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Lichborne: Icecrown 5-man gear for death knights
Welcome to Lichborne, WoW.com's weekly look into the world of the death knight. This week, we're mostly waiting for the cold front to come in, but we got some other stuff we can talk about for sure. While we've all been waiting for Patch 3.3.3 to drop so we can decide if we're respeccing frost or not, It's become a pretty slow time in the death knight world. Debates continue on the best frost specs, whether Will of the Necropolis is worth getting now or even makes Blood the best tank spec, and so on and so forth, of course, so it's not completely quiet, but I've said my two cents on most of that before. It occurs to me, though, that I haven't really taken a good look at the Icecrown 5-mans for loot and opportunities for death knights. So for all my more casual and upcoming death knight friends, this one's for you.
Two Bosses Enter: Readers push Black Knight through; Garfrost aims for Devourer
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. It's a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large -- and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! The very first match of the ICC-5/ToC-5 season of Two Bosses Enter started off in knots, with Thunderdome spectators surging in to break a split decision in the judges' box. As it turns out, 'twas only a flesh wound for the Black Knight, who smashed competitor Bronjahm with 61.7% of the spectators' approval. Things weren't quite so clear in the judges' box, however, as all four judges found their feet tempted by the undeniable groove of the Godfather of Souls. Join us after the break for the judges' decisions, plus your chance to vote in the next battle of the season: the Devourer of Souls versus Forgemaster Garfrost. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here.
Two Bosses Enter: The ICC-ToC Season
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. It's a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large -- and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! Welcome, welcome, please take your seats ... We're so glad to see you back in the stands at the Two Bosses Thunderdome! The judges have already taken their seats, down in the covered box -- that's right, the one with the red awning. They imported that monstrosity from Silvermoon, you know. The Consortium was in an uproar when they found out the tournament directors had ordered directly from the Sin'dorei. All that brocade ... Such a shame it'll inevitably be marred with the blood and gore of the gladiators. Oh, yes, the judges will get more than their fill of the messy glory; you didn't think those are their best robes, did you? How positively droll of you to assume -- Oh look, here's Dr. Dealgood now, come along to introduce the judges' panel. Ladies and gentlemen, gnomes and ghouls, welcome to a brand new season inside the Thunderdome ... Where Two Bosses Enter, but only One Boss Leaves! We present for your bloodthirsty pleasure fresh foes from the inner reaches of the five-man instances of Icecrown Citadel, along with seasoned gladiators from the Trial of the Champion. These ferocious combatants will be evaluated by the distinguished panel of judges you see before you, just beneath the blood-red awning in the box below. Let's meet them now.
First impressions: Icecrown Citadel raid and 5-mans
Patch 3.3 has been out for two days now, and we're starting to see lots of reactions to the various new encounters pour in. Drawing from bloggers' posts, forum threads, and the reactions of a random sampling of players I've pugged with (the new LFG system is great), this is a short gloss on what I'm seeing so far: Forge of Souls is the easiest of the new 5-mans. The most common gripe is that group members don't pay attention to their raid warnings and move in as necessary for Bronjahm, or stop DPS on Devourer of Souls if they get Mirrored Soul. Pit of Saron is pretty cool, though quite sad at the end (at least if you're Horde). The trash pulls full of casters are on the tough side if people aren't good about interrupting or moving out of Hellfire on heroic. Also, don't bank on getting Don't Look Up in a pug.
Blizzard releases Bosstiary for the Frozen Halls
Following up on their neat entry for Ulduar, Blizzard has released their newest Bosstiary, this time for The Frozen Halls, the collection of new Icecrown 5-man dungeons coming with Patch 3.3. The site serves as an encyclopedia of information on the many and varied bosses of the Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron, and Halls of Reflection. The Bosstiaries often have information that the dungeons never really give you; for example, who knew that Auriaya was the Titans' librarian? Nobody, that's who. We just wondered why the heck she was wandering around Ulduar with a bunch of cats and a bad attitude. But now you can go into the Frozen Halls and know exactly who you're fighting and why, replete with marks on the map indicating the position of the bosses and the instance entrance. The Forge of Souls sees us freeing the souls of innocents from Arthas' Soul Grinder machines, run by Bronjahm, Godfather of Souls. Guarding the machines and preventing souls from escaping is the Devourer of Souls. The Pit of Saron is Arthas' saronite mining operation; Krick, a leper gnome, oversees the operation from atop his abomination, Ick. Forgemaster Garfrost shapes the saronite into weapons of destruction under Arthas' command, and Scourgelord Tyrannus lords over the pit with his fearsome Scourge powers. The Halls of Reflection are Arthas' private quarters, guarded by his lieutenants in life, Falric and Marwyn. Inside, Arthas himself keeps Frostmourne locked away from those who would try to use it against him. Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Patch 3.3 PTR: Forge of Souls first impressions
Yesterday, the PTR servers were loaded with the most recent build of the upcoming 3.3 content. This included Forge of Souls, a new 5 player dungeon which is meant to be the introductory instance into Icecrown Citadel. As we made our way into the frozen halls of the citadel to where the dungeons are housed, we came across three portals. To the left was the Forge of Souls itself which is the first one you'll be allowed into. To the right was the Pit of Saron that Matthew Rossi covered earlier this week. Lastly, between the two was the Halls of Reflection, which strange rumors surround while its doors remain firmly locked. After opening the portcullis to the Forge we made our way inside. More of the adventure after the break.
