Caverns of Time - Opening the Dark Portal

This all went a little aury to start with but fast became a night to remember!
In the first instance, I think it was myself (Obsidanse), Vetenari and Lefal.
Because there simply wasn't enough of us with high enough equipment to run a Heroic dungeon, we had to drop the decision to run Heroic Coilfang, in favour of finishing off the Black Morass run in the Caverns of time for Lefal.
It took some time, but we managed to get a preist from outside the guild into the run, and started to move.
As so often preists are, this one was intensely impatient. We lost him quickly, and sadly the next almost as quickly as the first.
After including Kurtsteiner in the group, who'd just arrived, Lefal understandable couldn't stand it any longer, and decided to stand down.
Kurt, myself and Vetenari started (The Old Hillsbrad Quest) alone.
By incredible good luck, Sugarpuffs and Ernestine logged on soon afterwards.
We easily bashed our way through to the end and moved on to the Black Morass.
Quite simply one of the most intense, but extremely enjoyable quests I've done yet!
Essentially what has to be done, is keep the magician Medivh alive while he creates the portal to allow the Orcs access to Azeroth (this is ooold history ^_^).
A total of 18 portals open from which an Elite Portal Guard will emerge. As he is being destroyed, many adds are spewing from the portal (which I must say both Ernestine, Vetenari and Sugarpuffs did an excellent job of wiping out throughout the entire run).
The Sixth Guard I believe is your first Boss. He hits you with an AoE debuff that slows you down by over half, and Arcane damage of about 2500.
We dispatched him, no prob ;)
Same again.
By the Telfth wave, we have our second Boss. This one's a Melee guy, and a hell of a Brute. But Kurt kept him subdued for the duration :) He bashes you away, Buff his own speed, generally dominates with as much damage as possible. Also a rather nasty debuff that reduces healing :(
5 More waves then on to the big Kahoooooona!
He's pretty much like the first, but with bells. He STOPS time for 4 seconds, by AoE aswell which is nasty, and also hits for nearly double the Arcane of the first guy.
The one almost had us!
Both Ernestine and Myself were downed pretty quickly. But incredibly Kurtsteiner, Vetenari and Sugarpuffs held the fort long enough for us to watch for a short while to check it was worth going for it, and for the full walk across that massive cavern that seems soooo much longer when you're in a hurry.
Amazingly, we got there in time to finish the Devil off and claim the prize :D
Incredible run, a lot of fun!

!!NEWSFLASH!!

This Friday's Run seems to have been "lagged off" I'm affraid Guildies...
A first ever in "Still Alive" history i think, so let's not be too grumpy at good old Blizz ;)
In hindsight...possibly I should have done my homework too, since both Sugarpuffs & Trulsan are away this weekend anyway :s

Vote Results - 27th June Dungeon Run

This months results are...

(Heroic) Hellfire Citadel - Hellfire Ramparts - 2
(Heroic) Coilfang Reservoir - Slave Pens - 4

I'm biting my nails, but we'll give it a go ^_^

Caverns of Time - Opening the Dark Portal

It turned out that a lot of us had to complete the Old Hillsbrad run first, in order to move on to the Drak Portal run in The Black Morass.
We had Anylrama, Trulsan, Vetenari, Vebolina and Myself, Obsidanse.
One of the smoothest runs we've had in a long while :)
Appart from an unexpected agro on our drop into the Orc holding area...sterling work by all concerned!
We dealt with Thrall's rather over-enthusiastic fighting with little problems, only initially struggling to keep thing organised.
We downed Captain Skarloc and his two lackies very easily. Vetenari's Fear move sorting out the ladies in the dying moments to buy us a little time.
And although we lost Trulsan near the end of the Epoch Hunter, he thankfully had a Soul stone, and bounced back to keep things organised in no time ^_^

On to the Black Morass....

Sadly, not so lucky on this one.
Lack of preperation for this one made the whole job very tricky.
This is NOT a standard run, where we take our time pulling in groups and desposing of Mobs in an orderly fassion..oh dear me no...
Anylrama sadly had to leave at this point, possibly totems would have helped too, but never mind.
Suddrik joined in at this point, and we were glad to have him onboard :)
We had to keep the Magician Medivh safe while he opened the portal. All the while he is being bombarded by wave after wave of level 70ish trash Mobs...
Sounds easy, but keeping them all under control was very tough, AOE would have been very welcome here!
There's no time to recover, and they come thick and fast in no time

Vetenari had an idea to take on the portal Elites which seemed to work well to start with, but keeping straglers from Medivh prooved very tough, and they wore him down very quickly while we took on the second portal.
After whiping again with this technique moral was a little low. I (rather unfairly) shunned the idea of splitting up for the portal, from vete. I felt we needed to go research this before going on further.
It seems we should have stuck with the strategy of taking on the portal elites one at a time while pulling in any adds as we went...
We'll do it next week! In the meen time, take a look at the vid ... Opening the Dark Portal Video

Vote Result - 13th June Dungeon Run

This weeks reults are...

CoT - Open the Portal - 0 votes
Tempest Keep - The Mechanar - 5 votes
Tempest Keep - The Botanica - 0 votes
Heroic Hellfire - Blood Furnace - 0 votes
Heroic Hellfire - Ramparts - 1 vote

A resounding Mechanar then!
However, in light of the need for key parts for entry to Karazhan, we'll put it to the group for a change if thats wanted...

Saturday 7th's Magisters Terrace run...

A report from Kurtsteiner :

I present my report of the trip we took on Saturday night (7th June) to Magisters Terrace.
Based on intelligence from a certain mage, we were told it would take 20mins to down the first 2 bosses.
Well we were soundly thrashed several times, giving up after the third attempt. The second boss was basically a voidy version of The Curator from Kara.
I feel that as it was late (23:00hrs) and it was arranged in 5mins we deserved a good beating. This was with me tanking, Suddrik as AoE/Off-tank, Vebolina and Ernestine for CC and Damage and, finally, Trulsan healing.
At least Suddrik came away with a decent axe, if nothing else, but we're all chomping at the bit for revenge! Plus at full tilt, if we learn this dungeon, I imagine it to be an hour perhaps ninety minutes tops for farming the four bosses and trash mobs.

Thanks Kurt, I'll put it as an option on next weeks Vote :)

Droooooll.....

Forget Rocket powered Lolcopters!
How amazingly beautiful is this mount?



















A drop rate of something like 1.5% from Kael'thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep.
Who's up for running The Eye a few hundred times for me? ;)

Future Raid...

I've not put a raid on this week as I don't think any of us have the Key to Karazhan as of yet.
It would be an awfull let down if we didn't have it in time huh?
I'm working hard to make sure we get it over the next few days, and with any luch we'll have a Raid ready for the 20th June.
A word of causion...This will be tough, we will probably not make the full run simply because of the level of our gear. Always remeber, some of us are really well tooled up, others not so :)
Definately no shame in not managing the whole thing first time round folks. We've got to start somewhere ^_^

Caverns of Time - Old Hillsbrad run...

For me, this was a run I'd been looking forward to for a long time. I'd played Warcraft III and was looking forward to seeing a bit or Thrall's history :)
We had Myself (Obsidanse), Suddrik, Ernestine (for massive firepower!), Trulsan and Sugarpuffs on this one.
After a spectacular display of Hillsbrad from about 10 years ago, we landed just outside Durnholde keep. Courtesy of our Yellow Dragon friends. A simple fight through the trenches infront of the keep, allowed us to set the huts ablaze, and kill our first boss.
Suddrik won that drop, (of course hehe), think it was a Plate Bracer or Boots.
Then onto the Keep and to free Thrall!
Boy that Orc's a trooper!
After he blatter's the Armoury guard, he grabs the much needed armour and weapons and runs for the door.
From this point we meet collections of four enemies of random types. Ussually two Melee and two casters. Which can be any combination of Healer and Mage.
Took some doing, but because Thrall moves on largely without a pause, it was quite hard to keep our mana up. But we pulled through after a few wipes :)
Stirling work from both Healers and Ernestine. Not to mention a quite stunning show of tanking from myself and Suddrik! hehe
At the end of this unrellenting flurry, we then have to face a Palladin boss and his two lackies. Not too tough, but after such an intense approach (and you have to do it all again if you die) it was somewhat tricky!
Again, Suddrik won the toss for that item too! Grrrrr ;)
Finally, on to Tarren Mill to re-unite Thrall with his half sister (I'm taking Sugarpuffs' word on this!) and to face the final prize...
You're called out by a booming voice to face your Death....
No Chance!
Epoch Hunter, I think his name was, has about four sets of four minions, all sorts of names like Sabotage etc. They look a lot like Dragonkin draped in black smoke. Not too tough.
First two attempts we wiped, and I'm affraid at this point I had to stand down from the game bacause of time ristrictions.
From what I understand, Kurtsteiner saved the day quite impressively, earning a nice Item for Sugarpuffs :)
Another victory for Still Alive!

Vote Results - 6th June Dungeon Run

This weeks results are...

Auchindoun - Mana Tombs - 1
Hellfire Citadel - Ramparts - 0
Coilfang Reservoir - Undercity - 0
Caverns of Time - Escape from Durnholde - 6

See you all at 7:30pm GMT guys :D
Gadgetzan - Tanaris
"Let's do the time-warp agaiiiiin"....ahem, i'll stop now.

New MOB revealed...Magnataur!

Part giant?!...part mammoth?!
When will the madness end? Think of the children!
Seriously though, looks pretty cool ^_^

http://www.wow-europe.com/wrath/features/bestiary/index.xml

Freedom....

It's an Alliance world, you know that?
"We've got it made" says I, "You're all pretty much cut off" I said....what a fool I was.
I Just turned 37 a little while ago.
Been bashing around some place called Dustwallow marsh. Do you KNOW how many alliance troops there are on that road? I swear I can't breath without half of Theramour beating me down!
And what about fishing?
Exactly how am I supposed to speak to some filthy Human, called Pat Nazel or something, for my fishing skills? He's out in the middle of the ocean, just beyond Theramour Island!
The only point of access if a tiny gap in the hills, just beyond some level 39+ spooks and Murlocks!
...How wrong I was.
I'd better get back to the grind. I can hear that fetted Undead Warlock, that's been following me around, calling.
Yes, yes Griff, I'm coming....

Appologies....

Sorry for the lack of run on Friday. A few too many people were unable to attend, so it was called off.
We'll be voting as normal this week, I've popped the Mana Tombs on the list though. Just incase we'd all like to run it :)