jameydee | WoW Thoughts

grimmtooth--if you want to run Scarlet Monastery, it's divided up into 3 easy-to-manage parts. Only the third is a REAL time sink, the other two are fairly quick, so whenever you want to do it, honk on the guild channel. :) We can knock out a section pretty easily. We know our way around the Scarlet Monastery! The third part is best run on a weekend.

::sigh:: It really helps to run a dungeon the first time with someone who has done the dungeon successfully at least once... I ran most of Maraudon last night...repeatedly, but not intentionally. Follow:

I hung out my shingle in Ironforge ("57 Mage LFG for Maraudon"). It's really interesting--there are all kinds of societal politics in getting a group. A lot of the time, groups jump at having a high level damage dealer join them. I've gotten more than one "w00t!" when I've joined a group of lower levels. :) Then there are the ones I call "singletons." They advertise they are looking for a group--but they don't want to start the group. So in the same chat channel, you'll have people who broadcast their desire for a group--all of them wanting to do the same dungeon--but they 1) won't contact one another, or 2) won't create a group and invite the other people who want to do the same quest, and 3) won't respond to private messages asking them if they want to join or start a group. Evidently, they wish to join a group already formed and receive a gilt-edged invitation.

So I found an enthusiastic pick-up group last night--good players, but no one really knew their way around well. The dungeon is in three parts: orange, purple, and princess. In order to kill the evil giant princess, you have to create a wand in the orange and purple sides that opens a portal to the princess... I've already killed the princess with a previous group who had the wand, but I wanted to knock out the earlier quests and get my own portal wand.

We ran through the orange side--really nasty place, and got the diamond needed to create a sceptre that opens a portal to the princess. Then we ran through the purple side and three-quarters into the the place, ran into the person who puts the sceptre together...only, we realized belatedly, we were missing the rod that makes the base of the sceptre...and it was back in the orange side. So we RE-ran the orange side, and got the rod. We started re-running the purple side again, only now it was midnight, and people had to bail in order to get some sleep before work. Yes, it was a very sad and sorry chain of events. And to make matter worse, I picked up another quest in the process that required picking up 5 gems and an amulet. I had 4 gems and no amulet. So I now have 6 slots of new quest items on top of the other 15 quest-related items! On the bright side, everyone agreed to meet up again tonight to finish the quest once an for all!

Maraudon has some mouth-watering drops. I saw more blue items and very desirable green items than I have ever seen before in a single instance. I'm wearing two new pieces of armor from the dungeon, and I lost out on a fine pair of boots to the priest in the group.

You meet some whacky people in pick-up groups. One fellow admitted to hitting the bong before playing, then kept forgetting what quests we were working on. Periodically, he'd ask, "What quests are we doing here?" I'd patiently answer him. Then, 20 minutes later, he'd ask again. Finally, one of the other players called him on it, "Dude, you've asked like 6 times now!"

At one point, someone needed a bio-break--he then came back and described his successful bowel movement and the others congratulated him. Is this a guy thing?

High schoolers are particularly bad about gleefully announcing their need to void their bladders and bowels. People, I really don't want to hear about your waste disposal status--I just don't care. :)