A little backstory: part of the downside of leveling a fresh alt on a brand new realm, new experience or not, is the lack of support. Previously, when I leveled an alt, I could count at least an heirloom or two or three being passed around. When I made Anschlag on Kael’thas, his only real form of support was other people – a couple runes from Lady Jess and a boatload of green stuff for the teens and 20s from Dechion – and as much as I love those guys, I wanted to be able to help myself where necessary. So, since Zulfon was just kind of wasting away over there on Feathermoon, where I didn’t particularly want to raid with her… Well, say hello to Rajaat up there.

Race (troll -> draenei), faction (Horde -> Alliance), sex (female -> male), name (Zulfon -> Rajaat), and server (Feathermoon -> Kael’thas)  – I think I pretty much changed everything I could. Oh, and guild too (The Aftermath -> Sidhe Devils). So, here’s a few tips from me to you, just in case you’re thinking about doing the same thing, or something similar, as well as a few things to think about before you switch sides from Alliance to Horde or vice versa.

Order of operations

If you’re thinking about doing both of these things (a faction change and a server change) I recommend doing the server change first. No real in-depth reason; it’s just that it takes longer. Of course, longer is a relative term: my server transfer took 20 minutes, whereas my faction change was actually instant – I just had to go home and customize her. Also – don’t forget that you can’t server transfer while there’s things in your mailbox, so if you’ve got anything you want to take with you, like heirlooms or bind to account items, make sure they’re in your bags or your bank before you go.

The process is not infallible

Be ready to call a GM if necessary. I suspect the process has gotten most of the kinks worked out of it by now (yet another reason I held off), but you may get bitten like Runy did – some of her faction pets converted, but others didn’t, leaving her with 2 Mulgore Hatchlings and no Mechanopeep or Ammen Vale Lashling. I don’t seem to have had anything go missing; the only thing I’d bought from the tournament was the White Skeletal Warhorse, and it converted properly into a Swift Moonsaber. Still, before you switch, you may want to keep track of what pets and mounts you have, so you can compare when you get done with the transfer (might I suggest Warcraft Mounts and Warcraft Pets for tracking your collections?).

Do-overs

I sure hope you like questing. You’re going to lose some things when you switch factions; specifically, pretty much everything you did in Icecrown. If you finished Loremaster of Northrend, you’ll keep that and its sub-achievements, but the actual quests are available for you to do again (and some you’ll probably definitely want to redo). Here’s just a short list of the things I have actually noticed.

• The questline that starts on the airship for your faction to open the Shadow Vault has to be redone. This means that after a faction change, the Shadow Vault is once again occupied by the forces of the Lich King, and you’ll need to help Baron Sliver clean them out. Again. For the newly-Allied, you’ll want to head to the Skybreaker to pick up It’s All Fun And Games from Thassarian; the new Horde will be going to Orgrim’s Hammer to get the same quest from Koltira Deathweaver. Luckily, this doesn’t take terribly long to do – it’s actually back to full functionality after The Shadow Vault – but you may want to go ahead and do the rest anyway, because you’ll lose quite a few quests from your total quests completed, and if you’re going for Loremaster, this will help.
• Similarly, while I haven’t been down to verify it myself (and if someone else can, I’d appreciate it), you will probably have to help the Argent Crusade retake Crusader’s Pinnacle. Go to Dalaran and talk to Officer Van Rossem (for the Alliance) or Sky-Reaver Klum (for the Horde) to start it off.
• Did you like the Argent Tournament? Specifically, did you like the first week or two of the tournament? I hope so, because you’re about to relive it. Just as Runy warns, Silver Covenant and Sunreaver reputations, unlike almost every other reputation, do not swap, and you will lose all your standing with the tournament. If you were a Champion with every city, you’re about to be bumped back down to Aspirant. Hell, not even an Aspirant – you have to go talk to the Argent Crusaders in their tent, just like you’re starting off fresh. The one good piece of news in all this is that the city reputation you may have gained does transfer, and remains at the level it was, so it’ll make it a lot quicker to become a Crusader.
• Questlines that started in neutral towns don’t seem to have to be done over, so you won’t have to redo They Took Our Men! and its subsequent quests to unlock the Sons of Hodir or anything like that. Icecrown seems to have caught the brunt of all the quest-reversal, simply because of the split-faction quests in that area. Essentially, if a questline that led to something phasing in or out actually started with a questmaster from your specific faction, you can count on having to do it over again.

Your turn

Have any of you faction-changed recently? Got any more caveats, warnings, slip-ups, or tips? Leave ‘em in the comments!

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Faction changing: some caveats

I’m not entirely able to explain why I hate this, but I think it’s the same thing as why I don’t play on PvP servers: if I want to PvP, I’ll go PvP. If I don’t, I don’t. By throwing in these achievements, in order to receive two tangible in-game rewards (the title and, eventually, the mount), Blizzard is essentially saying “suck it up: you have to go do PvP, no matter how much you hate it.” Yeah, I know, no one is forced to do them, but no one is forced to get a 2200 arena rating either: arena people arena because they enjoy that, and I hunt achievements because I enjoy that, but when my achievements force me to do meaningless PvP-based sub-achievements? Screw it. Holidays can piss off.

On top of that, I don’t even think Blizzard has completely thought through how these holiday PvP achievements work. I wouldn’t want to be a battleground-runner this week. I had a feeling that hundreds of non-PvPers struggling to complete objectives that more or less pit them against their own team and the other team would be an… inhospitable environment. Apparently I was right. Euripedes has a plea from the PvP side of the fence for Blizzard to please, stop this nonsense:

So here’s a suggestion, Blizzard:

Stop it.

Seriously.

Nobody likes it this way.

The people who want to PvP are frustrated because their battlegrounds are filling up with these incompetent morons who haven’t the slightest idea what to do and have absolutely no will to change that.

The people who don’t want to PvP are frustrated because they have to participate in something that, at best, has no interest to them and, at worst, is akin to smashing their face into mirrors and then stabbing themselves in the legs with the shards.

You want to have these people participate in PvP for an achievement? Fine. Then do it this way:

• Win all five battlegrounds with your orphan out!

Shazam. You still force them to do something they don’t want to do, but at least this time they don’t have to completely screw up the battleground to do so.

Let me clarify: I’m not totally against PvP achievements. I think forcing them into the meta-achievement is a stupid idea, but I can understand maybe they’re there to give the event a more well-rounded flavor. Fine. What I am against is poorly-designed PvP achievements. Here’s a few examples of what I consider good and bad PvP achievement design:

• Well-Designed
• G.N.E.R.D. Rage. Neither side is negatively-impacted by the G.N.E.R.D.S. buff. If you die, applying the G.N.E.R.D.s buff is super-easy, because you get them out of every damn candy bucket in Azeroth, and you can trade them between people – so if you’re out, but your buddy has a ton, just let him give you some before you queue up. In fact, this one has the bonus that you can do it anywhere – world PvP, Wintergrasp, Battlegrounds, maybe Arenas even. You name it, if you can get an HK, you can finish G.N.E.R.D. Rage.
• Rotten Hallow (H). This is the Horde PvP Hallows’ End achievement, and it’s really only PvP in the loosest sense of the term. It’s quick, it’s fun, and on some servers (Feathermoon, looking at you) it’s not even going to get you flagged or attacked.
• Elders of the Alliance / Elders of the Horde. It might not be the easiest achievement for some people (heck, you might have spent some time running around the city as a ghost looking for the elder), but at the very least, you could strip naked and corpse-run your way to victory. It may not be easy or enjoyable, but it’s sure as hell not going to run anyone else’s day.
• All the Midsummer events: Desecration of the Horde / Desecration of the Alliance and King of the Fire Festival. I did these before there was an achievement for them on Queklain (well, I think I missed a few fires in Outland), and I look forward to doing them again as Zulfon. Stomping out fires is quick and easy and earns you a skirmish here and there from dedicated defenders (unlike Rotten Hallow, stomping out the fires does flag you), and as for the city fire retrieval… these things are a lot easier to find than the elders (well, except for Orgrimmar’s, because we have bonfires everywhere all the time – but in, say, Stormwind, a bonfire in the park really sticks out), and sneaking from spot to spot as a non-stealth class? Hell, it was like Metal Gear Solid meets World of Warcraft. One of my fondest memories was riding into Stormwind on my dreadsteed, stealing the fire of Stormwind, sprinting north, and jumping into the canals; the guards gave up, though an intrepid hunter didn’t. Deep underwater, I died, then self-rezzed… then, sneaking through the canal system of an unfamiliar city, I made my way nearly all the way to the castle itself without ever drowning. Finally, I found a boat next to a low section of the wall… leaping out, I mounted up my dreadsteed again and rode like a bat out of Hell to the tram, /cackle’ing all the way IRL. It was awesome, and I look forward to doing it again (and finishing it as Queklain – Flame Keeper Queklain seems apropos for a warlock!).
• Poorly-Designed
• Rotten Hallow (A). The Alliance side of the Rotten Hallow achievement is at least partially like the Horde one, in that they have a “crash the party” achievement, and the wickerman area well outside of Undercity is arguably even easier to get to than the Southshore Inn. The issue is the other half of the achievement: the Alliance is relying on being around the Inn when someone from the Horde does their Hallows’ End thing to get this finished. This is ultimately unfair, and if this is the design Blizzard truly wanted, than the Horde should have been forced to clean up the mess at the wickerman as well.
• With a Little Helper from My Friends. This would have been a lot better if there was a Winter Wondervolt machine in the battlegrounds and in Wintergrasp, or if the buff didn’t wear off after death. I tried doing this one: tons of gnomes show up, swarm out, get a few HKs, die, lose the buff, and /afk out to get a new one rather than wasting their time. Great job on this one, Blizzard. </sarcasm>
• And lastly, the inspiration for this, School of Hard Knocks. I don’t curse often, so when I do, you know I mean it: Blizzard Entertainment World Event Designers, what the fuck were you thinking? I entirely agree with ‘rip: if this had been “win once in each Battleground with your orphan out,” this would have been (1) entertaining, (2) possibly enjoyable, and (3) at least contributing to the point of the battleground, i.e., to win. As it is? Let’s take Eye of the Storm: not only does your average PvE achievement hunter not bother taking any towers this week, you also end up with a giant clusterfuck around the center flag, with no one doing any kind of D and eventually a win is achieved (for the other team, of course) via the towers because there were only 2 people on your team who weren’t chasing the flag and only the flag. Alterac Valley and Arathi Basin are even worse, I’m sure: I don’t dare poke my head in to find out.

So no, you won’t see me in Alterac Valley with an orcish orphan trying to keep up, or letting the Alliance cap farm so I can take it back and get a quarter of an achievement. That’s not my style. Brewfest? Midsummer Fire Festival? I’m all over those. But as for my orphan… all he gets is a day away from the orphanage, and I get a pig and a beholder.

Sorry Blizzard: maybe next year, if you’ve started thinking these things through.

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Orphans? Bah

“Pay attention. This is Instructor Razuvious, Kel’Thuzad’s appointed trainer of all death knights. It is said that his own technique is so potent, only a disciple of his could possibly withstand his might.”

Due to neglecting my RSS reader, I hadn’t seen Anna’s Friday 500: To Battle!, but when I did, it struck me as the perfect opportunity to imagine a meeting between master and student. At least, I’m imagining it – to poor Zulfon, it’s life or death. Also: 500 words is kind of hard – I had to keep finding words to remove… sorry ‘bout the actual story, I don’t do this kind of thing too often!

CLANG! Ancient runeblade strikes emblazoned polearm, parrying again and again. My arms are growing tired, but I cannot show him that.

I MUST not show him that.

"You disappoint me, student!" he yells, his voice resounding off the walls of the dread citadel. "I trained you myself, and for what – for this? For betrayal?" He lifted his blade again, swinging down like an executioner. This time I moved, a quick roll, lest I be split in two.

"T’was you dat betrayed me," I replied, spitting as I said it. I seethed. "Y’gave me dis life I never wanted, whispa’d sweet lies into mah ear. You ‘n’ yer Lich King both." Seeing an opening as he lifted the runeblade, I shifted sideways, swinging the wide blade of the polearm that I had wrested from Heigan’s unholy cache. It caught an opening in his armor, but it was just a scratch.

He actually laughed.

"And you wanted it more than you think, whelp! I remember the look in your eyes!" He barked another laugh as he brought the sword around sideways to mimic my own move. Another lesson I learned at the hands of the ‘master,’ I suppose. I brought my own weapon up again, and the runes flared as they met. The vibrations of the clash of weaponry set my arms to aching – I knew I would not last much longer under his onslaught.

I pushed his sword back, bringing the polearm up and under as the momentum raised his arms. Cryptfiend’s Bite nicked him yet again, blood welling up beneath his armor. I was not without my own share of wounds, but he looked to be getting the worst of it. Down came the sword, and I rolled this time, but not fast enough – the wound itself felt like searing flame, as I felt it cleave through the armor on my back like a hot claymore through so much butter. I slumped to the ground, panting.

Clank. Clank. His heavy bootsteps approached over the stone floors. "How fitting you die in the dust," he said, his voice low and menacing. I felt a sharp pain as my opponent kicked my ribs as hard as he could, his steel-plated sabaton sending me into the air a short distance to land on my still-bleeding back. I cried out – from the wound, from the kick, from the doubtlessly-broken ribs.

Again he approached. An eternity. Why must he walk so slow? I spat in defiance again. "Jus’ do it and be done, or dere’ll be hell to pay!" He paused, roaring with laughter.

"Hell to pay? Very funny, little tro–" His words cut short, blood trickling from his mouth. He looked down, eyes wide with amazement, to where only the handle of Cryptfiend’s Bite emerged from the chink in his armor under his dead black heart. Blood coated the side of his armor, a sickening black ichor.

I knelt, pushing as deeply as I could. "Your last lesson, Instructor Razuvious."

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Only a student… (RP)

The past few weeks were pretty rough – we’d go in, punch Flame Leviathan in the mouth, then throw ourselves at XT-002 or Razorscale for a few hours to no avail. I’m not sure what changed last night, because we were taking down bosses left and right (compared to our previous attempts, of course – we’re not down to Yogg-Saron, but we made serious progress). Heck, I even came away with some of what you kids would call “phat lewtz.” (Unfortunately, I was running low on DKP by the time the phattest of lewtz for the night came along.)

I didn’t get any screenshots of Flame Leviathan, because it wasn’t a first. We did do him with one tower up (Thorim’s Hammer, which is ludicrously easy to avoid), and I was doing a different job this time (siege driving instead of siege gunning), but it was pretty much a breeze. Here’s just a few highlights of the rest of our evening…

Razorscale down! I can only attribute our failure to do this last week to lack of focus. Heck, we were just a few DPS away from keeping her permanently grounded this time around (she did a deep breath, blew us all backwards, took about 6 yards into the air – and came back down).

Ignis down! And for some reason I was cheated out of Hot Pocket – even though I was the very last person in the pot! Grrr. Next week, Ignis!

XT-002 Deconstructor down! It was kind of nice to see this guy eat it after our previous attempts to him. Oddly enough, I don’t think I got a single bomb the entire fight, and the only reason we didn’t pick up Nerf Engineering too was a single Scrapbot at the very end of the fight. Blah. Next week, XT!

Kologarn down! And yes, that’s me, down-left, teabagging Kologarn (and rocking a Sporeggar Tabard). This might be the only kill shot where I’m clearly visible, since on most I’m behind a fireball. Dagblasted warlocks.

And last but not least…

Yes, that’s right: I finally got the one achievement I wanted from the moment the Ulduar achievements were announced. Thanks, Iron Boot Flask! Heck, I even put it on my bars so I wouldn’t forget it, and popped it when Brundir was at 200k or so health:

It’s a touch hard to see, but it’s on the 3 – in place of Death Grip, which I most certainly did NOT need for this fight.

Oh, and obviously:

Iron Council down! Yeah, that’s me, dead center. I like my Iron Dwarf costume!

Tonight I believe the plan is to go do Malygos and possibly a quick sweep of Naxx for a few items for people who still need upgrades (because, hell, I wouldn’t say no to a BoH or Death’s Bite), due to people being absent (like, say, the raid leader) – but who knows, maybe we’ll be back in if everyone’s on? Hey, it could happen.

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Guys, same team, same team!

Finally knocked out my last achievement for heroic Arachnid Quarter.

Stupid Ice Bomb.

Aaaaaaagh SOMEONE GET THIS BUG OFF MY HEAD

I’m in your necropolis, stealin’ your throne. (And /cackle’ing on it.)

Dear Kel’thuzad:

Better luck next time!

Love,
Fatalis

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Suck it, Kel’thuzad

Yeah, that sums up 3.1 pretty nicely, for me. I won’t lie, there’s good parts to it – I’m liking my death knight and warlock (yes, you read that right, warlock) better than ever, and love the new options available to most of my toons. The Argent Tournament is fantastic – I absolutely love it. But everything else? Frustrating.

Last night, it came in threes:

1. I ran into a delightful bug with the dual spec feature. Mild compared to others, but consistent. Non-spellcasters who have abilities in their talent trees where rank 1 is bought with talents and every rank afterwards is bought from a trainer will find that often switching between trees removes the lowest such talent and anything below it. This means that every time I switch to my DPS spec, I have to reapply 7 points into the Blood tree; when I switch to tank, everything between Frost Strike and Howling Blast needs to be retalented. I can only imagine how annoying this would be for Unholy DKs; if I’m wrong and it’s the highest, not the lowest, everything between Corpse Explosion and the bottom of the tree could potentially get removed.
2. I’ve been trying for a while to get a spot in a 25-man team with members of The Aftermath. Unfortunately my contact guy and I have been missing each other. Last night we finally got in touch and he says “hey, you want to come do 25-man Emalon with us?” New boss? Of course I want to go! So I hearthed from Outland, where I had been working on Loremaster stuff, to Northrend and notice we don’t have Wintergrasp. Wuh-oh. We fielded maybe 40-ish people in our group, with a few more besides… and still had from 3 to 7 stacks of Tenacity at all times. In short, it was an enormous lagfest that we lost through sheer numbers. So, no Emalon.
• Also? I doubt we’d have been able to go to Emalon if we’d won. The instance servers had been down for going on four hours at that point and showed no signs of recovery.
3. Oh, and then I disconnected, and the B.net login servers were fried, so I couldn’t get back on for at least an hour, maybe more, by which time my desire to log on had completely waned. Instead, I watched the debut episode of Pitchmen (Billy Mays is awesome) and played … incoming blasphemy… City of Heroes.

So yeah, that’s how 3.1 is for me: so good, it drove me to another MMO. Parts of it are good, but much like when 3.0.8 came out, the game is in a largely unplayable state at the moment. So how’re things for you?

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3.1: The Frustration of Ulduar

Then someone realized it was 30 minutes or so until we had to fight for Wintergrasp again. “Want to run a 10-man Vault?” people started asking. So, sure, we went to Vault, and it was bizarro world – Vorgar, who I’ve only ever known as a tank, was DPSing; Skelli, who is almost always demonology, was a PvP-oriented affliction build; Kel, the tree, had spent 150g getting all boomkek’d up and was ready to blast some things thankyouverymuch; Vixx, the rogue was in a PvP spec… okay, Vixx, loves stabbin’ the Alliance, that’s not really a surprise.

And yours truly… was tanking. See? Bizarro raid! And yet, down went Archavon, boom – no problems! (I even picked up a Hateful Gladiator’s Dreadplate Chestpiece, though I haven’t the faintest what I’m going to do with it.) So apparently, we were feeling cocky. “Let’s do OS-10, they say.” But one of our healers can’t go. “OS-25?” One of our DPS warriors has to switch to his resto shammy, sure, but OS-25 is agreed upon. I /faulsey* a little.

“Let’s do it with 20 people for the achievement! Oh, and don’t worry Zul, you’re the only tank, but you’ll be fine.” I /faulsey a lot. Yet, everyone seems confident, I do my very best to hit the buttons, mitigate the damage, and keep the monsters punching me in the face, and eventually all three drakes, then Sartharion himself fall to us, with very few deaths (a couple facepulls, a few people getting swarmed with elemental adds). And I got the achievements from the screenshot above. Ta-dah!

Tanking is such a rush. I think this might be what I really want to do – to be honest, I was getting pretty complacent with DPSing. Rotate, rotate, dump runic power, snore self into coma. This, though… it was downright exhilarating, and I loved it.

* I should explain /faulsey. It comes from Faulsey, of Master’s Call – when he started showing up in BA Chat, he was also starting to raid, and he frequently displayed a mixture of panic and excitement – maybe 1 part panic, 3 parts excitement? This quickly became known as /faulseying. (If you’re more panicky, or frustrated, it becomes a “flailsey.” And now you know.)

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Exhilarating!

Inspired by Maerdred, I figured I’d toss up a mock guild application here. I’m not really looking to leave my guild, per se, or maybe even Feathermoon (unless your offer’s pretty good…), but I am looking to find a new raid. I’ll include relevant info here on that, too, since it’s a bit of a story in and of itself. EDIT: Visiting my armory, you may notice I am tank-specced and wearing my tank gear. My current raid, while it may not ever progress anywhere, still needs a tank – and frankly, I’d like to tank things. That said, if you need a DPS, I’ll switch back.

Main character (include class and spec): Zulfon, Troll DPS Death Knight (currently 0/20/51 dual-wield) – I also have the gear to off-tank or run a two-handed DPS build, if so desired, and will respec/reglyph accordingly; however, my tank gear is not suitable for main tanking as of yet in my opinion (Be.Imba disagrees)
Link to Armory: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Feathermoon&n=Zulfon
Alts (include class and spec): Queklain (70 demo warlock), Joratox (22 prot warrior), Whitebough (23 balance druid), Valmafra (45 SV hunter), Xajek (45 shadow priest)
Real First Name: Phil
Age: 26
Location: KY, USA

Detail the WoW guilds you have been in (Server, Guild, Length of Time) and the reasons why you left those guilds.
Korialstrasz(US) <Legion of Zod> – I was the guildmaster from March 2008 until July 2008. It was a casual guild with low membership. I left this guild to transfer to Feathermoon(US) due to the extreme Alliance-Horde imbalance on Korialstrasz, lack of Horde population, and because of friends I had on Feathermoon.

Feathermoon(US) <Fatalis> – I am still a member of Fatalis. I’m in no hurry to leave.

Previous raiding experience in WoW.
I started playing WoW just last January, so my raid experiences have been all TBC or later. My guild had a rather small core group of raiders, so while I had multiple full clears of Karazhan and Zul’aman, I only saw Magtheridon’s Lair near the end of TBC (also cleared). In Wrath, I’ve been raiding Naxxramas and Obsidian Sanctum fairly consistently; I have seen a full completion of Naxx with a 10-man group that pulled me in as a PUGged DPS, but as for my 25-man group, we haven’t had that sort of success.

At the launch of WotLK, Fatalis was on course to team up with a fellow guild, Avenging Warpath, to tackle 25-man content. A loot system was set in place, times were set, raid balance was assured, and so on. By the time the actual date to start raiding arrived, a few members of Fatalis had already joined another regular 25-man raid, the loot system was ignored, and Avenging Warpath was contributing roughly 3-4 members to the raid. While we have managed to pick up some regular members, this raid has (for various reasons) not even completed more than two wings of Naxxramas (Spider & Plague, Construct except Thaddius, and no progress into Military), and Fatalis is largely pulling out to create its own raid group, which I cannot join due to their weekend raid time. This puts the kibosh on this joint raid, pretty much, and so I am looking for a new and improved raid experience.

Please tell us about any previous leadership experience in WoW.
I have led a small casual guild on Korialstrasz, but haven’t really held any sort of formal officer position in any other aspect since leaving that guild.

What do you want out of your playing time?
I want two things: fun, and to see the content. While I had fun in TBC (I was leveling, I was raiding on a consistent schedule, it’s all good), it sort of bothered me that I was never going to see anything past Z’A. I like that sense of achievement and conquest, as well as learning my own class as I go along – there’s always something new to learn about how to do my job just the tiniest bit better. There are other things I enjoy, like leveling alts, achievement hounding, and so on; additionally, while raiding has to be taken seriously for there to be success, I appreciate groups that also treat it as “serious fun” and not a second job.

What is your availability for raids?
I am available Sunday through Thursday, 6pm – 1am EST (3pm – 10pm server time). I may occasionally be online on the weekends but never consistently enough to guarantee any raiding.

Please describe your computer/Internet setup and indicate whether you tend to have lag or connectivity issues.
I built this PC from scratch and continually upgrade it as I have the available funding; it runs in a raid environment at full tilt with all effects turned up, averaging 40-60 fps. (Tons of layered AOE can be a bit sketchy, but it doesn’t affect my ability to do my job.)  I periodically have connection issues stemming from connecting to a West Coast server from the Eastern side of the country; however, generally if there are going to be issues on a given night, they show up early enough and consistently enough that I can let my raid leaders know I will not be able to take part in a raid. (This has only happened once in my WoW career, when I started experiencing 3000ms ping times prior to a Thaddius attempt and voluntarily sat the fight out.)

Are you willing to occupy a bench slot (on line and still available to sub in) when needed?
That’s how I got my start raiding; that’s what I’ll do again if necessary to raid with you.

In your opinion, what do skilled players of your class and spec contribute to 25-man raiding?
Death knights can tend to be a bit low on the multi-class synergy. However, unholy DKs do bring a couple things to the table. One is our ability to apply a debuff applying +13% magic damage, covering potential holes in the raid; the other (at least until 3.1) is a 15% movement boost for the entire raid. However, our most consistent things we bring to a raid are flexibility – I’ve gone from off-tanking to kiting to straight-out DPSing just with a change of presence and gear, on a single night – and damage, pure, plain damage. Damage: it kills bosses!

What do you, as an individual, bring to raids that distinguishes you from average players? Here’s your chance to convince us that we need YOU for our team.
I know it sounds hackneyed, but I am a team player. I may not have a ton of raid experience prior to the current content, but I am a quick learner, and can adapt to your team’s way of doing things. I do my very best to stay on top of the newest changes coming down the pipeline to WoW, and how they affect me and my position in the raid. During my time raiding with Fatalis, I have consistently served in a DPS role, and when I’m not in the raid bringing down bosses and trash, I’m trying to figure out how to make myself better. If that means switching specs, gear, or playstyle to eke out just that last bit of performance so that the raid can be better as a result of my contribution, so be it.

What mods do you use, and why do you like them?
I use quite a few addons, but the ones most relevant to raiding are MetaHUD, Power Auras, Grid, DBM, and Omen. Omen obviously helps me keep on top of threat, so the tank doesn’t have to play Aggro Ping-Pong. DBM is a must-have for raiding, in my opinion. While I may not be a healer, Grid still is my raid frame of choice, if only so I can see the raid’s condition at a glance. MetaHUD and Power Auras are all about reaction time – visual and audio warnings about things like missing buffs and incorrect stances improve my playstyle and reaction time, while MetaHUD keeps relevant info (namely, my life, the boss’s life, buffs, and debuffs) at eye level so I don’t need to look away.

What websites do you usually visit to gather WoW information?
Wowhead, Wowwiki, Elitist Jerks forums, Tankspot, BossKillers, MMO Champion, WoW Insider, and a variety of blogs from a variety of authors.

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[H] Death knight seeks things to kill, fun times to be had by all

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WTB raid.

Then, new recruit-a-friend warrior Joratox (leveling with Vandersloot’s new warlock, Vandorah; I told him she needed to finish World Explorer so she could be Vandorah the Explorer):

And back to Zulfon for the late-Sunday-night finish:

Not pictured because apparently three achievements won’t show up simultaneously: finishing The Argent Crusade and The Argent Champion (yes, my death knight is now Zulfon the Argent Champion) also earned me 5 Exalted Reputations.

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An excuse to post achievement screenshots