Trigger warning for any sensitive boys/girls go play FF14
Cruel Barb served me well all the way up to 39 so I decided to share my story of how I got the GOAT weapon.
Just dinged 18 and was ready to run DM for that sweet Westfull Tunic (I still use it!) from the Defias questline. Unfamiliar with the Alliance quest/dungeon progression I look up the loot table for Deadmines. I saw what I wanted and knew I had to have it.
The [Cruel Barb] 12+ Attack Power 15 WDPS. The only thing better than getting one was getting two. However, I made this character for the purpose of questing out in the world as an Alliance character on a PVP server.
[Why I rolled Alliance]
I knew it was an uphill battle rolling on a server with 80 percent horde but it made the journey more immersive because there wasn’t a sense of danger playing as the easy faction. The only challenge in rolling horde on a PVP server is competing for mobs against other horde. These horde pride in killing alliance in world PVP when they clearly had a numbers advantage along with OP racials.
Back to the story
Are there any theories about why Vancleef called his blades Cruel Barb? Barbara “Barb” Vancleef divorced him and left him for another man. Edwin couldn’t move on so he named blade Cruel Barb[ara] so she would always be by his side.
[The forming]
After spamming “Rogue LFG DM” for about 15 minutes, I knew I wasn’t getting a group on a server with barely any Alliance around. I had to take initiative and started forming my own group. Being the rogue that I am, I made sure that no one in the group would want Cruel Barbara as much as I did. After 20+ minutes, a night elf warrior wanted to give it a go. He told me he hasn’t tanked in years but I didn’t mind at all. I whispered him to make it clear that Cruel Barb was on reserve and that he would benefit more from the 3 possible 2handers from running DM(including the quest reward). He told me that he “didn’t like the vibe” after I talked to him about Barbara and left. The group of course disbanded and I quested on murlocs for another 20 minutes.
Now while I was forming another group was being formed that needed a DPS/Tank/Heal. I decided to join the group.
[The Horror]
“omw”, I said in party chat as I head through Moonbrook. When I arrived at the entrance to meet my dungeon mates, what I witnessed was a big red flag. Night Elf Male Hunter. Not one but TWO night elf male hunters who I assume have no relation to each other. Once we found a tank (dwarf paladin tank that was suprisingly good), we headed into the instance. After the first large pack one of the NE Male Hunters linked damage meters with him being on top. Thoughts of this hunter rolling need on Cruel Barb infiltrated my mind.
Should I leave the dungeon? What are the chances Cruel Barb is going to drop this run anyway? I decided to stay for the guaranteed Westfall Tunic reward as well as the nice exp from the dungeon quests.
Our tank suggested that we hit marked targets because paladins don’t have a taunt as well as letting him generate threat before doing multishots. This was ignored until half the dungeon was cleared after one wipe. At this point I made a snarky remark asking why the hunter kept linking his DPS when 70 percent of his damage is done by his pet. I apologized after and he stopped linking his DPS.
I saw a chest and told everyone to roll. The same hunter went ahead and ignored rolls and looted the chest. However, he did apologize and gave me the items for winning the roll although I was fine with the loss. I had my mind on finishing the instance at this point for the guaranteed rewards. After 3 weapon drops from every single boss I knew for sure the last boss would drop a blue weapon. I asked the hunter,“If Cruel Barb dropped, would you roll need on it?” To my relief he said, “no I’m not melee so I don’t need it”. I asked the paladin tank as well since he passed on two great leveling 2h weapons but he replied saying that he levels with 2handers ironically.
That was a big sigh of relief. We killed the patrol pack with Greenskin(?) and now we stand and prepare for the final boss, Edwin Vancleef. The pull was a mess like all low level dungeon pulls. Thanks to some finesse and hunters having auto taunt on their pets, Edwin dropped and so did Cruel Barbara.
“POG” i said in party chat as I paused a bit in shock then rolled need. The hunter teased me a bit about how he needed it then passed. The other hunter and paladin passed as well. From then on I changed my mind about Night Elf Male Hunters (all you legoolias fans) and thanked everyone for coming.
If you’re curious about what dropped:Taskmaster Axe,Smite’s Hammer, Cookie Wand, Cruel Barb. That’s right, all blue weapons.
After finishing the dungeon, I immediately started leveling my sword skill replacing the mace dagger combo I was using at the time. I was missing like crazy and actually died but the graveyard was close. Once my skill reached an acceptable level, I started slaying mobs with ease.
How could it get any better than this? Well in 2 hours time, this dropped for me.
Ironpatch Blade
and I’m human. Mobs were dying so fast it was like I was playing retail. I was doing pulls with 20 percent health pushing my limits.
I used this blade all the way up until 36 when I replaced it with Black Menace after forming my SM groups and paying 2g to join the last wing of SM (I’m fairly underleveled for it but I need the upgrade).
Cruel Barbara stuck with me until 39 and now sold to a vendor.
“ME HORDE ME COOM” the mage yelled as he chased me. Stupidly enough, I sprint cleansed his frost nova and hit him with two sinister strikes and sword spec procc’d off my MH. Cruel Barbara dropped him like a fly.
Anyways that was my classic WoW journey with this item, ty for reading. Playing alliance has been a rough experience getting to see how depraved the horde are especially when they are in STV. Had some guy chase me for 10 minutes straying away from his route and all I had was crappy invis.
Thanks to the massive population disadvantage on my server though I was able to form questing groups and meet some cool people. That was something I was missing from the horde side because parties would usually form and disband for the sole reason of tagging quest mobs. I also expect more coomer horde to go out of their way to kill me and brag about it.