World of Warcraft

I haven’t been doing much xp grinding like I usually do. But I have ridden around Nagrand a bit to look around. My god, but there are a lot of quests in Outland! Walk into any little post and you’ll stumble into at least three quests. Hell, I got five quests from just one tauren, standing all alone, in Terrokar Forest.

I found the Ring of Blood in northern Nagrand. It’s a gladiatorial arena run by a goblin. Making it even more interesting is that it is in the middle of an ogre town. There are always at least a few PCs in the area, either killing ogres or going into the ring, or just spectating the fights.

The goblin gives you quests to fight elite enemies in the ring. He pays well—around 11 gold—for the fights, but they are tough and require a team of five characters.

When I first found the Ring, I picked up the quest from the goblin and he goaded me to get into the ring. I stood at the edge of the ring and looked in. Blood is splattered everywhere. A tauren PC whispered to me, “Don’t go in there. You’ll die quick.” So I backed up and watched a team go into the ring (including that tauren). Whoa nelly! Yeah, I would have died quick.

I haven’t yet fought in the Ring, though I joined a group to do so. I’ve been there a few times, and more than once saw a fight spill out of the Ring in into the spectators around. Plus, you have to watch out for the ogres in the town.

One time a giant void walker devastated the Alliance team that went in to battle it. A couple of the Allies tried to escape the ring and so brought the void out with them. Spectators, ogres, and the void all formed a chaotic melee—people running from the void, aggroing ogres, the void running back and forth through the area killing PCs, etc. In the end there were about 15 dead PCs around the place, and the void walker wasn’t killed. (I and my pet were both also dead.) That was freakin’ hilarious! I really like that place. :-)

Last night I found Aeris Landing — a Consortium base. Pretty cool; kind of a techy-like place. The Consortium are just cool, anyway. They’re sort of humanoid wind creatures in mummy wrappings.

I also went into Halaa. Another cool place, especially with the enemy fire bombing the area. Funny to see the guards standing around during the bombing, not seeming to care that they are on fire! I’m surprised at how often and how long the Horde manages to get and hold Halaa. Not at all like the Eastern Plaguelands towers. I’d say the Horde has the town about half the time I’m on.

Now that my hunter is level 66, I went back to Hellfire Peninsula to kill Azarius the Cruel, a 63 elite. I wanted to finish up that quest chain, and get honored reputation in Thrallmar. I figured I could take him now that I’m 3 levels higher than him. Nope. Son of a gun is TOUGH! I tried twice: both times my pet died and I had to Feign Death. I never got him below 75% health. I think he heals himself.

And on a general note: I don’t know how non-hunters get around and survive in WoW. The tracking ability is worth gold! Every time I play one of my other characters, I feel blind for not being able to see creatures on the mini map.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com