The 10 best posts of Righteous Defense in 2009

Hell, if I wanted to be smarmy I could say “the best posts of the decade,” but that kind of smarm is below me. Making up words like smarm, however, is not.

Um, but I digress. 2009 was the first real year of this blog, which was initially created on December 19th of last year, and sporadically updated, then abandoned for a month, and then kick started for good at the very end of January. Every since then I’ve been churning out posts, 266 in total this year. Some were bad, some were good, some were awesome. A lot were raid stories, or musings on the state of our class, or news about buffs and nerfs, or just silly divergences from the normal stuff.

Below I’ve listed what I personally feel are the 10 best posts of this blog in 2009. Some of them I wrote before I started getting a real audience here so they may be new to you. It’s interesting to see how my writing style and focus of topics changed over the course of the year. I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane as much as I did.

10. “The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance”

This post was a bit–er, pardon the pun–random. It sprung from back when my guild would use a roll system for loot back in Naxx and we had folks griping that they were cursed with “bad luck” when it came to rolling on things, or when they rolled high early in the evening they would gripe that they “wasted” their one “good roll” of the night. As the arch-skeptic of the guild, I felt it was my duty to correct such Cargo Cult-level nonsense. Hence, this diversion from tankadinery.

9. Achieving great things in the kingdom of the spiderfolk

This post was from back in the early life of the blog and when every post I did was burdened by some huge word vomit of a title. That was probably one of the longer titles I’ve ever given a post, to accompany one of the wall-of-textiest posts ever.

8. Four characteristics of a great tank, part 1: A sense of ownership

Ah, broken promises. Parts 2 through 4 still do not exist, despite my many fervent attempts to sit down and commit the little bastids to computer screen. I’m a huge fan of the way the series started though, and one day when I finally finish the other parts they will make a magnificent treatise on what it means to be a great tank.

7. Thought of the day: Situational Awareness

This was a fun post to write, and stemmed from reading about the study that I mention wherein. I don’t want to ruin the premise of the post for those of you who haven’t seen it and watched the video, but suffice it to say, it’s a pretty cool exercise on what I would consider a linchpin characteristic of tanking.

6. Why I love Rogues, a raid recap

Not just a run of the mill raid recap! I included in the post, for lulz, a haiku devoted to Falowin (a rogue guildmate who has the unlucky habit of dying on trash). Epically, he responded in the comments with a Shakespearean sonnet, in iambic pentameter no less. Comment of the year for sure.

5. How to gem, via a flowchart

This was the redo of an earlier chart from the days before we had epic gems. I’m a huge fan of how the chart turned out, both in terms of reception and how classy it looks.

4. 5 ways to boost your threat

One of my best “how to” posts, I feel. I also decided to test the blogging cliche of making a numbered list. In terms of visitors brought to the blog, this post has brought the most, bar none. Clearly all my posts should be numbered lists.

3. How to defeat heroic 10man Trial of the Crusader

I loved writing this article, crafting it the morning after a thrilling Tribute to Mad Skill run. I lovingly included as much detail as I could and from what I could tell the guide was an immense help to some people. A few folks emailed me or commented in the original guide saying that it helped them complete ToGC-10, which was an awesome thing to be told. I’m glad it was helpful.

2. Call me Ishmael

Oh Thorim. The bane of ES’s existence in 3.1. The gatekeeper between us and victory in that awful place. And, the impetus for the guild restructuring that followed. Nevertheless, we did eventually kill him, but only right before 3.2 came out. To celebrate the victory I cribbed a bunch of quotes from Moby Dick and retooled them to fit the narrative of Thorim being the Great White Whale to Demo’s Ahab. Hilarity followed.

1. I could say this joke was running

This was a very funny post when I wrote it, giving me the chance to draw on all the nonsense my guild commits during raids. Probably took me longer than it should have because I kept collapsing into fits of laughter. I love my guild, everyone in it rocks. We’re crazy, crazy people.

And I hope ES has as much success in 2010 as it did in 2009, and enjoys even more glory when Cataclysm raiding begins.

A very heartfelt thank you to all my readers. You guys and gals are why I write this blog, not for my own self-aggrandizement (an added bonus!), but to share some laughs, impart some advice, and provoke some discussion. Thank you so much for reading me in 2009 and I hope I live up to my first year of blogging by being a better blogger in 2010.

Have a great New Years everyone, stay safe and have fun!

A night of heartbreak and failure in ICC

Ah… just kidding, another one shot night. I’m just getting tired of doing a raid recap of “oh mang, we iz gud.”

We only had two marks on Saurfang last night (maybe a third at the last second). That’s pretty “gud” though, eh?

Anyhoo, during the course of our sub-two hour ICC-25 run I noticed a couple of things. For example, every week without fail someone just notices the Alliance mobs between Deathwhisper and Gunship don’t give rep. Whoever notices this will find this incredulous. But why would our reputations with the Ashen Verdict improve for killing non-undead folks?

Moreover, I hate when people snark about playing with game sounds on. Maybe if you’re dps you don’t need to pay attention to auditory cues, but as a tank I find it helpful to hear a mob sneaking up behind me. On the Deathwhisper fight it’s increased my chances of surviving a Deformed Fanatic to 100% because I hear the lichess shout out “I release you from THE CURSE OF FLESH” and my first instinct is to immediately back away from the Fanatics I’m tanking. I’m on my toes, not surprised. I don’t know why some people would take it as a point of pride to be potentially caught flat-footed in such a situation. No matter how sweet that iPod playlist you put together may be.

But I digress. I’m hoping for Putricide next week because the same four bosses has officially gotten tired, especially when we’re looking at a 1.5-2 hour clear. If that’s the case, then we’ll probably spend Tuesday next week on the same old, same old plus Rotface and Festergut. Then Wednesday we’ll do 10mans and get everybody familiar with the basics of the Putricide fight. Then Thursday, knowledge in hand we’ll hopefully kill him in under the 10 attempt limit. The less learning wipes we need the better. Plus, god help me, I need a Conqueror’s Mark of Sanctification, which for me is like the Titanguard of this patch cycle.

During the pre-Marrowgar trash I was doing around 9-10k dps with the heroic spec. In-effing-credible. I wish I could do that single target in my normal raid spec!

I wish last night was a bit more interesting (so there’d be something to write about!), but I suppose there’s nothing wrong with a smooth and uneventful run. Stuff will get more interesting in the coming weeks.

Forging Quel’Delar

I’ve been watching the auction house the past few weeks, spying the price on Battered Hilts and hoping that’d they’d soon drop into an “acceptable” price range. I won’t say what “acceptable” might be, but let’s just say you’re talking to the guy that blew 10k gold on Runed Orbs to get the crafted boots and belt back in 3.1. Imagine what I’d spend on a tchotchke.

Nevertheless, I ran a Heroic Forge of Souls last night with some friends and on the pull before Brohnjam–miracle of miracles–a Hilt dropped. My vision was immediately hued red as blood rushed to my head and then, apologizing profusely, I hit the Need button. Everyone there knew I’ve been gunning for the blade for some time so I don’t think anyone particularly cared. Thankfully, I won the roll.

Once we were finished with the heroics I immediately dove into the quest chain, ducking over to Quel’Delar’s Rest to start everything then over to Wyrmrest for some draconic hemming and hawing.

Then I went to Dal for the series of quests there, requiring me to first murder a Silver Covenant agent in the city sewers, …

… do some dirty laundry, assume the identity of the lackey I left rotting in the Underbelly, and then sneak into the Alliance side of town (iz in ur base, talkin to ur manz) in order to procure the book needed to move the chain along.

Once those dirty deeds were done I dragged two buddies with me through regular Pit of Saron, Forge of Souls, and Halls of Reflection where I ran into my hero, Uther, who then scolded me for dragging the sword so close to Frostmourne.

I was forced to put Quel’Delar down, but the sword remained whole. Subdued, I dragged the holy blade back to my contact who then directed me to take it to the Sunwell itself.

I knew the quest from spoiling it for myself while 3.3 was on the PTR, but nonetheless, I was having a full-on loregasm here. Of all the races of Azeroth, I’m not so attached to the Blood Elves just for their pretty hair or well-kempt nails… no sir… the lore of the sin’dorei is the clincher for me. The whole story behind 2.4 in particular was always fascinating for me, and produced my biggest regret of TBC, that I never saw the inside of the Sunwell.

Well, thankfully, after a short but awesome event in the Dead Scar and a tussle with Door Boss, I made it inside the holiest of holy grounds to, er, “my people” and was admitted to the inner sanctum of the Sunwell itself.

There I encountered the leaders of the sin’dorei as they ministered over the relatively newly ignited Sunwell. They received me with suspicion initially, but once I cast the reforged Quel’Delar into the holy font, they recognized the gravity of my actions.

You know it, fellas.

With the blade once more blessed by the magic of the sin’dorei, I reclaimed it from the Sunwell and took one more sigh-filled glance at my surroundings. I was like Henry Jones Sr. before the Holy Grail. But, with Demo haranguing me to run an Ony-10, I was forced to bid farewell to the majesty I had beheld.

And thus I returned to Dalaran, claimed Quel’Delar, Cunning of the Shadows, and fell even more in love with Blood Elf lore than I had been before.

Was it dumb to obtain this sword (despite it being a fantastic threat weapon) on my paladin when it could have benefited my DK tenfold more? Perhaps, but I was interested more in what was, without question, an amazing quest chain. It was something I had to experience on Rhidach and Rhidach alone. And, ultimately, it produced one memory I will always cherish in WoW.

Totally worth it.

I was a jerk pug tank

I did something pretty mean over the weekend, and as a much-needed bit of catharsis I’m going to recount it here.

On Sunday I did a random heroic and was assigned to Utgarde Pinnacle. I buffed myself and the other party members up and sprinted off to the races. Once in that first long hallway I noticed that shadowbolts kept flying past the group I was tanking and picking up mobs up ahead.

At first I was willing to attribute it to a misclick by the Warlock, but after the second time it was obvious he was trying to speed me up.

Once at the first boss he declared in /p that we should do the Incredible Hulk achievement. The hunter agreed but the healer said “meh” and I silently agreed. As Svala does her little speech, the hunter picks up an Abom from the side hall and MDs it onto me. I immediately nuked it down. I wasn’t in the mood to carry these dps through an achievement.

Right before the boss starts, the Warlock decides to pull the other Abom waiting in the back of the room. I don’t know what he was thinking he was going to do once it got to him, because I let it squash him like so many gnats, and then picked it up.

No one said anything, the Warlock didn’t peep a complaint; we just downed Svala and continued on.

Nevertheless, the trigger-happy Warlock died a few more times over the course of the instance, mostly because he would pull ahead of me and I’d let the stuff kill him. I don’t think he ever got the message.

I ended up doing 43% of the damage done in that pug. It probably helped that one of the dps was dead most of the dungeon, and the dps as a whole were barely breaking 2k when they weren’t hugging the floor.

Merry Christmas!

I’m sure everyone is either taking the day off or headed out soon, so I wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the happiness and joy of the season. Enjoy the holiday, be sure to eat and drink too much, and stay safe and warm.

WoW in an Hour: Protection Paladin

Hi, I’m Gameldar from WoW in an Hour and I’m a Protection… Warrior. What the…. what am I doing posting here? I’m Righteous Defense’s Kris Kringle for 2009 (or for those like me that think that is a foreign term – Surprise Santa) – a Blog Azeroth event.

When I signed up for this I feared I would get randomly allocated a shaman blog and have nothing to say. The reality is Gameldar is more or less a retired Warrior Tank, I play my paladin Keluin more these days. Life circumstances don’t allow me to play more than an hour at a time (hence the name of my blog) and only for a couple of times a week – and there is no better class to be able to conquer the many diverse parts of WoW than a paladin. However, if you checked out my armory link you’ll see I’m specced Holy/Ret… but that Ret bit is flexible (and if you check out my glyphs they are still my tanking ones). I have a set of protection gear (including all the bits that Gameldar should have had but never got lucky on) and have tanked a few heroics but until someone can point me to a ‘Paladin Tanking for Warrior (dummies?)’ I must admit I still prefer tanking with my warrior and generally feel lost trying to do so (primarily in the ‘oh hell something has gone wrong where’s my challenging shout, thunderclap and charge gone’). Additionally given my limited time I’ve said I’m not going to gear up a tank again even though Keluin seems to have the luck with gear. However, I am known to change my mind especially since tanking it is my favourite role to play.

So introductions aside – here is my present to you:

WoW in an Hour: Protection Paladin

I was planning on writing a piece about the tools of the trade for playing WoW on a time budget (and I still will) – and one of the tools of the trade is the class (and spec) you choose. The reality of playing with such a limited time frame is that you aren’t going to be on the bleeding edge of progression. As I’ve discovered some raiding is possible (with a accommodating guild helping a lot), and you can generally get heroics done, but if the dungeons and raids don’t start the moment you log in then you’ll need something else to do!

Soloing

As I said before I believe that Protection Paladins are hands down the best class for taking part in all the diverse parts of WoW – primarily because they have the best soloing ability. I would venture that Holy Paladins win out for pure survivability but they pay for that in not being able to do much damage. Blood Death Knights also have good self-healing, but generally lack the tools of the protection paladin that Bubble, Lay on Hands and Ardent Defender provide, as well as the powerful heals of Holy Light. This gives a lot of diversity in the content that can be seen when just by yourself (or a duo), whether it be farming for rare mounts, conquering those old world raid bosses, finishing all those ‘group’ quests or just tanking the whole of Stratholme in one go for the fun of it, the protection paladin (with a little bit of practice) can do it.

Leveling/Questing

The arguments still go back and forth between whether questing or mob grinding is the best method for levelling. Regardless, Protection Paladins have very decent DPS and good ways to retain and get back mana that make the leveling and questing process a (relatively) painless process (that is speaking as someone that levelled both as a Holy Paladin – until duel specs were introduced – and a protection warrior). Add to that if you are levelling you can quickly find groups for instances as a tank, and solo those group quests without even trying.

If you are just doing your dailies then gathering up all the mobs at once that you need to kill is a more than viable path. I’ve been meaning to try to see if I can complete A Valiant’s Field Training in one hit by dropping in on the big roving mobs of fallen heroes that you find – but I have some fond memories of cutting a swath through the vast mobs of undead that cluster around some of the Saronite nodes in Icecrown with Seal of Light keeping me more than healthy (whereas I generally have to bubble and run as Ret if I managed to pull to many mobs trying to stealthily mine it).

Tanking

It’s what you do. But with the new dungeon finder all reports seem to indicate that the wait time is the lowest if you are a Tank. So from the WoW in an hour perspective this is a brilliant as it means less waiting time, more doing time. Additionally by and large you can set the pace of the run as well to make it a quick and painless process. I also find the groups are more successful when I’m the tank… (although they have only been success for me as a paladin because my guild mates have been patient and sucked up the pain when they out dpsed my threat… my gear isn’t that good, and I still haven’t got my head around the best ways to do things as a pally tank… more reading of good Pally tanking sites Righteous Defense is needed and more practice practice practice)… or to put that in a slightly less egotistical way – when you have a bad tank its harder to have a successful run. As a healer I wouldn’t say I have a favourite tank to heal, but I certainly don’t groan when I find a paladin tanking for me… in my guild I would be groaning all the time – our tanks are primarily paladins.

As mentioned just before – it is also a good way of levelling if you have the time and inclination to do the lower level dungeons – and tanking the lower level dungeons is a good way to learn the ropes – something I’ve sorely missed with my Paladin.

Tanking DPS

This gets a heading all of it own largely due to my jealousy! The DPS output as a Paladin tank is fantastic and that is without even trying. I remember healing a heroic for one of our freshly dinged Paladin tanks in our guild and being surprise at his DPS by the end – it was better than I could do with my warrior and I’d be tanking heroics for at least 6 months. It is all a contributing factor to why soloing and levelling/questing is so viable as a Prot Pally. I’d like to try out the Seal of Command spec you have been discussing here at some point too!

Off spec

Or in my case, my main spec. The options for an off spec are great. Holy (I might be biased) is a great healing spec and additionally is relatively easy to gear up – given all that spellpower plate that no one else can use and there are some good crafted items too if you don’t mind wearing mail (I walked straight into raid healing as a freshly dinged 80). Retribution is a solid DPS spec with all the raid support goodness thrown in and as someone who is a pretty terrible melee DPS (“what … standing behind the mob… but it keeps moving and it is not following me”) I find that Ret is more forgiving than say an Arms warrior spec (my warrior’s off spec).
Having written this – I’ve actually convinced myself to switch back to Protection as my off spec – with the idea of getting back into doing some tanking as well as the soloing advantages.

So finally, I’d like to wish you the seasons greetings and wish you well in your travels through Azeroth – and if you find you only have an hour to spare to play WoW during the silly season – remember you can enjoy the best of the game as your Protection Paladin!

The one night raid week

Another raid reset day, another one night ICC clear. Thankfully we really could only swing one raid night this week, with the holiday and all, so it’s not like we’ll be spending the rest of the week sitting on our hands.

Because of Christmas, we were missing a few regulars. Especially three of our best healers, which was painful and cast a pall on the possible success of the raid.

Demo (the gm and other tank) and I have an interesting dynamic where we tend to always be on opposite sides of various things. For example, if a raid looks iffy he tends to go full out chicken little while I have to crap sunshine and vomit rainbows to keep the guy from throwing himself off Icecrown glacier.

If we agree on the viability of a raid, god help us all.

So last night I was playing the part of the eternal optimist and thankfully I was right. Sure there was that harrowing first wipe on Marrowgar where some dps was obviously ignoring spikes and the backup healers were getting the dynamic of the fight worked out. But after we reformed we easily dropped him; though I found myself screeching “stay away from the tanks!!” a little too often.

After Marrowgar we went over to Deathwhisper and soundly one shot her. Our first time pulling that off too. Dps did a fantastic job on adds, they really got the hang of the fight.

It’s amazing to think we went from spending a night of wipes to down the Lady the first time to one shotting. I’m proud of how quickly the raid translated our learning wipes into actionable knowledge.

So after Deathwhisper we plowed through the Ally trash to get to the gunship. I switched to my heroic, SoComm spec for tanking D. The spec worked awesomely, giving me some badly needed snap aggro for the mobs pouring out of the portal. I definitely recommend having SoComm in some capacity for tanking D, it makes a world of difference.

After we nuked the Ally ship (I have a sick fantasy that it crashes into the Crusader’s Coliseum) we gathered for the last boss of the wing, Saurfang.

This fight even I was a little worried about, on account of the three healers that had never done the fight before. We did wipe intially, and spectacularly at that, with three marks up before 50%. Eek.

After regrouping we then remembered a few things we always forget til after the first wipe: p:ws the Blood Boils, Amp Magic, yell a few times the phrase “13 yards, you bastards!!” Etc.

And then we killed him.

I rushed over to the chest, hoping to spy a Conqueror’s Mark of Sanctification, but my hopes were dashed.

After the 25man disbanded we put together an ICC-10 run, and ran back into the breach. Of course the run went exceptionally smoothly and we really didn’t have trouble with anything.

I whipped out the heroics spec in the pre-Marrowgar trash and pulled around 5k dps and second damage done overall. Not too shabby. Next week I’ll use it on that trash in the 25man.

Overall, great night and great raid! I’m happy to rest on our laurels this week but next week is going to be hard to burn through everything in one night and then bum around for the rest of the week.

I guess there’s always ToC… /shudder.

My WoW year in review

Thanks to Psynister for the tag!

1. What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

25man raid progression. In TBC I did Gruul’s Lair a few times, Black Temple once (post nerf), and TK once (pre-nerf). 2009 was the first year I actually got to do actual 25man raids with a guild that raided 25mans consistently. It was a revelation. I can’t believe I spent all this time playing WoW in Vanilla and Burning Crusade and never really got into the raiding scene. I’ve never had as much fun playing WoW than I’ve had raiding in 2009.

2. What was your favorite new place that you visited?

I’ll have to go with the newest place I’ve visited–Icecrown. It’s pretty epic in there and I’m having a great time with the fights so far.

If you asked me at different points this year I might have told you Naxxramas (and then I got really, really sick of it), then Ulduar (ditto, blech), and … actually, I never liked ToC all that much. Point being, I’ll probably start hating Icecrown soon enough.

3. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

A Troll Druid. Day One of Cataclysm I’m paying to change the race of my cow druid to a Troll one. Cannot wait.

4. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Literally, would have to be Loremaster, that was pretty intense. I spent a lot of off time ravaging the two continents dredging up quests, and then when I thought I was going to be stuck with fifty or so to go, I realized I missed all the Zoram’Gar Outpost quests and some other random ones in Ashenvale. Probably one of the bigger surprises I’ve had in game.

… You know, scratch that. My biggest achievement is definitely getting Insanity in ToGC-10. The most fun I’ve had this year is progressing through that place, finally downing Anub after a week or two of attempts, and then week after week watching us finish with more and more attempts remaining, unused. Then finally, one epic night, we got the penultimate achievement in that raid and downed everything with no wipes. That was most definitely my biggest achievement of the year.

In terms of not actual achievement achievements, I am ecstatic that Demo and I took over the guild during the summer. I think the success we’ve had lately in terms of progression is thanks in big part to the direction that Demo and I steered the guild in. Implementing DKP did wonders for improving raid attendance and dedication and negating any loot drama, and a consistent raid schedule and core promoted a professionalism and degree of skill among our raiders that has honed ES into the primo guild it is today.

5. What was your biggest failure?

Not killing Yogg-Saron. I really want to go back and do it, but I don’t think the will is there with the 25man group. Ulduar as a whole was a big disappointment.

6. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Cataclysm! I cannot wait for the next expansion. Everything about it sounds amazing.

Also, the 3.1 prot pally buffs were awesome.

7. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Stress about raiding. I’ve been kept up at night worrying about a gquit, or had way too much anxiety over a series of wipes on some boss. I’ve let certain raid stresses get to me, which I’ve carried onto vent, and that’s not good at all. One thing I will definitely do differently in 2010 is take raids more easily.

8. What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

I have a couple that I really enjoy reading: I Like Bubbles, for the hilarity of Amber’s rage; Forbearance, for the surprising wisdom that each post has; Have Mace, Will Raid, for Antigen’s intelligent humor; Avenging Wrathy, through whose 25man heroic raid exploits I live vicariously; The Big Bear Butt, for the great stories. Many others too, that are too numerous to name. There’s so much talent in the WoW blogosphere. I’m privileged to be a part of it.

I don’t listen to podcasts, unfortunately. I really should.

9. Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

People respond to incentives in WoW just like in real life. Roll systems are well and good, but for the development of a serious raid core you need some kind of dkp system, or at least a system that rewards attendance in some form. Give raiders a reason to come back every week rather than swooping in and collecting purples when they feel like it.

Weird end to a weird kid

Odd story for the day.

We had this blood elf DK in the guild, who was a member for a long time. Probably something close to 9 months. On constantly, he maintained a stable of about 6 different level 80 characters, most with transmute mastery alchemists, to farm out gems all day long. I suspect he possessed a small fortune.

Now, he never raided because of parental controls, and his main interactions with the guild was randomly running heroics with other guild members. Yet he was always–ALWAYS–in vent, and if a few folks would hop on he would immediately move to the room they chose and help himself right into their conversation.

Moreover, he’d offer to tank heroics for people with the explicit proviso they go in vent and talk with him. Kid probably didn’t have many friends.

He’d also post nonsensicalities in guild chat and forums saying crap like “I like candy!” and “I love you guys!” Like I said, weird kid.

This weekend I was minding my business running a Heroic Halls of Reflection on the DK, when this kid announces in guild chat that he thought he should be the DK class lead (instead of the current one) because he’s on more often and is always answering questions about DKs for people. Nevermind that the current DK class lead is the nicest guy ever and pulls down 8k dps, single target, on bosses. This weird kid definitely deserved the honor.

Anyway, so I cut in after a few seconds of stunned silences and question in /o of “is he serious?” with the inquiry of whether that was an appropriate thing to demand in general guild chat. Weird kid retorts with the Ciceronian logic that he didn’t care and he wasn’t interested in “sucking up” to get the class lead spot. He then goes on to “demand” the guild leader talk to him about it.

So then of course we acquiesced to his well reasoned arguments and made him the new guild leader.

Actually, we told him no and he needed to learn how to communicate like adult. He gquit a few minutes later.

Then yesterday he posted a random link on the guild forums that reeked of keylogger (like he copy-pasted a keylogger post from the official WoW forums). I swear, I think that kid was trying to get back at us by getting some random members hacked.

I won’t be mourning the loss of the random weird kid, for one, but I know a few liked him. It’ll be nice to be able to go in vent and not have to hide in the officers channel to avoid the familiar, pubescent voice declaring “I like candy!”

It’s a shame, he was obviously very lonely. But also odd. Very, very odd.

Icecrown (first wing) loot and emblem of frost pick order

The ICC loot available to us is fairly limited until January 5th when the next wing opens up. Furthermore, between patch day and January 5th the maximum EoF potential is 146 emblems, severely limiting how many badge items we can pick up before the next group of bosses. Here’s what we have to work with:

Marrowgar

Bonebreaker Scepter (10)
Marrowgar’s Scratching Choker (10)

Bracers of Dark Reckoning (25)
Legguards of Lost Hope (25)

Lady Deathwhisper

Ghoul Commander’s Cuirass (10)

Broken Ram Skull Helm (25)
Juggernaut Band (25)

Gunship Battle

Abomination’s Bloody Ring (10)
Neverending Winter (10)
Unidentifiable Organ (10)

Boneguard Commander’s Pauldrons (25)
Corpse Tongue Coin (25)

Deathbringer Saurfang

Deathforged Legplates (10)

Trash Drops

Harbinger’s Bone Band (25)

EoF Gear

Sentinel’s Winter Cloak 50
Libram of the Eternal Tower 30
Cataclysmic Chestguard 95
Gauntlets of the Kraken 60
Verdigris Chain Belt 60
Corroded Skeleton Key 60

Lightsworn Shoulderguards 60
Lightsworn Legguards 95
Lightsworn Handguards 60
Lightsworn Faceguard 95
Lightsworn Chestguard 95

Pick Order

This is tricky because there are so many amazing items to choose from. What’s making me torn right now is deciding which gearing goal I want to pursue first: more stam/EH, or more avoidance. Generally, getting the badge trinket or offset gear will fulfill the first goal, and tier gear will fulfill the second. Personally, with regards to how the boss encounters of the first wing are shaping up, I’m going to start on goal two, dip into goal one in preparation for the magical damage-heavy future wings, and then swing back and forth intending to pick up tier pieces when I anticipate I’ll have the Marks to upgrade them. To be less obtuse, my personal order will be:

1. Lightsworn Shoulderguards
2. Corroded Skeleton Key
3. Gauntlets of the Kraken
4. Lightsworn Faceguard
5. Verdigris Chain Belt
6. Lightsworn Chestguard
7. Sentinel’s Winter Cloak
8. Lightsworn Legguards
9. Cataclysmic Chestguard
10. Lightsworn Handguards

I will be avoiding the new libram until maybe my dead-last choice.

Eventually my goal is to have three sets: a high avoidance set with the tier four piece, a high armor set with lots of offset gear, and a high stam set with a conglomeration of the pieces with the most stamina from each.

This of course is very subjective, your personal gearing preferences may vary. Let me know in the comments how you intend to approach badges purchases!