We had a Sunday evening with everyone present and accounted for, now that Brian is back at his new home.The evening started well with four of us finishing up that flare-gun quest in Shadowmoon Valley, which went well except for the fact that we had to kill twice as many crazed crystal giants than we should have had to, and then I realized that I had left my flare gun in the bank and had to fly back to get it so I could finish the quest. Once Devin joined us and we got to listen to him talk on the phone with his band director for a while, we decided to try and finish another one of the three instances at Coilfang in Zangarmarsh. We had previously finished The Underbog, and thought we would give the Steamvault a go.
Our expedition to the Steamvault was less than successful. I don’t know if something was broken, or if we were just doing something terribly wrong, but all we ended up with was a huge sack of death and a double-digit repair bill.
I took this shot of our last pathetic attempt to make it more than a few yards into the vault. You can see how Bob is starting to try and resurrect us as we are sprawled out dead next to the bones of our bodies from the last time we were dead a few minutes before. The whole affair was very frustrating and seemed like a big waste of time and gold. I’m sure we will go back, but we will obviously need to do some research on the best way to tackle that section.
We soon regrouped and decided to give the Slave Pits a try. As soon as we entered the instance, we could see that our evening had taken a turn for the better. We killed more elite crustaceans than a lobster festival in Maine. The only time we had any trouble was when we fought Mennu the Betrayer without first clearing the area of spellcasters. We had some great comedic moments like when I fell off the stairs into the giant tank below. They really should put up a rail there. Devin also managed to fall into the tank later and had to swim around for a while before going all the way back around in order to get out.
We all got a little tired at the end, which is understandable, especially for poor Brian who suffers from a bad case of another time zone. It’s difficult to balance a thoughtful and well coordinated attack when everyone is tired and just wants to get done.
I think it might be a good idea for us to develop a standardized attack plan, so that we don’t have to talk about it every time. We could even give different plans cool names like Attack Pattern Bugbear, Regroup Plan Azeroth, or Retreat Maneuver Run Away Like Little Girls. I know Bob and I have gotten to this point where we sort of know what buffs we are casting without having to discuss it. There are times when things get bad and I will back off and just heal, but I know Bob and I are trying to keep and eye on each other as well as everyone else. I just know that we will have to have a new plan before we go back to the Steamvault. How do we get enough rep to get repaired there?
All in all, it was a fun evening as usual, even if we didn’t get any cool drops.
