Letters from WOW

[Gnasch]

It was raining again. It had rained constantly since Averoth and I arrived from Coldwind a week ago. The rumors in Coldwind had been vague about the bounty, except for the reward offered, they were all clear on that, 100 Gold to any party that could rid the small mountain city of its current scourge. Since that was more than likely a years income for this little logging village we were intrigued. It got really interesting when we arrived to find out that several parties had tried to varying degrees of failure. We saw the Dwarf fighters leaving, wild eyed and not saying much as they scampered out of town. Averoth looked at them, its hard to rattle him, but then again anything that could scare off a Dwarf raid party wasnÂ?t anything that we wanted to tackle alone. We met a Priestess of Krian at the Blue Dragon Inn the night we arrived. She was here looking into the matter for her temple, after talking she agreed to go with us over the next few days while we scouted around. She also filled us in on what me were looking for. As the loggers tell it, a month ago they started hearing strange noises in the forest, wicked noises, screams and strange lights flashing in the night. Then they started to find bears, dead bears, disemboweled bears, mutilated bears, sometimes in twoÂ?s and threes. None of the loggers had been attacked but as you can imagine, they saw what this thing did to the bears and many refused to go back to the logging camps in the high mountain areas. The first party hired by the mayor had never returned, of course he made the bad call of paying half up front. Jannah the priestess believes that they took the money and ran. The second group however werenÂ?t as lucky, no payment up front. They lost a fighter and their druid before being able to retreat back to town and flee back down the mountain. All they would say was that the darkness had risen up against them, fire and lightning had surrounded them and mad manic laughter chased them all the way back to town. A hero I am not, but 100 gold is more than three months pay and Averoth isnÂ?t scared of much so there we were.
That same night two Huntresses from Darnassus arrived. Tall and exotic, both women entered the inn and looked at the rest of us as only an Elf can. Like we were bugs ready to be squashed. Ignoring them, Averoth and I turned back to our drinks, we heard Jannah talking and turned to see her standing in front of the Night Elves. Jannah isnÂ?t terribly tall for a human female, the Night Elves towered over her. She spoke to them in Elvish, the Elves looked at her in that same bug squashing stare. Jannah pointed to us, Averoth gave a wave and a goofy grin as they looked over. Try as I might to stay stoic, I felt buggish under their gaze, Averoth however cant think above his waistline and was openly staring at the two Elves. I cast a glance at them, they were exotic, taller than I was, clad in their tight forest garb, enough to make a man think twice. Unlike Averoth however I have seen Huntresses at work. That sexy green and brown outfit they wear, while attractive in town, blends like magic in the forest. Standing still you could sit on them and never know the difference until she explained things to you with the point of a knife. In Calmdor I saw a Huntress take down a Wyvern at 200 yards, she fired so fast that there were three arrows in the air at the same time. One in each eye, one in the mouth and three in the heart, the beast dropped dead at her feet, she never even blinked. I turned back to my ale, comfortable in the fact that I could find some nice tame human girl if the fancy took me.
Jannah came back to the bar and told us that the Huntresses were going after the scourge the next morning, they thought it amusing that a little band of humans was going to try to tackle it on their own and had graciously agreed to let us tag along. I certainly didnÂ?t feel like tagging along, nor did I want to split the reward money, but five is a much better number than 3 and Averoth was nodding his ok like his neck was broken.
We ended up here, in the rain and mud. Six days in the gloom and dripping forest. We had seen plenty of signs of whatever was lurking around these woods. Whatever it was it certainly wasnÂ?t from this side of the ocean. It reeked of evil, you could feel it in the trees and smell it in the air. The Huntresses, I called them Betty and Bobbi, I cant ever pronounce those goofy names they have, had come back from scouting just after dark. So far I hadnÂ?t heard them speak a word of common, only elvish and Jannah was the only one here that understood them, so Averoth and I were the last to know.

Â?TiarÂ?Lirua says that she thinks whatever is out there is coming this way.Â? Jannah said as she came back from her little conference. Â?She found some odd tracks and more dead bears.Â? Tiar whatever, that was Betty she was talking about.

Â?How does she know that its what were looking for?Â? Averoth mumbled around a dried up piece of bread.

Â?There is a trail of death that this thing leaves behind it. All the grass and plants where it walks have died, and there are the bears.Â?

Â?Why bears?Â? I asked. Â?Why not kill everything? I mean this thing is leaving a path of dead foliage and bears but nothing else. It doesnÂ?t make sense.Â? Just then we heard a loud commotion on the north side of our camp, twords the trail that Betty said the thing would come down. By the time I stood up the two elves were gone, disappeared into the woods. An eerie feeling came over me, the forest grew quiet, even the breeze seemed to stop. Then, just when the silence was deepest a bear screamed once and then was quiet.

Â?Is that it?Â? I tried to say quietly. Jannah turned and glared at me then motioned that we were to follow the elves into the woods. Averoth was to my left, I could barely make him out in the darkness, the two elves were nowhere to be seen. Slowly we moved through the brush, trying to be quiet. Then we heard the twang of bowstrings. Maniacal laughter echoes through the forest, green light flashed up ahead, then white. Trees ahead of us burst into flames throwing odd dancing shadows making it hard to see what was real and what was not. Bows twanged again and again, I could tell that the huntresses were on the move and moving fast. Lightning again lit the night, this time off to the left. Giving up all pretense of stealth I stood and began running through the branches and leaves toward the sound of the fighting. I could hear Jannah behind me and Averoth was shouting some stupid war cry that he heard in a minstrels tale in Silverwind last year. Green light again flared, this time closer, laughter echoed through the trees. I approached a deadfall just as Betty and Bobbi came hurling over it, Betty fell and rolled and kept on going. So much for elvish composure. Shouting at the top of my lungs I leapt over the deadfall and crashed into nothing. It wasnÂ?t nothing of course or I wouldnÂ?t have crashed into it. It was a darkness that seemed to rise up out of the ground. The wind knocked out of me I looked up to see the darkness standing above me. Inky shadows swirled around and red molten eyes glared at me. It laughed again that sick, insane laugh. I heard Averoth calling my name and Jannah running towards us. The thing held up its hands and green globes of fire pulsed. I could see that it wasnÂ?t darkness but a blackened skeleton, it raised its hands high in the air and I kicked it in its middle. The green lights went out and the thing turned to flee, it gave a gruesome laugh and took of faster than I could have thought possible. I leapt from the ground to chase it when it ran right into the tree in front of it. The maniacal laugh was a little warbly now as it staggered from the collision. I looked hard at the thing milling around, holding its head. Bears. Of course, it was so simple I donÂ?t know how I could have overlooked it. I stood straight and took off my helm

Â?Larry! You moron.Â? Larry looked over at me and smiled, one of his skeletal teeth fell out onto the ground. Jannah came running into the small clearing. She began to chant and call upon energies to smite the wicked creature.

Â?DonÂ?t bother.Â? I said as I smacked her hand down. Larry was running around in small circles now trying to hold the rest of his teeth in his head.

Â?Stop running around you idiot!Â? I walked over and picked up the tooth that he had lost.

Â?Here.Â? I said and handed his tooth back. Â?Your supposed to be in Freeport.Â? I shouted. Â?You were supposed to stay there, I gave you away to Dak with all the other stuff!Â? Larry hung his head.

Â?You ran away didnÂ?t you! Bad Larry!Â? Jannah was looking at me like I had grown another head.

Â?You know this thing?Â? She asked, looking from Larry to me and then back again. Just then Averoth stormed into the clearing, sword raised. He looked at Larry sitting on the ground trying to stick his tooth back into his head and started laughing.

Â?He picked a fine time to get a sense of direction didnÂ?t he.Â? Averoth laughed, he had seen Larry many a time on the battlefield. Larry stood up, he had jammed his tooth back in with some twigs and branches, it looked like some crazy birds nest he half swallowed.

Â?What IS this thing?Â? Jannah demanded, her hands on her hips.

Â?Jannah, this is Larry, Larry, Jannah.Â? Larry responded by trying to bow, the branches became tangled with his leg bones and he spent a few desperate minutes disentangling himself.

Â?Larry is a Grim Spellbinder.Â? I said as he finally straightened up, a branch firmly stuck between his femur and hip. He started to laugh but remembered his tooth and grabbed his mouth with both hands, what came out was a muffled giggle.

Â?HeÂ?s sooo cute!Â? Jannah said as put her staff on the ground and sat on a log. Â?Where did he come from?Â?

Â?Freeport.Â? I said rather disgusted with the whole situation. Â?He isnÂ?t supposed to be here.Â? By then the huntresses had returned, either to claim part of the kill that they had run away from or pick over our bones. They said something in elvish, Jannah replied and pointed and said Â?LarryÂ?, they both looked at each other and sat down next to Jannah.

Â?See, they think heÂ?s cute to. Were going to keep him.Â? Larry got a stupid grin on his face. Its hard to tell but its there.

Â?You cant keep him. You wouldnÂ?t want to keep him. HeÂ?s a walking accident!Â? Averoth shook his head and started walking back to camp.

Â?I can to keep him if I want. Cant I Larry.Â? Larry nodded and leaves scattered everywhere from the branch caught in his collar bone.

Â?Fine then, keep him!Â? I shouted. I stalked off after Averoth. SWG I thought to myself, he cant follow me there. Sure, a space ship and some light speed and IÂ?m rid of him, but all I could think of was Larry in a space suit.

[Mike]

Gnasch you rock man, you had me thinking this was a serious story at the start and then I was LMAO at the end. Hope you are doing well and enjoying your new game.
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[Kaerai]

LOL! That was great!
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[Guest]

At first glance this game was an improvement over EQ. There were several enhancements and items that seemed to make this a better game. Unfortunatly its not turning out to be so.

Although the game is geared towards individual play, with an emphasis on PVP, the quests are clunky and the 'elite' quests require a group which is hard to put together.

The mob's are hard to deal with, there is no indication if its a group mob or a single. The stun attack delt by most of the mobs lets out any running away. Two or more at once and you might as well give it up.

There are limited armor and spell options, a single spell is locked in until you can level up, as opposed to being able to buy enhancments once you have gained the spell.

The priest char that I run is almost usless. Since there is no penalty for dying there is really no incentive to carry a healer around with you when you do group.

The combat isnt locked, meaning that another character with a higher aggro can take your mob after youve beaten it down pretty good, which happens quite a bit.

The trains are the worst. Its an indication of the type of player that is in WOW. There are some players that get no end of enjoyment out of following you around and taining mobs into you. Theres nothing you can do. The mobs aggro to you as they are returning to thier postion. There are several 30+ chars in the newbie area doing nothign but slamming the lower level characters like this.

This leads me to the final problem, one that invariable leads me to the uninstall option on the WOW folder.

My daughter was playing in EQ as well as my son, both of them are younger. I never had a problem while they were playing. My daugter called me over. I cant repeat here some of the things that were in the tell's but its wasnt appropriate for a 14 year old.

So it looks like im on my way back to EQ, with Larry saftley away in WOW, he should get on famously with these people, I think I will try out Quenyos this time.

Gnasch

[Buchalter]

I have no idea what game you were playing... but what you described above is the absolute OPPOSITE of the game I play... and I've been playing World of Warcraft since the day they launched it?!?

Honestly, a lot of what you said isn't even "possible" the way the game mechanics are. Kill Stealing and Training are next to impossible in WoW. Once a person engages a MOB, that MOB turns grey to other players, so they get no experience for killing the MOB and they can't loot it once it does. I have no idea how anyone would have stole your kills. It's just against the mechanics of the game.

Training is also next to impossible, (I have a 60 Paladin, and I can attest that Paladins do have a spell that makes training possible, but I don't think any other character has a similar spell...) since MOBs don't agro people as they are returning to their spawn point. As a matter of fact, if you try to hit a MOB from a train that is returning to it's spawn point, you can't even do that. The MOB will "evade" the attack and return to it's original spawn point before you are able to engage it. Again, game mechanics make it almost impossible to train someone.

Getting groups is simple, ESPECIALLY as a Priest. I have a Priest alt that I've played to 15th level - so not very much - but 90% of the quests I did solo and the ones I needed help with I had NO trouble finding a group. Once you reach the higher levels and start going to instances, people are constantly looking for Priests. I've never been in a group or raid that didn't want a Priest.

As for whether you would allow your kids to play... the obscenity filter works great for that. And even with that option, I've rarely seen anything that is much worse than what I used to see in EQ or EQ2. You get that kind of behavior in all MMOG's, not just WoW. Personally, my 7 year old daughter has a character she plays with me now and then and I've never had any trouble. My Nephews, 10 and 14, both play as well and they love the game. Never had any trouble.

I wonder if you were playing on a PvP server? I've never played the PvP servers so I don't know... maybe the rules are different on those servers. Maybe you should have tried playing on a PvE server. Ah well. To each their own. I can understand if you don't like the game... everyone has their own tastes. EQ2 is a great game in it's own right. But I'm just real curious how you experienced these things in WoW, because in eight months of playing I've never seen ANY of what you describe.

[Guest]

I got trained several times in one day, I finally logged out. Character name was ManicMage, little gnome. The first time it happened I didnt know what it was, little guy kept following me around and doing it. All I know is what was happening. The guy would run around and aggro mobs and the next thing I know they are all on me. Especially in the mines.Go figure.

As far as the kills, I dont know if they are getting loot or not, but they are hitting the mob I've engaged, the monster aggros to them and they kill, no exp. This happened to me several time by groups of guild members. Especially in Westfall and the harvesters. I dont know if they were trying to run us off or what they were doing.

As far as the grouping for raids, I dont know, I hit level 14.
The looking for group channel I never get a response. I have been in quick groups, put together to do an elite quest, but as far as grouping on a regular basis I havent seen it. At least not the same way that it is on EQII.

As far as the obsenity, the filters arent keeping out most of the things that are going on. Could be the server that Im on. Its like Showtime at night. I never ran into that in EQ.

Bob, who used to be Akao in EQII loves the game. He dumped his EQII account the day he installed WOW. The guy that I gave my free trial to loves it to. Could be just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If I could afford to play both I might, theres enough of a difference between the two to keep them interesting. If I have to chose one I think its going to be EQ...

Gnasch

PS.. Killrogg server..

[Kaerai]

Come back Gnash! WE MISS YOU!
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