hellfire ramparts, done, done and done.

…I thought I was done with Ramparts when I had the belt and the bracers, but then I grouped up with another druid for Blood Furnace and she had the pretty Ursol’s Claw strapped to her back. Naturally I asked her where she got it and, of course, my Cartographer loot information doesn’t say what’s in the chest after downing Nazan and Vazruden.

After a few more empty runs, I’d even resigned myself to not getting it and instead went to grind rep with Sporeggar to get the Staff of the Wild from the “Now That We’re Friends…” quest.

But tonight, after grouping with the intention of doing The Furnace but ended up back in Ramps because of sheer, unashamed laziness at the distance from the meeting stone, it finally dropped. There. I hope I never have to see the inside of that damn instance again. Seriously.

Unlike the first time going through Outland with Anj and Alysha, when it was pure questing to get the most from the rest time, the instance-heavy route is gearing up Wintersong quite well. :D

i’m new to heroics, how is my driving? seriously, i have no feet.

Having spent a fair amount of time being slightly scared of what might become of me should I enter a heroic instance, I took the plunge yesterday and joined a group of people for the (drum roll) Daily Heroic Quest in Hellfire Ramparts. Being the first instance of Outland and therefore the first heroic, it seemed as good a place as any to start.

Doing instances with groups of strangers as opposed to my usual raggy-doll band of vaguely optimistic chancers is always a thousand times more stressful, any silly slip-ups are likely to be forgiven when amongst friends although I’ve heard tell of anonymous people getting way too stressed and screaming all manner of “n00b”-variants and general scattered abuse when even the smallest thing goes wrong. A guild member whispered me not more than a few days ago asking “What the hell is <other guildy name>’s problem?!” because she got silenced, couldn’t cast spells and then got yelled at. Blood pressure goes crazy, I mean it’s only a game. Some people take it far too seriously. Psh!

Still, I think it’s helpful to head off instance-wards with strangers every so often and fight that “with friends” complacency. We did pretty well, although mistake #1 for me was mis-pressing a button and setting a fire trap instead of an ice one making one encounter a little more difficult than it could have been. Mistake #2 was getting my kitty to one of the 2nd boss’s felhound pets a little too late to save our healer. That caused a wipe, red face, admissions of “my bad” and apologies were distributed and we were away again.

The final boss didn’t give us any trouble at all which was a pleasant surprise. Doing this boss at regular difficulty and well above the level requirement for the instance has still seen a wipe there but on this occasion, the guy came down, then his mount and both of them were killed pretty quickly.

All in all, I was pretty pleased that I’d finally moved up a notch in instance difficulty but still so stressed after it all that I had a little lie down. As another note, I’d completely forgetten that keys were needed to get into Heroic instances. All I’ll say for that is it’s lucky I bought the Hellfire one a few weeks earlier or would my face ever have been red at the entrance.

My secured collection of the Coilfang Reservoir (already had that one), Tempest Keep and Auchindoun heroic keys in the evening was only very slightly overshadowed by a guild member being the first to get the Karazhan Master’s Key. It shall not dull my triumph!