Hogit’s Story - A World of Warcraft Blog » 2005 » February

Ohsnap has been recommending I check out the Zul’Farrak instance since I spend so much time in Tanaris. Well while running some errands in Ironforge (wasting money at the AH), I was invited into a Zul’Farrak group. Composed mostly of 50+, there was a mage, druid, two hunters, and I (warrior).

Although I had not accepted any of the Tanaris “Zul’Farrak” quest lines, I wanted to get a feel for the instance anyways. It is fairly unique in that it is one of the only outdoors instances, a nice change from those cavernous dungeon crawls. Some of the art in Zul’Farrak reminded me of that most recent version of the “Time Machine” movie. The natives have huts that are constructed on sheer vertical cliffs, much like in Zul’Farrak. There is also a lot of temple and “Mayan” looking architecture, almost like a sandy version of Stranglethorn Vale.

The beginning of the instance was quite easy with the help of the higher-level characters. We did wipe once at the first “boss” encounter, a troll who summons a bunch or lizards, some elite. The druid was taken down too fast, my aggro gaining abilities were fairly useful but the level difference between my group mates and I made it difficult. We succeeded in killing him the second try (although I died again) and I was able to loot some decent plate gauntlets from him. I actually looted two sets of rare gauntlets from this instance, the second were bind on equip but I ended up using the first pair I found. Our group also killed a large three-headed sea serpent like creature, it was a single pull so very manageable.

I did not know the story line to the Zul’Farrak quests so the end of the instance was a little fuzzy but the basic goal was to rescue some captives and escort them to freedom. The captives are held at the stairs atop a tall pyramid. When they are freed from their cages is when the instance gets really exciting. A few waves of no less than fifteen enemies ascend the pyramid as the prisoners make their way out. I died twice during this fight, but in the end we finished with everyone alive or resurrected. I definitely intend to go back, I think Nia would really enjoy this instance.

I finished all of my armorsmithing quests! The rounds of Tanaris are pretty solitary, but every once in a while I stop to hang with the prospector from the explorer’s league. He doesn’t say very much but at least he looks cool and that’s what’s important in this game :D. I now have a set of trinkets from finishing the quests. The first summons that cool hammer, and the second makes me immune to fear for a short time, helpful during PvP for sure. I can also make truesilver breastplates and gauntlets, but the materials are a little expensive for the rewards. I am now on the lookout for radiant and thorium recipes I can grind on to raise my smithing to 300.

All together I think I used about 300 bars of mithril to complete all of the smithing quests, that’s not counting all of the truesilver, rare gems and leather. I would guess I used somewhere around 200 gold worth of raw materials. I now understand what people were saying about smithing not being a moneymaking trade skill. Really any money you do make is lost in material costs trying to train it to 300. Mining and gathering all the materials by yourself is really difficult when recipes start calling for hearts of fire and breath of wind. I still enjoy it though and am strangely looking forward to Black Rock Depths and smithing with Dark Iron :P.

Success! Well at least part of the instance. Nia and I fought our way to the map room after retrieving both pieces of the staff. One of the lost dwarves had found out that positioning the staff in the map room would open the secret door (Indian Jones anyone?) I asked Ohsnap again what to expect once the door was opened. “A boss comes out,” ok… so a boss like a level 48 elite maybe? “Is it hard?” I asked. “A group of 48ish should be fine,” said Ohsnap. “Well how about just Nia and I?” I joked, even though I was serious. “LOL, let me know how it turns out…” Ohsnap out!

Before I had time to finish talking to Ohsnap Nia had dropped the staff onto the map starting the sequence to open the giant doors, she had no idea what was on it’s way! Ironaya AKA “our doom” walked through the open doors. The new pet tiger was the first to go down, Nia used a few fein deaths to lose aggro, I actually had to use my taunt button quite a few times even though Ironaya was stacked with sunder armors. We had dropped her to 1/4 life before she took out Nia, some special attack would drop the hunter’s health quite fast. I had used two defense potions up until now and was running out of options. I went into “shield block / revenge” mode and watched the health bars dropping, it would come down to the wire, and it did. At the last second, just when my last stand was about to run out, I executed and Ironaya’s beaten body fell to the floor.