Ok, admit it. Dornaa and Salandria are pretty cute. They say the darndest things and they are so tiny and they are like little bundles of irrepressible energy and now I want kids of my own, damn it. But seriously, If you're like me, you've probably kept your orphan whistle a little longer than you had to and took your orphan around a few extra places.
Auchindoun? The Dark Portal? Pff, c'mon kid. I'll show you some real fun. How about Karazhan? That was actually a lot of fun, although fighting Prince Malchezaar was sort of creepy, since Dornaa was staring at me through the whole fight as I stood with my back against the wall, tanking him. She looked sort of accusing. You don't suppose Mal was her dear uncle before the whole Eredar corruption thing, maybe? Unfortunately, I don't think you're allowed to take your orphan into the arenas, but I may have to take her for a tour of scenic Alterac Valley before the whistle disappears.
Seriously, I don't care how awesome Willy is, I just want to adopt Dornaa and keep her forever. She can keep Archmage Vargoth company on all my boss kills.
I know I'm not the only one who's done this. Orphan tours are probably some of the most random fun you can have in World of Warcraft with an annual event, I think. Where have you taken your orphan?
We've talked about 2 manning Karazhan, Shaman-tanking Karazhan, and Paladining Karazhan. But just when you thought it was safe to grab a plain old boring 10-man Karazhan group with actual varied classes with decent gear and consumables and stuff, here comes one more permutation, and this one perhaps the most offbeat we've reported on yet.
It all started, Don Claus of the Stormwardens guild on the US Dragonmaw server tells us, with a pretty simple comment: "I'd love to see Tankin tank Prince in a dress." The Stormwardens decided to take it one step further and just slap suits on everyone. What followed is a story of a group revellers seeking to join the fabulous night life of Karazhan.
Don't get me wrong here, Karazhan's generally a pretty fun dungeon, aside from the odd incredibly annoying trash mob, but when you've run it time and time again, it's always nice to find a twist or a new way of doing stuff to spice things up again. The Senatus Redux guild of the Kul Tiras EU run have done just that, clearing most of Karazhan with a group 10 paladins, most of them in no better than T4 gear or lower, on a run done on March 1st. They managed to get down all the bosses but Prince Malchezaar and Nightbane - and they have pretty good reason to believe that they could have had the Prince, having him to 15% on their last attempt of the night.
This shot of Karazhan's Prince Malchezaar, sent in by reader Gabe, strikes a little close to home for me, personally. If you've never visited Karazhan and encountered the Prince, let me explain: throughout the fight infernals fall from the sky. When they land, they stand in one place send out damaging pulses of hellfire in a circle around them. As the fight progresses, your raid will find positioning more and more difficult until you reach the point this image shows us: infernals are everywhere and, without a safe place to stand, your raid has perished. Prince Malchezaar, having eliminated everyone else in your group, is now coming after you. Gabe explains the moment for us, "I've run to the door screaming for someone to let me out, (he's too tall to fit) but no one answers."
Have any memorable raid wipes of your own to share? Send them to us at Around Azeroth! All you have to do is e-mail aroundazeroth@gmail.com with a copy of your screenshot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could find your pictures and story featured next!
The first poll on the official WoW forums was mentioned on WoW Insider when it was posted a few weeks ago, but since then a few more polls have been created. While one of them is obviously just for fun, the other two are more interesting.
Admittedly, I'm pretty much a noob to the arena. Like many other players, I mostly just get my ten matches a week to scrape up enough points for some welfare epics. Probably due to this fact, I dislike the Blade's Edge arena. The ramps, pillars, ropes and bridge create a lot of variables during an already hectic fight which can lead to panic, confusion and ultimately an inglorious defeat. Even more inglorious than normal, that is. Also, this arena in particular makes it more difficult for stealthy types (my 2v2 team is composed of a rogue and druid) to get the drop on their foes because the narrow catwalk makes a convenient place for an opposing team to make a stand with their AoE and stealth detection. What are your thoughts on the poll? Do they match the results?