Gaarawarr’s EPIC PQ Crawl #2 – Elf Ch1 thru Ch22

Yeah, I know, I’m a glutton for punishment.

But I’m not the only one.  A lot of the people from the first PQ Crawl thru Empire returned for Part 2.  We also had lots of new faces and we didn’t have any a#$#@#es this time.  Although, there was that one guy in Tier 3 that wouldn’t unflag himself despite all of us sending him tells and he was also a bit of a loot whore but we’ll get to that.

Once again, something this epic deserves an epic review, so that’s what I’m going to give it.  I’ve got screenshots of (almost) all the Contribution screens to prove we did it all (seriously, why can’t I get them all?  I tried so hard and I still missed a couple.  sigh), I’ve got pages of notes of the good, the bad and the ugly, and someone recorded some of it but I’m not sure if they’ve got it uploaded anywhere yet.  If they do, I’ll make sure to add it.

Oh, and we hit a couple of the Lairs while we were at it.  The level 40 ones.  While we were naked.  Good times.

So, for those that don’t want to read the epic portion of the review, here’s a non-epic recap of another epic event so you get the gist of what happened.

Non-Epic Recap

65 PQs Attempted (that’s right, 65, not 64, Elf is special), 11 hours 20 minutes total spent on the crawl, 40+ different characters (some may have been alts), ~350 PQ Bags total, 3 bugged PQs with 2 of those being unfinishable

For those that want the epic version, here goes…

EPIC Recap

I advertised the event on both the Official Forums and the WHA Forums again during the week before the event as well as spreading the word in-game to as many people as I could.

We started the Crawl at Moonrise Tower in The Blighted Isle.  About 10 minutes to Midnight (all times in PST), I switched to Gaarawarr and started grouping people as they sent tells for invites.  At Midnight, I took a screenshot of the naked and newly-goggled at Moonrise Tower and then we were off!

(Look, I’ll be honest with you up front.  I’m not a fan of the Elf pairing.  I think that’s why I didn’t leave it for last, I probably wouldn’t have bothered.  I don’t really know why I don’t like it, it just feels kind of bleh.  I’ve tried to level two different elf toons and I’ve deleted them both.  The furthest one got was around 18.  It wasn’t the class I didn’t like, it was the pairing that just sapped the desire to level it out of me.  That being said, I’ve done the Elf pairing a lot in Tiers 3 and 4 because you’re forced to if you’re questing your way to 40 since each pairing doesn’t have enough quests to truly level you on their own.  I wasn’t alone in this sentiment.  A lot of the people I was with shared it and judging by the lack of people in the zones we went through, we aren’t the only ones.)

PQ #1 – House Arkaneth

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Ulter

Ok, I’m a sucker for a good introduction.  A nice view, wave after wave of enemies to kill, and then BAM!  A Hydra.  Not bad for a Normal PQ.  Let’s see if they keep this up.

PQ #2 – Thanalon Forest

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee

From a Normal straight into a Hard.  Not how I’d have done it, but hey.  So, Stage 2 of this one had this mechanic where you’re supposed to free the enslaved tree-things (yeah, that’s the technical term: tree-things) but it took everyone a bit to figure out how exactly they were supposed to do that.  It didn’t help that what they were supposed to use wasn’t even really attached to them right but was just kind of near them…  But anyway, I felt like Smokey the Bear preventing forest fires.  I’ll admit though, it was tempting to let them burn just to see if it was cool-looking…  Told you I wasn’t a huge fan of Elf.

PQ #3 – The Forlorn Isle

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee

I’m choppin down trees!  I’m choppin down trees!  Wait a minute, aren’t elves supposed to be friends with the forest.  I’m confused now.  Oh well, I’m choppin down trees!

PQ #4 – Swale of Miralei

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee

Swale – noun; a low place in a tract of land, usually moister and often having ranker vegetation than the adjacent higher land.  Well, you learn something every day.  We just started, should I be tired already?  Sigh.  ~pours himself another glass of Dr. Pepper~  This could be a long day.

PQ #5 – Ruins of Erraneth

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee

I’ve done this one before.  I don’t know why I did it, but I definitely remember running all over these ruins trying to find the stupid NPC I was supposed to kill and getting lost because it all looks alike to me.  Luckily, we split up pretty well and knocked this one out quick because I was getting frustrated just remembering that.  To be honest, the beginning of Elf just isn’t very impressive after the first PQ.

PQ #6 – Shattered Beach

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee

Ummm…yeah….so uh….~really quietly~ we failed this one the first time…  It’s not our fault, I swear!!!  I mean, whose bright idea was it to have the NPCs zerg the things you’re supposed to protect so fast that by the time you figure out where the heck they are, they’re gone?  Wasn’t ours, no sir.  But anyway, this marked the first ever failed PQ not due to a bug on one of my crawls.  ~sob~  We did fine the second time and if you don’t believe me about the utter and total zerg of NPCs, well, this screenshot of the aftermath should clear that up.  Seriously Mythic, might want to tone this one down a bit.  I mean, I know it’s a Hard PQ, but hard shouldn’t be defined as zerg of NPCs.

PQ #7 – Thrallseekers

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer

So this PQ has the first of quite a few versions of the “rescue the captives and protect them” mechanic that you’ll find in Elf.  It’s an interesting mechanic, but even though this is an Easy PQ, you’ll want to do this one with more than just yourself if you’re at that level or it’s not gonna happen.  This can be said of any of this type of PQ, especially if there’s a timer.

PQ #8 – Elisia

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer

Spread out much?  Seriously, this is the first of a few Elf PQs where the designer seemed to think that the best thing to do was spread it out over as large an area as possible without really making it easy to know where you’re supposed to be.  Honestly, I have the feeling people try this one once and then don’t come back.  The two Gold Bags we got at the end would have to be the norm for me to ever want to go near this PQ again or recommend it to anyone.

PQ #9 – Blackwood Hill Garrison

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

Again, spread out all over.  I like the idea of a place under siege and you coming in to rescue it, but the scale just doesn’t work with the small groups that usually do these things.  I mean, yeah, they give you a decent timer, but if you get in trouble at all during Stage 2, you might not make it.  Oh, did I mention we did a /who on the first two zones and, other than us, there were a whopping two people in them?  Yeah, not quite the popular place Empire is.  Gee…I wonder why?

PQ #10 – Stone of Imrathir

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

Again, done this one before.  Having a group made it SO much easier for Stage 2.  Stage 3 is a bit confusing though it seems.  I pretty much ninja’d the Bosses because I knew where they were from before while my group wandered around trying to figure it out.

Oh, it was somewhere in these last few PQs that I realized Rags had upgraded his Dwarven Roflcopter to a Dwarven Jetpack.  Not bad.  /jealous

So that was Tier 1 Elf.  Seriously, bleh.  It started with such promise with the Hydra, but I just can’t get excited about the rest of it for some reason.

PQ #11 – Miralen

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

So, into Tier 2 and do a quick /who to see how many people are on before I herald our arrival and…sigh.  Three people.  As for the first PQ, I did this one a lot trying to get my Armor Set so I whacked a couple people with my axe and then stood in the middle until the real fun started.  Now, while the beginning definitely has you running all over to try to move the PQ forward, the last two stages bring the action to you.  Much better.

PQ #12 – Broken Dune

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

I so almost went right by this one.  Didn’t even see it.  Sad thing is, I’ve done it before and I still forgot about it.  That should tell you all you need to know right there.

PQ #13 – Cold Hearted Predators

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

The beginning of this PQ is probably one of the reasons I just can’t get excited about Elf.  Save the forest creatures oh great warrior!  Seriously…  That being said, I like the Boss.  Just one of a string of Bosses in Elf that make their appearance via flight.

PQ #14 – Laurilion Caves

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

Again, I ran off and ninja’d the Boss almost.  I was going to since it totally spawns somewhere you don’t have to be to get to Stage 3, but I told everyone where he was and waited like a good Dwarf.

PQ #15 – Broken Spirits

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

I so ninja’d this one though.  Couldn’t be helped, it’s a meh PQ and I wanted to move on.

PQ #16 – Forgotten Future

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

…and on your left you’ll see a herd of Cold Ones and on the right, dark elves intent on destroying us and now we’re stopping, we’re stopping….for a while…ugh.  I’m really glad someone had done this one before because otherwise we’d have been here forever.

PQ #17 – Lair of the Dead

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

I think we were here for, at most, five minutes.  Completely uninteresting.  I hope the Tomb Kings PQs have better undead fights than this, seriously.

PQ #18 – Preemptive Strike

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

So I totally ran up to the upper part of this and thought I was still on the lower part when the Boss spawned and was standing there going “Where is he?”  Sigh.  With a small group at the right level, this one is kind of fun due to the waves of guards.  We pretty much slaughtered it though.

PQ #19 – The Dragon Gate

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

So on the way to this one I went to herald to the zone that we were on our way to the last PQ and would then be moving to Tier 3.  Wishful thinking I guess.  Someone quickly corrected me and reminded me we had a whole other zone to do before that.  I actually had gotten a couple people’s hopes up thinking we were just gonna skip that zone. lol.  Guess that shows how exciting The Shadowlands are.  So anyway, we got to this one and it was on Stage 2 so we took a break and waited for it to reset then rolled through it.  While we were waiting, I went AFK and came back to an NPC beating on me while the group watched with comments in chat like “I wonder how long it will take it to kill him?”  Nice guys, nice.

PQ #20 – Starbrook Falls

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

So I was getting a little hazy at this point and was thinking this was going to be a PQ I hadn’t done before with a nice scenic waterfall or something.  Nope.  Been here before.  More undead.  Still a bit uninspired.  I’m not sure exactly what I expect of an undead PQ, but this just isn’t it I guess.  Welcome toEllyrion!

PQ #21 – Ellyrion Stables

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler

I didn’t really pay attention during this PQ.  I’d done it before a long time ago and knew it wasn’t anything majorly impressive, so I was busy trying to find out if anyone knew anything about the next one as I’d never done that one.

PQ #22 – Allies of War

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler, Lilbowbede

This one is a bit spread out, but it makes sense due to the way it progresses.  At this point, our DPS pretty much melted the Bosses at this level so once we got to the end, it was over fast.  However, the stage where you light the buildings on fire was fun.  I like lighting things on fire in this game.  Maybe I should have gone Destro.  Anyway, one interesting thing I found while doing this was this body of a Choppa being eaten by a bunch of Snotlings.  That made everyone laugh.

PQ #23 – The Well Springs

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler, Lilbowbede

And we’re killing dark elves, we’re killing dark elves, and we’re done.

PQ #24 – Shady Tower

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler, Lilbowbede

Been there, done that.  Honestly, we were all more amped up for our next stop and just kind of blew right through this one without really paying much attention to it.  I did notice one thing though.  Plumbers got nothing on Dwarves.  Which brings me to:

Interlude – Lair of Stinkfang the Vomitous

So it was literally right next to the PQ so I said let’s do it, we need something to wake us up.  So I switched from my 2her to my 1h/shield and in we went.  Naked.  I really thought it would be more difficult.  I mean, we were naked and he’s a level 40 Lair Boss.  The only issue in the whole fight was when Waffler’s pet aggroed him by accident on the way in.  After that, no problem.  Things like this make me think armor is overrated.  :p  We did get a nice 1h Dwarven hammer though.  I almost Need-rolled on it for my Slayer as it was Bind on Equip amazingly, but Rags got it for his Slayer.  Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

PQ #25 – Gate of Elthrai

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler, Lilbowbede

So this time I did get to herald the fact that we were about to leave and have it be true.  I thought I’d done this one before, but I totally didn’t remember the Boss at the end.  Nothing amazing about the fight overall, was just surprised.  Easy to surprise me when I’m half-asleep.

PQ #26 – Slash & Burn

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler, Lilbowbede

Man.  I so thought we were gonna get to do some burning on this one, but no.  Again, we have to save the forest.  I was so running around wanting to burn things instead.

PQ #27 – Ritual of Corruption

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler, Lilbowbede, Baddreams, Damgru

So I had heralded our arrival into Tier 3 during the previous PQ but was in /tell with a few people explaining what we were doing and talking in region chat during this one and I don’t really remember much about it.

PQ #28 – Rotten Embrace

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Ripfellen, Kanbei, Kaidin, Creampuff, Fermair, Artiee, Johari, Ragnoslayer, Waffler, Lilbowbede, Baddreams, Damgru

So we had picked up a couple more people and were just continuing to steamroll the PQs that had sufficient mobs available at all times.  Such was the case with this one.  I think from the time the Boss spawned until he was dead was less than 10 seconds.  Seriously.

PQ #29 – Shrieking Meadow

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Waffler, Lilbowbede, Airknight, Fermair, Artiee, Kanbei, Ragnoslayer, Damgru, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen

So, we can’t seem to do a PQ Crawl without someone getting chickened by a lowbie that’s PvP flagged it seems.  I blame that on why there’s no screenshots of these two PQs.  This one was a very slow respawn on the mobs we needed so we all converged in the middle and sent Rags in his Jetpack to drive through the mobs while someone had Guard on him.  During this time, I was trying to convince said lowbie to re-log to clear his PvP flag but he was not responding.

PQ #30 – Falls of Renewal

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Waffler, Lilbowbede, Airknight, Fermair, Artiee, Kanbei, Ragnoslayer, Damgru, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen

So we moved on to the next PQ and I arrived as it was in Stage 2 so I let them finish it once and we waited for it to reset so we could do it from the beginning per my rules.  During that time, multiple people were attempting to get the lowbie to re-log and were unsuccessful.  About this time, people started pointing out in vent that he was also Need-rolling on everything.  Now, I never put Need on Use on in our first PQ Crawl and I didn’t want to do it at all as I felt it kind of violated the fun of the event.  Oh well.  So I turned it on and sent him a /tell saying that he needed to re-log or I’d boot him from the group.  No response between this PQ and the next one, so he got booted.

PQ #31 – Deathwind Pass

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Waffler, Lilbowbede, Airknight, Fermair, Artiee, Kanbei, Ragnoslayer, Damgru, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen

So we arrive at this PQ and start clearing the NPCs when someone points out that we’re in Stage 2 but there’s no timer.  I was shocked.  I’ve done this PQ at least a half dozen times and never realized that this wasn’t Stage 1 as it’s always on this stage when I show up.  Since there was no timer, we had to flip the whole thing once, which was a pain, just to reset it and see what Stage 1 really was.  Let me tell you, I hate this PQ.  Not just because of the whole Stage 2/no timer thing, but because the NPC respawn is so slow.  At least, for the ‘bolt” versions you need.  The rest spawn in droves.  So we finally flip it, it resets, the lowbie re-joins but unflagged finally and we try to figure out what Stage 1 is.  Apparently, it’s just talking to an NPC that spawns on the road and who immediately is killed the moment you talk to him.  Seriously.  Sigh.  Damn me and my rules.

PQ #32 – Well of Whispers

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Waffler, Lilbowbede, Airknight, Fermair, Artiee, Kanbei, Ragnoslayer, Damgru, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen

Shhhhh….don’t tell anyone, but this one should be the Hard PQ, not the Easy.  Epic Boss deserves Hard status.  Deathwind Pass doesn’t have an epic boss, this one does.  On a side note, with all these epicly large bosses, why doesn’t the camera pan back far enough to fit them in your screen?

PQ #33 – Corruption

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Airknight, Artiee, Ragnoslayer, Fermair, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen, Lwyll, Kanbei

So Lwyll joined us at this PQ as a level 3.  Don’t ask me why a level 3 was in Avelorn, I didn’t ask.  Thus they started their journey to becoming “the Revived”.

PQ #34 – Stormriver’s End

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Airknight, Artiee, Ragnoslayer, Fermair, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen, Lwyll, Kanbei

Aaaaarrrggghhhh…..  Look, making the NPC respawn slow does not make something Hard, it just makes it tedious.  I do have to say, once you get past the first Stage, it’s much more interesting.  Interesting Boss mechanic is the only reason to do this PQ with the current respawn rate.  We were getting a little bored of slow respawns, so it was nice to take a break and go to:

Interlude – Lair of Elrin Helfried

Again, we went in naked.  It worked last time, so why ruin a good thing?  Not everyone was naked, as you can see here, but the tank was.  hehe.  Ironically, she dropped a Witch Hunter item and we had none with us since Kaidin went to sleep.  Oh well.

PQ #35 – Thanon Hall

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Airknight, Omnom, Ragnoslayer, Fermair, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen, Lwyll, Kanbei, Dalok, Trimbale

On we went into Saphery and a PQ that actually had a good respawn rate.  It was nice.  We actually had to group up a bit because between the fast respawn and us being naked, we were taking decent damage for a change.

PQ #36 – Circle of the Winds

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Eviltink, Omnom, Ragnoslayer, Fermair, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen, Lwyll, Kanbei, Dalok, Trimbale

Hrm, for an Easy PQ, this one has a lot to do.  We came to the conclusion that this must be one of those PQs that you can “fail” a Stage and it gives you another Stage to complete it.  If that’s not the case, then this one needs some tweaking.  Boss fight wasn’t anything special though.

PQ #37 – The Ithilmar Tower

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Eviltink, Omnom, Ragnoslayer, Fermair, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen, Lwyll, Kanbei, Dalok, Trimbale

Someone we picked up in this Tier said this PQ was going to be hard.  Well, it might be when in a small group but again, we rolled right through it.

PQ #38 – Hall of the Crimson Shroud

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vroom, Omnom, Ragnoslayer, Fermair, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen, Lwyll, Kanbei, Dalok, Trimbale, Modern

This is another one of those spread out PQs.  Seriously, the scale of this thing is huge.  I’m still fairly positive that the end Stage is a little buggy, but we finished it anyway.

PQ #39 – Against All Odds

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vroom, Omnom, Ragnoslayer, Fermair, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Attilamus, Ripfellen, Lwyll, Kanbei, Dalok, Trimbale, Modern

This one had us running all over to find what to kill.  Then, once we did, we were standing around going “umm…now what?” until the Bosses finally arrived.  Seemed like a good time to take another break, so off we went to:

Interlude – Lair of Lady Grimgyre

Modern was with us for this and in full armor so took on tanking responsibilities while the rest of us ran around naked.  I actually died during this one, twice.  hehe.  I think a few of us did.  It was worth it though, gotta love naked Lair hunting.  I think if there was a reliable way to know if the Bosses were up, I’d probably do a Naked Lair Crawl.  Maybe when the new zone comes out, we’ll see.

PQ #40 – Sweating the Stone

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vroom, Omnom, Naimless, Fermair, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Amate, Ripfellen, Lwyll, Kanbei, Thuck, Trimbale, Skalgang

After that brief break, we were off to our last Tier 3 PQ!  Which bugged out on us.  😦  We didn’t even realize we’d broken it until we finished a fun Boss fight and noticed it didn’t complete.  Lots of us died during this one. hehe.  People were telling us to put our armor back on.  Pfft.  No thanks.  We figured out what had broken, let it reset and then did it again being careful not to break it again and it worked fine.  We even finished off the Boss much easier and I don’t think anyone died this time around despite still being naked.

PQ #41 – Da Orcwerks

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vroom, Omnom, Naimless, Fermair, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Firesetter, Amate, Ripfellen, Lwyll, Kanbei, Thuck, Trimbale, Skalgang, Brallt, Melshon, Lisamarie

We finally hit Tier 4!  Picked up a couple new people at the zone line while waiting for everyone to arrive and went off to do another “rescue and guard” PQ.  Man, people were dieing left and right on this one it seemed.  Of course, it didn’t help that everyone was running off all by themselves and not sticking near their healers.  Group Tactics 101 : Keep your six-man together at all times.  Just being near other green dots doesn’t cut it.

PQ #42 – Siege of Anyerrial

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Thuck, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Melshon, Skalgang, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff

No clue why I missed the screenshot here.  I know we were running all over, split up again.  I know that no one knew where the Boss was until it finally just appeared and we took it out.

PQ #43 – Ceylnath Vineyards

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Thuck, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Melshon, Skalgang, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff

At this point, the group was so big I could just hang out in the middle and wait for the Stages to flip.  I’d done this one multiple times before, so wasn’t worried about missing anything.

PQ #44 – The Tower of Lysean

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Thuck, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Melshon, Skalgang, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric

So yeah….I don’t remember this one at all.  Probably because of the next one.

PQ #45 – The Well of Sar-Saroth

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Thuck, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Melshon, Skalgang, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Brallt, Corou

So we’re still running around naked for the most part and roll into this PQ.  It gives us a decent challenge as the NPCs have interesting spawn mechanisms that caught some off-guard, but we power thru it and get to the Boss, Bel-Hathor the Sage.  I took that screenie just because it looked like we were just working him over and this was going to be another easy win.  WRONG.  Shortly after that pic was taken, with all but one person standing right next to him hacking away, he unleashes an AOE that wipes all but two people and leaves Fermair near death.  If someone hadn’t popped Gromril Plating in his group right before it, he’d have been done with.  As it was, it ate right thru all of Gromril and left him at what looked like 0% on my UI.  Thuck was standing at range plinking away and didn’t even get touched.  As he continued to attack the Sage, Fermair started rezzing people while healing him.

Best.  Wipe.  Ever.

Talk about a wake-up call.  I’m sure if we’d had our armor on, it wouldn’t have been quite that bad, but naked…  AWESOME.  Bel-Hathor, I salute you.

PQ #46 – Neversong

Status – Bugged

This PQ has so much going for it too, it’s sad that it was broken at the final stage.  It’s just an interesting mechanic.  It literally took all of us splitting up and working as groups to do this one as the NPCs just keep coming and coming from both sides.  I really want to see what the final Boss is like.  Unfortunately, him and a couple of the other NPCs you have to kill for the final stage never showed up.

PQ #47 – Ritual of Life

Attendance –  Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Quothe, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Skalgang, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Hktony

So, I almost forgot about the Isle of the Dead as the new upgraded map UI doesn’t link it to Dragonwake at all.  Oh well.  Then I go in and realize there are four PQs here.  Odd.  This is why Elf has 65 total PQs instead of 64 like Empire.  Anyway, after the excitement of the Well and the frustration of Neversong, people were amped up to kill stuff and they cleared this one fast.

PQ #48 – Ritual of Death

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Quothe, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Skalgang, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Hktony, Traii

At this point, I was having to deal with a lot of people joining our warband thinking it was an RvR warband.  I was busy booting them and dealing with /tells from people asking if I was running a mass-power-leveling group or something.  Sigh.  I don’t remember this one being very difficult.  I don’t remember it much at all actually.

PQ #49 – Ritual of Heavens

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Quothe, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Skalgang, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Hktony, Derekb

Rolled right through this one…

PQ #50 – Ritual of Beasts

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Quothe, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Magdelegna, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Hktony

…and this one.  Maybe it’s the size of the group, I’m not sure, but some of these just offer no opposition at all.  I know it’s a Normal, but come on, so was the Well.

PQ #51 – Dragonwatch

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Quothe, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Magdelegna, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Hktony

So, if you have a PQ called Dragonwatch, it better have some dragons in it, right?  The even put up this dragon-signal to call them in too.  Very nice of them.  I love the strafing runs.  Took us a while to figure out what was going on, but that and the dragon-swarm at the end are the only things that make this PQ worthwhile.

PQ #52 – Keepers Watch

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Quothe, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Magdelegna, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Hktony

Ok, the Bosses arriving from the sea were kinda cool on this one.  Again, the designers apparently like “arrival from air” as the boss-mechanic in Elf when they switch things up.  This one was kind of cool because of that.  Oh, and because of this.

PQ #53 – Rescue of Aenares

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Naimless, Amate, Quothe, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Magdelegna, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Mohandqq, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Hktony

Moar dragons!  Imagine that in Dragonwake, right?  Seriously, if you’re a dragon-fan, Elf is your pairing.

PQ #54 – Cliffs of Vaul

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Thedis, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Magdelegna, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Mohandqq, Hktony

So I’ve always kind of liked these next three PQs because they’re set up in such a way that you progress from one to the next.  The first one can be confusing in Stage 2 if you haven’t done it before, but there’s another Dragon at the end, so me likey.

PQ #55 – Blood Focus

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Thedis, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Magdelegna, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Mohandqq, Hktony

This one is almost forgettable now.  Good decision on making this one the Easy cuz no one would bother otherwise.  On a positive not, the Witch Elfs there seemed to be head-over-heels for me.  Naked Dwarf ftw.

PQ #56 – Dominion of Khaine

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Thedis, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Magdelegna, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Mohandqq, Hktony

I’ve always liked this one just because of the way the Stages progress.  Plus, fighting to the death on a platform floating on lava is just fun.

PQ #57 – Drake’s Rest

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Thedis, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Magdelegna, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Iaestuff, Hildric, Mohandqq, Valina

Caledor, finally.  This PQ is like a well-kept secret.  If you’ve got a group around this level and want a place for tons of XP, this is it.  The final chamber has a crazy respawn rate and you can rack up the kills in there and let the XP flow.  As for the PQ itself, meh.

PQ #58 – Shadowchasm

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Thedis, Valina, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Hildric, Lyndariel

This place needs to be darker or foggy or something.  It’s like this far l—l  from being just a really cool setting.  As for the PQ, I was killing something at one end and they told me the Boss spawned at the other and it was dead before I saw

PQ #59 – Ulan Bell

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Thedis, Valina, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Lyndariel

I think most people only know this PQ from driving under it in the RvR lake.  I’d never done it so at least it was new.  It has an interesting progression mechanic with the flags, but other than that, it wasn’t very challenging.

PQ #60 – Shrine of the Dragontamer

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Thedis, Valina, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Lyndariel

So the first time I did this PQ, I got stuck in the bubble.  If you’ve ever done it, you know what I’m talking about.  Apparently they made it so you can get out now, so that’s good.  However, with this size of group, we were in and done in no time.

PQ #61 – Shrine of the Slayer

Status – Bugged

I’d known this one was bugged for a while now.  Too bad really as, if I remember correctly, it has a dragon at the end as well.  Anyway, right now, zero NPCs spawn so you can’t do anything with it.

PQ #62 – Executioner’s Blade

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Thedis, Valina, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Lyndariel

I’ve done the quests through here so many times I block this one out.  Again, it’s not really that interesting.  I guess there’s only so much you can do with dark elves.

PQ #63 – Pure Power

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Thedis, Valina, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Lyndariel, Parak, Wannabet, Hildric, Hktony

Again, farm central.  I don’t know many level 40 players that haven’t done this one many, many times.

PQ #64 – Might of Ulthuan

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Thedis, Valina, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Lyndariel, Parak, Wannabet, Hildric, Hktony, Kaidin

Speaking of farm central, here’s everyone’s favorite power-leveling spot.  I’d never actually done the whole PQ though, so it was fun for me.  It’s a control and guard mechanic but with a warband, it wasn’t even an issue.  Oh, it ends with a Hydra.

PQ #65 – Tor Sethai

Attendance – Gaarawarr, Johari, Vrooom, Amate, Valina, Baddreams, Koenwolf, Ripfellen, Omnom, Parak, Wannabet, Lwyll, Kanbei, Trimbale, Fermair, Firesetter, Lyndariel, Hktony, Kaidin

So, just over 11 hours after we started, we were climbing the steps of Tor Sethai.  I purposefully moved the group to MoU first so we could finish on the Hard PQ and I wasn’t disappointed.  Again, I’d been thru here many, many times but I’d never actually done the whole PQ.  We started flipping through the Stages and just when I thought we were done after finally taking out the Assassin, a new Stage pops up.  The guys name lets you know what’s coming, but it’s hard to be disappointed with dragons and hydras at the same time.  I wasn’t.

So once we were done, we all lined up and took a screenie at the top of the steps.  Nice spot for that.

Overall, I have to say, Elf is nowhere near as fun as Empire was.  Part of it I attribute to the lack of players in Elf.  The only time we really saw zones with a decent population as in Tier 4 and that was only due to the RvR going on.

Which reminds me, how do you join a warband and not then look to see where they are?  I had at least a dozen people join my warband when we were in Tier 4 and when I went to try to find them, they were in the RvR lake.  They didn’t even ask where we were or apparently even look, they just joined and then went to do whatever they wanted.  That’s a very discouraging sign for RvR in general if people don’t even pay attention to their groups.

But anyway, outside of the fun that is fighting dragons and hydras, there’s not much to draw me back to an Elf PQ ever.  Well, maybe the Well, but how can you not want to re-do a PQ that is scripted to AOE blast the hell out of your group if they’re stupid enough to all be standing on the Boss…naked…. hehe.  I’d like to go back and do the ones that were bugged of course, but that will probably wait until after I finish up Dwarf and then I can do all the bugged ones and get them over with.

The Wingman Award

So, last time, the only person to make it through the whole crawl was Johari.  They put up with countless chicken-ing from flagged lowbies and at times were the only healer we had keeping us going.  They definitely deserve the Wingman Award for Crawl #1.

For Crawl #2, I’m handing out three awards to three very deserving people.  (It should have been four but Kaidin went to sleep again.)  Fermair, Kanbei and Ripfellen stuck by me from Moonrise Tower to the steps of Tor Sethai.

Fermair was tempted to log in his Bright Wizard at one point, but I’m glad he didn’t as he was the healer that rez’d us all at the epic Well-wipe while Thuck kept the Boss busy.

Kanbei was a champ through Tiers 3 and 4, putting Guard on the lowly Lwyll on their trip from level 3 to level 12 during our Crawl.

Ripfellen gets the honorary title “the Reliable” in the Full Attendance List below for being exactly what a Dwarf should be: solid, dependable and unwavering in the face of an epic journey.

If you have any of these people in a group with you, know that you’re in good hands.

Full Attendance List (in Alphabetical order)

1. Airknight – the guildie returns for round 2!
2. Amate
3. Artiee
4. Attilamus – the Flagged One
5. Baddreams
6. Brallt
7. Corou
8. Creampuff
9. Dalok
10. Damgru
11. Derekb
12. Eviltink
13. Fermair – the Reviver
14. Firesetter
15. Gaarawarr – me!
16. Hildric
17. Hktony
18. Iaestuff – guess the class
19. Johari – made their return, but a few PQs late to do all of them
20. Kaidin – the Sally-Boy
21. Kanbei – the Lowbie-Guarder
22. Koenwolf
23. Lilbowbede
24. Lisamarie – luckily, Michael didn’t make an appearance as well
25. Lwyll – the Revived and revived and revived and revived…
26. Lyndariel
27. Magdelegna
28. Melshon
29. Modern
30. Mohandqq
31. Naimless
32. Omnom
33. Parak
34. Quothe
35. Ragnoslayer
36. Ripfellen – the Reliable
37. Skalgang
38. Thedis
39. Thuck – the Ranged Savior
40. Traii
41. Trimbale
42. Ulter
43. Valina
44. Vrooom
45. Waffler
46. Wannabet

So, that’s the epic write-up for Gaarawarr’s EPIC PQ Crawl #2 thru Elf.  Crawl #3 thru Dwarf should happen some time in the next month.  I’m going to do my best to coordinate a good day/time with those that have already participated in the previous ones as they are a fun group that I’ve enjoyed doing these with.  Obviously, I won’t be able to adjust things for everyone, but I’m going to do my best.

Until then, I’m going to spend more time earning Medallions/Crests, work on some of my Armor Set unlocks (Gunbad and Bastion Stair anyone?), and impatiently await more information on the Tomb Kings expansion.  I can’t wait to attempt an impromptu Crawl thru that zone.  hehe

Remember, have fun everyone!  It is a game after all.

~Gaar