Blackrock Depths – Round 2

It is a good thing that I do not really believe in luck, curses, and other such superstitions, as I would surely say that last week’s post about Blackrock Depths jinxed us, and good.

Of course, it might have just been the easy time we had last time that made us cocky and careless. We went in as follows:

55 Warlock – Bungholio
55 Mage – Ula
55 Paladin – Vikund
56 Priest – Skronk
56 Warrior – Earlthecat

This time we had no trouble getting into the instance. In fact, things started off rather smoothly. We had to get to Marshall Windsor in the detention block to update a quest. We blazed a trail through to him without issue.

We then headed back to use the our shadowforge keys to take the side entrance into some of the content, our goal being to get to the bar and finish up the night with Lord Incentius.

As we moved within sight of the Dark Iron Highway, I was able to spot a big mob named Bael’Gar. Nobody in the party had bothered with him in the past, but since we were there, could see him, and there only appeared to be a couple of groups between us and him, we decided to pay him a visit.

Thus our trial began.

The few groups, that ended up being eight or nine groups, were all made up of five elite dark iron mobs, always consisting of at least one ranged guy and one medic. The medics were very big on healing and the ranged guys were very big on damage.

Having been to so lightly opposed up to this point, we jumped right in with “plan A,” which is generally stated as, “There they are, get them!”

We actually managed to muddle through the first battle, only losing Ula. Thinking that as only bad luck, we kept on our rather reckless course. The second time around, our crowd control, we always sheeped at least one mob, was left wandering in the middle of the Highway, and another patrol of five elite dark iron dwarves spotted it and headed in to assist.

Five of us on five elites… maybe. Five of us on ten elites can only spell wipe. So down we went.

Soul stone used for the first time of the night, we tried a little more care with our dark iron opponents. That kept us from another wipe, but we still lost a few casters on our trip down the dark iron highway.

The reason that the “few” groups ended up being eight or nine is that you can see Bael’Gar from quite a distance, but the dark iron patrols only come into focus as you get much closer.

Still, we eventually got to the point where it was us an Bael’Gar and just two more groups of dark iron heavies. Bael’Gar was in the middle, with a group, at some distance, to either side of him. By this point we had had it with dark iron dwarves and decided to risk it and see if we could just pull him and not get his friends.

Luck was with us for that moment, he came and the dwarves stayed put, oblivious to the slaughter going on only yards away.

Luck however, was fleeting.

Our battle with Bael’Gar went well. Here we are early in the battle, sticking it to him:

The sticking point came up with his minions. At various points throughout the fight, some… I will call them “satanic scrubbing bubbles,” a reference some of you will get and which will create almost the exact right mental image… show up to assist the big Bael’Gar.

But we did not really notice them until people started dying.

Then it became a race to kill off Bael’Gar before we all bought the farm. Bung, in a last shot managed to knock him off. The bubbles chased Skronk around, gave up, then went away.

So Skronk got back and revived us all. We looted Bael’Gar, skinned him for one of our many quests, took our victory shot, hard earned as it was, and then headed back the way we came.

That slog behind us, we headed towards the manufactory to find Golem Lord Argelmach.

Who, of course, also kicked out butts.

Well, he had help. Being the types that like to learn by doing, we worked our way through to him, cleared out some of the mobs in his area, then started in on him.

We needed to kill ALL of the mobs in his area. Otherwise, they all come and assist him.

Wiped again, Skronk used the fresh soul stone and then brought us all back to life, where we attempted to do this the right way. We cleared out the room thoroughly and then went after the Golem Lord, who obliged us by dying without killing too many of us. (I think Ula died again… but then we died so often, it is hard to recall.)

Vikund, who is an engineer, tried to grab the plans for Field Repair Bot 74A that sit on the floor near Argelmach. However, it appears that you need to have an engineering skill of 300 to even pick them up. Vikund was at 286. Thwarted again.

Then we looped back to pick off General Angerforge, who was the second half of the quest given to us by Marshall Windsor. Like Argelmach, he summons those close by during the fight, but this time we cleared the room first, then went after him and his four non-elite helpers.

After that, we made our way to the bar to clear out a couple more quests that included the head of Ribbly Screwsproket, which Skronk missed looting as his bags were full. But that is okay, as we have to go back there again.

There is a quest in the bar that opens the back door of the bar for you. To do this, you have to give some beer to one of the NPCs in the bar. We found the NPC, saw mugs of beer sitting on the counter, and took them.

Which turns the whole bar aggro.

You should buy the beer, not just take any beer you see, or so it seems.

So the five of us versus the whole bar… not a fair fight at all. Vikund actually avoided the initial battle by hiding in a corner, but that did not do much good. Even though he can revive the dead, he has to be able to get within range of them first, and his hiding place was at the opposite end of the bar, all of which was, as mentioned, aggro.

In the end, he had to die as well and we all ran back as ghosts and revived at the beginning of the instance.

By now it was getting late and the deaths were beginning to wear on us. Yes, the death penalty in WoW is primarily of inconvenience, but even that becomes a pain when it happens too often. We thought about getting back to Marshall Windsor to turn in our quest with him, but his part of the instance had already respawned. We put that off for another night.

Instead, we decided to knock off one more named, Lord Incendius.

There is, or rather was, a sneaky way to get to him. There is a passage over the bridge that leads to him. Apparently at some point in the past, you could avoid a lot of hassle by just jumping out of a window in the passage onto the bridge and heading directly to Incendius.

Now, however, there is a group of five elites standing about where you land. More dark iron dwarves.

I blame the lateness of the hour, but for no good reason, we decided that Bung should plink one of the guys below us, let them start running towards us, then we would jump down, be able to shake ourselves out into battle array, and be ready for the onslaught.

Not even good in theory, in practice the five dark iron dwarves came roaring back at us with about 40 of their closest friends. It seems that the closed gate between us and them was no obstacle at all.

So they kicked the snot out of us in about twelve seconds. Here is how it went. First, incoming:

Then, seconds later, heading back home:

I got off a consecrate with Vikund out of spite, which literally filled the air with little yellow damage numbers. Then we were all dead and the party went back to their places.

The upside was that Skronk had the presence of mind to move to the center of the bridge, safely away from all hostile mobs. (You can see his corpse is in a different position from his position in the first picture, unlike the rest of us.) So Skronk, reviving with yet another soul stone, brought us all back to life just out of range of the five dwarves (Grumpy, Angry, Fussy, Stabby, and Downright Hostile), where we buffed up yet again and began the last short trek to Incendius.

There was no more deaths on our part from that point forward. We knocked off his guardians, slew him, and were done for the night.

All of the quests we turned in gave big experience rewards, so that added in with the mob experience meant that we all gained a level for the second week in a row in Blackrock Depths.

We still have a bit left to do in Blackrock Depths. Another expedition should do it.

If luck is with us. If I have not jinxed us. If we don’t get too cocky.