Page 3 of Looking for Group
Next in was a dark elf chick with deep-brown skin and shock-white hair.
She was striking and pretty, in a video game avatar kind of way.
Drew liked to think he’d grown out of his fancying-imaginary-elves phase, but Solace had obviously put a lot of work into her look.
She was wearing a full set of Tier 8, which, after a quick inspect, Drew was relieved to see was in the cosmetic slot, not the stat slot.
[Group][Orcarella]: Nice wings
[Group][Solace]: Thanks
[Group][Ialdir]: It took us weeks to farm them
[Group][Solace]: A well-dressed priest is a happy priest
She did a twirl, all white and gold and stirring feathers. Drew was really glad that the fancying-imaginary-elves phase was way behind him.
After a moment, he selected Solace and typed /whistle into his chat window, and Orcarella signalled her approval.
Then a human elementalist appeared and threw huge ball of fire at the golems. The assassin logged out instantly. Drew leapt into action.
[Group][Orcarella]: wwwwwwwwws1111
He stared in dismay as his carefully executed keyboard commands, that had been intended to send Ella dashing forward to grab aggro on the mobs, instead popped up as a stream of gibberish in chat, making him look like a total noob in front of his new guildies.
Nice work, Drew. Hit return next time.
The golems were lumbering forward, heading straight for the elementalist, who was wearing nothing for armour and still cheerfully spamming fireballs like it was Guy Fawkes Night.
Drew sighed, threw a Circle of Corruption under the monsters, and charged forward to draw their aggro.
He hammered the keyboard, alternating threat-building strikes between the two golems. He was pleased to see a protective little halo surrounding his character, which meant Solace had her head in the game.
Arrows whistled past him, cutting into the golems’ health. They were followed by a small owl Drew was pretty sure came from the high elf starting area. Even without the extra DPS, the golems went down pretty quickly.
[Group][Orcarella]: Don’t pull without the tank
Another fireball whooshed by and called the attention of two more golems and a purple-robed machine priest.
[Guild][Orcarella]: ffs
It was time for this guy to learn a life lesson.
Drew pulled his character back and typed /sit .
Next to him, Solace and Ialdir started dancing together.
Typical of the game’s animation, Solace writhed slinkily while Ialdir flailed around like a complete prat who was being electrocuted.
Drew had typed /dance on this character exactly once and instantly regretted it, but it was nowhere near as bad as the male high elves. 10
The elementalist was still throwing fire while two robots and a loony cultist beat on him with hammers. The moment he died, Drew threw down his CoC and leaped into the fray. This group fell over slightly more slowly, but not by much, cultist first, then robots.
Drew was starting to feel he’d made the right choice. The other two clearly knew what they were doing, and he was almost having fun, despite the failamentalist.
[Group][Burnzurfais]: ffs
[Group][Orcarella]: Don’t pull for me
[Group][Burnzurfais]: y no healz
[Group][Solace]: Because you pulled without the tank
[Group][Burnzurfais]: u suk
Solace resurrected the tragically fallen Burnzurfais. Somehow, even the guy’s avatar looked sulky.
[Group][Burnzurfais]: buff me
[Guild][Ialdir]: Guys, I think we’ve found a potential new recruit.
[Guild][Solace]: He’s a real prince.
[Guild][Orcarella]: lol
They took down the next pack with no problems, and then the corridor opened out into a wide, circular ring.
In the middle, streams of lava converged and flowed into the furnace beneath.
The first time Drew had seen it, he’d thought it was pretty majestic.
The twelfth time, he’d just wished the whole place was smaller.
This was well more than the twelfth time.
There were three bands of golems and cultists patrolling the rim.
Once, he’d hit on the cunning notion of knocking them all over the edge with his Ruthless Surge, but they’d gathered at the bottom and come slowly back up, bringing the entire dungeon with them.
He’d found it kind of hilarious, but his guildies at the time had been furious. 11
To give Burnzurfais due credit, he somehow managed to avoid throwing fire at them until Drew had put down his circle and charged into the first group. It was all going pretty smoothly until three extra burning robots lumbered over from the other side of the room.
Drew gave the guy the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe he’d just had a tabbing accident. Happens to the best of us.
He strafed awkwardly over to intercept, just in time to see the elementalist hurl a fireball at the final group and then wrap himself in a cloud of mist, leaving them to run straight for Solace.
Shit had just got serious.
Circle of Corruption was still on cooldown, and he only had two taunts.
He dashed across the room, just as Ialdir trapped a cultist with a bolas.
But that left seven mobs still standing, and he was pretty sure some of them were healers and some of the others were firing rockets more or less at random.
At that moment, one of the golems lost interest in Orcarella and started pounding on Ialdir, while Burnzurfais went back to spamming the one spell he knew how to cast, standing in a puddle of flaming oil that was quickly eating his health bar.
[Group][Solace]: Don’t stand in fire
[Group][Burnzurfais]: healz
[Group][Burnzurfais]: healz!!!!11
He died.
[Group][Burnzurfais]: y no healz 12
Drew’s taunt came off cooldown, and he yanked the golem away from Ialdir just in time for the bolas to drop and the final cultist to take it personally.
Out of the corner of his eye, Drew saw Solace’s health draining like pasta in a colander.
Nipping between oil spills, she ran towards him, throwing HoTs, and he darted forward to meet her, unleashing Hail of Vengeance on everything around them.
For a moment, he couldn’t see their avatars for giant robots and particle effects, as if they were standing together at the centre of a storm. 13
They took out a couple more golems before the damage and the chaos got too much for them and Ialdir took the wrong end of a rocket blast.
[Group][Ialdir]: You can do it guys, only four left!!
Drew was sweating slightly as he mashed his rotation. It wouldn’t really be his fault if they wiped, but he was the best geared tank on the server and he didn’t want to be dragged down by some mouth-breathing pillock with an RP-inappropriate name.
Also, Solace was kind of depending on him. And the healer wasn’t dying on his watch.
His health dipped, and he threw up Wall of Blades as one more cultist keeled over.
[Group][Ialdir]: *waves pompoms*
Solace’s mana wasn’t looking great and, in his Vengeance spec, Drew’s damage output was pretty low. This was the point where all the graphics and all the sound effects and all the story just went away, and it became a game of blue bars and red bars and which of them hit zero first.
Another golem down. Two left, both on half health.
Then one.
[Group][Solace]: oom
Drew’s health ticked away. Ten percent. Five percent. His vampiric aura was giving him a slow trickle of healing, but it was nowhere near enough. The golem was dying too, but not quite as quickly.
And, at last, Orcarella collapsed to the floor and the golem, a last sliver of red clinging mockingly to the bottom of its health bar, turned to Solace.
Drew hated this bit. Not his fault but, damn, it felt like it.
[Group][Orcarella]: Sorry guys
[Group][Burnzurfais]: fucking noobs
Solace was kiting for all she was worth, but she had no health and no mana and she probably wouldn’t last another five seconds. The golem slammed its fist down. Then there was a rush of purple light and Solace was standing over the machine’s broken body.
[Group][Solace]: omg i cant believe that worked
[Group][Ialdir]: GJ guys
[Group][Orcarella]: wtf was that
[Group][Solace]: Dark elf racial. [Lifesteal]. Hee. I’ve never used it before.
[Group][Ialdir]: That used to be really OP back in the day.
[Group][Solace]: Back when all this was grass
[Group][Solace]: When you had to farm for mats uphill both ways in the snow
[Group][Ialdir]: And you had to respect your elders
[Group][Burnzurfais]: rez
[Group][Solace]: Sec, need to mana up. Just sipping on my [Fermented Cave Mould] 14 . Mmmm.
[Group][Ialdir]: Better than the [Brackish Sump Water] you were drinking in the last expansion.
[Group][Solace]: Game developers hate spellcasters.
[Group][Burnzurfais]: rez
Drew stared at his crumpled corpse, which was lying at a slightly awkward angle on the floor, his axe clipping through the foot of a fallen golem.
Solace drifted between the bodies of her slain companions, swaying gracefully as she worked the magic that would call their spirits back from the netherworld.
Magic that, as one of the Heroes of Legend, she would have learned long before she learned to ride a horse. 15
A window popped up on screen.
Solace is trying to resurrect you: accept / decline.
[Group][Orcarella]: Thx
[Group][Burnzurfais]: rez
Solace moved to Ialdir and did her thing again.
[Group][Burnzurfais]: rez
Another window popped up.
Burnzurfais has initiated a vote-kick against [Solace] Reason []. Yes/No.
The vote to kick Solace has failed.
[Group][Burnzurfais]: rez
[Group][Orcarella]: dude, why did you just try to vote-kick the healer
[Group][Burnzurfais]: no healz
[Group][Ialdir]: if the tank dies, it’s the healer’s fault, if the healer dies it’s the tank’s fault…
[Group][Ialdir]: IF THE DPS DIES ITS BECAUSE YOU PULLED A BUNCH OF MOBS THEN STOOD IN FIRE
[Group][Burnzurfais]: too slow
[Group][Solace]: Why, are you late for the opera?