My very own guide to BRD

I used to get lost in Blackrock Depths. A lot. These days, I’m levelling my two shamans and both of them got dragged randomly around that instance without anyone knowing what to do.

This place is huge. Even the entrance to the dungeon is hard to find. As someone subject to vertigo, I would never have had the idea to walk on these huge chains to get to the centre of the crater, I needed someone to show me. I remember very well the first time I’d been there. A guildie, a tanking paladin, asked me while I was questing in Burning Steppes if I wanted a boost through BRD. I didn’t know BRD, I nearly even didn’t know what a boost was. For me, it was a nice guildie bringing me along to her daily clean of the dungeon.

She knew every corner of it. I just followed. It was a blur.

Now, this player has stopped playing. She deleted her toons. She was an awesome tanking paladin and healing priest. I missed her.

Each time I enter BRD, I remember that player.

And got angry. Because people don’t seem to know were they’re going, they just kill things and that’s all. So last week-end, I decided to find stuff on the web about the dungeon. A map, a guide, anything.

If you want some infos, you can go there : http://www.wowwiki.com/Blackrock_Depths or there http://www.wow-pro.com/node/591 Jame’s guide being quite interesting for the explanations of the quests.

And this picture is my very own guide to BRD.

My guide to BRD

I printed the wow-wiki flowchart and made annotations.

Yeah, the writing is mostly in French, and yes this is my writing… That’s the reason why I never write for others. I use emails or type it and print it, because no one can read what I write, sometimes not even me… Sometimes, I even write very fast and stylised on purpose, so no one else can read.

With this, I asked if some SANners (from Single Abstract Noun) who have toons around 55 would be interested in testing my guide and do a full clean of BRD. Yesterday night, we got a nice little group : Tamarind tanking, Chastity healing, Issy, Catena and me melting faces.

It was a great night. We began with running around the detention block and killing the pug boss here. I then decided to die heroically to get my quest for the Shadowforge key from the ghost npc outside of the instance.

After that heroic move, the group called the vendetta on the dwarves, I got rezzed and we went on slaughtering dwarves, not noticing Catena was afk and laying behind… Of course, she got eaten by a patrol and we mourned her. Tam flagellated himself for letting someone under his protection die, especially such an awesome troll lady (troll ladies are the sexiest ladies ever, we all agreed…). After this incident, we stuck together.

Once in Shadowforge city, we felt like visiting the bank, and like Dany Ocean and his Angels, we emptied the vaults.

Tamocean's 5s...

The run went on. Tam and I got our key to the private sections.

Dark Hallway

A secret corridor

The Manufactory (I think...)

We finished the run, killed the Emperor (and the Princess, less dwarves is always better anyway…) and took his throne. We declared Tamarind emperor and he got a full council of sexy Horde ladies.

Tam and his harem...

We are of course going to rule over Azeroth as nothing can resist so much awesomeness…

You can find all the draft pictures on my galery : http://picasaweb.google.fr/nefernet.krasus/SAN

It was a great run a we had some very fun times. We got shiny loot, like this picture can show you :

My Caesar's helmet and Tam's soldier's one

My hat was definitely more authoritative than Tam’s : much have been the brush, matching my hair…

Someone also said that I could have clean the floor if I’d been walking on my arms…

And Tam did NOT fall into the lava. So you know…

LFD anger or how I hate being taken hostage by pug tanks

Disclaimer : I put quite a few swearing words in this article, and as I’m not used to insulting in English, it won’t be very diversified, sorry for the inconvenient… I abused CAPS LOCKS too… Bad !

I’ve been an awful guildie these last few day. Rambling a lot. I’m in quite a bad mood at the moment, a little depressed I think. As a consequence, I’m not talking much on guild chat, even on SAN guild chat, reluctant to talk with friends. I log for raid and found out I behind in dps output and that annoys me a lot, and when not in the raid (turn-ups) I feel left aside and jealous. Then I log on AD, check my banker toon, check my disenchanter toon (that business is good, nearly got the money for my dual-spec) and then log my shaman and hit LGD as a healer. And got CRAPPY PUG OMFFFFFG !!!! And end up crying in the boyfriend’s lap that I’m a horrible healer, I’m a crappy shaman, I should hide my hideous face of fake enhancement healer from LFD tool, yadayada…

Just somebody can explain to me why do those pugging tanks feel they have to pull the hole fucking room while their healer is:

1 – oom, to the last drop of mana, and not replenishing very fast seeing she needs TWO bottles of drink of max level available to her to fill up her mana bar,

2 – still in the previous room, looting the corpses after everyone left because no one cared to eat something while she was drinking and she had to top off everyone, and then needing more time to drink…

Two days ago, I have been KICKED from a group because the tank ran ahead while I was oom, pulled the boss AND the remaining mobs patrolling around forgetting that this fucking boss (the last in Scarlet Monastery Cathedral) calls more adds going for the healer first of course and that he forgot to pick up or could not as he was an overcheated lolprotpaly "icantankthewholeroomololol" but could not consecrate without mana, you idiot… We died quickly and I was barely at the graveyard when I noticed I’d been kicked. Stupidly, I felt bad. Very bad.

I made a comment on guild chat, one guildie tried to cheer me up but I was too depressed to get over it and just logged off.

Yesterday, nearly the same thing happened, except that I couldn’t stand more abuse from those 12-year old spoiled kids and I left before beginning to insult everyone in the group. My insulting potential in English is not very good, next time, I shall try insulting them in French, I ‘d feel much better… But I grew really disgusted of pugging my way into dungeons alone.

I’m so fed up with those people thinking they could get free loot with no effort from their part, that the healer is here to keep them from dying in the stupid, that their have nothing to learn. I’m learning, do with it or fuck off ("casse-toi pov’ con" comme dirait l’autre…).

Today, I ran a Uldaman dungeon, and at first I feared it would be the same nightmare as the last 2 dungeons : the bear tank ran ahead, barely waiting for my mana, pulling tons of mobs at the same time and making little Kinie Blue sweat a lot in her brand new mail armour (turned 40 on Monday, seasickness is worst on epic raptors…). Of course, came the moment when he ran ahead not noticing the healer was looting the remaining corpses, pulled the whole room and getting out of sight. I could not keep up with the healing once I ran in, the tank died, the paladin took the mobs and we finished them off. Then I rezzed the druid and he left the group.

I felt bad but the group was very supportive : the paladin tanked all right, not taking too much mobs. We 4 manned most of the instance, and even if we were a bit slow, we finished the dungeon without a single death. People were nice, it ended up being a good time.

I still need a couple of gold to buy the dual-spec on my shaman, it should ease the healing in dungeon, especially the mana management and refilling part. I’d love if Blizzard had made water filling the mana bar with % per second instead of mana per second, because at the moment, I need two bottles of whatever juice to fill my mana bar, meaning one whole minute. One minute is a long time when the tank is running wild ahead…

On another tone, I’m quite behind with my hunter. I mean : my dps is too low. I don’t know if I’m depressed because of that (and other things happening these days) or if my dps is low because I’m depressed… Or if it is low because those fights are very unfriendly for hunters, or because the role I have during those encounters dumps my damage output, if I still need training for the new HM fights or if the lack of hunter loot during those past few months is making out at last.

And for those who may remember, my guild was in crisis a few weeks ago, it is no more. I’m no more an officer either and didn’t choose it. I had a week of holidays, a long talk via msn with my GM, a long talk with Tamarind about that too, and I’m still not happy with it. I feel I’ve been exploited. I feel like I’ve been carrying the guild beside my GM for 3 months when it was hard and now that the problems are solved, the organisation of the staff bettered so the burden of leading a hardcore guild is divided on many people, I got left aside like a used tissue. It’s a very stupid idea actually, because I don’t think it’s true, or that removing me from the staff was meant to hurt me. But it did.

I feel useless in the guild now and that may be the origin of my depression : useless at work (yes my work is very dull at the moment), useless in game. And since I stopped playing with my orchestra (I moved to the other side of the country and couldn’t find any where I live now), I feel useless in private life too. I NEED TO BE NEEDED FFS !!!!!

Why I love my baby shaman

Something is broken with my guild, my GM, my fellow officers, most of my guildies. I don’t know if it will be permanent or temporary, and I actually don’t care at the moment, which is really a sign. I log on for raid, do my job, and log off.

And then I log on Argent Dawn, on my baby shaman. And I have a whole new world before me. New character and new class to discover, new people to get to know, new quests as I’m new to the Horde. I have time. Time to quest, time to read the guild chat, time to run dungeons with guildies, time to run the whole world to find "the" RP outfit I want, time to get lost, time to just sit and watch RPers for hours.

I have a lot of fun levelling my shaman. I’m not used to play melee class, and my levelling gets frightening sometimes : "oops another bodypull" "OMG all those mobs on me are going to kill me ! Oh no they didn’t… Cool !" (or "oh crap I’m dead…"). I built up a healing set with lots of Intel to run dungeons and it’s quite fun, even if I’m beginning to feel the limits of an enhancement spec for a healing role. I finished my third totem’s questline, it was about time…

I love healing, it’s my third healer character. I love tree healing, it’s very unique. And priest healing is nice, you have many tools to choose from. I always find it’s odd how much I love my hunter, and playing endgame with her when I’m so fond of my healing toons. Maybe because I’m just used to her role, or that I find it’s easier. I often find myself standing in fires with the healers (but getting better), it never happens with the hunter.

Being on Argent Dawn is also very relaxing. No pressure. You are allowed to make mistakes in dungeons and get lost for hours, you have time to explore every corner, you pause to have some RP with npcs, loot is like "no please, you take it". I can even say I sometimes didn’t dare to roll on big upgrades, that was quite stupid actually but I just didn’t want to look like I just took all the loot of the run…

The most amazing thing I’ve done this week-end was not a dungeon though. It was a server-wide RP event, Horde side, a PVP tournament in the Gurubashi arena called Strongest of the Horde.

I went there in Gerrad’s motorbike who was so kind to escort me, because the gorillas and tigers on the road would have eaten me. Hundreds of people turned up in RP outfits, had RP chat in /s or /y and were cheering at the contestants frantically killing themselves down in the arena. There was some people selling drinks. You had to pay an entrance fee at the ticket lady, which everyone paid because it was part of the fun. People were commenting the fights aloud. One of the most amazing thing was that, even if there was hundreds of people, I never saw two people sitting on top of each other. It was really like being in a stadium : people asking other to "sit down please ! I can’t see !", or "Sir, you’re sitting on my foot". I even saw that hilarious comment "with all due respect Tauren, could you move your hoof from my ass ?".

Some asshats spoiled the fun a little bit by harassing the contestants and the guards, or attacking the healers, but all in all, it was quite an amazing thing, to see all those people RP-ing together, with strangers, friends and guildies alike. I had quite little interest in the fights actually. I watched some with interest, had barely time to cheer for Gerrad before he got deleted by his opponent… But half the guild was there to cheer him up afterwards.

It was great and amazing, and made me feel so well, after all this frustration in game at the moment.

The amazing crowd in Gurubashi Arena

PS : Listening Mozard Requiem while writing this post was so relaxing.

If SAN is orange, it’s for the vitamins !

Times are quite tough these days : we have to cancel raids because with the holiday, people are away skiing or I don’t know what. Add to that people with computer problems, the GM a little bit absent for professional reasons and the guild is a mess…

Monday had been a tough night, wiping on Arthas for 2 hours, with lag that made everyone nervous. As usual, one of the guildies thought he new how to play better than the person actually playing the class, but this time, instead just blacklisting the kid like half of the guild, the person got angry, told him to shut up and disconnected. And he’s taking one week off raiding.

…

Eh wut ? With one healer short, we cancelled the raid of course. But as our healing team is quite depleted these days, we cancelled Sunday’s and yesterday’s raids too, and maybe will have to cancel tonight again…

Every night, after the raid, I log on Argent Dawn. Monday evening, I logged on AD to find Single Abstract Noun guildchat as busy as usual. And my mood was low after the incident, I was angry against that spoiled idiot always thinking he can tell others how to play. I needed fresh air. And also advices on how to deal with this kind of people. And SAN is a wonderful place for that. After the usual 15 lines of greetings, I asked my question. And guildchat was filled with insightful advices, funny comments, and general niceness that made me instantly feel much better. I’m not the only one deciding for my guild but at least, my evening was not wasted any more.

That’s when I realised why, without meaning it, Tamarind choose his troll’s name and then the tabard’s colour right : it’s orange, and orange is good, full of vitamins. You don’t need much, but need it anyway. And that’s exactly what SAN guildchat is : some vitamins in our wow routine, our guild problems, our failpugs, our crappy trade chat… You can find there serious topics or absolutely crazy ones.

Like that one :

What is tossing ?

I admit, I began that one… I had just read the guild message of the day, and there was "No tossing" in it. No tossing… Hum hum, what does that mean ? That’s why I asked. Answers were beyond my expectations.

Did I tell you guys that I’m an elf with a true troll inside ?

And note to self : find a way to put the chat frame in front of SUF frame…

WoW is exciting today !

These days, I’ve been quite low in mood.

In guild, we are experiencing problems to fill in raid spots. Yes, see, Arthas isn’t dying in 2 attempts, it’s too hard to wipe the whole night three to four times a week. Not that progression guild aren’t meant to wipe on progression fight… Whatever, Ascendance is recruiting, one or two priests would be great. And we are officially recruiting "all classes", because the GM hopes it will motivate people to perform (or go their own way without bothering us any more…). Except hunters. Feel free to apply if you speak French.

Being an officer is tiring and thankless. I need some sleep. I didn’t raid Wednesday and Thursday, I watch some silliness on TV, and went to the restaurant with friends, it felt good. I’m ready to rock Arthas on Sunday night !

But today was an exciting day. I was thinking about Tamarind having problems with his guild about his blog, but I still don’t know what to do. This blog is secret. Only my boyfriend knows about it, and a few readers and bloggers. It’s my secret garden. I want to protect it. But anyway, these days I lack inspiration. I have a few post in my draft folder but none of them is actually worth the effort. Either rant or too old or both…

I discovered Tamarind idea of a blogging guild, I joined them, and inspiration came back. I don’t want to talk about my guild and my experience as an officer too much, and I will keep this blog from my frustration if I can. But this bloggers guild is such a great idea. I allways wanted to roll some toon on an English server, but never had the courage to do it… Because being alone on a new server frightened me a lot. But there, it’s different. It’s not like we know each other, but we all share something in common : we are a part of this blogging community, either by being writers or readers. I’ve been more a reader these days but I feel the urge to write today.

I know some of them, because I read their blogs every day. There are a lot of them I don’t know, and my feedreader will be growing tremendously in the next few weeks I expect… I wonder if that guild will grow in something more than just a bunch of people coming to chat with bloggers, like if we will have forums for example and any kind of website were we could share our blogs and ideas with others. Maybe a platform like Blog Azeroth or any other community site will do the trick… I don’t know.

Anyway, the few people I met today were great. They all rolled a shaman, I don’t know why… As I said in my previous post, I met a blogger I commented on his blog these days, and it was nice : "Hi ! Remember me ?" "Oh yes nice to meet you !" Tam describes the guild very well, for what I found out very quickly : it’s the guild "where nothing gets done because we’re too busy talking about it"… I actually spent more time chatting on my new guild chat than questing, and managed to bring my shaman to level 3 in half an hour… The leveling will be looooong I think…

At one point, someone asked if anyone wanted to join a group, but then we realized that it was just not to feel lonely and the guild chat was so … chatty that no one would feel lonely at the moment…

And as a quick update, my dear hunter Nefernet is a regicide, and my baby druid is a Starcaller. I’m proud of them ! Ulduar is fun to heal ! Yeah ! I still need to heal Vezax and Yogg Saron though. Maybe this week-end. We hope to get Arthar 25 downed this week *cross fingers* and are trying hard… We’d like getting the first kill server but another guild is raising on Horde side, an old guild reforming and quite well known for being first a few months back in time… They got the FK in 10-man. I think they can get the 25-man version pretty soon too. We need to work harder against that bloody boss !

Tamarind had the most beautiful idea of the year

I’m late with my blogroll. Very late. I was keeping Righteous Orbs for later, to have the time to read the articles, not just having a quick look at them. But I read something about it on another blog so I had to read RO before… And that’s how I discovered he had problems with his guild about his blog. I was growing cautious with mine and it made me think a lot. I need to think it over a little bit more…

But what I discovered too, is that he created a guild for bloggers on an EU server. The launching was two days ago and I missed it !!!! I just created a baby twoll shaman named Kinie and have been invited this afternoon, I had a little chat with the few guildies online during their lunch break, it was really cool !

I even had the pleasure to meet Protflashes from Aggro Management. I have fun reading his blog these days, he rolled a character on a French server in order to learn French and it must be hard…

Anyway, big huge thanks to Tamarind for this guild ! It’s going to be fun !