Jose Yamut, Jr

Fond of +rw but seldom has time 4 both. 😎😋🤖

World of Warcraft

. .. And Then There Was A Mage

WoW: Alterac Valley

In the shadows

The long narrow pass, where at it’s mouth stood the 2nd Alliance bunker in Alterac Valley, was devoid of Horde activity. So far so good. Crouched and shadowmelded, with some trees for a little cover, I waited a few more seconds just to make sure not a group of Horde scouts were making their way down the pass to Dun Baldar. Timing meant life or death here. I didn’t want to encounter Hordes at this point. It would be a waste of my time and effort to leave the Alliance defensive group to reinforce the offensive who were getting ready to assault Frostwolf Keep.

Looking up once more from my hiding place down the gully, my gaze swept the entire stretch that ended at the entrance to the Stormpike graveyard to see if there were friendlies on the move. None. I released from shadowmeld, summoning my mount at once. My swift Stormsaber quickly ate up the distance to the bunker as it climbed relentlessly up the snow covered ground. A few more strides off my big ebon cat then I would be going into another pass that forked: left and you’d be at another graveyard, or down to the Stonehearth outpost if you decided to go right. From there, my plan was to cross the Field of Strife as quickly as possible, enter Horde territory, and get to my group who were guarding Iceblood graveyard. After that we would be moving forward to join the Alliance advance group who rushed to capture Frostwolf Relief Hut. The final objective was to defeat the Orc shaman Drek’Thar inside the Horde keep. This was our one and final push to win this battle.

The Turn

Naturally I took a right turn. Left would mean a higher possibility of encountering hordes on their way to Vanndar Stormpike, leader of the Stormpike Expedition. As i made the turn from the long pass and came out at the base of Icewing bunker, I could immediately see up ahead 2 enemy scouts. Both stood far from each other. One was just standing idly near the turn to the graveyard. The other was mounted, still a few yards away from me, but within ranged distance. I urged my cat to the right some more, almost hugging the valley wall, to cover as much distance away from the nearest horde scout as quickly as possible before he notices me. Too late!

Alterac Valley map
Map of Alterac Valley

In that brief moment the horde scout directly charged his war mount towards Stonehearth Outpost. he knew I was getting as far away from him as possible. So he didn’t run directly towards me. Instead he cut the gap in half by going towards the only logical direction that I would be heading. His anticipation closed the distance between us in mere seconds. I was still at a head start. just when I was about to go around a tall mound of earth to cover my back from the attacker, I became disoriented and unable to move. My vision shrank. then I realized I was sheeped. It was a Mage! Great. I hate Horde mages more than warlocks or shadow priests.

I could see the incoming spell being cast while I felt so helpless in sheep form. At least his next attack will break my disability. The first damaging spell broke me from the sheep spell he cast on me. Without hesitation I dashed towards the mage stunning him for 3 seconds. I hamstringed out of habit although I knew he’d blink, then made a whirlwind attack. Instant attacks where I can do as much damage in the short time that he was incapacitated. The initial damage he dealt to me was still bigger than my counterattack but at least he was hurt. He blinked away from me just as soon as the stun wore off, as expected, leaving me trapped in ice. Typical mage. Once again I was immobilized. This time i wouldn’t be so helpless. I immediately changed stance to defensive, shouting a health increase buff right after to soften the next incoming blow from the Troll mage. The trap wore off. My intercept ability was almost ready. I ran towards him while he fired a couple of arcane missiles (or were they ice lances?) at me, then something unexpected happened.. .

Baa ram you

A nearby ram charged at the mage knocking him down silly for a few seconds. I was laughing. It was a pretty funny sight. This broke his attack on me. Now was my chance. Already at striking distance, I hastened my attacks and gave him all I got. Both my main-hand and off-hand blades tore at him like crazy. He was hurting pretty badly, just as I was. The ram took damage from my whirlwind attacks so it shifted its attention on me. This was not gonna be easy. I was taking additional damage from the ram. The advantage was clearly on the mage from the beginning. Them mages always have cool tricks in their hats when drawn into a critical situation. I almost gave up hope. As soon as he could, he blinked back to the spot where I was after leaving me with a frost nova again. The ram aggroed back on the mage and distracted him a couple of times. Ignoring the ram, he spammed some more spells on me while I waited for the nova’s effect to wear off. We were both severely wounded at this point. His condition slightly better than mine though. This was it! It was gonna be a race on who kills who first. Just as soon as I was unrooted, I charged at him for the 2nd time, stunning him a few moments, attacked, whirlwind, hit him with a concussion blow*, and sidestepped so that I would be almost behind him, more attacks .. . unable to move or fight back, the mage was left at my mercy. Then came the killing blow. At less than 20% health on the mage, with my rage high, the only thing to do at this point was to Execute the greedy horde. With very less health on him now, I was lucky that my Execute was a critical hit on the bastard. The poor soul died instantly and I laughed. An unforeseen victory!

The ram was still attacking me after the mage had died. I stood defiantly over the corpse of the dead sorcerer not minding the ram that had its hooves on me. A mocking grin pasted on my face. I had no intention on slaying the beast. After I maimed the creature, I dashed away until it stopped aggro on me.

Sad to say, the Alliance lost the battle. But for me, it was a glorious sunny day in the Valley of Alterac.

* Is a 5-second stun. Sometimes I’m too lazy to respec to arms (or out of gold?). So yes I was a dual-wielding, Protection warrior when I bested the Horde mage!

Note: Images from https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/blog/images/17847-korraks-revenge-is-a-fantastic-way-to-level-alts-above-level-60.jpg and https://viktdk.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/avmap.jpg, respectively.

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In the shadows The long narrow pass, where at it’s mouth stood the 2nd Alliance bunker in Alterac Valley, was devoid of Horde activity. So far so good. Crouched and shadowmelded, with some trees for a little cover, I waited a few more seconds just to make sure not a group of Horde scouts were…

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