Boom is dead: "The Warrior Who Tanked a Server"

There are two different groups of folks who visit this blog. Those who only know me as "Boom, who plays Twenty Totems" and the rest who know me as "Boom".

While this is really a Goodbye post for everyone, it will be directed mostly towards those who knew me as "Boom". Those are my friends.

I have left WoW. The short version is why, is this: My life has been full of wonderful change recently, and now it needs my attention. WoW has been a wonderful part of my life for four years, but it's time to move on.

This means saying goodbye to my guild, my friends, and my server... Argent Dawn. I love this server. The community is fantastic, and as I'm mentioned before, they have been nothing but supportive of even Multiboxing on both sides of the fence.

My main toon, Boom, is the guild leader of For Horde. Boom is fairly well known on AD for the RP events, and PvP I've been a part of. I have a long list of wonderful friends, and knew I couldn't just log out. So I decided to stage Boom's death.

That's easy enough. Have someone march me into Stormwind, and have at it. But that's no fun... how about the last person to land damage on Boom gets 5000 Gold?

Now you're talking.



It began as I logged onto Boom at 11:15pm last night. I was already held "captive" in a stable, just SW of Goldshire. A few Alliance found me pretty early, and they seemed to know what was happening. I got the first of many /hugs, /salutes and /loves I'd get that night.



Eventually my executioner arrived with his team. Center of Renamed. I /bow'd then /surrendered to him. They were all such great sports about this. I was so excited to see how this would go. Center dismounted, along with his crew, and we all /walked towards Stormwind. I had hoped there would be alot of people when I got inside, but I was in for a shock as I approached the gates...



They were everywhere. An enormous group of flagged Alliance, all waiting for us to arrive. They quickly gathered around and started walking with us. Unfortunately, as the guards started to beat me up, I autoflagged, and I was quickly wiped out by the crowd.



The plan was to have a group of Priests Mind Control me into the square out in front of the AH, but with all the people around, the Priests just couldn't MC me fast enough. We knew this might be a problem, so I simply ran back to my corpse.



When I arrived, there were even more folks standing around. One player took a census of Stormwind during the event, and found 1000-1100 players (Alliance side only) at any given time!

I knew it would be unlikely that the priests would MC me before I died again, so I instead found a quiet corner, rezed, popped a health pot, and mounted. Then I rode into Stormwind, and got to the Tree in the square, where an even larger crowd was waiting. I'd guess I lasted 2 seconds, but that's being optimistic. :)



The image above is one of my favorites... yes... that's a Frog on the back of a Spectral Tiger Mount, leaping over the mess. (close up here)



As I ran back to my corpse a second time, I got a whisper from the last person to land damage on me in the square... Molimo of Black Phoenix, and of M L H... one of AD's greatest Arena teams. (recently featured on WoWInsider.com)

Molimo was very nice, and said "Hey, I don't know how this works, but I think I just killed you, and everyone is telling me to contact you."

I explained that the plan was to wait until Center calls for the execution, and that he'd have to get back to his toon and wait. He could of complained, but instead was very understanding, thanked me for running the event, and went back to wait with everyone else.

Just before I got to my corpse, something epic happened. No... Legendary. I found out there were two full 40man Horde raids (plus some stragglers) waiting outside Stormwind, preparing to rush in and rescue Boom. (If you're into RP, don't miss the thread about this event on the AD forums.)

Before I could rez, they stormed the city, and ran head long into the giant mob of Alliance. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in game.



Just as I thought it couldn't get any better, a third group showed up. But they were coming from the TRAM! This was unreal to see.


*Thanks to Icharus for the image

The fight was absolutely insane. While everyone was dying, I arranged to meet Center and his team of priests in a small tavern where I could rez in safety... but when I got there, no one else was there. I whispered to our mutual contact, and asked where they were. Turns out we simply couldn't see each other. That's when I noticed I couldn't rez.

I ran back out into the battle (as a ghost) and noticed everyone had stopped moving. They were all animating... some running in place, others casting etc. But they were all stuck in one place. The chat channels exploded with "WE DID IT! WE BEAT STORMWIND! BOOM IS SAVED!



Then the server died..... I'll say it again...

Legendary.

I knew then my plan was flawed, and there was no reasonable way for me to get into town, and wait for Center to start the event. There were just too many people. But I wasn't about to let 5k rot on my account, so I decided to give it to Molimo. He didn't play by my rules, but he wasn't malicious about it either. I gave it to him because he did hit me last, and was nice about it when I told him he had to do it again.

There of course was some griping on our forums by a few kids, but it didn't bother me. As I told them...

This was for fun folks. The Gold wasn't the point. It was PvP... it was RP... it was WOW. If you spend the whole time whispering others about gold, who got it, who deserved it, or whatever, you were asleep for the party. The rest of us were having a GRAND OLD TIME! ^.^ (you can read my whole response here)

A while after the server came back up, I quietly jumped on Boom one last time, told my friends goodbye, then rezed in Stormwind. This time I ran to the tree I was supposed to be at, and stood there until I was dropped by the crowd that remained.



A small group of Alliance surrounded my corpse, and all knelt together. I was so touched. Not just by that small group, but by the response from this server... MY server. So many wonderful players, all in one place. If you're ever looking for a home for a new toon, you simply can't go wrong with Argent Dawn.

Then I logged off.

I've canceled all five accounts, and I'm moving on with my life. I want to thank my friends for being exactly that.. friends. Especially when I needed them most. Thanks for the fun and the laughter. Thanks for the hard work, and the effort you put into building the greatest guild I've ever been in.

Safe travels.

For Fun... For Friends... FOR HORDE!

Boom

From Shaman to Pirate in 2.5 hours: There be Pirates here!

The Bloodsail Buccaneers. Oh don't act like you don't know who I'm talking about. You know them as well as I. You've forced them off the beaches of Stranglethorn Vale. You've fought your way onto their ships. You've passivly slain their sailors on your quest for more xp, and a few extra gold. And why? Because some stupid goblin in Booty Bay asked you to.

Maybe it was more than that. But I sincerely doubt it. Like so many other times, you chose to mindlessly slaughter those in your way, simply because someone with a yellow exclamation point over their head told you to. Bah.

The Twenty Totems are different. We do things... differently. (which is why we're so different) We, under the leadership of Thrall, seek a higher ground when choosing our fights.

Ask us to slaughter pigs and harvest their intestines? First show us guilty pigs. Tell us to poison Aldor soup? First prove to us it will actually work.

Ask us to murder countless guards in Booty Bay... First, kind sir, you must promise us a cool hat... one that summons a rare pet... and maybe throw in a sweet pirate outfit. Yeah. That would do it. FOR THE HORDE!

It's sadly true. Promise me something that looks cool, and I'll likely grind the same mob over and over, hours on end, just to look slightly cooler. Which was the first reason the Bloodsail grind intrigued me.

Second reason, came from a tiny note in a Bloodsail guide over at warcraftpets.com. Along with excellent tips and details, I found this gem...

FYI: For those who can dual-box (play two accounts at once), this grind is much faster. You can either earn Bloodsail rep with both characters (costing you twice as much to repair your Steamwheedle rep later on), or grind with just one character and use the other as a heal-bot. Just keep your healer ungrouped and she/he won't lose or gain any rep. (Of course, this option only works with healing classes.)

Hmmmm. So, if you "Dual-box", it's really easy... (/queue scary music and laugh manically)

I did some more research and learned a bit more about this grind before I got started. Here is what I learned.

The Bloodsail Buccaneers are typically passed by most players as another group of mobs you need to wipe out to clean out your quest log. But the Devs thought they'd bury a few treasures within their ranks. As it turns out, if you build up your reputation with them, they'll make you a pirate.

The pants, boots, shirt, belt and most of all, the Admiral's hat. The hat, is the real reason folks decide to join the Bloodsail Navy.

Besides being a very unique design, the hat is also the only thing in game tha can summon the Blood Parrot. I'd comment here that it's just another re-skinned parrot pet model, but come on... PIRATE HAT!

Now the only way to build up your rep with the Bloodsail Pirates is to slaughter their enemies. (seems to be a re-occuring theme in this world) So who are their enemies? Well, that would be pretty much anyone occupying Booty Bay. And right now, that's the goblins of the Steamweedle Cartel. No problem right? So what if we kill a few guards in Booty Bay?

Well, as soon as you start doing that, news will travel fast. Then you'll find it impossible to visit some of your favorite goblin hangouts. Specifically Gadgetzan, Ratchet, Everlook and of course, Booty Bay.

In the past, this was a bit of bad news for those who needed to travel.

And there are more than a few quests that are available only in those towns. And the only way to get back in the good graces of the goblins, meant a grind that was many times worse than the one to become a Pirate in the first place.

But times have changed. Outside of each of these cities you'll now find a Bloodsail Traitor, who, for the price of a few cloth, is willing to strut around the goblin towns, telling stories of how brave you are, and how you've done great things for goblin orphans, and that you've admitted publically that your... uh.. "courage" is alot smaller than any goblins. (small guys love it when you assume they're bigger than you)

After you hand over enough cloth, you'll be seen as a hero by the goblins once agian.

So now, the only real pain is the initial grind, involving the endless pull, kill, eat/drink, pull, etc. of Booty Bay Bruisers. My hopes were, that with 5 shaman, I'd be rushing through guards at a faster rate than most, and find my boys in pirate hats in the span of an evening. For once... I was right.

2.5 hours. Yup. That's it.

But it wasn't just my endless supply of whoop-ass in a can. It was also a side effect of the multiboxing grind. We very rarely quest. We spend most of our time in instances, burning through endless mobs, collecting sweet sweet blues from the bosses. So none of my shaman had done any questing out of Booty Bay, (they didn't even have the flight path yet) so my standing with the Bloodsail Pirates wasn't all that bad to start with. WOOT!

Using the guide from Warcraftpets, I initially setup by the blacksmith shop, and attempted to take advantage of the "endless spawn" that the writer told me to avoid. She was assuming I was there alone. I wasn't. I brought twenty totems.

I killed the first guard, but he didn't come back. So I moved a bit further in town, and killed somemore. Suddenly, I was surrounded by a sea of Bruisers. I discovered very quickly that these guys had the potential to kill me if I wasn't careful. So I simply focused my fire on the lowest one, and used CL whenever it was up.

A couple times I'd pull too many guards at once, start to get low, then simply pulled out five Fire Elementals, which promptly put them all to bed. That was always fun, and drew a small crowd each time.

I found two spots that worked fairly well, which I've illustrated below.

Here I planted my main where the Bruiser spawned, and left the rest of my team at a safe distance, insuring I didn't trigger a mass spawning.

Whenever the guard would stop spawning at the blacksmith, I'd simply turn around and camp at this spot on the ramp towards the dock. This would also trigger a short burst of bruisers for a while.

But to be honest, I should of simply kept moving further into town, stopping every time a large guard group was pulled. I don't doubt that if I did this again, I could of knocked another hour off my time. (let me know if you can do it quicker than I have)

After I hit friendly with the Bloodsails, I headed over to "Pretty Boy" Duncan, who sent me to Fleet Master Firallon on one of the ships off the eastern coast. There, I got my free pirate outfit, and a quest to kill 2 quest givers at the top of the Booty Bay Inn.

It took longer then I expected to fight my way there. For you hordies, I would suggest simply riding up to Grom'gol (be sure you have the Booty Bay flight path) and fly into BB. You'll be attacked by a bruiser or two when you land, but it won't be anything you can't handle. After that, the two npcs you have to knock off, are right next to your flight master.

After that, you head back and collect your Pirate Booty. (hehe... booty)

Luckily, there aren't alot of reasons to go back to the goblin towns now that you're hated. But if you really feel a need to talk to the goblins again, 200g-300g worth of mats will put you back in their good graces. And that's what, 2 days of dailies?

pfft.

For now, I could care less what the Steamweedle Cartel things of the Twenty Totems.

They didn't promise me a cool hat.

Boom

This is What Multiboxing Looks Like

You know... I've never been quiet about the fun involved in showing off 5 Shaman at once, or 20 Totems for that matter. Or 5 dancing puppies, or 5 chain heals or whatever. It's cool looking. It's hilarious. It's fun. There's just something ridiculous about that many totems on the screen at one time.

Now I've seen my twenty totems on screen about 4 billion times at this point. But I simply wasn't prepared for our new "Family Photo" we took on Saturday.

Twenty Totems is proud to announce the names of our final two members. Torstien and Belec.

As you can see from our Armory listing, we are now 20 Shaman strong. Don't strain yourself, I'll do the math for you... that's 80 totems. BLAM!



Oh, and this is 20 Puppies. Who doesn't love 20 Puppies! We totally need to change our guild name to that.

We gathered for the first time outside of Orgrimmar. Turns out there are other people who use the front of Org (go figure) and at least one of them is a 12 year old guild leader, who thinks its funny to run his mount through our group for about 20mins until his rather mature guild member (a nice rogue I can't remember his name) convinced him to simply let us take our screenshots. Thanks rogue! If you want to be in a guild with decent people, you're welcome to come join For Horde.



After we got our front door shots, we decided to have a dance party. But come on! You can't have any decent kind of party outdoors in that weather! So we looked for a good place to "Drop Totem" and party down... So we lit up the AH. :) It was fun for us, and a good way to punish the heretics who insist on playing WoW with crappy video cards.



I know leveling 5 Shaman to 70 blows sauce. (moldy sauce at that) So I was really encouraged to see all 3 new members burn their groups up to 24+ in the first couple days. And while they admit it's not that fun, we all agreed that after getting together, we can't wait to do it at 70.

There are so many thing we want to try. MC, ZG, Kara, PvP both BG and World. There are just so many fun things ahead of us, and I truly believe I found the perfect 3 people to join me. Thanks again guys.

Boom

PS. I want to apologize to the poor shaman who kept following us around, and struggled to get /cast multishaman to work after I insisted that's how we did it. >.< /evilgrin

Ask the Twenty Totems: Some basics

Beyond the comments, you'd be surprised how many emails I get. Many are still waiting for me to have time to respond. I assure you, I'll get to them all.

I was answering one this afternoon and realized I was creating useful content for a single person, when instead I could post my replies here for all to enjoy, absorb and shoot down (when I'm completely wrong).


So here we go. Our first letter is from Goodie.

Hello,

Hi.

I play a dwarf rogue on Nordrassil, and have gotten quite bored with the game, and I'm looking into multiboxing, and I was wondering about a few things.

Sure! Wasup?

Question one: is it possible to multibox without buying more than one computer? As in, having one screen open, and being able to click the buttons on one WoW character, and have the same abilities activated on the minimized window. (not sure if thats clear, if it isn't, please tell me and I'll try to not get so jumbled)

You sure can. As a matter of fact, I run 5 accounts on 3 machines. On the two machines that each run two accounts at once, I could simply minimize one as you suggest, or better yet, use a program called Maximizer, which allows me to split my screen in two, and have one copy running on the top half of my screen, and another on the bottom. There's more info at www.dual-boxing.com... just search the forums there.


Question two: is it possible to multibox with two different types of character, I was thinking shaman and paladin.

Multiboxing is just sending key presses to multiple copies of WoW. It doesn't care what toons you use, which class etc. However, you only really control the movements of your main toon, while the rest follow. That means that while your main can be a melee class (like your Pally), your "drones" need to be ranged DPS/Healing to work well. A Tankadin/Elemental Shaman group is actually pretty common. (if you're a coward of course... DPS4LIFE!)


Question three: if the first two are possible, is it possible to do them on my macbook? (no, I am not a gamer, and so I don not have a gaming computer)

On a what now? :) While I don't game on a Mac, I'm actually a huge Apple fan. However, I don't know exactly what programs are available to you on Mac. I know you can use Synergy, but I don't know about broadcasting your keystrokes to WoW. Maybe someone can answer this in the comments this week.

If not, just type "Mac" into the forums over at dual-boxing.com and you're sure to find the answers there.


Thanks for your help,
Goodie

Hey... I'm here for you. Just you. And well... the other person that reads my blog. /yell HI MOM!

Boom

80 Totems: The position is filled

Well, I have to be honest... I was overwhelmed by the response to my last post. I asked for other multiboxers to submit an application to me, if they'd like to level up 5 Shaman with the Twenty Totems tag.

After going through each and every PM, I narrowed it down to two players who seemed to be a good fit for our little Shaman project.

Twenty Totems now has 20 Shaman! When I checked this morning, the three other groups were at level 20/23/28ish. That's amazing. We'll have an army of lvl70 Shaman in no time! :)

I'm hoping to get a screenshot with everyone this Saturday, at which time I'll post it here, and introduce each group. Check back Saturday!

Boom

Twenty Totems Gets a Bit Hotter

I know many multiboxers take up the hobby as a way to separate themselves from other players. It works. Once you get your gear moving, even with 5 shaman there's very little in game I can't do outside of 10+ man instances. Even Heroics.

But I'm not one of those boxers. I love playing with other people. That's probably why you're more likely to find me in a BG or clearing out Goldshire than by myself in an instance somewhere.

It's true I run one of the largest guilds on Argent Dawn (www.forhorde.org) but because I wanted my boys to wear the tag, I'm rarely in guild chat anymore.

But I've been pretty happy with my setup so far.

This week, a Dual-Boxing.com regular, Zaedra, sent me a PM. She's been leveling a 3x Gnome Warlock team (yes yes, I know... Boom's favorite) and just acquired 2 new accounts. Most of her friends are on Alliance, but she shares the same love of AD Horde players as I do.

After a bit of negotiation, I welcomed her 5 new Troll Shamans into Twenty Totems.

Welcome Zaedra!
(and grats on lvl10 btw. That's 10 totems, with 10 more to go!)

Our hopes are that as she levels to 70, we'll be able to attempt even crazier things with 10 Shaman, than what I've been able to accomplish so far with 5.

This got me thinking. What if I welcomed in 2 more players, 5 shaman each. 80 Totems anyone? :) Half of an AV... a full multiboxed AB or EotS. Maybe we could clear Molten Core together. The possibilities are endless.

So here's the deal. If you are a multiboxer, and would like to roll 5 shaman, horde side, on one of the greatest servers this game has to offer, I'd be interested in giving you a home in TT. I only ask that you be 21 or older, have at least a few months of multiboxing under your belt, and come with an understanding that you're gonna get to 70 on your own. I'm not offering you any help. Just a home, and a hell of a cool tag under your shaman's names. (if I may gloat. :)

If you're interested, PM me over at www.dual-boxing.com

For now, I'm just glad to have Zaedra around, and look forward to the possibilities.

Multiboxing Alterac Valley: Earning My Hammers

As any of the Armory trolls can tell you, the Twenty Totems have been running around in some pretty embarrassing gear. Hey, ya gotta start somewhere right? The worst being my weapons. Mainly the boys were still sporting the Azure Lightblade, a healing dagger from a quest in Nagrand of all places. Yes, the stupid thing has only 48 spell damage, and I'd be an Alliance Pally (total idiot) to actually enchant those things. So I didn't.

So when I started PvP this last weekend, I had one goal in mind. 25,200 honor. That, and 20 Eye of the Storm Marks, would finally get me my Gladiator's Gavels. Now THAT'S worth enchanting. :) Speaking of, now that we (as enchanters) can merge 3 small prismatic shards into 1 large, I had just enough mats to enchant all 5 Gavels with Major Spellpower. (for the bean counters, that's about 1500g in enchanting mats based on AD prices. My wallet hurts.)



The 25k honor didn't turn out to be the problem. It was the tokens. I hate EotS. As I've discussed here before, any BG besides AV, due to the number of players, is really rough on multiboxers. But I wanted my maces. I tried two matches, and lost huge, and got screamed at by my own team. (of course) I had to try something different.

I decided it was time to hit the trade channel and ask for pvpers. I got two. Both of whom ended up running MANY rounds with me. I warned them up front that I was running EotS, and that we would be losing today. We never lost once. I'll go into the strategies we discovered in another article, another time.



Not only did I get my maces yesterday, but I also realized each Shaman had about 30 Alterac Valley Tokens IN THE MAIL. That means they each had 100 in their inventory. So I decided it was time to change mounts, and grab one of Thrall's. (Thrall was the War Chief of the Frostwolf Clan... learn2lore noob)

I want to thank the players who jumped in and went pvp'n with the Twenty Totems on Sunday. I have their names written down at home somewhere, and I'll post them when I find them.

They helped me realize that with a little communication, AV doesn't have to be me only source of pvp fun. Heck, maybe I'll sneak back into WSG someday soon...


By the way

The very talented Boylston over at Lightning Overload (one of my favorite multiboxing blogs) wrote up an excellent BG guide for multiboxers. Check it out here. It's worth the read.

Multiboxing Escape from Durnholde: Thrall's Pissed

As I've noted before, I'm currently further ahead in game than I am here on the blog. In "reality", I've already hit 70, conquered wow and won the intertubes. But I took notes and screen shots along the way, and I plan to share those missing stories with you.

This... is one of those stories. (Queue Scary Door music)



Please find enclosed, per your request, 5 humans. Blond hair, rugged good looks and terrible porn star mustaches. Why? Cause the Bronze Dragonflight thinks Thrall will freak out if 5 level 70 Orc Shaman come rescue him... so they made us look like Bo Duke. That should put his mind at ease.

There's a pretty cool story behind Old Hillsbrad, which is the instance we're going to talk about today. If you've read the book Lord of the Clans by Christie Golden, you know this story already. For those who haven't, allow me to recap.

Thrall was captured when he was a baby. His parents were on Azeroth, working on some low level quests when their accounts got hacked and they were killed off. The total douche responsible, took their baby in hopes of raising him up as a trained pet. (Thrall = Hunter Weapon!)

He named his new pet "Thrall" which means "Slave". (it also means The "Close to the back door of Orgimmar so Alliance can farm him and feel important" Guy in other dialects.)

Thrall was educated in all sorts of combat and military strategy, because his master figured he'd eventually use him in the Arenas. He also thought that after Thrall got his Arena Rating up, maybe he could slide himself onto the roster, play 3 quick games each week and be rolling in full Vengeful in no time. (hack)

The relevant part to this is Thrall's eventual incarceration (due to a very bad attitude and unwillingness to sell arena points), and his inevitable yet brilliant escape from Durnholde Keep due in no small part to a very sexy diversion caused by Taretha Foxton, Thrall's "Little lady friend".

But what would happen if a group of dragons with sand in their who-whos decided to use the magics of The Caverns of Time, and went back to screw over Thrall as he escaped? Unhappy... that's what would happen.

That's where we come in. The Bronze Dragonflight, known to us in game as the Keepers of Time, have asked us to go back in time to accomplish a few things:

1. Create a sexy diversion
2. Help Thrall escape from Durnholde Keep
3. Reunite him with Taretha
4. Make sure George McFly takes Lorraine to the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance
5. Get Back to the Future. /phew




I first did this instance at level 67. And while I barely took down the first boss, Lieutenant Drake, (no idea why he was wearing this kilt, but we took it from him) I simply wasn't able to keep up with the marathon of fighting that starts right after you let Thrall out of his cell.

So I totally bailed on Thrall and came back when we were 69. This time I was all stocked up on Jesus Juice™, so I could get some mana back between spawns. I also discovered that things got WAY easier when I would run into each spawning group of mobs, drop Stoneclaw Totems to keep the melee busy, and then focus fire on the one or two casters.

Eventually we got to Captain Skarloc, who thankfully has the mannerisms of a Bond Villain, and his theatric banter gives me time to drink my way to full mana for the fight. I suggest you kill his two minions first, as they drop super quick. Don't let Thrall tank, unless you're setup to heal him. I simply drop an Earth Elemental, and he does the dirty work just fine. (horray for plate gear /sigh)



Once Skarloc is dead, Thrall submits to his basic instincts and steals the dead man's horse. We mount and follow as he leads us to Tarren Mill where he hopes to find Taretha. Thrall stops right outside of town, and waits for you to talk to him before going in. Don't. Take your team on a tour of the place first, and wipe out all the guards that patrol town. This should make the next part easier.

After everyone's dead, head back and talk to Thrall, and he'll lead you to a barn. Go ahead and follow him in, and you'll get to watch Thrall bitch slap a horse for failing to keep it's mouth shut. A small but appreciated gift from the Devs.



You'll fight a small spawn in the barn, the church and finally a small group in the inn. That's where you'll find Thrall's BFF, only to be interrupted by the verbal abuse of a gigantic dragon outside.

That's where the final showdown with Epoch Hunter begins. And it sucks. Here's what you do.

Get outside FAST, and get setup right out in front of the entrances of the Inn and the Church. You'll see Epoch hovering in front of you. He'll start the fight by sending in three dragonkin. One mage, and two warriors. Do what you'd expect...

Keep the melee busy with Stoneclaws, and your Grounding Totems should keep the casters fire from hurting anyone. Burn the caster down first, then burn into which ever Melee mob that Thrall has taken it upon himself to pull off your Stoneclaws.

After that group drops, you're gonna have an identical group spawn to your LEFT. Rinse and repeat. But then the third and last spawn will appear below Epoch, and this time you'll have 4 mobs. Two are casters that will burn through your Grounding Totems pretty fast, so make them a priority.

If you get in any trouble with these waves, drop an Earth Elemental. But remember, we've already burned two on the first two bosses, so you only have 3 left. And you'll need at least two for Epoch.

Once Epoch heads in, drop whatever Elemental tanks you have left... then RUN. Get AWAY from this dragon. He has a terrible aoe silence, and a knockback that will send your group in a billion directions. Once you're a few steps away, pop your nukes and go crazy. He WILL kill your elementals, so focus purely on burning him down.

It was scary the first few times I did this, but after I got used to simply dumping everything I had into him, I realized he'll drop pretty easy. And if you're lucky, he'll be nice enough to leave you a Time-Shifted Dagger which has some excellent stats for that level. (I'm still sporting two of these on my team while I grind to my pvp mace.)

Overall, I really enjoy this instance, multiboxing or not. It's fun to be so involved with a WoW Hero like Thrall, and the story is a fun one. An added bonus for those of you who enjoy Lore (stupid nerds), Blizz put in a bit of narrative in the town of Southshore, which you can access after you beat the boss. I don't want to give anything away (*cough* Ashbringer *cough*) so go check it out for yourself.

BIG BADDA DING! Multiboxing to 70

"Come on Boom! UPDATE THE BLOG you pompous jerk!" Fine... :P

First off, I apologize for my unexplained absence. In the last few weeks my life has been turned upside down. First, let me get this out of the way.

I'm getting married.

wait for it....

in 29 days.
^.^

My girlfriend and I had discussed getting married this October, but a whole bunch of things happened that made a May 3rd wedding not only possible, but enormously beneficial. (biggest reason being I love this girl to death and can't live another day without her by my side.)

SO... the consequence of that has been that my free time has been cut down to an hour each morning. And with 2.4 going live, I've been all too willing to spend that time in game, instead of writing about it. But the good news is, I've been taking notes. (And screenshots!)

So lets get caught up for a moment, shall we?

1. I went to the Caverns of Time and successfully reunited Thrall with his lady friend many times.
2. I figured out how to master the crazy fights in Sethekk Halls and farmed the heck out of it to prepare for the Rep/PvP gear in 2.4
   
3. DING! The boys are 70!
4. I saved questing until 70 so I could make enough money for 5k worth of flying mounts. It took one afternoon of questing to get the boys in the air! -->
   
5. I killed the first two "fake" bosses and the first "real" boss in The Mechanar the first time I went in.
6. I COMPLETED Botanica on my first try, in insanely crappy gear.
7. I created a test 5v5 Arena team for fun, and to farm even a few Arena points. Today I'm 5-33. LOL! But it's been fun as hell even losing.
   
8. 2.4 hit... I wooted. (excuse me)
   
9. The Rep/PvP gear is fabulous, and if you mix the sets you DO get a double dose of +35 Resilience, bringing each Shaman to something like 194 Resilience all together. Not a bad start.
10. The Shattered Sun Offensive quests are a blast, but my immediate goal is no longer to get the blue Spell Mace from SSO rep. Why? Cause the new AV ROCKS. The Horde are winning again in the Ruin Battlegroup, and the honor is fantastic. So now my goal is to get about 18k more honor (a few days work) then grab myself a Gladiator's Gavel, slap the Spell Damage enchant on it, and boost my Spell Damage by nearly 200 over what I'm at now.
11. I decided I wanted to do my own enchants, so I raided my guild bank LOADED with mats, and burst up to 365 enchanting in one sitting.
12. I found a talented healer with a neglected level 63 Pally, who dedicated himself getting to 70 JUST to do Arenas as my dedicated healer. Today he's 69, and we've gotten his rep up on 3 of the 5 factions he needs for his Baby Gladiator Gear.
13. Did I mentioned I'm getting married? WOOT!

So there ya go. That's where I've been the last 3 weeks. And now that most of the (panicked) wedding plans have been put into motion, I'll have time to get this blog back up to date, and share with you the amazing things I've discovered while multiboxing at 70!

I'll have more details up about each thing I just mentioned asap. Stay tuned!

Boom

PS. I love you Jenny. Thanks for loving me back, despite my crazy hobbies. :)

Preparing for 70 and Patch 2.4 (Part 1)

Now that I have my team of tanks, I've been staying off the quest trail (as planned) and found myself flying through whatever dungeon I encounter. I'll be writing about each one in the near future. For now, I want to focus on the changes coming in Patch 2.4, and how they'll effect my plans as I inch closer to the big 7-0.

The problem with hitting 70 this late in the game, is that PvPers are already geared. Heck, we're coming up on the 4th Arena Season! This means that when I step into the BGs as 5 brand new level 70 Shaman, I'll likely be in level 90-100 Blues at best, while others are in level 146 Epics. Yikes.

I'm going to miss this once I hit 70s BGs.

The most painful part will be my lack of Resilience, a stat that reduces your chances to BE crit, and reduces the damage you take when you ARE crit. You have exactly zero resilience in your base stats, so the only way to build it up is to get resilience gear. That's easier said then done.

Up till now, with the exception of a few raiding rings, you could only get resilience gear by pvping, but you need it to pvp competitively. So the only option for you is to run BGs, in terrible gear, and save your honor until you can afford to buy the gear you need.

After Season 3 came out, the original Season 1 (S1) gear became available for bulk sums of honor. This is great! But when you add up the honor you need, you'll be stuck pugging through BGs for many months before you've got the gear you need to survive in Arenas.

This is where 2.4 comes in. Blizzard recognized this gear gap, and decided to make available a set of Blue quality level 115 pvp gear, complete with resilience, and even a +35 resilence 2 piece set bonus. So how do you acquire this fabulous new wardrobe? PvE.

In the expansion, Blizz decided to reward us with faction quartermasters. These are NPCs who offer you fabulous gear for rock bottom prices, based on the level of reputation you hold with their faction. So they're using these quartermasters to distribute the new pvp armor, an I couldn't be happier.

WoWInsider posted a wonderful little spreadsheet pointing out what factions you need to get, in order to get the gear you want. They spread the gear out over five factions: Cenarion Circle, Thrallmar, Keepers of Time, Lower City and Sha'tar.



As you can see from the chart, there are three types of Shaman gear. Elemental, Enhanced and Resto. Each is of course itemized around it's spec, and each one has it's own set bonuses. The Elemental set, which I'm obviously looking to, has a pretty stupid 4 piece bonus: 2% crit to shocks. This is frustrating because you're rarely in range to use shocks as an Elemental Shaman. What i'm more interested in, is the 2 set bonus that each set shares.... +35 resilience.


The thought here, is if I replace two pieces of Seer's Mail (Elem), with two pieces of Seer's Ringmail (Resto) I would only lose +10 spell damage, but get a total of +70 resilience bonus. Woot! And within a few minutes of the patch going live, all five of my boys will be wearing 5 pieces of level 115 blues, packing 151 resilience and a heck of alot more armor. All for the price of about 100g per toon. (chump change)

So how do I get there? Well, I just need to run instances and complete quests that build up my reputation with the 5 needed factions. Normally, this is hard. Because after you run any available quests, you're left needing to run instance, which requires 4 other "good" players... not if you multibox. :)

So I'm choosing instances that pay out the rep I need. How do I keep track of that? By using one of my favorite WoW sites of course! WoW Reputation Calculator. (www.wowreputationcalculator.com)

Punch in your toon's name, your server and your region (US or EU) and BAM! The dishes are done! The page will build a beautiful bar chart showing exactly where your reputation is with all of the important TBC factions. But wait... it gets BETTER!



When you click on each one, it actually shows you where and how you can build up your reputation, and even calculates how man mobs you need to kill, quests you need to finish or instances you need to run to reach the next reputation goal. WOOT! This makes it incredibly easy to keep track of my Reputation TO-DO list. I'm already well on my way to being Honored with all five factions long before the patch gets here.

I can't wait!

The patch also brings us a NEW faction to grind, the Shattered Sun Offensive which brings a pile of new dailies, server based progression and a pile of sweet new epics when you hit Exalted. I'll go over all of that, and my SSO plans in my next post.

Shortly after that, I'll be sharing my experience in Sethekk Halls (oh man the first boss blows), my party with Thrall in the CoT, and even the Big Ding! It's all right around the corner. Stay tuned.

Boom

Multiboxing the Mana Tombs: Pandemonium

Auchindoun was originally a holy burial ground for the dead of the Draenei. But the Shadow Council decided it was a great place to hold an epic kegger. They hoped to summon a pimptacular uber demon, and be the first to apply for "BFF" status with the new bad boy on the block.

But as with all the other parties the Shadow Council threw, this one didn't go well. They succeeded in summoning Murmur, the first stereophonic boss in WoW, but the spell also caused an explosion that destroyed Auchindoun and half of Terokkar Forrest. Ah well. Ya gotta break a few eggs...

Auchindoun is now home to 4 different 5 man instances. In order of difficulty, Mana Tombs, Auchenai Crypts, Sethekk Halls and Shadow Labyrinth. Going against all logic and traditional conventions, I chose to start with the easiest one. :)

Mana Tombs was the next logical instance progression for me. It's labeled 64-66, so at 65 I figured it was time to take a shot. By this point I've discovered that while I don't need to drink while raiding (Water Shield + Elemental Focus + uber crit from ToWx5 = Infinite Mana, and some embarrassing mana leakage.) However, I DO need drinks for wipe recovery. And when you're learning a new instance, it's fair to assume you'll be wiping. I did. Bring water.

There are only 3 bosses in Mana Tombs, the first being a gigantic void walker named PANDEMONIUS! (sorry, I just can't say his name without yelling. Go ahead, try it yourself.) Once again I figured my ego was all the "instruction" I'd need to kill this guy, and totally forgot that 10 seconds or so into the fight, he turns on a spell reflect shield. Turns out it was EXACTLY my ego that came flying back into the face of my shaman, and we all died to the wrath of our own lightning.

I recovered, drank, and took another shot. This time I stopped casting when his shield came up, but still died to his awesome melee powers. Why? Because I didn't have shields equipped. Equip your shields when in instances. K?

So I recovered, drank, put on my shields, and took another shot. This time he died... taking three of my shaman with him. This doesn't exactly encourage me to proceed. But I do.

Luckily, as if to say "Hey, you remembered to equip your shields that time!", Pando left us a beautiful new Shield of the Void. That rocks, and sucks. It rocks because it's an upgrade. It sucks, because now I have to kill that jerk over and over until I get five of them. :)

The trash mobs were falling into the typical pattern I've become accustomed to from previous instances. You get a few melees, a few casters and usually one mob that really hurts. Once you figure out who is who, you kill the hard hitting one before they even get to you, then use grounding and stoneclaws to finish off the rest.



The second boss is a walking stalagmite named Tavarok. (And yet another name that rocks... get it? No? Never mind.) He hurts. He hits freak'n hard, and has an AoE stun that does 2400 damage over 3 seconds. Yikes. While I was busy casting a group chain heal, he stomped on one of my guys and he simply dropped. But he still wasn't strong enough to outlast my DPS, and he died after 2 of my boys did.

And what did we get for our troubles? Lightning-Rod Pauldrons! These babies use the same model as the crazy "Antennas of doom" Pauldrons of Elements, part of the Shaman's very first Dungeon set back in Pre-TBC days. Of course, this rocks... and sucks. Now I need 5. /sigh



Working my way to the last boss, I started to notice just how much fun I was having in an instance. This is great! I'm seeing cool content, at my own pace, and when things go bad, I have only myself to blame. It makes it much easier to laugh at a wipe, trust me. Multiboxing is fun. You should totally do it too. And while you're doing what I tell you, post about my blog on your guild forums. :)

Finally, I was faced with Nexus-Prince Shaffar. He starts with three Ethereal Beacons (sparkling bawls of doom) that if not killed, turn into humanoids that cast hurt on you. The prince will summon additional Ethereal Beacons every ten seconds. So the smart thing to do would be destroy the beacons right away and be sure to focus on the adds every ten seconds.... that is, IF YOU'RE A MERE MORTAL!



Being the invincible Twenty Totems, I simply dropped trou, popped some trinkets and let loose the wrath of the heavens. This doesn't always work mind you... but it did today. :)

The prince dropped in less than 30 seconds, and I quickly dispatched his summoned adds while their prince rotted on the ground in front of them. Good fun.

For all our trouble, the jerk left us a crappy set of plate bracers. But I could care less. Why? Because as the great prince fell, my team began to DING! 66 baby! And you know what that means... time to recruit me a couple of tankss!

Boom