I’m On Trial, And I Love It

What follows is the first of what we hope to be many more posts contributed by War Machine members. In today’s post, Robdamage begins to tell the story of how he came to WoW and War Machine. If you think you would like to contribute a story of your own, whether it be your version of Robdamage’s tale or something entirely different, talk to one of the guild officers.

What to say, what to say?

I’m not on trial for doing anything bad – at least not yet…

War Machine has been kind enough to offer me a home, of sorts. A sanctuary, if you will. My story is long, convoluted, and probably not very interesting. Still, I will tell it here in the hope that others will be interested enough to contribute their own. A guild is comprised not only of the people within, but of the individual history that they carry both into and through it.  These tales are often fascinating, and mostly untold.

Case in point : did you know one of our members holds a server first achievement on one of their toons? No? Nor did I until last night. How much do you really know about what each of us have done in game (and out) – and conversely, how much do each of us want others to learn?  A philosopher once said that to see where we are going, we need to look at where we have been. Ok, I made that up. But it sounded cool. Anyway, on with the show, err, spectacle, um.. story!

Sonjasdad – The Adventure Begins.

I’d played Warcraft III. I’d played Starcraft. I’d played MUDs. My background was gaming, I worked with computers. I thought I was up with what was current. Then I discovered WoW. An acronym was never more fitting.

I cannot remember the day, month, or even year I started playing WoW. I do remember my toon name. Sonjasdad. My (first) daughters name is Sonja. My wife also played. Her toon name? Sonjasmum, of course.

Ironically enough my toon name allows me to place a timeframe on the breaking of my WoW virginity. Sonja is now 4 years and 7 months old. I remember playing shortly after she was born. I have played WoW for the entirety of my daughters existence. I do not know whether this is a reflection of me, or the game. Probably both.

My journey begins on Aman’Thul. I am a warrior, revelling in the game and the newness of everything that surrounds me. I am enthralled. Joining a guild is natural progression, and I experience my first “clique” within the wider populace. The sense of belonging, meaning, companionship – intangible yet undeniable. Still, malcontent lurks. A dictatorial officer enforcing military style guild law invokes feelings of defiance, and these soon manifest into public displays of rebellion from my still innocent self. A swift gkick follows, and I am staggered. Who would remove me from their guild? Surely they see the folly? Evidently not.

I wander. Lost, confused, emancipated. What do I do now? There is nothing for me here. Complete abjuration will suffice, nothing less. I leave the server, and delete my toon. Never to return.

Or so I thought…

<to be continued>

War Machine clears new Draagon boss in VOA

Friday night Xaviorlight led us in VOA25 with some pugs and we easily cleared the pertinent bosses then outside for Wintergrasp, and back in for VOA10.

There was a running joke about baby-D tanking the bosses, as he made ‘concrete angels’  while getting in front of Koravon once. So when we got to Archavon, we talked about lock drain-tanking, and we decided to give it a shot.

My real worry as a healer was how long it would take the draining to start so he’d replenish his health, could we keep him alive through the whole fight? Draagon was on top of it. He calls his void, gets buffed and shields up, even using lock spells I’d not seen before. We pre-hotted him and with a yell ‘LETS DO THIS!’ he runs in…

Off the steps and the boss aggros, coming right at Draagon.  I’m slamming my heal button to make sure there’s a large buffer of incoming heals… and Archavon’s legs twitch …some say they saw a knee, I don’t know. Draagon’s upper body makes a half turn back to the stairs, and I see the funniest confused expression on his face then he just lays down, concrete angel style again.

This is when I panicked. I start screaming ‘RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!’ and shadowmeld like the brave little druid I am. Other people seem to scatter, but at some point the tanks grab him. Slowly I realized I should probably heal something before all the tanks are dead.

Anyway we got this cool screenshot.

My friends went to Archavon and all I got was tileburn.

Rotface downed by *both* 10 man teams Thursday

10 man Progression night ended with both teams clearing Rotface for the first time on Thursday! Team CAKE, (Raid Leader Ajanti) then went on to hit Putricide twice, both times wiping during second phase due to adds. Team PIE (Raid Leader Dakhan) then went on to attempt Dreamwalker.

Fantastic work team! We look forward to easier clears of Rotface, familiarize yourselves with Putricide and Dreamwalker!