Memories of Vanilla #30 - You Done Attunement, Right?

Hey dudes. Silvite Soltis here back with another installment of Memories of Vanilla - my reflective series of my Warcraft adventures back in 2005-2007.

Last time, I told about how I came to the decision to try and acquire a full set of Dreadmist gear, as well as how some of my adventuring went in pursuit of that goal. Needless to say, I was still a huge noob back then - so today I'd like to tell another nooby story that happened around that time.

I hope you enjoy. If you do, remember to leave a comment below telling me if you had a similar experience back in the day. But anyway, let's get right into the story...


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Molten Giants in the Core

Back in early 2006, I remember watching Leika as his mage took on huge giants made of rock and magma. There was something intoxicating about what he was doing - talking with a clamor of voices in Ventrilo, spamming his Frostbolt icon, and running with a massive group of Alliance soldiers through the pits of this fiery cave - I was enthralled.

Well, fast forward to the summer, and I was ready! I was finally going to enter the Molten Core for myself.

One evening, shortly after hitting level 60 and somewhere in the middle of my quest to obtain a full set of Dreadmist gear, Leika called me on the phone and asked if I wanted to go to MC with his guild that night.

Oh boy, did I ever!

Naturally, I agreed and proceeded to stock up on mana potions, the only consumable I really knew about, before logging out to do other things before it started. I don't remember how I spent the time until the raid to be honest - probably played Aoyamamotoko or something - but eventually, it was time...

8:00PM - the summer sun still shone through the basement windows as I logged into Silvite and messaged Leika for an invite. Within seconds, it came - and I found myself in a group with around 30 other people. Other than my random experiences in Alterac Valley, this was the biggest group I'd ever been in. I was pumped up!

Molten Core Entrance

And then it hit me - I had no idea where Molten Core was or how to get there...

Sheepishly, I messaged Leika to ask where I should go. He lol'd (typical) and just told me to wait for a summon. They'd take care of me so long as I followed my healing assignments. This helped me to relax a little, but I was still really anxious to get inside and start fighting those baddies I'd seen before.

How Noobs Get Places...

Eventually, a window popped up: "[Player] wants to summon you." This was it! I clicked 'yes' and was transported to Blackrock Mountain - a place I only recognized from the few UBRS runs I'd done previously. Stoked, I /waved at everyone before watching them gather by some elf in a room. This is where something odd started happening...

One by one, my teammates started disappearing from that small room. I wondered why, but figured it would be best not to say anything for now. Eventually, only a handful of us remained - all in various guilds and looking just as confused. Leika whispered me, asking why I hadn't zoned in...and this is when I noticed where everyone else was - Molten Core.

Confused, I asked him how they'd gotten in - as they'd all simply disappeared from the room. Apparently, all I had to do was talk to the elf guy and he'd teleport me. I sighed, and walked over to the NPC, but all I could do was accept a quest...

"Attunement to the Core"

Attunement to the Core

Leika's response was, as expected, 'ROFL!' In my noobishness, I had never found out that I actually needed to attune for the raid. At this point, the raid leader asked us why we were all still standing outside. Apologizing, I said that I apparently hadn't done the attunement yet, but would get it done as soon as I could, hoping to somehow save my spot.

I, along with the others standing around outside, were told to get attuned first, then kicked from the raid group. So much for my dreams of slaying lava giants...




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I hope you enjoyed the misadventure that was my first attempt at raiding in vanilla. It's one of those experiences that really helped me to grow as a player and one that, while negative at the time, I always look back on fondly now. After being kicked from the group, a few of us unattuned players did make a group and run the attunement quest in BRD, but by the time we actually finished it, the raid was long finished (yeah, we sucked). So I never actually got into MC that night, or ever again, in vanilla.

Luckily, I'll have another chance to do it right from August 27th. And I'm going to cherish every bit of it this time!

Anyway, that's it for today. If you enjoyed this story and would like to see more in the future, follow my blog by adding yourself to my email list below. Also, consider subscribing to my YouTube channel, as I eventually make videos of all of these stories over there as well. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for updates when new content is released, and consider supporting me on Patreon as well! Every dollar helps a lot in building up my content collection, and I truly appreciate it.

But yeah, that's enough shameless self-promotion for today. Thanks for reading. And as always, take it easy! :)

Memories of Vanilla #26 - Ao's Staff

Hey dudes. Silvite Soltis here with another fun story for you!

Warrior Time!

After talking about Silvite's grande adventures in high-level dungeons and zones for the past few installments, I thought it might be time to revisit my alt, Aoyamamotoko, back in Westfall for a bit. After all, vanilla was a time of learning in many different ways and I can definitely say that I learned a lot from leveling a warrior. It's an interesting class with a lot of different skills and intricacies involved, and I'm really happy that it was my first real alt because of this.

Anyway, sit back, relax and enjoy as I tell the story of Aoyamamotoko and her bo staff.

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What I Thought Warriors Looked Like...

I have no idea when this story takes place in the timeline of vanilla, but I do know that at this time, Ao was traversing the plains of Westfall. I'd just finished some quests around one of the farms in the zone and was heading over to Sentinel Hill. I'm not sure why, but I had made it my mission to kill any living thing along the way - probably to try and collect Goretusk livers or something. But on the corpse of one fallen foe, I found a green item - a staff.

Donatello

Now, my image of warriors was that they were badass metal-wearing sons-of-bitches who ran up to enemies with swords flailing about. However, noticing this staff had some strength on it, I decided "eh, what the hell" and equipped it to see how it looked. Immediately I was hooked.

My New Best Friend (for about 5 levels)

See, this staff was super basic - essentially just a stick with some wrapping around the middle. But it reminded me of my favorite Ninja Turtle from my childhood - Donatello. When I considered this alongside the fact that my previous weapon was some white quality quest reward from Elwynn Forest, I knew I wasn't going back. This was my new weapon for a while.

And so, my purple warrior with blue-green hair set off across the plains of Westfall with her new bo staff - smacking to death any enemies that dared to cross her path. Of course, using a staff as a warrior wasn't without its challenges though. In the beginning, I had no weapon skill, and subsequently died to about 3 mobs before I could finally reliably hit them. Still, it was good times. 

More than once, I noticed a /lol from random players as I 'donked' mobs across the face with my wooden ally, but being the carefree noob that I was, I shrugged it off. After all, I'm sure I was making lots of mistakes other than using a staff, right?

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Anyway that's pretty much it for my story of my bo staff. Looking back now, it's not so much of a story, as it is a fun little memory of my noobishness in early WoW. To be fair, I have learned now that using a staff with higher damage IS actually the correct choice for a warrior, but considering my reasons for doing it back in the day, I think I was just lucky.

But that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed this super-short anecdote of my warrior alt's bo staff adventures. I did eventually replace it when I was chain-boosted through the Deadmines in an attempt to collect twin Cruel Barbs, but that's a story for another time. If you enjoyed this story, remember to follow my blog by adding your email to my mailing list below. Also, leave a comment telling of your nooby stories of early leveling in vanilla or beyond. I look forward to reading them. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter for updates as well, and check out my videos over on YouTube for more content. I'm sure you enjoy that as well.

But for now guys, take it easy!