The Scarlet Onslaught

[Holyssa]

*cheers* ((Was wondering when this section would pop up. I'll get the ball rolling))

Dragonblight is beautiful. Then again, what part of Northrend isn't? I'll bet even Icecrown itself is a spectacle for the eyes.

But amidst this field of endless dead blue is a nasty stain of red, in the form of The Scarlet Onslaught.

Upon entering Venomspite, a Forsaken village just on the southeast zone border, you can tell that our undead neighbors are hard at work with handling little annoyances outside of the camp, as well as preparing a full-scale assault on everyone's favorite religious fanatics.

Questing started out dead simple: collect a few things here, kill a lot more there. Some of the collection quests, such as the one where you needed to steal armor and weapon racks, had a poorly spaced out respawn timer, and made for lots of running around in circles. Thankfully, mob repop timers were more forgiving than I imagined them to be, and I was able to grind at a reasonable pace while getting things done.

Their ranks consisted of only a few specific mobs: the usual grunts, horse-bound knights (GRR! Random charge/knockback = bad!), and the most annoying of them all: Onslaught Raven Priests! These bad boys are very squishy, but extremely subtle: they do a long range spell that looks like spectral birds pecking you to death, and perform a channeled heal much like a mage's Evocation. All without making a peep, so it's easy to get jumped by these.

Quests grew less tedious as the chains continued: from lobbing bombs at archery ballistas, setting boats on fire, stealing horses, and even stabbing a torturer with a branding iron, it was an amazing romp. Blizzard really outdid themselves.

...then came the one quest I'm sure most Forsaken fans would be dying to get a crack at (no pun intended): behead the High General Abbendis!

As usual, I figure I'd go this one alone. Not like I had much of a choice...the zone was (literally) a ghost town, and the occasional world crash probably scared people off. The AH was also suffering an icky dry spell for potions. I knew I was gonna get my ass kicked, but since it was for a good reason - why the hell not?

The cathedral was like walking into a hive. Well over 20 to 30 Scarlets crouched in prayer while kneeling to the lovely Abbendis. A single monstrous AoE pull took em out Holyssa-style, and I was surprised as to how quickly they all dropped with some clever use of Arcane torrent (for the Raven goons).

The High General herself was no joke. So what does she do?

Melee: hits baseline for 500-950 (can't tell if she crit, but I took tons of spike damage despite being well over the Defense cap via JC trinkets) on me, being a T5/T6 tank. Rather quick attack speed.

Holy Shield: Perhaps I was smoking something, but she dealt Holy damage with every strike I made. She soaked up Reckoning procs like a sponge.

Judgement of Righteousness: OUCH. 1400-2300, much like my own Judgement.

Consecrate: You can see where I'm going here. Oh, this ticked for 700-900.

(Hammer of Wrath?): I dunno what I did to piss this girl off, but at 20% life, she did an emote ("Behold the TRUE power of the Onslaught!"), and Kalea (who saved my bacon with her yummy heals) took a monster amount of damage - I think she went from full to 5% in one swoop, but a desperate Lay on Hands saved her.

Bring a friend or two if you decide to test your luck on her. After a good 10 minutes of caving my mace into her skull, the High General was defeated, but her L80 companion, Admiral Barean Westwind decided to take the cowards way out & waltz out, with some very chilling words:

"...I'll see you at Icecrown."

Bah. He underestimates me. Severely. I just hope this doesn't spell a sudden end to the Crusade after ganking the High General...I'd love to see if Blizzard has more in store for these guys.

Pics of the vicinity will be coming soon.

[Kadi]

You see her during the courier quest for the Deathknights as well, when she creates the Scarlet Onslaught. They shoulda killed her when they had the chance! *inno*

I haven't been this far into Northrend (I've had terrible luck with the world server going down every time I try to play on that continent), but they have HUGE amounts of 'color' for the Scarlet Crusade people in the Deathknight area. Random-drop 'notes' and 'forgotten mail' that gives a lot of color to that particular group.

I'm really looking forward to seeing more of it on Northrend, since the General makes clear that they're moving to focus all of their efforts on that continent, and the Lich King has written them off as being foolish for doing so.

[Waldonnis]

I watched a couple of Alliance go after her and she looked nasty enough for me to say to myself "Yeah, maybe another time". I also got annoyed at the quest chains for that area. I felt like I was a yo-yo going in and out of there so often. That and the converging pathers made it a royal pain in the ass...at several points, I was fighting no less than six at a time (often not successfully...warlocks got hit HARD with the nerfbat...er..."adjustments") simply because they all happened to just walk near the same spots.

It was nice to see the Scarlets back, though...having persistent themes is something I enjoy.

[Kalea]

Waldo, any time you need some back up heals for those multi-mobs, just give me a shout. *hugs*

There's nothing more important I can do with my time than keep you boys alive.

[Kadi]

Waldo, any time you need some back up heals for those multi-mobs, just give me a shout. *hugs*

There's nothing more important I can do with my time than keep you boys alive.

What about us girls? *inno*

[Kalea]

*hugs Kadi* You know that goes for a any Crusher that needs a few heals. Of course, if Burana's around, I'd be glad to heal her. There isn't anything a couple of shamans can't accomplish! *winks*

Interestingly enough, I've helped a lot of people from both Horde and Alliance in the expansion. Waldo and I have discussed the fact that people seem a little more open to helping one another, and not being jerks, as we all travel through the beta test.