gives you a much larger margin for error.

With more life and damage I think I can easily get though some of the other ones, heck, I might even be able to do them now.  I just have not tried.  AN, AN:OK and HoS all seem like I should be able to do them if I tried. Whereas the mechanics of Oculus would seem to make it impossible to solo the end boss.


Doing more damage will make it easier to do the ones I have already done for those that do not have the patience I do when it comes to soloing.  I pull so slowly and as few packs as humanly possible.  The more damage you can do to them, the less the need for such highly controlled pulls.  So while you might see more people soloing the content it does not mean that it was 85 that made them capable of soloing it.  They probably could have before but they just never tried or they just did not have the skill needed to do so.

There are very few bosses in 80 heroics that having more DPS will help power through them solo.  Bronjahm in FoS is one of those bosses.  As it is now it is nearly impossible to ignore his Corrupt Soul and while soloing it there is no doubt that he will be getting the soul which heals him.  This is one of those cases were more DPS make a boss easier.  If you can do enough DPS then him absorbing the Soul will just prolong the fight and not make it impossible.

DPS will help in some cases but mechanics rule when it comes to soloing.  No matter what your life total is.  No matter what your healing capabilities are.  No what how much DPS you can pump out.  Some fights will just always be impossible to solo.

The difference between 80 and 85 is so minimal at the moment from all the evidence we have seen that it would lead me to believe that no one is going to be steam rolling through 80 heroics the way I can currently steamroll through 70 heroics.  I personally think that is a good thing.

When it comes to soloing there are three types of encounter you will run into.

Can Be Overpowered:  This is something that you will just straight out beat.
Can't Be Soloed:  This is something that absolutely requires more then one person.
Needs Time and Extreme Effort:  Like the Rogue that soloed Patchwork.

At the moment I think that with option 3, time and effort, anything that can be soloed at 85 can currently be soloed at 80 with ICC gear.  I doubt more things will open up to be soloable that aren't already so. 

The little extra that 85 offers over 80 will mean that some other players that are not as dedicated or skilled as the Rogue that soloed Patch was might be able to do it as well but they will still need time and effort, they will not be able to turn it into option 1 and just overpower it.  That is not going to happen between 80 and 85. 

For minor things like Bronjham it might move into option 1 from option 3 but that is it.  There are only a few fights on the cusp like that.  Most of the things that can't be done now will still not be able to be done later.  For option 2 you can take a look at the first boss in BWL.  We seriously out gear that raid now and you can still not solo that boss because as I stated before, mechanics rule.

Personally I love trying to solo old content that is challenging and I really do hate that some fights become impossible for only one person to do.  I think the ultimate challenge in the game is to do something that was not meant to be done without cheating of course.  I take pride in the few 80 heroics I have soloed.  Does it amount to anything?  Nope.  But being able to say you soloed an 80 heroic at 80 means a hell of a lot more then saying you soloed it at 85.  So head out there and test your skill and see how many heroics you can solo.  I might just have to try the ones I have not finished yet to see if I can.  Now that sounds like fun.

Why wait until 85 to start soloing 80 heroics?  Just do it now.

Some Random Thoughts

I am an East Coast user and anyone that is on the East Coast knows that there were connection issues yesterday.  Have to love how all these people reported issues and everyone else just says "I am fine it must be you".  I can understand that from another user but when Blizzard employees start saying that then we have a problem.

A friend of mine was told to check his anti virus because that was most likely causing the problem.  Another friend had put in a ticket and was lucky enough to get a response in for those rare moments you could log on.  When they finally responded they told him to delete the WTF folder.

I can understand other people not realizing that the problem is somewhere on Blizzards end being they can connect just fine but why Blizzard starts telling everyone it is their problem and not a Blizzard related problem then it might be time for Blizzard to start looking for new employees because the ones they have are morons.

Needless to say, it worked itself out and Blizzard still stands by the idea that it is a user issue.  Yes, you are right Blizzard, every single user on the East Coast all happened to have a problem at the same time.  If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.

And now for something completely different...

Okay!  I can not tell you how sick I am of seeing that as my option when Blizzard screws up.  You have been disconnected from the server [Okay].  Nope, it is no okay.  Can I please have another option there.  It is not asking a lot.  It is just frustrating to have to click okay when it is not okay.  It is a matter of choice of words.  Change it to [Acknowledge] and now we are in business.  It is not [Okay] but I do [Acknowledge] it.

And now for something completely different...

I was working on leveling my bane this weekend.  The Rogue.  I still say it is the worst design in the game.  It is way to squishy and when dealing with multiple packs you might as well just consider yourself dead.    It is also the most dependent of hit rating of any class because without making contact you have no combo points and not special power moves.  Every other class, even if they miss some, have their power moves they can use.  Rogues are screwed without combo points which means you start missing and you are dead.

Something happened however when I hit Northrend and when the talent changes came.  The Rogue became mildly less annoying to play.  I can mow things down at a reasonable rate now and my survivability has gone up a great deal.  My Disc Priest was still 100 times more powerful then my Rogue however and could heal as well.  What does that say about Rogues?

With that said I did the impossible.  No, not 80 yet but 76.  76 is as good as 80.  Anyone that tells you otherwise is not a very observant player.  I've leveled so many characters through that point now and being you can get flying at 68 even your first time through now there is no reason for leveling through Northrend to take any time really.  76 to 80 is the easiest leveling in the game.  If I actually put in the work for it I can make 80 this weekend.  That thought alone is amazing being how much I hate playing a Rogue.

And now for something completely different...

I've never PvPed on my Rogue.  That is the one strong point of being a Rogue.  PvP.  Even more so since the patch.  Rogues are just way to OP in every sense of the word when it comes to PvP if the person at the controls is even half way decent.  Mind you, that is not me.  I never tried to PvP on my Rogue so I do not have ace PvP skills for sure but I did manage to grab my first Honorable Kill this weekend and my first Wintergrasp Victory as well.  Not bad at all for a baby Rogue in a world of 80s.  Of course they did all the work.  I only took pot shots so to speak.  Either way, did not die once and racked up a couple of achievements.

You might ask why I do not PvP on my Rogue and I will be glad to answer that.  I consider playing a Rogue in PvP to be as close to cheating as you can possibly get.  Beating someone that can not fight back is not exactly what I can fun.  I like battles.  I like them to be long and drawn out and to require a ton of thinking and moving.  Stunlocking and killing is not fun. 

Kiting a Paladin on my Hunter while he is trying to catch me is fun.  When I PvP I do not mind if I win or I lose I just want to have fun.  I do not think the concept of walk up behind someone, stun them, kill them, and repeat is fun.  That is boring as sin.  Then add to the fact that if you mess up even one button now you went from instant boring kill to instant I can't even fight back death.  There is no in between for Rogues.  Instant kill or instant death.  Both boring.

And now for something completely different...

When I kept getting disconnect I did experience some interesting stuff.  One of the times when I got disconnected I was still in game but just could not click anything any more.  I could click it, but it did not do anything to be more exact.  This lead to a few interesting things and the best one was flying.  I was on my bird when it disconnected but kept me in game.  I tried to dismount and that worked.  Sort of.

My bird disappeared but I was still flying.  It looked awesome.  I was superman.   I would go on the ground and be running at 100% speed then I would jump, do the night elf flip up in the air and take off like superman.  It looked awesome.  They should make an alchemist potion that allows flight like that for 2 minutes or something.  Nothing major but a fun item to have in the game. 

And now for something completely different...

I died two times because of disconnects.  I am thinking of putting in a ticket asking for them to reimburse my repair costs just to be annoying.  The first time my body was roughly 100 yard from where I was DCed.  Weird, sure, but not the weirdest.  That was reserved for the second time I died.  My body was half way across the zone.  Not even close to where I was questing and for that matter a place where I had not quested at all.  How the hell did I get there?  How did I die there?  How exactly do you die in a place where you have never even been?

And now for something completely different...

I lost my BoA bow on my Rogue too.  It just disappeared.  No sign of it at all.  No biggie, I put in a ticket and went on with my questing.  About 20 minutes later I went to put some new poisons on and noticed my bow was back.  Interesting.  Where did it go to?  Went out to lunch or something and forgot to leave me a note? 

Needless to say I canceled my ticket.  There were more then a few choice words in it too.  Maybe that is for the best.  I am a rather level headed Elf really.  For me to start throwing out nasty words you can tell it was getting beyond annoying.  I think I was annoyed mostly because Blizzard kept saying it was nothing on their part.  Yeap, it was every user on the East Coasts own fault. 

And now for something completely different...

I only need one more ingot to finish up my Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest line.  Lets assume for a moment that they are not changing the world on Tuesdays update.  That means I will be able to get this done this week and finish off the greatest quest line ever.  Even at 80 it was a trek and a half.  I could only imagine this having been hell back at 60.  You would have really had to have a support system of lots of very good players to get this done and most likely they all wanted to do the quest too. 

In a way I am glad I was not around then.  I would have been pissed if I were not able to complete the quest line and had to compete with my own guild mates to get it done.  As everything was only one person could do the quest at a time that means that only one person in each guild could possibly get it done and get the mount.  Of course I would have wanted to be that person.  I can see this quest having destroyed some guilds because a few people all wanted to be the one that finished it.

Epic quest line sure.  Bad design that only one member in a guild could get it done, bad design.  Did Blizzard want to force people to choose who got it for each guild?  Did they want to cause internal turmoil in the biggest, best guilds that were capable of doing this as quick as possible?  Sure seems it from my point of view.  Glad I was not there for this.  I could see this being a reason to quit the game, not only quitting a guild.

And now for something completely different...

Being it seems all but assured that my Rogue will be hitting 80 this coming weekend if I decide to throw 5 or 6 hours his way I have to think which way to go next.  On my main server that will give me seven 80s with three left to level.  One of each class of course.  I've got my 60 Warrior, my 52 Paladin and my 40 Warlock.  While it is not out of the realm of possibility that I can get another character to 80 before Cataclysm hits it is not something I am aiming for.

When considering which to level next I am weighing a few things.  My Paladin is my gatherer.  It is skinning and mining and really just there to do gathering for me.  My Warlock is a Tailor and Herbalist.  It will lose the herbalism when it gets max and pick up Alchemy.  I had taken herbalism so I could get the HoT from it but it seems like the HoT is useless now so it is basically useless for my Warlock now.  I am going to keep it however being it now gives experience which will help the leveling process. 

That puts me to my Warrior and his professions.  He has the only skill I have not maxed (or capable of, still working on leather working on my Rogue).  Engineering.  He is that and a Jewelcrafting.  I already have a maxed JC and that is my Druid which will be the 3rd character I bring up to 85 being that is my 3rd down the line behind my main hunter and second priest.  However, the Engineering part does have me thinking that working on my Warrior next would be my logical move.

The Paladin really is just repeat of other gathers I already have and my Lock has things others already have and even if I change him to alchemy I already have two of them maxed so really do not need a third.  Looks like from a professions standpoint the Warrior is really standing out.  Not to mention having another JC is not a bad thing really should they have limited things I can do once per day like they did before.

And now for something completely different...

Wow that is a lot of babble for a Monday morning.  I'll leave my random thoughts to think a little bit on their own for now and call it a day.

The Beast is a Beast

I mentioned that I tamed the Beast the other day in my previous post.  The thing is I've not tried to raid as Beastmaster yet so being the Beast was now 80, and he still shows a skull, I figured I would try to do some raiding with him last night.

We did not have enough, even with alts, to do an ICC run last night which is really sad.  The closer it gets to the end of the expansion the less interest people seem to have in raiding.  I figured I did not want to call it a scratch so what could we do with only 8 people?  Less is More (10 Player) seemed like the ideal answer.

So that is exactly what we did.  I went as BM.  I figured I have no experience raiding as BM since the change but this would be easy even with 8 people so my lack of fluid play will not be a hindrance to the group.  That and I got to use Beast in action for more then just doing some dailies.  Not saying dailies are a bad thing.  That is how I leveled my pup to 80. 

I am switching for Oracles to Frenzyheart and do only those three each day.  Took less then a week to level him up.  Most likely because every day I have to kill 50 Oracles.  That is a ton of experience for a up and coming boss level corehound.

After doing the run, which went well but was really clunky for me getting used to it, I noticed something I thought was interesting.  My pet did 53% of my damage.  That was the first time that I ever remember my pet doing more damage then me but that is not what came as a surprise to me. 

The Beast has 21 talent points.  Yeap, not 20 like all other exotic pets do but 21.  One extra point for being a boss maybe?

Yesterday I said if you where going to have a corehound why would you ever choose a different one then one that showed as a boss now I have even more reason to say that.  If you are going to get a corehound why would you ever choose one that had 20 talent points when you can get one that has 21 talent points?  You would be a complete fool to choose a different corehound.

The Beast is no doubt a Beast.  If I pop Kill Command and Bestial Wrath at the same time he seems to be able to almost solo any elite I ran into with me only getting in 3 or 4 shots at most.  The Beast is completely insane and I love him.

Now if only I can figure out to make a Ancient Hysteria macro so I can keybind it I will be okay.  I tried clicking it on the pet bar.  Nothing.  I tried dragging it to my bar.  It won't move.  I was stuck opening my spell book and having to click it manually.  That made me feel so... dirty.  I'll have to try and make a macro for it.

Get yourself a 21 point boss corehound before they make him untamable, you know that is going to happen sooner or later.  Every time there is a kick ass cool pet they stop us from getting it any more.  The slime, the Worgen, and soon the Beast.  Get it now.

Fun With Pets

Last weekend before we did a Blackwing Lair run we had to get a few people attuned to get into it which meant a run through Upper Blackrock Spire of course.  On our way through UBRS it occurred to me that I do not have a Core Hound yet and there is the Core Hound of all Core Hounds in UBRS.  The Boss known as The Beast.

Of course that meant I needed to tame him and that is exactly what I did.  It took quite some time.  The Beast was not what you would call a friendly tame.  He kept turning his attention to my friends and he kept interrupting my tame beast.

It took a good 10 minutes, I would guess, before I was able to land a tame beast on him.  When I finally did not only did I get a pet that has epic loot inside of him and pristine hide of the beast of course but I had a skull level pet.  My pet appears as ?? (Boss) to anyone that looks at him.

That is freaking awesome.  Imagine someone that does not know any better seeing this big red core hound, even bigger with bestial wrath kicking in of course, barreling at them with full drool going on and this ?? (Boss) tag and skull on him.  I could see someone running for the hills because they do not know any better.

One of the fun things about it is on my pet panel it says my pet is level 1.  Whenever I level the pet up it says that my pet has reached level 1.  It is a fun pet to have.  Sure it goes thump thump thump all the time, even when standing still but it says it is a boss and has a skull so that makes up for it some. 

They really need to quiet those things down, they are too damn loud.  Love the portable heroism/bloodlust as well.  Funny thing is that my Hunter is alliance and the pets debuff says that people can not benefit from bloodlust again.  That should not be a problem.  I doubt my alliance group members will be getting the bloodlust buff on them any time soon.  I am going to have to try with a friend to see if we can do both heroism and bloodlust at the same time, or back to back more specifically.  I doubt it would work but it would be interesting to see.

So what do you name the biggest, baddest, reddest core hound in the game?  Beast of course.  I mean, that is his name right?  It is not like it was some wild animal that I tamed.  It was a named animal so I keep its name.

Tasty Experience

The opening events for Cataclysm gives us the option to get some free experience for out lower level characters.  I've only got 4 characters left that are not at max level.  My 37 Warlock, my 60 Warrior, my 49 Paladin and my 73 Rogue.  Last night I did the quests with my Warrior and got nearly 1/2 a level for what is roughly 20 minutes work.

Half a level in 20 minutes and lots of gold to boot all without ever really needing to leave a main city?  Yes please.  I'll take that all you want to give it.  This was only the first group of quests to come for this pre release event but it is the bulk of it.  So over all if I had to guess I would say we are looking at roughly 65%-70% of a level when all is said and done.  Can't beat that with a stick.

On my main I put in a little work toward finishing the scepter of the shifting sands quest line.  I logged on to my Horde characters over on Aggy.  It has been damn near forever since I was on there.  November 4th seems to be the last achievement I got over there.  That means it was almost a year ago exactly since I was last on any of those characters with exception of my Hunter over there.  I pop on him once in a while just to say hello to my pet and knock off a quest or two out of boredom.

The reason I was there was because I needed to find my way to get the book in Undercity.  I wouldn't know my way around Undercity with a tour guide.  It is one of those cities that I avoided like the plague.  Hell, even Org which must have been designed by a blind man is 100 times better then Undercity.  I found the book seller and worked my path out.  Going to use the side entrance to get in.  A few turns here and there and maybe a total of 4 guards to deal with and it should not be a problem.  I ran the path back and forth three time just to make sure I had the layout perfect.  The less time I spend in enemy territory the better.  If I were there to fight it would be one thing but I am not.  I am only there to pick up an item and leave.

I then went on my main and headed over to Winterspring to get the one page of Draconic For Dummies with relative ease. Of all the outdoor raids I've needed to do this one ranks up there in difficulty with the one in Blasted Lands and the one on Isle of Dread and that is not hard at all.  I then recruited to guild mates to help me out with the one in Dustwallow Marsh's Alcaz Island.  Doctor Weavil was not going to be as easy from what I had heard because of his mind control effect.  We ended up burning him down so damn fast I actively felt bad for asking for help to do it.

Oh well, I have four of the pages now and only need four more.  The one in Undercity is planned out and will not be an issue.  I'll grab it one morning before I go to work.  Undercity is normally empty and will be even more so at 4 in the morning for sure.

I set up a guild run of Onyxia for Friday, I hope there is enough interest.  We have BWL set for Saturday.  If Onyxia goes by nice and quickly on Friday we can do Molten Core after that.  The two together make for quick runs so it will not take long.

I am going to need to run Blackwing Lair a lot if I want to get all the Elementium Ingots I need.  Good thing I have a whole slew of alts that can do it.  Not sure if I have any that can solo it however.  Maybe my Druid but that is about it.  My Hunter, my main, the one I am doing the quest on will need to go with a group as I will have the quest in there when I got in as well.  I can grab the page I need and do the quest which I get from the second boss and it requires me to kill the last boss and return to Tanaris in less then 5 hours.  Time will not be an issue if I can get at least 5 or 6 people to do it with me.  It can be 3 manned completely but I would rather not have to make the extra effort.  I would rather blow through it.

I just hope my luck it better then normal.  My last four runs through Blackwing Lair ended like this 0, 3, 0, 1.  Yeap, four runs, 4 ingots.  That's it.  You know how everyone says it averages from 3 to 6 per run?  Well, they never ran with me.  I have the worst luck every in the history of this game.  Remember we are talking about someone that still has not upgraded gear.  All my tier pieces are still at 251 being I can never win a roll.  Let hope that this does not come as another case of being let down.  At least with this I can buy them off the auction market or send in alts to get them.  The 10 will just be about how much effort I am willing to put into it and if my guild mates can help me.

At the moment, it looks like I can get this done well before Cataclysm.  I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Tripping the Rifts

The pre-launch event for Cataclysm started yesterday and of course I needed to get that done before I went back to doing my AQ stuff.  I figure if all goes well I have at least 2 weeks left for the AQ stuff, or at least I hope, so let me get this stuff out of the way.

The quests are basically boring as hell, go talk to this person, put up this sign, put on this costume, blah blah blah.  Nothing more then a little back story is all.  Be warned however that all the quests are not live yet.  There were many more quests I did on the PTR that are not live yet and some of those are actually interactive so at least they are better then these are.

The feat of strength Tripping the Rifts was the only thing that you actually needed to do something for. What you do was basically find a spawning point and wait.  Boring.  Not only boring but annoyingly so.  It gets you no achievement points.  It has no lore to listen to.  It is not a challenge.  It gets you a daily quest, that is all.

They should up the respawn timer.  I did it in three hours because I was lucky enough to get two spawns one hour and then one each for the next two hours.  For something that basically gives you nothing worthwhile it is really just a time sink.  Good games make productive time sinks.  Bad games make you waste time for no reason.  Nothing is gained here, this is boring.  Bad design on Blizzards part I say.

If you are going to make people wait around like idiots like I did at least give us something for it besides a feat of strength.  Even if it is something stupid that clutters my already over stocked bank.  A trinket that turns you into an elemental for 5 minutes and can only be used every 4 hours.  Completely useless, but something that would actually make you feel like you did not waste hours for nothing.  I know, I did not need to do it, but I have a compulsion where I need to do these things.

Being they are not giving anything but a feat for our efforts then they should have the timers respawn more often or make more spawning points.  That is all I am asking.  Not like people that want free epics for nothing.  I just want it done without wasting time.  There is nothing gained from it except the ability to say, woohoo I wasted 4 hours for no reason.  I guess I got lucky, I only wasted 3.  Woohoo, go me.

What Tomorrow Brings - The AQ Quests.

In an effort to try and get some stuff that is going to be removed done I went on my quest to get Recipe: Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops before it is removed.  Not only is it the only epic cooking recipe in the game but it is also part of the long quest line that opened the gates of AQ so long before I ever even started playing.

The quest line which starts with What Tomorrow Brings is being removed for various reasons.  One being it is old and it seems blizzard does not want old around any more.  It is basically outdated and there is no actual need to do it so they are just getting rid of it.  Personally I disagree with the idea of removing old quest lines.  I am loving doing this quest line.

The other reason is that many of the areas you need to go for on this quest are being changed or removed completely.  So instead of redesigning a quest line that only weirdo elves like me would do it is easier for them just to remove it as a whole.

Sure, I started it with the intention to get the cooking recipe only but I am doing the whole thing.  If you like lore or adventure of an epic nature then this is a quest you will need to do while there is time left.  Sad part is there might not really enough time left.  Rumor has it that it will be taken out before cataclysm and I happen to believe that, it will be taken out when the world changes before the cataclysm release.

As part of the quest line I was required to go to areas that just will not exist any more come the world changes that could happen as soon as 2 or 3 weeks from now.  To get the recipe alone I needed to go to The Isle of Dread which will no longer exist once the world changes.

I've done most of the quest line already and the biggest challenge of it all has been the travel.  Personally I hate wasting my time traveling when it is just going back and forth because I need to get somewhere.  It is wasted time in my opinion, time better spent playing.  But I digress.  For something like this, the first time doing it, the large world wide scale of the adventure, the travel is what makes it feel so grand.

I must admit I never realized there were so many outdoor raids.  Heck, the one on isle of dread I never even knew.  I remembered going there to kill some naga for a quest or two but never even thought of going around the side to see if there was anything there.  I doubt anyone would.  As far as outdoor raids go that one was rather tame.  I had done others myself but a friend of mine came along with me on that one.  It was stupid easy even solo.  He had never noticed the place either and he had been playing for a long time.

The Nightmare's Corruption was exciting and even gave me the chance to have my revenge against some dragons that had ripped me apart a few times.  I remember back with my first run in with these elites from outdoor raids, I did not even know there was such a thing back then. 

I was questing out of Forest Song and took the path out and over to where they where.  Out of no where my little level 30ish butt was being owned by 3 dragonkin.  It is not like it took long for them to own me.  1 second was all it took.  This time around I got to get some revenge.  They did get a shot on me this time but nothing to painful and I killed them easy enough but wow, the knockback from them is crazy.  Sent me what felt like half way across the zone.  I danced on their dead bodies, revenge from killing me when I was just a young and innocent elf hunter questing my way through the world.  Take that you S.O.B.'s.

I've done a great deal of the quest line so far, sitting and waiting now on The Nightmare Manifests.  Oh how I miss volley for something like this. 100s, could have been 1000s for all I know, shades on me.  Not a hell of a lot I could do.  MD/multi does not do enough damage to actually MD them to my pet so they were on me like white on rice.  Some poor low level druids watched in awe while the events went down.  Who even knew that there was an outdoor raid in Moonglade?  I know I didn't.

I used every trick in the book but sadly the only thing that could have saved me was gone from the game.  Volley would have been all I needed.  That, or if I had played it smart and single targeted them down and not gotten so many of them on me at once.  I fought the good fight and killed a slew of them but they wore me down in time and I was a dead elf. Well, a FDed elf.

After they left I popped back up and a level 29 druid asked me, what the hell was that?  I said, a quest I am on.  He said he was awestruck watching the events and it never even occurred to him to move.  They ate him alive, him and a few other unlucky druids that happened to be there at the time that is.  It was very funny talking to them.

Even more funny then when I did Long Forgotten Memories earlier in the quest line and closed the gates of AQ.  There were a few people heading in to raid it as I was doing the quest and locked them outside.  Oops, sorry.  The battle outside was fantastic, the confused nature of everyone around watching was even better.

So far this quest line is ranking right up there with me doing the epic bow quest.  In terms of how grand the scale of things are, this has already passed the hunters epic bow and quiver quest line.  I hope I have enough time to finish it up before the changes.  I might not but even if I do not so far it was well worth the effort put into it.

When all is said and done I will have done outdoor raids in Ashenvale, Duskwood, two different ones in Feralas, Hinterlands, Dustwallow Marsh, Blasted Lands, and Winterspring.  I will have needed to sneak into Undercity and steal a book from the book vendor.  I will have needed to raid Molten Core, Onyxia's Lair, and Blackwing Lair multiple times for various reasons. 

To start all that part I needed to get a letter from the world dragon Azurego.  At least I was able to get that from the ghostly form that roams in Azshara.  If you do nothing else at least get to that point in the quest to read the conversation you have with the dragon.  As the saying goes, that alone is worth the price of admission.

This quest line is amazing.  I wish there were more in the game like this and I am greatly upset that it is being removed.  There is nothing like to in the game to replace it.  Something needs to be added to replace this and quests like this.  They take a long time just from travel and gathering things for all corners of the world but each step offers a bit of a story that is so much bigger then anything presently in the game.  I am doing this at 80 but I could imagine how it must have been at 60.  If it still feels epic now then it surely is something that you should have been proud of doing back then.

If you are a lore whore or a quest whore or even just want to see something that you will never see again in WoW then do this now and get as much done while you can because it is gone.  With the changes to the world many of the places you need to go will be gone or changed to the point that this quest will no longer be doable.  That is the reason they are removing it as a whole.  It is a huge loss for the game in my opinion because WoW really does not make anything epic like this any more. 

Trust me, I might be new to the game and all but with the exception of the wrathgate cinematic there has never been anything as enjoyable in this game then those epic 60 quests I have went back to do.  We need some epic quests for each max level.  We need something like this again.  We will not get it, ever.  It does not fit the casual design of the game now.  So enjoy it one last time while you still can. Things like this is what I fell in love with WoW for in the first place.  Not the mindless boring doing the same raid over and over for a year crap.  I want more fantasy, more story telling, more a feeling of actually doing something.  This quest line is offering that.  I am glad I have taken the time out to do it before it is gone forever. 

Cruse you Blizzard for removing the only semblance of a great game there was left in this game, epic quests.  Maybe you should think about that before the next expansion instead of making it all about, ohhh, we can fly in the old world now. Big Whoop.  I think I would have liked an expansion full of quests like this one and had to use my ground mount to get back and forth instead.  Now an expansion full of quests just like this one?  That is worth paying for.