Tome of the Light

Summer Time Ahoy

2009-05-15T08:24:00.001-07:00

Well, as of yesterday I'm officially done with... that semester. It seemed like the bloody thing was never actually going to come to an end! There's still a couple of school related things that I need to take care of - such as using up what's left of the money they give me every year on my ID card to print things! I have like $13 dollars left, and I intend to bloody well use them.

Anyway, just a short burst of thoughts I felt like I'd share today, and maybe talk about what I plan on doing with the blog over the summer.

1) Where have all the writers gone?
I'm a little saddened by the sudden outflux of some of my favorite bloggers in the Warcraft-sphere. Vonya over at Ego Priest just announced that she's taking a break, Big Red Kitty shut down about two months ago (I still read his other blog, dphowell), and Banana Shoulders hasn't done a post on her blog in over a month now. For someone who wants to break into the blogging community, maybe not as huge as these guys are, this could be considered a big break, a chance to maybe get some readership. On the other hand, I really liked what their blogs, and would definitely prefer not to see them go! Anyway, I'm going to try to be a bit more proactive about getting some readership going around here, maybe get people to leave some comments or something.

2) Where do we go from here?
So obviously thus far I haven't been very good about an update schedule or anything like that, but to be fair I don't think that I'm ever going to end up being nearly as important as any of the really big bloggers out there, but I can at least try to keep some sort of schedule going for the duration of the summer. I'll shoot for at least a post every week, maybe more if people actually give me some notice that they're out there. I don't want to keep shouting thoughts into the void!

3) I never did get around to talking about Holy Shock
That'll be the next post, I swear.

The Siege of Ulduar: By the Light, he LIVES

2009-05-04T11:04:00.001-07:00

Thoughts on Ulduar

Well, it's been awhile since I did a post, hasn't it? Sorry about that - hopefully I didn't lose my already small readership to me being lazy :P Mostly I've been pretty busy with school and Ulduar (90% Ulduar, 10% school), but updates should hopefully be a little more frequent as school comes to a close. Anyway, here's what being a Holy Paladin is like in the first section of the raid, the Siege of Ulduar.

Flame Leviathan
This is the fight that I look forward to every week, not because it's a challenge per se, but because the encounter is just that much fun. You choice of class doesn't matter here, and being a Holy Paladin is no different from being a Combat Rogue or whatever else because you're too busy trying to kill hundreds of little Iron Dwarves. So far I've played the Siege Tank (guess what that does? Or tries to do, anyway) and the Demolisher (my personal favorite). I'm not as huge into the siege engine - for one thing, the tanking aspect just doesn't work right in 10 man. I don't know if its something we're doing, or not doing, or what, but Levvy tends to ignore the Engines and head straight for whatever target he feels like at the time. Even on hard mode though, this isn't difficult to deal with - just makes sure you know where the motorcycles are going to be dropping the tar and head straight for it. Even without a passenger (Demolisher passengers are typically busy getting the Levvy to Overload), you can get away from the big tank fairly easily.

The only real part where your class might matter is if you're the demolisher passenger being thrown at him to destroy the turrets to cause an overload, and even then its not that difficult to deal with. I haven't been thrown up there personally yet, but from what I've heard and seen it doesn't seem like the passengers take very much damage at all, even with towers up (although I suspect leaving Mimiron's Tower up might change that) you'll probably be doing more SoR and offensive Holy Shocks than you will be healing.

Razorscale
This is where things start being interesting for healing - if you were expecting Ulduar to be like Naxxramas this is probably where you're going to get your wake up call. Our normal strategy is to break into two groups, one tank and one healer on each side, with the third healer alternating between the two as necessary, although recently we've started duo healing this with me on the left and our Discipline Priest on the right side while our Resto Shaman uses dual spec to go Enhancement and speed the encounter up. We got A Quick Shave on our third time in on this fight with the strategy, so you may want to give it a try.

The actual healing of this fight is interesting. Depending on where the Champion (the Vrykul in the Iron Dwarf spawns, I think that's his name) heads, your tank may not take very much more than periodic damage. However, Razorscale is flying around overhead randomly dropping fire on your group, making things difficult. The best way to deal with this is to put Beacon on your tank and just use Shock and FoL with Infusion procs to deal with her random bursts while keeping the tank up. When she's forced to the ground, judge whatever you're using on Razorscale and then ignore anyone who isn't your tank, as they're the only ones who should be taking any damage at all at that point (if you're running low on mana and the tank only has one to two adds, this is a good time to pop DP - this will only happen 2-3 times on fights where you actually kill the boss, so pay attention). When you get the warning that she's been permanently grounded is probably the best time to pop Avenging Wrath and Divine Illumination - depending on the amount of adds on your main tank, this may rapidly become an "Oh sh!t" moment for healing depending on the number of adds the main tank has on them. Shock first and ask questions later. Remember that your main tank target is also going to switch - if you're keeping Sacred Shield up, remember to switch targets in advance if possible.

Ignis the Furnace Master
This is easily my least favorite fight in the instance, even with all the nerfs. This fight is a dual healing and coordination check, and anything less than three healers is going to see someone get thrown in the pot who isn't going to make it out. Here is where the new glyph of Beacon of Light is going to be your friend - the fight is going to take a long time since a portion of your DPS is going to be focused on dealing with the Iron Constructs. If you're on main tank healing your main priority is going to be keeping the tank alive to the exclusion of anything else - keeping Beacon of Light up is going to help and let you Shock/Infusion the offtank or whoever is in the pot, but that isn't going to make up the difference if your tank needs a HL RIGHT NOW. Remember that you need to keep the tank topped up as much as possible, as even with the nerf to Flame Jet's interrupt for 6s instead of 8, that's a long time to not be able to heal. Unless things are going extremely well, you aren't going to have much of a chance to use Divine Plea at all - use Divine Illumination wisely.

Dealing with getting thrown in the pot isn't difficult if you know how to deal with it - ignore the rest of the group and keep yourself alive. Since Bacon is keeping the tank alive from you healing yourself, it lets raid healer can top everyone off while they have a chance, or help with the construct team, or just regen some mana. After you get used to how the fight works, it isn't nearly as bad, but its still going to be a test on your attention and it might be best to skip this fight until you're a little farther in to Ulduar.

XT-002
This can either be your easiest fight or the most difficult depending on how you play your cooldowns. There is really only one test to this fight for main healing, which is "Can you keep the tank up during Timpanic Tantrum while keeping yourself alive?". The answer, as always, is delicious bacon. There is only one phase that anyone should be taking any damage at all in, and the only test on you is going to be knowing where your Bacon button is and where your Holy Light button is. Now, that isn't to say that you should ignore the rest of your group - a simple Shock on one target followed by a Infused Flash on another should be enough to keep them from succumbing on the much shorter Tantrums, but you can't forget that the other healers are probably better prepared to deal with raid healing than you are much faster than you can. Other than that, this fight is a positioning check: keeping away from everyone else in 10 is pretty easy, so Light Bombs and Dark Bombs don't matter very much. Phase Two is ridiculously easy - no one should be taking any damage at all, you might as well run in and judge Wisdom on the heart and start slapping it around for a quick mana burst - I've had SoR crit for about 4k and Shock crit for 8k, so it doesn't hurt to help beat it around (particularly if you WANT to hit hard mode), but be ready to run back out so your melee can get back in without worrying about killing you. You can use Divine Plea if you really need to, but you really aren't going to run out of mana on this fight unless you're doing something wrong. This fight is progressively becoming shorter and shorter for us - we literally had back to back heart phases on our last kill, even when we screwed up and a couple of scrap bots got to the boss.

So! That's the Siege. Questions? Comments? Things you've had trouble with or noticed? COMMENTS PLEASE I CRAVE ATTENTION.

Good things come to those who wait

2009-03-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I missed updating on Wednesday and probably today too, I'm having to write a large essay that is taking up a good deal of my time right now. I'll probably have something up tomorrow.

Chapter 2: Tirion Fordring, part I

2009-03-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

It's MOAR LOAR time. By popular request. A little late for technical reasons that I still haven't been able to work out. Fear not, this post is longer because of it!

This time: Tirion Fordring: Leader of the Argent Crusade, and...

THE ASHBRINGER...

For those of you just tuning in to Wrath of the Lich King, Tirion is probably the most badass Paladin and representative of the Light in the game right now. He represents that which is best about the Human race, and the possibility that someday the Horde and Alliance can stand together to destroy the Burning Legion once and for all.

Warning: Spoilers from the book "Of Blood and Honor". I'm going to be skipping around a lot and relying on WoWwiki more than I usually would, mostly because it's been a little longer than a year since I last read the book, and I can't find my anthology.

The story of Tirion begins just a little after the end of the Second War, and just after Thrall had escaped from Durnholde Keep. He was the lord of a small area in Hearthglen, where he, his wife, and his son lived in relative peace. Tirion had fought long and hard in both the First and Second War, first as a Priest, and later as a Paladin when the Order of the Silver Hand was established under Uther the Lightbringer (remember, a lot of the Paladins in the First, Second, and Third Wars were all ex-Priests. It's not until the start of World of Warcraft four years after the end of the Third War that we see the second rise of the Paladins), and was given his keep in Hearthglen.

So, everything seems fairly chill in Hearthglen, and Tirion can look forward to the day that he passes the responsibility of leadership to his son, Taelen. One day, however, while out on a morning ride, he investigates an abandoned tower only to find an old Orc inside! Misunderstanding the situation, Tirion and the Orc begin to fight. At first, it seems that this is going to be a battle to the death, but as they continue their fight it becomes apparent that they are a fairly even match for each other, even if the orc is rather old. However, as things continue, the old tower begins to shake, and eventually collapses on the two combatants.

Tirion wakes up in his castle, with no sign of the orc he fought to be seen. He learns from his subordinates that he had been found tied to his horse as it wandered back into the keep. Tirion realizes that the old orc must have saved him, but doesn't tell anyone: clearly this orc didn't mean him any real harm, since he must have been under his complete mercy. He decides to return to the forest and talk to the orc, and try to find out what his intentions are.

Uh. Wow, this is taking a LONG TIME, and I bet Blizzard still wants people to buy their books! Let's hurry this up a bit.

Rushing along now, Tirion returns to Eitrigg and learns why the old Orc hides in the forest away from the Horde: Eitrigg lost his sons in the First and Second Wars, and has no more interest in fighting for blood sport. Tirion accepts this explanation, and promises Eitrigg that he will protect him from being revealed to the Alliance. However, one of Tirion's subordinates reasons out what has happened in the forest, and forces an investigation of the tower. Eitrigg is captured, but not before Tirion attempts to free him. Both are then taken captive, and held by the Alliance for trial.

While Eitrigg's trial is an inevitability, Tirion's is slightly more in doubt. As a peer (an old term that essentially means "noble"), he is intitled to a far more fair trial. The people summoned before him to bring the Alliance's justice are well known to Warcraft-lore freaks, and show just how seriously they were taking this: Uther the Lightbringer, Archmage Antonidas of Dalaran, and Arthas the Lich Ki- er, I mean, Arthas Menethil and several others are summoned as jury.

Even more unlikely in a case of suspected treason, Tirion is offered a plea bargain: tell the court that he made no promise to protect the orc, and he would be released to his family with his power and land intact. His wife begs him on behalf of their son to accept this, but Tirion refuses. His belief in his honor and faith in the Light will not allow him to do this. Uther is angered by his decision, but respects Tirion to much to force his family into perpetual exile. The decision is passed down: Tirion's family will be allowed to keep their land, but Tirion will be exiled from the Alliance lands under pain of death. Further...

He will be stripped of his ability to summon the Light. Uther immediately acts on the sentance, and carries it out.

This is almost impossible for me to understand, and even more difficult to explain. Let me put it this way, suppose you were able to talk to whatever created the universe, and summon a bit of their power whenever you wanted and do whatever you needed to do: To heal, to fight, to alter the nature of reality in the favor of yourself and those that you fight and die for. And then, one day, acting in full faith that you are doing the right thing, this ability is taken from you.

With that terrible burden laid upon him, Tirion is allowed to return to Hearthglen for the last time before he must begin his exile. During this time, however, Tirion has not given up on his promise to protect Eitrigg from the Alliance. He resolves to save Eitrigg from death, even if it costs him his own life.

As Eitrigg is placed on the gallows, Tirion is amongst the crowd, hidden in a deep cloak. Finally, after watching small chilren throw fruit and rocks at Eitrigg, Tirion can handle no more, and charges the scaffold. The fight seems hopeless, as Tirion is greatly outnumbered, but eventually he is able to free Eitrigg due to a seemingly random attack of orcs on the city. Fearing the worst, Tirion carries Eitrigg to safety outside of the city, only to find that the old orc will soon succumb to his wounds if not treated. Tirion tries to call upon the Light from the outside, but to no avail; Uther's block to his power is too strong. Suddenly, Tirion remembers the source of all Light: from within (corny, yeah yeah whatever) and is able to heal Eitrigg by digging deep within himself. Suddenly, they are both surrounded by orcs who have witnessed Tirion's act of kindness. They summon their leader, none other than Thrall, who thanks Tirion and welcomes Eitrigg to the New Horde. Having seen Eitrigg safely off, Tirion begins his exile.

Next time:
Tirion and the Third War
The Battle for Light's Hope Chapel
Things as they stand now

Chapter 3: Welcome to the Holy Paladin

2009-03-11T10:39:00.001-07:00

So, my very first guide to a class! This will probably be a series of posts about Healing as a Paladin, with today's post being an introduction to the very basic mechanics of the class, with later posts going more in-depth on various abilities and their usages, as well as strategies for various fights in the game.

The Holy Paladin in a Nutshell
Holy Paladins are a healing spec designed to do one thing very well: heal a single target at a time for a massive amount. While Beacon (Bacon!) of Light and Glyph of Holy Light allow them to heal multiple targets, they are not entirely reliable in all situations, and will never provide as much healing as a Priest's Circle of Healing or a Druid's Wild Growth to many targets at a single time. However, in return for this restriction, Paladins can heal a single target incredibly efficiently through the use of three spells:

Flash of Light: As the name implies, this is a very fast cast heal. Unlike a Priest's Flash Heal, this ability gains a very high amount of our spellpower - 113%, as well as a very low mana cost per casting. This is the basic spam spell for healing multiple targets quickly in 5 mans, or when the tank just needs a smaller heal than HL.

Holy Light: The BFG of the Holy Paladin arsenal. This spell costs quite a bit of mana, but can heal a vast chunk of a tank's health all in one go (especially if it crits!). The spell takes a long time to cast, so various talents speed it up for emergency situations.

Holy Shock: The middle child of the healing options, Holy Shock has greatly improved since The Burning Crusade. Shock of Light is so important that it will receive its own post later, for now just remember that its an instant cast spell that heals for more than FoL but less than HoL.

Sacred Shield: An amazing mitigation spell for tank targets, this spell absorbs a certain amount of damage and dramatically increases the chance of your FoL to critically hit on the shielded target. This ability is mostly targetted for use on tanks (especially with the change in 3.1 in that it can only be on one target at a time) although it can be useful if another target is likely to take a lot of damage very soon (such as Optic Link in Violet Hold).

Beacon of Light: Bacon is a rather interesting ability in that it allows you to heal more than one target at a time with a spell that would only normally hit a single target. This is especially useful on fights where more than one tank is going to take a lot of damage over the course of a minute (like Patchwerk in Naxxramas) or when more than one person is going to be taking damage and you still need to heal the tank (like most heroics). However, healing done to the one target must be effective - for example, if I heal tank one for 3000 but they were only 1500 short of their maximum health, the Beacon (the person that you cast the spell on originally) will only receive 1500 healing.

How does a Holy Paladin heal?
This is largely a question of what they happen to be doing in the raid at the time. Since Paladins aren't nearly as good as their counterpart classes at healing multiple targets at the same time, they'll be most often called upon to heal the Main Tank in raids. The easiest way to do this is to keep Sacred Shield up while spamming Flash of Light alternating with Shock of Light until the tank needs a much bigger heal through Holy Light. In some fights, other abilities will come into call, such as Hand of Sacrifice or Hand of Protection, but these are rare enough to not matter much in the overall picture of healing. Remember, healing isn't about rotations, its about doing whats necessary at the right time to keep everyone alive.

What kind of specs are there?
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxA0xrzhVuMxRtaZVf0x
This spec gets all the necessary talents, while allowing them to have Blessing of Kings. This build will change in 3.1, in that the five points for BoK will be transferred to the new talent in Protection, Divinity.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxAzxGzhVuMxRtZVf0x0h
This build depends on not needing to spend any points in BoK, in that you're depending on someone else to cast it for you. This build is on it's way out: the normalization of BoK and the addition of Divinity to the Protection tree will kill the extra five points this build depended on. Don't worry, your crit is still going to be around 30% or so by the time you're in Naxx, 3% more or less isn't going to hurt.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=sxAbx0dhVuGjRtacMV
If I was to ever PvP (definition: NEVER), I would probably use something like this spec. Feel free to poke holes in it.

What types of gear do Holydins like?
Generally, Paladins like Plate items that have a lot of Intellect, Crit, and Spellpower, and to a lesser degree Haste and Mana Per 5 (MP5). However, a lot of Boomkin (Balance Druid) leather gear and Mage cloth gear and weapons are also appealing, which tends to drive those classes crazy. Try not to abuse it. Since Paladins cannot equip Staves, our best gearing options for weapons are typically some sort of one-handed weapon (like Life and Death or The Turning Tide, both from Naxx25) and a shield.

Next time: Holy Shock and it's importance

Chapter 4: Mana Spring Totem and Blessing of Wisdom No Longer Stack?

2009-03-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of my readers will keep up with MMO-Champion's blue tracker, but here's a little thing that I noticed this morning:

From Eyonix:
We are making a change to these [Blessing of Wisdom and Mana Stream Totem] spells so that their benefits are exclusive in patch 3.1.0. The buffs will be equivalent, but will no longer stack. Mana Spring will affect the entire raid instead of just the shaman’s party. We felt that both paladins and shamans brought too many unique buffs to a group. Additionally, we have been trying to tone down mana regeneration in large groups, and were concerned raids would feel the need to stack paladins or especially shaman to have enough Mana Spring totems. We have also been trying to get more benefits out of the party and into the raid, and Mana Spring previously was still a party only buff. With this change, if there is only one paladin, he or she can bring Blessing of Kings while the shaman offers Mana Spring. If there are two paladins and the second offers Blessing of Wisdom, then the shaman can offer healing or cleansing with their water totem instead.

They are getting really serious about nerfing mana return options this patch, aren't they? Viewing this as a Holy Paladin, this is a pretty clear nerf to both our normal desirability to be brought to raids if there is already a Restoration Shaman, as well as an overall nerf to all classes mana regeneration (again, only if there is a Restoration Shaman). I can't imagine Restoration Shaman are very happy about this either, for much the same (if reversed) reasons.

So why is this necessary? The easiest answer is one they've already given: they want Healers to pay a lot more attention to how much mana we're using. Does this really fix the problem? Well, certainly, but probably not in a way that most people are going to like. The classes that are really hurt by this are Priests, Druids, and Shaman, much more than it actually hurts Paladins, and is probably going to result in another Divine Plea nerf. The reason for this is fairly clear - Replenishment is extremely powerful for us while only reasonably powerful for the other classes. For those of you who have never really hung out with a Holy Paladin for any amount of time, the reason for this is the way that we stack Intellect to no end: talents like Divine Intellect, Holy Power and Holy Guidance directly benefit stacking Intellect more than any stat (although crit becomes better and better the more you stack Intellect, but that's a story for another time). The more intellect we stack, the better our heals get, but even more than that our maximum mana increases. Remember, Replenishment is based on your maximim mana pool - the bigger it gets, the more benefit you see from Replenishment (and since spells are now based on your mimimum mana pool, you literally get to a point that you can just spam Holy Light over the more efficient Flash of Light). Mana per five seconds (or mp5) is almost an entirely ignored stat for us (although it's likely to become more ideal for us as time goes on), but this is a nerf to Restoration Shaman mp5 that really isn't going to be appreciated.

Chapter 2: Varian Wrynn and the Battle for the Undercity

2009-03-10T12:41:00.001-07:00

I'll be up front with you here and now, dear reader: I hate Wrynn. He has forced the Horde and the Alliance into a war of atrocities, and doesn't even show any remorse about it. This post is all about the events that make me hate Variann, including a short write up for the Horde who may not know very much about him or why to hate him like I do. Him and his huge frikken chin. It may, however, be not entirely his fault. I'll examine all this with as clear an eye as I can muster - FOR THE LIGHT - FOR THE HORDE!! Er. You didn't read that last bit.

HEADS UP - SPOILERS FOR THE COMIC

The Background of a King:
For those of you who have never played Alliance at all, Varian Wrynn is the King of Stormwind, but he was missing from the game from the very beginning of WoW-Vanilla to The Burning Crusade. Where was he off to, you might ask? Well, the short version of it is that he was kidnapped, lost his memories, forced into gladiatorial combat for the whims of the darker side of the Horde, made friends with a Night Elf Druid who can't quite control his shifting and a Blood Elf Rogue who can't control her mana urge (unlike the rest of us, she never got the patch HUR HUR), escaped to hang out with Jaina over in Theramore (and who wouldn't), got a portion of his memory back, returned to Stormwind to find out that a copy of himself had been... uh... doin' it with a dragon named Onyxia, chased her out of Stormwind, merged his mind with his copy, and killed the dragon to hang her head over the gates of the kingdom (Henry the VIII anyone?).

That was a very long run on sentance, sorry about that.

Anyway, in-game this didn't really make much sense unless you completed the Missing Diplomat questline for the Alliance and actually killed Onyxia back then. In fact, the events that I gave in that long run-on sentance are essentially a ret-con so that the comic could make sense within the current universe. Alliance-side characters ran around the world looking for Wrynn while the whole time he was being (apparently) a gigantic PvP badass (the TG nerf is really directed at him, sorry Warriors). Anyway, apparently when the Alliance killed Onyxia, Wrynn was right there beside them (along with his bear buddy, mana starved belf, and his son [who brings their son to kill a dragon? That seems like a good father-son time, right?] hacking along to the oldies. The net result of all this is that Wrynn is now back in Stormwind, King once more with that inglorious chin of his.

Seriously, have you seen the chin? Go ahead, go roll a Human real quick, run into Stormwind and have a look at the guy. He's got a bigger chin than Jay Leno, and that's really saying something. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Welcome back. So, why do I not like Wrynn very much? It all has to do with...

WARNING - WRATHGATE SPOILERS AHEAD

So, with Wrynn back and the Outlands threat nuetralized (it turns out that we were, in fact, prepared), everyone turns their attention back to where it belongs - Arthas, the Lich King. Did we mention that huge undead army he has? That might be more of a threat than crazy ol' Illidan Stormrage, but I digress. Both the Alliance and Horde both gear up to take on Arthas and shut him down for good. At first, things seem fairly chill between the two factions given their previous hostilities - Saurfang manages to keep a fairly tight leash on Garrosh Hellscream and Bolivar is prepared to accept that the Horde just might be willing to fight with the Alliance rather than against it this time. However, the real threat to both expeditions is not the Lich King himself, but rather a dangerous element of the Forsaken - Putress, and the Royal Apothecary society want revenge on the Scourge just as much as everyone else in Azeroth does, but also want to take it to the next level. Varimathras, the Dread Lord who bowed in fealty to Sylvanas Windrunner, Banshee Queen of the Forsaken, convinces Putress to create a new strain of the plague that caused the Scourge in Lordaeron, but this one should work on both the living AND the dead. Even Sylvanas has no clue of her servant's treachery, and Putress had proven to be an apt help during the Second Plague that had been unleashed on Azeroth a mere month before the expeditions were to begin - there was no reason to suspect that he might be working for some other cause than her vengeance against Arthas and Ner'zhul. The scene was set for the grand betrayal, and there would be no warning at all.

The scene at the Wrathgate: Bolivar and the Alliance make the inital charge against Angra'thar, followed shortly by Saurfang the Younger and the Horde. Eventually the Scourge's losses against both armies cooperating together become unnaceptable to the Lich King, and he makes a grand entrance in response to Bolivar's challenge. Saurfang the Younger, in a brash move to end the war before it really even began, charged the Lich King, only to have his father's armor be no protection against Arthas and Ner'zhul's combined might: he is cut down, and his soul is stolen before the eyes of the Alliance and Horde. Bolivar issues a second challenge, but before he can charge in to face the Lich, he is interrupted by Putress' own challenge, and is probably one of the best delivered lines in Warcraft's history.

"Did you think WE had forgotten? Did you think WE had forgiven?"

With these words, Putress launches his grand rebellion, and the attack couldn't possibly have been more effective. Bolivar and the Horde/Alliance combined force are almost instantly wiped out, even Arthas is forced to flee beck into Icecrown Citadel to retreat. The Red Dragonflight, led by Alexstrasza the Life-Binder (Aspect of Life on Azeroth) swooped in to purge the plague from the field of battle and provide what support they can to both sides. Unfortunately, they are much too late. The damage has been done.

Now, this seems like an awful lot of plot for me to work up to as to why I don't like Wrynn, isn't it? We're getting there, slowly but surely, I promise.

On both sides, instant martial law is declared. As the Heroes of Azeroth return from their outposts in Borean Tundra, the Shield of Bolivar has been presented to Wrynn, with a message from Alextrasza herself:

Our fate is emblazoned upon our souls at birth. Bolvar's fall, while tragic, was unavoidable. All that you can do now is honor your hero, . Collect Bolvar's shield from the field of battle and return it to your king. When you present the shield to Varian, tell him this: "All is not lost. From the ashes of the fallen will rise a force that will unite nations and purge the evil from this world."

He mustn't lose faith. Go now, . Your people need a hero. They need you. (WoWwiki)

Variann receives his old friend's shield. Members of the Horde can probably afford him at least some room for grief - Bolivar had kept the Alliance and Stormwind from falling apart in Variann's absence. In a time of darkness for Variann, Bolivar had been there to keep the faith alive. Here, however, is where things go terribly wrong. Variann's response to Alexstrasza:

The Dragon Queen is right, . All is not lost. I will be the force that rises from the ashes and I will purge the evil of the Horde from this world. The deaths of our brothers and sisters will not have been in vain. (WoWwiki) Variann isn't entirely insane, not yet, so Jaina Proudmoore is sent to find out just what in the hell had happened on the Horde side. Thrall responds that the Undercity is entirely lost to the Horde. At the same time that Putress had betrayed them at the Wrathgate, Varimathras had taken a large force of the Forsaken and summoned up a host of demons who rampaged the city. Outside of Orgrimmar, a flood of refugees stands outside the gates, begging for shelter. Jaina bids farewell to her old ally, hoping that the next time they meet it will be as allies. When hearing of the news, Variann declares that the war on the Horde will begin with the reclaiming of the ruins of Lordaeron for the Alliance.

And so the Battle for the Undercity begins. On the Horde side, Thrall and Sylvanas work their way from the entrance of the city to the throne room, while Variann and Jaina work their way from the sewers to do the same. Eventually, T+S kill Varimathras and reclaim the throne room for the Horde, while V+J kill Putress and end up arriving in the throne room about a minute after the Horde side does. Variann then makes his feelings about Thrall clear:

"I was away for too long. My absence cost us the lives of some of our greatest heroes. Trash like you and this evil witch were allowed to roam free -- unchecked. The time has come to make things right. To disband your treacherous kingdom of murderers and thieves. Putress was the first strike. Many more will come. I've waited a long time for this, Thrall. For every time I was thrown into one of your damned arenas... for every time I killed a green-skinned aberration like you... I could only think of one thing. What our world could be without you and your twisted Horde... It ends now, Warchief" (WoWwiki)

Let's line up the list of grievances Variann has with the Horde, as a sort of re-cap of what we've seen so far:
1) He holds Thrall responsible for his imprisonment in the Arenas - something Thrall had no clue about or any control over. There are darker elements to the Horde, like the Shattered Hand, that Thrall can't entirely control when they believe they are acting in the "Horde's best interest".
2) He also holds the Orcs responsible for the destruction of Stormwind at the end of the first war. While it is true that the Horde - specifically the Orcs - did this, he fails to recognize that the Horde is very, very different from what it was then. Even with the darkest side of the Horde revealed in BftU, there is no way that the blame can fall upon the newest generation of orcs for what Hellscream and the Shadow Council did, much less the Trolls, Tauren, Forsaken, and Blood Elves did.
3) He holds Thrall personally responsible for the death of Bolvar: This is just rediculous. It's pretty clear that the side of the Horde that didn't join with Varimathras is a clear majority over those that did. THEY are the ones that killed Bolvar and Saurfang, not Thrall. And yet, Wrynn believes that the Horde is made up purely by villains - again, this was true of the OLD HORDE, not the new one; not the one that united with the Alliance to save Azeroth from Kil'jaeden at the Sunwell, not the one that united with the Alliance to save the World Tree at Mount Hyjal.

Variann is trapped in the past. A relic of the hatred of the Alliance for the Orcs - the side that casted out Kael'thas and almost forced him into the hands of the Naga and Illidan. The side that attacked Durotar after nearly a year of peace after the Battle for Mount Hyjal. He clearly represents the dark side (*Darth Vader breathing*) of the Alliance - and will almost certainly need to be put down, if not by the Horde, then certainly by the Alliance themselves.

And now, to analyze him as a plot device!
Variann is kind of a Mary Sue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue), but then again so are many of Azeroth's main characters. His actions at the Battle for the Undercity show that not only can the Alliance be serious badasses when it comes to killing stuff (something they sort of lacked since Uther died and Arthas switched to the Undead), but that they can also be baaaaaaaaaad. Generally in Warcraft lore, the Orcs (as the Old Horde) were the bad guys, ripping open dimensional portals into the good old US of Stormwind and generally wrecking the place with their nasty warlocks. When Thrall became the hero of the orcs in Warcraft III however, they needed a new bad guy to fight against - so up comes the Ultra-Sue, Arthas. However, that can't last forever - just as we killed Illidan, eventually we will kill Arthas. Variann will allow the plot to move forward beyond just going out into the Twisting Nether to kill Sargeras (wherever the hell he is) or into the ocean to kill Azshara (because everyone just LOVES to kill naga). Wrynn also currently acts as a foil to the Argent Crusade and Tirion Fordring: where the Crusade wants the races of Azeroth to unite in common defense, Wrynn wants to smash the Horde and then start worrying about Northrend. He also provides a source of dramatic tension to Player vs. Player environments, which was sort of petering out at the end of the Burning Crusade: why are we stealing their flag again? So what purpose does owning this floating rock do? Now players have a reason to really hate the other side (Alliance players may even hate their own side at this point, and that's part of it too).

However... one question remains to be answered. Did Variann do this himself? Could there be an outside influence on him, forcing him to make horrible decisions for the fate of Azeroth? Right now, we have no idea whether this is all his idea or...

SOMETHING ELSE...

TO BE CONTINUED!

Chapter One, Page 1 - The Introduction and Table of Contents

2009-03-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hey there, welcome to the Tome of the Light! My name's Ancro, and I'll be writing this... uh... well, TOME (hopefully) about World of Warcraft news, lore, classes, and anything else that comes to my mind.

Just so that you can have a little snapshot of me as we get started in here, I'll introduce all of my characters to you.

Ancro: Blood Elf Paladin (Holy)
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Kul+Tiras&n=Ancro
Ancro was my very first real main in the World of Warcraft. He got started around two weeks after the Burning Crusade first came out, and I've been playing Horde-side characters ever since. As all Paladins tend to do when leveling, he started as Retribution and worked his way up to about level 60 before he respec'd over to Protection to tank for Is Probably Drunk. He worked his way through Karazhan, Gruul, and the very first boss of Zul'Aman before switching over to Kharma. From there, he tanked all the way up to SSC's The Lurker Below and TK's Al'ar before patch 3.0.3 hit, and after that tanked everything in Black Temple all the way up to Illidari Council before Wrath of the Lich King came out. For the first couple of months, Ancro got put aside as I worked on Cahlbraun (more about him later), until Kharma split in February of 2009 and I started working on him to tank for my new guild, Mulligan. However, it turned out that we needed a healer more than we needed another tank, so Ancro is now fully geared out for being Holy spec. As him, I've cleared everything in 10 man raids (Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum Sarth+1D, Vault of Archavon, and Eye of Eternity), as well as everything in 25s (except Malygos). Before anyone makes fun of my PvP rating on the Armory page... well, maybe I deserve it. I'm horrible at PvP, don't expect me to talk about it much. :P

Cahlbraun - Blood Elf Death Knight (Frost)
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Kul+Tiras&n=Cahlbraun
Cahlbraun initially started out as a response to being burned out with tanking. As Kharma had more than enough tanks that were going to level to 80 at the beginning of Wrath, I decided that I would level a Death Knight to provide the guild with it's unique abilities (and interesting playstyle). Cahl was my very first level 80 toon - and from the beginning of Wrath until February, Death Knights were easily my most favored class in the game. Now, he's mostly relegated to doing daily quests if I need the gold or for helping with Power Sparks on Malygos.

The Rest of the Crew
I have probably one of the world's worst cases of the condition known as Alt-itis. With Ancro and Cahlbraun included, I have five characters at higher than level 70 that don't get to see a lot of play, plus a number of leveling toons that I pick up whenever I'm not raiding or in the mood to grind out gold. However, at some point I might pick them back up, so here are their names and classes:
Raeln - 70 Blood Elf Priest (Shadow) - Yes, I like Blood Elves for casters.
Temporus - 74 Blood Elf Mage (Fire/Pre-FFB) - Did I mention I like Blood Elves?
Sinhazard - 70 Orc Shaman (Elemental) - The most played out of any of the alts, since he did raiding back in BC, but I haven't picked him up since they nerfed my precious lightning bolt.
Weren - 33 Troll Rogue (Combat) - I was (and still am) rather jealous of the DPS that a guildie of mine can put out at this class, and I figured I would learn more about them by playing one.
Lekhan - 24 Undead Warlock (Affliction) - Another guildie of mine pointed me out to the complexity of this class, so I decided to try it out one afternoon.
Improvabull - 12 Tauren Druid (Balance) - Because I want to be an Owl sometimes. IS THAT SO WRONG?!

Anyway, wow, the characters portion took up a lot of space, I guess I'd better get back to telling you what this blog is about! Mainly what I'm going to do here is write whatever comes to my mind at any given time while playing WoW - if someone says something interesting about a character or a place, I'll probably write something about that. Any posts that are about the World and the people who live in it will be called Chapter 2. Sometimes I'll want to write about the classes themselves, either as a guide or personal thoughts on them, those will be contained in Chapter 3. Raiding and Instance guides will be in Chapter 4. Finally, whenever I have a personal thought about that mysterious place called The Real World, I'll put those in Chapter 5.

Great, now that I've established that, let's get down to the real meat of this boo- er, Blog!

Happy Reading!