Kindness of Strangers

It’s been really tough losing our main tank Bamartin in the move to Badlands.  But we finally have two ironbreakers who are interested in joining us regularly.  Both Nargrum and Rurykk are from Phoenix Throne.  Bonus!  Nargrum was all set to join us, but his power went out during a snowstorm.  We ran with Rurykk instead and everything went smoothly.

This time around it was Barann (RP), Dione (WP), Pantaro (WL), yours truly (BW), Rurykk (IB), and Chical (Knight).  Barann let us know he had only 2 greater wards.  I mentioned to him that meant we could finish the first wing, but the second wing would be extremely difficult to finish as he would be hit accidentally a lot more.  This turned out to be fine though because we got as far as we usually do in 3 hours, the second boss in the second wing.   Chical had everything he wanted out of LV and was joining us just to help out.  A true gentleman.

Rurykk told us the source of those mysterious spirits we got on the last run.  Killing the shaman group next to Azhranok is a bad idea.

This run went very smoothly.  We didn’t wipe on Azhranok nor on Horgulul.  We wiped once on Malghor and once on Dralel.  I think everyone was surprised how easy Dralel was because 1) we had banners, 2) our main tank was fully tank specced and the off-tank was very high renown ranked to compensate for not being tank specced.  The lucky winners today: Barann, Rurykk.  Barann got some Dark Promise gloves and Rurykk finally got the shield he has been running LV for 9 months for!

I just love the feel of our Lost Vale groups.  People who know what they’re doing.  Jokes about blaming the warrior priest for the sake of tradition (even though the healing was awesome).

Today’s Lost Vale Trip

We transferred to our new server, Badlands, this week.  Unfortunately, our Lost Vale group lost our stalwart friend and main tank,  Bamartin.  He went to Iron Rock and I’m going to be sad for a good while.

Today’s group had 3 people who had never worked with us before.  Regolyth (shadow warrior), Dione (warrior priest), and Althanar.  Our 3 regulars were Arbroir (renamed from Arbrior), me (bright wizard), and Ezak (knight).  We made Althanar main tank because he has higher renown ranking than Ezak and Ezak didn’t want to be the main tank.

Things that went well:

1) We didn’t wipe on Ahzranok nor Malghor.  We wiped on Horgulul once.

2) The women in the group got new Dark Promise shoes!

3) Dione got the much coveted one-handed Garradel hammer on her first successful kill of Dralel.

4) The conversation in our groups is always the best.  It’s a funny, witty group of folks and I’m so glad I can run with them often.

5) The group is goal-oriented and serious, but at the same time it’s laid back enough to be tolerant of easy mistakes and taking breaks.  Friendly folks who are looking for fun and fabulous riches.

Things that didn’t go so well:

1) Althanar normally goes to bed at 5AM but he stayed up all night in order to go to Lost Vale with us.  He was tired and unfocused and was not feeling well.  We were relying on Althinar to set the pace but he was really tired and out of it. Telling him to “go” or “charge!” every time we finished one mob slowed us down.

2) I started off too close to Dralel (spider boss) and grabbed aggro and died while trying to kill the little spiders.  Twice.

3) In front of Malghor (pink cloud boss) we aggro’ed a bunch of spirits and killed them.  But they kept coming back and were a pain to kill again and again.  They followed us all the way to the next boss (Horgulul, many teated boss).  This had never happened before and we were speculating whether they were new to the patch or because Ezak went up into the cliffs for the first time or because we went AFK in the middle of the path to Malghor.  Normally when we go AFK we stay on the rocks to the left.

4) Althanar was  taking too much damage on bosses.  When Ezak was not guarding him, he dropped really fast.   Ezak can make his chance to be crit close to zero, would be worth asking Althinar what his is and if he’s specced for defense.  If we don’t have a rune priest with us, Althanar as the main tank on some of the LV bosses is a risky proposition.

5) Dione was not in vent and we spent time typing explanations out instead of quickly chatting.

6) We had no banners (battle standard) due to the move.  After wiping 6 times on Dralel, Arbrior and Regolyth had to leave, so we invited Doxlor (engi) and Bobila (a rune priest).   The Kingmakers standard (minus chance to be crit and some other goodies)  seemed to make the difference because after one pain-free, partial wipe (because rune priest grabbed aggro when torching earlier than the tanks) we easily killed Dralel.

Let me know if you’re interested in going again.  I’m definitely looking forward to another Lost Vale trip next Saturday!