Down in the Deeps

I've continued my romp through the low level instances with Tomakan, hitting the Stormwind Stockades and Blackfathom Deeps last night.  Not having done the Stocks before, it was a pretty intense 15-20 minute run.  Luckily we were geared enough (and I had enough mana potions) that I didn't run into mana issues like I did in the Deadmines.

I actually was kicking myself after the Stocks run because I could have used some of those rings that dropped, but I was in my Northrend 5-man heroic mode and basically greeded everything.  I paid much closer attention in BD, but nothing I could have used dropped.

Blackfathom Deeps demonstrated that I miss my Blood Elf, at least in terms of judging distances between jumps.

It was embarrassing to be in a 5-man and miss the jump on the rocks not once, not twice, but three times.  I was cursing up a blue streak under my breath, suddenly grateful that I wasn't on Vent or anything.  But at least everyone stopped and waited for me while the big ol' lug finally jumped over the pattern of rocks.

I also had a Shaman in BD who, almost from the get-go, asked if I could handle this place and he could step in if I couldn't.  I kept assuring him that no, I was fine, but that all I missed was Cleanse for the dispelling the ice related debuffs from the nagas.  (I get it in the 30s, I think, so I have to get used to not having it for a while.)  In fact, the run was noticeable in that I don't think the tank's bar dipped below 50% more than once or twice until the final fights.  I didn't want to spam heal, so I typically waited until his health dropped enough that Flash of Light would have a full impact.  We also had some DPS that wanted to pretend they were the tank and pulled some of the trash, and I was surprised that the tank didn't call them out on it.  If I wasn't constantly watching the bars, I'd have said something, but really, the group could handle it.

That last boss fight with the Twilight's Hammer character, that was rough.  Not him per se, but the trash that flew to us after the fight ended.  A portion of them aggroed on me, and I was frozen in ice so I couldn't run to the tank.  Hand of Salvation didn't do diddly either, so I used Lay on Hands on myself and Hand of the Naaru on the tank, and hoped that when I freed up I wasn't watching a full party wipe in action.  After that initial onslaught, things settled down and we survived.

After the instance was over, the Shaman told me he healed a bit in that last fight.  Normally, I wouldn't have cared --I do that from time to time on Northrend 5-mans-- but for some reason that kind of irked me.  The entire run was pretty much a non-event until the final fight, and while it may not have been his intention, his comment came across with an "I told you so" attitude.  Perhaps it's my stubbornness in wanting to be perfect; on my first healing stint last fall, I used to take it as a blow to personal pride if the party wiped on my account, and I thought I did a decent enough job for the run.

Oh well.

A few things I learned:

• Tanks can get lost.  The tank in BD got lost after the initial pulls.  "Where do I go now?" he asked.  "This is so not inspiring," one of the DPS said.
• For a world tree, Teldrassil has a lot of smaller ones on top.
• I can get used to the female Night Elves.  The males still don't look right, but the females are slowly growing on me.
• I haven't seen a warlock since the Glimmer Twins in the Deadmines.  And I like it like that.
• While I was waiting at the dock in Teldrassil, I was parked next to a Tauren DK.  The boat arrived, we got on.  The Alliance people getting off razzed him a bit --"Stupid Horde!" (as if he could read it)-- but the whole thing was amusing to me.  When I got the Explorer achievement it was on a PvP server, and I wouldn't have been caught dead doing what the Tauren did.
• Oh, did you know that Tyrannus has a bug?  Apparently if you start the fight before he does, the entire last boss fight tries to reset itself.  What eventually happens is that things go haywire and you have to leave the instance.  I found that out this morning, much to my dismay.

Fully Converted

Hello, I'm Mr. Goodie, and I have two shoes.

I am now the proud owner of three high level Alliance characters.

These last few weeks have been a great deal of fun!  I'm a good guy!  I'm all shiny and crap!  I can take on an entire group of horde in WSG all by my lonesome (Ok, I've not tried that, but there's got to be some sort of appeal to it, as I saw a lot of Allies do that when I was horde).

I've been noticing and have been discussing with my guild the differences in the two factions.  And I'm terribly interested in how playing one faction seems to sway your (you the player, and you the character)attitude while playing the game.  It's the small things that you don't notice that influence your game play until you you've made the change yourself.

For instance, you just click an NPC and they don't want to bite your head off, instead they greet you nicely.  And Jaina in the new ICC dungeon's attitude is completely different than Sylvanas' (well.. for obvious reasons).  But the overall impression you get from her is sort of sad.  They're there to kill the Lich King, but there's a sort of grief about it.  Like they're still getting over the loss Arthas' father and the loss of even Arthas (there's always hope for redemption) - albeit he's a murderous sod who unleashed his minions and inflicted mass genocide on everything living.

It's like the Alliance has been pushed around by the Horde for a while, and they're just now getting back on their feet and establishing themselves.  Which should be interesting, seeing as the new Stormwind King is rather confrontational.

But back on topic, it's interesting to just sit and read trade chat.  Sure there's the occasional asshats that like to troll, but the majority of the talk is pretty decent.  That was not the case Horde-side.  I was absolutely boggled the other day by trade chat as a matter of fact.  Somebody asked a somewhat noobie question and got a REAL ANSWER almost immediately. 

I think this carries over to PUG groups as well.  I've not seen too much bashing of other players.  At least not as frequent as on the Horde.

I'm looking forward to jumping into the leveling group of players in the LFD and really seeing if my observations hold true.

Traitor? That's me!

Yep, that's right.

I started a Human Paladin the other day.

I feel so dirty.

Okay, I'm trying several classes, and he's one of them, but right now he's the one with the heirloom weapon.  Of course, since it's a 2H axe, he can't use it yet.  Figures.

Maybe it's because I'm so used to the "us against the world" and "nobody loves us so we all have to band together" aspect of the Horde, but I'm having real problems relating to a Human Alliance character.  I can't bring myself to appreciate the "oh, look at the poor humans, how they've lost so much" and "ooo, those MEANIE Horde people running around, they're all just vermin" that the Human NPCs radiate.

Excuse me? 

And you don't think that the Forsaken had it bad, losing their lives to the Scourge?  Or the Blood Elves, getting facerolled by Arthas and then accused of being traitors when they were left to their own devices?  Or the Tauren, who were getting beat up on by the centaurs?

Sheesh.

Now, it's possible -likely, even- that the other Alliance races aren't that bad.  Whenever I see a Draeneii around, Lorne Greene's voiceover from the 70's Battlestar Galactica pops into my head:  "Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, a rag tag fugitive fleet...."  And don't get me started on the Gnomes.  Way way WAY too much Polyanna in them.

What am I going to do?  Oh, I'll keep putzing around with Alliance characters for the moment, as the lure of seeing the questing from an Alliance angle would be very interesting.  Quint is less than 450 quests away from the Seeker, so the challenge of duplicating that feat from the Alliance side is tempting.