Further Adventures in Tanking

Things have been a bit busy with DraNgNon and I lately. So we haven't gotten to play WoW as much as we'd like, let alone update the blog about WoW. Anyway we've been trying to do coins for the Lunar Festival and also to do heroics with our three level 80s. The coins are a lot of rep and lots of fun to gather too.

I just wanted to say that when I finished tanking my 3rd heroic ever on Mornara, one of the members of the group gave me a compliment on my tanking.



I am tickled pink that the other people were nice enough to compliment my tanking. I"m not sure if I'm happier that I did well enough to deserve a compliment, or if I'm happier that the people we ran with were nice enough to give compliments. Either way it was an excellent end to the heroic.

a small gear interlude

I mean how cool is that? An [Egg-warming Blanket]. Somehow the wowhead entry isn't nearly as funny.

Losing Aggro

I use Omen for monitoring my threat. Omen has a small panel where it lists who has threat on the mob you're currently targeting. You can configure it a few other ways, but single target thread is usually what I have.

Omen will also put warnings on your screen when you're about to get aggro. I have turned off the screen flash and the warning screech. But I left the text warnings that pop up in the middle of the screen. So when I am a bad mage I get a big red AGGRO in the center of my field of view. I also get a slightly smaller green LOSING AGGRO warning when the mob I'm targeting is about to go eat someone else's face.

I hate that LOSING AGGRO warning. I hate it so very much. Because no matter what is going on that warning means that I have fucked up. If I'm Viljo I should never have aggro to start with. If I'm Mornara, my tanking sucks. If I'm Telt that means either the tank is squishy beyond belief or has pulled more than he can handle. Either way the shit is most likely hitting the fan.

Heroic!

Mornara and Ikoli are 80, as you may have seen. After training, which was not nearly as expensive for Mornara as it was for Ikoli, they both looked at their banks.

Now, both DraNgNon and I have been diligently hoarding blue-quality drops. The vast majority of them go to the first tab of the Bank of Balou. There Lithui, my banker/pampered city boy, looks them over and sells any pieces that we don't have an upcoming character needing. He also sends the ones that will be imminently useful to the correct character. So Ikoli had a few pieces of nice healing stuff in her mail, and Mornara had a bunch of plate tanking gear sitting in her bank.

I'd also been looking at what I could have crafted or bought and ready to go. This means that Mornara had the BOA hat and shoulder enchants waiting, as well as some pre-cut gems. And Viljo, with the massive amount of badges rolling in these days, had bought the Valor badge tanking bracers. Telt had enchants on most of these, and I had her do Ikoli's gear as well. Mornara also had very awesome tempered titansteel gear that Eeyan made for her, hat and boots and the two-hand mace.

Of course the best piece of gear that Mornara had waiting for her was all from her own hard work and Blizzards ridiculous new LFG system. You see, since the LFG tool came out you get two Triumph badges for doing a regular random Northrend dungeon. This does not have to be a level 80 dungeon. In fact I about fell out of my chair the first time I used the new LFG tool with Mornara and got two Triumph badges for running regular Nexus at level 73. So Mornara had more than enough Triumph badges to buy the T9 shoulders.

Yes, you read that right, my Death Knight hit level 80, and not one hour later (of /played time) she had T9 shoulders. I am not making this shit up.

Now, once I put on all this fabulous gear, and got a rune forged onto the most excellent titansteel guardian, Mornara was at 535 defense. This means that she actually has enough defense rating to be un-crittable for heroics. She wasn't high enough on the defense rating for raiding, but heroics were in reach.

DraNgNon thought that a Heroic was just the thing, so despite my trepidation off we went. After the usual queue of roughly two seconds for tank and healer Mornara and Ikoli rolled up in Gun'drak. Heroic Gun'drak. I think my continuous monologue of "oh god, oh god, oh shit, oh god" started about then. it didn't really stop until last boss was dead. Even though I was freaking out it was a pretty decent run. The first boss died when I had about 127 hp left and 3 of the 5 party members were dead already. We wiped once on the second boss, and the idiot ret pally left. We got a new non-retarded ret pally and blew through the rest of the instance. It wasn't as fast as Kuan and V or Eeyan and Telt do heroics but it wasn't slow either.

Even better about this heroic, when we first zoned in and I did my initial notification about my new-ness and lack of experience I wasn't met with disdain or ridicule. Instead the hunter and the mage were actually understanding. I think the mage offered to give tips if I needed it, and they both did mostly single target dps. I had actually been afraid that as a new tank I would be insulted a lot and would end up fighting for aggro with asshole dps. But this was nice.

35 Exalted Reputations

Kuanchichi hit Exalted Ashen Verdict when Darkfall finally down'd Rotface last night.



Five more to go until his title.

Ikoli is 80

Truly a story to be told in pictures.

Ding!


But then it was time to raid with Kuanchichi. So we did than then logged Ikoli back in. See? a clean session.


o HAI Ur'kyo.


I seek more training in the priestly ways.


A LOT more training.

the things people buy

Don't Look Up!

Last night Kuanchichi and Viljo went through the Icecrown 5-man instances (Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, Halls of Reflection) (gee, I wonder why they were on an "of" kick) with Ahngusbeaf, Naleana, and Sunura. We hadn't intended on it but since we pulled Forge of Souls as the random daily, why not.

Doing this as a Guild 5man is way different than a Pug. We pretty easily got the Don't Look Up! achievement, which had eluded us in pugs. That put Kuanchichi over 7000 achievement points. Woot!

We also pretty easily got We're Not Retreating; We're Advancing in a Different Direction. Kuan and Viljo already had it, but Sunura did not; that's the one which eluded him. And the nice healy trinket [Ephemeral Snowflake] dropped which Naleana picked up. So all in all a pretty good run.

Love is in the Air

It's almost Valentine's Day and that means that WoW is having the Love is in the Air holiday. They really don't want you to overlook it; doing so is impossible if you are unfortunate enough to visit Orgrimmar.



As part of this seasonal holiday everyone is trying to get the Fool for Love achievement. Part of that achieve is Fistful of Love, which, as you can see has you throw rose petals on various race/class combinations. One of these combos is the Orc Death Knight. Yes, you read that right, the fearsome former champions of the Scourge are to be covered in rose petals...



Poor Mornara.

Icecrown Citadel Dialogue: Lady Deathwhisper

After you kill Marrowgar (who has no long winded speeches, just one simple threat when you first get to his room) you run around the spire and go to Lady Deathwhisper's room. She's the first and only female lich I've seen in the game. Her speech starts as you enter her room, before you even pull any trash.

Lady Deathwhisper has more of a crazy religious nutjob feel than an epic battle feel. Though I will admit she does have an epic crazy religious nutjob feel. It's interesting because what she says is not entirely false, as regards the Curse of Flesh, just completely twisted.


Lady Deathwhisper yells: You have found your way here, because you are among the few gifted with true vision in a world curse with blindness.
Lady Deathwhisper yells: You can see through the fog that hangs over the world like a shroud, and grasp where true power lies.
Lady Deathwhisper yells: Fis your eyes upon your crude hands: the sinew, the soft meat, the dark blood coursing within.
Lady Deathwhisper yells: It is a weakness; a crippling flaw... A joke played by the Creators upon their own creations.
Lady Deathwhisper yells: The sooner you come to accept your condition as a defect, the sooner you will find yourselves in a position to transcend it.


Lady Deathwhisper yells: Through our Master, all things are possible. His power is withut limit, and his will unbending.
Lady Deathwhisper yells: Those who oppose him will be destroyed utterly, and those who serve -- who serve wholly, unquestioningly, with utter devotion of mind and soul -- elevated to heights beyond your ken.

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Note: these screen shots were from the ICC10 that we put toghether to get the weekly raid done a second time when Marrowgar was the the target. For being a pug we got pretty far. We got up to Saurfang no problem, but then after a couple of tries on him we had people who needed to go to sleep.

Mornara the Scourge

The Lich King, Arthas, took the bodies of many champions of the Horde and Alliance. He chained the spirits of the fallen back to their bodies and forced them to serve him. These fallen warriors who had once fought against Arthas were now part of the Scourge.

The Lich King also captured many warriors of the Horde and Alliance. Through starvation and torture he twisted the minds of those he had captured and bound them to his will. Mornara was enslaved as one of them.

Mornara served the Lich King's will. She learned of RuneForging and created her own weapon. She saw the failed Death Knight initiates beg for death because the pain was too great for them. And she killed several of those failed initiates herself. Killing was the only thing that made the endless hunger stop, even if only for a short while.

Mornara was sent to attack the Scarlet Crusade as part of the Lich King's strike force into the Eastern Kingdoms of Azeroth. She slaughtered all in her path, and sowed fear among the citizens as well as the soldiers of the Scarlet Crusade. As she did this the voice of the Lich King whispered in her mind, encouraging her to more and bloodier kills. Hundreds were killed by her and thousands by her fellow Death Knights.

Side by side with her brothers and sisters in the Scourge, Mornara destroyed the Scarlet Crusade. The final destruction of New Avalon was accomplished from wyrm-back. Mornara rode one of the Lich King's frostwyrms and destroyed the approaching Scarlet Crusade armies.

After the town of New Avalon and the Scarlet Crusade Armies were defeated, the Lich King sent his Death Knights to attack Light's Hope Chapel. The battle was led by Highlord Darion Mograine. The Death Knights and their Scourge minions fought bravely, but the defenders of Light's Hope fought more bravely still. And even worse, the Corrupted Ashbringer that Mograine wielded started to turn against him. The battle was lost for the Death Knights when Tirion Fordring stepped in and defeated Mograine.

However, Tirion did not kill Mograine, instead he showed him a vision of his past, and freed his soul from the dominion of the Lich King. Arthas himself appeared at that point and struck at Tirion in an attempt to claim his soul. But Mograine, finally freed from the Lich King's grasp, struck back. He threw the Corrupted Ashbringer to Tirion, and it was purified, because of the holy ground of Light's Hope and Tirion's great power as a paladin. Then Arthas was forced to flee as Tirion struck back at him with the full force of the newly redeemed Ashbringer and the power of the holy ground of Light's Hope Chapel.

At that point all of the Death Knights present were freed from the Lich King's dominion. Tirion formed the Argent Crusade to go to Northrend and fight the Lich King. He pardoned the Death Knights, and invited them to join him. Mograine agreed to work with the Argent Crusade to fight the Lich King, and the Death Knights were reformed into the Knights of the Ebon Blade. Though none of the Death Knights would ever forget or atone for what they had done under the Lich King's control.

Mornara went back to Acherus Keep and helped to kill the Scourge that the Lich King had left there. After Patchwerk was dead, and the rest of the Scourge were routed Mograine sent her to Orgrimnar. She carried a letter from Tirion Fordring to Thrall, asking him to pardon Mornara and all the rest of the Death Knights.

Icecrown Citadel Dialogue: Deathbringer Saurfang

In the Intro and Gunship battle dialogues we got some epicness from Tirion and Saurfang. Here we see what happens once you help Saurfang defeat the Alliance gunship and you land on the Upper Spire of Icecrown Citadel.


High Overlord Saurfang yells: Kor'kron, move out! Champions, watch your backs. The Scourge have been...
Deathbringer Saurfang yells: Join me, father. Join me and we will crush this world in the name of the Scourge -- for the glory of the Lich King!


High Overlord Saurfang says: My boy died at the Wrath Gate. I am here only to collect his body.
Deathbringer Saurfang yells: Stubborn and old. What chance do you have? I am stronger, more powerful that you ever were.
High Overlord Saurfang says: We named him Dranosh - It means "Heart of Draenor" in orcish. I would not let the warlocks take him. My boy would be safe, hidden away by the elders of Garadar.


High Overlord Saurfang says: I made a promise to his mother before she died; that I would cross the Dark Portal alone - whether I lived or died, my son would be safe. Untainted...
High Overlord Saurfang says: Today, I fuLfill that promise.
High Overlord Saurfang charges!
Deathbringer Saurfang yells: Pathetic old orc! Come then, heroes. Come and face the might of the Scourge!
Deathbringer Saurfang yells: BY THE MIGHT OF THE LICH KING!


Deathbringer Saurfang yells: I... Am... Released...
High Overlord Saurfang coughs.
High Overlord Saurfang weeps over the corpse of his son.
High Overlord Saurfang says: You will have a proper ceremony in Nagrand, next to the pyres of your mother and ancestors.

(Saurfang walks off with the corpse of his son after what he says in this last screen shot.)

********************
This scene makes me sad. Here you've got Saurfang, hero of all three wars and still doing great things for the Horde, and he's got to retrieve his son's Scourge animated body. It is really poignant. Or it was the first couple of times I heard it. Unfortunately every time you engage Saurfang the ENTIRE thing repeats. So the poignancy has worn off a bit. Though the end is still saddening, perhaps because I've seen it less.


******
Side Note: The raid funny keeps coming. :D

Random Heroic

Tonight DraNgNon and I logged on for our daily random heroic. Gotta get those Frost Emblems! Anyway, quite often the daily is a chore. It's a sad truth that the 5th day in a row I got DTK on both Viljo and Telt I was considering reaching through the tubes and throttling someone. And that's when the group wasn't full of fail.

Today though Viljo and Kuanchichi got Halls of Reflection. I was quite surprised and a little nervous to see that loading screen pop up. Our first tank bailed out immediately. We waited around for a bit and shortly got a second tank. This tank, and the rest of the dps, was quite good. We merrily smashed through the undead in our path, and one-shot everything in our path.

It was nice to finally get an interesting heroic, and even nicer to get a good group for it.

Cold Weather Flying

Ikoli got Tailoring to 425 last week. That meant she learned how to craft a [Magnificent Flying Carpet], which she did immediately. It also meant she started mapping Outland, since flying on the carpet is so fun and she wasn't yet level 77.

Until yesterday that is.



I love the carpet. She rides it like a surfboard, and it has four [Monarch Topaz], one hanging from each corner, that dangle and swing with the motion of the carpet. So cool.

Mornara the Warlock, Part 6

Story starts here.


The Death Knight enters Mornara's cell. He grabs her arm and silently drags her out. She is pulled through several hallways lit with torches burning blue and green. Ghouls, abominations, and a few Death Knights guard various rooms and passages. After multiple turns Mornara is brought to a balcony looking down on a human village. She realizes that the place she's been imprisoned is a floating necropolis.

The late afternoon sunlight is rich and golden. It make Mornara's eyes water and she blinks to try to clear them. When she can see she realizes the Lich King is standing at the edge of the balcony. Mornara gasps in shock seeing him. With a sudden burst of desperation born energy she jerks her arm from the Death Knight's grasp and runs. However, before she gets more than a few steps the Death Knight encases her in a cage of ice. It starts melting almost immediately, but by that time he has caught up to her and grabbed her again.

The Lich King turned at Mornara's gasp and now lets out a hollow laugh at her attempt to escape. "Your guard did not expect you to still have the energy to run. But I would not have summoned you if you were not strong enough."

Mornara struggles but the Death Knight forces her to her knees.

"Where would you have run? There is no escape from the Scourge." asked the Lich King.

The Death Knight has Mornara's arms bent behind her. "I was running for the balcony." She winces as the Death Knight twists her arms. "Lok'tar ogar. Victory or death. The only thing left is as honorable a death as I can find."

"Death would not save you from serving me. It would only make you slightly less useful. If you are set on death as your goal, serving me is something you should aspire to." The Lich King draws Frostmourne and starts walking towards Mornara.

"I will never serve you! I am part of the Horde. Not part of the Scourge!" Mornara is sweating from the effort to escape, but the Death Knight's grip her keeps her from moving.

The Lich King stands in front of Mornara. She thinks she is going to die, stabbed through by Frostmourne. Instead the Lich King brings the flat of the blade to gently rest on her forehead. The sword pulses blue several times. As it does so Mornara's struggles against the Death Knight holding her diminish and cease entirely as her eyes flare a bright blue that match the rune blade's glow.

The Death Knight lets go of Mornara's arms and steps back. He still watches her warily.

"Rise, my new Death Knight, there is much work to be done." The Lich King goes back to the balcony, but does not sheath Frostmourne.

Mornara stands and looks around without much curiosity. She rubbed her arms but otherwise stands still while ghouls bring plate armor and put it on her. The armor is heavy, but she can't remember why that would be strange.

Once she is fully armored Mornara moves to kneel in front of the the Lich King. "What would you have me do, my King?"