Tales from the World of Warcraft
Everybody is an observer of human nature. It is something we all do and something we all love to do! People are just so much fun. Warcraft is a collection of people - 8 million of them as of last count. And this means that there are a lot of interesting things going on! Here are some tales of my adventures in Warcraft.
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Fishing for Help!
I was riding around Tanaris with a couple of small goals to take care of. I didn't really feel like tackling anything big and I was thinking about poking around Un Garo Crater. Somebody put up a message to the general chat "Can somebody help me with the DuneMaul Compound quest?" I didn't think much of it, was leaning a bit toward helping because I wasn't really doing much of anything.
Five minutes later he puts up the request again so I shift click on him to see what he is. A level 48 Paladin; So I thought about that quest a bit, I had done it and if I recollected right you had to kill like 20 Ogres around level 44 and the boss who was a 49. Hmmn. A level 48 Pally should have no trouble at all.
Five minutes after that he puts up another message with more emphasis : "Could somebody PLEASE help me with the dunemaul compound quest"? Well, I buckled and sent him a whisper, "I'm nearby, I will come over and give you a hand".
So I sprinted across a short span of desert and before I got off my horse he had already formed a party. I zoomed right toward the nearest Brute and we took him down fast. We headed toward another one and in the middle of the battle I noticed he was carrying a very peculiar weapon. It was very long and very skinny. I clicked on him then did an inspect and was shocked to see it was a fishing pole! He was fighting with a fishing pole! OMG, now I understood why a level 48 pally was having trouble with level 44 Ogres. I took a moment to consider how to mention this without hurting his feeling and totally blew it when I just blurted "Your'e fighting with a fishing pole?"
He stopped dead in his tracks and I swear I saw his character blush! "Darn, I've already killed five of them like this!" This renewed my respect in the Whole Paladin class. It takes a bit of something to kill a level 44 Ogre with just a fishing pole!
Now I can't really criticize him for the mistake. I have done exactly that same sort of thing myself. Warcraft is so crazy and there's so much going on that you sometimes just miss things like that!
There's a Dragon in the Village!
I was in the Auction House in Stormwind looking over a variety of weapons and armor. I had the gold to spare and was really wanting to upgrade. Bubbling into my awareness came the sounds of people fighting and people dying! I snapped out of my shoppers reverie and closed the auction listing. The Auction House was in chaos and people were dying and scrambling - There was an enormous Dragon right in the AH and it was breathing fire everywhere. I scampered to the door and just as I got out I died! eeek! What the heck happened?
I made the spirit run from the cemetary back to Stormwind but didn't resurrect. I remained a spirit so I could assess the situation. There was an enormous dragon flying around Stormwind - About ten feet in the air and he was breathing fire everywhere! People were scampering, people were dying and the messages were flying around. "There's a dragon in Stormwind!" I could imagine all the guild chatter. Of course this dragon had the dreaded "??" for a level! Who knows how high a level it was?
I watched as brave souls took shots at the dragon and either ran or died. And over the course of the next few minutes level 60 players started to show up. This was before the latest release when level 60 was the cap. The possibility of an exotic challenge and treasure to match was bringing in the warriors!
I watched for another ten minutes as a variety of high level players all tried their hand at the dragon. And I watched as the Dragon took the damage and healed itself! Nobody could make much of a dent in it! Eek!
The draw to get things done started to pull at me and as the bodies piled up and more and more spirits were walking around I quickly resurrected and head off to the Griffon Master for a quick ride to Ironforge! I don't know if anybody actually killed it or if it eventually got out of the city on it's own.
But this brings me to the point of this story.
Gone are the days of walking your way through a dungeon and knowing the formula, "creature always in this spot, treasure always in that spot". Gaming has become a wonderful world of unpredictability and real adventure!
With This New Armor We are Going to Win!
I was level 29 and I had my eye on some really nice armor and trinkets so being level 29 is a good place to be for pvp action and I was grinding out the wins and losses at Arathi Basin. I had been doing it for days, and it was all I was doing. I didn't want to ding up to level 30 and have to battle pvp against level 39's.
A lot of the battles blended together and as you might know Arathi Basin is pretty crazy, the combat can be very intense. But I remember this one particular battle where I had just zipped into the instance and everybody was standing at the gate waiting for the battle to start.
The chatter was pretty normal and if you battle in AB you have heard it before:
"We gonna win this one?" Somebody asked.
"Nah, we are alliance, we always lose." Was somebody elses response.
And this is where the conversation varied from the usual doom and gloom of the alliance in Arathi Basin.
Somebody chirped up: "With this new Armor I have We are going to win this one easy."
Wow, that was a bold claim and the chatter quieted. And while I made my way over to the person that said this so I could Inspect his armor, the gates to Arathi Basin opened and the battle begun.
I stood my ground for a few seconds and watched where people went so I could join the fighting force where it would count. And I watched as the proclaimer with the uber armor ran off by himself toward the mines. Hmmm I thought. Could he be that good? Maybe I could learn something?
I just had to follow him and see. So, about five seconds behind him I followed and I watched as he approached the flag at the Mine and the sole horde member who stood there guarding it. He ran with gusto directly at the horde player and took a shot - then in about 3 seconds he was dead!! Just like that. It wasn't much of a combat at all and he folded like a cheap suit! I was stunned, continued my run at the horde player and managed to win the, 1-on1 battle (This is why it is good to be level 29, or 39 or 49, 59, or 69 when it comes to pvp). I took the flag then scampered off in search of other players to team up with.
After about 30 seconds the battlefield message came up that the player with the uber armor had left the playing field. Now I don't mean to make fun of the player with the armor. I am sure he had some nice armor and pvp action is so very hard and he must have been so disappointed to learn this lesson the hard way.
When you finally get your horse you will do this - I guarantee it because it's human nature.
Saving up the gold to get a mount was a real challenge for me and I started saving when I was level 39 and finally had enough gold at level 41. So off I ran to the Easvale logging camp east of Goldshire to pay for my training and to buy my horse (I chose the Chestnut Mare, which I love.) If you are an alliance player you are familiar with Goldshire. It is the place where you play the early game. You are a level 5 running around discovering this wonderful world of warcraft. You fight your first wolves here, and adventure into your first mines here. It's a fun time! People often fight their first pvp challenges right here in goldshire. And, you see high level players riding through on their mounts here! You look at them with envy and think: I am going to get me one of them.
So when I finally got my Chestnut Mare I had to go poke around goldshire and show off! So this is what I did! I pranced around Goldshire and got comments from players like: Wow! How much that cost you? Where Can I get a horse? How high a level do you have to be? I was even challenged to a duel by a couple of players in the level 20 something range! This was a good time for me. I was proud of my accomplishment and showing it off. ( I was also now broke, but thats a whole other story)
Time passed and Goldshire was long forgotten. I had made a few more levels and was poking around Stormwind on this and that when I got a whisper from somebody I had grouped with a few times.
"I finally got enough money for a mount but can't remember where to get one. Could you tell me where you trained and where you bought your mount?"
The fond memories of finally getting my Mare came back to me and I bubbled over with enthusiasm.
"Congrats! Sure, you train and buy the horse in eastvale logging camp. It's east of Goldshire, just after you cross the bridge go north."
She thanked me and I continued on with my business in Stormwind. But after a few minutes I thought that I would go down and see her, see if she found the camp, and maybe we could ride around a bit on our mounts. So I head down to the logging camp to surprise her! What the heck, I am right here in Stormwind anyway.
I head down the path to Goldshire and as I approached I saw a mounted player prancing around in the center of town! And sure enough it was her! She was showing off her new mount. She did exactly what I did and head straight to Goldshire to show off her accomplishment. I stood back and watched a bit. And I would imagine that she was fielding questions from new players. Questions like: Wow, how do you get a horse? and "How much did that horse cost?" and "What level do you have to be to get a horse?"
It struck me that even though we are playing a virtual game we are all still human! My friend showed off her horse just like I did and when you get your horse you will do it too! As you should, because it's an accompishment to be proud of!
