Red Seas Under Red Sky

I finished part two of the Locke Lamora series before I went on my holiday actually, but I haven't had the time to write about it until now. Be warned though, since this is part of a series the happenings of the second book heavily depend on what happens in the first. Thus this review will be quite spoilerish if you haven't read the first book yet.

In the second book we get to meet Locke Lamora and his slightly smaller gang in having moved to a new area of the world, all this because of events which unfolded in the first book. In many ways part two offers more of the same things, which is a good thing. Scott Lynch is a good writer, with a very vivid imagination and a strong will to make the story-telling adventurous in itself. In this book he takes the time and event jumping back and forth to an even higher level than in the first book. He still does it good though and for the most part I feel I follow in the events that unfold without becoming too confused. At some points he presents several timelines at once though, and that means you have to make some mental recapping before certain chapters to grasp what is happening.

Because of what happened in the first book this second book will revolve mostly around Locke and his bestest friend Jean Tannen. Alot of the story works around their dynamics as two quite different characters with the same goals (at least for most of the time). Also the plot is three times twisted around its own axis, even more so than in the first book where we got our first glance at Lynches habit to throw in unexpected events and happenings at every single corner. The reader will of course always know that at least one of the good guys has to survive the crazyness they get into, since there are five more books coming. This is something I mentioned already when reviewing the first book I think. But Lynch still makes one think "how the heck will they solve this one?" for most of the book, and some solutions (if you could call them that) are quite unexpected. Locke gets into tricky five-faced situations nearly all the time and really has to use all his wit to turn them to his advantage. This is what makes the book so intriguing, because you try to imagine how they will solve something and the answer is usually something completely else. One also knows that Lynch has no trouble whatsoever with having important characters die, which actually also adds to the suspense.

The story is well told all the way through with just enough action and plot twists to keep it interesting the whole way. The characters, and especially the two main characters, are thoughthrough with well built personalities that act in a believable way. Characters who's actions I don't understand tend to bother me the most in any story, but there is nothing of that here. Also this book offers are really great ending.

I always think the best credential for any book is if you want to read more. Scott Lynch has me wanting to read more about the Gentleman Bastards which has to mean he is doing a good job so far! So if you like action-filled, plot-twisting, multi-task-scamming set in a medieval milieu this is defnitiely something for you.

Eck vs. The Tribunal of Ages

Today I thought I'd share a wonderful little story starring Eck from Gundrak and Roo from... well I'm not where he's from actually. This story was not written by me, and I only post it here to share it with all of you, since I really like it. It was written by someone calling himself Sky Paladin over at WoW.com, for their "One boss enters"-contest. Over at WoW.com they too liked it so much it became a whole post.

This story made one of the most insignificant bosses in the game to one of the most lovable. You probably won't get much about it if you don't play WoW, as with everything else WoW related. But maybe there is something in there for everyone.

If you want to see the post I got it from it's here -> http://www.wow.com/2009/10/15/one-boss-leaves-tribunal-overcomes-ecks-ick/

All creds to Sky Paladin for this awesome piece of fiction (or is it?!)
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The snow was grey, here. The plague on Northrend left few things untouched, and the snow was not one of them. Dark blotches flared here and there, with odd white patches where footprints had disturbed it. A small trail of white blotches marked where Roo, a small gorloc child, struggled enthusiastically to make his way to the Halls of Ulduar. Bounding slowly beside him was his guardian and friend, Eck the Ferocious.

"This place very scary," Eck commented to Roo. "You sure this the right way? Iron dwarves really not very tasty."

"We remember," Roo replied. "Yes-ss, we came here with hero from before. Just over the big hole to forever. You can jump, yes?"


Into the Halls of Stone
The two gorlocs paused at the edge of an abyss. Roo curiously glanced over the edge, then nervously shuffled back. "Is very long way. But makers are up there! You see, right?" Eck glanced upwards. "Is big jump. But can do! Hop up, little Roo. We can be good team!" Eck helped the tiny gorloc up onto his giant shoulders, coiled his powerful leg muscles and leaped upwards onto the gantryway to the Halls of Stone.

"Is very cold here," Roo said, shivering from the northern winds. "No wonder dry-skin so like. Ok! We go in!"

The two gorlocs pressed through the hordes of iron dwarves without any real difficulty. Eck did not have a whole lot of patience, and after a minute of beating things down, snapped and released his "true power."

"Wow!" Roo exclaimed. "You are amazing! This gorloc did not see such carnage since the big adventure with the dry-skin!"

"Thank you, little Roo," Eck replied, cautiously trying another Iron Dwarf. "I hear that iron is an important nutrient for a growing young gorloc."

Roo cautiously snacked on one of the fallen Iron Dwarves that Eck offered him. "Is high in cholesterol maybe? Tastes strange ..."

After wandering around semi-randomly for some time, the two eventually reached the tribunal of ages.
"We remember!" Roo bounced excitedly. "This is the place where we came with Branbronzan and dry-skin." Roo's eyes glazed over slightly, and his voice softened. "This is where ... Soo-Say ... he wants us to come."

Eck remained at the stairs, glancing around at all of the shiny things. Meanwhile, Roo bounded up to a large mechanical box with strange buttons on the top.

"We don't know what to do," Eck said. "So many shinies! So little time." Roo didn't respond and hopped up onto the terminal, gazing at the small glass screen and then stepping on a few buttons absentmindedly.

A voice from above
Suddenly, a loud voice spoke from the heavens. "Warning! Life form pattern not recognized. Archival processing terminated. Continued interference will result in targeted response."

Eck and Roo hunched downwards.

"Who is talking?!" Eck said angrily. "Come out and say hi! Is rude to hide!" Roo waved his hands and held up a finger to silence Eck, then whispered loudly, "Is makers! Shhh! They say hi to us!"

The large, disembodied voice spoke again. "Security breach in progress. Analysis of historical archives transferred to lower priority queue. Countermeasures engaged."

Eck and Roo exchanged glances. None of them had any idea what any of these words meant. "We sorry, soo-maker. Roo is too small to understand big meanings. Please-see, use small words for small gorloc ears!"

Eck raised up warily, and looked back down from where they had come. "Something is coming," he announced. "Lot's of somethings." He flexed his hands and licked his lips hungrily.

Roo continued to beseech the makers. "Hi there, soo-makers! We are Roo again, from the time before! You remember, yes? Roo brought shinies like promised. Also, High Oracle Soo-Say said to say hi. Hi!"

Behind him, Eck watched in amazement as a veritable tide of Iron Dwarves and other guards poured out of the dark corridors towards him. "Uh ... Roo ... This might be bad time to say hi ..." Roo turned around and looked at the incoming horde. "Wow! So many! You okay to fight?" Eck smiled, without glancing back.

As the first Iron Dwarf closed into range, Eck opened up with a stream of acidic spray, arching around and drenching the first dozen that foolishly ran blindly in. Enraged, they struck with their cruel weapons upon the tough rubber flesh of the greater gorloc, who greeted their response with immensely powerful crushing jaws.

The tide turns
Meanwhile, Roo continued to hop onto different buttons on the terminal. The makers hadn't programmed their machines to respond to small children playing with it. "Threat index threshold exceeded. Celestial archive aborted. Security level heightened."

Roo turned excitedly to Eck, to tell him the good news. Instead, he watched in disbelief as Eck was being overwhelmed by enemies. One of them slipped past and rushed up towards Roo, but before the Iron Dwarf could crush the baby gorloc with his hammer, Eck appeared behind him. Like a shark pursuing a seal, the giant jaws of Eck closed around the interloper. Roo could hear him screaming from inside Eck's belly.
Roo cheered and thanked his giant friend, then turned back without fear to the console. So many buttons! So many colors!

Eck fought with great courage and skill. He jumped around from enemy to enemy, never allowing himself to be caught in a corner, preventing the enemy from using their great numbers to their advantage. Dark pits of pure evil opened up beneath him, but he nimbly skipped away from them. Green lasers of instant death followed him around, but the giant gorloc was too fast to be caught by any such things. But there was simply too many of them. For every one he cut down, another two took their place.

"Please hurry, Roo," Eck said. "We not invincible."

The giant voice intoned once more, "Critical threat index. Void analysis diverted. Initiating sanitization protocol." Roo stamped at the console frustratedly. "We no understand!"

A hammer blow caught Eck on the side of his skull, knocking him down. Instantly the other dwarves were atop of him, smashing and stabbing. Eck rose up and slammed against the walls, knocking some off, and crushing others with his immense bulk against the hard, unmoving walls. A sword stabbed down through his webbed feet, and an iron golem slammed into his stomach. Eck fell downwards. Time seemed to slow down.

"I sorry, Roo ..." the greater gorloc whispered.

As Eck hit the ground, he remembered back to when the little gorloc had come to visit him for the first time. He had been beaten – like he had now and lay helplessly on the ground. The dry-skins had stepped forward to mercilessly finish him off, when the tiny creature had flung itself in front of them, sobbing. "He just like me! Please no kill! He very sorry!" Eck smiled softly. "I always waited in the dark lonely place. Until Roo came, Eck did not know what the sun was like. I always very grateful for your kindness, little one."

The loud voice of the Maker broke through the room, but Eck paid it no attention. Eck watched as the Iron Dwarves ran as a group towards the unknowing baby gorloc, still playing with the console. Something inside him snapped. He owed his life to Roo, and by the makers, it was a debt that would be paid.

Eck the Ferocious pulled to his feet, breathed deeply and spewed his guts all over everything in the room. "I NOT DONE YET! COME FIGHT SOME MORE!" As one, the Iron Dwarves accepted the challenge. Eck was too tired to move nimbly, but fought on, even so. He felt pain in every part of his body as the cruel dwarf weapons struck again and again. He felt his cheek sacs torn away, his jaw broken and smashed, and his skin opened up in many different places.

"Roo, Roo ..." he called, "You've got to go now ... I can't stop them ... please ..."

Roo turned and looked in horror. "Noooo, Eck! You my best friend!" The tiny gorloc leaped off of the console and flung himself at the Iron Dwarves, beating them futilely with his tiny claws.

"Makers, please help! Take all the strength we haves and gives it to Eck!"

" System online. Life form pattern recognized. Welcome Soo-Roo. Query?"

Roo picked up a small throwing hammer that one of the Iron Dwarves had dropped. "All this time ... Roo has been alone," he sobbed. "First parents gone, then dry-skin had to leave ... Roo won't let another friend go away!" The weapon was immensely too large for the tiny gorloc to wield effectively. Desperately, he arched it overhead.

At that instant – lightning flooded the room. The iron dwarves and their allies staggered and collapsed. Electricity arched into the throwing hammer held overhead by Roo and into his head. His eyes flared with bright light, and he dropped to the ground. The great hand of Eck the Ferocious carefully closed around the prone body of Roo, shielding him from the immense weight of the iron dwarves falling all around.

A different feeling
The chamber was silent, except for the sound of Eck's ragged breathing. After a minute, Roo shook himself back to his senses and stood up.

"We feel...different..." The little gorloc hopped around Eck, worriedly touching the many great wounds all over him. "Eck, we very sorry for the trouble we caused..."

Eck smiled. "You smell ferocious."

Roo's face was streaked with tears. "You not allowed to die!"

"Everything has to die sometime, little Roo. You showed Eck many good times. We went to meet many new friends. You showed Eck so many places. You good friend. All my life in the dark places Eck didn't see anything nice. Before you came, if Eck died, all he would know is sad and loneliness."

Roo clasped Eck's hands in his tiny paws. "Don't speak...you will be okay...Soo-Say can fix!"

"You gave me many happy things, Roo. We ate many good things together. This Eck is very happy to meet you. He doesn't regret ... anything ..."

Eck fell silent.

Roo trembled and stepped back. "We feel different," he said, confused. "We feel...different."

High Oracle Soo-Say could fix anything, Roo knew. If only he could be High Oracle Soo-Roo, like the future him that he had met with the dry-skin! "You be okay!" Roo said, focusing on his strange, lightning-discovered feelings. "Roo knows how to fix ..." Warm light emanated from his hands, and Roo gently pressed them onto Eck's side. After a moment, the wounds started to slowly close over. Eck's eyes slowly opened, and he smiled.

"You did it, Roo ... you gonna be a great oracle one day ... Eck knows it ..."

A yellow glow appeared underneath Eck.

Suddenly, the Tribunal of Ages spoke again. "Achievement Unlocked by Eck: Brann Spanking New."

Healing and tanking Halls of Reflection, Part 3

In part 3 of my mini-series in tanking and healing HoR we've come to the tanking part. Now like with healing, I haven't tried this instance with my paladin yet, neither healing nor tanking. Therefore I will focus on what I have tried so far, namely warrior tanking.

Tanking - Warrior
When tanking any instance there are generally two different ways of doing it. Either you set out to tank every mob, or you realize you won't be able to and set out to tank the mobs that would kill anything but a tank. HoR is mostly about tank-style number two. This because of a mix between there being very many mobs around at the same time, and roughly half of them being ranged. For some reason tanks were never meant to tank ranged mobs, at least not by judging the skills we're blessed with to do so. All tanks have some sort of ranged attack which works in keeping aggro on one or maybe two ranged targets, but not much more than that. That is where corner pulling comes into play.

Most parties I've joined, as either role, do this event from one of the alcoves, preferably the one where the first boss is located (to the left from the entrance). That way everyone in the party will have an easy way to line-of-sight the ranged mobs which allows for the tank to collect them as they come running. And as the mobs come closer it is up to the rest of the party to move away from any aoe and/or kicks the mobs might be doing.

I recommend setting up a kill order. Many people go for priests first, but my experience with them are that they are probably the least dangerous mob. Sure they heal, but not for much (approx 50k hp, which is less than half their own healthpool), and they don't have any other dangerous or annoying skills (the SWP they do isn't much trouble either, 5k dmg over 8 sec). So this is what I would recommend;

1. Kill mages. Always have any dps run after the mage, wherever they are located. As a tank I'll say you shouldn't have to think much about them, but should focus on other things and hope the dps is good enough to burst mages down before they get too troublesome. The mages summon copies and do a nasty flamestrike which you don't want to have around for too long.
2. Collect melee. As a tank your primary job will be to collect all the melee classes, that is mercenaries and footmen and hunters too if you can. These are the real cloth-killers. Make sure you don't stand too close to the party-casters since the footmen and mercenaries kick/shield bash casts, which you really don't need in this situation. As a warrior you will need to make full use of all those stuns you've got, but that's basics, and nothing special about this event.
3. Kill hunters. Second to mages, I personally think the hunters are the second most troublesome. They trap and curse and slow and whatnot devilish. And also being ranged they are tough to tank which means they more often decide to hit someone squishy.

After all the ranged are dead you can go after the rest, preferably starting with the priests. Rinse and repeat.

For the Run-From-Arthas-event the same rule applies. Some mobs are definitely more important to tank than others, in this case the abominations. Remember to try to direct them so they don't face the party, so to avoid having them spew bile all over everyone. The Risen Witch Doctors simply cast shadow bolts which don't do that much dmg (approx 4,5k). The only reason to target them at all is to interrupt their Shadow Bolt Volley which does the equal amount of dmg but to everyone in the party instead. The abominations on the other hand will probably two-shot most clothies. The dps should go for the Witch Doctors, try to interrupt as many casts as possible, and then turn to the abominations. If you're wondering about the small jumping mobs they usually die so fast and hit relatively weak so there's no need to bother about them. Just make sure they all die, so that there isn't one standing around interrupting your healers heals.

Healing and tanking Halls of Reflection, Part 2

So onto part 2 of my little series of tanking and healing Halls of Reflection. We've now come to shaman healing.

If you've read my previous post, located here -> http://jinxedthought.blogspot.com/2010/01/healing-and-tanking-halls-of-reflection.html, you'll see some of the basic stuff to think about when healing HoR.

Healing - Shaman
Like I stated in my previous post, see above, I find it easier to heal HoR as priest than shammy. This could have something to do with the fact that my priest is quite better geared than my shammy of course, but also the shaman lacks some type of heals that are particularly useful in that instance, especially for the first event. But, the shammy also brings something that the priest doesn't - the cleansing totem. This means you can remove the curses and those awful poisons. If you've got a paladin for wisdom or a mage for some water (or your own water of course, but I'm greedy) you should definitely use cleansing totem and drink as soon as you get out of combat. If you don't have water or wisdom the mana will be very tight and maybe you'll need mana spring more than cleansing. But since you're a healer I assume you've got a huge stack of water ready for all occasions so cleansing totem it is.
Riptide is a really good spell and I always miss it when I'm healing on other chars. That and chain heal define shaman healing. You'll of course get plenty of use of your entire healing arsenal, as opposed to priests most other healing classes don't have that many different heals and usually have to use them all (druids have quite many too). Keep Earth Shield up on the tank all the time (duh) and keep Nature Swiftness close at hand in case someone, especially the tank, drops low. It will happen.

The really tricky part comes when you start fighting the first boss. Nevermind about tremor totem, as far as I've noticed his fear isn't removable in any way. After being feared and when everyone's down low you need to heal everyone up as fast as possible. As a priest this is easy, but as shaman you might have to think more carefully about it, since you don't have an aoe-heal which gives equal attention to everyone in the room. I usually go with Riptide on myself or the tank, followed by two Healing Waves on the one who are most low on hp. Riptide again and two more Healing Waves on the next two people. This should take about 10 sec depending on haste and should be enough before the next fear. You could also use Bloodlust/Heroism half way through him.

On the Run From Arthas-event there isn't much special to think about. There will be curses, which you can leave or decurse, depending on how busy you are. The curse does damage about equal to a half a lesser healing wave (depending on gear), so mana wise it doesn't matter if you cleanse it or heal it, unless you overheal. You can also shock the casters with Wind Shear to especially interrupt their Shadow Bolt Volley, which can hurt quite alot.

By the last wall (the fourth I think) using Bloodlust/Heroism is a good idea, if you're not still sated. I sometimes use Fire Elemental too, to help with some aoe damage. And that's about it.
Good luck on healing with your resto shaman!

Healing and tanking Halls of Reflection

Happy New Year everyone and welcome back! Here we are in the 2010 and it'll be fun to see what it can bring me, to bring you. Well you get what I mean. I hope.

Anyway, I thought we'd start the new year off by talking about one of the, or maybe the only, really tough heroic instance in the game at the moment - Halls of Reflection. There are basically two fights (not counting the dude that summons party look-alikes) which can either be really challenging and fun or really challenging and pain-in-the-assish, depending mostly on the outcome. Wipe usually ends in sad faces. I've had it all, everything from the perfect run with no deaths to the repeated wipes. So I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on healing and tanking HoR, since that is usually the critical and most hectic role ergo the most fun stuff to talk about.

I've done HoR as every role so far, well except melee dps actually. Although I have a holydin I haven't tried healing that instance with her yet, simply because I haven't had the desire to do so. Maybe I'll add a note about that when I get around to trying it. I won't mention dps because it might be a little tougher, but basically the same as in every other place. Don't get aggro and kill whatever needs to be killed first. If you can cc, you should. That's about it.

I actually thought about doing one big post about every role I've tried, but I soon noticed that would simply be too large. Therefore I will do one post per role, starting with my beloved healing priests. The rest of the posts - tanking warrior and healing shaman - will follow in the coming days.

Healing - Priest
First of all, if you've got the choice, I strongly recommend healing as discipline on the first event. Mostly because of the better mana regen. Also the fast Penance and PWS healing is superb at that event where the dmg mostly consists of no dmg... no dmg... ALOT of dmg! Being able to pick someone (because anyone could drop low at this event) back up fast, all the while being able to keep everyone topped with shields, pom and the occasional renew is great. Holy would do well too methinks (haven't tried tbh), but as I mentioned mana could become a problem here. And the shield is really kickass.

As a priest you won't be able to remove the poison the mercenaries use or the curse the hunters cast. The curse is of less trouble but the poison could become bothersome. They use two different, one which only does dmg and one which is stacked in three and does dmg and slows movement. A renew and shield will take care of these poisons well, if they're on a dps or yourself. If they're used on the tank you've gotta be ready to throw some extra healing. Now and then the priests will cast a shadow word pain on someone but that is of course easily dispelled. It doesn't do much dmg though so any healing needed has prio over using a gcd for dispels.

The are three things to really watch out for in this event.
- First of all, if someone else than the tank gets aggro from something they will need alot of heal, and fast. Be ready with your nukeheals at all times (this means Desperate Prayer too).
- Secondly, don't stand close to the melee ever. They bash/kick which will silence you for an absolutely non-acceptable amount of time (7 sec or something I think).
- Thirdly, the rogues/mercenaries kidney shot the tank from time to time, which will make him/her unable to block, dodge or parry any blows. Yet again you need to be very ready with big and fast heals.
Also the hunters will trap a random target into ice now and then. If you feel you've got the gcd for it, dispel it. If its on the tank you have to dispel it. For the chance it will land on you, making you unable to heal for some 3-4 second you should keep some hot (sorry paladins, your hot isn't much to hang in the christmas tree) on the tank at all times.

The first boss is tricky with his aoe fear and dmg combo, and a priest has a huge advantage here (as opposed to shaman) from being able to use aoe heals and shields/hots to ease it up. The second boss is easypeasy so not much to say about that.
I hopefully don't have to tell you the obvious stuff like keeping shields, pom and the like up at all times (spells depending on spec). It's even more important here than anywhere else. This event is actually harder than many raidencounters, in my opinion.

The second boss, or Run From Arthas-event, is alot easier. As long as you have enough dps and the tank knows how to tank there won't be much for you to think about. The Abominations do a spew which can hurt quite alot, so be ready to abolish and heal that. The casters will use a curse which you can't remove, but it doesn't do much dmg. A shield/renew on the target and it's nothing to worry about. If the rest of the party do their job this will be cakewalk healingwise.

Good luck on healing HoR with your priest! It's alot of fun!