Item Spotlight: Petrified Lichen Guard

Back in the glory days of the Burning Crusade expansion, warrior mechanics were quite different. We did not nearly have the AoE tanking abilities we have now. Our Thunder Clap ability hit a maximum of 5 mobs. Cleaving and constantly switching targets while using devastate and sunder was the only way to effectively control a pack of mobs.

I was quite jealous of the paladin's Consecrate ability. That's when I stumbled upon this shield. It is available as a reputation reward from the Sporeggar peoples in Zangarmarsh.

This shield changed the game. While there were definitely better quality blockers out there, none of them could match the AoE tanking of this shield. Attaching a Felsteel Shield Spike to this made it twice as deadly. Blocking worked back then similar to how it works now, except you could stack block percentage and block rating, which would increase how often you block, and for how much.

The best place to use this interesting item was on top of Black Temple. There is an area where an entire army of dual wielding elf warriors are dueling. A warrior could group them all up and with this shield, the mobs would literally beat themselves to death. If it ever came to a point where your health got low, or you managed to aggro the elite mob patrolling between the packs, activating your Figurine of the Colossus would bring you back up to 100% in seconds. This method was hands down the best way to farm gold and potions. I owned 3 of these so I could continuously farm gold after the first one broke. Good times.

The Count!

Collecting old legendary weapons is not nearly as difficult as it was then, but it is definitely a fun adventure. And being a warrior allows you to get most of them. As of this writing, I currently own Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros, Warglaive of Azzinoth (Main Hand), and Thori'dal, the Stars' Fury.

My current mission is Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker, also known as Thunderfury, Trade Chat's Bane. Any time some one wants to incite a riot on Trade Chat, all they need to do is simply link that weapon, guaranteeing a fifteen minute buttsex joke. Some times I feel my realm is populated entirely by 5th graders.

The bulk of the work in obtaining one of these weapons is blind luck. Sulfuras and Thunderfury involve a decent amount of time collecting materials for crafting. You will most likely have your Sulfuron Hammer crafted long before you see the Eye of Sulfuras drop from Ragnaros himself, which is good because the fun of it all is gathering up all the dark iron, ingots, lava cores and what not.

If you've don't own an orange, now is the time to step up. It's a right of passage if you will. Start running Molten Core for the mats to craft a Sulfuron Hammer, and pray to the wow RNG gods for the Eye of Sulfuras. It took me only 3 months to get mine, but I was lucky.

Top 10 Best Looking Shields

When I am not raiding, you would most likely find me in an old raid dungeon hunting for old transmog gear. I am in love with transmogging, and think it is one of the best additions to the game in a long time. There has been so much great looking gear designed over the years, and with this system, players get a chance to flash their style and accomplishments. A full set of gear with matching weapons says so much more than a boring old title.
With that, I give you my top 10 best looking shields in the game!


10. Shield of Impenetrable Darkness
Karazhan - Nightbane

Lets go over what makes a great shield. First and foremost, it has to actually appear to fulfill its intended purpose, to block attacks! There are many shields in game that look like a pile of random crap on a board and some sparkle effects tossed in. Second, it should be big. These shields should command presence. It is a bulwark, a bastion against the onslaught of your enemy. How do you expect to shield yourself from the fiery breath of a dragon with a wimpy buckler?
Speaking of which, this lovely shield drops from Nightbane, the real end boss from Burning Crusade's 10 man raid; Karazhan. Smooth, sleek, ornate and yet meanacing, this shield fits the theme almost perfectly. It balances form and function so perfectly. Plus it is black, a color not found too often in plate gear. Go figure.

Research and Other anecdotes while I wait for UPS

So this week has crawled by without my WoW box in working order. I have been reading Lord of the Rings a LOT; almost 2 books in and it's only been a week. It is funny to compare the books to the movies and pick out all the inconsistencies. Did you know Frodo was 50 years old when he left on his adventure?

I've been playing Starcraft on this old laptop my roommate had stored away. I have it elevated off the table by books to keep it from overheating. When did laptop makers decide it was ok to have them run constantly at 70C? These things suck. Using the words gaming and laptop together in the same sentence should be punishable by horse whipping.

A great deal of research has been made this week for the project of building a new gaming PC. It seems that most of the bottleneck in a WoW player's system would be in the CPU, not the graphics card. It frustrates me to look up WoW benchmarks and see their test is a flight path from locations X to Y as a suitable test. Yeah sure that is fine if all your doing is flying around on mounts. But it isn't. The core of this game takes place in bustling cities and large raids with hundreds of spells and attacks taking place every second. Tossing a brand new video card into an older system wont do diddly for your fps when your killing Sha of Fear in a 40 man outdoor raid. I understand it impossible to benchmark in an environment so inconsistent as a 25 man raid, but at least provide relevant information!

My current scream machine:
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9500 @ 2.2 GHz
RAM: 3Gb DDR2
GFX: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT
HDD: Maxtor 80 Gb HDD (like 90% full)
OS: Windows XP 32bit
 All this hooked together on some crusty ass mobo with a power supply I salvaged from a large food processor. It's funny, every sweepstakes or contest I find on the internet for a gaming pc giveaway is available to residents of every state except Rhode Island (mine). What stupid state law is this? WYHYHYYYYYY?? Why must I endure this mockery?

Sorry for the wall o' text post. The only appropriate picture for this post would be me shedding little warrior tears. Tomorrow is computer rebuild day, and every step shall be blogged!
Lok'tar Ogar.

Shenanigans...

I know I promised a list for my first post, but something terrible happened. The motherboard in my computer blew up, and my rig is in shambles. I am typing this on a dell laptop from 1997. It does not meet the minimum reccomended specs to play Roller Coaster Tycoon, much less WoW. So I couldn't make raid on Sunday for the Sha of Fear kill, and I will also miss future raids indefinitely. My raid group needs their main tank, and I am letting them down.
 I don't know what the future holds, as a new PC isn't in the budget, nor is a replacement mobo easily attainable, since it is so old. Could this be the end of Focused Warrior already? Stay tuned and I will provide more information soon.

I entered a gaming PC giveaway on youtube, but with my luck lately it's not looking good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyo5p2QyMck
I always wanted to know what it would be like to play WoW at more than 10fps.

Blog Necromancy! Focused Warrior Lives again!

Fear not! I have not turned into the undead! Besides, their racials suck. I have succumbed to the addiction that is WoW once again. The world of Azeroth will incur my wrath and general foolishness once more. Zarrick, my old orc warrior, was given to a good friend, and has since been renamed. I left a large amount of cool gear and achievements dating back to the beginnings of Warcraft. Alas, I have picked up the class of the warrior once again, and thanks to the Recruit a Friend system, am enjoying the endgame content as Narragansett, Tauren protection warrior.

Fist weapons are in this expansion.

Yes it is true; I have switched my main spec to Protection. I have alternated between DPS and tank specs every expansion. And since I missed Cataclysm all together, Tank spec is now my main focus. I feel it is the most challenging and exciting raid position. No rotations, no bar clicking. Just straight overall raid management, all while a gaint raid boss attempting to crush you into a pulp.

I am also changing the focus of the blog from Raiding DPS warrior to a larger warrior experience all together. Some personal experiences, raiding, transmogging, soloing old content; pretty much the WoW world as I see it. So check back in from time to time. My next post will be a list! Loktar my friends.