Classic!

That's right everybody, Blackbare is now a Classic Dungeonmaster!

Alright, maybe for a level 80 it isn't the most difficult task to complete, but before going for the achievement I had only been to maybe half of the instances the original game had to offer, but now I have seen them all, and I think I can understand why people are so drawn to it.

My first character I got to level 60 was my rogue, and this was before the first expansion, so I had a chance to run a few of the end game instances. My experience with it wasn't too great. Being a rogue it was very difficult to find a group, as there was never a shortage of DPS characters needing groups.

Now I get to see them in sort of a different light. Sure I can blow through them really quick on my own, but trying to think about what it would be like for a group of level 60's trying to make their way through one of those instances makes it very interesting.

I'm able to skip so many mobs, the loot doesn't matter, and the bosses go down easily for me. An instance like BRD was just so big, I can't imagine working my way through it at that level. I really can see why instances have become more and more streamlined starting with the first expansion. They were big and epic before, but just took too much time for me to want to run through them constantly.

Next up, time to get my hunter ready to solo Heroic Underbog, or get a better attempt in at least. She'll be questing in the Storm Peaks first, then moving on to Icecrown if her turtle pet hasn't hit 80 by then. The new patch just decreased the amount of experience for a pet to gain a level too, so this should go more quickly than it was.

Besides that, I plan on taking my druid to the new Heroic instances with my guild, and hopefully get some crazy gear out of it. Blackbare has really become my instance guy, and the funny part is that since we have such a good tank in the guild that leads us through, I end up running everything in cat form as DPS. Not really what I expected his role to be, but hopefully I can eventually get an off-spec set and go boomkin as my dual spec. Oh that would be sweet. I wouldn't mind trying healing either at some point.

Retro WoW

So in the process of going for the Classic Dungeon Master achievement, I also joined my guild and a few others for a run of Blackwing Lair. It was quite the experience, and now I know that I would have never been able to raid in vanilla WoW.

The group itself wasn't bad. We had some well geared people who knew the instance, and the rest were just along for the ride. The first hickup we had was attunement. Sure you don't have to be attuned anymore, but without it you have to run through UBRS to get in. We decided to just become attuned.

Well we eventually did it, but only after I got stuck along with two others at one part behind a gate that apparently doesn't open after the boss is killed. So we had to get summoned back and run back through the instance. One player even fell into the lava in Blackrock Mountain and we pretty much left him to catch up with us.

So we're all attuned and make our way into BWL. This is quite the instance. Lots of different mechanics for the boss fights. With 11 level 80s we didn't really have much trouble with the fights, it was the other players we had problems with.

One of them pretty much singlehandedly held up the party for a good half hour or more as he had died in the instance, released (after we told him not to), and came back, only to be killed by respawns from the first boss' room. When we went back to rez him his body was nowhere to be found, and so he had to run back again.

This wouldn't be so bad, except that he didn't get attuned somehow, so the run back wasn't just to the beginning of BWL, but to UBRS, and then you have to run through that to the entrance to BWL. It was quite the ordeal, and all I could do was sit there and wish we hadn't waited for him.

It got me thinking about the 40-man raids people used to do at level 60, and the horror stories I heard about them. With all the troubles we had with just one person out of 11, I don't know how the 40-man groups ever made it. Sure if it was all in the guild you probably are all on the same page, but even then there are hold ups, and after this weekend I really don't think I'd have the patience for stuff like that.

In the end we got through it, but it took an hour and a half, and I went into it expecting to spend less than an hour. At least I can cross that off the list of old world content I want to see that I never got the chance to before.

Next up: finish the last few dungeons for the Classic Dungeonmaster achievement. I tried BRD with my friend this weekend as well, but we got lost, as neither of us has done it before, so I think we might have to use a walkthrough. We're n00bs...

Can't fight it

I knew I'd be drawn back into this game at some point. For a while there I was just questing every so often when I really had nothing better to do, but I now find myself with more goals to accomplish that are actually attainable for me.

First off, I want to beat all the classic dungeons. Right now I'm working my way through everything but the level 60 stuff, and the last ones I need are Sunken Temple and Zul Farrack, which will be easy enough for an 80 druid. Next up comes level 60 5-man content, which should also be easy to solo. Luckily I've already done all of Dire Maul, that place took forever, I don't know how people did it in vanilla WoW.

Last on the list would be the raid content. At this point I'm not sure how this will go at my level. Can I solo it? Do I need help? And how much help do I need? Anybody experienced with this that has some advice?

Next up is getting epic flying for all my 80s, which is just going to take lots of money, so that goal is pretty straightforward.

Last on the list at this point is getting a Cenarion War Hippogryph for my hunter. This will require running the Coilfang Reservoir instances on Heroic a lot, and I expect I won't be able to get help every time, and I can't do it myself with what I have right now, so I am working on making my hunter good enough to solo it.

How am I doing that, you may ask? Well first I switched to a tenacity pet for the better survivability. Before I had used a core hound, but now I brought out the turtle. Only problem is I need to level it up to 80 now, so I just plan on questing more. More money for me and XP for my turtle at the same time.

I also crafted the entire PvP hunter set with my druid and sent it over. Took a while to farm all that leather, but now that it's done I have the recipes to be able to deck out my shaman in the same gear when she hits 80. Sure it's not quite as good as stuff you'll pick up running instances, but it should do.

I'm hoping that will be enough, but right now I have no idea. I could very well finish all these tasks and then enter the instance, only to find out I still can't take it solo.

That being said, I think I might start blogging regularly again, so keep a look out!