Day 15 - Herbalism 450

Ok, so my quest buddy should be back tomorrow, which will be great because I'm dying to level again. I finally buckled down and flew around Zangar Marsh until I'd picked enough herbs to get my Herbalism to 400, then I went back to the Borean Tundra - and especially the lack there - and collected herbs until I reached 450.

Now, barring the need for special boosted skills, there should not be anything I can't skin or pick.

Wicked L76 Gnome Death Knight Points: 630 <Necromonger> Unholy/Hybrid DPS/Tank 11/0/56 HKills: 134 HP 14441 Armor: 10003 Def: 380.00 Power: 1978 Hit: 90 Crit% 15.85 Parry% 10.11 Avg item level: 147 Herbalism: 450 Skinning: 450 68% Blues 31% Greens

Day 14 - instances

First, got my skinning to 450 - very easy to do. Herbalism, not so easy.

Then I found a group for something called Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom - and it was awesome.

She got to kill the bosses there and loved it so much that we ran it twice.

After you kill one of the bosses you travel down a cobweb-filled tunnel.

Eventually you kill some Forgotten Ones before the final boss, which has a very HP Lovecraft sort of fight. It was a blast.

 

Next up was Drak'Tharon Keep.

 

See that sword? It's a new sword she got before the pictured boss.  She loves it very much.

You can't tell from this picture but that boss is huge.

Here's a better example:

Followed by the final boss of the place:

Another Violet Hold run and poof - level 76.

Ending stats

Wicked L76 Gnome Death Knight Points: 630 <Necromonger> Unholy/Hybrid DPS/Tank 11/0/56 HKills: 134 HP 14441 Armor: 10003 Def: 379.00 Power: 1978 Hit: 90 Crit% 15.65 Parry% 10.07 Avg item level: 147 68% Blues 31% Greens

Day 13 - Herbs and Skins

Herbed a ton, skinned a ton. Got to Outlands levels and then got to Northrend training with a maximum of 450.

Day 12 - quest hiatus & return to Violet hold

I've decided to stop tanking instances for a while, because the gear I've collected is great but is really meant for DPS. I'm waiting on quests for my buddy to get back into town, so I decided to run some instances. It turns out that Violet Hold, which I visited several levels ago is really similar to Black Morass but with random bosses and a really convenient location. Also, it drops great plate gear.

Day 11 - short day

Hit level 74 as expected, but it was a short night because I got started late. Had a ruinous Nexus run where the healer was particularly bad.

Wicked L74 Gnome Death Knight <Necromonger> Unholy/Hybrid DPS/Tank 9/0/56 HKills: 111 HP 11596 Armor: 8805 Def: 369.00 Power: 1822 Hit: 71 Crit% 15.06 Parry% 9.55 Avg item level: 137 50% Blues 50% Greens

Day 10: Grizzly Hills

Wicked's still level 73, but she'll hit 74 shortly after logging in. It's not nearly as easy to make a level per day on weekdays, since I work for a living. Also, whether it's the zone or the fact that more retards have reached level 77, there seems to be an increase in the number of people flying around ganking.

My questing buddy is going out of town for Thanksgiving so I'll be at a bit of a loss as to how to spend my time. I'll want to level up as much as possible, but I don't want to get out of sync with them on quests. I suppose I can try to grind XP and live in instances. Or maybe I'll work on my professions.

Wicked L73 Gnome Death Knight <Necromonger> Unholy/Hybrid DPS/Tank 7/0/56 HKills: 110 HP 11135 Armor: 8642 Def: 365.00 Power: 1675 Hit: 21 Crit% 11.29 Parry% 8.97 Avg item level: 135 50% Blues 50% Greens

Day 9 aftermath - so glad I wasn't in the beta

I'm so glad I wasn't in the beta. It's the end of day 9, and Wicked isn't 72. No. She's 73. She has also earned the achievement Veteran of the Wrathgate. Dragonblight - specifically the area around Wintergarde - is my favorite zone so far, and the quest line leading to and through Veteran of the Wrathgate is epic on a scale that brings to mind the Battle for Helms Deep in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

After that was done, we started on Grizzly Hills which is very pretty and reminds me of California.

Mithrandyr and a level 80 pal of his killed us along with the NPC's at Amberpine Lodge. Later on we caught Mith all by himself and exacted revenge. It felt really good.

Later on, Eugerox attempted to gank my buddy over some ore. We killed him instead.

At some point, having passed her pilot training at level 70, she went ahead and bought her Winged Seed of the Ebon Blade. She hasn't flown it yet, no reason to. At level 77 she'll take her cold weather flying test and after that, it's on.

Without further ado, here's what Wicked's been up to lately -

Met a sea goddess

Finally got a chance to use the alternate radar mode on the SexyMap addon.

Drove a tank equipped with it's own sabotage gnome!

Found where they moved Naxxramus to:

Found a new (to her) place in Dalaran - the Violet something or other. She didn't like it there much, especially after she ran back.

Bolvar Fordragon - I might not have clicked that had I known.

After what happened at the Wrathgate however, it was most definitely on.

We went to the Undercity, and we were all out of bubblegum.

You don't do what this thing did. OH YEAH? Not and survive.

 

Then King Wrynn seemed to want some revenge, and to me it looked like Thrall died in the fight, but I can't be sure because suddenly we were back in Stormwind.

After all that it was off to Grizzly Hills, like I said.

 

Ending stats for the night:

Wicked L73 Gnome Death Knight <Necromonger> Unholy/Hybrid DPS/Tank 7/0/56 HKills: 109 HP 9815 Armor: 8378 Def: 364.00 Power: 1614 Hit: 61 Crit% 13.76 Parry% 8.75 Avg item level: 132 50% Blues 50% Greens

Level 72 here I come! (Day... 9?)

First of all this feels really appropriate. Last night was fun however: Some hunter named Deadaim became my 99th, 100th, and 101st honorable kills. I have no idea why, my buddy and I were just doing quests, minding our own business and up he rides, dismounts, and starts shooting at me for no apparent reason. After we kicked his butt, he came back and attacked us again, and died a second time. I got an achievement for that one. At that point we killed him again when he rezzed, sort of a preemptive strike. Then I finished collecting my Wolvar Pups or whatever they were called and we continued on.

Another time, I'd made up a set of defense gear and happened to notice that her attack power hit a certain magical number:

Anyway, Wicked is almost level 72! Who knows where she'll go next!

Wicked L71 Gnome Death Knight <Necromonger> Unholy/Hybrid DPS/Tank 6/0/56 HKills: 101 HP 8800 Armor: 7285 Def: 354.00 Power: 1501 Hit: 33 Crit% 13.50 Parry% 9.32 Avg item level: 125

Day 8 - Howling Fjord Finished, Dragonblight started

Ding - level 71. Wintergrasp and all kinds of weird stuff. FUN quests. Beat the crap out of myself.

Got to be a wolf for a while.

Took some guy's flying machine for a ride, and it held my minion underneath! Undeath from Above!

Which is nearly as good as flying death night gnome from above!

Found our first group quest we couldn't duo, easily got people who also needed it.

From there we marauded all over the zone, those arcane wyrms are super annoying. One time on the lei line quests I saw what appeared to be water below. I wasn't 100% sure I could make it but figured it was likely so off the cliff I jumped... down... down... down... gonna make it!

But it wasn' water. Fortunately I was catching up to the rest of the group and they were able to rez me.

Good news - Wicked now has enough flight paths such that she can reach Dalaran!

Day 7 conclusion

Ding! 70. Tons of quests completed at record pace. Tomorrow I plan on finishing Howling Fjord and hitting level 71, and I'm all out of bubble gum.

The new spec works great!

Day 7 planning - time to fix the spec

After consuming a  bit of knowledge from the Internet, I've come to the forgone conclusion that once again, I'm doing it wrong. So tonight I'm going to change from my "Hey that looks neat" spec to something someone else actually put some thought into, modified to my level, here.

Day 6 conclusion: Wicked 1, Howling Fjord 0

Tonight for the first time (outside of dungeons or the odd "If we group we won't have to compete for X" situation) Wicked wasn't alone. She was joined by two friends of mine, a shadow priest and a holy paladin.

I actually got online a little before them and did one or two quests solo. Tip: If you need to level up a weapon (or unarmed, I guess) skill, I can't think of a much easier place to do it than at the gate to Valgarde, where the mobs spawn constantly. You can back up and they'll lose interest pretty fast too.

Once they got online and arrived, we immediately began burning through the quests at a high rate of speed. I learned a few things along the way:

1. In Nifflevar, you can go into the spirit world via the item you got from a previous quest in order to skip mobs/horde while getting to and from the various harpoon quests.
   
2. If one or two of you fall out of your mechanical suits, and one guy doesn't, you all still get credit for reading the data crystals.
   
3. If at first you can't figure out what you're doing, look down - I got surprised when controlling my falcon, didn't expect to see the bar change. There needs to be a ding noise or a stone grating noise or something when your action bar changes. I'm not exactly playing with the mouse and looking at the bar all the time. On a side note, they should really let you get that controllable falcon as a non-combat-or-at-least-it-won't-fight-for-you-pet, that would have felt incredibly epic.

I managed to kill myself one time - one of them died jumping too far down the cliff, or at least hurt themselves really badly. I was looking for them and thought they'd found the path down, so I wind up running right off the cliff... and dying right at their feet. I then typed "HEY I FOUND YOU". Fortunately they can both resurrect so that made it much less painful.

We concluded the night at Westguard Keep, doing the daily and setting our hearthstones there. I went and got my training.

Wicked L69 Gnome Death Knight <Necromonger> Unholy/DPS 5/0/55 HKills: 94 HP 7639 Armor: 6095 Power: 1223 Hit: 16 Crit: 10.71 Avg item level: 96

The plan for tonight is to pick up at Westguard keep, but who knows maybe we'll hit Utgarde Keep while we're at it. At some point I'd like to also go back and visit the Borean Tundra since there's plenty of easy XP to be had there as well.

Day 6 continued – Howling Fjord in action

How far will Wicked be able to get tonight? Can she hit level 69? We’ll see…

Beginning stats:

Wicked L68 Gnome Death Knight <Necromonger> Unholy/DPS 4/0/55 HKills: 91 HP 7254 Armor: 5235 Power: 1074 Hit: 16 Crit: 12.15 Avg item level: 82

Day 6 - 68 + Howling Fjord

I had to return home this morning because of a sick kid, and after I got that squared away I finished off level 68 in Blade's Edge mountains with my former bretheren at Toshley's Station.





From there it was a fast Death Gate, training, hearth to Dalaran, portal to Ironforge and she was on the gryphon to Menethil then the boat to Howling Fjord.



Now she's in Howling Fjord ready to begin her adventures there!

Day 5 - Hellfire finished and Blade's Edge started

Wicked's goal for tonight is to (maybe) finish off Hellfilre Peninsula and proceed to Blade's Edge mountains, doing quests and hitting level 68. At that point she'll be ready for Northrend. A quick Internet search for opinions says to go ahead and go at level 68, so I figure she'll hit Borean Tundra for a little while, then switch over to Howling Fjord. That'll be for Day 6 though, first she needs to reach level 68.

That was the plan, at least. The reality was a little different - she finished her Hellfire quests no problem, and did the first five or six Blade's Edge Mountain quests no problem, but then she ran into slappy the ganker.

I still could have gotten her to 68 if I'd really wanted to, but I just didn't want it badly enough to stay awake that long. There's always tomorrow, I should knock it out easily within the first hour and then get my training and be on my way to Northrend.

Day 4 - Return to Hellfire

Tonight Wicked returned victoriously to Hellfire Peninsula. Or as the rest of the alliance has called it since Wrath of the Lich King launched, Gankfire Peninsula.

See, it seems like even though WOTLK is out, not everybody on the horde side is interested in levelling. At least five or six level 70s decided to fly around ganking everybody they can find. It's not a challenge for them - they're just being jerks. It's why I left the zone at level 60 instead of 62 or 63 like I normally would.

Well, tonight I came back to go from level 66 to level 67. I still had several quests in the zone, with more to get. I did most of them, including a few group quests. Wicked did die a couple of times tonight to the horde, but she also took a couple of them with her, including Neonecro the level 70 paladin who then had to get his buddies to help him. Then I tanked Blood Furnace, followed by DPSing for Hellfire Ramparts. That's when I dinged, about 6 pulls from the first boss.

I learned today that Death Knights can in learn one and two-handed maces, they just don't start with those skills. So, I picked them up in Ironforge.





Finally, once Wicked trained her new skills and hearthed to Dalaran, she decided to revisit certain parts of it. She found the spot where she acquired Bob again, and the shark had been replaced with a new Shark! She took note of it's name this time (I added screenshots to the initial Dalaran post), Segacedi . Level 74. She killed it all by herself, too.


One more thing happened. I'm not sure what, exactly, or whether I had anything to do with it, though it's fun to think so. There's an exit from Dalaran in the sewers that is meant to be flown out of (or into). If you jump out of it, you'll fall to your death if you don't have any way of slowing yourself. Well, there I am standing at the tunnel mouth taking in the view (which is breathtaking) and this horde on a kodo comes barreling by me and immediately plummets to the ground. Now, I watched carefully and couldn't see what happened when they landed, so I don't know if they died, popped some kind of slow fall device, teleported away, or what. But right after that another horde nearly did the same thing only stop barely stop in time, sit there a second or two, then turn around and leave. Heh.

I wonder whether Wicked can keep up the one level per night. Maybe 68, maybe 69, but I sort of doubt she'll be able to reach 70 from 69 in a single night. We'll see. I don't know whether or not she can or should hit Northrend at 68, or what. I'll try to find out.

Necrowhatnow?

Wicked's guild is Necromonger. What's a Necromonger? She's glad you asked! The word comes from the movie Chronicles of Riddick, which was an enjoyable action movie. Necromongers are this militaristic nation of people who worship death, seek out an alternate reality called the Underverse, and destroy everything along the way.

From the Wikipedia entry:

The film opens with a narrative, explaining the presence of the Necromongers, a race of pilgrims travelling across the universe in search of the Underverse. Their leader, the "holy half-dead Lord Marshal" (Colm Feore), systematically commands his Necromonger Legion Vast to overrun worlds and convert its inhabitants into Necromongers; those that oppose conversion die.

From the IMDB site:

They are an army unlike any other... crusading across the stars toward a place called UnderVerse, their promised land - a constellation of dark new worlds. Necromongers, they're called. And if they cannot convert you, they will kill you. Leading them, the Lord Marshal. He alone has made a pilgrimage to the gates of the UnderVerse... and returned a different being. Stronger. Stranger. Half alive and half... something else. If we are to survive, a new balance must be found. In normal times, evil would be fought by good. But in times like these, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil.

So basically combine Death Knights with Draenei and poof - Necromongers. Only mine's a gnome!

Tanking Mana Tombs

Tanked Mana Tombs last night at level 65. It was not only fun but a great learning experience. Had a great group for it - I was the only Death Knight there! In addition to me we had a Warlock, and Shadow Priest, and Holy Priest, and a Retribution Paladin. Some were my level (65) a few were lower than that.

So far, Tanking as a Death Knight means that I put on Frost Presence and then make sure I hold aggro while trying to use as many healing strikes as I can manage. Her build is something I made up as I went along, not sure what she'll end up with but there are already a ton of options. Hopefully soon we'll be able to see what shakes out as the best.

Through the entire thing she only died once, and was able to help kill the last few mobs as a ghoul, and even then the group didn't wipe - ever. She also had far and away the most DPS because of all of her AOE skills. Still, it was very valuable to me as I had to learn to stop spamming things randomly and start spamming them on purpose.

I went on to do several more quests in the Auchindoun area, soloing several meant for two or three people. She got several upgrades. Here's her gear list at the moment:

Wicked L66 Gnome Death Knight Unholy/DPS 2/0/55 HKills: 75 HP 6529 Armor: 5427 Power: 970 Hit: 16 Crit: 11.69 Avg item level: 84

Head: Greathelm of the Scourge Champion Quest Plate Plaguelands: The Scarlet Enclave/An End To All Things... 70
Neck: Pendant of Battle-Lust Drop Miscellaneous The Blood Furnace/The Maker 88
Shoulders: Blood-soaked Saronite Plated Spaulders Quest Plate Plaguelands: The Scarlet Enclave/Scarlet Armies Approach... 70
Chest: Fel Iron Breastplate Crafted Plate Fel Iron Breastplate/Blacksmithing 102
Waist: Reaver Girdle Drop Plate Dun Morogh/Omar's Magic (Tapped) Chest 102
Legs: Consortium Plated Legguards Quest Plate Terokkar Forest/Undercutting the Competition 97Feet: Flesh Beast's Metal Greaves 97
Wrists: Nexus-Bracers of Vigor Drop Plate Mana-Tombs/Nexus-Prince Shaffar 97
Hands: Bloodbane's Gauntlets of Command Quest Plate Plaguelands: The Scarlet Enclave/The Path Of The Righteous Crusader 70
Ring1: Keleseth's Signet Ring Quest Miscellaneous Plaguelands: The Scarlet Enclave/How To Win Friends And Influence Enemies 70
Ring2: Valanar's Signet Ring Quest Miscellaneous Plaguelands: The Scarlet Enclave/If Chaos Drives, Let Suffering Hold The Reins 70
Trinket1: Signet of the Dark Brotherhood Quest Miscellaneous Plaguelands: The Scarlet Enclave/A Sort Of Homecoming 70
Trinket2: Soul Harvester's Charm Quest Miscellaneous Plaguelands: The Scarlet Enclave/The Gift That Keeps On Giving 70
Back: Dark Cloak of the Marsh Quest Cloth Zangarmarsh/Lost in Action 94
Mainhand: Dragonbone Greatsword Quest Two-Handed Swords Terokkar Forest/Evil Draws Near 102
Ammo: Sigil of the Dark Rider Quest Sigils Plaguelands: The Scarlet Enclave/Into the Realm of Shadows 70

Wicked infests Dalaran

A day or two ago Wicked was in Stormwind visiting the bank when she heard a down-on-their-luck (or slightly deranged) mage offering portals to Dalaran for 5 gold. Why not? She'd heard that there were portals there to all the other places she might want or need to go, so it would be an ideal spot from which to SLAUGHTER THE LIVING relax in.

First, she successfully set her hearthstone there. They look at her a little funny when she shows up and a zombie crawls out of their floor but hey what are you gonna do?

Next she went in search of the portals. Sure enough, all the alliance hubs and even one back to Shattrath - perfect! She noticed that there were some Battleground Portals, including one called Lake Wintergrasp. She took that one thinking it would either put her in the Battleground or simply refuse because she was only level 65. Not so much. What it did do was send her through a one-way teleporter to a place with a flight path (got that at least) that she has no connections to. She was surrounded by level 73 elementals so she wisely decided not to go exploring.

This could have been a problem - her hearth was down, but was she stuck? No! One Deathgate later and she was flying from Acherus to Ironforge where she participated in her first ever Alterac Valley battle. She lost, but not without having a blast terrorizing all the Drek'Thar defenders by Death Gripping them to the attackers. And Death & Decay. Lots of that.

Eventually her hearthstone recharged and she used it to reach Dalaran. The bartender looks really discomfited, but then that seems to be most people's reaction upon seeing her.

She explored the area under the city proper, and picked up a ghostly skull which she named Bob because honestly that's the only thing a Skull can be named.


While shopping for Bob she encountered a level 73 named shark in the shopping area.

It bit her so she levelled up her 2h axe on it, eventually killing it. (A bemused Tauren helped finish it off.)


Went to a fancy restaurant (another portal you go in) and found out that yes, you can jump off. Cratered*. Eventually found corpse.

Next, she found the exit gem thingy that teleports you to the ground. Ran around a little and tried to talk to a yellow (level > me) ghost. Not so much - wound up with this level 75 thing attacking her. Ran back to the crystal and tried to click it. Can't while in combat. Eventually wound up getting some poor level 80 Tauren warrior killed. (Not that he'll ever read this, but if he does, sorry!)

Got the main flight path, which does NOT connect directly to lake Wintergrasp.

About this time Wicked started to yawn, so she went to sleep.


*Cratered: In old school FPS (Quake) parlance, to die from falling too far.

Introduction

Hi, this blog will chronicle the journey of Wicked the Gnome Death Knight girl. Like most good things in my life, she happened by accident. I have 6 level 70 characters and didn't intend on making or playing a Death Knight until much later.


Why a Death Knight?


It all started when my mage found himself questing in an area surrounded by horde, with no friends or allies available. It's not the ganking I mind, it's when I can't complete quests or even hardly see the quest givers in the see of red. So I decided to take a break and check out a Death Knight. It's been a blast and my poor 70s (two of which are near 71 now) are growing impatient for their turn.


Why "Wicked"?


A friend had the name Wicked much earlier in the game's history, but one day they decided to server transfer and let me know to pick up their name if I wanted it. So I did, mainly because I had an empty character slot. Two expansions later there's a new class and a saved name just waiting to be used. The name didn't come without a mental cost though. Here's what I was greeted with shortly after creation.

Seriously... what the hell?



Why a Gnome?


This is tougher: First, it seems very ironic, which appeals to me. I mean, we have this new Death Knight class that's meant to look like this:

Instead, they see this:














Second, it's harder to target her in PVP. The racial abilities aren't as good as others for a Death Knight, but there you go. The idea behind Death Knights is that they are reanimated bodies with evil spirits in them. So how much more aggressive and evil would a spirit be once it found out it had been stuck inside a chipper, spasmodic pink-pigtailed Gnome? Pretty darned Evil. Pure RAGE comes to mind. PURE RAGE DOESN'T BEGIN TO COVER IT PUNY MORTAL!

History
Wicked doesn't think much about her past. Was her name always Wicked? Did she always cause so much trouble? She's not sure. (But it's likely.) I WAS SCHEDULED TO BE IMPLANTED IN A DRAENEI. WHY WAS I NOT IMPLANTED IN A DRAENEI? WHO GOT MY DRAENEI!? SOMEONE OWES ME A DRAENEI!

Why Death Mite?
I heard someone reference Gnome Death Knights as Death Mites and I liked it, though they were using it as an insult. So here's to you, haters.