This is the third part of a piece of fan fiction I began in the summer and since resubbing to Warcraft I've found my muse again! You can read the first two parts here and here and the third part here.
Garim and Raik were talking up a storm by the great fire. The table was littered with empty tankards and if Deme had still been fully human, she would have felt the warmth from the heavy, potent dwarven ale.
Showing posts with label world of warcraft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world of warcraft. Show all posts
Saturday, 5 January 2013
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
The Grind for Loremaster
There are some POSSIBLE SPOILERS for lore here. You have been warned.
Recent posts have strayed a little ways off the Death Knight path. This one attempts to find our way back, albeit with a-round-about route.
In my off-time in game, i.e. when I'm not raiding or running a quick HC for frosties, I've been working on the Loremaster achievement. Until I started it I had no idea quite what I'd let myself in for. Deme is a DK. That means 55 levels of questing have been effectively by passed on that character. By my reckoning, that amounts to about 300+ quests on your "home" continent and probably 200+ on the other. Now with a DK, you're lucky to have 150 on each. So rather than having to make up 400 or 500 on each continent, you might as will be starting at nothing. And boy does that feel like a lot.
As someone who loves Warcraft Lore, I've enjoyed taking Deme through a lot of the older content, especially now I understand more about what is actually happening. The first time I levelled in Westfall and the Deadmines I couldn't have told you a thing about why I was there other than the fact that some dude called Marshal Dughan sent me there. This time round I've paid attention to the quest text. I know why Van Cleef is pissed. I've taken the time to go through Stranglethorn Vale. I hate STV. I hate Nemingway. But I've done it. I've revisited Duskwood, where I would quite happily camp Deme permanently if I could. It's dark, forboding, has worgen, big spiders, undead, ogres, a gothic town and some interesting (ie SPOILER ALERT DON'T CLICK IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THEM!) lore points. I can tick off Stormwind's quests and Elwynn Forests. I've done 1/2 of the ones in Gnomeregan. Which is far more fun than I remember it was. I reserve judgement on whether that is a level thing until I do again on an alt.
As for how I'm doing it, well I'm using everything I can lay my hands on! I read the Add on Spotlight post at wow.com then downloaded the add-ons it recommended. I've always got my "low-level quests" flag on the map and it's taken me weeks, nay months to get to where I am now. Which is 450/700 on Eastern Kingdoms and a paltry, piffling, 146/700 on Kalimdor. I'm not too worried about Outlands or Northrend simply because they aren't about to get (CATA SPOILER) nuked to buggery. If the Loremaster requires this much dedication, I have no qualms in saying that those who try The Insane, deserve their title.
For MOAR Lore, try these guys on for size
For the Lore
LoreCrafted
Know Your Lore
Recent posts have strayed a little ways off the Death Knight path. This one attempts to find our way back, albeit with a-round-about route.
In my off-time in game, i.e. when I'm not raiding or running a quick HC for frosties, I've been working on the Loremaster achievement. Until I started it I had no idea quite what I'd let myself in for. Deme is a DK. That means 55 levels of questing have been effectively by passed on that character. By my reckoning, that amounts to about 300+ quests on your "home" continent and probably 200+ on the other. Now with a DK, you're lucky to have 150 on each. So rather than having to make up 400 or 500 on each continent, you might as will be starting at nothing. And boy does that feel like a lot.
As someone who loves Warcraft Lore, I've enjoyed taking Deme through a lot of the older content, especially now I understand more about what is actually happening. The first time I levelled in Westfall and the Deadmines I couldn't have told you a thing about why I was there other than the fact that some dude called Marshal Dughan sent me there. This time round I've paid attention to the quest text. I know why Van Cleef is pissed. I've taken the time to go through Stranglethorn Vale. I hate STV. I hate Nemingway. But I've done it. I've revisited Duskwood, where I would quite happily camp Deme permanently if I could. It's dark, forboding, has worgen, big spiders, undead, ogres, a gothic town and some interesting (ie SPOILER ALERT DON'T CLICK IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THEM!) lore points. I can tick off Stormwind's quests and Elwynn Forests. I've done 1/2 of the ones in Gnomeregan. Which is far more fun than I remember it was. I reserve judgement on whether that is a level thing until I do again on an alt.
As for how I'm doing it, well I'm using everything I can lay my hands on! I read the Add on Spotlight post at wow.com then downloaded the add-ons it recommended. I've always got my "low-level quests" flag on the map and it's taken me weeks, nay months to get to where I am now. Which is 450/700 on Eastern Kingdoms and a paltry, piffling, 146/700 on Kalimdor. I'm not too worried about Outlands or Northrend simply because they aren't about to get (CATA SPOILER) nuked to buggery. If the Loremaster requires this much dedication, I have no qualms in saying that those who try The Insane, deserve their title.
For MOAR Lore, try these guys on for size
For the Lore
LoreCrafted
Know Your Lore
Friday, 11 June 2010
For Shatterbound
Shatterbound is a very cool dude over on Twitter that I bumped into with this whole Warcraft thing. He's also got a thing about English words and accents. So as a thank you for bigging me up lately, here's a little something for you buddy! English words, music and scenes of the countryside. Contains Swears!
Friday, 9 April 2010
Opening Thoughts on Death Knight Changes in Cataclysm
Jumping on the Class Changes bandwagon I thought I'd kick about my thoughts on the class change for those of us of a Death Knight persuasion. This isn't too in depth, just because I've not thought about it that way yet. Skip to the end for links to a couple more in depth thinkers.
Stoppable Force has more detail and is a little bit more cynical than me, but he's also thought about it more so if you find my sweeping generalisations too, well general, head on over there.
And of course, I can't let this sort of thing go by without mentioning Skeleton Jack. Simply because he's got about 3 posts on the changes including one where he's just answering comments, some people have too much time. Also more skeptical, Skeleton Jack talks about Blizz rewriting the class as a whole. I can see his point, in the end though, so much of this is subject to change, I'm not going to cry about the sky-falling, well not just yet.
You can read the all the changes and further blue comments at the Blizz Cata Forums.
So overall, I like the look of the changes and yes I like that Unholy is getting a stronger disease based flavour, despite the fact that it's at the cost of tanking in both frost and unholy. The lovely Moody comments about the warrior/rogue similarities and as someone who plays both those classes (albeit as lowbies) I can see the comparisons and sitting somewhere between those two classes in DPS terms works for me.World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will bring with it several changes to class talents and abilities. In this preview, you'll get a glimpse at some of the new abilities, spells, and talents in store for the death knight class, along with an early look at some improvements we plan to make to the rune resource system.
New Death Knight Abilities
Outbreak (level 81): Outbreak infects the target with both Frost Fever and Blood Plague at no rune cost. This ability allows death knights to apply diseases quickly when they are switching targets or when their diseases have been dispelled.
Unholy DPS rotation relies on diseases and it sounds like come the expac that's only going to be more so, giving us a quicker way to whack them on those mobs looks like a great plan. With the changes to the way runes work I'm pondering how many other attacks will drop the rune cost.
Necrotic Strike (level 83): Necrotic Strike is a new attack that deals weapon damage and applies a debuff that absorbs an amount of healing based on the damage done. For context, imagine that the death knight can choose between doing 8,000 damage outright with a certain ability, or dealing 6,000 damage and absorbing 4,000 points in incoming heals with Necrotic Strike -- the burst is smaller, but a larger overall amount of healing would be required to bring the target back to full health.
This ability is meant to bring back some of the old flavor from when death knights could dispel heal-over-time (HoT) effects. It also gives the class a bit more PvP utility without simply replicating a Mortal Strike-style effect.
Sweet PvP trick. I'd also like to see that 8000 outright damage stomping over mobs too, if this isn't restricted to a PvP build it could be handy in a PvE environment.
Dark Simulacrum (level 85): The death knight strikes a target, applying a debuff that allows the death knight to copy the opponent's next spell cast and unleash it. Unlike Spell Reflection, Dark Simulacrum does not cancel the incoming spell. In general, if you can't reflect an ability, you won't be able to copy it either.
Ding Ding Ding! Hello! I really can't wait to play with this.
Rune System Changes
While we're satisfied with the way the rune system works overall, we're making a few major changes to the mechanics that will ultimately help death knight players feel less constrained. Here's the rationale behind the changes, followed by an explanation of how the new system will work.
- In the current rune system, any time a rune is sitting idle, death knights are losing out on potential damage output. By comparison, rogues spend most of their time at low energy levels, and if they're unable to use their skills for a few seconds, that energy builds up and can be spent later, minimizing the net loss from the interruption.
- A death knight's runes, on the other hand, cannot be used until they are fully active. If a death knight ever goes more than a few seconds without spending an available rune, that resource is essentially wasted. Because the death knight is pushing buttons constantly, it can be difficult to add new mechanics to the class because the player doesn't have any free global cooldowns to use them. We can't grant extra resources or reduced cost, because there is no time to spend them. Missing an attack is devastating, and it's impossible to save resources for when they're most useful.
- Additionally
, each individual death knight ability has a fairly low impact on its own, making it feel like most of the death knight's attacks are weak. The death knight's rotations are also more easily affected by latency or a player's timing being just a little off. At times, it feels like death knights aren't able to take advantage of their unique resource mechanic, which can diminish the fun.
- The new rune system will change how runes regenerate, from filling simultaneously to filling sequentially. For example, if you use two Blood runes, then the first rune will fill up before the second one starts to fill up. Essentially, you have three sets of runes filling every 10 seconds instead of six individual runes filling every 10 seconds. (Haste will cause runes to fill faster.) Another way to think of this is having three runes that go up to 200% each (allowing extra "storage")
, rather than six runes that go up to 100% each. Hmmm. I suspect this is the thing most likely to be tweaked, changed and nerfed/buffed and generally fiddled with in testing. Such a big mechanic change will take some getting used to, in the big scheme of things I've got faith in the dev team to get it right, but I do have some trepidation. I'm on the fence on this one.
- As this is a major change to the death knight's mechanics, it will of course require us to retune many of the class's current abilities. For example, each ability needs to hit harder or otherwise be more meaningful since the death knight is getting fewer resources per unit of time. Some abilities will need to have their costs reduced as a result.
Talent Changes
Next we'll outline some of the death knight talent-tree changes we're planning in Cataclysm. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it should give you a sense of how we're intending each death knight spec to perform.
- One of the biggest changes we're making is converting Blood into a dedicated tanking tree. While we feel that having three tanking trees was successful overall, it's less necessary in a world with dual-specialization. In addition, the current breakdown isn't as compatible with the Mastery-based passive talent-tree bonuses we want to add (see below). We'd rather spend time tweaking and balancing one good tanking tree rather than having a tank always wondering if they picked the "correct" tree out of three possibilities.
- Blood seemed like the best fit for tanking. Unholy has always had a strong niche with diseases, magic, and command over pets. Frost now feels like a solid dual-wield tree with Frost magic damage and decent crowd control. Blood's niche was self-healing -- fitting for a tank -- as well as strong weapon swings, which could easily be migrated to Frost and Unholy.
BOooooooOOOOo!!! In my eyes, the defining class aspect to the death knights is the versatility of all 3 trees to tank/dps in. You can effectively tank or dps in any spec, yes yes I know suchandsuch a spec is best for this and suchandsuch a spec is best for that but unless you're running ICC, you can play the game in any of the specs to tank or dps. I'll have a quite moment later to mourn the loss of bone shield. I almost feel like the dev team have given up on balancing the three trees. Yes, we get a dedicated tank tree, just like the other 3 tank classes. Yes it'll make it easier to know the spec, talents and whatnot, but, we're Death Knights. We're the only hero class in the game. We're supposed to be different. Ok. QQ over.
- Our plan is to move the most interesting and fun tanking talents and abilities to Blood. For example, you will likely see Vampiric Blood and Will of the Necropolis remain, while Bone Shield will move over from Unholy.
Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses
Blood
Damage reduction
Vengeance
Healing Absorption
Frost
Melee damage
Melee Haste
Runic Power Generation
Unholy
Melee damage
Melee and spell critical damage
Disease Damage
Healing Absorption: When you heal yourself, you'll receive an additional effect that absorbs incoming damage.
Runic Power Generation: This will function as the name implies, and the new rune system will make generating Runic Power more appealing.
Disease Damage: Unholy death knights will be able to get more out of their diseases, which are integral to the tree's play style.
Vengeance: This new mechanic is designed to ensure that tank damage output (and therefore threat) doesn't fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will grant a stacking Attack Power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character's unbuffed health. For boss encounters, we expect that tanks will always have an Attack Power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Blood tree; these values will be smaller at lower levels.
You only get the Vengeance bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Blood tree, so you won't see Frost or Unholy death knights running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to design tank gear more or less the way we do today; there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so their Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but the goal is that all four tanks will do about the same damage when tanking.
MOAR Diseases .... Bring it! (I'm subtly ignoring the blood tanking bits for now).
Stoppable Force has more detail and is a little bit more cynical than me, but he's also thought about it more so if you find my sweeping generalisations too, well general, head on over there.
And of course, I can't let this sort of thing go by without mentioning Skeleton Jack. Simply because he's got about 3 posts on the changes including one where he's just answering comments, some people have too much time. Also more skeptical, Skeleton Jack talks about Blizz rewriting the class as a whole. I can see his point, in the end though, so much of this is subject to change, I'm not going to cry about the sky-falling, well not just yet.
You can read the all the changes and further blue comments at the Blizz Cata Forums.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Raid Boss Puzzles
Last week I asked, "Why do you raid?" and I mentioned why I raid. I also asked the question of my guild mates. The answers followed a general theme, following the lore of the game, working with a group of friends, downing bosses, getting cool achievements. There was one answer which stood out to me and it was something I had not thought about before.
One of my guildies said "I like puzzles. Each raid boss is a puzzle and so my primary reason for raiding is to solve the puzzle." He went on to say that the fact that to solve the puzzle he has to work with 9 other people brings in "interesting social dynamics, that with the right combination of people, can be very rewarding." For me this is a very fresh look at why people raid and one which could provide some great insight into why my own raid group is not progressing as fast as I would like.
I'm now thinking about how I can solve these puzzles and which ones I have enjoyed most so far. Apart from the astounding geekgasm I had when we dropped the evil Emporer Twins, I think my most enjoyable win was dropping Gluth. We'd wiped twice and I was "kiting" the zombies. Except I wasn't. I was just holding aggro and standing there getting hit. When we went over the strat again, it clicked. I'd been so focussed on keeping them from Gluth I'd forgotten to move! As I wandered round the back of the room, spamming DnD, and busting all my tank spec cooldowns, I wasn't even watching Gluth fade to a big dopey dead doggie. Our raid healer who was with me and I were both caught by surprise when the shouts went out on TS. OMG! He's down! That little penny dropping in my head made all the difference on that fight. That's how puzzles work. One moment of inspiration can solve it in a flash.
Would love to know who your favourite "puzzles" have been, do leave me a comment.
Till next time,
Deme the Puzzler
One of my guildies said "I like puzzles. Each raid boss is a puzzle and so my primary reason for raiding is to solve the puzzle." He went on to say that the fact that to solve the puzzle he has to work with 9 other people brings in "interesting social dynamics, that with the right combination of people, can be very rewarding." For me this is a very fresh look at why people raid and one which could provide some great insight into why my own raid group is not progressing as fast as I would like.
I'm now thinking about how I can solve these puzzles and which ones I have enjoyed most so far. Apart from the astounding geekgasm I had when we dropped the evil Emporer Twins, I think my most enjoyable win was dropping Gluth. We'd wiped twice and I was "kiting" the zombies. Except I wasn't. I was just holding aggro and standing there getting hit. When we went over the strat again, it clicked. I'd been so focussed on keeping them from Gluth I'd forgotten to move! As I wandered round the back of the room, spamming DnD, and busting all my tank spec cooldowns, I wasn't even watching Gluth fade to a big dopey dead doggie. Our raid healer who was with me and I were both caught by surprise when the shouts went out on TS. OMG! He's down! That little penny dropping in my head made all the difference on that fight. That's how puzzles work. One moment of inspiration can solve it in a flash.
Would love to know who your favourite "puzzles" have been, do leave me a comment.
Till next time,
Deme the Puzzler
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Four noobs. One world. The World of Warcraft.
In early 2009 four people were drawn to a world. A world like no other. The World of Warcraft. Four plate wearing noobs, 1 Pally, 3 Warriors. 1 short arse dwarf, 3 ‘creative choice’ humans. 1 girl and 3 boys. This is the story of how they met.
Gnolls in Redridge.
They had ventured far and wide into this new world, criss-crossing each others paths but some how always missing each other. Until one fateful day, when they found themselves in the forge, or in the inn or on the bridge at Lakeshire and in need of help. Some how those gnolls, that had been running wild on the River’s Edge in Elwynn and were trying to take over Westfall, were now up to their evil shenanigans in the Redridge Mountains.
Having been duped into thinking that Hogger was a normal adversary at an earlier age, these brave knights were more wary of this new foe. To go into battle alone would be certain death. ‘But how to find others willing and able to venture into battle?’ pondered one of the warriors as she walked towards the bridge.
“CAN ANYONE HELP ME WITH GNOLLS?” bellowed the Fearless Warrior.
Nothing. No reply. But there was a strange ginger chap in the forge, would he help? Maybe one more shout before I try asking him though the warrior.
“Can anyone help me with gnolls?’ A little more polite this time.
“Sure, I will”. It was non-other than the ginger haired chap from the forge. ‘Just let me finish smelting this copper’.
‘Great thanks!’ said the Fearless Warrior, thinking ‘Smelting copper?? What the hell is he talking about? This bloke is clearly bonkers.’
‘Maybe we should get some more people’ said the Ginger Chap. ‘I can tank but we might need some more’.
‘Ok, how about that guy over there?’ Fearless Warrior pointed to the other side of the bridge where a guy was doing funny things to some green, finned fish things with a big hammer. The Ginger Chap agreed and off they went to ask Hammer Guy. Hammer Guy also had to go and investigate the gnolls and was frankly glad of the break from hitting the vicious, green, finned fish things.
A quick stop at the inn for supplies and the band of three headed up the hill away from the town.
“Wait! Wait for me!” The Fearless Warrior, Ginger Chap and Hammer Guy turned to see a funny little squat man running up the hill behind them. “I too am on the great quest for gnolls, can I join you?” He was rather muscular and looked very strong for such a small man. Something about him told the group that he would bring a certain x-factor to their expedition. So the group of three now became four. Fearless Warrior, Ginger Chap, Hammer Guy and Shortstuff.
They’d not been walking long when suddenly a bolt of lightning hit the back of Fearless Warrior.
“YEEEOOWWW!!” she squealed as the knights all pivoted to see where it had come from. 3 tall, fat, ugly ogres were advancing up the hill behind them with a mean look in their eyes.
“Stand back fair maiden!” ordered Shortstuff, “I will protect you!”
“You won’t! I will!” snapped Ginger Chap.
Fearless Warrior calmly strode in front of the arguing knights and swung her sword at the first Ogre.
“Stop arguing and come help!” She yelled over her shoulder. Which was a mistake, she turned back to see the Ogre’s shield coming hard at her head.
Hammer guy watched as Fearless Warrior got slammed to the ground with his heart in his mouth. Green, finned, fishy things flashed through his mind and he could vaguely hear the dwarf and warrior arguing with each other.
“RAWR!” He let out an almighty cry and ran towards Fearless Warrior swinging his big hammer over his head and eye-balling the ogre who had shield-smashed her.
The noise shook Shortstuff and Ginger Chap out of their argument and they finally realised what was going on.
The hammer struck the ogre’s shield and it shattered into small pieces around Hammer Guy. The ogre was not happy but Hammer Guy was in the zone now and he just kept swinging. Another swipe and the ogre took a smashing blow to the head, Hammer Guy heard the bone crack under his might and he knew the ogre was losing. One more powerful swing and his foe sunk to the ground like an over-bloated blue balloon.
Ginger Chap had moved in to the second ogre, the one who had cast the lightning bolt at Fearless Warrior. The ogre was doing something with his hands and Ginger Chap could see something black and fizzing forming in the space between them. Before the ogre could cause any more damage Ginger Chap charged and sliced up with his sword. In one stroke he took off the ogre’s left arm. The ogre had a look of disbelief and horror on his face as he watched the blood pump out of his arm. He decided not to stick around a made to make his escape.
Shortstuff appeared from nowhere and vaulted onto the back of the fleeing ogre. In one clean motion he lifted the ogre’s head and slit open it’s throat. The ogre crumpled and Shortstuff bounced off him and ran back to the group.
Ginger Chap looked round to see that Shortstuff had already killed the third ogre whilst he had been in the midst of battle. Looking back to Shortstuff he must have looked incredulous because Shortstuff said,
“Never seen a dwarf fight before laddie?!”
“I’ve never seen anyone fight like that before!” marvelled Ginger Chap.
“Stick with me, I’ll see ya right.” Shortstuff grinned as he walked past Ginger Chap to where Hammer Guy and Fearless Warrior were.
Hammer Guy began murmuring some words under his breath as he looked down at Fearless Warrior.
“What’s he doing?” Ginger Chap mumbled.
“Ssshh lad, he needs to concentrate” replied Shortstuff.
Seconds later a soft glow began to come from Hammer Guy’s hands as he moved them along and above Fearless Warrior’s body.
“Urrghhh, what happened?” Fearless Warrior came round and asked.
“You got shield slammed lassie” replied Shortstuff.
“Oh. Then what woke me up?” Fearless Warrior felt surprisingly well for being shield slammed and whacked with a lightning bolt.
“I did” said Hammer Guy.
“But how?” asked Ginger Chap, “You’re a warrior just like us and we can’t do that”
“No, I am a paladin. I can heal you.”
After the exertion of the fight, this last revelation was big news. The four had a bite to eat to recover their energy and discussed how they had all come to be in Lakeshire and on this great quest. It was getting late so they decided to move off the road slightly and make camp for the night. Who knew what adventures lay ahead for them.
This is just a little tribute to my three noob friends on our WoW Anniversary. One husband and two brothers. Love ya guys.
Gnolls in Redridge.
They had ventured far and wide into this new world, criss-crossing each others paths but some how always missing each other. Until one fateful day, when they found themselves in the forge, or in the inn or on the bridge at Lakeshire and in need of help. Some how those gnolls, that had been running wild on the River’s Edge in Elwynn and were trying to take over Westfall, were now up to their evil shenanigans in the Redridge Mountains.
Having been duped into thinking that Hogger was a normal adversary at an earlier age, these brave knights were more wary of this new foe. To go into battle alone would be certain death. ‘But how to find others willing and able to venture into battle?’ pondered one of the warriors as she walked towards the bridge.
“CAN ANYONE HELP ME WITH GNOLLS?” bellowed the Fearless Warrior.
Nothing. No reply. But there was a strange ginger chap in the forge, would he help? Maybe one more shout before I try asking him though the warrior.
“Can anyone help me with gnolls?’ A little more polite this time.
“Sure, I will”. It was non-other than the ginger haired chap from the forge. ‘Just let me finish smelting this copper’.
‘Great thanks!’ said the Fearless Warrior, thinking ‘Smelting copper?? What the hell is he talking about? This bloke is clearly bonkers.’
‘Maybe we should get some more people’ said the Ginger Chap. ‘I can tank but we might need some more’.
‘Ok, how about that guy over there?’ Fearless Warrior pointed to the other side of the bridge where a guy was doing funny things to some green, finned fish things with a big hammer. The Ginger Chap agreed and off they went to ask Hammer Guy. Hammer Guy also had to go and investigate the gnolls and was frankly glad of the break from hitting the vicious, green, finned fish things.
A quick stop at the inn for supplies and the band of three headed up the hill away from the town.
“Wait! Wait for me!” The Fearless Warrior, Ginger Chap and Hammer Guy turned to see a funny little squat man running up the hill behind them. “I too am on the great quest for gnolls, can I join you?” He was rather muscular and looked very strong for such a small man. Something about him told the group that he would bring a certain x-factor to their expedition. So the group of three now became four. Fearless Warrior, Ginger Chap, Hammer Guy and Shortstuff.
They’d not been walking long when suddenly a bolt of lightning hit the back of Fearless Warrior.
“YEEEOOWWW!!” she squealed as the knights all pivoted to see where it had come from. 3 tall, fat, ugly ogres were advancing up the hill behind them with a mean look in their eyes.
“Stand back fair maiden!” ordered Shortstuff, “I will protect you!”
“You won’t! I will!” snapped Ginger Chap.
Fearless Warrior calmly strode in front of the arguing knights and swung her sword at the first Ogre.
“Stop arguing and come help!” She yelled over her shoulder. Which was a mistake, she turned back to see the Ogre’s shield coming hard at her head.
Hammer guy watched as Fearless Warrior got slammed to the ground with his heart in his mouth. Green, finned, fishy things flashed through his mind and he could vaguely hear the dwarf and warrior arguing with each other.
“RAWR!” He let out an almighty cry and ran towards Fearless Warrior swinging his big hammer over his head and eye-balling the ogre who had shield-smashed her.
The noise shook Shortstuff and Ginger Chap out of their argument and they finally realised what was going on.
The hammer struck the ogre’s shield and it shattered into small pieces around Hammer Guy. The ogre was not happy but Hammer Guy was in the zone now and he just kept swinging. Another swipe and the ogre took a smashing blow to the head, Hammer Guy heard the bone crack under his might and he knew the ogre was losing. One more powerful swing and his foe sunk to the ground like an over-bloated blue balloon.
Ginger Chap had moved in to the second ogre, the one who had cast the lightning bolt at Fearless Warrior. The ogre was doing something with his hands and Ginger Chap could see something black and fizzing forming in the space between them. Before the ogre could cause any more damage Ginger Chap charged and sliced up with his sword. In one stroke he took off the ogre’s left arm. The ogre had a look of disbelief and horror on his face as he watched the blood pump out of his arm. He decided not to stick around a made to make his escape.
Shortstuff appeared from nowhere and vaulted onto the back of the fleeing ogre. In one clean motion he lifted the ogre’s head and slit open it’s throat. The ogre crumpled and Shortstuff bounced off him and ran back to the group.
Ginger Chap looked round to see that Shortstuff had already killed the third ogre whilst he had been in the midst of battle. Looking back to Shortstuff he must have looked incredulous because Shortstuff said,
“Never seen a dwarf fight before laddie?!”
“I’ve never seen anyone fight like that before!” marvelled Ginger Chap.
“Stick with me, I’ll see ya right.” Shortstuff grinned as he walked past Ginger Chap to where Hammer Guy and Fearless Warrior were.
Hammer Guy began murmuring some words under his breath as he looked down at Fearless Warrior.
“What’s he doing?” Ginger Chap mumbled.
“Ssshh lad, he needs to concentrate” replied Shortstuff.
Seconds later a soft glow began to come from Hammer Guy’s hands as he moved them along and above Fearless Warrior’s body.
“Urrghhh, what happened?” Fearless Warrior came round and asked.
“You got shield slammed lassie” replied Shortstuff.
“Oh. Then what woke me up?” Fearless Warrior felt surprisingly well for being shield slammed and whacked with a lightning bolt.
“I did” said Hammer Guy.
“But how?” asked Ginger Chap, “You’re a warrior just like us and we can’t do that”
“No, I am a paladin. I can heal you.”
After the exertion of the fight, this last revelation was big news. The four had a bite to eat to recover their energy and discussed how they had all come to be in Lakeshire and on this great quest. It was getting late so they decided to move off the road slightly and make camp for the night. Who knew what adventures lay ahead for them.
This is just a little tribute to my three noob friends on our WoW Anniversary. One husband and two brothers. Love ya guys.
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