3.2: The Weekend after da Patch

Honestly, I was expecting the weekend to be a standard 'try-the-patch-experience' and then it would be back to levelling my alts.

I was wrong.

Saturday noon (would be around midnight in the US), Aergor was in Orgrimmar getting his 100% mount and riding skill after dinging 40 a few minutes before. We were inspecting the fierce Swift Brown Wolf Aergor had taken a liking to when something in Trade channel caught my eyes - "LF Tank & 2 DPS for ToC"

Interesting - I had wondered about seeing the new instance, but slightly apprehensive about the quality of the PuG (after reading so much about 'em anyway). But fate always favored the bold, no? So I whispered back, saying that I can bring my other Hunter in, and was promptly met with agreement. So I switched to Aelyra (by this time Aergor's whine had reached record level) and flew from Storm Peaks to the Tournament ground. The original advertiser is a Blood Elf Hunter, epicly geared, and they had a Undead DK tanking. Soon after, we're joined by a Tauren Shaman and Druid, which is our DPS and healer respectively. All were geared in epic, with the exception of the DK, who incidently has 80% epics and the rest in blues.

Only then did a few facts emerged - this is everyone's first time doing the Trial of Champion, and this is the DK's first time tanking. Apprehension turned into something colder in my stomach... even though the group leader announced that they'll be trying this in normal mode. Well, Aelyra and I are going to see first-hand whether fate really favors the bold.

Long story cut short - we wiped. On the encounter where we were automatically dismounted after the last Alliance Champion was felled. Aelyra got 3-shotted by the nasty Gnome mage and our healer by the nasty Human Paladin/Warrior. But since they reset afterwards, the following happened - we lined up for payback and wiped the floor with them. The following encounter - Argent Confessor Blondie and her posse - was a lot easier, even when she summoned the Memory. But on the Black Knight, again we wipe to his Ghoul Explosion (arrr, I r asploded). We managed to down him finally with the DK's DnD and some Volleys.

It was an exhilirating experience - a PuG that just wouldn't give up. We agreed to give the Trial another run (since most of the drops were healer materiel, our healer wants none of it and so it was rolled for vendoring) and this one goes smooth as... well, not as smooth as a perfect run, there were a few deaths, but we didn't wipe. And after that, finally getting the feel of the encounters, we did it a third time. Aelyra managed to grab the Belt of Merciless Cruelty, so her thirst for epic for the day was sated =D

On other fronts, Aerdanil the Side-Project Priest and Aeyrin the Rogue got their Riding skill and mount, Aenur the Paladin ran Heroic AN with fellow guildies Jalkatra, Rage, Oat and Kragg (although sadly that was cut short by a local power failure), some Seals and Emblems were collected and overall, it was a hectic yet productive weekend. I'm looking forward to the following weekend - I wanna try and trample the next Champion in the upcoming Trial muahahaha!