The trouble with Soulshards

Just a few days ago a fellow Witch of Darkshire invited me along to Uldaman. I agreed to accompany the priest as I had been tasked by Advisor Belgrum in Ironforge to find the Tablet of Will deep within the heart of the Uldaman cave system.

I flew to my old stomping ground, Loch Modan and then summoned my Felsteed to carry me into the Badlands. It was then that I checked my bags and realised, with horror, that I only had seven shards on me!

One of the very first things a young Warlock learns is that nothing in this life is free. Many of our more powerful abilities such as summoning our minions, creating Soulstones and healthstones all require, not only mana but also a Soul Shard.

Soul Shards are pretty, purple gems that are created by ripping the soul out of an unsuspecting target at the point of death. I have given a small amount of thought to what losing their soul means for the, now deceased, creatures at my feet and have decided that that will teach them to mess with a Gnome Warlock!

Oh! And one very important thing....Soul Shards can only be acquired by killing an enemy that yields xp.

This is where things got a little bit difficult for me. I couldn't actually find anything in the Badlands that yeilded xp...."Well, I was sure to find something inside the instance that would" I reasoned. And until then, 7 shards would have to do!

Now it's rare that this Warlock makes a mistake, and even rarer that she'll admit to it. But on this particular occaision, and in hindsight, it was a pretty damn funny one! Still flexing my new affliction muscles I was playing around with my various spells and their hotkey positioning. Whilst doing this, I also decided to mixup my Voidwalkers command keys. Well, I was in an instance well below my level, it would be fine if I hit the wrong key wouldn't it? They say that pride goeth before a fall, and indeed this Gnome, despite her small stature, had a long way to fall!

In a moment of pure insanity I swapped my Sacrifice button for my attack button. Well, I would find it quickly, in an emergency, if it was at the front of the list wouldn't I? And then we ran around a corner and into a nest of scorpids!

I dutifully sent my Voidwalker into battle and set about raining fire on the nasty creatures. To my absolute dismay my Voidwalker had been killed by the Scorpids and sent back to the nether realms. So I patiently summoned him back and we set off. As we encountered a bat-like creature I sent him to attack, and he was slain again. What on earth was going on!? Then it hit me, like a bolt from the blue, or a small shimmering shield....which I had been wondering about....I was not sending my faithful minion to battle, I was sending him to his doom.

And now I had just one soul shard left and a party depending on me and no sign of anything that might grant me more shards. What an embarassment I was to my class! A warlock who had wasted her Soul Shards when she had precious few to begin with!?

I summoned my Void walker, using my final Soul Shard and then, woe! My ability to control it disappeared. Disconnecting and reconnecting was the advice I was given to solve the problem, but this would leave me soul shardless and petless and thus pretty useless. What a fool to have gotten myself into this mess! I was too mortified to explain to my waiting party the mistakes I had made that had lead to this show stopping situation. When I had a brain wave. I could set the attack button as a hot key and use that until another solution presented itself.

It was a good while, at least one full wipe, copious use of my imp and a very good lesson learned before I was able to acquire any more Soul Shards.

So, never again will I enter an instance without at least one bag full of Soul Shards! And that, is the trouble with them!

Affliction - The Way Forward

It's not all fun and games for a small, but perfectly formed, Warlock you know! I have been working hard exploring my new talents and let me tell you, I like what I see. I like it a lot!

I am causing my enemies considerable distress and not even having to pause for breath. I put my new talents to the test during a quest to kill Blacklash and Hematus, two dragons in the Badlands and then again when dealing with an unruly Princess in the Arathi Highlands, both with the help of a Warrior, Rogue and Priest. Despite running low on both mana and health I was able to use Dark Pact, draining mana from my imp and replace my health by draining the life of the target enemy.

Solo play was a little more tricky and at first I thought this path was not as ideal for 'grinding' as others would have me believe. But there's a trick to it all! Using my Voidwalker to act as my tank I was able to stand back and load up my target with Damage Over Time (dots) curses and spells. If I had enough mana I could blast them with shadow bolt, rarely grabbing their attention but taking them down quickly enough. If my mana's running low I simply use Life Tap to convert my life force into mana and then, having covered them in dots I use drain life, which seems to do a similar amount of harm to them as shadow bolt.

A steady rate of combat that required no down time even when killing enemies equal to or in excess of my experience level!

And of course there's nothing that makes a Warlock happier than watching their enemies writhing around on the floor, suffering from Curse of Agony, whilst being stomped on by a pissed off Voidwalker shortly before you drain the last of their life blood..... Who would have thought that work could be so much fun!?

The Big Five-Oh!

Today I reached the heady heights (no mean feat for me that's for sure!) of level 50! Every even level 'ding' is exciting, because it means new spells and thus more power, but there's something very satisfying about reaching such a respectable level.

I celebrated in Gadgetzan in Tanaris by dancing with my somewhat over enthusiastic Voidwalker in the inn. A guild member later commented that Voidwalkers need love too. I however, know full well that my VoidWalker was just hoping that I would trip over, accidently breaking his bonds on the way so that he could rip me limb from tiny limb and scatter me about the place before heading off to wreak havoc on the rest of unsuspecting Azeroth. Little Gnome Warlocks like me don't place with fluffy pussy cats like so many hunters, no, we summon evil denizens of nether realms to do our bidding and we not only understand the dangers involved, we actively revel in them!

Weary from all the celebratory dancing, and tired of skipping over various tendrils sent out by my Voidewalker,I hopped on a Griphon and flew back to Ironforge to see what my friends in the Cavern had to teach me. The answer was frustratingly little :( Advancements to existing spells, but nothing new.

More than a little disappointed I was about to head off in search of some distraction when I was stopped by one of the trainers who said that an imp friend of his had requested a delivery of Felcloth. The imp, who goes by the name of Impsy (no really!) was waiting for me in the wilds of Felwood. Unexplored territory for this little gnome!

So I'll be hopping on my Felsteed to ride as fast as I can to Felwood, clutching my Felcloth. Hmmm, can anyone else see a pattern here?

Proper Warlock

Just a few days ago I found myself in Ironforge, a noisy and smokey city built in the heart of the mountains of northern Dun Morogh and the hub of Azeroth. I love to spend time in the Forlorn Cavern, paddling in the small pool or chatting with one of the Warlock trainers. If I'm not in the Cavern then I'll be in Tinker Town brushing up on my engineering skills.

I visited the post box in The Commons and had to use all of my, very limited, self control to stop myself from cursing (and yes, I mean with Agony) the highly impolite people who were literally jumping the queue! When you're just three and a half feet tall, having a bunch of Night Elves and humans leaping all over the place is more than a little worrying!

Imagine my surprise and delight when I found a small package waiting for me! Yippee! Hurray! I cried, jumping about with such enthusiasm and excitement that I nearly dropped the package, not to mention falling off my moral high ground on complaints of jumping!

Inside the package was a wonderful gift. A pair of made-to-measure Shadoweave Shoulders! Not only are they all mine with great bonuses to shadow damge, but they are also proper, official, Warlock shoulder armour! A lovely garish lilac and silver design, could they possibly belong to any other class? Even a Mage wouldn't be seen dead sporting such flamboyancy!

Why are you getting so excited about some purple and silver shoulders? You might ask. Well they are my very first piece of armour that distinquishes me from all the other 'Squishies'. I am a Warlock, not a simple 'caster'. And, of course, the bold, bright colours are a brilliant irony, that only the dark heart of a Warlock can appreciate ;)

Getting to know me

• Full Name: Ary of Kharanos
• Righty or Lefty: Lefty
• The Clothes you wore today: Grimlock's Tribal Vestments and Stoneweaver Leggings
• The shoes you wore today: Abjurer's Boots of the Eagle
• Your fears: Being the minion and not the mistress!
• Your most overused phrase: Yipeeeee! Hoooray!
• Morning Glory Dew or Moonberry Juice: Morning Glory all the way!
• Single or group dates: Single, easier to curse without an audience.
• Do you Smoke: Only after casting Hellfire
• Do you Curse: Curse of Agony is my favourite, but I also have Curse of Weakness, Curse of Elements, Cures of Tongues, Curse of Shadow.......
• Do you shower daily: I sometimes swim in the sea, does that count?
• Do you have a crush: Yes, but I think he's too tall for me :(
• Do you believe in yourself: I have the power to bring people to their knees!
• Do you like thunderstorms: If I'm friends with the Druid summoning it oh yes.
• Have you ever flown: Yes, regularly on a Gryphon, and once Gahz'rilla threw me in the air. That was SO much fun!
• Have you ever been intoxicated: No. You don't want to be around a drunk Warlock!
• Gotten beaten up?: A Warlock never loses. And if they do, they wouldn't tell anyone!
• Been in a fight: Daily!
• How do you want to die?: Close enough to a priest to be ressurected with all my faculties intact.
• What do you want to do as a career: Inflict pain and misery on all who oppose me!
• When have you cried the most?: When my Compact Harvest Reaper died before I could get my repair kit out.
• What's the best feeling in the world?: Watching my foe writhing in pain after I've cast Curse of Agony at them.
• Worst Feeling?: Losing a Need Roll.

So it begins

You join me, mystery reader, at a turning point in my career as a Warlock. I say career, but it is of course a vocation, a calling...part of my deepest core. This may have something to do with some parchment I signed just before getting my first lesson......

I have realised that the time has come to get serious about my path!

Having had a small wake up call in the cave system of Maraudon I spent at least 10 minutes feeling sorry for myself. What!? I was only doing 10% of the damage!? Surely this can't be right!!! I leave a firey trail of destruction everywhere I go.....

But, alas, it seemed it was time to grow up. I needed to stop playing with fire and, although my succubus, Jhorlia, complained bitterly at the removal of her Improved Lash of Pain, it was only right that I take high ground and start inflicting miserable illness and disease on all who opposed me!

So! Off I went down the path of Affliction. There are many benefits to this new route, not least that I am now able to feed off my minions! *cackles evilly*

Initial test drives have proved very positive. When out hunting with a warrior we were able to keep up a fair rate of combat and I did not need to stop for food/drink at any point, draining mana from my imp (who I was keeping out of combat most of the time) and using health drain to top up my health.

Only when I went for a little solo jaunt did things get a little more involved, as I needed my VoidWalker to keep the nasty critters away from me, but he, entirely incosniderately imo, insisted on using up all his mana! Even with this slight set back I am sure we made much better progress than I did before.

That Princess Theradras has got it coming that's for sure!!!