Dead is Dead

My first trip to the Frozen Throne was back in March with my 10-man team. My second trip was in May, this time with my 25-man team. Both journeys ended not in defeat, but rather in retreat. For various reason both the 10-man and 25-man teams disbanded before defeating the Lich King. In fact both teams failed to put in more than one night's worth of work on him.



Fortunately I regrouped, and last week my new 10-man team entered Icecrown Citadel and proceeded to obliterate the place. Only Sindragosa and the Lich King gave us any sort of trouble, but in the end we were victorious. I can now visit the fountain in Dalaran and watch the video with a sense that I participated in making those events happen.

I still hope to go back and defeat Arthas in 25-man, but dead is dead and I'm happy to have my Kingslayer title. I'll be switching it back to Brewmaster soon though ;) .

The king is dead and I need a beer.

Happy Hunting!

Reservation Please...

Operator: "Icecrown Citadel, how may I direct your call."

Me: "Reservations please."

Operator: "One moment while I connect you."

*muzak version of Lament of the Highborn plays*

Operator: "Reservations, how may I help you?"

Me: "I'd like to make a reservation to see the Lich King this Thursday at 8pm."

Operator: "Let me see if he's available."

*keyboard and mouse clicks in the background*

Operator: "Yes he's available at that time. Your name please?"

Me: "Darkbrew."

Operator: "Okay Mr. Darkbrew, how many in your party?"

Me: "Mr. Darkbrew!? I feel like my father. Um, there will be eleven of us."

Operator: "I'm sorry we only accept reservations for parties of ten or 25."

Me: "Oh, but I was told that Highlord Tirion Fordring could join us."

Operator: "Ah, the Highlord has as standing reservation with us. He will be there."

Me: "Will he have the Ashbringer?"

Operator: "Yes, and he'll be wearing thermal underwear too."

Operator: "Okay you're all set. I have you down for Thursday, 8pm, party of ten. Will you have a Discipline Priest in your party?"

Me: "No, but we will have Wild Growth."

Operator: "Wild Growth?"

Me: "It's an inside joke."

Operator: "When you enter the Citadel proceed to the Upper Spire and head straight across the bridge to the center. You will access the Frozen Throne from there. Just be mindful of any Valkyries that might be flying around the bridge. Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

Me: "Nope, I think I'm good to go."

Operator: "Very well then. Have fun storming the castle!"

And with that, it looks like our ten-man team will finally get to see the Lich King. Twenty-five is the real prize for me, but I am so looking forward to this.

Echoes of Doom: A Look Back

I'm a couple of days late on this one, but oh well.  Today I'm going to take a quick trip down memory lane, for it was on October 14, 2008 that patch 3.0.2 Echoes of Doom was launched.  This of course was the pre-cursor to Wrath of the Lich King.

It's hard to believe that it's been a year already, but here we are. Some of the general highlights included,

• The Achievement system
• The Barber Shop
• 51 point talents
• Stormwind Harbor
• In-game calendar
• Mount and Pet changes
• Massive nerf of existing raid bosses

Overall hunters received one of the biggest overhauls of any class, and we've been evolving (and in some cases devolving) ever since.

Auto shot was fixed so it wasn't clipped by Steady Shot, which meant we could throw away our silly spam macros.  We got the awesome Kill Shot, and the not so awesome Freezing Arrow.

We got additional stable slots and pets got their talent trees.  That meant no more running around taming throw away pets just to learn a new rank of Bite.

The patch introduced exotic pets and Beast Masters smiled as the stomp, stomp, stomp of their Devilsaurs and Core Hounds literally shook the screens of anyone around them.

Speaking of Core Hounds who doesn't remember standing in line to tame the Kurken in the cave by Azuremyst Isle, or having a go at taming Uvuros.

Of course it was also the birth of Gorilladin and the short-lived Rhino Bowling.  I remember running down to Un'Goro and taming Lightbrew, the white gorilla who fought by my side as I leveled in the snows of Northrend.

It's been a fun and very fast moving year of this expansion, and I'm amazed at how much fun I'm continuing to have playing my hunter.  The content in Outland seemed to get old very fast, but for some reason Northrend still seems new fresh.  Maybe when I've pried Frostmourne from Artha's cold dead hands will it start to get old, but I doubt it.

Happy Hunting!