Author Archives: Donny Rokk
Herculano Conquers A Nation
Yeah, I don’t like your odds either.
Herc’s first brush with the Alliance in this phase of Operation: World Explorer resulted in deaths.
None of which were his.
The strategy this time around was to finish exploring the mainland of Kalimdor, before attacking the island zones inhabited by the Alliance. It’d been awhile since I’d seen many of these zones, especially Darkshore. Being more of an Alliance zone, I had forgotten some of the more interesting landmarks it provided.
A big knife through the forehead. Artwork I can appreciate.
Taking in the scenery was fine and dandy, but there was work to be done. So Herc worked it, baby.
That was the mainland. The question now was – how do I reach the islands? The ships were protected by high level Alliance guards, but that was all the recon I had on them. Were they Elites? Was I going to have to pull a Spirit Rez gimmick to get to where I needed to go?
The answer came to me in a vision.
Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.
It was obvious: Wipe them out. All of them.
I’d like to thank the good folks in Auberdine for their hospitality as Herc waited for the ship to arrive. Their insistence that I pay for my ticket, which was met with a severe case of Axe to the Face, helped to pass the time. Herc mounted up on his Devil Goat as the ship arrived, and he rode onto the deck.
Pictured Above: Alliance Military Force, in no hurry to ask Herc for his ticket.
Nobody moved, nobody got hurt. Despite the fact that they were all targetable, and they were all level 75, the ride was uneventful. That changed once I reached the shore and rode towards the big purple teleport sphere to Darnassus. Those folks wanted to fight.
Bad idea.
A few minutes later, Teldrassil was under the fist of Herc the Merc.
After the conquest, Herc rode back to the dock to catch the boat back to Auberdine. There, he’d take the next ship to Azuremyst Isle, say Hi to the Space Goats, and wrap up the Kalimdor leg of World Domination.
Herculano was not alone on that dock. There were Alliance players there. And Herc was flagged for PVP. They started talking, but it was all [Common] gibberish. Finally, one Night Elf Warrior had enough of this Tauren and his Devil Goat, and he attacked.
And attacked.
And attacked.
He was level nine.
The easy thing would have been to dismount and crush him. But Herc was in a good mood, and it was much more entertaining to just ignore him and move on. Still, I respect his insanity and suicidal nature so to Valtar, I tip my hat.
I assume his meds kicked in at this point and he decided he’d take the next boat to Auberdine.
I wish I could say the rest of the trip was as entertaining. I didn’t see a soul in Draenei Land. With a shrug and a sigh, Herc dug his heels into his Devil Goat’s ribs and knocked off the final two zones –
… and finally –
Boo Yah!
It may be a week or two before I start the next phase of Operation: World Explorer. Herc has let his JC dailies slip, and Gold is a good thing to have. But it’s nice to see the zones one final time before Cataclysm, so I’m sure it’ll be sooner rather than later before Herc the Merc enters Phase Three.
This is Herc the Merc, reminding newbie Warriors to stay on their meds, or up the dosage.
Shared Topic – The Pre-Expansion Slump
Over on Blog Azeroth, Jaedia proposed the following question:
With Cataclysm only months away (we can assume), a lot of players are finding themselves bored with current content. How do you, your friends, and/or your guild conquer the pre-expansion slump?
I dealt with the pre-expansion slump the same way anyone bored with current content would – running old content.
You never call anymore.
It started months ago, back when there was actual snow on the ground outside. I had grown sour with Northrend. I was at the point where I was just powering through my dailies to make my gold. Once I developed a pattern, a method to the madness, I turned my quest runs into speed trials. Every day I’d try to get 20+ quests done in the shortest amount of time, maybe ninety minutes or so, while maxing out my earnings. I wasn’t worried about missing anything by going through so quickly. I was sick of seeing jousting and snow, mammoths and snow, and snow and snow. At least running my speed trials would minimize the time I’d have to see any of them.
Other than Dwarves named Grumpy and Dopey, who could stare at this all day?
One day in Dalaran I decided it was time for a change of scenery. Time to get out of the snow and see something new, or at least different. Faced with two options, running an alt or taking Herc back to prior content, the Fury Warrior was given the nod. But this wasn’t going to be some kind of vacation. Hells no! Just because he wasn’t earning XP, this departure was going to be beneficial in some way.
The relocation spot? Nagrand. The mission? Grind rep with the Mag’har and earn a new talbuk mount. After killing a few hundred Ogres and the grind started to get to be a bit too much, Herc started killing Ogres using weapons that had not yet been capped, including his bare hands. In the end, he nailed down an achievement and a talbuk.
I want to punch this guy too.
Since then, I’ve taken a further step back into content by going after the World Explorer achievement. It’s been keeping me out of Northrend, and has me checking out zones that I will probably never see again after Cataclysm. At the end of the Azeroth World Conquest Tour, I’ll pick up the title of “Herculano the Explorer.”
After that? Maybe a Netherwing Drake.
There’s always something to do. It’s just a matter of finding it.
This is Herc the Merc, squeezing every drop out of the previous content.
