I mentioned in my previous post how certain raid encounters and I aren’t on speaking terms. Well we went back to Throne of the Four Winds last week and told Al’akir just exactly where he could stick his Wind Burst. I’d like to say we spanked him good and proper, but the truth of the matter is we were as much the spankee as the spanker. It really is an absolute twat of a fight but I’m definitely getting better at it, even if I’m nowhere near good enough yet. However, despite my substandard performance overall I at least nuked what needed nuking, stood (mostly) where I needed to be stood and a result…
And since Calli is Exalted with her guild, that meant she was able to purchase…
Behold... THE SPARKLE PIGEON!
Which is nice.
It’s funny (funny peculiar not funny ha ha) how Blizz prioritise their raid bosses. Perhaps “prioritise” isn’t the right word. What I mean is, we killed Cho’gal on our second attempt the first night we saw him. He’s actually pretty much a pushover. Furthermore, I know why we’re killing Cho’gal. He appears in numerous cutscenes as you level up to 85 while questing, and there was the whole pre-Cataclyms event thing that he caused. He’s the bad guy, we have to kill him. A bit like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, but yeah, Cho’gal must die. I get that. Al’akir on the other hand…
Al’akir? Who is he exactly?
An elemental lord like Ragnaros.
Oh ok. Why do we care?
Uh, because he drops phat lewtz?
No he doesn’t, they’re rubbish that hardly anyone wants. And he’s hard.
He’s the only boss you’ve not killed. If you kill him I’ll give you a pony.
Ok, that’s an incentive I can get behind!
So yeah, Al’akir eventually deaded, at the cost of many tears and nights of frustration. Why? Because he’s there. I’m sure there’s some lore reason buried away somewhere that explains why he’s the massive threat he is and we…. Zzzzzz. Sorry, nodded off. Blizzard are usually pretty good at this, that’s the surprising thing. I don’t get why we need to bother Al’akir, he never harmed me that I’m aware of, but I mostly don’t get why Blizzard failed to give me at least the semblance of a reason why I should care. As I said, they’re usually pretty good at this sort of thing.
Just as an example, take a look at this quest text, something we usually skip over while reading the summary at the end, guilty of it myself. On this, and I’m sure many other occasions, they’re usually worth reading. This one in particular is hilarious.
See? Hilarious. Blizzard can come up with the goods, and they usually do. But contrast that with the npc you need to escort out of Felson Keep for one of the Lol Barad dailies, you know… the one that’s really, really, really bugged. He speaks like a robot on prozac. When you contrast it with the love and imagination that’s gone into quests like the example above, or the amount of setup we got for going into the Bastion of Twilight and laying the smack down on Cho’gal, it just jars when you compare it to quests like Walk a Mile In Their Shoes or bosses like Al’akir.
Which is wierd, because as I’ve shown, Blizz can and usually do a spectacular job on this sort of thing.
Oh, what do I care? I’ve got a Sparkle Pigeon!
Wheeee!
Pew pew lazers! 
I dunno, I think Uldum and 2 dungeons are a healthy backstory lead-up to fighting Al’akir. But I haven’t been raiding, so I don’t know the pain of his fight yet.
Gratz on the shadowbird!
First things first, gratz! Already saw you showing your e-peenmounted in the dark pigeon in SW 🙂
About Al’Akir… this looks a lot as why we have to kill Ragnaros in old vanilla days. He hadn’t done any real harm, after all he was sleeping in the Core, until a pack of 40 brats come crashing in the Core and Executus wakes him… soooon! too soooooon!
So seems is failing big time at providing a good reason to go after elemental lords.
If you read any quests in Uldum, you’d know mate.
It’s sort of the whole threat to the kitty-centaur society.
You see, ‘thatbigdragonwiththejaylenochin’, has teamed up with as many elemental lords that would follow him in recking Azeroth, only two answered his call: Ragnaros, cuz we whooped him once, and that got him angry and he was all like “no fair guys, I wasn’t ready”, and al’akir because, winds like shaking things up.
The king of water and the bigasyomama-earth chick, said no thanks. (btw did you notice how there are 4 leveling zones and one 85 zone in cata? the 4 are themed from each element… there is an even better and grander story-line here, than even LK had).
It’s all there, if you aren’t too busy leveling your umtheenth toon to 85 and getting exalted with your guild, to like *read* quest-text and watch the cutscenes.
But you know, whatever, no biggie, not like im jealous of your mount or anything. Im just saying, whats the bigger kill:
a) the low-level servant cho’gal or
b) The mighty ally with whom’s help Deathwing plans to destroy the earth?
You say a. I say b.
🙂
(I remember once, when you came to my blog and taught me about lore. The student has indeed become the master!!)
The circle is now complete!
But that’s sort of my point, from 80 – 85 all you hear is “Cho’gal, Cho’gal! Cho’gal!” I can remember seeing Asaad being a bit naughty on “Lord Deathwings orders” in Uldum, but as far as I’m aware he could have been helping Deathwing behind Al’akirs back. I’m not saying Al’akir wasn’t mentioned, just that I don’t remember. Cho’gal on the other hand, ignore all the quest text you want, but good luck making it to 81, let alone 85 without hearing about that bad boy. But who’s going to end up giving you more trouble? Hint: You’d probably never heard of him until you’re wiping on him. And while you are wiping on him, you probably won’t know why you’re there other than “because”.
You can, and usually do, do better than this, Blizz. Try harder!
Wait! Did i read that right? That nasty dirty little detail in your quest screenshot?
“Help us, warlock! The forest is aflame…”
“Help us, warlock!”
“WARLOCK!”
You aren’t secretly playing a lock, are you?
Who do you think set the forest aflame in the first place? It was that little bastard, Jingles!
Meh, confession time. Just hit Uldum on my Rogue and started the Ramkahen quests.. Al’akir, Al’akir, Al’akir… I need to lern2read!
I just spent a happy hour reading your latest post and back(expect once or twice you made me choke on my dinner). I can’t wait to read the rest. I just want to say, I love it! You’re brilliant.
Cheers,
E
Choke on your dinner? Always happy to keep our medical professionals gainfully employed, just doing my bit. 😉
Congratulations 🙂