The Light and How to Swing It: Looting Frostwing Halls and the Lich King

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.

This week we're taking a look at the paladin loot from the Frostwing Halls as well as the Lich King fight itself. As we come to the heart of the Citadel and the close of the expansion it's been a long journey for us paladins. We've been on top and on bottom and sometimes that was differing from day to day.

We're at a point where all three specs are powerful in their own right in PvE and two of which can definitely hold their own in PvP. Other than death knights, we are the most popular class on both faction sides and soon we will be welcoming a new race into our fold. Whatever the future might hold, we've been present at the center of most of the lore surrounding this expansion. I only hope that we can be the class to help shape more of the story in the expansions to come.

Now, let's get on to the loot.

Valithria Dreamwalker's dream booty...

Holy paladins, they've designed a fight specifically for you. Keep healing her and she'll take all of that extra that Holy Light normally over heals. Oh, the ret and prot pallies might toss a spare Lay on Hands her way as well. Every little bit helps.

• Holy

  • Stormbringer Gloves - 10 man - These are some Shammy gloves. If the mail wearers aren't using them, try and snag them. The crit and haste is nice as well as the two yellow sockets ripe for some Brilliant gems.

  • Emerald Saint's Spaulders - 10 man - These plate shoulders are stacked with a red and yellow gem socket. They've got crit and mp5, but I'd prefer haste for my build. To each their own.

  • Frostbinder's Shredded Cape - 25 man - This cape has crit and haste on it with a yellow gem slot to boot.

  • Snowstorm Helm - 25 man - Here's another shaman item. This helm has a meta socket as well as a blue gem slot. It has a decent amount of both crit and mp5.

  • Boots of the Funeral March - 25 man - These are some plate shoes (which would be pretty cold in the snow). They have two gem slots (red and blue) as well as about the same itemization in crit and mp5.

  • Leggings of Dying Candles - 25 man - The plate legs have a gem slot of each primary color as well as crit and mp5.

• Protection

  • Ironrope Belt of Ymirjar - 10 man - This plate belt has two blue gem slots which with some stamina gems in them would let you grab the +9 stamina socket bonus in addition to whatever you add with a belt buckle. As for the other stats, it has defense rating as well as parry and hit. The emphasis is on defense rating with these.

  • Noose of Malachite - 25 man - There is a yellow gem slot in this tanking necklace. It's sporting defense rating, dodge, and hit with the emphasis in that order.

  • Grinning Skull Greatboots - 25 man - These boots stack a lot of stamina in the main stats along side the yellow and blue gem slots. It focuses mainly on defense rating and dodge with some expertise on the side.

  • Devium's Eternally Cold Ring - 25 man - This tanking ring has defense rating and dodge as its equip stats along with a red gem slot.

• Retribution

  • Taiga Bindings - 10 man - Once you've assembled most of your best in slot gear, these wrists will end up being in your gear if you're Alliance. They're pretty good for Horde as well, but Alliance have that 1% extra to hit with a certain race in their raid. Otherwise, these are haste and crit gear with a big fat red socket in the middle of it.

  • Oxheart - 10 man - Not a bad mace at all if you're lagging behind the curve. The two gem slots mean you can add some strength and the crit doesn't hurt either. The expertise on it might make it attractive to a couple other specs though.

  • Coldwraith Links - 25 man - Here's your best belt until heroics if you're sticking with all plate. The two gem slots as well as the buckle you can add allows for another 60 or more strength. The critical strike rating doesn't hurt its beauty. The armor penetration is just along for the ride on this item.

  • Scourge Reaver's Legplates - 25 man - These legs are like most of the high level epics and have three gem slots; one in each color. The big chunk of crit as well as the nice chunk of haste make it a fairly nice item despite it not being a BiS piece.

Sindragosa's frosty bones...

Another undead frosty dragon. Again. We get it. Skeletal frost dragons look really cool (note, I really didn't intend that pun when I wrote it. It just kind of happened). However, there's always loot to be found wedged between their ribs.

• Holy

  • Robes of Azure Downfall - 10 man - This is a cloth chest piece. It's alright if you're looking for an upgrade, but being in cloth makes me feel a bit unprotected. There is a slight edge on stamina versus intellect on this item, but the three gem slots are nothing to scoff at. As far as the rest of the stats go, we're talking about haste with some crit lagging slightly behind.

  • Shoulderguards of Crystalline Bone - 10 man - A little more gear sniping from Shaman. These shoulders spend most of their stats on crit with haste falling behind it. To help out, there is a red and a yellow gem socket on it.

  • Lost Pavise of the Blue Flight - 10 man - Ah, a shield upgrade. This thing has close to 30 times the armor as that cloth chest piece we mentioned a moment ago. While we don't care that much about armor, it does have some haste and mp5 to add to our pool which is fine by me. No gem sockets though. Pity that.

• Protection

  • Scourge Fanged Stompers - 10 man - These are some universal plate tanking boots. There are a pair of blue sockets, so you can nab that socket bonus fairly easy. The equip stats favor dodge rating with defense rating coming up a little behind it. They also tacked on some hit rating just to round things out.

  • Sindragosa's Flawless Fang - 25 man - Big stamina trinket is big. Along side the effective health boost, the on use function of this thing raises your major spell resistances by 239 for ten seconds. It doesn't help against holy, but it's not often we're fighting anything that uses it against us inside the Scourge capital.

• Retribution

  • Etched Dragonbone Girdle - 10 man - Not a shabby little belt. It has a yellow and a red gem slot as well as whatever you add with the belt buckle. The critical strike rating takes up most of itemization on this pupy with some expertise on the side.

  • Legplates of Aetheric Strife - 10 man - These plate legs sport a gem slot in each color. It's main equip stat is armor penetration, but it does have a decent amount of crit on it as well.

• All Paladins

  • Conqueror's Mark of Sanctification - 25 man and heroic 10 man - Time to upgrade that tier 10 armor again, folks. Sorry, 10-man progression people, but you have to wait until heroic mode for one of these.

The Lich King's final performance...

When I wrote this, very little was known about the fight. I'd make some attempt at witty remarks, but I can't. This is the guy most of use have wanted to fight since World of Warcraft came out. This is something near and dear to our hearts and Warcraft heritage. While he's technically a fairly new player in the Warcraft universe, most of WCIII focused on his journey from paladin of the light to death knight of the damned. It's sort of sad to see this storyline come to its finish, but all stories must end. When Cataclysm arrives, he will be pushed off into the obscurity of being in the 'last expansion' and forgotten much like Kael'thalas and Illidan were when Wrath brought us to the shores of Northrend. Here's to the end of an era in the Warcraft universe and the end of a beloved and hated character's life.

• Holy

  • Valius, Gavel of the Lightbringer - 10 man - Spellpower upgrade time. Stamina ever so slightly edges out the intellect on this mace. The equip stats are fairly even from an itemization stand-point when it comes to crit and mp5.

  • Royal Scepter of Terenas II - 25 man - Everybody gets weapons from Arthas. In fact, you've got your pick. This or Bloodsurge. They're identical except for weapon type.

  • Bloodsurge, Kel'Thuzad's Blade of Agony - 25 man -This is the same as the Royal Scepter. They used to differ in equip stats, but that was hot-fixed out. Take your pick.

• Protection

  • Troggbane, Axe of the Frostborne King - 10 man - I hate troggs. When you attack them it sounds like you're killing an old bagpipe. However, this thing has relatively equal amounts of parry and defense with a slightly smaller amount of dodge as well. It also has 50% more stamina than strength.

  • Mithrios, Bronzebeard's Legacy - 25 man - This mace has equal amounts of defense and parry with a slightly smaller amount of expertise. The stamina to strength ratio is about 3 to 2 which is always nice.

• Retribution

  • Warmace of Menethil - 10 man - First off, there are two red gem slots on this mace, so you might as well count the socket bonus of 6 extra strength. Besides that, it's sporting equal amounts of armor penetration and crit.

  • Oathbinder, Charge of the Ranger-General - 25 man - It isn't Oathkeeper, it's Oathbinder. Big difference. This one is an agility polearm, but the attack power and crit from agility make up for it. The two red gem slots you can fill with strength don't hurt either. It has a large chunk of armor penetration as well as a lot of critical strike rating. Currently, some of the simulators are saying this is going to be your best in slot weapon other than Shadowmourne. While that might be true, I feel a bit dirty relying on straight attack power. Oh well, whatever ups your dps.

  • Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand - 25 man - This two handed sword sports more red gem slots. Two of them to be precise as well as a +6 strength socket bonus. Critical strike and expertise are the equip stats and doled out in that order with a small step between them. If you can't nab Oathbinder or Shadowmourne, then this is probably your next choice. Also, I feel less dirty about it than the hunter weapon Oathbinder.

• All Paladins

  • Conqueror's Mark of Sanctification - 25 man and heroic 10 man -The last tier 10 upgrade token of the dungeon. Congratulations on making it to the end of Wrath while you're still alive.

The Light and How to Swing It tries to help Paladins cope with the dark times coming in Cataclysm. See the upcoming Paladin changes the expansion will bring. Wrath is coming to a close and the final showdown with the Lich King is here. Are you ready for the assault on Icecrown Citadel?