This morning, I did something stupid. It was also the most exhilerating experience I’ve ever had playing WoW. More on that in a minute. First, the setup. I pretty routinely make the trek out to Hellfire Peninsula to mine some Fel Iron Ore and to knock out the dailies up on the Throne of Kil’jaeden. When I land in Honor Hold, I usually don’t pay much attention to the status of the towers. If the Allies have two and the Horde have one, so be it. It doesn’t make much difference to me. But if I see the little message, “The Horde have taken The Stadium,” it’s on like Donkey Kong. If the filthy Hordies have capped some towers prior to my arrival, so be it. But the towers aren’t going to fall on my watch. Well, if there are better-geared toons out there who excel at pwning clothies, then I guess technically the towers could fall on my watch. But they’re not going down without a fight.
This morning, when I landed in HH, I hopped right on the Ebon Gryphon and headed for the Throne of Kil’jaeden. With Wrath around the corner, I didn’t want to get stuck with a bunch of ore that I didn’t need. Plus, I forgot to grab the daily that requires the Nether Residue. Anyhow, as I approached the Throne, I saw that the Horde had taken Broken Hill. Since I had already flown so far, I went about my business, snagging the two dailies. As my Living Flame got closer to unstable, I noticed that The Stadium had gone grey on my map. Since I hadn’t even started Blood for Blood yet, I decided to wrap up my quest and fly down to check things out.
My trusty Ebon Gryphon and his tortuously slow 60% flight speed increase got me close enough to see a Tauren Hunter chilling on top of The Stadium, flagged PvP and capping the tower. I also noticed a Night Elf Druid closing in on him. As I landed, the Druid was pwning him silly. I dismounted and got in a couple of instant casts before he slumped to the ground, little more than ground beef. The Druid backed up and waited for our buddy to make the long journey back to his corpse. About a minute later, we both had another HK. We decided that one corpse camping was enough and returned to The Stadium to cap it all the way blue. After a short time, the Hunter returned, hovering just out of range of my fiery fury, but still flagged. He kept playing a little game that involved landing just out of our range, then taking off again as we closed in on him. This lasted at least five minutes before I returned to Broken Hill to tempt him into a one-on-one with my Druid buddy. Eventually, the battle commenced and we each had another HK. The Druid went stealth and I flew to The Overlook to take that baby all the way blue as well.
Sometime while I was chillin’ at The Overlook, my Druid partner in crime went AFK. So, you can imagine my surprise when The Stadium went grey and his little party dot was still planted firmly in the middle of it. I flew back and discovered the the bovine Huntard had returned with a Warlock friend. I… did not… live long. I ran back to my body, died, rinse, repeat. I had too much pride to just take the rez sickness and call it a day. On my third trip back to my body. I actually had time to get my buffs up and use Evocation to return to full health and mana before my attackers closed in. But this time, a level 70 Draenei Warrior jumped into the mix before I died. Make no mistake. I still died. I just got to watch a little bit of Horde-whuppin’ before I released. When I returned the fourth time, another Alliance toon had joined the fray and repelled the Horde advance. It was at this point that I called in our Guild Master, Zailor. By the time he arrived in HH, we were five strong.
Things got quiet for a few minutes before we noticed Broken Hill go grey again. We all mounted up and hauled ass to defend our tower. I got two killing blows before one of the Warlock’s DoT’s finished me off. By the time I got back to my body, the Horde assault had again been successfully defeated. At this point, we all just wanted to kill us some Horde. It wasn’t even about the towers anymore. We all split up and turned our defense team into a search party. Zailor was the first to break the silence, requesting all of us to be on him. He stated that he had spotted them and was pursuing them northwest. We all joined in on the chase. A quick glance at my map confirmed my suspicion that we were, indeed, heading right for Thrallmar. I’m no mathematician, but I was reasonably sure that we wouldn’t catch them before they made it into the safety of their fortress. It turns out “safety” is a relative term.
Two members of our party exercised good judgment and abandoned the suicide mission. One tentatively approached the outskirts of Thrallmar, scouting out the dangers lurking only feet away. Zailor, on the other hand, charged in and started tanking some NPC Horde scouts. I stood just outside the walls of town and finished two of them off with consecutive Fireball crits. The other Warrior in our party exclaimed, “This is nuts!” We stood back a bit and watched as Zailor weaved his way deeper into the enemy stronghold. Lo and behold, my fearless leader spotted two of the three attackers that we had just dispatched minutes earlier. It… was on.
Zailor charged the entrance of the Horde inn as they both approached. They clearly did not see him coming. Nor did they notice the other Warrior in our party who joined in on the attack, blindsiding the pair before they could enter the inn. Within about a millionth of a second, half a dozen Horde guards mobbed my companions and their health faded fast. I noticed that our nemesiseseses… what’s the plural of nemesis? Whatever. I noticed that the Hordies that we had just been battling were nearing death. I Blinked into the mix and AoE’d like a madman. Like any good clothie, my health bar was in a race to zero with my mana bar. My Warrior friends dropped lifelessly, leaving me standing in the middle of two enemies and nearly a dozen NPC Horde guards. Right before the life slipped from my shapely Draenei form, I watched my two enemies drop to the ground, both of them finished off by the same Arcane Explosion. I couldn’t believe it. It took me several seconds before I could bring myself to release from the scene. I was so in love with the sight of the carnage. It was easily the dumbest and most invigorating experience I’ve ever had in WoW. How about you?
Ten Days in Azeroth 