Telin Darkforest fever dream

[Woodrow]

Let me tell you a tale of my Ranger, Trackerman, of the 49th "next level this class will start to be viable".

I couldn't sleep so I logged in at 2am to do some grinding in Rathe Mountains at the hill giant hill. I logged in all ranger buffed up with 50% mana, and an extra buff from a Cleric that just rezzed me after Rharzar killed me.

Lets check track and find the nearest blue HG - ah, Petrifin! Welp, I usually dont try him unless I'm at 100% mana, but ive got that 1 extra cleric buff (reso), and I've been killing Petrifin without too much trouble lately, lets do this.

Snare - resisted. No problem, ill pull him down the hill and wait for Swarmcaller to slow him. No luck. 50% health, time to root and heal. All healed up, now out of mana. I've been shooting arrows in between heals and Petrifin is at 75% health.
Tank and hope Swarmcaller slows him - nope. Now at 10% health, I use my last mana to snare and hail mary kite him down with arrows. He's at 40%. Its going to be the kiting of a lifetime if I survive. Luckily I still have full run speed just barely. Strafe run to just barely stay ahead of him even though he's snared. Fastest mob I'm aware of.

Meanwhile I've seen others circling around sensing a discount Petrifin when I die or zone. I'm used to this, as every fight leaves me at 20% health and people always think I'm in trouble. Not today, I say, still half asleep. I'm going to kill this mofo with arrows while these vultures watch me kite him all over the zone. I don't know if the people following me are planning to help me or are just actually vultures circling, but if they know Petrifin, they know I'm one hit away from being dead and they ain't helping.

I strafe run, mouse looking quickly behind to fire off an arrow before whipping around again, trying to make it to the straight path near the feerott zone. Every 5 foot drop dings me for health as I run, bringing me closer to death. My store bought arrows mostly missing, occasionally doing a nice chunk of damage. It's working. He won't run because I'm too low on health so its going to be a fight to the death. Every time I think I'm gaining advantage, Petrifin bites me in the ass to close the gap. We're both going down. No help is coming from the people chasing in tow, they know I'm dead.

I run to Feerrott zone line, and at the last moment I u-turn and say this is where it ends, and start to kite Petrifin into the zone where only one of us will return alive. Petrifin bites my ass on the way by. I'm in some place I don't know where I am. Its too hilly, I cant afford to take fall damage. So I look for the way back to the straightaway. There it is, just through here. I come face to face with one of those fucking Sphinxes. I dont know if he was KOS, but I turn around possibly just outside aggro range to run back out of this death hole. Petrifin bites my ass and it's now to the final blows for one of us. I've got him down to a sliver but he's still at full run speed.
Snare has worn off.

Well this is it, I stop to turn and face my fate. I fire my last arrow, readying my sword.
Petrifin has been slain by Trackerman.
You have looted Eye of Petrifin.

There are three players standing beside me that were following this whole time. One is a Ranger, decked out in much nicer looking Ranger gear than mine.
Telin Darkforest says: Well done.
He disappears.

Heh, I recognize that name from the wiki, wasn't he the first to get the ranger epics or something? Cool. Let me google and double check. Oh. Its the Ranger Epic NPC. So that was a GM watching while masquerading as Telin? Did I prove myself a worthy Ranger to Telin Darkforest??

You have received Swiftwind.
You have received Earthcaller.




Nah who am I kidding I'm on step 4 of 25, never getting those epics lol.

Other than the last part, everything actually happened, and no I didn't screenshot Telin saying well done, but maybe the other two players can vouch.

Petrifin still the scariest mob in the game.