After a series of frustrating pugs in Scarlet Monastery, one of us finally blurted out over Skype, “We could just do this damn thing all by ourselves!” There was a moment’s pause and then we began to discuss how, yes, we actually could duo the instance. With that, we ported to Undercity and booted it out to the dungeon.

Tuyok and Ghislain two-man Cathdral

Was it easier? Probably not. Was it faster? No, not really. But oh, was it ever fun. Without twitchy DPS breathing down my neck, I could get Kazi to bubble me and then pull the entire right side of the lower half of the Chapel Gardens. The pulls inside the Chapel itself were massive, with up to 20 mobs on me and runaways in every direction. We actually welcomed the additional mobs they brought back, myself especially because they only fueled my constantly depleting rage bar. I actually used my cooldowns to keep myself up.

You know what it felt like? Like for once, it was actually us against the mobs. With a pug, most of the time I’m more worried about what the rest of the group will do to screw things up, either by pulling aggro or pulling on their own. But here…I had a partner that I had complete trust in. I trusted him to keep me alive, to spam Holy Nova in the middle of a pack of mobs at the right time, to bring a mob aggroed onto him right to me so I could taunt it off, and to finish off the odd runner with Holy Fire.

Aroqin and Radoslaw take turns shanking an ogre

This sort of playing off each other has been repeated numerous times with us. Just take my kitty druid Aroqin and Kazi’s rogue Radoslaw. We’ll often position ourselves on either side of a mob, trading aggro back and forth between the two of us and using our special “shank them from behind” abilities when their back is to one of us. When we pull too many mobs, I switch into bear form and tank them while Kazi does, as he puts it, “terrible and possibly illegal things” to them. I have Healbot up for anytime I need to throw a quick Rejuv or Decurse onto one of us.

One of our most amazing quests was in STV. The quest was red to us and we didn’t even notice that it was until we were halfway into a deep cave, surrounded by mobs that were orange to us. Using a combination of stealth, distractions, and deadly attacks, we finally made it to the very back of the cave where the quest mob, also a red level, was waiting for us with his cronies. I turned into a bear and we pulled his buddies carefully when they had walked away from the quest mob. Then, we pulled the quest mob and he went down smoothly, even if it wasn’t quickly.

On the way back out, we decided to slip past all the orange-level mobs unnoticed. As a cat, Qin is stealthed better than Rado but she does not have his big bag of tricks. He distracted and sapped our way out of there, only fighting a couple of mobs when we absolutely had to. We would watch the way they were patting and would dash across through an opening as soon as we had the chance. We laughed and grinned at each other when we made it out and Kazi declared that it was the most fun he’s had on WoW in months. Why? Because it was just the two of us using our skills and experience to get something done.

Nalifi and Hyarima on the Zoram's Strand

We could be on any two characters and feel like we’re a real team, one that just knows what the other is doing and how best to act in conjunction with that. I mean, who would have thought that Kazi’s troll shaman Hyarima could have tanked most of a Deadmines pug at level, with my disc priest Nalifi bubbling and healing everyone? I’m not saying that we never make a mistake but we’re not the sort to never try anything beyond the ordinary. That trust that we have is what makes us work so well together and live through things by the skin of our teeth.

All of this brings something else to question. Why do we have to have a group of 5 for instances, with a tank, healer, and 3 dps? As much as I will preach how great the LFG tool can be, why must it be harder and less rewarding to get a mishmashed group of friends together to take on an instance? I distinctly remember completing Wailing Caverns with nothing but 3 hunters with tanking pets. Not to mention that I’ve pet-tanked heroic ToC without much difficulty. And I know that I’m not the only person that has brought this sort of issue to light.

Dear Blizzard, could we have a “queue with current party only” button? I mean really, who would we be hurting other than ourselves? We know what we would be getting ourselves into.

Anyways, the reason I couldn’t think of a title is because this is an update on all my characters and stuff. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet so I don’t bore you all.

My troll shaman Zulrea hit level 80 oh…a couple months ago now. >.>Yes, I’m that bad at making these updates. Regardless, this makes her third level 80 and although she’s fun to play, I haven’t been gearing her as aggressively as I did Niqo and Saraku. I blame it on heroics burnout. But I did get her the Noble title and completed all of the other Noblegarden achievements in 2 days. Not bad for a casual. I enjoy healing on her the most so the couple of T9 pieces I have been getting her have been for that spec. Her elemental set…languishes greatly.

Raiding recently has been awesome for Niqora. The other weekend Bloodriver took on OS, EoE, and Onyxia all in one night and didn’t have too much trouble smashing them all into the ground. Malygos and Onyxia had given us problems before so they took a few tries. Niqo can now proudly boast her Champion of the Frozen Wastes title.

Then last weekend we entered TotC-10…and completed the entire dungeon in a single night. I personally had never seen beyond the spiky worm beasts and apparently the furthest some of them had gotten before were the Faction Champs. So it was quite a thrill to make it through all of it in the first night, even if we had wipes. We just bulldozed through it like we always do. As my guildmate Cedd commented to me: “Bloodriver: we hit our heads against the wall until we make a hole.” We are tenacious if nothing else.

Yesterday I got it into my head that I wanted Ashen Verdict rep with Saraku so he could make Niqo the epic arrows she’s come to love. It was surprisingly easy to get enough people to come with me for trash runs. We had to switch out people a couple times (RL comes first after all) but we killed enough trash so that people who had been there since the beginning went from completely neutral to friendly by the end. They all seemed pretty happy to get their rings, happy enough to even want to come back tonight for some more.

Niqora’s little sis Anuniaq is now level 60 and in the Outlands, having been reunited with her childhood friend Halruum (Kazi’s tauren warrior).  She’s been sitting at level 40-ish for a long time and it’s good to get to level a hunter again (but oh how I missed Steadyshot).

Tuyok the warrior, and Niqora’s adopted son, has gone from fury to prot since I discovered that I liked tanking with him the best. Figuring out how to stance-dance was a huge factor in making that decision. >.> He’s in his early 30s now and has made friends with a Forsaken priest called Ghislan (Kazi has discovered a love for discipline priests). Together they make quite the odd couple…a frail-looking undead man next to a hulking tauren bull.

You’ve already seen Aroqin the night elf druid featured here in some RP sessions that Kazi and I have been having. She’s also in her early 30s and she is happily bounding about as a kitty. As happily as a grumpy sarcastic elf can be that is. I’ve discovered that I also like tanking with her on the side (kitty is her first love, bear comes second). Apparently I’m fairly good at it, if the pug person who told me that I’m the best low level tank he’s ever seen is any indication.

I really have developed this gravitation to tanking, haven’t I? >.>

In all of these, some characters have gotten deleted, namely my bank character Valraen who never got past level 10 and my draenei hunter Brighit who I never could find the perfect pet for. In my defense for deleting Brighit, I intend to have at least a goblin hunter once Cataclysm comes out, possibly a worgen depending on what forms the worgen druids will get. A hunter for a hunter is okay, right? >.> I swear I’m still a petoholic!

And last but not least, a shameless plug for my guild. Bloodriver on Wyrmrest Accord-H is now recruiting. We invite anyone of any level or class who wants to join our wonderful family. We do light roleplaying, raid casually, play lots and lots of alts, run random heroics, and hang out in guild chat. Sometimes we even break out into song on vent.

For you Alliance folks, our sister guild Obsidian Phoenix is also growing and is a military style light-medium RP guild who is focused on the whisperings of the coming Cataclysm, ignoring the petty squabbles between the Alliance and the Horde. Players who don’t roleplay are also welcome. And check out the cool website that I’m making for them.

If you’re interested or want to ask questions, just comment on this post or find me on any one of my characters on Wyrmrest (they are listed on My Characters page).

Edit: I forgot to mention that I managed to sell my Battered Hilt for a nice chunk of gold. Here’s to endless possibilities!

On Saturday, we had our memorial for Vinny. Over 25 people showed up at the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior in the Barrens and we spent a couple hours recounting stories about him and giving a “KungalooooOOOOooooOOOooosh” salute. It was very nice.

My shammy Zulrea is level 78 as we speak, as well as Kazi’s warlock Basia. A destruction warlock and an elemental shaman are a scary combination. We keep lamenting about how we can only get 2 spells off each before a mob dies. >.> On that note, having Lava Burst always crit is awesome. Also, she dropped skinning and took up inscription…partially because I wanted a scribe and partially because Basia is a tailor/enchanter. So Kazi gets all my weapon/armor vellums.

Saraku is finally exalted with Netherwing (with much help provided by Kazi searching for eggs). So now he can transform back to his original drake form in character. Still working on Crusader dailies with him but not with much enthusiasm. He also has his complete T9 tanking set. I started getting his T9 healing set together but then I found out that I like healing on Zulrea better anyways.

Niqo has 4 pieces of T9, the Orca-Hunter’s Harpoon, the Felglacier Bolter, the Pauldrons of the Devourer,  the Crusader’s Dragonscale Bracers (a Christmas gift from Kazi), and the Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape. In short…she looks like just about every other hunter who’s done a ton of randoms. I’m quite satisfied about my 3.7-4k dps with a BM spec in heroics, with it spiking on the bosses when I pop my cooldowns and trinkets. Also, the redesigned Misdirect + Volley is sooooo nice. It really helped tanks in H-HoR before they nerfed the damage. Oh, and she got her “the Patient” title which is quite suitable for her RP-wise.

I rolled a fury warrior called Tuyok who now is level 25 and has 4 pieces of heirloom gear equipped. In character, he is Mysthowl’s and Niqora’s adoptive teenage son and his full first name is Issorartuyok. Try saying that five times fast. It’s the Inuit word for “leader dog”. He’s pretty much the character that I play solo when I’m not doing something with the people of BR.

Kazi and I have been talking about what characters we’re going to roll when Cataclysm comes out. I’m going to roll a worgen druid to be paired with his worgen hunter (with a wolf pet of course!) and a goblin hunter with his goblin priest/mage. We decided to reserve our names and because my 10 character slots on Wyrmrest Accord where already taken…I needed to clear up two spots. The first one to go was Fawnel, my tauren druid who wasn’t getting played anyway. My hope is that the worgen will have some sort of wolf-like cat form which will help me enjoy playing a druid more. Choosing the second character to delete was tough but I finally settled on Brighit, my draenei hunter. I play her even less than Fawnel and once I do start playing a little bit on Alliance side with the expansion, my focus is going to be solely on my druid. So it was hard to let her go but at least I’ll be making a goblin hunter, right? Right? >.> I’m currently debating between a raptor or a bear for her. I do love raptors and they have similar personalities to goblins. On the other hand, a giant bear with tons of explosives strapped to it does make a rather intimidating and funny image. Have I mentioned that the goblin is going to be half out of her mind?

Bloodriver as a guild is working on making our way through Ulduar and we’ve dipped our toes in TotC and Onyxia. We’ve come up to Freya on our last Ulduar run and we haven’t tried to get Ony down again since 3.3.0 came out. So I think that next time we go in there, we’ll be able to take her down. We also have a sister guild on Alliance side called Obsidian Phoenix that is slowly filling up with people who have Ally characters. That’s where our worgens will find their home.

And last but not least…I got a Logitech G11 keyboard. The blue LED lights are so very pretty and shiny. Plus the macro keys have given me a noticeable improvement in Niqo’s dps. I’d be completely pleased with it if the keys didn’t seem to randomly stop working when I switch characters (I blame the program, not the keyboard itself).

Patch 3.3.2 is all loaded up and I’m eager to get home for work and see what new things await for me. I heard there’s been a buff for elemental shamans.

Now hopefully my next update will come before Cataclysm is released. >.>