Santinha

Late Spring/early Summer always means summer colds.

Which in turn mean a big headache and a desire to do fuck all. So I haven't mustered much strength to hole up in the office and play WAR, let alone write about it. I've spent my time on Numblast, painting Mike's Dark Elf army and Final Fantasy VII.

Yes, I bought FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX and Vagrant Story from the PSstore. Now if they would only release Xenogears, Saga Frontier 2 and Front Mission 3 I could brag about owning the "best of Square" collection again.

Good old days. Now excuse me while I stuff myself full of paracetamol.

What's the Difference Between Us?

We can start at the penis. Or we can scream, "I Just Don't Give a Fuck," and see who means it.
But enough Eminem.

Different people lead different lives. For instance, for you sidewalk can very well only mean that which you step on when you go outside. For me it's a constant adventure of pothole jumping, slipery slope surfing and a stiletto inhibitor. (The representetive photo includes a man lugging a pink thing that made me chuckle much at the time.) When the ground is composed of easily detachable rocks like so, you live your life a certain way. You learn to navigate it from an early age, OCD suffererers skip to avoid the black bits, you learn the rocks are much too hard to kick with soft shoes, you kick them out of the road if you're nice. People that live in places where sidewalk is just slabs of concrete put together never have to deal with such exciting dillemas.

The difference between me and the rest of most of the bloggers who've posted about the new city is that most of them are part of a large, organized guild. I'm a pugger. So it was with much dread that I ventured into the new city, self-conscious but ready to try my best. "Just follow the zerg" said Gonk, the supatank. And follow the zerg I most certainly did. As luck would have it, and much to my delight, we ran into another pug on order side. As pugs go ours must've been better as we breezed through all the stages without me dying even once.

I got a Warlord Carcass-Guard on the second stage and a purple bag on the third. Had a crappy knife in it so I just took the crests. I flapped my papier mache wings in excitement at the sight of a cowering Karl among our super-sized puggers.

So yes, I too aprove of this new city. I found myself asking "Can we go again?" right after it was over. It totally made up for the uselesness I had endured trying to defend Caledor earlier.

Waiting Between Worlds

Har-dee-har-har.

While the patcher patches, which should be another hour, give or take, I thought I'd share something.

Of course, now that I'm here I completely forgot what I was going to share so, here I sit with a defunct lighter and candy wrappers, typing about nothing, really, while the patcher seems stuck at 10%.

I'm glad my last post was so inspirational for so many, I honestly didn't have much to say (kinda like now but I did! I swear!) so I just posted about one of my core beliefs about this game: crying about it is useless, you might as well try and do something smart.

Honestly, I don't get people that go on /ad to say "This game sucks" day in, day out, the same people. And these aren't trialers either. So wtf are they still doing in the game, paying for it, or even logging in? There's so much more to do in the world. Take it from me, the world is wider than your widescreen and you won't be missed.

Why, just yesterday I sat at our friends' house drinking copious amounts of chick drinks, rum and absynth, playing Pictionary and watching a very clothed Shakira not strutting her stuff much on the stage of Rock In Rio while being brutally mauled by their territorial cat. Life is fun like that. So if WAR isn't your cup of tea, go out drinking and drive or go play Puzzle Pirates or something just don't bother us with your whining because the rest of us are trying to have some fun here.

I'm all for constructive criticism though, and I'm guessing someone somewhere is bound to have a brilliant idea that the devs never did and we should thus all pitch in with our 2 cents. I don't, however, so I'm keeping my mouth shut (except, of course, make contribution not random and do something about PvE drops like a token system cuz I'm tired of running LV). But simply saying "nerf/don't nerf BWs" or "RvR is boring" doesn't cut it. It's like going to a restaurant, ordering soup and saying "this soup is bad". What're you going to do about it? Order something else? What would you rather have then? You don't know? Then would you kindly leave the premises and make room for people who do?

I like the soup. It's tasty. It'd be even tastier if it wasn't still at 14%.

If, however, you decide to suck it up and play a while, make the best of your money, time and patience and try your bestest. No one can blame you if you try your bestest. In fact, you're likely to be commended for doing so. It shows, believe you me. Sometimes, when I'm tired or just lazy I try a little less harder and it shows. Other times I get in the zone and I give it my all and the difference is there. Not the bestest healing ever but it surely made a difference. Oh yeah, btw, you know that addon that makes you thank the healer for when you get rezzed? Only the most annoying thing ever, especially when I get a "Thanks for resing me, dude!" A misogynistic addon does not make me feel appreciated. Taking your time to actually write a thank you for my efforts does.

Yay, 44% after a wall of text of near senseless gibberish. Ok, I'll stop bothering you now.

Make a Difference

Hecticness has struck and I am still amidst a tidal wave of tasks (including watching Supernatural season 5. That show is awesome). So I can be forgiven for taking a week off WAR, just to clear me head and all.

Today I went back. As luck would have it (or wouldn't) today was the day of the supposed launch of 1.3.5. But since things didn't go very well across the big blue wet thing, patchness was delayed.

Still, I went cruising around t4 SCs with mah main healer to grab me some emblems while I wait for the new city.

I read somewhere that WAR had a big fault as in it didn't make the individual feel like he was crucial or vital to the unfolding of events in a battle. I beg to differ. Especially in scenarios, which is where I've spent most of my time lately. Even if one cannot, for various reasons, contribute much to the overall healing or damage dealt, there's always other ways of making yourself worthy of the bandwidth you're taking up. If your side is getting farmed, go around and cap some flags. If you, as a tank, can't get your marks under 50% hp before they're healed back up again, go back and punt the healers' threats away.

Today I felt like I mattered. Faced with yet another Nordenwatch spawn point farm I went around and joined 2 other players in capping Lighthouse and Fortress. When we get to Barracks I start reading complaints about how people "haven't had a single heal since the beggining of teh SC QQ". Since we were done capping anyways, I bravely rode my steed headfirst into the red multitude and kicked them with my new morale 4 goodness and started healing away. Sure enough, we drove them back and ended up winning it. It's not like I was the only healer because I wasn't, and I wasn't near the top of the healing chart. But my efforts made a difference. We capped the flags for time enough to swing the points in our favor and eventually kept enough people up for us to drive them back.

Same with Dex, later on. Although I agree that damage alone is not the way to go and we should all strive for a good dmg/DB ratio, that rarely happens with Dex. Mostly because I entertain myself interrupting their backline and keeping the healers busy on themselves so their frontline withers away. Yes, healers are extremely difficult for just one player to finish off, I know that from personal experience. I also know how important it is to be concerned about other health bars apart from my own. So I usually top the damage table and have very few deathblows. But all that damage mattered for something. It might have been healed away but at least those heals, that cast time, that AP was spent on my effort, allowing other people's efforts to get through and kill and whatnot.

Maybe I'm just an optimist and revert to over-analyzing just to feel better about myself. But I do. I feel good about myself. About my noob dmg and all.

"What does the gun do?"

"It shoots bullets really fast."

- Detective Joe Miller

And if you got that reference, kudos to you for being awesome.

I've been super busy lately: between spring cleaning, trying to find a new place so I don't have to spring clean this one, daydreaming about it in the shower and finding vile things behind furniture, I've had very little time to play WAR even, much less post about it.

I was, however, pleasantly surprised with the news of the BW/Sorc nerf.

Cry me a river. Or don't, as most of you are sane people that realize this is a bold yet much needed first step in the right direction. Being instantly obliterated by 2~3 tiki torches surrounded by fast moving immovable bricks is not okay. I guess our favorite bombers really showed them what's what. (Btw, I found a pic of Arsanist grinning at an ice cream. Now I won't feel so bad when he kills me. Now I need a goofy pick of Steveo to make me feel better).

Maybe we'll even get lucky and some people stop playing BW altogether, bringing some variety into our lives. True BW lovers won't quit on them and kids over-compensating can give tanking a go because of their big swords.

WOO! Thanks to Jesus and the Pope!

No, this post has absolutely nothing to do with WAR.

Or very little at least.

So my team's da champ now, after a long dry spell. But Jesus came through for us, in the end, and, with a little help from the Pope (he's in town for a quick visit. People get the day off if they want to go see the Pope. So everyone's totally religious right now. Big surprise, huh), we finally walked away with the tittle. Man, I wish I was more into football (or soccer for all you Californians and Texans and... Michiganesians?), I would've been so happy. I remember the times when I still was, back in the day, back before I realised that my team lost every game I decided to watch. So I stopped watching and started gaming instead.

I'm not terrified of crowds but seeing this

turn into this

can frighten pretty much everyone. The subway workers pretty much went home and left everyone to do whatever they wished with their spray cans and beer cups and random hooliganism. It was like everyone had a free pass to do whatever because we finally won the big one. I mean it.

I wish people got that excited about king kills. If king kills were this exciting everyone would be doing it: banding together to push to the city, getting organised and actually listening so we could get to the big mofo and spank it down to dust to then be rewarded with a night of all-out drinking, random yelling and car-honking. I'd take that over any Sovereign piece. But maybe not two.

That'd be awesome.

Epikk's Choppa Guide to Lost Vale: Left Wing

Ok, so, the missus has been nagging me to write some Choppa guides to go with her Zealot guides to the several T4 dungeons and whatnot.

First of all, lemme tell you about my spec, so you can laugh at it a little bit :)

I'm a Savage Choppa at heart. To be honest i can't really live without Can't Stop Da Chop and Furious Choppin', and i allways have my thrusty Wot Rules? equipped.

As for a second tree, i usually go with Da' Wrecka when we're out dungeoning because even though i can't adapt to it for PVP, i do enjoy it for PVE because the AOE really helps when too many trash mobs start to hump my healer.

Now, the juicy parts.

WOT EPIKK DOS AS A CHOPPIN' CHOPPA WHEN WE'S GO DUNJUNS!!!!

My usual role is the main DPS guy (except on the bosses that are

easier to burn with ranged crap).

I don't really know if you other MDPSes out there use Don't Hate Da Choppa (or equivalent) for the reduced aggro when you're out clubbing or not, but i rarely do

Mainly because i've been a DPS for most of my life and as such i know how to controll my aggro pretty well, but also because i can use that extra tactic slot for something more useful, and Nirvaesh will yell at me if i lower my aggro too much cuz he's usually "chaneling" my aggro to himself (so, the more the merrier).

And i also have Hurtin' Time on at all times, as any respectable Choppa should.

As for Morale abilities, there's no M1 that's worth it, and M3 and M4 are just too far away considering that i always go for Tantrum when it becomes available, because the added damage is nice, and the fact that it doesn't fade when i go out of combat is a nice bonus.

i think that's it for general notes.

I'll follow Sara's lead on this one and i'll organize the rest of the post by Boss sections, so, here it goes...

Lake Lizard

Big Angry Cloud Boss

MORE

Slaanesh Cutie (I like to call it the Nipple Monster)

OK, this one is actually different.

I ALSO spam it, but i run arround lashing out some Lottsa Choppin because of the little adds that the Nipple Monster spawns (just so that they don't go pester the healers and RDPS)

This boss also makes me think of the movie Total Recall for some odd reason...

Dralel, the ICritYouToDeath Spider

Complete different approach here.

I don't even toutch the boss. that's a job for the tanks and maybe the other DPS if he feels like it. My sole purpose in life with this boss is to kill the little spiders that come from all over the place to try and reach the big-scary-spider-thing (i am an arachnophobe btw. the boss actually creeps me out a little bit) to raise it's crit.

Lottsa Choppin comes as a big help in this one as i can just run arround lashing at the little critters before they reach Dralel, and Charge! helps a lot when the thing knocks me back all the way to Burkina Faso and i have to run back ASAP to keep killing the adds.

On a side note, i love doing this boss with a Chosen, because i can let pass an ocasional spider and not worry about it because the Chosen's DPS aura will take care of it when the little one gets to his momma.

To be honest, the best part of this boss is after it's dead and we head back. I always just stand there and look at Sara trying to get out of the cave because she ALWAYS tries to exit through one of the fake holes on the wall that have big pillars of light coming out of them. Every time we kill Dralel she starts bitching about the Darkpromise Footwraps that never drop, and then she starts running against a wall, like a moth attracted to a lightbulb haha. there's also the now-so-classic "FUCK!" when she finally realizes that she's doing it again :P

All in all it seems that i spam a lot... well... i do. But whenever i say "spam" i don't mean just hit "4" untill the boss drops. My usual "spam cycle" for PVE mainly consists of a mix of Can't Stop Da Chop (my regular cookie cutter), Furious Choppin(for some added heals) and Go For Da Soft Spot(whenever i'm behind a boss), and i ocasionaly squeeze some other stuff in there just to be colourfull.

Anyway, that's that people.

Cheers.

Bring forth thy DoTs

I get a lot of visits from Washington and California. And I had someone from Brighton here! Aussum! Never been, but its in some of my Rankin readings. Lots from Denmark too. Makes me miss the broodparents. (You know who you are!)

So, Darkdeadly invited me to a ToVL run he was having. They had apparently been wiping on the 5th boss and needed an extra healer to help out. Lil' old me had only done the first 2 ToVL bosses so far but I offered to help out to the best of my ability. After they insisted I should have Superior Wards for it I broke down one of my 2 Warlord Crests to buy an Invader helmet and get to 4/5 Sup wards. All the good it did me, I don't think I ever got hit except on purpose.

Anyways, by the end of the night we were stumping on the final boss. First we were doing well but not quick enough and he was enraging, then with only one tank, we started wiping and after much blaming on my heals (no, I wasn't actually healing for 300, my HoTs were, actual heals were around 3k but who the fuck is coutning anyway) we had Semor come and help out and, lo and be utterly amazed, we still failed.

I'm not the best healer, I've said that countless times and I am also severely miss geared but, personally, I blame the tank. But I don't give a shit, I got mah second Glyph! \0/ Nau I haz 2.

Seeing as I had to respec to single target and buy the AP ritual (apparently, this together with the stagger is quite useful in ToVL. I wouldn't know cuz I've been there just twice and if you can do it without a zelly, you can do it without those 2 skills), I got poor again. Something always comes up to slice my finances down the middle.

So I hoped on Dex to try and farm a few city dungeons for curios. I had shelved Dex for a while because I had full Invader in the bank. Yes, I shelved him because of the good gear I had for it. It's just that I was going to take so long to get there I lost my motivation. It's dealing fair enough damage over time but still lacking in stopping power, aka, not enough deathblows. I'm thinking of trying to get some Darkpromise for it while I get to Invader but, by God, I'm scared of going LV with him and watching Zealot drops while not on the donkey. I just know they will.

As of yesterday, Dextrose is rr47 so it's not that far from his first Invader pieces anyway. As I am kinda hoping for the patch to hit and boost my Leaping Alteration and favourite ritual (i like it because its cast time is lower, you hate it because it doesn't give AP) I might start playing Dex more often now. That and its less stressful. I don't have to worry about what EVERY destro is doing around me all the time.

I even defended IC after I promised mysef I wouldn't bother until the patch came. We had an unusual combination of a Rift, Changing (me) and Havoc Magi so, even while being farmed, I had a good time. Eventually Order came 1VP short of locking and we all /loled at them in the end. Good times.

After that, we took the opportunity to lock some zones so I roamed around in a good PUG for a while, which is how I finally dinged. Looking back, I can sure tell the difference between being Annihilator geared (I was in it for the longest time) and my new Sent/Conq mix, especially on keep mobs. Before, they took quite a while to die, now... they don't. Looking forward to my Invader now.

Nothing too interesting today, expect the rest of the LV guide when my lockout ends and I find a good group to breeze through it. Any volunteers?

Zealot's Guide to Lost Vale: Left Wing

For your learning pleasure, I took part in one of the most god-awful runs ever. Just to take notes, of course, as nothing ever drops for me. Oh wait, something did drop. Two more belts, me now having 3 of those and a pair of gloves. Ain't I joyous. The run wasn't bad cuz we had a bad group. The run was bad because we barely had a group at all. I found a BO, a Choppa, a Shaman, a Sorc and a WE (f u Shadowlost, giving Kill Frenzy a bad name). You will note the absence of an OT. I did. But I was alone in my worries so I let it rest.

Long story short, the WE misteriously disappeared after the first boss (we found a BG to help out but he left after the left wing was done), the Sorc had to go tend to his/her daughter, the Shaman logged off mostly at the same time so I managed to find another Choppa (the so far ever-patient Bösewicht, which has been in another fail-run with me before) and Gwaan, our main and only tank, brought a Squigster and another Shammy from his guild WOLF HOUNDS. We managed to complete the first wing and clear the path to the third boss of the second.

But let's get to the Zealot part of this post.

(NOTE: whatever I call "Gors" might not be Gors at all. They might be... Ungors or some centaur-like thingy. They go unga unga so I call them "Gors".)

Tactics: again, same as before. Discipline, Subtlety, Restorative Burst and Blessing of Chaos.

Morales: Tzeentch's Talon, Eye of Sheerian, Divine Protection, Alter Fate or whatever. I don't really care for morale 4's for Zealots. I think they're, most of them, crap. If you disagree please show me the light as I am currently very disapointed in them. Needless to say, have your selfres up for bosses and be sure to die away from their spawn point and advise everyone to die quickly if you're gonna wipe.

Ok, make sure everyone has been there before and, if not, make sure they have the Blood of the Vale quest that Hellebron in the Palace gives.

Buff up but don't bother mounting up. You take a few steps in and, in the distance, you'll see an Elf going something like "OMFGWTFISCHASINGMEGETITOFF!" and then a big worm thing pops out. No big tactic here, just heal through it and it'll go away. People new with the quest, go back to deliver it and get the next bit.

Beginning of left wing, kill a few scorpions, a few Gors, heal right through all that crap until you come to the lake. The big lizard boss should be right there in the middle. You should stand next to the boulder that has a shard behind it. You can even stand on top of it.

Lake Lizard

Be sure to keep your tank(s) hoted and just heal through the sucker. Throw a Morale 1 at it as soon as you can, so it goes down faster, and possibly a Harbinger of Doom too. Choppas deal Corporeal damage, if I'm not mistaken. Crucial though, someone has to pick up the ads it spawns. It's not that they hit super hard but, if no one picks them, you inadvertadly will and will be setback until forever. Be sure to Embrace the Warp if that happens to hold you up while someone takes care of them. Alternatively, Zizzy (can I call you Zizzy? Sure I can) advises you to u se your Morale 3 if you pick them adds up. Should hold you for a while longer but not forever, believe you me.

After the boss, someone take the shard on the left side of the clearing (just don't let it be a WE) and then up the stairs. Beware here. These stairs can wipe. The rest of you must always go for anything with "Pleasure" in their names first, as they add a bunch to your cast-time. There are more shards around, keep an eye out. Pretty soon you're up the stairs and on to another clearing filled with trash gors or whatever and the next boss. Clear the trash.

Big Angry Cloud Boss

The way this sucker works is that he'll always go for anyone who steps on a pink cloud he spawns. And he'll spawn plenty. What I usually do is that I have everyone but the MT standing on a rock (the first big rock in the clearing, before the tent) and the MT drags the beast to stand real near the rock, with its back turned to us. Note: The front part of the rock, not the side or he'll just reset. The DPS can reach it there but clouds don't spawn there. Another viable place is the tent further on. It has a log near it. I usually avoid the tent because people tend to get stuck coming down from it. I've also stuck the boss there once too so, pick your poison. How I ended up doing it the last time though was prolly the most dangerous way. The MT was just running around trying to touch purple clouds while I stood very still and tried not to move just in case it spawned a cloud around me. Eventually the MT died but the OT was sporting a S&B too so it wasn't too bad. Nuke it.

Pass the trunk bridge, make sure ppl are delivering the quest if need be. You'll come to a path filled with spider and spider eggs. You can either have a rdps destroy the eggs from afar or stand near them and they'll spawn lil' spiders. If you've been wiping somewhat destroy some eggs so it'll be easier for ppl to run back *shudder*. Spiders are fairly easy to heal through so just slap down a ritual, a Leaping Alteration and you can even Demon Spittle and Rite of Agony them. There are more shards hidden behind rocks and one near the ledge right at the beggining, to the right I think. There are also two in the corridor filled with eggs. You can spawn two or three eggs at a time and AoE them to death. Kill spiders, push forward. You'll get to a clearing filled with harpies. Clear trash. Selfres on.

Slaanesh Cutie

Stand near the trunk. It the tank is tanking it against the pillar, stand near the front of the trunk, if he's tanking it on the side, near the ramp you came from, stand on the side of the tree trunk. Tank and spank, nuke it. All it does is knockback once in a while as far as I can remember. Oh yeah, some adds do spawn. I don't remember them but I remember looting them in the end. ^_^. Same deal as with the first boss, Morale 3 if you pick them up until the Choppa shreds them. Get loot (or don't if you're anything like me. All I ever get is Heart of Lolololyougetnothinggood).

Use the shards (they're in the quest inventory, just right click them) near the big pillar. You just need 10 to spawn the quest ghost thingy and now you should all have the torch. In the cave to the left is the reason why I started these guide thingies in the first place.

Dralel, the ICritYouToDeath Spider

Clear all the trash in the room. The way this is usually done is: When you get in, Dralel should be in front of you. There's a recess to the right of her with a ramp leading to a blue light. You tank her there. Well, not you, he/she/it/tank-like-thing. Oh and, don't jump off the ledge to get to said ramp. I've seen lot of people get stuck on those rocks. Once she's in position, place yourself with your back to the rock to the left of the ramp, facing the blue light. Your camera will probably weird out (I, at least, feel claustrophobic). Make sure everyone has the torch in their hotbar.

So here's what I've been meaning to tell you all along. Swap out a tactic (I take out Blessing of Chaos) and slot in Waves of Chaos. And here's a rundown of how the boss battle should go.

• First thing she does is a general knockback. Everyone gets knocked back and snared. That's what the torch is for. You have to use it to be able to move again. She will instantly aggro the first person to use the torch so make sure the MT is quick to use it so you can do it right after.
• She will not move from her spot instantly so the tank has to work hard to get her into position.
• Any AoE dps and your Ritual must be on lil' spider detail. Every little spider that reaches the big one gives it a 5% damage buff.
• Once the spider is on the ramp, place the ritual on the ramp behind it (around where I'm standing in the picture), so that it catches any stray spiders that get past the dps. Some spiders will also come up from behind you so use your Rite of Agony when they do. If you have a Chosen, have it use its damage aura. Spiders only have around 50~100 hp.
• This is not a DPS race its a lil spider race. Last time I did it, Dralel had a 25% damage buff on her when she died and we still managed it without much difficulty.

An AP banner here will work wonders since you have to keep healing and using your AoE dmg. As long as you keep the tank hoted between big heals, and kill any spiders as they're about the reach the big one, you should be fine.

If the thing would've dropped the boots for me I could be sporting +8% crit heal. But nooo, phantom Marauder got them or something.

So tired of this spider, I swear...

Screw you with a stick, Shadowlost

AKA, "Preamble to LV guide: Setting up a party", alternatively "The Run-back Curse: The Beginning". I go with the more insulting, personal one cuz I started this damn thing I can insult whomever I want. Long live the interwebs.

Aforementioned Witch Elf is probably a nice person. I wouldn't know because he/she/it has ragequit on me twice in LV, on the same exact place so we never got to bond. I have the feeling it only needs stuff from the first boss and when it's done it leaves us hanging for a dps.

With this in mind, here's a short list of things to make sure you have when you embark on that sad sad journey that LV can be. If you're lucky and it isn't sad, it ain't the most thrilling thing in the world either.

• Don't have a Shadowlost WE in you party, destro Nornites. It will only give you grief. It'll collect the shards and then leave after the first boss.
• Be wary of Shamans. People who play them tend to be very fickle and a have a very short temper. Excellent candidates for rage-quitting.
• DoKs are nice because their heals are quicker and they themselves are quick. Most DoK players are trigger-happy so they tend to keep moving.
• Have an OT. At least for the right wing. There's a boss with a gobbo that is almost impossible with just the one tank and million choppas.
• Be sure to resolve any loot issues ahead of time if you have more than one of the same career in your party.
• Make sure everyone has at least 2 hours to spare for each wing you propose to do. It's harder to find replacements because nobody wants to start a run from the middle of a wing.
• Apart from needing on dyes, make sure you all agreed on the loot rules of repairable Remnant equipment.

Next time, expect a post about LV's left wing from a Zealot point of view. Granted, it wasn't the best run to take notes but, alas, I take the runs I'm given and am gifted with extraordinary patience.
Seriously.

Left my banner in El Segundo

And someone got it. An Order something starting with an L.
What happened was as follows.

After a tormentuous climb full of blood, sweat and tears I finaly gripped that final rocky ledge of rr56. Took me a week for one measly rr. So I decided to actively go looking for fights.

And so it was that, last night, after a few fails against several bombsquads, I found myself hoping from BO to BO hoping to secure Praag's Domination lock. Mike had gone to bed already so, as I was camped in Martyr's Square with my leech banner, I decided to log his Choppa in so he could earn a little renown while he slept. Isn't that what true love is after all?

Two minutes to go. Me and a few more jumped randomly around the flag, counting the seconds.
One minute to go. Just as a percautionary measure I slap down a ritual with Waves of Chaos around us to spot any eventual Witch Hunter.
Thirty seconds to go. Two people leave the BO, out of boredom perhaps. I don't understand why cuz they lost the Field of Glory buff or whatever it is that gives you 100% more renown or 150%... or something.
Twenty-two seconds to go. The first Bright Wizard gets rendered in the distance. "Son of a sack filled with dirty whores", I thought. "Need help at Martyr's", I typed. But not much help came. To their credit most of the people leeching did come. There just wasn't many of us at 3am.

Still we fought hard but we were just stragglers, all things considered, and we were up against 12 tight-knit players that beat the crap out of us over and over again.

However the "one-of-their-tanks+me" combo was not without merit, as a strategic Knockback made me immune to melee attacks for some 2 minutes. Time enough for me to res a couple of sorcs and healers up to my position and finally drive them from the BO. After we lost it, of course. And after my banner was stolen.

So after this debockle we went around to try and protect other BOs from further attacks. We found them, eventually but again we failed and we all decided this was a good time to turn in, while we still had some of our pride left.

During the day, when we have some good things happening, alliance Warbands close themselves up. God knows I understand them but some valid players are left headless-chickening around always one step behind. Oh well, I have myself to blame for my loyalties. :)

On an interesting side-note, I went to T1 on Ehone the other day, trying to find a good place for Undead farming (for the Undead Tome Tactic) and I noticed some of our guildies were leveling some T1 alts. So I told them to make a WB, make me an assitant in it and roll out to the lake. I, having since given up on the whole farming business, parked myself on Ch2's PQ (you know the one by the cliff with all the ppl with the rifles) and res the masses.

Thus was the setting in which we discovered this wonderful BG called Wraith-something. Let's call him Wraithfail. Wraithfail started following me becase, and I quote: "I saw you ride by". Apparently he'll chase anything with a skirt that "rides by". The WB leader didnt want to lead anymore so the party hat fell to me. Wraithfail proceeded to yelling "GIEV ME LAEED1!!eleven!!" I responded with a kick. "ESCUSE ME!" he said after he joined back. "Oh, I'm sorry. I pressed the wrong button." And he apparently believed me. After some more rambling about how awesome he was and random "You're in a scenario, lol"s I kicked him again. "EXSUSE ME, HELLO!1!" he said upon reentering. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me today, always pressing the wrong things." Dude replied with "well, you could stop clicking my name for starters" and I replied with another kick. He came back, of course. But at this point guildies had come back to proper tiers and I left them to do whatever. T'was fun that bit, goes to show you can always find entertainment in lower tiers.

Have a pretty flamer picture that has nothing to do with anything.

Zealot's Guide to Bilerot Burrows

So after you fall off the edge of the city and make your way back to the Monolith (we've all done that, one time or another) you get into BB.

First of all, every now and then a "PLAYER starts to feel (or seem) very sick!" That player has to gag or they'll be out of AP in no time. To gag you need to press a button that appears near your granted abilities (like Zealot Marks that I'm sure nobody ever uses).

Same tactics and Morales as above (or below), use whatever linis you want. For this dungeon I like to keep my Mark of Remaking up most of the time. First trash you'll deal with are slugs that can add about 2secs to every cast time. Even morales. I keep it up just in case tanks are just a bit too squishy and can't hold them through the long cast times. Just try and stay away from the slugs to avoid getting that curse/hex/whatever. I believe that, at the bottom of the first ramp you should take out the small nurglings to the left before you pul the mobs in front. Otherwise they all aggro and its too much to handle. Also, I believe there's an armour or toughness debuff that keeps getting put on the tanks that starts stacking up. If so, keep removing it. It may seem like it's bugged and that they always have something to remove. Keep casting Glimpse of Chaos just in case.

Every now and then you'll get a "doggie time" from the MT. This means that he'll pull a big nasty Plaguebeast that supposedly looks like a dog (I don't see it). From what I can remember the tanks Xguard, melee stands back, ranged Doombolt/Plink/Flickering Red Fire it. NO DOTS! Not ever. No freakin DOTS. Unless you're all Warlorded and just doing it for shits and giggles.

Also, there are some tall thingies (that's what I call them, I dunno what they're caled. They're tall, green and come in groups of 2) that can wipe you if you overpull. Don't fret its normal.

I'm not 100% sure about which boss comes first and I'm always too far to catch their names. Try and make your party wait for your selfres especially if you feel the party usually has their common health below 60% through trash fights.

Boss with a pet Nurgling

Don't kill the Nurgling, nuke the boss. Easy. They usually kill this one before I even realise its a boss we're fighting.

Ssrydian Morbidae
You have the kill all the doggies in the room where this guy is before you take him on. Tank and Spank, don't hold back. Never had a problem with it.

Boss that spawns Nurglings
There's a tooth outside the room. Some ppl like to have their healers stand on it. I prefer to have a Dissolving Mist or a Surging Pain taking care of the adds and let the healers stand wherever they want. Focus and do your best and have your selfres on. Should be fine.

The Great Unclean One

Have selfres. Tricky boss but not that hard. What you have to do is to find a happy medium between proximity (so your heals can still reach the tanks) and distance. Distance because he spawns Diseased Grounds on the... ground. You'll need to have your graphics on at least medium to see them. But you'll know if he spawns one under you if you start getting repeatedly hit. Further warning, if there's a Magus with you, stay away from its Daemon as the boss is likely to spawn a pool under it too. Also, if the nurglings he eventually spawns go for you, try and stand on a Dissolving Mist so they die or pass by the Magus or Sorc so they can pick them up. You have to keep moving and stay away from those pools. When the boss is almost down he'll swallow you all up. Keep group-healing through the loading screen. This is crucial. Some people die on impact inside the thing. Keep healing in the innards until you're spat out again. Again, groupheal through the loading screen. With any luck, no-one died inside (if they did, there's no way to reach them. Ever again. They have to respawn) and no one died on the spitting out part. Boss should be down quickly after that. So, main points on this boss.

• Avoid the pools. Keep moving.
• Have the AoE dps of choice grab the nurglings or they'll set you back until forever.
• Groupheal through the loading screens.
• If you feel you're about to wipe, be sure to die away from the boss's original spawn point so the selfres is actually useful.

If I forgot something or a whole Boss even (highly likely) let me know.

So, it should be done, you should have, with any luck, at least one new Sentinel shinie.

And, to wrap it all off, have some gratuitous finnish swearing and a very tired mailbox.