JOUST - Wow Version

This is a video I made of my shaman Raikey, whom I plan to level to 85 so she can heal dungeons when I'm not in the mood to tank or dps on my druid. It will bring my total of max level characters to 4, the first being my druid, the other two are a hunter and mage. Might level a death knight someday, I have one in the works at the moment, but I'm neglecting it for the time being.

But I digress! This video is that of a quest chain in Mount Hijal. My character was level 81 when I did this, and while I was I decided to load my video capture and record my gameplay. Then I edited it and used Muse's song "Supermassive Black Hole", which I hope they won't mind, I did this for fun after all.

The quest is based on the old 2D arcade game of Joust, and it took several tries in when I first started playing it months ago to get used to it. Maneuvering is very much different from actually flying. In this particular quest line, you have to press the #4 button to make the mount flap his wings, and to move in a different direction, you have to turn to face the direction you want to go in and flap to start moving that way. If anything, it's a more challenging way to fly. Take that and add to the fact you have to joust down flying opponents with fireballs and streams of lava all over the place.

I personally think they should have added a hard mode where there actually is an unbeatable pterrodax that chases you around and can one-shot you if you get hit buy it. Well, not kill you, but it would make you dismount and be ported back to the mounts so you can remount and try again. When you take off, you have a five second grace period before the winged monster comes after you! ^_^

The Holy Crusade - level 25 Guild... at last!

The Alliance Guild Mounts, complete with symbols on banners.

 LEVEL 25, YAY!

It feels like it took forever, but our guild finally reached level 25. I suppose now that our guild experience is capped we feel a little disappointed. I had to think about it for a moment, and reaching the highest guild level is probably the same as reaching the highest level as a character. Owlaf is level 85, and now that she can't earn more experience, the only thing left to do is grind. You run dungeons and you collect things, build up armor and weapons, make lots of gold... and friends. =)

The Perk Reward: Mass Rez

I guess you can say that the best reward from this experience is being able to mass rez. Mass Rez, short for Mass Resurrection, is an ability I first saw in Wrath of the Lich King, and it wasn't performed by a player, but rather by a non-playable character. The scene was the final battle on top of Icecrown Citadel, the frozen throne from which Arthas ruled from. Arthas was the Lich King, a dark human who had been tempted and twisted by evil forces to become the leader of the Scourge, which is comprised of undead minions who blindly serve their master: the Lich King. During the battle, the Lich King used unholy magic and, in a dishonorable and just plain evil manner, he killed every hero in the group, myself included. As our bodies lay there on the cold floor, the Lich King gloated and started to resurrect the heros to become his minions. We were able to overcome every challenge set before us, and he planned to use us for his own. We were very powerful indeed, and the Lich King planned to use us as his slaves to destroy Azeroth.

But we had an ace in the hole. Tirion broke free and used his blade to shatter Arthas' sword. When that was done, the souls trapped in the blade were freed, and one of them was Terenas Menethil II, who was Arthas' father. And it was Terenas who brought me and my allies back to life. While all the other souls held Arthas immobile, the rest of us were able to kill Arthas and end his reign. Bolvar donned the Helm of the Lich King, and became master of the scourge and is now holding it in check. Bolvar Foredragon is now known as the Jailor of the Damned, and he bid the adventurers to never return to the frozen throne and told Tirion that he must be forgotten.

Tirion returned home and had a statue of all this erected in Dalaran so all could remember the evil of Arthas and Bolvar's noble sacrifice... "must be forgotten" eh? I bet Bolvar did a facepalm when he heard about this statue!

Rasput to the left, myself, Owlaf, on the right.

Well, at any rate, the massive resurrection spell cast was probably the coolest thing ever, and to be cast while in combat. Dude. As a druid, I can only battlerez one person at a time, and now only once, every ten minutes and... only one can be used per fight. So if I rezed somebody in a ten man dungeon and another person dies, they're stayin' dead! >.<

Now the guild perk for Mass Rez is available. So let's say we all die, but I manage to avoid death by shadowmelding into the background. When the combat ends, I can come out of hiding and cast Mass Rez, thus bringing everyone back to life to nub it up all over again. This gives you a debuff, making it impossible to be mass rezzed again for another ten minutes, but I doubt that's necessary.

At the top of the mountain

Well, now that the guild has reached such a high level, some people think that maybe there's nothing else to do. I disagree. We can run raids and do dungeons. We can grind reputations and do daily quests. We can farm materials and create items. The game is still going. It never ends. At the moment, the highest guild level is 25. Once upon a time the highest level  players could reach was 60, and today it's 85. In the future, I imagine they'll come out with new challenges and new guild perks, new levels to gain to unlock them. Heck, they're coming out with a new magical staff that the guild could work on. Unfortunately it means a lot of teamwork and completing every single raid in the Cataclysm world... so I might not lay my hands on that particular weapon until it's out of date.

In the meantime, we have things to do. We reached the top of this mountain. I'd say in the real world, you reflect on your journey and think back on what you truly accomplished, and feel the satisfaction of what you have done.

In world of warcraft though, you can do so much more...

From the top of a mountain, a mage can slow fall from it, floating down safely. Priests can do that too with levitation. Engineers can jump off and use their parachute that they tinkered into their cloaks. Druids can jump off the mountain, turn into a storm crow, and just fly away. Everyone else can either fall to their demise only to resurrect themselves at a graveyard, or they can climb onto the backs of their favorite flying steed and soar. Gryphons, wyverns, hippogriffs, flying carpets, gyrocopters, nether rays, rockets, or dragons. You can decide.

I'd say the sky is the limit... but we reached Outlands too, which is another planet... Hmm... Maybe we ought to reach for the stars next. =)

-Owl

From Left to Right: Chantdust, Grampss, Owlaf, Borgin, Momia, Sweetaboo