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