My apologies, folks! I've been incredibly sick the past week or so (Don't worry, it isn't the Swine Flu :P) and bundle that up with work and school and time can really get away from you.

However, I'm back and kicking! Lot's of things to talk about, so keep checkin' back!

~Aenorn

Sorry, but there won't be a new post until tomorrow, as today was the drive back home :) I'll make sure to spice things up tomorrow to make up for it though!

~Aenorn

It's a question I ask myself from time to time. I'm sure there are others that feel the same way, but how new is new content? We've seen Ulduar and The Argent Tournament all over MMO-Champion and the PTR for the past few months, anything from the loot that drops to videos/strategies of the boss fights, and I can't help but wonder how much more of a challenge things would be without the PTR. In a good way I mean.


I know that the PTRs are there for a reason, to test the content before it comes out to fix any bugs and make sure it's ready, but personally I think it'd feel much more epic seeing all this for the first time when it's actually released. Having to figure out the strategies yourself instead of just heading over to the forums and reading up how to do the fight right away. Now of course anyone could simply ignore all the information that goes up about the PTRs, but that would put them at a disadvantage when it comes to clearing content the fastest, world firsts, etc. Well if the information wasn't released to anyone wouldn't they be at a disadvantage anyway? No. Everyone would be on the same leveling, figuring out the fights for the first time when they're first released. Seeing the new armor/weapon models when they actually drop for you.

Now of course if Blizzard ever did this they would have to find some other way to test the content before it's released. They had the PTRs up for a month or two and still had a few bugs when the patch went live, so there's some issues that would be needed to overcome.

It would also mean that we wouldn't be seeing 14 boss raid instances cleared in less than 24 hours. Even if it only took a day longer, this is months of content that's being absolutely blown through. Yes, yes I know there's still 1 more boss in Ulduar.

This has it's ups and downs, and I'm sure plenty of people are happy with being able to hop in there and follow what's been written down on paper, but I think it'd put a better feel and more of a challenge into raiding.

~Aenorn

Sorry, folks! Due to a looooong drive from Texas to Nashville Tennessee I won't be posting anything tonight. Such a long trip, and I'm so tired. Sorry, but expect something interesting tomorrow!

Vodka wasn't far behind Ensidia in the Ulduar train, with the US First kill and World 2nd. Glad EU isn't stomping all over us for World firsts this time. Congrats, Vodka!

Val'anyr Hammer of Ancient Kings is a new Legendary item, and the first one added in Wrath. Though the stats are not yet known, it's expected to be only available in a healing version.

The hammer is created by combining 30 Shattered Fragments of Val'anyr, which drop from most bosses in Ulduar-25, and completing a quest line, much like how Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian was created by combining 30 Splinters of Atiesh from Naxxramas-40 (Pre-BC). Although Atiesh was available in many different fashions, Val'anyr is believed to be only available to healers because the Fragments of Val'anyr that are combined to create this weapon are only usable by Paladins, Priests, Shamans and Druids. Of course it seems rather obvious that it will be healer specific as of the class choices Blizzard has placed on the Fragments, but it's never good to assume! We all know what happens when you do that >:D



Also, the equip effect on the mace is for healers. Did I forget to mention that?

Val'anyr Hammer of Ancient Kings - Equip Effect: Your healing spells have a chance to cause Blessing of Ancient Kings for 15 seconds allowing your heals to shield the target absorbing damage equal to 15% of the amount healed.

Now some of you may be thinking "Ugh, why do the caster weapons always require you to gather so many pieces of this stuff!" which I myself am thinking to be honest :) In Burning Crusade Physical DPS got their Legendary weapons off of drops, but I (along with many others) personally think that makes them feel less epic. I'd rather do a long, awesome quest line or work incredibly hard to get 30 pieces of something to make this amazing weapon than by just getting it off of a boss, which anyone who get's lucky and can down that boss can do. Getting all these pieces then completing the quests that are required takes dedication from both you and your guild and I think this is the way Legendary items should be aquired.

~Aenorn

At level 62 I was able to afford my Epic Mount on my Paladin! :D I know I haven't posted an actual relevant topic in a day or so, and I promise the next one will be, but I just had to share this with you guys :)

Yogg-Saron World First Kill by Ensidia


There you have it folks! Ensidia takes the Gold (medal that is).

Congratulations!

Finally got my Paladin to 58 last night, and made my way through the dark portal! He's 60 now and happy to be in Hellfire, smacking -everything- with Exorcism now that it can be used on all mobs (and critically hits undead and demons). Spending around 75 gold on level 60 spells knocked me out of the running for getting my mount at 61, but I'm not too worried about it. I'm just ready to get this guy to 80 and hit up Ulduar!


Speaking of Ulduar, if you send me screenshots of boss downings, achievements, or just your experience in the instance I may post it on the front page! Also be sure to send me your character, server, and guild name as well. You can e-mail me at Lordsage77@Gmail.com

Good luck!

~Aenorn

Finally! There you have it folks!

Not all servers are back up yet, but some are and I was actually able to log on! Good luck to you all in Ulduar when your realms aren't up! I'll be sure to let you all know when mine is and show you a screenshot of my swimming pony! :D

Update Apparently Blizzard ran into some problems while bringing the servers back up, they will try to do the best they can at getting them up within the next 2 to 3 hours. I don't mean to be a critic but really, you'd think after so many years Blizzard would learn to patch their game. I know it's tough but please, I think we deserve 1 large patch that takes less than an entire day of teasing us "Maybe it'll be up in an hour" over an over again.

~Aenorn

ULDUAR

Ulduar is a new raid instance in Northrend that is being released with patch 3.1. It features Tier 8 armor sets, a new Legendary spell caster mace, new epic non-set items, new instance specific achievements, and 14 new bosses including both Normal (10), and Heroic (25) settings and a new Hard Mode which you can choose to activate on each boss. Players will start in the outer part of the instance and work their way inside by killing trash mobs and bosses.

It serves as the prison of the Old God Yogg-Saron as well as the current residence of most of the titanic watchers who have fallen under his influence

"Beneath ancient Ulduar, the Old God of death lies, whispering.... Tread carefully, or its prison will become your tomb."

Flame Leviathan

Flame Leviathan is an incredibly unique fight, as it requires you to use vehicles. At the beginning players will be able to choose from a number of vehicles, each with different abilities. The Health of these vehicles depends not on your stamina, but on your average item level. In retrospect a Priest could possibly tank better than a Warrior on this fight, depending on what gear they have.

Destroying the towers in the area prior to the fight will issue Flame Leviathan be set on Hard Mode. Each tower that is destroyed will give the Flame Leviathan an ability, this ability depends on which tower is destroyed.


Ignis the Furnace Master

The Ignis encounter begins as a general tank and spank. He uses an ability called Flame Jets, which will lock anyone casting out of that spell school for 8 seconds so casters should pay close attention. He will periodically charge random players and place them in the slag pot connected to his stomach, whoever this is should be paid attention to, as it causes a mean DoT.

Throughout the fight, Ignis will begin to activate Iron Constructs. He will gain a 20% damage increase for each of these that are alive. The strategy is to drag them through the Scorch areas until they are Molten. They can be rooted. Once they're molten you should then drag them to one of the water pools. Once there, they will begin to turn Brittle, this causes them to have a 50% higher chance of being critically hit and they will be shattered (killed) if they're hit for over 5000 with a single ability.


Razorscale

Razorscale is the third boss encounter in Ulduar, and is an Ironbound Proto Drake that flies over the Razorscale's Aerie, across from the Colossal Forge. It seems Razorscale is the product of Loken's plans with Veranus.

Razorscale is in the most part a typical old school Dragon fight, an air phase and a ground phase. You must speak with the Expedition Commander to begin the encounter. The fight begins with Razorscale in the air, you'll be protecting the Expedition Dwarfs as they repair the harpoons, it's pretty straight forward: Kill the adds, and stay out of the fire. The harpoons will be repaired one at a time, and once they are they become usable. You'll need to fire all of them to bring her to the ground.

Once she is out of the air she will be stunned for a several seconds, your raid should be DPSing her at this point. After the stun wears off she will return to the air and begin the air phase again.

At 50% Razorscale will land permanently and should be tanked facing away from the group. She will do an AoE knock back during the fight and inflict the Flame Buffet debuff. The DPS should be going all out to defeat her before Flame Buffet causes the tank to be slaughtered.


XT-002 Deconstructor

XT-002 Deconstructor is the fourth encounter in Ulduar. He directly blocks the entrance into the lower level of Ulduar in the Scrapyard.

This fight is mostly a tank and spank encounter. XT-002 should be tanked at the bottom of the stairs in his area. All Ranged classes and Healers should stay together in a tight group, when someone gets hit with Gravity Well or Light Bomb, that person should immediately move away from the group to minimize damage, especially in the case of Gravity Well. Healers need to watch out for Tympanic Tantrum and make sure everyone in the raid is decently healed.

Once XT-200 reaches 75% he will stop attacking and spawn adds. XS-013 will heal him if they reach him, so these are top priority. XE-321 Boombots explode upon reaching 50% health, dealing damage to any players or NPCs in range. This can be an effective method for taking out Scrapbots but take care to make sure that none slip past and heal XT-002.XM-024 Pummelers are standard adds which should be off tanked and DPSed down once Scrapbots and Boombots have been taken care of. Simply rinse and repeat until dead. He will repeat this phase at both 50 and 25%.

To activate XT-200 Hard Mode, during the add phase you can click on XT-200 to expose his heart, which can be killed. Once the heart is killed his health and damage will be increased by 25% and he will be fully healed.


This guide will be continued with the inner bosses of Ulduar in time. Until then, good luck! You can find me swimming on my mount in Stormwind ~_^

~Aenorn

Fight club will be a weekly guide featuring a new instance each Monday. This week is Obsidian Sanctum 10, though there isn't much difference between 10 and 25. Just more people. Let's get started!

Shadron

Shadron has a few abilities, nothing too tough though. He does an ability called Shadow Fissure which deals massive damage to anyone standing in it, it's a large blue circle under your feet so if you see it get the heck out of there! He also does Shadow Breath which is a frontal AoE ability. Only the tank should be standing in front of him. Every 60 seconds Shadron will open a Twilight Portal, all members of the raid except the tank and 1 healer should go through this. Inside you'll find an add, once it's dead you will be sent back to the regular fight to continue killing Shadron.

Tenebron

Tenebron also has Shadow Fissure, and Twilight Breath so watch out for those. In this fight, she will hatch her eggs every 60 seconds. When this happens, have a tank pick them all up quickly and everyone else AoE them down. It's a pretty easy fight, and the Twilight Portal can be ignored.

Vesperon

Once again, Vesperon also has Shadow Fissure and Twilight breath. When he opens his Twilight Portal he will also put a buff on himself called Twilight Torment. Everyone but the tank and a healer should go through the portal, at this time the tank should stop attacking Vesperon. Once inside the portal kill the add, you're then transported back out to continue the fight.

Sartharion

Sartharion is the main boss of Obsidian Sanctum and the only one that drops loot. You'll start the fight by having the tank run in, aggro Sartharion, and then pull him toward the front left corner, but not all the way. Have a good few yards between you and the corner.

Now Sartharion is extremely easy as long as everyone knows what's going on. Of course he is a dragon, which means he has Cleave, Tail Lash,and Flame Breath so everyone but the tank should be beside him. The ability that you need to watch out for is Flame Wave. What this does is sends a giant tidal wave of lava from either the left or right side of the island. The wave has a large opening in it and is very easy to avoid, the reason your tank brought Sartharion toward the left corner is because when the wave comes from the left that's where the opening will be. If it comes from the right it will be on the far end of the island. My guild always called out 'Down' for left wave, and 'Up' for right wave.

Sartharion also sends out adds called Lava Blazes An off-tank should pick these up right away, and most DPS (or just a few people that can do a descent AoE) should immediately switch to these adds, because if they are it by a Flame Wave they become enraged, which is bad. After they're gone, it's back to Sartharion. All of this will happen repeatedly throughout the fight and that's all there is too it. Not many things happening and they happen slow enough to easily deal with them all.

So with 3.1 dual specs will be introduced. For a one time fee of 1000 gold you can set up a second build, which you can switch to on your every whim, well while you aren't in combat at least. Of course this will help out in both the Raiding in PvP aspects, whether you're switching between tank and healer to better your raid or switching from your PvE build to your PvP build, it introduces something incredibly useful for everyone.

This also poses an issue though, who should be able to roll on what gear? That's for your guild to decide, but it can be a tough one to get around. What it can end up boiling down to is: "But I can use that for my other spec!" This can cause fights in-between guild mates, cause the ninja rates to go up in PuGs, and potentially cause large issues within your guild. The Guild Leader and Officers will have to deal with it with both respect (as to not make the player angry) and intelligence (so there are no dumb decisions being made)

In my personal opinion people should be dealt gear based on their role that fight. If someone tanks one boss, then heals for the next, they should be able to roll on tanking gear on the first (but not the second) and healing gear for the second (but not the first) Now who plays what role depends on your raid composition and the fight, and of course (example) if no tank needs the tanking item that dropped then the Guild Leader or Officers can decide who will be allowed to roll on it. All of this can cause confusion, and arguments within a guild that doesn't have a descent loot structure, and even some that distribute their loot with great ability.

All in all, Dual Specs are a huge change and honestly they'll bring more help than they will problems, but be sure to handle those problems wisely. Good luck!

~Aenorn

With 3.1 so close, plenty of people already have their secondary spec worked out and ready to be implemented right away. Some have already gotten full sets of gear for their new build and are ready to hit Ulduar hard.

There is some debate about how challenging Ulduar is and how quickly it will be cleared. I imagine Ensidia ( Number 1 world wide guild ) will clear it on all difficulty settings in 1 night, as will other guilds. I'll still be leveling my Paladin, probably somewhere in Outland, so I won't get to experience Ulduar right away, and I'm fine with that.


3.1 will also be introducing plenty of other things such as new non-combat pets, new mounts, The Argent Tournament, and more. The first thing I'll be doing is hopping in the lake on my mount. Swimming mounts is just the thing this game needed! *Que internet sarcasm*

Some people complain that Blizzard is making the game too casual or too easy, others are happy they are able to see end-game raiding at all. There has certainly been some debate on the subject, and I take neither side. I think Blizzard is doing their job, which is tuning the game toward all players and every playstyle, and doing it well. With Ulduar, there will be 'Hard Modes' that you can choose to either activate or not. This gives hardcore players the chance to add some difficulty to a fight, or casual players to get it done easier and quicker. Of course Casual players can complete the 'Hard Modes' as well, it's simply a matter of skill.

What will you be doing as soon as the patch hits? Paying the 1000 gold for your dual spec? Hitting Ulduar 25 Hard Mode up, or maybe just going for the 10 man and keeping it simple first? I'll stick with my swimming mounts and be happy with it for now, as soon as I get my account back I'll be seeing you all in Ulduar though! (Maybe Icecrown by then..)

~Aenorn

Now WoW is a great game, I used to be absolutely addicted to it. I would play 12-14 hours a day and hardly leave my room, no joke. I became somewhat of a hermit, my desk was covered in Dr. Pepper cans and paper plates, I had my TV set right next to my Computer so I could be entertained while I played, I went to bed at 3:00 AM and woke up at 1:00 in the afternoon. Most couldn't imagine living like that, but once you start you get used to it. It becomes a lifestyle.

WoW is in a sense a drug. It's get's you hooked so badly that it's hard to stop. Even Blizzard has a loading screen tip telling you to take all things in moderation, even WoW. I play only a few hours a day, but when I do, I play Hardcore.

You may be playing to much WoW if:

-You're sleeping schedule is off
.-You take off work to play.
-You automatically decline invitations to events because of a raid.
-You eat dinner at your desk instead of with your family
-You use online terms such as 'lol' or 'rofl' in real sentences.
-You put schoolwork off until the day it's do, because you're busy farming mats.
-You have too many items on your desk (Cans, food, etc.)
-You log onto WoW instead of hanging out with friends
-You failed an exam because you were raiding till 4:00 AM the night before
-You ignore your girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse because something is happening in-game
-You right 'Pwnd' with your fingers on foggy windows
-You sit in Dalaran when there's nothing to do, and no ones on, just because you want to be logged in.
-You have over 4,000 achievement points.
-You have a Travelers Tundra Mammoth.
-You use terms such as 'Wife aggro'.
-You actually think we'll be getting Gnomeregan back anytime soon.
-You're still reading this, because you probably think you spend too much time playing

Family is the most important thing, play WoW when you can and when it doesn't interrupt with real life. Not only can it harm your social life, but your health as well if you get too sucked in. Set times to play, if things get too out of hand have a friend set up your parental controls and not give you the password. Don't let it interfere with your job, schoolwork, or family. Keep on playing, just not if you play too much! Good luck!

~Aenorn

I, Aenorn, have been featured in one of Wowrelief.coms Relief Stories. It a short expert of what I've been through and how it made me look at things differently, and how others should examine their lives and do the same.

You can read the article here, and be sure to check their home page regularly for great content! I reccomend subscribing ~_^

Everyone is always so busy running around, questing, raiding, working on their professions, that no one ever stops and just says. Man, what a beautiful place this is. Take time to enjoy the scenery, look at the amazing work Blizzard put into building this game. They could make it all a bunch of blocks, but instead they decided to put all their effort into this imaginary environment for your enjoyment.

One of the things I do from time to time is just take a flight from one end of the continent to the other. I turn off my UI, set my camera to first person, and hover my finger over the PRTSC button. It really helps me cool down or just think about how amazing this game really is. Plus I get some great desktop shots!

Just think about all the work that goes into putting all the detail into everything we see in this wonderful World of Warcraft. All the man hours, all the developers, having to go back and redo something over and over and over again to get it just right. Making sure everything is shaded correctly, making a lantern have the perfect amount of light coming off of it.

Turn your camera toward the ground and zoom in all the way. You can see the cracks in an old withered stone floor, or the rocks that fill the paths. You can see the footprints you leave behind as you run through the sand, or the snow on the trees in, or the steam coming from a smoke stack, the aura of an enchanted weapon.

The point I'm trying to get across is that this world is huge, it's beautiful, and it's amazing. You get so much more out of the game by just stopping and taking a screenshot of a great view or a cool scene.

Blizzard does an absolutely incredible job at making games, and I hope they keep doing what they're doing. Some of the new weapon and armor models I've seen in Wrath are just amazing, and Northrend is phenomenal!

I encourage everyone to take time out of their busy raiding schedule and really look at everything around you. You'll notice things you've never noticed before, and it just pops right out at you. Much of WoW is art, as much as it's a game to me. There's so much beauty to be seen that everyone should get a chance to experience it. I wish you all luck in your journeys, and if you find something breathtaking don't hesitate to send it to me, I'd love to see it!

~Aenorn

Maybe I'm the only one who's noticed (or cares) but there seems to be a lack of chests in Northrend. They seemed to have faded into the distance, even in Burning Crusade there were fewer than in Azeroth.


What ever happened to those happy times where you'd be running Scarlet Monastery and open a chest only to find a blue item staring you in the face? You'd cheer, and everyone would roll on it, someone would ninja it, quit the group, and the next day you'd see it on the AH. Where did those good times go?

Chests were never a huge part of the game, and certainly aren't now. The only chest anyone opens nowadays contains boss loot, there's no "Chest over here" "'Player Name' Has Died." anymore and I miss it! Even if the chests contained mediocre loot and crafting items, I still loved to open' em! They should be a part of any MMO!

Wheres my Ice Cold Milk, Blizzard!?

Just hit 80 and not sure what addons you need to have on your Death Knight to be the most effective tank/DPSer when you begin raiding? Fret not! Here I've compiled a list of addons that you should have, might want, and ones that are just plain cool. Let's jump in, shall we?

DeathKnight.Info Runes
Must Have

DeathKnight.Info Runes is a Rune Timer, which you can find all over the place. The difference here is that it also tracks your diseases. It even shows you if Pestilence is up on nearby targets or not. The addon has a nice looking Rune Sword as a tracker (see image above) and it's fully sizable, rotatable, and movable. Definitely a must have.

Face Smasher
Must Have (maybe)

The reason I say maybe is because this is a great addon, but in all honestly it takes the fun out of it, for me anyway. What Face Smasher does is analyzes your runes, and runic power. It then decides for you what you should cast, and immediately puts it on the screen for you to click. This is an incredibly useful addon but makes me feel like I'm beginning to let the game do my job for me. If you are trying to get the most out of your character then I reccomend this.

Quiet that Horse!
Just plain cool

For those of you that still ride your Deathcharger, this ones for you! This changes the annoying sound of your mount into a 'subdued, but still atmospheric roll of muted thunder' I believe he called it!

Nonce
Just plain cool

Though it can also be helpful as well! Nonce displays a colored aura around your screen to show you what presence you are in (Frost, Blood, or Unholy) The aura looks pretty spiffy, but can get annoying sometimes. It does help to remember to switch auras though! I can't count how many times if needed to OT something so I switch into Frost Presence, and then I forget to switch back to Blood/Unholy the rest of the instance. Cool, and possibly useful mod to have.

Death Knight Alert
Must Have

Death Knight Alert shows a flash and/or a sound effect every time a talent procs a buff that has a limited timer on it. This is a must have if you want to get the most out of your build.

These are all the Death Knight specific addons that I reccomend, however, these are not the only ones you should have. Raiding, Tanking, Threat Meters, Damage meters. There are many many other addons out there that will help you and your group. For more addons head on over to Curse.com

So when it comes to tanking, both Paladins and Death Knights are effective. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, and one strength they share is that of AoE tanking. Granted with Crowd Control AoE tanking is not going to be used every pull, but there are some pulls where it just needs to be used, or possibly just to liven things up! (I'm not telling you to pull a Leeroy :D) Here I'll be comparing the differences, high points, and low points, of each Class.

DEATH KNIGHTS

Death and Decay - A great ability, this generates incredible amounts of threat as well as dealing descent damage. You'll generally want to lay this down when the mobs are in place and they won't be running out of it, as it has a 30 second cooldown and only lasts for 10. Certainly one of the best abilities in your arsenal. I would consider slotting in a Glyph of Death and Decay.

Pestilence - Pestilence is currently used to spread your diseases, with a bit of damage added when it hits. In patch 3.1 Pestilence itself causes no damage, only applies your diseases to the enemies nearest your target. Glyph of Pestilence is a give or take, increasing the radius of it by 5 yards can end you up in a good or bad situation.

Blood Boil - A pure damage dealing ability, it deals X damage to all targets within 30 yards that have diseases on them, however, in 3.1 it will deal damage to all targets within 30 yards even if they don't have a disease on them. It will deal extra damage for each disease on the targets. This ability should generally be used after Pestilence.

Howling Blast - Deals X amount of damage to all enemies within 10 yards of your target, but it deals double the damage if they are infected with Frost Fever. Once again you should try to use this mainly after you've used Pestilence.

Unholy Blight - Deals X amount of damage to all enemies within 10 yards of you every second for 20 seconds. Once again, another GREAT ability if you have it. It deals amazing damage, which in turn causes high threat.

That about sums up the AoE abilities of the Death Knight. Next I'll talk about the Paladin AoE abilities.

PALADINS

Consecration - The Paladins main AoE ability. It consecrates the ground beneath you, damaging anyone that walks upon it. The effect lasts 8 seconds and the cooldown of the ability itself is also 8 seconds. This combined with Righteous Fury can produce massive amounts of threat.

Avenger's Shield - A range ability from the Protection tree that hits up to 3 targets. Extremely useful for pulls as Paladins don't have any other source of ranged attack.

Hammer of the Righteous - A great melee range AoE attack. This ability hits your target, plus 2 others near it for 4 times your main hand weapon damage per second as Holy damage.

Holy Wrath - A situational attack, this will certainly help you out a lot when you're tanking Naxxramas but otherwise you will hardly be using it. It sends bolts of holy power in all directions, causing X amount of Holy damage and stunning all Undead and Demon targets within 10 yds for 3 sec.

These are the Paladin AoE abilities you will most likely be using if you are ever called upon to do so.

CONCLUSION

Death Knights certainly have more abilities in their arsenal that will do full, AoE Damage to all targets around them. Most of the Paladins attacks hit only around 3 targets, but their main AoE ability can be used repeatedly and generates high amounts of threat. All in all, bring the player not the class. If you have 2 Players of the exact same skill and gear level, one a Death Knight, one a Paladin, I'd say they'd be about equal. It may not be the answer you're looking for but it's what I'm willing to give and what I think makes the most sense. Good luck!

~Aenorn

Grab yourself a shirt at the official store!

I just realized that I've completely forgotten to introduce myself to you all! There's a story that goes along with my introduction so bare with me as I try to tell it in the least mind numbing way possible.

I'm Aenorn, I've been playing World of Warcraft since just a few months after it was released, and play on the Dentarg server. I fell in love with it immediately and have been a hardcore player ever since. (Here comes the story, saddle up!)

OK so it all started at Blizzcon 2008. If you went you understand what a pain it was trying to get tickets, with the site crashing, going down for maintenance, etc. I was unable to buy my tickets normally because of this, so I entered the drawing. A few weeks went by and in all honesty I had forgotten about it, I figured those who won the drawing had already gotten there tickets by now. I woke up one morning to an email from Blizzard in my inbox telling me that I won the drawing. I was ecstatic to say the least!

Anyway, my experience at Blizzcon was amazing and I can't wait for Blizzcon 09 in August, but I won't bore you with that (At least not today :P) At Blizzcon I received a special edition authenticator, I was fairly excited, as I wasn't able to buy one from the Blizzard Store because they kept going out of stock. Blizzcon happened, I flew back home, I waited for the grueling maintenance to be over so I could log in, put in the code for my big furry bear, and install my authenticator! Eventually I was able to, and everything was fine and dandy.

A few months later Wrath came out. I was 4th in line at the Gamestop midnight release, and anxious to grab my Special Edition Copy! Got it, got home, installed it, played my Warrior a bit in Northrend (With my faithful companion, Frosty, by my side!). After a bit of that I decided to try out a Death Knight. I already had the race decided in my mind, what's more epic than a Gnome Death Knight!? I log in and absolutely love the class. I decide I'll level him to 80, once again a story for another day. I hit 80 15 minutes after the other Gnome Death Knight I was racing against, making me the second on the server. Curse my mother for forcing me to help her with Christmas lights!

Once I hit 80 I found an amazing guild called Montage. They had transferred from another server to Dentarg and had that drive to be the best! We were one of the top guilds on our server, in the top 3 almost all the time! We were second on Alliance to clear Naxx 10 (Ironically by 15 minutes) and we were on top of the world. Having done every single boss with them, our amazing leader, Diemm, decided it was time I was made an officer and the Death Knight class leader. We started raiding 25 mans and having great fun doing it, and then.. it happened

It was December 15th, 2008. A night I'll never forget, the night my home and business caught fire and burned to the ground. I won't go into details, but it was a horrible experience watching everything we had burn in front of our very eyes. You may have guessed already, but if you haven't I'll let you in on it anyway: I didn't grab my authenticator (Or my Starcraft 2 Beta Key! T_T)

Now, it isn't as easy as one might assume to get your authenticator removed from an account. No, answering your security question, giving your date of birth, and credit card number isn't enough to prove you own the account. Though my case is a bit different than most, who can just fax a photo copy of their ID. Being a minor I have to mail a copy of my Birth Certificate, which burned up in the fire. I currently live in Texas, but was born in California, making it much more of a hassle.

Until I get my account up and running again I have reopened my old account (Which had nothing but a level 22 Shaman on it named, Omgiownu) I have since started leveling a Paladin, 54 now. I plan on taking him to 80 and transferring him to my main account. I'm glad I could share my story with you all and I hope you'll join me for more to come!

~Aenorn

So, looking to get inside the head of Aenorn are you? Well it won't be that easy, friends! Hmph.. maybe it will. Well, let's start with classes: I currently play a Paladin, and a Death Knight. Both are on the Dentarg US server, however I also have a 70 Warrior and 70 Hunter who are retired. I'm laid back until it comes to raiding. If you're in a raid with me, don't screw up. You'll regret it. Turning to real life for a moment, I live in Texas. We don't all have accents and wear cowboy boots as most stereotypes suggest. I have a great dog, and 2 wonderful parents. I love to draw, and fiddle with computers and technology, although WoW comes first.

You may break the rest of the walls in my brain down in time, but for now that's all you're gettin'!

You can Email me at Lordsage77@Gmail.com, or you could just leave a comment on a post you like! I read all comments and emails I receive and respond to as many as I can, so don't hesitate to send me something of interest or just some thoughts of your own!

Hello everyone, and welcome to Unholy Hands! I have started this blog to share my adventures and opinions about the World of Warcraft. Paladins and Death Knights will be my main focus, but certainly won't be all I talk about, I'll be posting on just about anything and everything.

I hope you enjoy this blog and keep coming back. I expect this journey to be an exciting and fun one and I'd love for you all to join me! Once again, welcome!