Children of Iluvatar

Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? My beloved Mastiff called Mowgli learned this long time mining trick today in Badlands. We’ve all seen other player run up and jump on top of the node you are mining and quickly hit /dance so when the node has been depleated they are dancing on air right?  Well check out Mowgli! He picked up the trick after just one short lesson

Thanks to all who were part of the guild run on Uldeman last night! It was a great run and tons of fun. Having such a great guild of members who really know how to play their class make PUGs (Pick Up Groups) feel even worse. Alas, we shall just have to try to run all our instances together! Here are a some pictures taken along the way.

Special shout outs go to:

• Mike playing Aikavari
• Tien playing Airekon
• Sam playing Scog
• Liz playing Elwíng
• Daniel playing Fínwë

So there are so many things to love in Warcraft, but I for one love the animals. Maybe that is by I love playing hunters so much. Even my non hunter toons all have non combat pets which keep them company. It is logical then that one of my favorite parts about WoW are the mounts! Having played Blood Elves as my mains previously though all I had to satisfy me were the Hawkstriders which everyone knows are pretty lame. Everything is different now that I am leveling Night Elves! I have been eagerly looking forward to dinging 40 so that I could ride the Night Elf cats!

I dinged 40 today and I promptly dashed over to Darnasus and satisfied my itch! I bought my riding skill for 88 gold and then I bought each of the level 40 cat mounts for 8 gold, 80 silver each. Paired with a handy random mount macro I am all set to tromp all over Azeroth. The macro I am using looks something like this…

#showtooltip
/dismount [noflying]
/stopmacro [mounted]
/userandom Reins of the Striped Nightsaber,Reins of the Spotted Frostsaber,Reins
 of the Striped Frostsaber

And here they are in all of their glory!

Hi guys, I’m Aikavari (Mike IRL). I just finished one of the most rewarding (Alliance) Paladin quests in the game, the quest for Verigan’s Fist and I would just like to share my experience with all you aspiring Pallies. To date, this is the third Pally I have done this quest on and I know the stuff involved fairly well. To begin, here’s a picture and some info on Verigan’s Fist:

Verigan’s Fist (BoP)
2H Mace
DMG 65 – 99, SPD 3.20 (25.6 DPS)
+7 STA, +6 INT, +12 SPR
Classes: Paladin
Item Level 31

As you can see, its a Pally specific blue with a good mix of Pally stats (though I’d probably trade in the SPI with STR, or more STA/INT), and a whopping 25.6 DPS. Being a slow 2-hander, it is also perfect for use with Seal of Command, the best (IMO) skill for a leveling Paladin, as well as an end-game Retnoob. The best thing about it is, you can have it as early as level 20, which means your all set until at least you’re late 30s or early 40s. This is the main reason Pally twinks rule PVP at this level range.

Now you might ask, if this is such a great weapon, why do I still see LVL 20-30 Pallies running around with a weak 1-hander. Simple answer to this would be that its a pain to get. Unless you have friends in high places (at least 40+) or enough gold to do runs, you won’t be able to easily get it on your own until at least level 30+, though it might be doable to a 25. Here’s how you get it:

1. At level 20, you’ll receive the quest “Tome of Valor” at the Cathedral in SW from Duthorian Rall. This leads you to Westfall where you must protect Daphne Stillwell Defias Thugs. The Defias will come in three waves, the first wave having 3 level 17-18s, the second have 4 18-19s, and the last having 5 19-20s. Once done, you will be sent back to Duthorian Rall in SW where you’ll receive a nice Shield (”Bastion of Stormwind”, 495 Armor, +5 Def Rating) and the skill Sense Undead (similar to Hunter’s sense skills except works on undead only).

2. Once you turn in, you will be given the quest “The Test of Righteousness” where you will talk to Daphne’s husband, Jordan Stillwell. He tells you that with the right stuff, he can forge an uber weapon for you (not exact words). Here are the four items in question:

a. Whitestone Oak Lumber
- this drops from (almost 100% drop rate if a Paladin in the group is doing the quest) Goblin Woodcarvers in the Deadmines, in Westfall. You should see these mobs in the same room as Sneed (the big shredder machine thingie).

b. Jordan’s Refined Ore Shipment
- this can be found in Loch Modan. You have to talk to Bailor Stonehand to get the quest to get the ore first. He is in Thelsamar. After talking to him, head to the Mo’grosh Ogre mound and get the unrefined ore in a box at the center of the mound. The box is right next to some trees, a bit hard to miss. This ogres used to be elite. Now they are just normal mobs so the quest is easy to finish. After getting the ore, return to Bailor and he will refine it for you.

c. Jordan’s Smithing Hammer
- This is IMHO the hardest part of the quest. For this you need to get to Shadowfang Keep, in Silverpine Forest deep in the heart of horde teritorry, and get to the stables (the one with the three elite horses). The hammer is on top of a box, right in front of the horses. My advice, bring along a friend (preferably a patient one with at least level 40 toon). You should be able to two man this with a high enough level friend.

d. Purified Kor Gem
- This is the easiest for the four items. For this, you need to get to Darkshore and talk to Thundris Windreaver. He will send you to Blackfathom Depths in Ashenvale to get an unpurified Kor Gem. Note that you don’t need to actually go into the instance. You just need to go to the entrance of the instance (right before you enter the actual instance) and kill nagas. The drop rate is pretty good at I think about 30%. After this, return to Thundris and have him purify it.

3. Once you get all 4 items, go back to Jordan and after watching him do his thing, you will have a brand new, shiny Verigan’s Fist.

Now what do you do with the Verigan’s Fist? For me, if you haven’t specced Ret yet, do so. Make sure you get Seal of Command. Seal of Command + Verigan’s = uber pwnage, PVP or PVE. Then, if you have the gold, find a nice enchant for it like fiery. You will be using this thing until you’re late 30s at the very least so make the most out of it.

Again, let me emphasize that this is Alliance only. Hordies get the Blood-tempered Ranseur. It is much easier to get, but ultimately, vastly inferior to Verigan’s Fist.

Whisp me in game if you need help getting Verigan’s.

Last night, with the help of Liz, I made my 3rd run through Dead Mines and as I knelt in anticipation while looting Edwin VanCleef my heart skipped a beat as I realized the final piece ([Blackened Defias Armor]) of the Blackened Defias Set had dropped!

It is just so fun to complete an armor set. Even at this level (20) it provides such a sense of accomplishment…and it looks fricken awesome too!