Not Too Big to Fail (Part 3 of 3 - Beastmastery Hunter)

What is up, dogs! Continuing the theme of toons that have attempted the 1 to 80 Hardcore achievement and failed miserably, before they each met their untimely (and only) death, and subsequently were sold off for spare parts and deleted.

Victim the Third: VinceOffer (pets - ShamWOW and SlapChop), BM Hunter, Staghelm US (PvE)



Date of Death: Level 20, shortly after giving some unsolicited RP advice to Rawrcast's own Hafrot, as seen in the screenshot above (yeah, I know that was a lot of links for 1 sentence, but they're all worth it).

Place of Death: Ragefire Chasm.

Cause of Death: I was rocking on this toon, and felt that the 3-in-1 hunter combination of a pet tank, a DPS hunter, AND a hunter pet healer (glyphed for improved mend pet), would be the solution to my hardcore quest woes. Sadly, about 15 minutes after the above screenshot, I pulled 3 low level Troggs. Thought before pull: 'This is gonna be so easy, I can probably go grab a beer while the fight is still going on.' As I was getting pet aggro on all of them, my screen hesitated. Odd, but not necessarily a problem. Then the game sounds started looping. As my screen totally froze, all i could hear was the first half-second of my bear ShamWOW's growl noise - 'Grrra...Grrra...Grrra...Grrra' being looped from my sound card. I facepalmed for a good 30 seconds, and before I looked up again, I knew what I would see. Say it with me, kids. You Have Been Disconnected From The Server. When I was able to log back in 3 minutes later, I was staring at the Spirit Healer.

Results: Character deleted. Face palmed. WoW account cancelled (until the following day. My willpower with regard to quitting this game for ever for serious is notably weak). Also, I learned that my crashes were being caused by the firewall program I had been using for the last 10 years but, surprise, hadn't been updated for Vista. Nerd Rage @ ZoneAlarm!

Not Too Big to Fail (Part 2 of 3 - Demonology Warlock)

What is up, dogs! Continuing the theme of toons that have attempted the 1 to 80 Hardcore achievement and failed miserably, before they each met their untimely (and only) death, and subsequently were sold off for spare parts and deleted.

Victim the Second: Stakhanov the Demonology Warlock, Windrunner US (PvE)


Date of Death: Level 21

Place of Death: Fenris Isle, Silverpine Forest

Cause of Death: Doing the quest to kill Thule in the keep on Fenris Isle. Thought before the quest was attempted: 'Yeah, it just went from orange to yellow in my questlog, but it's the only one I have left in Silverpine forest. I should be good.' Escape plan was similar, hit a haste pot and run like hell, and use the voidwalker shield as needed. After defeating a 2-pack of mobs that added a third right outside of Thule's room, I lifetapped a few times to get my mana back up before bandaging and pulling Thule. That's when I butt-pulled a pather that 1-shotted me at 5% health before my voidwalker could pick him up.

Results: Character deleted, frustrated at my inability to just grind mobs for 10 minutes to hit 1 more level and then do the quest when I would have overwhelmed it. Bitterness about cavalierly doing 95% of the damage necessary to kill me TO MYSELF.

Not Too Big to Fail (Part 1 of 3 - Ret Pally)

What is up, dogs! Here's a brief review of my previous toons that have attempted the 1 to 80 Hardcore achievement and failed miserably. Also presented are a gallery of my failed toon's mugshots, before they each met their untimely (and only) death, and subsequently were sold off for spare parts and deleted.

Victim the First: Fantsypants the Ret Pally, Earthen Ring US (RP)



Date of Death: Level 27

Place of Death: Blackfathom Deeps

Cause of Death: Pulled 3 mobs in the upstairs/downstairs maze section of BFD, 2 of which were summoners. Thought before the pull: 'I'm not sure I can handle a 3-pack of runners. Eh, screw it, I'm going in.' Escape plan in case things went badly was stun, stun, stun, speed pot and run for the zone-in. Needless to say, I missed a runner mob with a stun, and he aggroed another pack. My escape plan was working to perfection until I hit that little part of the instance where you have to swim to get back to the zone-in that I had inconveniently forgotten about. When I hit the water and realized I wasn't going to make it, I started hearthing and got interrupted with about 1/2 second left on the cast timer before it would have fired off. I probably ground a millimiter of enamel off of my molars while the hearth cast bar was counting down. A bunch of Elite warlock guys beat me to death seconds later.

Result: Character deleted, broke my own personal loudness record for screaming the f-word.