Ready? Set? BRAWL!!!

The addition of the Brawler’s Guild to WoW in Patch 5.1 has been a pretty interesting and entertaining addition to the game.  This is a level 90 only event and will test out your abilities as your fight against numerous denizens of Azeroth.

Right now, there are three ways to get a Blood-Soaked Invitation:

• Purchase one from the Black Market Auction house
• Obtain one as a rare drop for killing specific NPCs in Krasarang Wilds (Kar Warmaker, Muerta or Ubunit the Shade for Alliance; Dalan Nightbreaker, Disha Fearwarden or Mavis Harris for Horde)
• Receive one from a member of the Brawler’s Guild (this guild member must be of Rank 7 and can only give out one invitation)

The first set of Invitations appeared on the Drak BMAH last Wednesday, so after our raid that night (without an Elegon kill, but some heart-breaking sub 10% attempts), Zug, Sorak and I flew over to Madame Goya to see if we could get us some passes.  Zug tried to get some off the Krasarang NPCs before the raid, but was unsuccessful.  There were 10 Invitations up and they ranged in price from 8k to 20k gold.  Other Hordies were camped there, so we knew we were going to have some competition to get one.  A couple of Alliance members showed up, but were quickly dispatched by our small contingent of Horde.

About 20 minutes later, an Alliance guild with about seven members invaded the BMAH and dispersed the Horde crowd, forcing all but Zug, Sorak and me to flee.  Sorak had managed to put a high bid of 32k before we were attacked and won his invitation an hour later.  The three of us debated whether to buy additional Invitations or just rely on Sorak to give us one.  I think Zug and I were anxious to try out the Brawler’s Guild right away, so we decided to get our own.  Our plan was to have Zug create a distraction, while I swoop in, bubble and quickly make a bid.  Sorak suggested that I go ahead a just place a bid of 50k, thinking that no one else would bid on it.  So I flew in and in the midst of all the commotion happening around me, I mistyped my bid and ended up putting 54k, which still wasn’t too bad, and then was overwhelmed by the Alliance group.  We rezzed and Zug went next; I BoP’d him while I distracted the Alliance.  By this time, the Alliance group was getting pissed that their plan to walk away with the rest of the Invitations was being foiled by the three of us, lol.  Their rogue and druid went stealth and had their ranged positioned around to stop us, even throwing Hardened Shells to dismount us from our flying mounts (they got Sorak and I once because we weren’t careful ><).  I can’t remember what Zug bid, but there were only two auctions for the Invitations left and he ended up getting outbid quick.  So we made one more kamikaze attempt and Sorak told Zug just to drop 100k on it, which he did, lmao.

Little did the Alliance group know, they were not going to keep Mr. Moneybags from getting whatever he wants!  The auctions soon ended and we grabbed our Invitations and called it a night.  I think the Alliance group only got one, lol.  Right-clicking the Invitation grants you The First Rule of Brawler’s Guild achievement.

To get started brawlin’ for the Horde (lol),  the entrance to Brawl’gar Arena is located in the Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar, behind the Jewelcrafter Trainer’s shop.  Anyone can actually enter the Arena; you can be a spectator and watch the fights without an Invitation.

To begin a fight, first talk to one of the many Brawl’gar Arena Grunts around and they will place you in a queue.

Only one player can fight at a time and you can talk to the Guard again to see what place in line you’re currently at.  Because nothing’s ever perfect, you can actually be cut in line by someone behind you in the queue, lol.  This is completely random and doesn’t happen often and by no means is controlled by any of the players in the Arena.

Keep in mind that the Arena is a Cross-Realm Zone.  This wasn’t too bad at first, since not many players had Invitations, but quickly became frustrating as the queue would get longer once more and more joined the Guild.  But I can see why Blizzard did this.  They wanted to normalize the queues on high population servers, otherwise you would be waiting forever just to fight; normalizing the low population servers would keep players from rushing through the content quick with fast queues.

You can’t aid anyone that’s currently fighting, but you can form raid groups to pass around buffs, healthstones and set up feasts.  You can only fight one boss at a time, so after you win or lose your match, you’ll have to queue up again for the next match.

Progression in the Guild is done by ranks.  The more fights you win, the higher rank you’ll achieve and the more difficult the fights get.  Every four wins gets you to the next rank.  The order of the bosses for the first seven ranks are the same for everyone, they can range from beasts to mogu warriors, undead, slime, a penguin, gnomes packing big guns…you name it.  And there is a five-minute “enrage” timer for each boss.  If you don’t finish off the boss quick enough, a rain of fireballs with slowly cover the ring and instantly kill you.

Once you reach rank 8, you get four tough special bosses to fight against.  The order is random each time you queue up at this rank.

Zug, being the robot that he is and never sleeps, got to rank 8 in a day.  Adoe, who Zug gave his Invitation to, also advanced quickly through the ranks over the weekend and is sitting at rank 7.  And of course me, being the slacker, only managed to get halfway through rank 3.  But the biggest slacker is Karos Rekcals, who hasn’t even fought his first match yet. ><

It was hard trying to take screenshots of my own matches, as I was focusing on popping my CDs at the start, so I took screenshots of Zug and the crazy battles he was in.

Here’s Zug against a giraffe…go ahead and laugh, I certainly did, lol.

Zug vs. Unguloxx, the Murderaffe…..yep, no joke, lol.

Here’s Zug against a huge eyeball…puts the Eye of Legion companion pet to shame.

Zug vs. Zen’shar, the eyeball boss…not your typical staring match either

Here’s Zug against Millhouse Manastorm….this guy finally makes his appearance in MoP and never seems to die, lol.

A ‘roided Zug vs. Millhouse Manastorm….yes, he’s back!

You want a battle of Epicness versus Epicness?  Do you remember seeing or hearing about an undead male, wailing on an Arcanite Ripper on top of a T-Rex on top of a shark with a laser beam gun?  Yeah….Zug fought him.

Zug vs. Epicus Maximus….WTF…o.0

There are also some achievements you can nab here for all you achievement hunters.

Some of the friendly NPC spectators can start to get aggressive and become hostile and attack you.  If you manage to hit them with an empty bottle that you can purchase off a vendor in the Arena, you can nab the Bottle Service achievement.

For winning your first match, you get the You Are Not Your S#*@! Legplates achievement.

And you if cheer at another player immediately after they win a match, you can get the I’m Your Number One Fan achievement.

And with new content come new rewards.  There are currently three: a new companion pet, Clock’em (achieved at rank 4, which looks similar to the Clockwork Gnome pet from Archeology), a Bind on Account heirloom Fist Weapon (rank 8) and of course an Invitation to give out to another player (rank 7).

I’ll admit, it was pretty nerve-wracking at first competing in the Arena, as everyone is pretty much watching you fight.  It is also embarrassing when you die to bad stuff too, like I did numerous times, lol.  But don’t get discouraged, there are a lot of people who make mistakes and it just takes time to learn the fights…unless you’re a Terminator like Zug and pretty much one-shot everything up through rank 5. =P

This is a nice little distraction from your daily reputation, valor, rare mobs/pets grinding, so if you can get your hands on an Invitation, come on over and join the club!