Engineering: The great Equalizer

11/11/08

I have 2 stories, both similar in type. I was taking Bonescourge my level 41 Undead Warlock over to Arathi Highlands to finish up some quests there, and to help a friend do some quests as well. As I’m waiting for the zeppelin by Orgrimmar, a level 52 Orc hunter challenges me to a duel, because he was “board.” I offered some nails, and he laughed. After some consideration, I accepted the challenge. The countdown ended, and I immediately hit my /petattack /shadowbolt macro, followed up by Corruption and my other DOT spell. After a few seconds, he calls his pet BACK to help him out, since my Voidwalker is evidently doing more damage than he expected. I really wasn’t taking the duel seriously, or else I would have pulled out one of my dragonlings or my chicken. I didn’t think I’d win. Well, I didn’t, and that was my fault. At the end, he had about 5% health left, and had started concentrating fire on me, with his pet attacking me. I started casting a Fel Iron Bomb, but it was too late. But hey! Level 41 against a level 52, not too bad!

My friend Francois was helping his wife Darla level in Hillsbrad last night, and has a story with a better end. He’s a level 46 Troll hunter, and she’s a level 28 BE rogue. They were running around doing quests, and occasionally getting nuked by bored 70’s with nothing better to do. Not much you can do, just do a /bored or /violin at them while they’re attacking you, so they don’t get the satisfaction of watching you run.

Anyway, they were running along the south side of the main road in Hillsbrad, when they see a level 52 druid checking them out. They stop, /wave, and see what he’s going to do. He waits a bit, and then starts casting Wrath. Francois really didn’t want to get into it, so he decides to take the hit and see if the guy will quit. It hits him, the guy gets another one off, and Francois said “Enough.” He tells his pet to attack, Humar takes off out of Prowl, and starts hitting the druid. Francois starts running towards the druid, firing as he runs, and between his shots and his pet, they get the druid down to about 2/3’s health, same as Francois. When he gets near enough, he hits his Mithril Mechanical Dragonling. The druid sees it, and freakin’ bolts for Southshore. Too late! A couple of hits from Humar and the dragonling, and the druid is toast. Chalk one up to Engineering!

Heh, I just thought of a great macro to use.
/Cast Arcanite Dragonling
/stopcasting
/Cast Mithril Mechanical Dragonling
/stopcasting
/Cast Mechanical Dragonling
/stopcasting
/call pet
/cast Crimson Whelpling (or whatever non-attack pet whelpling you have, maybe even a dragonhawk from the Ghostlands)
/petattack

So from an opponent’s point of view, he sees a hunter run up on him, and suddenly he’s faced with 3 dragons AND a hunter. Granted, the non-attack pet won’t do anything, but from an intimidation standpoint, that would be quite scary to see all of them surrounding the hunter. You’d have to have a Windserpent, and as a Horde hunter, you’d want Arikara, since he’s the only pet in the game to appear in a puff of smoke and explosive noise. The rundown of the engineering dragonlings would make sure that it would switch to your highest available Dragonling, which you should have equipped anyway. If not, it would equip it if you were out of combat, and then you’d have to wait 30 seconds for the cooldown, which would spoil the effect somewhat.

On a closing note, I bought a Phantom Blade for Clockworknyt on Demon Soul for 100g. Why did I buy it, when I have Bullkathos, who’s level 300 Blacksmithing? It would cost me more for the mats, with the high prices of Breath of Wind and gems on that server. Anyway, I’m finally starting to get into doing high level enchanting recipes with Banesidhe, since he has Crusader, Lifesteal, Fiery, Icy Chill, Unholy….might as well start using them, now that the money is rolling in from the Lifelike Mechanical Toads that Bonescourge makes, and the minor Inscriptions that ….Bonescourge inscribes. Hmmm, didn’t think about it, but he’s jumped up from about 200 gold, to about 1800 gold in just about a week or so. I had a 500 gold day yesterday, as in opened my mailbox, walked away, and came back to being 500 gold richer. Pretty sweet for level 42.

But I digress. I decided to get the Phantom Blade, and put Lifesteal on it for Clockworknyt, my BE paladin. I had started leveling my new BE paladin on Darrowmere, and was astonished at how well the Seals and Judgement system worked. I figure, with the health from the Judgement of Life, PLUS Lifesteal, I’ll be pretty hard to beat in encounters with Allies on Demon Soul. I also like the bonuses on the weapon Phantom Blade, as it gives a Sunder like ability, as well as stealth prevention when you’re fighting rogues. The violet glow that Lifesteal gives the sword is nice, but I prefer my crossed Fiery and Icy Phantom Blades that Bullkathos wears on his back.