Call It Like It Is

Sunday I picked up the heroic and regular daily quests, which both happened to be Utgarde Pinnacle. Didn't get to it on Sunday, but I held on to both because it would be easy to kill both birds with that one stone.

Ran it last night and, finally, got the Red Sword of Courage. At face value, it may not look like much of an upgrade compared to the Teldrassil Protector I've been using forever, but I rolled on it (even though we had a DK in the group with a tank spec...sorry, Landel) because (a) it's just a teeny bit faster, which I like in a tank weapon, (b) because it give me a little more stam and, most importantly, (c) because of the Human expertise racial.

I lose a little strength, defense, and parry, but I'm not really fretting over any of that because I'm probably going to grab the Gauntlets of the Royal Watch tonight which will upgrade my T7s. Parry still suffers, but I'm not terribly concerned.

Worked up my sword skill last night from 375 to 399 doing AT dailies and then tanked H-VH with it. I think, based on the results, that I made the right choice...even if I end up upgrading it sooner rather than later.

But that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is the quest item that needs to be obtained for the Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle daily: the Locket of the Deceased Queen.

Cute.

They make it sound like she passed away peacefully in her sleep. Nice, gentle, PC approach to it.

If you quested through Howling Fjord, you "deceased" the queen in a violent fashion right in front of King Ymiron.

They should call it the Locket of the chick you killed in your low 70s for a couple gold and a soon-to-be-replaced quest reward.

Lousy High Elves

So I spent some time with Cheesi picking out a new graphics card for her and installing it on her machine. We're now both rockin' 1080p. I can even see Mis's bald spot.

I logged in for about an hour last night. No lag issues, but I did have a queue to deal with. No biggie.

Bought the new Nelf mount that I'll never ride, learned the new Engineering schematics, and headed up to the AT grounds to see this fancy new Coliseum that I helped those lazy Goblins build by chopping down trees and blowing up blocks and such. The Goblins may not spend a lot of time celebrating your assistance, but they pay well.

I wandered about and picked up the dailies as well as the quest to go to the Black Knight's grave. I didn't do any of the dailies but considered at least continuing the saga of Misneach kicking the crap out of the Black Knight...until I saw that one person was doing the quest and there were about 5 people flying above the grave site waiting for their turn. To heck with that. He'll still be dead tomorrow.

And then I found the Silver Covenant Quartermaster. I've been exalted with these guys for a while and finally have somebody who's willing to offer me items of immeasurable power as a reward for my loyal and dedicated service.

So what do they have for me, a champion of the Silver Covenant? A weapon imbued with the arcane mastery of the High Elves? Armor to shield me from the magical attacks of the Scourge and the Cult of the Damned? A trinket sautéed in magicawesomesauce?

Nope. Some livestock and a tabard.

Seriously?

...

I suppose I can at least try to chuck the horse at Arthas or something.

Anyway, Ratshag posted a wonderful rant about the Call of the Crusade. Go. Read. Laugh.

Misneach out.

On Jousting - Part 2

So last night I managed to find an opening in the revolving door that has been my computer ever since The Sims 3 got released and knocked out my AT dailies before bed.

I'm exalted with Gnomer, title and all, and am working on Exodar. I'm a day off of getting enough seals to be an Exodar Champ, but I'm going to wait until I'm exalted to turn them in. I'm already exalted with Ironforge, but have yet to joust in the name of the Dwarves. All in all, it won't be long until I'm an Ambassador and an Exalted Champion of the Alliance.

My previous jousting difficulties are no longer an issue. I can take a Commander solo without much trouble and I knock out the Tournament Ground jousting quests quickly. My former Medieval Times compatriots would be proud.

One thing I've noticed, though, is that the damage modifiers for Warrior stances apply to jousting. If you're a Prot Warrior who runs about in Defensive Stance 99% of the time like I do, make sure to switch over to Battle Stance when you're doing the jousting quests.

For example, on a Campaign Warhorse your Shield Breaker (according to the tooltip) will hit for 10K. If you're in Defensive Stance, though, it'll only hit for 9.5K. Doesn't sound like a lot, but if you're going after a Commander by yourself it'll make a difference in the long run.

I'm sure many astute Warriors have noticed this, so I apologize for telling you something you already know. Hopefully, though, this little tidbit will help somebody out.

Number 2: Accomplished

I am now "Misneach of Stormwind." I had dramatic screenshots ready to go for this post, but Blogger's being a jerk. Text only will have to do for now.

I know some of you are scoffing at me, particular those of you with your "Realm First Night Elf Rogue to use a Heavy Frostweave Bandage while standing on the geographic center of Storm Peaks" titles, but this is a big deal to me and that's all that matters. So there.

My next step in the Tournament is to become exalted with and a Champion of Gnomeregan. Somehow my rep with them is lowest among the Alliance races. I fail to see how this is possible, considering my intimate knowledge of one of their kind. Seriously, that's gotta count for something.

Final semi-related point on the topic: I really wish my new Squire would carry some of my crap. Isn't that their job?

On Jousting

I worked at Medieval Times several years back (laugh and I'll Shield Slam you into next week). Because of this, I figured I'd have a jump on this whole Argent Tournament jousting thing.

I was wrong.

Nay, I was stupid wrong.

It takes a lot of getting used to. My first couple of attempts at other Alliance Valiants were embarrassing. I'd end up dismounted while they were still sitting at over 40K health.

Let me reiterate - this was embarrassing.

I ended up doing ok after several ridiculously lopsided beatings. I learned to pay attention to how many shields my target had up. I learned to make sure I had my own shields up. I figured out the way the NPCs fight, which helped me anticipate their actions and beat them to the punch.

I really like the mounted combat that WoW has mixed into the game. As far as I'm concerned, it spices up questing quite a bit when you can hop on a mount or a vehicle and do something other than pick a fight with a mob and go through your normal rotation, repeating until the mob is dead.

I'll get the hang of this jousting thing, I'm sure. I may never be the best at it, but I'll settle for not sucking.

Loreriffic

On Saturday I was knocking out my Hodir dailies in my Fury spec with a couple of pieces of dps gear but mostly prot stuff. Helped me get a feel for how a fury warrior works and also helped me get some 2h weapon skills up. Besides all of that, it was fun to try something different.

After I polished the helm and blew the horn and what-not but before I ventured over to start the Argent Tournament stuff, I finished up my Storm Peaks quests - including the big Yorg Stormheart "reveal."

I've gotta say, I really enjoy the lore in this expansion: the Frostmourne Cavern quest, the Stormheart/Bronzebeard quest, the return of Varian Wrynn, the Wrathgate, etc. All of these things make you feel like you're a part of something bigger, as silly as that sounds when you're referring to a video game. You just didn't get that kind of "epic" feel from the Burning Crusade while you were questing.

Kudos, Blizz.