Inspired by an old post about the Endgame Bosses Being Bored a couple of post-60 folks in my guild decided to pay Baron Rivendare a visit (and take some 55+ folks for a drag) as opposed to fighting for spawns in Outland. The sad thing is that this particular instance run simply drove home the point that Old Endgame just isn't nearly what it used to be. The first thing we noticed was how utterly easy the mobs were. Gone is the time when a 45 minute run was proof of skill at L60 for non-raiding guilds. With the inclusion of a L68 Shaman healer and a L66 rogue, the instance became a cakewalk, completed in a blazingly fast 28 minutes from start to finish. (including looting) But the eye-opening sad/funny part was to come when the party got to Baroness Anastari.
As anyone who has been in Dead-side (or UD) Stratholme will tell you, the Baroness can be a bit annoying. Or at least, she could be when you were level 60, and you invariably got someone who forgot to burn all their cool-downs at the beginning of the fight. (To explain, the Baroness mind-controls a party-member and disappears. If you have special trinkets or talents, she is likely to use them immediately on your fellow party members.) So, with a few freshly minted near/60s in tow, the group jumped her, and everyone blew their cool-downs. Well, everyone except the rogue, not being used to that Cloak of Shadows button on his bar yet. Sure enough, first possession target was that same rogue. It went a little something like this:
Tank: Crap, she got the rogue!
Rogue: huh?
Tank: I've got her.
*fightfight*
Tank: Man, she must like you.
Rogue: ...
Tank: That was fast.
*fightfight*
Apparently every single time the Baroness decided to possess the rogue, the first thing she burned was Cloak of Shadows. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it is the level 66 Rogue ability that instantly removes all existing harmful spell effects and increases the chance to resist all spells by 90% for 5 seconds. It also, amusingly enough, breaks mind control. So the Baroness controls the rogue, pops Cloak of Shadows, and is immediately brought back to the fight. Later runs confirmed that every single time she decided to possess a level 66+ rogue, she seems to favor immediately popping Cloak of Shadows on herself.
We're just wondering when they are going to find some way to make NPCs who can mind control somehow not pop Cloak of Shadows straight off. Not to complain, but it's really kind of sad watching her do that to herself over and over.
Of course, until Blizz gets it fixed we'll just
/target Baroness
/point
/laugh
Anyone else notice other mobs who mind control and then pop Cloak of Shadows on themselves? Any other mind control interrupting talents/abilities causing lots of laughter for you? I know the poor Baroness can't be alone in her questionable tactics.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-19-2007 @ 4:03PM
Mad Cow said...
No really a mind control trick ... but every time I've run BM with a rogue ... the rogue is the only one who gets feared / sheeped. wtf?? I guess that's good the healer doesn't ... but even when all 5 of us are piled on the mobs .. /target rogue ... /fear /sheep.
Odd.
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4-19-2007 @ 4:15PM
Anson said...
Terrible at names, but the 'time for FUN' guy in shadow labs does a mass mind control as well... so locks, get out the succy and, 80% of the time, she'll seduce you during the time.
rock.
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4-19-2007 @ 5:15PM
Doc said...
@1
In black morass, the rift lords will sheep/fear the 2nd agro person, which is almost always the rogue. It's more or less the rogues job to eat fears/sheeps so the casters don't.
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4-19-2007 @ 5:15PM
Petter said...
She is not alone - all the old MCers do that. It's hilarious.
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4-19-2007 @ 5:53PM
Argent said...
baroness easy mode: if you pull her back to where the conistoga-looking cart is (diagonally back towards the entrance gate) and stand right by it, you'll never have to even deal with the MC. each time she possess someone, it increases your size -- until you bump your head on the wagon, which causes the MC to be aborted.
ah, the good old days...
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4-19-2007 @ 6:38PM
Junzim said...
Nah all bosses are /point /laugh when they MC me.
First thing they do is obliterate Cooldowns:
BERSERKING!
INNER FOCUS
Ojnos a fast casting free +25% critchance-
LIGHTWELL!!!!!!!
Oh yeah! We're all really F****d now!
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4-19-2007 @ 9:19PM
lol said...
why do morons like you guys point out stuff like this? =) I'm quite happy with it working the way it does. Do they really need to fix it?
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4-19-2007 @ 9:29PM
Ghen said...
@7... you spec lightwell?
/point
/laugh
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4-19-2007 @ 9:40PM
Krystalle Voecks said...
Petter: Heh, it seems like most of the old endgame bosses do weird things with the new talents. I haven't been back to MC since the expansion, but I can totally see it being equally funny.
Michael: Yeah, what is up with the sheeps? I mean, I know why (player) mages do it in PVP, but why do the NPCs go rogue-happy? There again, sometimes the free heal is nice. :D
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4-19-2007 @ 9:48PM
Loubear said...
lolwell
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4-20-2007 @ 1:49AM
Sherp of Ahrotahntee said...
I had a druid friend a while back who was telling me about this fight. He got MCd and right after blowing all his cooldowns, the Baroness picked his Teleport (Moonglade) spell.
I would have liked to listen in on their Ventrilo channel for that.
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4-20-2007 @ 5:04AM
Kalandrah said...
The MC'ing mobs just before Murmur do the same. The MC'ing naga in the Slave Pens as well.
For a warlock, whenever they get mindcontrolled, they always seem to go for Rain of Fire.
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4-20-2007 @ 5:59AM
Twinny said...
@15
and howl of terror, which isnt as nice.
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4-20-2007 @ 6:40AM
Tilt said...
I've yet to find an MCing mob that can get my druid out of treeform. I normally end up running around getting dozens of "invalid target" messages as I attempt to heal everybody to death.
I sure Bliz will fix that one day, but it's funny for now.
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4-20-2007 @ 8:53AM
Junzim said...
@10
Ever watched Nihilum's vids? Notice that big shiny thing that's visible several times in the backgrounds?
/point
/school
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4-20-2007 @ 9:13AM
Kirby1612 said...
@13
Your druid friend lied to you. That spell isn't castable in combat and as far as I know never has been.
On topic-While in Black Morass, the dragons don't polymorph me (since I'm a feral druid) but instead go to the next person on the aggro list (at least I think so) because they always go after the paladin/priest healing. And as far as the druid MC in forms, they wont take off the form you are currently in, that you can do yourself, but if you are in caster form, they won't cast a shapeshift either.
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4-20-2007 @ 10:21AM
Michael Calfee said...
As a rogue I always get the sheep/fear in BM, but the good part is the mage dragons usually break their own cc within a few seconds with their AoE blastwave.
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4-21-2007 @ 2:48PM
myguy said...
Funny u should post this, as the other day i went to Strat to stealth out a Piccolo when i decided to see how far i could burn the baroness before i had to vanish. Oddly enuf, she doesnt MC u when u fight her alone. And my CoS ended up saving my little gnome ass. That coupled with a shot from my healpot injector and some mind numbing poison, i was able to solo the baroness down for some nice 1g vendor warlock(?) boots. I was completely shocked by this, as my mouse was floating over vanish the entire time expecting a grim fate. But after the dust cleared, i had won. Much to my suprise. Go 70 rogues.
Ohh, and i even got the piccolo same run. Go Figure.
Myguy
70 Gnome Rogue
Palmarium
Runetotem
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4-25-2007 @ 12:07AM
godai said...
She used to blow my iceblock cooldown all the time.
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5-06-2007 @ 8:31PM
Slvrwolf said...
Pathaleon the Calculator does that too. Everytime he MCs me, he goes for Cloak of Shadows shortly after.
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