DO THIS QUEST IF YOU EVER PLAN TO GO TO ANY AUCHENDOUN INSTANCE!
More on that later…
So I handed in the quest and the questgiver made me drink an elixir that made it so I could see dead people, like all the time (NPCs, though PC ghosts would be cool too). This proved beneficial because the next quest, “Lexivus the Soul Caller” has you killing one such invisible dead person. Seriously, you can’t see, target, or hence fight against the NPC you have to kill until you do that quest, you can only see him (and other ghosts) if you finished the previous quest, (or I suppose, have an Eye of Shadow or Overlords Helm of Second Sight) then you can see Lexivus and some other ghostly beings in the game world (mostly just in Auchindoun). Well I found two friends who had also completed the previous quest (and thus could see ghosts) and we went on to challenge Lexivus. It was a tank and spank fight, we had the basics, offspec tank, offspec healer, ranged DPS, and he went down easy.
The next part of the quest (after you hand in the Lexivus one) has you go into Auchenai Crypts and kill the last boss, Exarch Maladaar.
Here’s where the story begins:
Our group composition is thus:
Myself – 68 Human Retribution Paladin. I had initially joined the group with goal of killing Exarch Maladaar and getting my Exarch’s Protector chest piece as a quest reward. I had the mindset that I’d end up either tanking or healing, and was pleasantly surprised when things worked out well and we landed a proper tank and healer (though it turns out I’d be tanking anyway, we’ll get to that).
Muadebe – 66 Human Prot Warrior (just re-spec’d from Fury, so his gear is a bit off-spec and playstyle isn’t the best from habit, but he’s passably equipped.
Zzashmazz (or a similar name of equivalent complication) – 66 Gnome Rogue. A typical, crazy Rogue that stealths up to mobs all speedy like and pokes around where he shouldn’t, scaring me half to death in the process on several occasions, but never really does anything wrong and never once got us in trouble (just makes us nervous, Rogues ALWAYS make me nervous).
Ivellios – 65 Night Elf Holy/Discipline Priest. The guy had been away from the game for a while and was just now getting back to running instances. His confidence at playing healer was shaken, but his gear and playstyle were absolutely solid. He slid right back into his old habits and was healing us like a champ after our initial wipes.
Fraq – 64 Gnome Mage. Personality traits? I couldn’t tell you. This guy barely said a word. I know that he put out solid DPS but didn’t ever sheep anything (I think I saw him sheep one thing in the entire instance, maybe because the Rogue was doing most of the sapping).
So the group looks solid, is all assembled and summoned and we head into the Crypts.
“Will someone else mark, I’ve never been here before” says the Rogue.
Silence… I think I even heard some crickets.
This question forces me to realize that I have never been here either, except for with Runic a long, long time ago.
Finally I speak up, “Well with me marking, it’d be more educated guessing on the things which I THINK we should kill first and crowd control, rather than solid, experienced first-hand knowledge”. I’m thinking that I discredit myself sufficiently to pass the buck onto someone else to step up and take responsibility for wiping our party.
*Arcten is now the leader of the party*
Awwww sh!t…
So I’m leader and I study the first patrols for a few passes. Finally I decide that the pathing Priest is going to be our first target and mark her. The Warrior watches her walk up, turn to the left and then CRACK! His Dwarven blunderbuss fills my speakers with its echoing rapport! A flawless pull! The Priestess runs toward the Warrior. We lay into her! We’re doing great!
And then these ghosts appear…
But we stay focused! I notice that the ghosts are not elites so I only move to intercept them if it’s the Healer who catches their agro, content with letting the Mage nuke them down.
It works! No deaths! I mark the next and wait for the Warrior’s shot to ring out. To me, it appears he pulled the second in the exact same spot on the other side of the room as the first, and I’m thinking it’s going to be add-free.
Nope.
Next thing I know, we’re getting beat on by 3 or 4 of these elite casters, AND their ghosts that appear out of thin air.
Wipe.
Reload, run in, half the group is dead, we get one random pather, and we die again.
Wipe (sort of, the mage survived, but we still got no rezzer).
Reload, run in, and press on.
After the second wipe, I decide that we’re doing something wrong, but can’t put my finger on it. I have the idea to put on my tanking gear, throw on Retribution Aura, toss Righteous Fury up, switch my`5’ key to Seal of Righteousness, and I’m gonna offtank! The plan is that as soon as we pull and the warrior digs into the marked mob, I’ll focus on the second mob in the pack and throw down a Consecrate as soon as I see ghosts appear.
It works! I am amazed!
We press on through the Crypts with our primary Warrior tank and our AoE Paladin offtank and we’re doing marvelously! Then we get to Shirak the Dead Watcher.
“Wait!” I tell the group. “Let me check WoWwiki!”
I go over the strategy with the group. How he slows casting time, how he reigns fiery death upon us, and the severe need to run away from the flames (both the person he focuses on and those who are near them).
The group is confident, everyone appeasr to understand what’s required, ATTACK!
Wipe.
Reload, run in, rest up.
Attack!
Wipe.
Reload, run in, rest up.
Attack!
Reload, run in, rest up, stock potions.
Wipe.
Attack!
Reload, run in, rest up.
“ENOUGH!” I shout (not really); “Ivellios (Priest) you’re doing great, but it simply isn’t enough, we’re still getting caught in the blast and taking too much damage. We’re doing this with two healers! Hopefully that will give us enough overhealing to compensate for slowed casting speed”. Ivellios understands, and agrees, and I don my healing gear. This time… THIS TIME… we kill the bastard. He drops a Druid helmet, and there are no Druids in the group /sigh.
So having two healers worked as the lynchpin here. I healed the Priest when he’d take some damage, he’d heal everyone else, and I’d help out with further healing whenever I could.
Now the problem is that everyone’s gear is red. “It’s okay!” I proudly exclaim, “there’s a repairman just outside the instance! Let’s go there now!”
So we take our little jaunt back out the instance and I run up to Harvon the Armorer
“Um, Arcten?”
“Don’t worry guys, he’s right here, see? Just talk to him and repair your stuff!”
“Arcten…”
“Oh stop whining! Just click him and repair your gear! Ouch! Mine cost me 7g!”
“Arcten, we can’t see him…”
“Oh nonsense! He’s right here! Look! He’s just outside and to the left of the portal! Oh boy I hope I can get that 7g back by vendoring green drops here!”
“Arcten, seriously… we can’t see him.”
“What are you talking about? I’m browsing his wares right now!”
“Dude, you’re talking to thin air…”
“Lolwut?”
“Dude… thin air… he’s not there.”
“Oh damn… say… um… you guys did the Lexivus the Soul Caller quest right?”
“The who? Which quest is that?”
“Um… how about `What Book? I don’t see any book’?”
“We were working on that quest right before we came here, we couldn’t kill the guy.”
“Oh… um… damn…”
*Arcten hangs his head in shame*.
THIS is why you want to do the “What Book? I don’t See any Book!” quest. If not for the quest rewards at the end then AT LEAST for the convenience of having a ghostly repairman outside of Auchenai Crypts.
So the party runs to Allerian Stronghold, all except me and Fraq (who says nothing), but stands by the Meetingstone to with me to summon them back.
“Fraq, you don’t need a repair?”
*chirp chirp* (crickets)
“Ok, rdy 3 summon!”
“Lol, u said 3!”
So Fraq and I summon the rest of the team back. We return back into the crypts, I, for one, am expecting a full re-pop at any second. Amazingly, there are none.
We get to the room full of Skeletons; a LOT of skeletons.
Shield in hand, I mark the elite, hit one of the regulars with Exorcism, and the pack of 20 or skeletons runs toward me. Then, in the most awesomely stunning display of holy asskicking power EVER; I cut loose my Holy Wrath spell just right and then *KABOOM*! Golden lasers fly out in all directions from me and smack every single skeleton in the area *pew pew*.
Aggro from the skeletons? – CHECK!
So the skeletons, stuck on me like spooge on a dress, thwack away and take hit after hit from Retribution Aura and Consecrate after Consecrate. Righteous Fury does its job and this room is cleared.
Finally, we were at the big man himself, Exarch Maladaar! I can taste the metallic-ky goodness of The Exarch’s Protector already (tastes a bit like rusty iron, or the ends of a 9 volt battery, in case you were wondering).
Ewww... I’m talking about the plate chest piece you get from this quest… but I just realized how grossly that could be misinterpreted.
So yes, I can taste the Exarch’s Protector (kinda salty) and we go over the strategy for killing him. Essentially, he spawns these ghostly undead adds, they need to be killed quickly by the DPS folks while the tank keeps Maladaar focused. Shadow resistance helps out a lot here. Not too difficult. We handle this efficiently, but the damage and mana loss starts to add up towards the end of the fight. Then finally, Maladaar summons his last ghost, a gigantic version of himself, with Mortal Strike and we’re just about OOM and low on HP. We wipe… but not before killing Maladaar woot! My quest reads COMPLETE but I still want some loot, so the party resolves to run back in and kill the ghost version of the Exarch. So in my ghost form I run back into the instance and materialize, gritting my teeth because I just know that we’re going to have re-pops. Miraculously, there’s not a single re-pop in sight. I make my way to the end where we died and start my rezzing, the big ghost boss safely out of aggro range.
“I have to repair guys!”
Holy sh!t! It was Fraq! The Mage finally speaks!
“Allright man, hurry up, we’re all here and ready to kill the boss, I’m gonna be pissed if he de-spawns or the Exarch’s body decays, so HURRY! We’ll wait to loot for you.”
Stupid…
Sure enough, the ghost de-spawns, and I’m so tempted to loot the Exarch, fearing the decay of loot, but I see that by now, Fraq is back in the instance and passing through the skeleton room. Fraq shows up, we loot, it’s the Slippers of Serenity (which oddly enough, the Priest passes on and the Mage loots).
Anyway, I am glad to be done with place.
I didn’t get a single drop I wanted but I did finish the quest for my chest plate, which was the whole purpose of me going to begin with.
The irony here is that I handed in my quest, then bought gems to socket my new Exarch’s Protector with some STR, Crit, and AP stuff. I re-socketed the Light-Touched Breastplate I was using with tanking gems. And when all was said and done and socketed I ended up with a whopping 1% more Crit, 10 max damage, and 200-something armor… it was a distinctly anti-climactic feeling.
/sigh
Oh well, I guess now I remember now why I’ve only gone to Crypts once before.
It sucks.
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