Archive for the 'Karazhan' Category

A rare update!

Published on September 4, 2008 in General and Karazhan. 0 Comments

Well as I said in my previous post I would not be updating things here as frequently as I have been done.
Simple reason is there has not been a lot to report.My eldest son Bbcone has not been playing much at all over the past few weeks, though he has logged on now and again just for a social chat with his guild, oh he also did some bosses in Karazhan with them, which surprised me.
He has talked about trying to get his palladin up to 70 before WotLK comes out, then he will level it to 80, not sure how much he means it but it will be interesting to see.

My youngest son (8) has recently started levelling his palladin, which he is enjoying, however he likes me to watch him which I’ve not had a lot of time to do recently. It’s currently level 27.
I logged in last weekend for a few hours on and off as it was AV weekend, so I boosted my honor from 8k to about 14k, not much but it all helps…. for what I’m not sure!
I noticed that my guild has had a lot of new people join over the past few weeks, in fact there must be a good 10 people I had not heard of before.

I hope it’s going well for the guild. So there we go, thats your update for now.

Karazhan - in, out, done!

Published on January 6, 2008 in Karazhan. 3 Comments

Well it finally happened, on Thursday evening I got in to my guild raid group on Karazhan. I’ve watched my Son in there before on his mage Bbcone and read some of the tactics but it’s only until you actually get inside in person so to speak, that you realise how much work, practise & time the guild and players have put in to this in the several months they have been running this raid.

The Curator

Terestian Illhoof

We started about 9:30pm and it was a late finish at just after 1am. We had just downed The Shade of Aran when I had to bail out, Cameron our youngest Son woke up and was sick so I had to leave to help my wife with him. Another guild member was also ready to leave so we decided to end at that point and pick it up the following evening.

Nightbane

We downed the following bosses on this run:-

Attumen the Huntsmen & Midnight
Moroes
Maiden of Virtue
The Big Bad Wolf
The Curator
Terestian Illhoof
Nightbane
Shade of Aran

Shade of Aran

The Big Bad Wolf, Opera event is so funny. The wolf turns one of the players in to Little Red Riding Hood and proceeds to try and kill the unfortunate player! The tactics seem to be run as fast as you can keeping near to he edge of the stage at all times. It’s also very easy to gain aggro quick here so I found myself backing off on the dps a little. We probably had most deaths on this event and had our only full wipe of the entire run, other bosses such as Nightbane and Curator went down without incident.

I got some nice drops, [Nethershard Girdle] waist, [Talisman of Nightbane] which is an awsome looking offhand, [Boots of the Infernal Coven] and my first Tier 4 piece - [Voidheart Gloves], not to mention a stack of [Badge of Justice].

The following evening, Friday I got invited back in to the group and we started from where we left. Fortunately you can get a teleport just as you enter Karazhan which takes you directly to the Library where we ended the previous night.

It was then a fast, slick 1 hour run to take down the remaining 3 bosses:-

Netherspite
Chess event
Prince

Netherspite

Netherspite seemed to go down very quickly in just under 6 minutes. I didn’t have much idea what was happening on the chess event to begin with but we seemed to succeed anyway. To get the loot from this event you have to open a large chest, only one person at a time can do this and it took about 10 mins! Perhaps Blizzard could fix this ? :)

Chess Event

The final boss we did was Prince Malchezaar, I’d seen my Son’s previous guild wipe on this a few times recently but it was handled with expertise by the AHIF guild members. I stood back near the door with some other casters at full range, occasionaly getting the nasty ‘Enfeeble’ and then backing up as far as possible! Then came his throwing axes which I seemed to avoided, thankfully. Soon after this the big ugly guy dropped to the floor :)

Prince Malchezaar

I was so lucky he dropped the [Voidheart Crown] my second Tier 4 piece and so thankful to the other guild members for letting me get it, cheers guys!

So I can certainly say my first run in Karazhan was very enjoyable and a we did a full clear in about 5 hours!
On the last three bosses I recorded my combatlog and created some WoW Web Stats which can be seen here.
They are not 100% accurate as it needs about 3 players to collect the information and collate it but they do give a nice indication of how each person does.

Hmmm, where, what now?

Too late for Karazhan!

Published on December 13, 2007 in Karazhan. 0 Comments

Damn, I was down for a my first guild run in to Karazhan last night, however the early scheduled start made it just impossible to attend. We were running late with dinner and other chores here so sadly I had to give it a miss.

Ironically my Son was able to attend his first attempt at Karazhan with his guild, I was able to keep tabs on how he was doing. They managed to down Attumen the Huntsmen without too much bother and then came unstuck on Moroes, I think they wiped about 5 times before they gave up for the night.

Moroes

I think the garrote’s that Moroes starts to put on the players and the strain it put on the healers got out of hand.

Hopefully I’ll get my next chance at Karazhan soon.

Too Much Excitement for One Night!

Published on December 5, 2007 in General and Karazhan. 5 Comments

Wife safely out for a few hours, kids (x2) playing on their own characters, pots washed, it seemed an ideal oppertunity to travel back in time, meet Medivh and get my Karazhan key finally repaired!

Fortunately I had been offered help by some of the members of the superb guild, <And His Imaginary Friend>. I’m in the “sister” guild, <And His Imaginary Pet>, although I was hoping to move over to AHIF assuming I got attuned to Karazhan :)

The previous evening I got in a pick up group and it all went horribly wrong in there. Several portals open up, an elite dragon type mob comes out and then a steady stream of non elite level 70 mobs follow. They all head for Medivh and try to rip him to bits. The idea seems to tank and dps the elite whilst a mage (or similar) controls the non-elites.
This whole process does not happen once but about 16 times! It’s pretty frantic once it all kicks off, go to the loo before it starts is my tip.
Anyway the previous night in the PUG we ended up with about 4 portals open and 20 or so mobs all wanting their piece of Medivh, it was way out of control.

So this evening I was glad to be invited in to a group with some of the <And His Imaginary Friend> guild:

  • Chixor - Mage
  • Hawtbelf - Paladin
  • Macher - Rogue
  • Gargrim - Warrior

We started at 7:5o pm by clearing some of the spiders and crocodiles that roam about the swamp area, next you speak to Medivh and then it was non stop action until 8:30 pm when we downed the final boss.
There are two bosses previous to this one and somewhere along the run I got [Star-Heart Lamp] very nice! Everybody did a great job and I was delighted to be part of it, thanks guys. I even got my Karazhan key enabled by Medivh, so I’m all set now, I think?
Black Morass completed.
On the way out of the instance I handed in another quest and got a nice ring and a stack of Keepers of Time reputation to take me up to revered status. I went to the nice vendor man and bought [Continuum Blade], which goes really nice with my new lamp.

It was about that time that the next shock of the evening came when I was invited to the guild AHIF !

Guild invite.
So all in all a great evening! Oops, the kids are quiet?

Attempting Mechanar.

Published on November 30, 2007 in General and Karazhan. 0 Comments

Well I’m beginning to wonder now if I should not have bothered trying to get the key to Arcatraz, I could just join a group that has a member who has the key to let me in. But hey, it’s part of the lead up to Karazhan so Blizzard must want me to do it for some reason?
To get the key you need to collect the two halves from the final bosses in Mechanar and Botanica.
It seemed to take about 2 hours to get a group together, then it took another half an hour or more before we managed to get a clear shot at summoning, a group of Alliance were camping the summoning stone! It’s worth noting that as a warlock I can normally summon other party members but this is not allowed in Netherstorm.

Once we were all in we must have wiped about 4 times in the first 20 mins or so, we eventually managed to get the first boss down and then 2 of the group decided they just had to leave. After that we agreed there was no point trying to get any more members onboard to complete. I had a look later in the evening to see if I could get enough members but it was not going to happen :(

The quests for the Third Fragment.

Published on November 28, 2007 in Karazhan. 1 Comment

I hadn’t really looked at what was involved with the third Karazkan key fragment, apart form knowing that you get it at the end of Arcatraz instance in Tempest Keep. However to be able to move in and out of the Arcatraz you need the key to it’s doors. Only one party member actually needs it but I thought I’d see what was involved in obtaining the key and maybe give it a shot.
The questline for the Arcatraz key starts with a three pre-quests at Area 52, once these are done you can move on to the next quest line. The whole line up looks something like this:

  • Step 1: Assisting the Consortium
  • Step 2: Consortium Crystal Collection
  • Step 3: A Heap of Ethereals
  • Step 1: Warp-Raider Nesaad
  • Step 2: Request for Assistance
  • Step 3: Rightful Repossession
  • Step 4: An Audience with the Prince
  • Step 5: Triangulation Point One
  • Step 6: Triangulation Point Two
  • Step 7: Full Triangle

They are mostly just collection quests and move here, report there type of quests which show you the areas of Netherstorm. Many of the areas I had not been to before and I picked up the two remaining Horde flight paths in Netherstorm. Using my flying mount to get about was great, it saved a lot of time and I was able to get down to step 7 above in about 1.5 hours. Guess what, I bumped in to Cowdy yet again, doing the same quests, we killed the 70 elite together in Full Triangle.

Tempest Keep

So now I need to get in a group and complete both Mechanar and The Botanica. Both these are in the ‘floating’ Tempest Keep fortress in Netherstorm. Once I have both the top shard and bottom shard of the Arcatraz Key, I will then be able to go there and hopefully get the final key fragment for access to Karazhan.

And on to the Second Key Fragment.

Published on November 27, 2007 in Karazhan. 0 Comments

I hadn’t logged in last night with the intention of going out for the second Karazhan key fragment, it was getting late and I didn’t think I would have time to find a group doing The Steam Vaults instance and get the key.
I realised that you only have to clear as far as the first boss in order to drop down in to the small pool below to find the second arcane container, which the key fragment is held in.
By chance I saw Cowdy (see post below) shouting out for a DPS for Steamvaults, I asked him if he was only going as far as the first boss and he said no,  but said it would only take about 1 hour to do the complete instance, well at least to get to the final boss anyway.
I accepted and was soon summoned in to the area below the Coilfang Reservoir in Zangermarsh where the instance begins. It was certainly a fast and furious run, we had the first boss down and the key fragment secured in less than 15 mins. Another 30 mins saw us down the final boss and I was able complete the quest The Warlord’s Hideout, which I had picked up on the way in. The reward was good, [Hydromancer's Headwrap], along with the second key fragment for about 45 mins work, I don’t think was too bad.
I need to start saving some more to put some decent gems in all this socket’able gear I am collecting!

The First Fragment…..

Published on November 26, 2007 in Karazhan. 0 Comments

Well, later on Sunday afternoon I decided to look for a group for Entry Into Karazhan quest, which takes you in to Shadow Labyrinth. You have to kill the last boss in order to get the first of the 3 key fragments from the Arcane Container it has been sealed in! We managed to get a good group and had the whole place cleared in about an hour. The group consisted of 2 x shadow priest, 1 x holy priest, myself - warlock and Cowdy (whom I seem to keep bumping in to) our protection geared tank.
Besides the key I managed to get a couple of items of nice gear for Dirky. I got the [Robe of Oblivion] which drops of the final boss - Murmur, who I must say is absolutely huge!
I’d also picked up the quest on the way in to Shadow Labyrinth - Trouble at Auchindoun which leads you on to kill Murmur. Once you turn this quest chain in back in Shattrath City you get a choice of several boots for each class, I chose [Shattrath Jumpers].
All in all a good days work :)

Time to think about Karazhan?

Published on November 25, 2007 in Karazhan. 0 Comments

Well I thought it was about time I started to think about doing the pre-quests for entry in to Karazhan. The first quests are picked up right outside the entrance to Karazhan, which is found down a short path just off Deadwind Pass. Nearest flight path for Horde is Stonard & Alliance is Darkshire.
Once there I picked up the 2 available quests, Arcane Disturbances and Restless Activity . I managed the Restless Activity one without too much bother, you basically go in to one of the cellars, discover some water and kill the mobs picking up 10 of the required [Ghostly Essence] as you go.
Arcane Disturbances was far more testing though. Not helped by a few Alliance in the area either. After a couple of runs I decided to use the ‘corpse run’ method. I took off all my gear so to avoid damage and repair costs. Got my friendly voidwalker out and made a run for it, I got fairly far down before my health got low, sacrificed my poor voidwalker and got a good bit further. Once I died I then made a corpse or ghost run to my body where I resurected and ran a bit further, I had a healthstone at the ready and almost got to the well.
One final run and I made it. I won’t bore you with the procedure to get out again!
I then turned both quests in and got the next quest Contact from Dalaran. This starts the chain proper where you now have to get the three key fragments from separate instances. These fragments when combined make up the key to Karazhan.
I managed the first couple of parts of the quest easily, apart from when I landed at Tarren Mill I was immediately ganked by about 10 Alliance doing a raid!

There is a good list of all the Karazhan quests with further information at the WowWiki site.