Europa departs
Well, my days in the World of Warcraft are over. My master decided to focus on European servers.

I visited Ironforge and Dun Morogh shortly to give away my small wealth and to say goodbyes, on 7th April.

My master has not decided what to do with this webspace. Whatever he rules, I am now hibernated and sleeping until further notice.

Thanks for visiting this page and reading my rants.
- posted by Jiri @ 3:17 PM 0 comments

 
Needles Gank and the consequences
As beautiful as the Thousand Needles are, it is also a Contested Territory and one close to Horde homelands. That said, I avoided a number of contacts in the canyon and the salt lake-bed with higher-level Horde members. Stealthed atop race control tower at the Goblin Racetrack facility, I observed one rogue from The Big Bad Voodoo Gang guild to stroll around the nearby race facilitity. Little did I know that there is another guildie rogue of his, sneaking up behind my back. Stunned and overpowered by 2 L30 rogues, I was finished off in a short time.

Upon return to Duskwood, my regular grinding and questing place these levels, I heeded to guild call for defensive raid at Astranaar. Although the raid was over by the time I got there, I still scored two Horde kills in the Thistlefur humanoid village north of Astranaar. The shaman and rogue ate the poison right off my dagger.

(images to be added later, you can view them here: http://photobucket.com/albums/v284/Europa7/NeedlesAndPins/ )
- posted by Jiri @ 1:05 PM 0 comments

 
Thousand Needles visit
On a lighter note I want to show off with a few images from the Thousand Needles zone and from my flights back home.

Thousand Needles canyon is a beautiful contested territory south of Barrens. The entrance from Barrens is via Tauren lift which descends down into the canyon itself.




Once down there, you find yourself among sky-high mesas of red rock. Hideen between these are centaur camp, metal veins and various mob groups.




At the nort-west end the Needles open into Feralas and there is a small Elven outpost with a griffin master.



The south-eastern part of this zone is one big salt lake, with a drag racetrak of its own!!! I must admit that the racing is my other adrenaline source, besides WoW PvP :-)) and that I simply could not resist the urge to see this.




Following are images of my return flight, enjoy.

Elwynn Forest Flyover
(I like this one a lot, I may change my portrait to this :-) )


Darkshore Flyover


Nasty L57 Elite Dragon


The Pit

(This shot went out very well indeed, I did not crop it for this publication. The only thing was resize down to 640 width)
- posted by Jiri @ 12:53 PM 0 comments

 
PvP?? My first Horde kill!!!
After a few duels in Darkshire I got to some REAL stuff on the road west to Raven Hill. I met a L31 Undead Warlock and made his life a bit shorter, harhar.



My dance atop his corpse was a bit limpy - with 60HP left I was kinda fragile. Nonetheless, the feeling of the first real Horde kill was fantastic. I was high.
Well, even the weakest smell of Horde blood is enough to draw Angeliana near. A few minutes later, on her fresh new mount, she searched and met the same warlock on the same road, with the same end to the Horde.



After that, we had a chat on the spot. I did not realize that we were actually camping the poor lock. He rezzed, put a weak FEAR on both of us and attempted to escape. If only he just ran... as it was, being attacked, we slayed him again.


After that, we socialized with the townsfolk in Darkshire (which was actually mandatory for me as part of the Sven's series of quests). Going out west again, we heard of Horde contact and ran forward to meet them. The twice-defeated lock brought two guildies for support, 57 and 59. I scored a Cheap Shot and a crit or two on the 59 but it definitely was a force too strong for one 30 rogue and two fresh 40s we were.


- posted by Jiri @ 2:31 PM 0 comments

 
Yesterday's Triumph Raid
Coming to the most recent events on Burning Blade. Yesterday, Triumph ran a raid on the Horde outpost in Ashenvale.

Off into the dark forest we go in a small but strong group.




Little resistance did we meet. Gathered in the center of the enemy outpost:





Alliance blood was spilled by massive Horde onslaught.





Although we fought bravely and attempted several mass-ressurections, we were outnumbered.





There was no other way but retreat.



All in all, this raid was great fun again. I realized how much I $uck at PvP. Working on it as you read this...
- posted by Jiri @ 10:13 PM 0 comments

 
A few more snaps from the last weeks
To finish my recap of the last month and my journey from L20 to L30, here are a few more moments from the last week.

Stealh-relaxing on top of the Ogre gate. For all I know, the writing on the arch reads "RELAX".




My first walk through Stranglethorn Vale, all the way to Booty Bay. This place has a definite tropical look to it.





Synchronized flying above the unreachable areas of Elwynn Forest.





Duskwood is under attack!! The L60 Horde was outnumbered and died right on the Darkshire central square.


- posted by Jiri @ 10:04 PM 0 comments

 
A few shots of interests from IF
Only Burning Blade US, Ironforge bank has a mailbox decorated by a corpse of an orc on top of it. You just can't escape the PvP on this server.




Ironforge bank again: some engineered items look _real_ weird. This is called Deep Diving Helmet, I think.


- posted by Jiri @ 9:55 PM 0 comments

 
Major pet
Certain L60 Warlock brought her lovely pet to IF to show off:





Ere long, the pet unleashed all its love on her. Everybody around joined in for the kill. Some hit, some missed ;-)





With the poor deamon down, all relaxed. The owner cried.




- posted by Jiri @ 9:50 PM 0 comments

 
Portrait
Filling-in the long gap, I start with my portrait from around L20, just after the raid below. It seems such a long time ago ;-)



- posted by Jiri @ 9:44 PM 0 comments

 
Low profile
No time to blog :(

My level is now 29 and 30 is real near!!! My equipment is completely changed, the guild has changed too (and the nice tabard is now even nicer). Lots of news around that I hope to write about soon.

I am helping with testing the GIRD system.
- posted by Jiri @ 10:46 AM 0 comments

 
TOL/TOM raid images
These are the images that I promised in my yesterday's long raid report - scroll down to read.


This is the raid route - Astranaar > Windshear Crag > Stonetalon Peak (rally point) > Sunrock Retreat (owned) > Crossroads.



Sunrock Retreat owned by Triumph of Light and Triumph of Might guilds raid. Note some skeletal remains of the less lucky hunters who had their pets on aggro...




Long shot of Sunrock completely free of Horde.



Raid moves to the Barrens. This is where the bright part ends, the gloomy one starts.



Horde stamped us down, battlefield view east towards Crossroads.




Opposite angle, Horde mopping up the remains of the brave raid.




Horde returning to their town.


- posted by Jiri @ 1:21 AM 0 comments

 
Triumph of Light Raid - my first
Yesterday TOL raided the Stonetalon Mountains again. In short - we owned Sunrock for half hour, then moved to Barrens to challenge Crossroads. Bold move and one of the strongest raid groups (I was told), first such sortie for the Guild. Inside Horde Territory, at the gates of Crossroads we met resistance that was beyond our forces. Horde was present in numbers and levels superior to ours and we were eliminated. More details and personal shouts at www.thecage.com forums.

This was my first raid with the guild, and at level 21 I had a lot of both life and death ;-) . Yet, this was my best experience in The World to date.

First I had to discover all the places. Yes, until yesterday, my farthest flight path from Ironforge was Loch Modan. I had to walk north from there through Wetlands - not all the distance, though, as I died after stumbling over a L24 mob in a pond when hunting the decent-XP-yield Crocoliscs L21-22, me and the mob died at the same moment with our last slashes with no XP for me.

I met Kaeron, the TOL/TOM leader in the Menethil port.

Teleported across the ocean to Auberdine and on my way south to Ashenvale in search of Astranaar. Just before Astranaar, I had a PvP event (read: death) with a Tauren Hunter L24. Guildmates calmed me down saying that it is acceptable for a Rogue without poisons to succumb to a Hunter. The first PvP I had besides friendly duels, the first since reaching L12 and the first of many to come that evening.

I collected the flightpath to Astranaar, and waited for the raid group to come from Auberdine. Mined a Silver vein, grinded on L20-22 mobs in the area, picked up a few green-item drops. Good break overall, 300+ XP on each single kill around Astranaar was a nice bonus to the wait.

Naturesfury-led group picked me up on the way south to Stonetalon Mountains, we passed the dungeon from Ashenvale to Windshear Crag in the Stonetalon Mountains and reached the Peak without problems. Another new flightpath that day. Most surprising, though, was the massive group of TOL/TOM people waiting there!! Several mounted characters, dozens of footmen of various levels (most of them above my L21, I have to say). This was shaping up as a lot of fun.

Well-organized and well-shouted by Shouting Sergeant Dangerzone ;-) we rolled south to challenge Sunrock Retreat. As before (I read about the previous raids) the raid group eliminated all horde passers-by on the way, then all the guards in Sunrock including NPC vendors, leaving the flightmaster alive alone. Some guildmates were stupid enough to have their pets attack nearby mobs - as a result they were eaten, together with their pets, in single bites by the flightmaster's angry supalevel Wyverns. Having that sorted out quickly, we mainained a complete lockdown on the Sunrock Retreat for half an hour.

After that, the raid leadership led a sortie southeast, from Contested to true Horde Territory - Barrens. The target: Crossroads, major Tauren place. Barring a slaughter of a few Horde members who crossed our paths, the run from Sunrock to Barrens was uneventful. Stopping mile short of Crossroads, we regrouped and attacked. Our first wave met horde guards of L40+ in massive numbers, followed closely by outpouring of opposing players, most of them 30+. We were outnumbered by 2-4:1, with the guards and players added level advantage it all looked more like 15:1. Our raid was down and scattered within 10 minutes. Under Kaeron's command we attempted a synchronized resurrection attack, but the numbers were simply too large to cope.

I returned to Ashenvale en direct route north from Crossroads, running (and stealthing when needed) alone. Nasty L35+ Goblin slayed me a mile or so short of Ashenvale forest; another L30+ Tauren Druid stamped me down halfway to Astranaar.

All in all, a fantastic experience and a PvP day like no other, I only wish the coin flipped the other side for at least one of those duels ;-) . As it is, I have yet to win my first hostile PvP, and trust me: I await that moment with glee.

I am getting the poisons skill first thing today :-)

P:S. I will add some pictures from this massive event later.
- posted by Jiri @ 1:26 PM 0 comments