I saw a fairly old article on Gene Wolfe this morning: Master of the Universe. It's a good summary of Wolfe's work and his contribution to the field and to literature in general, so I'd recommend having a look.
Battlegrounds are live on the World of Warcraft Test Server. I've heard mixed things about Alterac Valley, though my warrior alt isn't high enough for me to check it out. Warsong Gulch, at any rate, is a fast-paced, 10 versus 10 capture the flag match, and is undeniably cool. Powerups, intense action, match summaries all combine to give the zone a FPS sort of flavor. Very cool.
We hit up Zul'Farrak again last night, this time with a full five guild members. It was pretty much a repeat of the night before, except this time we went after Antu'sul as well. Overall our drops were significantly better.
- [Jumanza Grips]
- [Bad Mojo Mask]
- [Big Bad Pauldrons]
- [Vice Grips of the Monkey]
Eric got the grips and the mask. The pauldrons and the vice grips were disenchanted. We're probably finished with the instance at this point, since our quests there are largely done and we've gotten the majority of the usable drops. Next up: Maraudon!
Presently most of my time in World of Warcraft is being devoted to my warrior alt, now level 50. Last night I ventured into the ruined troll city of Zul'Farrak with Eric and Mike. We'd picked up a couple of random companions, and got a decent shaman and perhaps the worst mage I've ever played with.
Despite the fact that mages have absolutely no melee skills to speak of, this particular mage had either found or invested in [Bloodrazor] and spent an hour heroically demonstrating his swordsmanship. Fireballs and ice blasts and other pyrotechnic displays of magic, conversely, were notably absent.
Even with this liability, Zul'Farrak has few challenges of note and we hit most of the major high points of the dungeon. Zerillis was spawned, but didn't give us his rare drop. Here's the loot we actually saw.
- [Zum'rah's Vexing Cane]
- [Jinxed Hoodoo Kilt]
- [Big Bad Pauldrons]
The staff went to Eric and was easily the best drop of the night.
