Lord Jaraxxus Down!

Server second this time. Not bad for our little backwater realm.

Now ranked 2nd.

Northrend Beasts Down

Last night we finally downed Icehowl on 25 man heroic. That puts us back up into 3rd place rank on server.

Into The Matrix

(This was originally posted by me as a response to a comment on a thread on my Guild's forum.)

Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place? - Morpheus

This place is built on rules. – Morpheus

The analogy between World of Warcraft and the Matrix is an easy and obvious one, but with some important limits. Unlike the Matrix, the World of Warcraft(WoW, henceforth) is a video game world and is therefore defined by and limited by mathematical models and logical rules. In the Matrix, we had to suspend the rule that all computer systems have an upper bound on computing capacity, and that the human mind, and its interface to the computer, were explicitly unlimited by the rules of the system within which it operated. Specifically, the humans in the matrix were not limited by their interface to the system, nor were they limited by the rules of the system itself, so that they could beat the system simply by thinking faster than, or ignoring the program rules. In WoW, however, the rules define the limits, and the goal is to perform at the upper boundary allowed by the rules.

This is why I have been thinking about UI's, add-ons, keybindings, and mice lately. Let us start at the beginning, with some basic premises.

1. The World of Warcraft is a mathematical system defined by rules. Therefore, virtually every possibility can be factored in and calculated.

2. Every class has an optimal spec and rotation that has been mathematically tested and proven for, say, maximum dps.

3. Random events such as trinket procs can be modeled and factored into our understanding of the world model.

4. Situational and world variables require the player to act and react appropriately, and this is where skill is primarily a factor.

5. Knowledge of the rules and limits, as well as understanding their implications and acting on them, can also be viewed as skill.

6. The characteristics built into your gear define a mathematical upper bound on a player's performance.

7. I include reflexes, effectiveness in using the physical UI, and other factors in player skill. For good or ill, everything from the wall to the chair is part of 'player skill'.

Given the premises above, it stands to reason that two players of the same class and spec should be using the same rotation, and if they are equally geared and executing their rotations correctly in a Patchwerk-style fight(which is used because you mostly just stand there and shoot) then they should have very similar dps output. Hopefully my fellow warlocks won't mind my using our class as an example.

Assuming for a moment that Demoncam, Lanfear, and Ayonel (all 0/13/58 destro locks in the same raid group, although with a few talent point variations) are doing our jobs correctly, and factoring in distractions like getting hit by fire bomb or some other thing that requires us to interrupt spellcasting, any difference in dps should be attributable to gear. The longer a fight lasts, and the more fights you participate in, the greater the convergence should be.

In the case of Wednesday night's raid, I was comparing Lanfear and myself. While there was quite a bit of variability from fight to fight, and he usually does more dps than me, over the course of the evening we were generally within 100 dps overall. Since we are roughly geared the same(he is ~100 gear points higher, has more spell power and haste) any differences in performance that are not attributable to gear can be attributed to skill, less some adjustment for situational variables.

My reason for making this comparison is not whether one of us is better than the other. Rather, I'm thinking: if there is something that I can change to become better, then he can do the same, and vice versa, and the whole group is better for it. Therefore, if someone is using a particular mouse, keybinding setup, add-on, or other tool that works better than mine, I want to know about it and try it out. If there is a secret sauce, I want it. Once we get to a point where each person is using equivalent tools, optimal specs, and efficient interfaces, then we can attribute other differences to situational awareness and skill of execution. While I can concede that Demoncam may be a better player than me, whatever differences between us are not attributable to gear or skill, I should be able to replicate to remove controllable variables.

A bigger gun

This brings us to the next issue, which was, obliquely, the point of my post. I don't think that the team analogy is a perfect one here, although it does highlight many valid points. I think of it rather as a combat troop analogy. Let's look at the following scenario:

We are a group of 25 soldiers going into combat to take out an enemy position. If we fail, we all die, and our base gets destroyed. If we succeed, some of us may die, but some or all will live, and the base is safe. So we organize our squads such that the best combat fighters go in as the combat team, and the least experienced fighters lay down cover fire as a support team. The support team may be more expendable, but they are less likely to succeed if you send them in, so you make the counterintuitive decision to send in your best people in hopes that the support team can give them the time they need to succeed.

So the solution is to give the support team bigger guns. In real combat, this would be a bad decision because a guy who is incompetent with an M-16 could be absolutely devastating to our own troops with a grenade launcher(It's funny, but it doesn't seem like friendly fire when your own people are shooting at you). But in our game world, since our weapons don't hurt each other, everyone can have nuclear weapons for all we care. This allows the support team to have the biggest impact for as long as they survive, and increases the likelihood of overall success.

Concluding with the sports team analogy, I agree that our goal is to have everyone strive to be the best player possible, and while recognizing that some people are and may always be better than others, we want to give everyone the incentive to be a better player, be as effective as possible, and improve their play, so that the average players are better than most.

And giving them bigger guns doesn’t hurt.

How Joining a Hard-Core Raiding Guild Saved my Life

I've heard it time and time again. The story about the guy who got so addicted to WoW, or World of Warcraft, in the incredibly unlikely case someone who doesn't play reads this, that his life fell apart. He lost his job, his family, his kids, his girlfriend. He had to go into therapy, stop playing altogether, and now he haunts 12-step programs and hangs around Dunkin' Donuts all night telling everybody just how fucking happy he is in that shrill, vindictive tone that tells the world he knows he isn't fooling anyone.

So yeah, maybe I play WoW a bit too much. Maybe I play it a lot too much. But what are the alternatives?

1. Watch TV 5 hours a night while drinking enough beer to make a grizzly bear comatose. Well, this has obvious downsides, and besides, there ain't a damned thing on. Plus, it costs a lot of money if you like good beer.

2. Develop internet porn habit. This gets expensive once you start paying for it, it causes marital stress in many cases, and if you have kids you are definitely going to get in trouble when your 6 year old daughter asks Mom if she likes double chocolate DP and if it is good with jimmies. And then there is the issue of just how much one person can masturbate, and whether you want to find out...

3. Have an affair. Okay, let's get this out of the way. It really isn't for me. My life is complicated enough with one woman in it. The last thing I need is another one. In this scenario, everyone is unhappy and it costs you a lot of money.(Besides, I actually love my wife. And she isn't make-believe, or inflatable.)

4. Get into politics. That's right. If I wasn't worried about getting the daily done or watching the timer on Wintergrasp, I might start paying attention to how badly the Democrats are screwing up everything they touch, and then I'd have to get involved. Don't make me write a letter.

So, having discussed at least some of the more obvious alternatives, let's conclude that playing WoW isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that the issue is how much time you spend playing it.

For many people, they feel compelled to play constantly because they don't want to miss anything. Even long after they have done their dailies, worked the Auction House, and run a few battlegrounds, they stay on because they are afraid that a raid might come up and that could drop the best-in-slot Hammer of Ura Pente, which would make them the most uber-est of pallys in all of pally-land.

Basically, they are in a crappy guild, and can't run any decent raids, so they play constantly in hopes that they will find a pug(pick-up group) of people they can raid with. Only it doesn't happen because almost everyone in a pug is hoping that you will carry them so that they can get the Hammer of Fucking Uber. Do you see where this is going?

So enter the Hard-Core Raiding Guild. Ostensibly, this is a group of assholes and jerks who are so good that they treat everyone like crap and are no fun to be around, and none of them actually enjoy playing WoW because they are focused on 'progession'. At least, this is what all the scrubs, M&S, or whatever other term for loser you prefer, say. This is the standard mythology that the majority of WoW players buy into in order to justify why they aren't running end-game content and HC guilds are. The alternative is to admit that they suck. Or at least, that the majority of the people in their guild suck.

Let's be clear about this. WoW is a fun, and incredibly complex, game. You can spend hundreds, even thousands, of hours playing and never do all the things that can be done.

And yet...

In order to become one of the highest ranked players on my realm, I press, on average, 6 buttons repeatedly. Yes, I have read extensively on my class, and have built my character around the most powerful configuration possible. But all of the information is available on-line, none of it is more complicated than you want it to be, and once set up, 6 buttons.

In my old guild, I was a good player, and I did my job, and we wiped all the time. I was a top-dps player. In my new guild, I do my job, and I am average dps. The difference isn't anything I do, but that everyone else I play with is that much better. I am doing the best I can as a warlock, and am roughly in line with the other locks, taking gear and experience into account. But all the other players are also doing their best with their class, and they simply do more dps than warlocks.

But back to my point. Playing WoW constantly is, I think, a function of not getting to do the things that you want to do. For me it was. Now that I am in a top-ranked guild on my server, I raid the nights that raids are scheduled, and the other nights I can play or not play, do what I want, and enjoy the game.

The key thing is that I know that on raid nights, I will be running content that is sufficiently challenging and rewarding that it is worth the time and effort, and I don't need to waste my time looking for something more.

What price victory?

Last night we went into Ulduar. Just the 10 of us. Not much in the way of guild leadership. A couple of what I'll call incidental officers. But mainly, some of the best players in the guild.

The experience was eye-opening, to say the least. By eliminating the guild politics which would dictate loading the raid either with officers or with scrubs that need gear and simply taking a bunch of guys who play well, are geared, and like playing together, we downed 6 bosses, 4 one-shots, 2 hard modes, and a few hard mode attempts. This is unprecedented in our guild, or at least in my experience in my guild.

The only downside was that we had to disenchant almost every piece of gear that dropped because no one wanted it. But even that was better than having to deal with 10 people rolling on every item and having no chance of winning the trinket you need after 4 months of raiding because 9 new people in greens are in the raid contributing their 600 dps vs Gluth and thereby earning the BiS trinket.

The lesson here for me was that you have to make decisions in life, and come to terms with what you have. In this case, it's that we(the guild) can field a really solid 10 man team, and even have a few extra people. Or we can field a 25 man team that can only run easy content because we are carrying 5-10 raid members. On ten man, we can one-shot bosses in hard mode, even though some guys haven't been into Ulduar before. On 25, we run hot and cold, and depending on who shows up one night, we either one-shot everything or we wipe all night.

For me, this is a no-brainer. I would rather take on the hardest content in any format and down bosses, run hard-modes, etc. Sure, it's a drag there's no gear in it for me, but whatever. As much as I'd like to run 25's, i do not want to spend my time on fights i already know, passing on loot I don't need or won't win, and collecting emblems I can't use. I also don't like paying the opportunity cost of missing dailies, VoA pugs(the stuff that is easy but we don't run as a guild), oh, and going out with my wife on weekend nights, for the benefit of others.

It seems like there is a decision to be made.

A Gem Primer

A friend recently realized that when killing creatures in certain dungeons, she gets gear that can be socketed with gems to make the gear even more powerful. So, she said, what gems should I use? The answer, of course, is it depends.

The types of gem items

Gems as items, like other magical gear, can be green, blue, or purple, which represents uncommon, rare, and epic quality. The quality of the gem will determine its rarity, the amount of improvement it provides, and how much it costs. A raw gem is of no particular use until a jewelcrafter cuts it into a specific finished stone.

The color of gems

The color of gem slots may be red, yellow, blue, or meta. Meta slots hold special gems and are typically only found on head gear. Meta gems typically confer two distinct benefits. The color of a gem slot is important because socketing the correct color gem in a given slot(red-red) will activate a 'socket bonus': if every gem slot contains a matched gem you receive an additional stat increase, i.e. a weapon with a blue slot gives +7 haste if a blue gem is socketed.

Gems themselves may be red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, prismatic, or meta. Purple, orange, and prismatic gems are noteworthy for two reasons: First, they will match multiple sockets; second, they confer 2 attributes, one from each of the primary colors they represent. However, they provide less of each. Further, these hybrid gems count as either color when socketed.

Orange - will match a red or yellow slot
Purple - will match a red or blue slot
Green - will match a blue or yellow slot
Prismatic - will match any slot
Meta - matches a meta slot

Meta gems typically require a number of other gems of specific color to be 'activated'. For example, an Ember Skyflare Diamond requires three red gems to be active, that is, to confer +25 spell power and +2% Intellect. This could be any combination of three red, orange, or purple gems.

How gem naming works

Gem names are as follows:

[Perfect] (Description)(Stone Type)

Green quality stones are unique in that a jewelcrafter will occasionally cut a 'perfect' gem. For example, a runed bloodstone gives +14 spell power, while a perfect runed bloodstone gives +16 spell power. These represent an excellent value as they typically sell for a little more than the standard gem, but are almost as good as the blue quality gem selling for many times more gold. Blue and purple quality stones cannot be perfect, at least as far as I know.

The Description tells you what the stone does, that is, it tells you the attributes conveyed by the stone. All 'Reckless' stones, for example, will be orange stones that provide spell power and haste.

The Stone Type primarily identifies the specific stone, which will essentially indicate the quality of the stone and thus the magnitude of the benefit provided.

A bit more on gem quality

The quality of a gem determines its cost, but the benefit is subject to diminishing returns. For example(prices are AH average on my realm):

Runed bloodstone +14 spell power cost: 8-15 gold
perfect runed bloodstone +16 spell power cost: 12-20 gold
runed scarlet ruby +19 spell power cost: 60-100 gold
runed cardinal ruby +23 spell power cost: 200-250 gold

As you can see, the additional cost for 7 spell power(moving from bloodstone to cardinal ruby) is 200 gold. Yet many people will pay for it, and progression guilds will require blue, or now, epic, gems be socketed. My opinion, and advice, is to buy perfect gems when you can and use them on your average gear. Spend the gold on high level gems when you get a tier piece or other equipment that you anticipate using for some time. Not everyone agrees with this, but it is the most efficient plan unless you are pushing the limits of your class performance.

Where to get gems

The easiest place to get gems is the Auction House(AH). If you are there all the time, as I am, a quick scan shows you what is of interest to you, whether there are deals to be had, and what perfect gems are out there. If you see a deal, or something you want, and can afford it, pick it up. My assumption is that you know the general ranges of price and use Auctioneer and therefore have a good idea what is a deal and what isn't.

A better solution is available to anyone who is in a decent guild: either buy the raw gems (at lowest prices possible) from the AH, or get them from the guildbank stock, and have a guild jewelcrafter make them for you. This will lower your costs significantly and allow you to consider epic quality gems in your good gear, once you get it.

Another place to get gems is from Honor quartermasters and battleground quartermasters. You can buy epic raw gems for honor points in Orgrimmar, or wherever those Alliance dogs buy their honor gear, and then have the gems cut. This is an excellent value. The reason is that if you have been level 80 for more than a month and do even a moderate amount of PvP(i.e. Wintergrasp weeklies), you have probably purchased the best available honor gear and are honor capped. Epic gems are a way to spend honor and either improve your character or make some gold(they sell for ~200 each). Finally, cut meta gems and some other finished gems can be bought with shards from the Wintergrasp quartermaster, as can some enchants. Note that these are PvP-specific, but they are very reasonably priced.

What gems should I use?

This really depends on your class and your spec. As a destruction-specced warlock, I use mostly runed(+spell power) gems in red slots, reckless(+spell power + haste) in yellow slots, and purified(+spell power + spirit) in blue slots. The reason is that these all improve my spell damage or casting time. Specifically, they increase my primary and secondary attributes. You should determine which gems to use by reading up on your class and select gems of a color that matches your gear's sockets and provide the attributes most important to your class and spec.

Note that it is possible to socket all of the same gem in every socket. If the benefit of the primary stat is of key importance, and/or you don't have a meta gem socketed, and you don't care about the socket bonus, you could socket a specific gem in every socket(i.e red +spell power in all sockets regardless of color). However, if you are looking for multiple stats, then I think the hybrid color stones make more sense.

Hopefully this primer has given you a asic grounding in how to select, and what to look for, in gems. Good luck, and good adventuring.

Sapphiron Falls

After we regrouped, we attacked the giant bone dragon in his lair. We destroyed him at last. After he fell, we discovered a thing chain around his left paw. Dangling from it was a small orb that sparkled and shone with inner light. It seems to be filled with crackling energy. One of our loremasters said that he had heard of it, and that it opens a doorway into another realm where Malygos, the archdragon of the Nexus, resides.

Sadly, after battling Sapphiron, we were unable to kill Kel Thuzad. Too many days, too many battles. It was with bittersweet resignation that I left the halls of Naxxramas with its master still living. I shall have to return there after all.

a brief respite

I am completely exhausted. I have slept so little in the past few days that I can barely focus my thoughts. For the past several days, I have been in the dark halls of Naxxramas, along with my guild, where we have been fighting our way to Kel Thuzad. I do not know exactly how long we have been in here, but except for one brief period when I was needed to fight a monstrosity of metal and flame in the Titan's lair of Ulduar, I have not been outside of this place in days.

As I write this, I am sitting near a fire just outside the lair of Sapphiron. While the warmth does nothing for my cold, dead flesh, I still find that it provides me comfort. My fellow warriors are spread out in small groups around me, tending their wounds, repairing their gear, and sharpening their weapons. A few others are resting, preparing potions and elixirs, practicing their crafts, or preparing themselves mentally for what is to come.

This group, consisting of the best fighters and most powerful mages in our guild, along with some additional people we brought in to fill our ranks, has beaten back Maexxna, dispatched Loatheb, sent the Four Horsemen to the Hell where they belong, and finally, last night, killed Thaddius, that twisted creation of a madman. We tried to take down Sapphiron last night, and we almost succeeded, but she was too powerful, and we were simply too exhausted from the past days' exertion. After three tries, we retreated back to this spot, safe because the corridors are too narrow for the giant dragon to pass, and because Kel Thuzad has no more minions to send after us.

I ask myself why it matters that I, that we, must face and defeat Arthas' lieutenant. And I am not sure. There are certainly other formidable warlocks, more powerful warriors, who could take down Kel Thuzad with the same ease that we took down the Grand Widow. Yet we feel compelled to do it, to show that we, the Ravager clan, can face and defeat this threat. Glory, or perhaps riches, may drive each of us as individuals, but we want to do this as a guild. And this is the difficult part. Because we are not a large guild. The people arrayed around me are the same people I have been fighting with since I began wearing the tabard of my guild. But there are not enough of us to fight Sapphiron ourselves. And so our numbers are filled in with scavengers who hope to snatch up magical items they find before we get to them, or even while we still fight, and others who simply don't have the experience to be much help, but who joined us for the fame they think they will achieve for being here when Kel Thuzad falls.

But this is the truth of it: We are here, now. A place we have never been, fighting an enemy we have never faced before. We will destroy this dragon, and then we will crush the Lich King's minion. And if, after that, I never step into this hell of cold stone again, it will be too soon.

In any case, I have heard stories of greater challenges to the north.

On goblins and paupers

I work very hard to learn my craft and be the best that I can at it. I spend most of my time exploring shadow, flame, and dark spaces of the nether in order to find ways that I can extract more power from the forces I control. I recently started training myself to focus more on my fire spells and less on my powers of demonology. When I do this, I can no longer channel the forces needed to call forth a felguard, however my flame spells are more powerful, and I am able to focus my power into intense bursts that no shield may resist.

However, in order to spend my time training in the dark arts and adventuring in dungeons with my guild, I need to make money. I have noticed that this world seems to be broadly segregated into two groups; those with gold and those without it. Many people seem to spend endless days traveling the world, performing jobs for needy villagers, and then spend what they make having their gear fixed, buying potions, and on pets and mounts. They are always broke. There is nothing as sad as having to lend a powerful priest 14 gold so that he can have a blacksmith repair his armor before beginning an adventure. All that power, and they ask me for a drink.

As for me, while I am not rich, I have never had trouble making money. I prefer to make my money through my craft instead of helping villagers. Not that I don't like to help, but I can stay in the city, work quickly, and focus on my studies. I buy materials at auction, craft them into items that people need, and then sell them for a profit. Sometimes I find things people are selling for much less than other people, and so I buy those items and resell them for many times what I paid. As a result, when I get ready to enter a dungeon with my guild, I am repaired, have potions, feasts, and even flasks stuffed into my bags.

What is not clear to me is why some people don't seem to be able to get or keep gold. Every profession has a means to make money. Some more than others. A friend who is a paladin is an inscriber and I am afraid to think about how much money she has. Suffice to say that she usually has hundreds of glyphs for sale at any time. Me, I will usually have some bags for sale, maybe some enchanting materials, and a few items for resale. It isn't hard, and to the extent that it takes time, it takes less time than running around the world hoping someone will pay me 13.5 gold for killing some trolls. Although, I would do that for free.

Speaking of wasting time, I hate fishing. If not for making feasts for my friends, and the cost of the ingredients, I don't think I'd ever do it.

Magic and Mysteries

I use magic in all aspects of my life. I use shadow and flame, demons and curses to destroy my enemies and turn the world to my will. In my crafts, I extract magical elements from things that I find, and in turn use those elements to imbue my equipment with magical powers. I make special clothing and craft virtues into it such that it gives its wearer special abilities. I have achieved a high level of mastery at these crafts.

Yet for all my studies, for all my understanding of magic, this world is still a mystery to me. As I travel, I am often asked by those whose towns I frequent to assist them with things that they cannot do themselves. In return, they will often reward me with gold and some special piece of equipment. Even stranger, when I am with my guild in a dank, distant fortress, we sometimes come across very powerful pieces of armor or jewelry, presumably left behind by some forgotten adventurer who overestimated his or her own abilities. It is the nature of these things that confuses me most.

My guild and I recently banded together with some other hardy adventurers into the pit of Naxxramas, a truly Light-forsaken place inhabited by all manner of fiends under the control of Arthas' minion, Kel'Thuzad. We forayed into the area known as the Arachnid Quarter, so called because it is infested with all manner of foul spiders. We successfully slayed the Web Lord, and then the Grand Widow, both tales of their own, before taking on the giant spider-beast known as Maexxna.

This foul creature's lair was strewn with corpses, old, forgotten gear, and many disgusting yet unidentifiable piles. We set at her time and again, each time to be beaten back. Fortunately, we have shaman and priests among us who can control the very essence of life. (I control only death, and so I wonder at the conflict they feel when a lifegiver must, of needs, restore a life-taker.) We would regroup, prepare ourselves, and have at her again. Finally, the beast fell.

As we searched about the room, I came across a small charm on a thin chain. It was crafted of a dark metal I could not identify, and the chain, while thin, was exceedingly strong. The look of the thing told me it was very old, with an ornate, forbidding skull engraved on one side and some symbols that I could not decipher on the other. As soon as I picked it up I could sense the magic emanating from it.

I showed it to the others, and we priests, mages, and warlocks analyzed its function. It seemed to be somehow linked to me, though I do not know how or why. When the others held it, or tried to sense it, they got nothing. They agreed that I should keep it for now.

I looked at my new charm, and noticed that when I cast a spell, it seemed to glow a bit. The more powerful the spell, the more strongly it would glow, and the more I could sense its magic. In our next battle, as I was casting a spell that engulfs my enemy in flames, the charm began to glow quite brightly and surrounded me in a strange purple light. I could feel my magical powers grow, and suddenly, as I completed casting my spell, my enemy burst into flames with incredible intensity and died. After a few seconds, the charm stopped glowing and th light faded from me. This would repeat itself every so often. I came to understand that this charm was somehow charging itself, storing up my magical powers, and then releasing them in a burst of magic that made my spells much more powerful.

When I got back to Dalaran, I consulted one of the mage historians, who told me that such a charm is very rare and is called a 'Dying Curse' because its activation spell doom for the enemy of its user. The historian also told me that though the magic isn't well understood, such items are bound magically to a single person, whether it be the one who picks it up, or the one that it selects, and that none other may use it while that person lives.

That is all well and good, but where did this charm come from, and how did it come to be where I found it, and why did it choose me to carry it? These questions give me pause, and remind me that there is much that I still do not understand.

What are we fighting for?

I thought, perhaps, that I might start at the beginning. But there are more pressing needs. And that is a tale that can be told later.

For so long that time seems meaningless, or unmeasurable, I have sought to master the skills of my art. Through shadow magic and demonic mastery I sought to control the world around me and destroy the many creatures of evil that inhabit this world. Upon mastery of my skills, I swore to use my powers to destroy the Scourge and the minions of Arthas. And on some occasions, I have been able to band together with like-minded, worthy, and skilled adventurers into the hellish pit of Naxxramas, the Vault, and the Obsidian Sanctum.

But these adventures, while grand, are not the sole purpose of my being. They cannot be. Collecting trinkets here and there while slaying fierce armies of darkness seems almost meaningless when I look at the world around me. The Alliance encroaches upon us at every turn. And we, called the Horde by those who deny our right to exist, can barely see beyond our own petty interests.

My own people, the forsaken, are split. There are those who would see the Scourge encompass the world and destroy all life, out of some twisted sense of vengeance or simply pure evil. And there are those like myself, who understand our nature, but fight against the evil that brought us into existence. We are strong, but divided. The troll-kind are dedicated, but they lack both the numbers and the leadership to push back against the enemy we face. The noble Tauren, a humble people, are true and fierce warriors, but their own nature works against them, as they desire only peace in a world gone mad. They lack the cold, calculated willingness to kill that is all too abundant in my own people.

The blood elves, for all their decorum, polish, and knowledge, are almost useless. They would reclaim their place in the world, yet they dwell on ancient losses, maintain only defensive outposts, and even their greatest city is divided in half by its own people, passable in fractions by those who choose sides in a fight not worth waging.

It was, and is, with some alarm, and fair amount of surprise, that I found myself coming to understand that it is the brutish Orcs who best defend us. It is they who have taken an offensive posture against the Alliance, have set armies against the minions of the Scourge, and have stood as the last line of defense against Arthas, even to the point of fighting alongside the Alliance at times. The Orcs, while violent and uncouth, are a noble warrior people who have fought back time and again from the very brink of extinction, and they continue to fight that we all may survive.

So it has come that I have sworn my allegiance to Thrall, that I fight on the battlefields of Wintergrasp, and that I adorn myself in the armor of his warriors. I do not fully understand the nature of the weapons we employ, but I am a fierce defender of our Keep, and one of the best gunners around. When I am in a turret, no seige engines may approach our walls. When I man a seige engine, no tower may stand. I gladly fight, and fall, to defend our Keep from the Alliance, who would give us no peace on any terms.

And so yes, I fight for honor, and for glory, I also fight for Thrall. While Thrall lives, the Horde fights on.