The Light and How to Swing It: Looting Icecrown's lower spire
With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and helps with the puppet shows at the Argent Ren Faire up in Icecrown.
Sometimes, you just have that maddening compulsion to make your wish list of various things you want to acquire. I've got one on Amazon for a woodworking shop and another of things I want on WoW (which does happen to include a pony, Ghostcrawler). However, with the last of the loot being divvied up in these final days of Wrath, let's go through Icecrown Citadel and make a shopping list of gear we'd kill for.
Lord Marrowgar's frosty remains
After fighting waves of undead, tripping traps, and possibly even using crowd-control you've finally reached Marrowgar. He's got his own special issues that have you destroying spikes and the avoidance of fire that's really burning ice or something. I think he just pours out four bottles of freon. That's just my theory. Let's see what we pry from his cold, dead hands.
Holy
Frost Needle - 10 man - This one-handed sword isn't a great choice for your healadin. It has some hit on it, but if your weapon is lagging behind the rest of your gear, this would be a quick way to upgrade.
Ancient Skeletal Boots - 10 man - This set of boots goes for crit and mp5. It's also got two sockets.
Corrupted Silverplate Leggings - 10 man - These legs give you crit and haste and three sockets.
Coldwraith Bracers - 10 man - While these are spell mail instead of spell plate, they're not bad if you're looking for an upgrade. It's haste and mp5 gear with a red socket.
Sliver of Pure Ice - 10 man - Marrowgar drops this spellpower trinket with the on use ability to regain a bit of mana. The mana return is equivelant to about 67 mp5 in the long run which isn't that shabby all things considered. However, being an on-use trinket, you'll have to keep remembering to actually use it.
Marrowgar's Frigid Eye - 25 man - A nice little spell ring. It's also got some mp5, some haste, and a yellow socket for your gem of choice.
Rusted Bonespike Pauldrons - 25 man - These spell plate shoulders give you some crit and mp5. If you'd rather it have more of something, there are two gem slots awaiting blue and yellow gems.
Crushing Coldwraith Belt - 25 man - Here's a cloth belt that's sans spirit and sans hit which makes it a decent choice for pallies in need of healing upgrades. It's got two slots for gems, some crit, and a large chunk of haste.
Bulwark of Smouldering Steel - 25 man - Here's a spell power shield for you healadins. It's got a fair amount of crit and haste on it .
Protection
Marrowgar's Scratching Choker - 10 man - This tank neck-piece has a single blue socket (yay, stocket bonuse) and ups your dodge and parry. Defense rating on it is a little low in my opinion, but at these gear levels, the defense cap isn't usually an issue.
Bonebreaker Scepter - 10 man - This little mace is a really nice upgrade if you've been following the 10-man track. No sockets, but it has hit, dodge, and defense. I also like the model for it.
Bracers of Dark Reckoning - 25 man - Even more dodge/parry gear. As a tank, you start to miss seeing the occasional piece of block gear. However, this puppy has a good portion of its itemization towards stamina as well as including a yellow socket for gems.
Legguards of Lost Hope - 25 man - Protection pants sporting three gem slots (one of each). It's got a little bit of hit on it as well as some dodge. It also has a not insignificant amount of defense rating on there in case you want to swap some gear around.
Retribution
Citadel Enforcer's Claymore - 10 man - Oh, look it's a big two-handed sword. This puppy has a large chunk of hit on it as well as some crit. There's also a yellow socket that would fit a Bold Cardinal Ruby just as well as any yellow gem.
Gendarme's Cuirass - 25 man - Retadin pants with three, count'em three sockets (one in each color) with hit and crit as the equip stats.
Bryntroll, the Bone Arbiter - 25 man - Probably the best two-hander, besides Shadowmourne, we'll see until Cataclysm ships. My one complaint is that it's a fairly fast weapon, but the proc it has makes up for that. It has a chance on hit to steal over two thousand hit points from your opponent and thus boost you up. It also has two sockets on there, so you could significantly boost the strength if needed.
Lady Deathwhisper and her adds
Kill this, kite that, don't stand in bad stuff, and for the love of all that is sacred, don't tank her for too long. I'm still trying to figure out why she was delivering speeches while standing on an elevator. However, now that she's dead, let's go through her pockets.
Holy
Deathspeaker Disciple's Belt - 10 man - Again, we're taking a look at resto-shaman gear and in this case, a belt. It's stacking haste rating and mp5. It also has two gem slots on it which can be increased to three with a buckle.
Necrophotic Greaves - 25 man - Yes, I'm still looting shaman gear. We've got two gem slots, crit, and a fair chunk of mp5. If you're looking for haste, this is not the item for you.
Fallen Lord's Handguards - 25 man - Here we go, some real spell plate gloves. We've got our crit. We've got our haste. And most important, we've got two gem slots to play with.
Protection
Ghoul Commander's Cuirass - 10 man - Here's the first tanking chest upgrade you'll probably have in ICC. It has three sockets, two of which are even blue and uses the standard death knight tanking stats of defense, dodge, and parry.
Broken Ram Skull Helm - 25 man - This tanking helm has a meta socket as well as a red gem socket on it. As for equip stats, it's got defense, dodge, and hit. Another note is that it has almost twice as much stamina as it does strength (which will probably be doubled after gemming and enchanting).
Juggernaut Band - 25 man - This tanking ring has a red gem slot as well as the standard parry, dodge, and defense itemization.
Retribution
Deathspeaker Zealot's Helm - 10 man - This melee helm has a meta socket and a blue gem slot. As for equip stats, it's boasting some haste as well as a decent chunk of crit rating.
Whispering Fanged Skull - 10 man - Imagine an upgraded version of the old Mirror of Truth we got from the Emblem of Heroism badge vendor and that's what you're looking at here. Some nice crunchy crit with a side of attack power proc. Not a shabby trinket at all. I just wish it wasn't unique.
Ahn'kahar Onyx Neckguard - 25 man - This is hit and crit necklace with a blue gem socket tossed in for good measure. If you're using a blue gem to activate your helm's meta gem, you can put it in here for the +4 strength socket bonus. It's not much, but ever point of strength adds up.
Blood-Soaked Saronite Stompers - 25 man - These are more warrior dps boots than ret boots, but they've still got critical strike rating. The two gems slots are nice, but the armor penetration leaves me cold. These still might be an upgrade for you, so don't dismiss them immediately.
