Orcs were busy. I should sell tickets for Orc on Orc action.

On Saturday, Droonda, Enhancement Shaman, and me, Msaker, Fury Warrior, hooked up with a guildie, Socrates, Protection Warrior, in Netherstorm. Three Orcs. Seemed Droonda had difficulty picking us apart. “I’m the good looking one,” I’d tell her.

Anyway, Socrates, the wise, had a plan of action to acquire some quest chain loot rewards. Droonda and I were only interested in clearing out our quest logs.

Wound up going to Kirin Var. That little town of human mage ghosts is just incredible for the number of quests in such a small location. No sooner did we arrive and get 10 quests, it seems every drop off a ghost started another quest. Just wild. The three of us wrapped up the quest chain that culminated in the killing of a Lich in a church. Droonda is tired and we wrap it up for the night.

And checking the records Droonda was out DPSing Msaker, despite Msaker having a crafted epic axe in his main hand, hasted by his offhand, and Droonda simply have the quest reward from … Hmm. It’s also a one-handed axe, starts with a small glow in the center of the blade that grows into a ball of white light? And the Mag’hari Furybrand (fist weapon) in her offhand. When gearing up Droonda we’ve taken a 2-pronged approach: Healing/Mana Regen and AP. And it’s been paying off.

Anyway, Droonda, the DPS Princess, was getting sleepy and called it a night.

Except Msaker, he’s a bit of a loot hound. (“Loot whore” sounds … harsh and judgemental.) So there I was in Orgrimmar when the Senthris, our guild master, whispers “Do you need Shadow Labs,” I say “Yes.” “Are you Protection?” I say “Well, with my tanking gear I’m blah blah blah.”

Long story short I wound up at the Warrior Trainer. I’m still discussing it with him. He thinks I should be Protection to tank instances. I’m thinking “Maybe” and then ask “So which talent in particular do you think I should tank?” I’ve got 20 points in Protection already.

Anyway, It’s something I’ve been gearing towards, maybe more so than Fury, so I take the leap and become Protection, yet again. 4/5/52. Well, I’m 490 Defense, so I’m Uncrushable, which is something.

And we go to the Shadow Labs and I get my key fragment. The Murmer fight really throws me though. I couldn’t get the timing down. The Vorpil fights have always been easy. And for the Inciter I kept telling everyone “Don’t worry about me, I’m Protection specced.”

So on Sunday Droonda and Msaker return to Netherstorm, and Kirin Var. And we tear through the quests. And we go shut down more Mana Forges, and do more quests. We must have cleared 500 gold in quests yesterday.

We took a break, had dinner, watched an episode of Lost (Season 2 DvD) and returned to the game. Before my loading screen is gone the Senthris has whispered Droonda “Do you need Shadow Labs?” She sure does. I don’t but “Hellmaw owes me a shield, and Murmer owes me shoulders.” (That’s my mantra now.) So we return to the Shadow Labs.

Senthris, 70 Mage (Frost), Macail, 70 Warlock (Demonology), Halafu, 70 Shaman (Restoration), Droonda, 70 Shaman (Enhancement), and your’s truly Msaker, 70 Warrior (Protection).

Nice, clean run. The pulls from Inciter’s classroom were handled easily. We had one student sheeped, one off-tanked by the Felguard, one feared, and two to tank. Droonda stuck by my side and we killed them in tanked, next tanked, off-tanked, feared, and then sheeped order.

The “Orc on Orc” action comment comes from the Inciter fight. It was Droonda’s first time there. Lots of fun.

Vorpil was easy again. Twice back, then forward, then back. First time I tanked him in this pattern I had slowly pulled him back. Last night I simply shot him to start the fight and ran all the way back. Senthris frost nova’d the Void Walker spawns to hold them in place. I found that following a teleport I was still Vorpil’s target. Great, and so I simply ran back, or forward, to my tanking spot. Easy.

Murmer. What a job the night before, we made it look easy. And I was in and out of his circle like a pro.

What I did, tanking him, was to “shorten” my viewpoint. While I tanked him I’d swing my camera around so I faced myself. Usually if the camera is too far back and all I’d see was the white insides of Murmer when I turned back. But now I saw my tusked mug and my path back to safety.

I also have an add-on called BigWigs. It’s Ace-based, of course. And it’ll put bars up for Murmering Touch and Sonic Boom. (It’ll provide more info for a lot of boss fights. Recommended.) And when Sonic Boom started I pushed down both mouse buttons and instantly ran back. Boom over I wheeled back around and got back into the fight. Very easy. We downed Murmer first try despite Murmer making Droonda and Halafu the bombs. Halafu twice.

There’s a few more items on our wish list, and our quest log is only half full, so things are looking up. Level 70 and it feels like the game’s just starting.

P.S. Capturing the Flames from the enemy cities for the Midsummer Festival can be done by any level. Actually starting the quests from them, to get your reward, requires Level 50. So says the GM that responded to me. If I can get 8 levels on Greenclaw before the festival is over, great. If not, I’ll turn them in next year.