My was I surprised when I got there and found the group waiting for me.

The PUG that waited for me.

I could learn to like PUGs like this…

Who's tight ass is that under that shield? That's Benemus!

My First Heroic

By Little Nau

I went to my first heroic. I went with my friends Randiriel, Benemus, Razain and Nochturne. We went to Ajnol Aznolj Ajzol a place with lots of spiders. They were really big spiders. It made Ben and Raz squeal.

We fought some spiders. I cast healing spells. Lots and lots and lots of healing spells. Then Noch ran into a wall. Then she ran into some spiders. Then we all fell down.

When we got back there were some more spiders. We fought some. Razain fell down. Then Nochturne fell down. Then I fell down. We ran back really fast but Ben and Randiriel fell down too. Then me and Noch and Raz fell down again.

We came back and there were still lots of spiders. Ben threw his shield at them. I cast lots of healing spells. Randiriel cast two healing spells and ran out of mana. Poor Randiriel. Bear druids are not for healing.

Then we fell down…

We came back and the spiders were still there. We fell down again…

Then we went to The Nexus and beat up a DRAGON! And it was FUN!

The End

I do realize that soloing the quests and such in the outdoor zones is going to give me the maximum XP, so I will continue to do that while leveling. But I sure would like to get in on some instance groups.

I do get to instance with some friends on occasion and that is great fun but they have their own things to do as well. What I’d really like to do is expand my circle of group contacts to increase my chances of being able to find a group for an instance run.

The dungeon finder terrifies me. I’ll admit it. It does. I have always disliked PUGs. I have never had a good PUG and that is all the dungeon finder is. Oh I’ve been told it’s great for finding groups. I believe it was worded to me thusly: “It’s great for finding groups! You slam through a dungeon in 30 minutes and nobody says a word.”

….

That isn’t why I play. If that was what I was looking for out of a game I’d go play a first person shooter. Or Final Fantasy. So while I haven’t tried the dungeon finder yet, I’m scared it will just be like every other PUG I’ve ever been in… only worse. Because it won’t even be with people from the same server!

I also need to group with people that understand that I’m having to re-learn my game; re-learn my class. Oh my gosh! I want to play with people that have some patience! I know, sounds silly, right? My character is almost 80. I should know how to play her! And I should know what to do in every single instance! I should be the Psychic Healer!!

Unfortunately I was never a great healer to begin with and now that I’m coming back after 18 months gone I need to learn to be a healer again. So if there are people willing to give me a chance then I sure would like to tag along. I don’t think I could deal with some stranger yelling at me because I made a mistake.

I would also like to group with other role players. IC instances are fun! We did two of them Tuesday night! And Ben….. you should be smacked for the wand conversation.

And Randi….. you and Rin should not engage in contests of urination in the middle of a dungeon.

Anyway! If you have a group that I may fit in (even though I’m being terribly picky here) and would be willing to take a chance on me, PST. I would love to meet new friends and characters and expand my group base. Heck! You might even like me too!

 The evening started out fairly normal. “So what are we going to do tonight?” “I don’t know. What do you want to do?” “I don’t know. I asked you.” The only downfall of our little band of adventurers. Nobody wants to make a decision.

Finally we decided to ask Hugnir what quests he had in instances. He gets to instance less than I do and its more fun to drag friends into instances and have them wipe spectacularly than it is strangers. Hugnir happened to have two quests in Shattered Halls. Hooray! Lets go!

So Kanammer, our furry but loveable dwarf warrior, Hugnir, our grey-bearded dwarf paladin, Springrose, our cheerful yet oh-so-slinky nelf hunter, and I, the friendly neighborhood squid priestess, set out to find a fifth to venture into Shattered Halls. After quite a bit of searching and a few moments of despair we picked up Springrose’s friend, Sekryt, yet another oh-so-slinky nelf rogue.

 We form up at the entry, introductions are made (IC of course!) and we step into Shattered Halls.

Now it was at this point that we realized not a single one of us had ever been to Shattered Halls before. /gasp! So what did we do? What we always do when faced with a new location that nobody knows anything about; we charged in oblivious to our own impending doom! Let not your sense of adventure be quelled by such trivial matters!

The first couple pulls were a bit rough as we learned how to work together. That is to be expected. Some dwarven cursing echoed through the halls, the priest was left squished on the floor (don’t worry, I’m naturally squishy), and Springrose and Sekryt worked their DPS magic. We made it through the first couple fights, learned a few things, then went on.

Now as this night continued, we realized the groups that started out as 3-5 mobs each, depending on how you pulled them, increased to 5-6 mobs each, no choice. There was much character grumbling. Orcs have NO RIGHT to be that tightly packed together. However at a slow and steady pace our stalwart party made it to a door!

OOooo! Um… its locked. Anyone have a key? Oh! Sekryt can pick it! Is that what we’re supposed to do? /shrug Let’s pick it anyway! I wanna see whats on the other side! And lo and behold, what do we find? Netherkurse!

Here I must admit, the flavor text and voice-overs for this instance are some of the funniest I have yet encountered. While my gentle and beloved Nauloera was horrified at his blatant disregard of their lives as we cut them down one at a time, I was laughing tremendously!

So we whup on Netherkurse and grumble over the druid idol he dropped and move along our merry way. More groups, more *squish* (I must have specced in squish) and the next boss. A two headed ogre! (I should really look names up. I’m terrible at remembering them. But I’m sure all the other folks that have run Shattered Halls over and over and over know his name well.)

Once again, we charge into battle with very little idea as to what we’re doing! And amazingly, we beat him. It was cool. It was fun! But poor Sekryt was getting pretty tired by this point. We talked about calling it a night but were so close to the final boss we decided to press on.

After wading through the assassins (I’m glad they are fairly smooshy kills) we get to the final boss. Kargath! So I pull out the Dungeon Companion II and read a bit about him….. hm…. isn’t this thing supposed to be useful? I do understand keep the group spread out. That much we got. But the rest was gibberish to me. Sorta like talking to a gnome on speed. But not to be deterred we charged in!

After we wiped on him at 50% we decided to give it one more shot before bed. So we get back, buff up, etc etc, then charge in again! 21% this time but we were just too tuckered out to try for a third. And Hugnir busted his mace. Ouch.

So we collected our smushed little corpses, shared around fond farewells and promises to find each other another time, repaired our armor and trundled off to logout land.

Now if you’ve made it this far in this post you’re probably saying, “So what’s her point?”

I do, indeed, have one!

We did this entire run IC. For those not familiar with the acronym, that means In-Character. We took a group of five players that barely knew each other and didn’t know the instance at all, got further than we really should have been able to, and did it all IC.

We came out having learned, accomplished, and even made a new friend! (It was totally great to group with you Sekryt! Lets do it again!) And it was all done IC.

Nobody whined about repair bills, nobody fussed about lewtz, no drama. Just a group of role players gone to an instance to have fun in the way they enjoy. It is possible. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Afterthought: For great grouping look for:

 Springrose (Completely awesome and wonderfully nice Nelf huter)

 Hugnir (One of my very best friends and the most incredible healy paladin I’ve ever grouped with)

 Sekryt (A fantastic rogue that knows her stuff and controls her aggro amazingly well!)

 Kanammer (The awesome dwarf warrior that actually remembers to Sunder and use his Shouts (don’t giggle. I’ve grouped with some that don’t!))