Three against... What?!

It was the night before New Year's Eve, when the Three Stooges took off again. With some fuzz with the contents of their bags they rummaged through the auction houses, banks, inns and stores of Stormwind, weeping for their trusty Northrend purples which had gone stale with the new, shiny greens of Cataclysm.

With much rage and crying they set their foot in Blackrock Caverns, the place they so fittingly died in the last time they were around.

"Off we go", claimed Laiskajaakko, as he entered the Cavern with Bishopgeorge. Without much ado he launched to the first caster mob, unaware of the fact that his brother had just exited the instance to show Förgelös, the middle one, where the Caverns entrance is.

Score: 1-0 for the instance.

Much rage and laughter commenced, as the three of them proceeded the instance. The first 'boss' with his lovely chains of appreciation caused the second death in the trio, when Bishopgeorge - instead of running straight - decided to run in circles around the feller. In the end, Laiskajaakko had only ten or so hit points left when the big bad boss went down, with all the cooldowns gone and potions chugged.

Score: 2-1 for the instance.

Onwards behind the shoulders of Raz the Insane or whatever his nickname was, and down the tunnel to Corla, that damned priest of the dark forces. The encounter is definitely done to humiliate us who want to have a real challenge in the instance, because it's quite impossible to complete at this level, with the dps available to the gear available. There just isn't enough dps to kill the beast beauty with the standard combination of the holy trinity: tank - dps - healer. I say standard, because none of us is a hybrid, nor do we have any pets to play with, pets which most of the time bring another party member to the foray, really.

Naturally it was a wipe. Twice even, even though we tried to rotate the one standing in the light ("Don't look into the light!").

Score: 8-1 for the instance.

"The heck with it", decided Bishopgeorge, and as the group leader put us into the LFD. Which, amazingly enough, filled the group before we got back from the spirit healer. (Ok, well, almost.)

And the instance was a breeze. The only problem was the fact that Laiskajaakko had never been in the instance before, so every boss was a new experience. There were wipes and deaths, but in the end the final verdict was that the instance was easy but designed so that it would be a real challenge for the three of us at anytime soon.

Score: 20 - 6, for the instance.

After which it was time to recuperate in the gentle care of Stormwind. Over the instance run there was next to no chat, no help, no advice from the two extra members, even though they had been in there several times. Laiskajaakko had to ask for guidance in Corla (ok, so the debuff's wear off, thank you) and that furnace master feller (now I know I have to drag him through the lava, thank you for telling that to me after the first wipe even though I asked). Without the constant chit-chat over the vent among the three of us, the instance experience would have been very, very shallow and dry.

Due to the fact that you have to know where the entrance is, the three decided that it was time for Bishopgeorge and Förgelös to gain their Sea Legs and Sea Horse. They went for the boat, stood on the same pier, but couldn't see each other: the glorious side effect of the phasing system. Upon reaching Vashj'ir the two landlubbers started doing the quests as planned, while Laiskajaakko did some mining and monster bashing, granting the two 'off-phased' brothers some extra experience. Which was nice and everyone was joyous.

Long story short, the three rode into the Throne of the Tides and engaged the first boss in there. That Nazga or what her name is. Anyhow, we got our behinds handed to us in a very grand and typical manner, as Bishopgeorge missed the healing que while yawning loudly, wiping first Laiskajaakko (Heals, please, Hello!) then Förgelös (Could we really have some heals here, please?!) in rapid succession. The only excuse was... "hmmmh... aye, that was partly the fault of the player, partly... hmmh..."

So we called it a night.

Förgelös put it nicely, and I have to agree with him on every word. You see, he said: "Despite everything Copra/Laiskajaakko claims and writes in his blog, one has to admit that the developers at Blizzard have really put some effort to the new areas and instances. So much so that you can really see that the polish isn't just skin deep."

Like I said, agreed. And I have never denied that WoW is extremely well done, polished and completed with great care.

It's good to end the blogging year with these warm words and wish all of you readers a very nice New Year.

C out
.