Bringing Up Magey: The Clash With Bangalash
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Amatera on Thursday, June 11, 2009 - 20 Comments Tags: Achievements, Mage, PvE, bangalash, elite, green hills, group quest, hemet nesingwary, stranglethorn vale
Amatera on Thursday, June 11, 2009 - 20 Comments Tags: Achievements, Mage, PvE, bangalash, elite, green hills, group quest, hemet nesingwary, stranglethorn vale
Outside of boss fights, PvE encounters are rarely challenging. That is, unless you really want them to be. If you've been following my Mage's progress, you'd already know that I'd been traipsing around Stranglethorn Vale for the past few levels. I was 38 then, I'm 41 now. And... still stuck in that balmy, tropical death pit.
But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm raring to cross the finish! My last round of quests involves the final in the line that Hemet Nesingwary Jr. tasks you with, Big Game Hunter. While all previous missions have requested that you simply go out and depopulate the local fauna, the fanged white tiger Bangalash proves to be a more devious foe.
I'd tackled him before on other characters, so I knew that when the wily feline had lost about half of his health, he'd summon a pair of panthers to assist in the beatdown. On top of that, Bangalash is an Elite, which means he packs more of a punch than usual. A clothie like me could be toppled by the mere tickle of his whiskers! I wanted to get this over and done with before I left Stranglethorn, though, and was determined to use the most of my elite wizardry to take him down. The rewards, primarily for Huntards, meant nothing to me (but there was a sweet Achievement -- The Green Hills of Stranglethorn -- to be had upon victory).
Setting off from Grom'gol on my Emerald Raptor, I traveled south-east towards the mound that the devilish terror calls home. I often had trouble remembering precisely where it was on other characters (and Nesingwary is of little help), but this time I found it in short order. Just off the road, roughly west of the Ziata'Jal Ruins, if you were curious.
As Bangalash stalked the crest of the hill, I went about picking off the mobs, one by one. In the frantic battle to come, I couldn't afford to deal with anymore critters than the ones I knew he'd call to his side. Eventually, it was just me and the cat, mano a gato. I conjured a Mana Gem and refreshed my Ice Armor and Arcane Intellect just to be sure, before sitting down to replenish the mana I'd just spent.
After my energizing snack, I backed off as far as I could. Mages are at their best when distant from the enemy, and this fight was no cause for exception. In fact, I was depending on it. The objective, of course, would be to minimize the number of times Bangalash could get close enough to swipe me.
It took me far too long to get this shot.
We circled eachother like two members of Fight Club ready to bleed. When I hit max range, I let the first Frostbolt fly. His attention immediately turned towards me, a menacing gaze in his eyes even as my chill effect slowed him down. He narrowed the distance, but three casts later (one a crit), and he was at least a thousand health the lesser. A quick Frost Nova was enough to stop him in his tracks. I took this opportunity to toss up a Mana Shield (a decision which I actually would come to regret) and continued my icy assault.
By this point, Bangalash had yet to touch me, but he was about to pull his Ace. Two protectors appeared by his side and immediately went in for the kill. With three mobs on my butt, normal spell-casting was an impossible venture. With my Nova on cooldown, I decided to reverse, Blink, and kite them all to the other side of the mound. Another Mana Shield kept me from dying before I could fire off my second Frost Nova.
Bam! All three frozen in place, I felt that it this would be good a time to release a Blizzard. The regular crits reduced them all to low health, with Bangalash only several hundred points from death. But suddenly my mana was gone! I clicked on my Mana Agate and a Minor Mana Potion that I still had in my inventory from so long ago. Though a bit was restored, and Lifebloom provided some reprieve, the attacks from all sides were proving too much.
I called on the few instant spells I had to clobber the ferocious felines. I was close to death, but so were they! Having used up even my reserve energy, I switched to my wand. Bangalash's health went from around 70 to 29 and then.... a miss! My last ditch effort had failed, and there was no longer any option for preventing the incoming damage. The panthers' final swipes did me in, my troll gurgled with death, and then I found myself in a nearby graveyard.
It was time for Round 2!
As I ran back to my corpse, I wondered what could possibly have killed my mana so quickly? Despite belly-aching about energy problems in my last post, things had vastly improved since then! My thoughts quickly ceded as I was face-to-face with Bangalash again.
I can't say that my strategy changed a whole lot this time, but I did correct a few of my missteps. First of all, the Mana Agate I had in my inventory was from a lesser rank of the spell and, therefore, restored less MP. Had I only a few more on the first attempt, victory could have been mine. Likewise, I was going to save my Frost Nova for when the adds popped, instead of blowing it right away on the single mob, even if it meant eating a few hits.
Thankfully, that didn't prove to be a problem. I managed to completely freeze my foe twice before he even reached me, allowing for several critical Frostbolts to break him down. The panthers, as expected, came out much faster this time and the Nova + Blizzard combo proved equally as effective. They did manage to catch up to me after that, but once again Mana Shield saved my kiester.
That is where I noticed my problem. I had overused Mana Shield on my first attempt, and it had completely killed my pool! How could I have been so naive?! I was aware of the spell's effects, but didn't think that they would be so drastic.
Nonetheless, I was getting lucky this time, and with my second Frost Nova and a couple of instant spells, Bangalash's corpse lay motionless before me. I was low on health and mana, but not critical. I looted the head and trotted merrily back to Hemet Nesingwary Jr. to complete the quest. The promised Achievement popped up on my screen, and I can report that my victory tasted, very much, of happy.
When your average Mage fight consists of Frostbolt spam, it was immensely satisfying for me to use a wider range of my skills on a battle like this. Sure, I could've skipped Bangalash and come back to it many levels later just like I had on other characters, or I could've scouted for partners over chat, but that wouldn't have been any fun!
As I push forward into the wilds of the Hinterlands next, I certainly hope that there are opportunities for another good workout. Got to keep those finger muscles nice and loose, after all!
How about you folks, though? Ever encountered a non-instance fight that truly taxed your abilities? Was it for fun or did you haphazardly wander into a situation and end up fighting for your life? Let me know whether or not you successfully bested your enemies or met your untimely end!
But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm raring to cross the finish! My last round of quests involves the final in the line that Hemet Nesingwary Jr. tasks you with, Big Game Hunter. While all previous missions have requested that you simply go out and depopulate the local fauna, the fanged white tiger Bangalash proves to be a more devious foe.
I'd tackled him before on other characters, so I knew that when the wily feline had lost about half of his health, he'd summon a pair of panthers to assist in the beatdown. On top of that, Bangalash is an Elite, which means he packs more of a punch than usual. A clothie like me could be toppled by the mere tickle of his whiskers! I wanted to get this over and done with before I left Stranglethorn, though, and was determined to use the most of my elite wizardry to take him down. The rewards, primarily for Huntards, meant nothing to me (but there was a sweet Achievement -- The Green Hills of Stranglethorn -- to be had upon victory).
Setting off from Grom'gol on my Emerald Raptor, I traveled south-east towards the mound that the devilish terror calls home. I often had trouble remembering precisely where it was on other characters (and Nesingwary is of little help), but this time I found it in short order. Just off the road, roughly west of the Ziata'Jal Ruins, if you were curious.
As Bangalash stalked the crest of the hill, I went about picking off the mobs, one by one. In the frantic battle to come, I couldn't afford to deal with anymore critters than the ones I knew he'd call to his side. Eventually, it was just me and the cat, mano a gato. I conjured a Mana Gem and refreshed my Ice Armor and Arcane Intellect just to be sure, before sitting down to replenish the mana I'd just spent.
After my energizing snack, I backed off as far as I could. Mages are at their best when distant from the enemy, and this fight was no cause for exception. In fact, I was depending on it. The objective, of course, would be to minimize the number of times Bangalash could get close enough to swipe me.
It took me far too long to get this shot.We circled eachother like two members of Fight Club ready to bleed. When I hit max range, I let the first Frostbolt fly. His attention immediately turned towards me, a menacing gaze in his eyes even as my chill effect slowed him down. He narrowed the distance, but three casts later (one a crit), and he was at least a thousand health the lesser. A quick Frost Nova was enough to stop him in his tracks. I took this opportunity to toss up a Mana Shield (a decision which I actually would come to regret) and continued my icy assault.
By this point, Bangalash had yet to touch me, but he was about to pull his Ace. Two protectors appeared by his side and immediately went in for the kill. With three mobs on my butt, normal spell-casting was an impossible venture. With my Nova on cooldown, I decided to reverse, Blink, and kite them all to the other side of the mound. Another Mana Shield kept me from dying before I could fire off my second Frost Nova.
Bam! All three frozen in place, I felt that it this would be good a time to release a Blizzard. The regular crits reduced them all to low health, with Bangalash only several hundred points from death. But suddenly my mana was gone! I clicked on my Mana Agate and a Minor Mana Potion that I still had in my inventory from so long ago. Though a bit was restored, and Lifebloom provided some reprieve, the attacks from all sides were proving too much.
I called on the few instant spells I had to clobber the ferocious felines. I was close to death, but so were they! Having used up even my reserve energy, I switched to my wand. Bangalash's health went from around 70 to 29 and then.... a miss! My last ditch effort had failed, and there was no longer any option for preventing the incoming damage. The panthers' final swipes did me in, my troll gurgled with death, and then I found myself in a nearby graveyard.
It was time for Round 2!
As I ran back to my corpse, I wondered what could possibly have killed my mana so quickly? Despite belly-aching about energy problems in my last post, things had vastly improved since then! My thoughts quickly ceded as I was face-to-face with Bangalash again.
I can't say that my strategy changed a whole lot this time, but I did correct a few of my missteps. First of all, the Mana Agate I had in my inventory was from a lesser rank of the spell and, therefore, restored less MP. Had I only a few more on the first attempt, victory could have been mine. Likewise, I was going to save my Frost Nova for when the adds popped, instead of blowing it right away on the single mob, even if it meant eating a few hits.
Thankfully, that didn't prove to be a problem. I managed to completely freeze my foe twice before he even reached me, allowing for several critical Frostbolts to break him down. The panthers, as expected, came out much faster this time and the Nova + Blizzard combo proved equally as effective. They did manage to catch up to me after that, but once again Mana Shield saved my kiester.
That is where I noticed my problem. I had overused Mana Shield on my first attempt, and it had completely killed my pool! How could I have been so naive?! I was aware of the spell's effects, but didn't think that they would be so drastic.
Nonetheless, I was getting lucky this time, and with my second Frost Nova and a couple of instant spells, Bangalash's corpse lay motionless before me. I was low on health and mana, but not critical. I looted the head and trotted merrily back to Hemet Nesingwary Jr. to complete the quest. The promised Achievement popped up on my screen, and I can report that my victory tasted, very much, of happy.
When your average Mage fight consists of Frostbolt spam, it was immensely satisfying for me to use a wider range of my skills on a battle like this. Sure, I could've skipped Bangalash and come back to it many levels later just like I had on other characters, or I could've scouted for partners over chat, but that wouldn't have been any fun!
As I push forward into the wilds of the Hinterlands next, I certainly hope that there are opportunities for another good workout. Got to keep those finger muscles nice and loose, after all!
How about you folks, though? Ever encountered a non-instance fight that truly taxed your abilities? Was it for fun or did you haphazardly wander into a situation and end up fighting for your life? Let me know whether or not you successfully bested your enemies or met your untimely end!
Reader Comments (20)
On my Warlock i like pulling 6-12 mobs at a time
On my druid (lvl 16) i like to pull 2-5
In Hellfire (pre WOTLK) i was lvling my 63 holy pally and had just pulled 3 of the Arrakoa guys when a 70 Warrior jumps me.. i wtf pwnt his noob ebay bought ass, and quickly logged onto my ZA/T5 geared rogue and camped his body for about an hour..
Soloing the elite mobs of Azeroth is one of my favorite pastimes. It was especially easy on my warlock - a bit of void tanking and it was no problem.
On my Mage, however, it was a bit of a different story. Lots of kiting, using Ice Barrier, and even Water Elemental was all I could do to save my butt on many occasions.
One of my favorite encounters is the guy inside the cave in Shalozar Basin. He's the big K'T looking guy that changes your reputation with the Oracles or Frenzyheart.
That is a fun, and taxing, mage solo-fight, especially at around lvl 76.
Give that one a go when you're at the right level.
I think a very hard mob for me to kill was Hogger when i was a low lvl ally pre-TBC.Now it has been nerfed,is even possible to kill him alone but i remember that during the old fashion WoW killing him was a very hard task,even if you had 2 people with you!!! I've seen many funny videos on Youtube with 40 or more lvl 1 gnomes and dwarves raiding him and trying to take him down(i think he was a lvl 11 Gnoll elite,the first hard mob i met my first days in World of warcraft),it takes back a lot of memories!!
@Zerkest
I think I might! I've had to skip that quest on the last two alts I level to 80. It'd be real cool to solo him this time around.
I liked the little touch they did on Hoggers health, 666, the number of the devil....
Great article! FYI: "Mano a Gato" means "Hand to cat", not "Man agains Cat". :P
A very common misunderstanding ^^
I agreed, sure it's an MMO, but those solo fights that pushes you to the limit are the one that keep things interested :D I've been in a couple of fights where I have to blow every trinkets, every CDS and every insta cast to kill the mob/s without killing myself in the end, sometimes the results are too close for comfort, but they definitely make you feel good in the end, maybe it's the adrenaline still pumping :D
Oh god.. I remember those days..
I was on my mage, frost mage.. what else for levelling?
I thought AoE grinding was the best way forward, but man did I get a fright :P
I put on my Ice Barrier, mounted up and rounded a couple of mobs, about 8.. usually not a problem, no health lost and mana down to half.. but not this time...
After the barrier broke, all mobs frozen in place, I started channeling my first blizzard, but a couple of pats kept darted my way and dented my blizzard channel..
So staying calm, I ran to the group of mobs previously frozen in place, and tried hit a nova, freezing the new mobs, and the ones already stuck.. 4 resisted.. I had no where to run...
Now starting to panic, I pulled out my water elemental and used his nova, but still mobs resisted, and the other ones were breaking free..
After that I thought it was all over, but I remembered my Ice Block refreshed nova, and knew it was my only hope, so I hit the '7' key and hoped for the best.
When it ended, I hit my nova, taking a few hits, stumbled away and Blizzard wiped almost all their health.. so I used my Cone of Ice to finish them off, with my health critically low..
That was my most fulfilling moment in WoW, with the bodies lay around me :)
@ZeeZed: I think he was playing off the common 'mano a mano' slang not necessarily the 'literal' translation.
Great story btw.
I've had a number of harrowing escapes and your quite right... Mana Shield seems at first like the ideal solution to loads of death coming at you... but more often than not I find it to only delay the inevitable. You're better off dishing out the most damage you can with that mana
lol, you sure made it sound like we were actually there. I like it. ^^ Oh, and gratz ;3
How about in Duskwood after you do the embalmer quest and release Stitches. I remember if you werent careful as he walked to town he would pown you if you didnt get off the road and hopefully not run into a buncha other mobs. Before the nerf Eliza was hard to kill as well.
i didnt see any use of Ice Block in this, it allows for things such as blink, nova, and cone to come back up, it's quite handy.
I remember when my druid was but a wee little calf in Mulgore, the Palemane Skinners/Tanners/Poachers camping the cliffs south of Bloodhoof Village were extremely challenging. There were as tightly packed as murlocs, had ranged attacks and would flee when near death. Having to fight an unexpected extra gnoll or two (or three) would spell certain death. Not to mention their insanely swift reproductive cycles meant that every two spirit runs from a nearby graveyard would see the entire area re-populated again.
So at around level 7 this place really tested my mettle. The reason for me to keep fighting, aside from completing a quest, was the promise of a chest in the middle of the camp along with the chance to fight the rare Snagglespear guarding it. With my limited assortment of spells and abilities I ambushed the patrols one by one, attacking them from maximum range to pull them away from their brethren. Once the annoying pests were gone I proceeded to carefully clearing the area until the only thing that separated me from my spoils was the dreaded Snagglespear.
The fight was intense. I knew I only had the chance to cast a few spells before I ran out of mana. I knew I had to finish this quick when I started seeing respawns. He hit harder than the other gnolls, maybe because he had a bigger spear. It was the usual wrath/moonfire fest and one health potion and a well-placed warstomp later Snagglespear was down and the chest he tried so hard to protect was mine.
My reward was a pathetic cloth boot, some refreshing spring water and a level 8 ding. There was also a feeling of achieving something that required patience and skill for my level mixed with disbelief at wasting my time on something so frustratingly hard.
i was recently leveling my shaman in dragonblight doing the Mighty Magnataur quest, as elemental my main stratergy was to LB, FS, LB until it was near me and then pop thunderstorm.
well it resisted and i then about to die popped earth elem totem healing myself to full health before looking back at my target or my elemental i was back on full health and my elemental had 1k health i started to cast a lesser healing wave and 'failed' as the totem disaspeared.
with some panic once again setting in i ran popping elemental mastery LB and then frost shocking it. thunderstorm was off CD so i popped that and again the magnataur resisted. not good
2 minutes up from when i had place my earth elemental i popped fire elemental. now i just faced the mob whos still had 5k health and constantly used LHW got 4 off before my elemental killed it but iwas at a time on 94hp
after i had finished killing the other two with the help of a mage from my guild i handed in and about a min later gt ganked by an alliance rogue stelthed by the drakeman that sends u around wyrmrest
y i now hate my pvp sever
Leveling my first toon (in vanilla wow) was so exciting and I was curios about every thing that pooped in my face,
Soon after it hit 60 and gathered some T2 armor the next move was to level my second toon(a rogue; the first was a shaman). Soon after I realised that changing the class was the thing that I needed to not get bored.
2 years later, 5 more toons, all necessary profession(needed for each toon) and like that I snaped.
I closed my eyes, get on eBay, sold the account for 1200US$.
When TBC was in it's early stage I picked up a new wow copy, start all over again(this time on the alliance side). My time was limited (work, college, nap), but I manage leveling 2 toons. At the start of 2008 those 2 were T5 and T6 gear (also full pvp set). I snaped again and I sold them for 400 US$.
December 2008, WoTLK. I start to play again; leveled only a rogue (when I unlocked DK class I've farmed about 2 DK each day for 40 gold each); made a 3 months breaks; got my PhD, now I'm roaming in Northrend to finish T7 set.
I will never forget the times from leveling each toon (10 for use, and about 90 dk for gold farming). The feeling that I may or may not encounter rare elites, rare mobs or obtain exotic junks from a chest or spending almost 40 hours fishing(with all toons) keeps me in the game..
Storming Alliance cities with my fellow guildies or just exploring the lore in a Turbo-Charged Flying Machine will be more imortant for me than all Dungeon Hard Bosses. Why? Because the bosses wil respawn, but a good group is unique.
Remember play wow moderately; I started in 2004, quit it 2 times(only for the good money), now I play like 2-3 hours/day and none in weekend.
once i was on my level 80 (survival) hunter i was bored so i walked around icecrown in search of some mops to kill
then i came across orbaz bloodbane and then it came to me i shoudt solo him
the fight was easy in the first 50k hp he had just running, keeping serpent sting up sometimes use explosive shot when lock and load procced and ofc takking off my +attackpower procs that woudt make me unable to make serpent sting
but when i got to about 370k hp left i started to run out of mana so i used aspect of the viper and shot a single shot once every 5 sec to keep my mana up.
i kepd on doing this till he hit 10 k where morgraine that spawnde at 200k finaly attacked him and finnished him off.
all i got from that was a BIG reapir bill a few silver and a feeling of succes but i was freaking happy :D
Well, on my mage my most recent soloing challenge is taking down all 15 undead for the quest "Taking Battle to the Enemy" in Icecrown (one of the Argent Tournament dailies).
Did it far too easily in my frost off-spec, so decided to give it a go as fire. With no water elemental to help me this time, and probably only 1 frost nova in my arsenal, I had to think hard about how to do it.
Ok, I have blast wave and dragon's breath, but those only save me a couple of seconds each. (oh, and the mobs i'm fighting do a stacking debuff of increased physical damage and reduced healing...not nice if you're a clothy facing 15 mobs at once...)
Anyway, to cut a long story short, i wtfpwned their asses thanks to mirror image making me pretty much untargetable by your average mob. Good times...
Haven't tried soloing any elite mobs lately (although Chillmaw is on my hit list) due to leveling with my holy paladin friend from 70-80.
I'm leveling yet another alt, a troll rogue, atm and I'm trying to kill Fizzle Darkstorm (?) in the Chasm outside of Orgrimmar.
Trying to kill the surrounding guards, who are my own level, without gaining the others as adds before they respawn so that I can take him on by himself has been intersting. I've finally come to the conclusion that you need to go around the outside, kill the Blueberry and the Burning Blade Fanatic in the back part of the area while he's out in the main area and then kill him when he comes back.
Not that I've had success with that yet... :-(
as 13 BE mage i tried to solo the elite spider in ghostlands. not the best idea. i pull him with a frostbolt and score! he gets frozen thanks to some well placed talent points. i burn him down using nova when he gets to close and getting lucky with my frostbolts. But then IT happened, he calls for assistance and my nova is on cooldown but thanks to a fireblast i down him,use a mana pot, nova the 3 adds, then run till i was out of combat and then return to grab my rewards
I remember this quest chain where you had to kill 3 elites. I had managed to kill the first one in like 10 mins. Switching between druid n bearform. Had to use my innervate and a potion. On the way to the 2nd I was helped by a hordie. During this second fight i noticed he had minions. After reading the quest again, i read i could call for assistance. The 3rd fights was done in like 40 secs lol. Also the first time i went for The Oracles rep in sholazar bassin where u fight the demon n choose between The Oracles or the Frenzyhearts.