A Quick Geeky Gamer Interlude

Apologies to my readers who are unfamiliar with World of Warcraft, or prefer to remain untainted by such things. This really is a brief interlude. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

On returning home from work today, I was undecided about whether to launch straight into all the chores I had to accomplish, or whether instead to take a few moments to unwind with a little WoW. I came down on the side of unwinding, opened my laptop and logged on as my level 75 rogue, Larna. I ran around for a few minutes, killing the Vargul in Zul'Drak to finish a quest, and one of them dropped a [Greathelm of the Unyielding Bull], a nice rare plate helmet that will be perfect for my protection-specced paladin when he gets three more levels.

At this point, the microwave was beeping at me to tell me my dinner was ready, but being the obsessive player I am, I ignored it in favor of finishing up the quest and turning it in. As I was headed back to the questgiver, I noticed a rather unusual undead creature wandering in my path, that didn't seem to fit with the other monsters in the area. I clicked my mouse on it to identify it, and Holy Smoke it's Griegen, a rare silver elite! He's the very first silver elite I've ever come across in Northrend, even though the expansion has been out for over six months. I know that if I can kill him, I'll not only gain the [Northern Exposure] Achievement, but he should drop some nice loot. A quick glance confirms there's no-one else in sight. Can I do this? He's the same level as me, with 50% more hit points. It'll be a tough fight.

One problem. I'm currently down to a third of my hit points after fighting, I'm out of food, don't have first aid to bandage myself, and no potions. Can I just sit and wait for my hit points to recover enough before someone else comes along and kills him? I plonk myself down on the ground and watch that green bar slowly inch upwards. At two thirds full, I lose patience and decide I'll try to take him anyway. All my cooldowns are up, and I have poison on my weapons.

I stealth up to him, stun him and start whacking away. Evasion, my "get drunk quick" Braxley's Backyard Moonshine attack power trinket and blade flurry do their thing, and he dies before I'm even down to half my hit points.

(Click to enlarge)

Woah. 28650xp just for the kill? That's almost fifteen times more than I'd get for killing a regular monster of his level, and more than I'm getting for this quest I just finished. And he drops two rare items. [Abandoned Adventurer's Satchel] and [Ethereal Terror Handwraps of the Foreseer]. At first, I get very excited that the gloves are leather. Could they be just the upgrade Larna needs? Alas, no. They have spellpower as their bonus - they're for druids. I can probably auction them for good money, though.

And what's in the satchel? 24 gold, 44 silver and 74 copper. I've never seen anything like that much money in a loot box before! Plus 20 Frostweave cloth. Very nice.

Three blue drops in less than half an hour. I log off and go enjoy my dinner. Not bad!