Kill Alani, Praise the Sun achievement

Like almost everyone I try to kill Alani each week. That dragon is probably so sick of being tagged that it might just stop hanging in the air too close to the Storm King. It is a great sounding achievement.

Mort as a Goblin

One of the new scenarios allows Alliance players to be transformed into a Goblin. I like these quests which show the lore, and am rather happy i don’t have a Goblin toon. All too stunty. I suppose it could be worse..could be a Gnome.

Achievement bounty

I’ve been getting the odd and strange achievements recently, and instead of sliding them by there are screenshots.

Firstly here are some shots from the Blacksmith quest-line to use the Thunder Forge, then onto some random shots from doing daily quests, the 5000 quest achievement, and also getting Mortigen’s Black Prince reputation to Exalted. Then another for looting 50k gold.

Standing atop the Thunder Forge

Mortigen staring at the forge itself after clearing up the Mogu hanging around the entryway. This forge really deserves more attention, it is beautiful.

The Achievement for Pay to Slay, which I don’t understand the meme for.

And the Achievement for 5000 Daily Quests. Jesus that is a lot of regular activity.

And I am also now Exalted with Black Prince.

And then “Got my mind on the Money”, to loot 50k gold.

Screenies – Mortigen the unwilling farmer

I didn’t think I’d do Farmville in wow, but I am and its ok because the ends justify the task. That said, Mort (and I) is not naturally inclined to farming.

I spend a lot of time farming in mid-air dangling from those plants. You’d think it was fun.

Screenie – new (old) Helm and Shoulders

Here is a now old screenie of the Helm and Shoulders Mort is using, before transmog turned them into the DK plate set.

Friday Five by Too many Annas

Too Many Annas has a regular Friday Five, questions to ping thoughts and ideas…

This week: Your character has unlimited funds and unlimited space to make their dream abode.

1. Is it in the city or country? What zone, if you could pick one?
2. Big or small? What does it look like?
3. Is it cluttered and crazy or clean and neat?
4. Do they share it with anyone/anything?
5. Do they live there all year, or is it a seasonal home?

(One) Mortigen would live within Acherus the Death Knight citadel. Essentially his place in the rest of Azeroth is lost and gone, and Acherus represents both the prison of being a death knight and also the place where a DK is not subject to creepy looks.

Given unlimited resources that might change to be a citadel of his own which is not regularly shared with other death knights. Perhaps uproot something like IceCrown Citadel and float that about the crater where Dalaran used to be, or on the Ruins of Theramore.

Having an army of undead minions should be included too. At least one hundred thousands footmen and heavy infantry, and a range of dragons and flying ghouls for air support. That has a nice feel to it.

(Two) It would be huge, something to make Naxxramas feel like a hovel. Skulls, spines, spikes and cold rivers of infectious slime and frozen water.

A small chapel iced over with permafrost. A floating barge the size of the alliance gunship to use as a run about to get down to the ground when needed. That saves landing the floating castle on a town just because he needs some extra common thread for a quest.

A market and vendor area akin to the shopping district in Undercity or Dalaran would be great too, as long as the vendors don’t mind living with a strict curfew.

(Three) It should be patrolled regularly by guards and servitors, but essentially all non-combat personal should be rare and basically never seen. Keep the place feeling haunted and forlorn.

(Four) In times of strife Mortigen would use the citadel to fight for the causes, but never as an ongoing deal. Why like to the Alliance when they perform just as many idiotic or cowardly actions as the Horde.

(Five) It is a base of operations, and as it would be mobile – it could be used all year round.

Do you think the Pandaren would mind a monolithic castle floating above Half Hill farm?

Gearing up for an adventure

That scene in the Matrix when Neo fights an upgraded Agent and says, “hmm, upgrades…” resounds at the moment.

Recently I’ve been lucky to have some very good gear drops in normal MV and also had some of the hard work grinding and AH farming pay off. I found it odd that the relative score of the gear in sites like Wow Heroes did not jump significantly. It’s not like there are not 300+ characters who are better geared on the server, but bragging right are fun sometimes.

Gear which changes was:

• a Dps 489 ring from Quest/Exalted Rep with Klaxxi. It is no small effort to get to Exalted with this faction, and it is a pity that I took the reward so close to the update to patch 5.1 as the ring will hopefully be replaced in the coming months. I will not be doing the Klaxxi zone at all unless I max out all the other dailies, which in very unlikely.
• a Dps 489 gauntlets from MV, upgraded from item level 372.
• a Dps 489 cloak from MV, from level 372,
• some Dps boots that I’ll be using as part of a Tank set,
• switched the old 472 dps Cloak and Gauntlets to the Tank set,
• and purchased the Dps trinket from DMF, which replaced the 450 ilevel dragonling trinket. I’ll miss that little dragon proc. I think it cost around 12,000 gold buying it with cards.
• then finally purchased the other DMF trinket too for the Tank set, for around 8,500 gold. It was far less of an upgrade that the Dps one, but it will serve well for the rare Tanking I do in instances and is more than powerful enough for 5 man runs.

Yes, its been a good few weeks.

I know that using Dps gear is not ideal for Tanking as I miss out on loading the secondary Tank stats like Parry and Dodge, but a 486/472 dps item is rated higher in terms of overall itemisation than a 463 item with those stats because often the Mastery loading on the dps items is still good. It is not ideal, but any upgrade is an upgrade.

Next on the list is:

• I’m likely to valor-upgrade the two-hander Star Shatter, as it is likely the best weapon I’ll see before we are either killing the end boss in Heart of Fear on normal (a while away), or killing Heroic Elegon (longer still). Spending Valor on that seems a worth while update as it is unlikely to be replaced.
• Rep farming the Shieldwall faction is important (Ring, then Trinket, then Boots/Belt),
• but as is completing the Exalted rep with Goldebn Lotus for a Tank Neck (a quest reward), because I have a 489 item on neck already and the itemisation on the Dps quest reward is sub-par for DKs playing Frost 2 handed. Might as well get +5 Valor and a nice upgrade when it does not disadvantage the other grinds.
• getting to Revered with the Shadow-Pan for a new 489 trinket (also costs VPs), but I am now sure that the Ironbelly Wok is nothing compared to the upgrade of switching to a 496 with the Shieldwall trinket. Those poor Shado-Pan might have had their day.
• I’ll visit the August Celestials soon to see how I can help them too.

At this stage I’ll wait to see how my reps are when I next cap out on Valor, then purchase the item which gives the best upscale in core ilevel, with a preference for the Shieldwall gear.

I did wonder and have no answer, except to perform case-by-case testing for:

• Is it worth upgrading a weapon by 8 item levels (say 489 to 497), or a trinket (from 472 to 480)?
• or better to spend VPs on higher gear? buy a 489 which replaces a 472, which is more of a point difference.
• How far does the preferred vs sub-optimal secondary stats factor in that?

Perhaps the answer is to only upgrade the gear which is both the highest level you expect to attain in the short to mid term, and also only when the same amount of Valor Points could not purchase an equivalent upgrade elsewhere on the character.

i.e. You’re better off purchasing a higher ilevel item than upgrading another, as you change the base level of your gear to be higher, and therefore open to enhancement with Valor later. This means that as most of my stuff is 489 now, I’d be mad to upgrade a 472 with VPs, especially when 496s are available with Reputation.

There is no sneaky way to grab my last 472 upgrades for Legs and Bracers except getting lucky in a few runs, or Valor farming – so farming it is. Yay! Cough.

Related articles

• Shieldwall VP rewards (typhoonandrew.wordpress.com)
• Numerious daily quests yesterday (typhoonandrew.wordpress.com)
• Faction reps gaining slowly (typhoonandrew.wordpress.com)
• Patch 5.1: Upgrading your gear with valor (wow.joystiq.com)
• Gearing can take a while for some (typhoonandrew.wordpress.com)

Mortigen on Son of a Lich

Son of a Lich has posted my response to the DK intro called Circle of Killing.

For those new to the concept the Circle of Killing is a featured Death Knight answering a series of similar questions about the class; akin to the Circle of Healing posts. And Son of  Lich is a great DK blog and resource.

Happy killing.

What happens when Mortigen meats a kitten?

I could not help it. A cat in Naxx is far more tempting than a rat in another instance. And its called Mr Bigglesworth. It had to die, death is what I do.

If only to get the special emote from KT, and make the Hunter jealous that I got it first this time. Silly stuff like this is why I like this game. If only I was an Undead, I could eat it too.

Upgrades and a question

Upgrades

• Mortigen has a few upgrades that make the gear better, but what I really need to do is fix my spec. The current range of Death Knight specs are way different to mine, and while I can keep up using my current build, with my gear the performance should be far better. I’m a little ashamed.
• I think I’ll go back to Unholy 2H build. It was how I started and how I leveled. I don’t tank much, and I get the impression from the PTR that Blood and Unholy will be the two dps talent trees of choice.
• A good friend also plays a Frosty DK Tank, and I think he’s looking good in the 3.1 update. Maybe a Frost tank spec might be a good “off-spec” or dare I say dual spec choice. But if Blood tanking allows solid solo grinding of lowbie instances I’ll do that instead. I do a lot of helper runs with mates, and being able to solo Tank without too much ache will be my goal.
• I still want some good Bracers, a 25 man Maly kill, and the Betrayer of Humanity. Then I’m ready for 3.1.

Q&A Time

Q. Why the hell would Arthas allow a tournament in Icecrown? (ala the Tournament coming with 3.1)

A. He bloody wouldn’t.

If the new tournament is not one of the most heavily guarded and fortified areas in the zone, then this is a corrosive stain on the shining lore of Icecrown.

Then again the Ebon Blade have managed to camp one of his outposts for ages, so maybe Arthas is distracted by something else enough to allow all these pesky Alliance and Horde types to live on his block. If I was him I’d be saying get off my lawn, and bringing about 50 of those 80e mobs to send the message clearly.

Some RP Questions for Mortigen

Credit to the blog guys who push the RP envelope in WoW. I’m unashamedly stealing the idea of the post from them. I have often had a laugh at the expense of folks who don’t “get” roleplaying (watch for the lolwat when you make an RP response to their request for gold), but then don’t often participate in RP activity myself. So yeah, I have a double standard or two.

What is your name and where did it come from?

Mortigen is an assumed name. My old family name and indeed my family is now dead to me. I know they would never accept what I have become, especially as I do not see my transition as a fall from grace. The Draenei value the protection and preservation of life, but even before my first death I did not understand the compromises our race made for this philosophy. The undeath that the Lich King offers is a wonderful freedom, and I wish to never be turned or cured.

Transformation into Human

Finally did the culling of Stratholme run, and really enjoyed it. I like that Arthas is starting to flip out, the argument at the beginning, but also that there were beings beyond his comprehension that participated too. It lends a legendary feel to everything we do in Lich King. The run was done fast, and I’d like to head back in and actually learn and watch what is happening as there is sure to be more little tid-bits of lore hidden away.

The only down side was Mortigen was transformed into a Human. And a darn ugly one at that. I mean balding with a mullet ugly!

Epic Flying Dead Chicken

The few hours I spent playing over the holidays were not wasted. Thanks to a guildie for the loan – I have an epic speed Undead Chicken for my Death Knight.

Mortigen will enjoy the speed, and imho the only mount a Death Knight should get is the Undead Chicken/Gryphon, till you at least have one of the cool drakes from rep or instances. A regular epic flyer is just not trying.

That makes 4x epics and my first epic flyer in Northrend (and a 500g debit).

Mortigen’s fall and rise

Meet Mortigen, an Unholy spec Death Knight and one of his many minions.

For:

– Too much fun, flavour is perfect. Story is cool in a “whoa thats warped” way.

– The level boost from 60-70 has made the grind less of a grind.

– DPS is great, and you can survive a screw-up or bad pull. Having a pet really helps survive, and having AoE ability helps with farming when an area is overpopulated. I lay down the AoE when I think it will spawn, and often I get the mob tagged as it enters.

– Starting gear really gives you a jump start into leveling. Rakarth is right in that this may well change and we may notice a real problem with gear at later levels (a comment by phone). I’m not sure that matters as 71 greens will replace the 69 greens by a large degree. The first few levels in Northrend will be tough, but could not be impossible.

Against:

– …I got nothing bad to say.

And when I say they have good dps, this is an example of what a Ramparts zerg can produce. With a L70 Paladin and Healer, and x3 Death Knights – the dps was flowing like water. I really enjoyed both the Blood Furnace and Ramparts runs yesterday. At one point I pulled aggro from the Prot Paladin, and was almost killed, but thankfully the healer really knew his job and saved my silly red arse.

I see no reason not to try each spec, and gather gear for each spec. With each apparently being a viable tank role, the “oh shit” moments are not as terrible as with a more squishy toon.

From what I’ve seen Blood is the great dps, and Frost seems to have most of the best Tank talents. Which makes me wonder why I took Unholy? Answer is I like Warlock pets and AoE spells, which the Unholy gets in spades. And I love AoE tanking on the Paladin.

The best of both worlds? I think so.

Lastly the mod pictured in my screenshot above is called RuneWatch. Its an Ace2 mod that shows the diseases, runes and such that your DK has. The options are great (fade, hide blizz rune frame, rune ordering, sizing, plus many more), and while its the first I’ve used, I think its pretty darn good. In combination with Eclipse for timers this is a pretty powerful too.

Anyone know of a killer DK mod, because while I can not see anything wrong with RuneWatch, I’d like to have the best mods available. Something that makes the DK powers show/hide like the Curses for Warlocks in Necrosis would be handy. Likewise those abilities that you don’t use often like Deathgate, etc. No need for a spot on the action bar if they are folded out as part of a mod menu.