Pawbuster, Venril Sathir, and Thuuga – Oh my!
stargrace 
Yesterday was busy. It was wow-this-must-be-a-Saturday busy. Today is also going to be busy (but Sunday should be blissfully quiet). How busy was it? Well I started out my gaming on Antonia Bayle – recovered from the giant data base issue that happened yesterday. The first portion of the day was spent arguing with players about the bonus achievement experience (20%) that was implemented for the weekend. No matter how many times I said “look, I just asked Brenlo himself, and he said it’s 20% aa!” that wasn’t good enough and 40 people would jump down my throat saying it was adventure experience too. The email said achievement only, the /motd in game was slightly more confusing (which is why I asked Brenlo to begin with). The only thing that bothers me in game to any great extent is when people give out the wrong answer or information towards something and then want to argue about their wrong answer. Pet peeve, if you will.
I’m creating and betraying a defiler over on Antonia Bayle, which means yet another epic to work up and spells to be bought. Thankfully my guild mates are the most incredible people I’ve ever met and they’re helping me out. I’m currently working faction for Neriak, as it’s the faster of the two available evil locations. It’s still slow, but I got a fair amount done last night.
After some dinner it was time to head to Oasis, where I ran the mission of the day (Anchor of Bazzul) on the illusionist and mystic, and then ran Obelisk of Ahkzul. No. The shield didn’t drop – but the mystic in group (not me) had it so I KNOW it’s out there.
Once instances were done it was time for a little break and then the real festivities of the night started. It was an off night, no real raids were scheduled which meant it was the perfect time to kill Pawbuster and Venril Sathir for my mystic updates. Calreth joined me (he doesn’t need the updates but it was nice to have the help) and while Pawbuster was an exceptionally easy fight, Venril Sathir took three attempts to work down because (surprise surprise) a few people were not paying attention – even after the nerf to the encounter.
It’s straight forward. At 90% he spawns some adds, burn them down. At 60% you have to start making sure your power does NOT go below 40% and throughout the fight two people will get a blue debuff on them that causes every spell you cast to drain your power. Chances are if you’re not paying attention and you suddenly find yourself without power, you’ve got the debuff. The key aside from curing yourself from a particularly nasty noxious effect, is to watch your detrimental window for that blue debuff. Only two people get it so it’s not a huge deal – but if you don’t watch for it, you’ll wipe the raid (more then likely). We had an easier time taking down this encounter with one group then we did with a full raid force because the more people who have to pay attention – the less who will. It seems to just work that way.
Eventually we got him down and my mystic is now only one update away from her mythical – which happens to be obtainable today. Later on there is a Leviathan and Veeshan’s Peak raid being formed up and I’ll hopefully be bringing along two characters (I’ve not yet decided if it will be the troubador or the illusionist) to get their updates. I’m excited. I’m leaning towards the illusionist, as she could really make use of the mythical, it allows her to cast her pet for no concentration. Not the largest amount of dps she has but a free pet is a free pet.
After Pawbuster and Venril Sathir we decided to two groups Thuuga for an update (assassin) we only had three healers so I thought we’d be a little behind as it was mostly alts tagging along (which means less dps) but the zone was not quite as painful as I remembered it, and it went smooth.
It was nearing midnight by that time, and everyone wanted to head to Spirits of the Lost – which is a level 50-60 raid zone located at the entrance to Cazic Thul (it used to be used in the Freeing of the Frogloks live event) I zoned the two groups in on my warden who has access, and then decided to call it a night and get some sleep. Tonight will be a long raid night, clearing out Leviathan (which is fairly quick at least) and then heading to Veeshan’s Peak. I’m really looking forward to it though, and looking forward to seeing all of those mythical updates!
Ah, sweet memories. Yesterday once my paladin reached level 60, I turned off experience so that I couldn’t level past that mark. I had volunteered to help Siege out in obtaining some extra achievements. I mentioned before that when EoF came out, the old achievements had been reset, so those who had not been to the old content and obtained aa from them back then, can now. Well, that consisted of pretty much every old T5 raid that rewarded aa, as well as a good portion of the ‘less then popular’ T6 raids (not counting the one that replicates shimmering citadel because most guilds farmed that one for status but wouldn’t farm the Djin Master’s Prism for example). If you’ve never been to Spirits of the Lost before, it’s a fun zone. It was REALLY hard back when level 50 was the cap, too. The zone was released along with the server wide quest to unlock the froglok race. I never beat it when 50 was the cap, in fact yesterday was the first time any one of my characters had completed it (and I didn’t even have the quest for the title so that sort of sucked). Even though it’s been years, the quests related to this server event are still there. The chain of quests gives fairly good aa (because you have to gain the trust of the frogloks) and also rewards a shiny house item. The final quest rewards a title, for saving the frogloks. 
My paladin got 6 just from that zone alone. The final boss to the zone of course is Venekor (who you also defeat again in KoS) and then finally Varanak the Everlasting. Since my group was mentored to level 60, and the three groups consisted of end game raiders for the most part, it took very little time to work our way through the raid zone, and it was a lot of fun. The loot was amusing, a lot of the named encounters would drop a whole slew of adepts and crafting rares, but nothing more. I remember when those crafting rares used to be *rare* and people would fight over who would get to have a few in their pocked when they left the raid. The same happened in DoF raids that would reward crafter bits, everyone would bid their dkp on them because it was just so difficult to farm any. Ah, I miss days like that, a lot.