Adventures on Onyxia, continued

While I waited for the rest of the guys to level to 70 (Birdy being in the lead), I made friends with Liltu & Keyker, uber rogue & mage, respectively. I'd first met Liltu when I came in as the 5th for a Shadow Labs run. Apparently I didn't fuck up too badly, & Liltu began inviting me on other excursions, almost always with groups that completely outclassed me in gear & experience. I was pugging but I was still spoilt.

BGs were no exception. I was (still am) so undergeared I would get blown up over & over again, while everyone else simply kept fighting. Once in some heroic the priest literally told me I shouldn't even be running heroics dressed as I was. In another BG, someone gave me shit about my staff, & I was so embarrassed I bought a blue staff off the AH during the queue, but entered the next BG with my fishing pole equipped. Naturally someone pointed it out. Bleh.

In other news, I maxed out my fishing.





Also, at this time I should mention that Aaron, Kevin, Ryan1, Ryan2, & I (did I miss anyone?) were still in Rapture, which was the Karazhan guild Aaron's friends were in.

While the leader Fleise & her boyfriend were really nice, the vast majority of the guild was annoying. There were a few people I had on Ignore, like that idiot Lousiffer after he spent an evening ranting about what a "tard" his wife was. He later revealed that he was in therapy for some kind of behavioral handicap. Shocker.

Guildchat was usually either stupid... or stupid. And then there were a few puritans who couldn't handle foul language, & the subsequent guild discussion was so childish on both sides that I couldn't wait to ditch these monkeys.

One day I logged in & 5 Rapture guildies said hello to me, which was a first. I was then informed that I was now the only level 70 mage, & pledges were made to help me key for Karazhan, etc etc. I was overwhelmed, since previously even when I said hello in guildchat it was generally ignored.

It took me a few days to get used to being greeted when I got online. Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped. I discovered another level 70 mage, Abscent, had been guilded, & so I was no longer The Golden Child. Abscent, while pvping, bragged to Liltu & Keyker that he had an application in with Hell.

I gloated gleefully, anticipating my return to popularity in Rapture. Yeah right. I felt a sense of rightness knowing that I didn't have to feel any kind of kinship for these fair weather noobs, & when I told Bryan about it, he had exactly the right response. Thank you, Bryan.


And then, serendipity. Tichondrius, housing many of our old, beloved Horde characters, was overfull & Blizzard offered free character moves to --- of all servers --- Onyxia. It was like God heard my prayers. Suddenly we had enough to make our own guild.



But anyway, pvp was still occurring. I was grouped with a pally in Netherstorm when we were jumped by a pally/warrior duo. I released & ran back looking for them, & was rewarded when they appeared, chasing a troll rogue & his 3 mobs, just as I finished rebuffing & medding.

The rogue escaped the warrior at low health, & I saw the pally bringing up the rear at half health, busy healing his partner as she battled the 3 mobs. I nuked the fuck out of the pally & the rogue came back to deliver the coupe de grace on the warrior before she even figured out where I was. Payback in less than 3 minutes. Who could ask for more.

Several minutes later my pally friend showed up (pussy), & as we stood there medding, our 2 friends appeared, mounted & half health.

My fucking partner waved at them. I thought I was going to vomit.





We did see them again a little while later, but they left. Disappointment. Chances are my pally partner would have let me down. He seemed like a wuss.




Then there was that human priest that jumped me while I was farming runecloth (needed to level Tailoring) in EPL. I killed her the first time, only to die to her SW:P just afterward. Consequently she had the jump again when I rezzed, & so we parted ways 1:2. Fuck.



BGs, of course, continued. I was pretty determined to get my Gladiator's set, especially the freaking staff. 27k honor for that thing. I toiled & toiled. Thank goodness for friends like Liltu & Keyker.





And then came the day that I had a bunch of level 60+ FTM guildies. I'd run RFC, WC, SM, & ZF until I wanted to pull my hair out. But finally, finally... I had guildies in Outlands.

I don't remember if Kevin (Birdy) was the first to 70. Ryan1 levelled his hunter pretty damn fast, & Aaron had (has) that cool off/on work schedule that allowed him to chronic for days in a row. I want a schedule like that.

Anyway, spending a day helping the guys complete their group quests in Hellfire Peninsula was rewarding. It's a luxury, you know, to have guildies who know what they're doing, & it's reward in itself to help them accomplish whatever it is they need to accomplish. You know, help out your fellows.

Especially since they keep running into Alliance.





Ok, here's the thing about me & pvp. I don't like to hit them first. If they hit me then I gleefully hit back. That was how Audrey & I operated on Tichondrius, & I like the idea of discriminating. Sure, we play on a pvp server... but it doesn't mean that we have to kill every single red that comes along. To me, that's boring. Maybe I belong on a freaking RP server. Meh.






One day Terry & Tako were attempting the pvp daily in Hellfire Peninsula & found themselves at the mercy of a level 70 rogue & mage. Logs was there when I arrived, & died as I failed to negotiate the top of the Stadium on my newly acquired epic flying mount.

Yeah, that's right. I hit the side of the building instead of landing on top of it. Yeah, ha ha.

A rather drawn out battle, full of camp fires & Tako dying over & over again, ensued. I was not critting on this rogue at all. We had the upper hand for a bit, & then it all went to shit when I ceased paying attention & let the mage get a shot at me while I hovered in the air feeling omnipotent.

And then Firewind was warming his mana pool by the side of my camp fire.

We did get the last kill in, though. The rogue finally left, & Firewind stuck around long enough to kill me & Tako, but succumb to Terry's Blind Mullet style.

And then we GTFO'd.












And yes, I was a bad girl. Say hello to my little friend.




Needless to say, the guys levelled very quickly. If I wasn't already 70 when they rolled level 1s I would have been left in the dust.

On Shattered Halls, I had soloed Tamastara to 70. There were only a few of us in Bunnies, & the only other guildie who was on often didn't like me (actually, almost all of them didn't like me), so I had run very few instances. In fact, I had only been in Ramparts & Blood Furnace solely due to the graces of an undead priest in another guild who would call on me whenever he needed a mage. He was in Georgia, however, & our hours rarely coincided; he'd said he was going to get me in on Karazhan runs with his guild, but by the time I hit 70 I was discouraged enough to stop playing WoW altogether.

Running stuff with Liltu & Keyker was wonderful; both of those guys were so skilled & geared that I operated under a ton of pressure, but it was a great experience. With the rise of FTM on Onyxia, I found myself playing with dear friends again, & not having my sheeps broken over & over again, & seeing mobs successfully Freeze trapped, & then trapped again, & correctly & matter-of-factly executed LOS pulls.

You guys have no idea what a luxury that is.

And of course, I have no complaints in the pvp area.








I ran into Hrist again, in EotS. I killed her. I enjoy Eye of the Storm; it's unfortunate that even when you win it yields so little honor.


And then there was the day we grouped up & went to The Ring of Blood to complete the series of quests there. For those who don't know, basically your group has to fight a series of champions in the little arena, the Ring of Blood. The fights are tough enough without interference.

When we first arrived, there was another group of Horde doing the fights. We jumped in & helped them, hoping that they would stay & help us. No such luck. We were lucky to find someone to tank for us, & then we started the events.

The first Alliance member who jumped in on us while we were fighting a champion ruined our fight, causing us to have to abandon & start over. Reds continued to show up, all members of Film Actors Guild; we killed them, but failed our matches. Finally they outnumbered us & we succumbed to slaughter.

Then the idiots started the Ring of Blood quests for themselves.



Bill (Clackh) invited me on a Shattered Halls pug, & while he & another group member were outside they got hit by a group of Alliance. PvP followed.








I put in a decent amount of time defending Halaa. I spent a lot of time in Nagrand farming Oshu'gun Powder so I could get my 18-slot Halaani bag (which I did; thank you).

I give props to any Alliance who go after pvp objectives on any pvp server, because they're always outnumbered. There are always armies of pvp-hungry Horde all over the place, just looking for something red. When I hear of a Crossroads raid I feel great admiration. God bless those Alliance. God bless them for coming over so we can kill them.

One day a couple of Horde were asking for help defending Halaa; a group of Alliance had killed all the guards & them as well, & they were unable to rezz. I wish I had screenshotted swooping in on the tightly clustered group of reds & basically Frost AEing them dead.

Sometimes it doesn't even work that well with mobs.










As I type, Brent is still not 70. I'm not sure he's even 60.

I still have about 40 screenshots left to blog with, but I'm going to call it a night. Thank you if you are there reading my ramblings, & thank you FTM guys for making WoW fun for me again.

So tomorrow can we run Arcatraz?