Some friends of mine had to play a theatric scene in an “unusual enviroment” as an assignment, so they chose Ironforge as their stage for a rather short version of the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet, with a level 19 pally twink and a freshly created female human warlock as the actors.

This is not only a great idea in my humble opinion, but it also faces a very real problem in WoW: What do you do after you hit the big 60? Sure, there’s new dungeons to raid and loot to acquire, but after some time, you’re all set in epic gear and can slay Onyxia with half a dozen people. Something like a theatre play can really bring life and joy to an “old” server, as the slideshow displays.

Also, for me, this is a very interesting take at reversed Machinima – instead of using the game to create a movie, you bring the acting right into it. It’s a bit of the next step after the Velvet Strike movement.

Within a few minutes, the troupe got an audience of about twenty people, and they had to do two encores – one of the balcony scene, and a part from Goethe’s Faust as a bonus. In the end, they got the usual fireworks and blizzards, and even collected a tip of 3,5 Gold – not bad for 15 minutes of fame, I think :)

WARNING: The following text contains enough spoilers to kill a molten giant.

When the 1.9 patch was released, I travelled to the caverns of time to see what all the fuzz was about. After sneaking past the guards, I saw.. the hugest thing I ever saw. Anachronos, heir to the dragon of time. He just stood there, watching me with a mixture of curiosity and amusement in his eyes. Some folks settled out to slay him, and close before he fell, he just disappeared, proclaiming that his time has not come yet, adding yet more to his greatness. Try to imagine a Stratholme zombie just trotting away from combat – it won’t work.

Time went on, and I learned more about those great beasts, even battled and bested some, including the fearsome Onyxia. But last night, one of those creatures taught me again never to take them lightly.

Vaelastrasz is the second boss in Blackwing Lair, right after Razorgore. And if a monster ever deserved the term boss, he does. Being able to insta-wipe a complete group with one hard breath, packed with enough life to fuel a small city and larger than an entire raid group stapled, he put up one of the most intense, long-lasting and interesting fights I ever witnessed in the game. In the end, after the 20th try, we got him down to 1% (Yes, one percent), and then our last standing fighter died, and he remained triumphant. Well, not really, considering he entered the lair just to kill his (and life’s) arch-enemy Nefarian in the name of Ragnaros, only to succumb to the corruption of the Black dragonflight.

Monsters like Vaelastrasz are why I play WoW. Not only does he have a moving, intense and deep story attached to him, he is also everything I ever trained for. The reason why I farm for hours on end to get that single piece of equipment that will push my stats more. The reason why I go on Ony/MC/ZG farming runs with my guild. So that when I meet a true and worthy opponent that cannot be simply dispatched by repeatedly using Sinister Strike with the occasional Eviscerate, Evasion or Blade Fury. A fight that takes speed, training, teamwork and a bit of luck. This time he got us, but the next time, we’ll be better prepared, and relieve him of his misery (and phat loot, of course. Can’t forget the loot. Hmm, purple goodness.)

By the way, whoever understood the title reference of this article gets a free soykaf the next time he/she is in Vienna.

Technorati Tags: metblogs, metrobloggging, vaelastrasz, warcraft

When the Tier 0-Set upgrade was announced, I was pleased as punch. Since I haven’t been able to enter the depths of the Molten Core as of yet, I was glad to upgrade some parts of my weak, weak set to something stronger. So as soon as the patch was applied and the servers back up, I jogged to the friendly lady in King Magni’s throne room and accepted her quest. 15 blood samples, coming right up.

After a trip to Winterspring and an extensive hunting session, I returned to her to claim my prize – the Darkmantle Bracers. They do look stylish, I give them that. But what about the all-important stats, in comparison to the Shadowcraft Bracers?

• +8 Armor
• +7 Strength

Wow. That’s it? Fantastic. Amazing. I never felt so nerfed in my virtual life before. With that and the current “Rebalancing attempts” by Blizzard, the guild I’m in considers reassigning Rogues from Damage Dealer to Healer. Oh well.

The upside is that the requirements for the collection of heads have been changed – no more Hexxer head needed, which just made me the proud owner of a belt of preserved heads. Just what the witch doctor prescribed.