A few weeks ago, Navimie visited our old blogs and suggested that we should write a joined one. Her idea made its way and that’s how The Brutes is born. To thank her for inspiring the creation of our new home, we have written a story in which she is featured.

As usual, it is filled with a large dose of (dubious) sense of humor and a pinch of ego-centrism. And now, off with the show!

Sardoken’s tale

I am awesome. Seriously, I kick bullies’asses and Women fall in love with me, if that doesn’t match your definition of awesomeness, think again! Now that this is out of the way, let’s get going with the events that led me to save Navimie.

I was at the Razor Hill’s Inn with Soforah after a week wandering aimlessly and broke in Durotar living amazing adventures. We were getting smashed on cheap ale eating a delicious meal in this rather modest place when it all started.

There wasn’t many people that day, just us, a couple of Trolls sitting at the next table, a drunken Orc and a lady Tauren drinking at the bar. The Orc was apparently expressing his miscontempt about all that was crossing his mind, from the taste of the beer to the fact that people weren’t grateful enough to Garrosh for all he was doing for the Horde.

It started like the soft mumbling of a drunken man, but it quickly became a shout adressed to the whole room. It was working on my nerves. He went on about the other races and how he thought that they should be reminded of who were the real rulers of Azeroth. He was still as loud but, this time, his speech was directed to the first person he could find, the Tauren druid sitting a few meters away from him.

She didn’t seem too much interested in what he had to say, but he clearly was searching for an excuse to start a fight.
Don’t mind me saying this but, while druids are amazing with their love for the nature and all that, they have this habit to grow a culture of mushrooms when they feel threatened… Not very useful when dealing with a giant orc and his two-handed axe.

This is where I came in. You see, I don’t like bullies, even less when they lack respect to a lonely woman. Soforah, still busy eating her roasted beast, understood by the look in my eyes that things were about to be dealt with.

I got up and started to walk toward the bar when one of the Trolls sitting in front of us tried to stop me. He told me that the Orc was Malkorok, the leader of the Kor’kron and that I’d better leave him alone. I told him “I don’t know bullies by their names, but they always end up knowing mine!”.

I had almost reached Marlborok or whatever his name was when he jumped out of his seat and yelled something at me. I didn’t really understood what he said, his breath was too horrible. When he tried to swing his axe at me, I grabbed his arm and twisted it until his weapon dropped. I twisted a bit more and he apologized to the Tauren. Then, with a single kick of my right boot, I sent him flying through the Inn back to the dirt where he came from. He didn’t dare to come back, probably too afraid…

The tauren was speechless, the poor thing was in shock. Who wouldn’t be, she’d just been rescued by Sardoken, the sexiest Orc in Azeroth. She told me something that sounded like “navy me”. It probably meant “kiss me” in her language, but I wasn’t going to “navy” anyone. You see, this fine piece of Orc is already taken. I saw the flame in her eyes but I had to break her heart. I think she understood, because she kept it clean, no tears or anything. After all she would have a fine tale to tell her grand-kids, someday…

I went back to my table and winked at Soforah. She could go on to eat at her ease, the disturbance was over.

Soforah’s tale

The tale of Sardoken is true… Well, at least, some part of it. We were indeed at the Razor Hill’s inn that day, and there was indeed a drunken Orc at the bar. Now, for the rest, let me tell you what really happened.

I was devouring eating my roasted boar, the truth is that we didn’t eat for, at least, two hours a day and a half. Our little escort business didn’t have much success at that time, especially since Kor’kron guards were posted everywhere in Durotar. I could say that we were enjoying our meal in this rather modest establishment but the truth is that we didn’t have enough gold to afford anything better than this dump, its warm flat beer and its funky tasting “boar”.

If there is one thing I hate even more than not eating is to be disturbed while eating. The only thing we could hear at the Inn that day was the drunken Orc trying to pick a fight with the lady Tauren sitting right next to him. But if you think that I am a hot blooded Orc, you don’t know how fast Sardoken reacts when an opportunity to satisfy his ego appears to him.

Before I could realise it, he was up and walking toward the bar. The other Orc was drunk but he was also colossal, way taller and wider than Gammy. A troll who was just trying to mind his own business, tried to warn him but Sardoken gave him his most condescendant best smile, the one that means “don’t worry little fella, I have everything under control”.

What followed happended very fast. I tried to stop him, but it was already too late. The Orc had jumped out of his chair and was on Gammy before he could dodge a punch that would stop a Kodo in the middle of his charge. Sardoken was lying face down on the floor, but I could take advantage of the diversion to break the heaviest pint I could find on the back of the Orc’s head. Drunk like he was, it didn’t take more than that to put him to sleep.

That’s when Sardoken finally decided to wake up from his little nap and to drag an unconscious Malkorok out of the Inn. When he came back, he tried to charm the lady Tauren but, as usual, it didn’t work well but, this time, it wasn’t really his fault. We couldn’t really make anything out of the sounds coming from his mouth, his jaw was probably broken.

The Tauren looked at me, made a smile and told me her name was Navimie and that she was very grateful for the help.

We walked back to our table where I could finally finish my meal, and Sardoken could end up this story the way he always ends up all stories, with a half keg and a big nap.

Prologue

Malkorok came back to the pub a few days later and blew it up with a frag grenade. People thought that it was to kill two high-ranked Forsaken and Blood-elf officers. But we know now that he came back to wash an honnor he never had to begin with.

Some people try to get as many achievements done, others are taking a break, everybody has his own way to get ready for the release of Warlords of Draenor…

Each launch of expansion has been a pain to me, not that I don’t enjoy it but it’s the time to do the thing I hate the most in RPGs: choosing which class to play first.
For me, being ready for WoD means knowing which toons I’ll be playing and getting them ready for the big day, I don’t wanna be leveling a new alt when everybody is enjoying the new content.

While the question of which character should be my main has been solved over the years, I still have difficulties deciding which character will be my “first alt”.
The idea of having a “first alt” may seem silly to some people but, since I don’t have as much time as I’d like, I have to make a choice.

My main being a hunter, I’d like a different gameplay for my alt… This is why I’d like a healer.
Knowing that I fancy soloing old content for transmog gear, the paladin has a little edge, but I haven’t tried holy yet while I already know that I enjoy resto shaman.

No matter which character I’ll choose, this time I’ll be prepared!

Since the release of WoD won’t be for tomorrow, I’ve been keeping myself busy with rep. grinds, achievement hunts and the last steps for getting my legendary cloak.

A few days ago, while queueing for raids I had the idea to get exalted with the “Argent Dawn”. But, having that said, I had no idea how to… there is no tabard and there are no dailies. All of a sudden, I got a little discouraged, thinking I would never get that rep. up. Wrong! Actually, after having searched a little, I discovered a fairly easy way that took me less than 2 hours to get exalted with that faction.

After having finished questing in the Eastern Plaguelands, you’re supposed to be “revered” straight. When that’s done, you simply go to “Light’s Hope Chapel”. There you will find an NPC named “Lord Raymond George”, located on the cemetery behind the Chapel. He gives 2 quests: Annals of the Silver Hand (Stratholme) and Aberrations of Bone (Scholomance). Despite they are marked yellow, you can pick them up as many times as you want in one day. Each of them will grant you 2000 Argent Dawn rep.

I’ve first started with “Aberrations of Bones”. This one requires you to kill “Rattlegore” in Scholomance. He’s located in the very beginning of the dungeon so, the whole thing goes pretty fast. The only thing that took a lot of time is to fly back and forth handing in and retaking the quest.

“Annals of the Silver Hand” is the one I’ve been running in loop though. It’s situation is much closer to the quest-giver and very simple, really… you just run through Stratholme and let all mobs and bosses follow you till the end where you one-shot them (beware, I did this with a level 90 character!). Then, in the very end of the dungeon you will find “Instructor Galford”, you kill him and take the book from him. Once you leave the dungeon, the book will respawn so, you just go back to hand in the quest, retake it and run fly back to Stratholme. If you don’t reset the instance, there won’t be any mobs to kill left, leaving you a clear path to run through. I don’t remember how many times exactly I’ve done this but, like I’ve mentioned before, it took me less than 2 hours to get exalted.

At first I thought it would be a boring grind but, I actually had quite some fun re-seeing some “old” instances. It made me feel so nostalgic. Especially Scholomance… That place is soooo beautiful.

I know, it’s a bit late to start talking about an event that happened last thursday, but that’s the kind of luxury you can afford when you write a blog and not in a news website… The truth is that, if I would have posted right after the stream, I would have used way too many superlatives… Now I’ll use it only once and I’ll do it right now: Amazing!

Ever wondered what makes Blizzard games so incredibly popular? There is, of course, the legendary level of polish and the insanely fun gameplay but I believe that the lore is also a huge part of their success.

There are not so many MMORPGs where people know the names of the vilains or the leaders while most WoW players know Sylvanas, Thrall, Arthas,… Their lore is articulated around very charismatic characters, and their stories are very well diluted all along the gamer’s experience. I know that not everybody is a lore whore but I’m sure that everyone’s experience is affected by the stories of Blizzard.

With Lords of War, they take it even further by creating out-of-the-game story content.
Having seen how The Shattered Hand was started will make me even more attentive to pieces of lore related to that faction in the next expansion.
Everyone knows now that Garrosh was defeated and brought to trial, but to see him handing back Gorehowl to his father after having kept him from drinking the cursed blood was mind-blowing.

On a final note, I’m so happy about the release date. We are moving to Brussels during the month of October and I would have had a lot of difficulties focusing on a new expansion and a moving at the same time. We will be well installed in our new quarters when WOD will be released and without our daily train trips, we’ll have plenty of time to enjoy it!

Alternative Chat is doing a project where in honour of the 10th Anniversary of World of Warcraft, she is asking players from around the world to answer 10 questions about their experience of the game. Here are our answers:

Sardoken answered:

I started playing World of Warcraft in April 2006, so for me it’s more like 8 years… Nevertheless, I’m glad to be part of something as awesome as WoW and I find alt:ernative’s project a great way to celebrate the anniversary of the greatest MMORPG of all times. So here we go:

1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?
I needed a game for my Easter holidays of 2006… We were about to have 2 weeks at home and we were stocking up on comic books and video games. I thought “why not giving WoW a shot?” After 10 minutes in the game, I knew that it would be different. Not only did the game filled my holidays, it gave me 8 amazing years.

2. What was the first ever character you rolled?
Ok horde friends, don’t be mad at me! It was a Night Elf druid (ouch! Not the face, please). I wanted a character that could do a lot of different things like melee, heal and cast spells. I often played as a paladin in games like Diablo, I wanted something different, something more “nature” than “divine”. But why a Night Elf? In that time druids could only be Tauren or Night Elf,… To be honest, I didn’t give it much of a thought, Taurens seemed too big, that was all.

3. Which factors determined your faction choice in game?
Well, as I’ve said Night Elves were the only choice for me as a druid. I didn’t know much about the lore, the other races, their cities,…

4. What has been your most memorable moment in Warcraft and why?
Even if I’ve had a lot of awesome moments in WoW: completing the world events together with my wife, my Sunday afternoons with low level Orcs (I had a thing for leveling Orcs on Sunday afternoons), healing during “Ragnaros server first” (vanilla), the one that will always come first is my first hour in WoW. Running in Teldrasil, discovering the landscape, the feeling of depth of the game, it marked me forever. I thought that the game was so huge, imagine my surprise when I found out that we could cross the sea and explore another continent… I will never forget.

5. What is your favorite aspect of the game and has this always been the case?
That’s a difficult one, it’s between healing 5-man dungeons and running after achievements. From a pure fun perspective, I’d say that healing 5-man is my ultimate favorite. I love dungeons, whether it’s in a dark cavern, an Defias hide-out or a dragon lair, I enjoy them all.

6. Do you have an area in game that you always return to?
That’s an easy one: Darkshore.
I’m attached to that place, I’m a sentimental. The colors, the trees, the sea, the quests (damn it Cataclysm: for love eternal, the absent-minded prospector, washed ashore), Darkshore will always have a special place. Now, if I had to chose a place to retire, it would be Winterspring… I would become friend with the Furbolgs and I would protect the Yetis from the careless levelers.

7. How long have you /played and has that been continuous?
I’ve been playing 271 days and 7 hours (omg, that’s 6511 hours o_O’) since april 22, 2006. My most played characters are my druid (70 days) and my hunter (71 days), the rest is shared between a lot of other classes. I haven’t rolled a monk (yet) and I’ve never reached max level with a priest.
There has been pauses, sometimes of a month and even once for 5 months (worst time ever!). It always happened when my main character was geared and I had no reason to go to raids anymore. The first sign was that I started to re-roll and switch classes every day, then every hour until I got mad. But things have changed, other games like Hearthstone and Diablo III are keeping me away from WoW burnouts. Also, I have now two mains now (hunter and shaman), it will take me twice more time to reach that “I have nothing to do anymore” moment.

8. Admit it: do you read quest text or not?
On my first run, I do. I’m a lore fan. I read the comics, I read the books, I read the quests,… I love stories and Blizzard is sooo good at story-telling.

9. Are there any regrets from your time in game?
Yes, I regret that I haven’t remained in one guild from the beginning. I would have loved to make real friends through the game. It almost happened a few times but the guilds disbanded because to GM was quitting WoW. As of today, I’m still looking for a guild where I could stay. Anyone from Draenor-Eu (Horde) reading this, if you’re searching for a funny couple of gamer to put some color in your chat, Soforah and me are available 😉

10. What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside gaming?
Passion is what WoW gave me and it changed everything. Before WoW, I didn’t have much in terms of passion, I was drinking and smoking a lot…
Spending more time at home to play WoW made me discover another lifestyle, more cozy. I’ve quit smoking and I don’t drink in the same way as before, now it’s more like going to the pub with my wife once a week to have a few pints like two orcs. Then we go to devour juicy steaks 🙂
Also, being a WoW player is being part of a commmunity with events, celebrations, things to be excited for, blogs to read,… The people around me in real life aren’t really gamers (with a few rare exceptions). I always felt sad not to be able to share my passion. WoW changed that, now I have barely enough time to read all the tweets and all the blogs, lol.

Soforah answered:

1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?

When I was younger, gaming in general was quite badly seen in the environment where I grew up in. Especially when you’re a girl. So, given the fact that it was such a taboo, I stuck to the good old paper and dice role playing games, which we could easily play hidden. It wasn’t until I met my partner in crime, my sweet husband, that I broke with that awful stigmatising world. Even though it took me 4 years of watching him explore that awesome world named Azeroth before I jumped on the Blizzard train as well.

The biggest reason I started playing WoW wasn’t to rebel against taboos, but because I love to explore new worlds and live adventures that make your creativity juices flow. I love lore and find the world of Azeroth both inspiring, and tremendously relaxing. My husband could always talk with so much passion about “the game” and he was always having so much fun that one day, I joined him on his adventures. On the 18th of February 2010 to be precise, was the day I asked my hubby if WoW could run on an iMac (quickly and gladly exchanged for a gaming pc). Since then I’ve been on a roll and became a big Blizzard fan.

2. What was the first ever character you rolled?

The first character I’ve rolled was a Night Elf druid. I loved the diversity of the druid. The shape shifting, the different specs,… it all had a lot of charm back then. Little did I know that there was a “Cataclysm” on the menu. Since that expansion, I lost my fun playing that character and rolled my new main, an Orc hunter.

3. Which factors determined your faction choice in-game?

Well, I started levelling my first character on the Alliance. I just loved the starting zones of the Night Elves. So peaceful, beautiful,… But, I quickly realised that I was fighting on the wrong side. I just prefer all Horde leaders above the Alliance ones. I prefer the capital cities from Orgrimmar (being my favourite) to Tunderbluff. And, most of all, I prefer the races. On the Alliance side, I always find it hard to roll a new character because I just don’t like the races while, on the Horde, I never can choose whether it’s going to be an Orc, Tauren, Troll,… I just love them all. So, yeah, “For the Horde” all the way!

4. What has been your most memorable moment in WoW and why?

I guess that would be my very first day in WoW. As a complete gaming noob and newbe, I found that huuuuuge world so overwhelming, I felt like Santa on xtc in Disneyland.

5. What is your favourite aspect of the game and has this always been the case?

Wow, that’s a tough one cause there are so many favourite aspects… hehe… (choices, not my strong point). I would say that exploring that huge open world full of quests (lore), collectibles, achievements,… is my favourite.

6. Do you have an area in the game that you always return to?

Darkshore! I love that place and if I could choose a place to live in, in-game, I’d build a little house there. I know, it’s an Alliance place, blame it on my first day in WoW, that day marked me… hehe. And, then there’s Winterspring! I love the snow, the cold, and above all, I love running around in those beautiful landscapes, pretending I’m making snow angels.

7. How long have you played and has it always been continuous?

Since 18/02/2010. On and off, the longest break I made was one of a few months. The usual reason is some real life crap that comes in between.
All my high level characters together (low lvl ones not included), I’ve played about 109 days of WoW (2616 hours)… well, and I thought that my 100+ hours spent in Skyrim would be an achievement?!

8. Admit it: do you read the quest text or not.

When it’s a new quest, yes. Like I’ve mentioned before, I love lore, but after a second or third time, I start to skip on reading them once more.

9. Are there any regrets from your time in-game?

At the beginning, I didn’t know the first thing about gaming. Hell, I couldn’t even run in a straight line with my character (-insert: you may laugh now-). So, needless to say that I was dead afraid to run dungeons or raids with my royal noobness. As if people could kick my ass for real through my screen or something, but later on, when I started being more at my ease, I kicked my own ass in stead, and now I even raid (something I swore one day I’d never do lol).

10. What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside of gaming?

A huge one. It may sound corny, but WoW has changed my life for the better. It helped me throwing my past luggage overboard and it gave me the chance to help breaking the taboos of being a gamer girl (still need to kick ass big time over this one, but it’s totally worth it). A few years back, I didn’t even dare thinking about telling anyone I was playing WoW, now I scream it from the rooftops and smash all naysayers under my size 6 boots.

Voilà, That’s pretty much our few years of adventures in a nutshell. If you are interested in this survey, we invite you to read this post on alt:ernative.

I’d been raiding ICC back in LK with my resto druid every week and I never had the chance to get Precious’ Ribbon. Yesterday, Precious finally dropped his damn ribbon, it motivated me to go on with the run and see how far I could solo ICC 10… At level 90, with an ilvl of 540, I didn’t encounter any “firepower” issue. However, as a SV hunter, a few fights required some special tactics.

I don’t intend to write full guides but I found it boring to have to read 5 different guides (which were mostly written for DKs) just to get passed a few tricky fights. Here is a compilation of the things to know if you want to solo ICC 10 with a SV Hunter.

Lord Marrowgar sometimes casts Bone Spike Graveyard to impale an enemy. Since you’re alone, nobody can come to rescue you, not even your pet. Basically, if you’re impaled, you die. There is a simple way to avoid it, just keep the aggro on you and he won’t cast it. To do so, I just had to deactivate Growl on my pet, easy.

The Gunship Battle was probably the hardest part of the run. You have to use a cannon and cast Cannon Blast until the heat reaches almost the maximum (don’t let it go to 100% or you’ll have to restart), then cast Incinerating Blast to do maximum damage to the enemy ship. Every time a portal appears on the bridge of your ship, you have to dismount the canon and kill the enemies that will come out of it as fast as possible, that’s your top priority because they deal massive damage to your ship and will make you lose the fight. When Below Zero is cast on your cannons, you won’t be able to use them anymore, you have to jump to the enemy ship, using your rocket pack, and kill the enemy mage.

The fight is just a matter of following a priority list: Kill the enemy NPCs on your deck > Kill the enemy Mage > Use the cannon. During the last 10%, forget the priority list and nuke the enemy ship with the cannon.

Valithria Dreamwalker is impossible for a SV hunter. The dragon needs to be healed and, unless you have MM off spec with 3 spirit beasts, you won’t be able to provide any healing. There is a solution: skip it! You can do so by using the Goblin Glider (you need to be an engineer) as described in this video.

The final “trick” is to use Distracting Shot once in a while on the second phase of Arthas, so the Val’kyrs won’t come to pick you.

The rest is pretty much straight forward, nuke bosses until the Lich King where you’ll have to know when to move to the border of the platform and when to come back to the center but that isn’t SV hunter specific anymore…

Voilà, I hope that this little compilation will help you soloing one of my favorite raid ever. Have fun!

Finally got something useful from a Blingtron. I still can’t believe it. After all this time… I always summoned my own, but, yesterday, I saw that there were plenty of them up in the Shrine, so, I thought, why spam the place with another one?

I don’t know if that did the trick, but, I was quite happy not to receive more Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E‘s or another Extreme Back Scratcher or any other “crapasourus” from that way too shiny little thing.

Anyway, Lil’ Bling may not be the cutest among all WoW pets, he’s quite welcome in my collection nevertheless. Talking about pets, I really should do more pet battles and stuff…

Thanks to the Wowhead profiler, we can see what our characters will look like in Warlords of Draenor. I’m pretty happy with the new looks of Sardoken. My apologies in advance to all the ladies of Azeroth… Such an awesome piece of Orc, he’ll certainly break a few hearts on his way, no harm intended 😉

It was a beautiful autumn morning. I was crossing Elwynn forest to gank low levels try my new chopper. Everything was back to normal, Garrosh was about to be sentenced for the crimes he had committed, the inns were full of rumors about everything and nothing and I was wonderful again, riding my bike like the awesome wild Orc that I am.

I had heard a disturbing story at the tavern last night, while I was getting tanked on cheap ale eating but I didn’t pay much attention. It is said that some human mage is wandering the forest, ambushing males of all races and taking advantage of them. But you know how drunken folks are, they would tell the most bizarre stories just to get some attention.

Awesome the way I am, I really wouldn’t need to get caught by some crazy lady just to get laid. After all, they don’t call me “the sexiest Orc in Azeroth” for nothing. I just happen to be a bit in a low point at the moment. Nothing to worry about.

Anyway, there I was, riding in Elwynn forest when suddenly, she appeared. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was her, the lady mage. Not any lady mage, it was Jaina Proudmoore!

Before I could realize what was happening, she had already casted a frost bolt at my engine. My hog was frozen on spot, I couldn’t escape. All I could do was looking at her, walking in my direction, with fire in her eyes.

Not that I’d ever be scared of a lady… Only this one isn’t an ordinary lady. You see, since Garrosh has dropped a bomb on her home town, people say that she has gone bamboozle. No wonder that if she could put her hands on such an awesome specimen as myself, she would get even more crazy and who knows what she’d do to my body.

I couldn’t let that happen, I had to try something. I threw a frost trap on her path. All hypnotized by my sex-appeal that she was, she didn’t seem to notice it, she walked right on it. Even if it didn’t have much effect on her, it was enough to break her focus, giving me the time to jump off my chopper and cast my camel. I rode as if Ragnaros himself was after me, I didn’t look back.

It took me several kegs days to recuperate. Even weeks later, she still haunts my nights.

So, no matter how desperate fearless you are, if you value your dignity, stay away from Elwynn Forest for it is haunted by a once proud woman, turned into a psychopathic nymphomaniac.

Due to the lack of time and most of all, the lack of a blog, I didn’t participate to Blog Azeroth Shared Topic a few weeks ago (or should I say months…). Syrco of Syrco Owl came up with a great and simple question: “What in WoW reminds you of home?”.

I live in multicultural and tiny Belgium. We have mountains, forests, the sea, our big capital city, Brussels, and most of all… fields, lots of fields and meadows… Especially, in the part of Belgium where I come from.

The zone that first popped into my head was Westfall. It’s a tranquil farming area that brings back a lot of childhood memories. Eventhough, I haven’t been raised on a farm and my parents were far from being farmers, our house was surrounded by them. The haystacks, scarecrows, lonely trees in the middle of a plot…

And, then, there is Feralas, which reminds me of our lush, green nature during the summertime. It’s maybe not as exotic looking but, the certain shades of green are quite similar to ours end spring / middle summer.

While Silverpine Forest and Alterac Montains remind me a little of the Ardennes.

Last but not least, well,… I guess I won’t have to explain on how much the next picture of the “Caves of Dinant” looks like a real dungeon 😉 We have plenty of those and I always get carried away, dreaming up adventures and stories whenever stumbling upon one during a long walk in the Ardennes.

Wow, writing this post actually makes me realize on how many places in Azeroth remind me of “home”. Before starting, I really thought I’d have a hard time finding any resemblance at all but, now I’m on a roll and have a hard time stopping :-S Thank you, Syrco for the awesome idea 😉