"Daelan died"

we saw that message a lot on sunday. more times than we can count, really. first, there were the gankers in swamp of sorrows... the 70 mage near the green whelpings, then the 70 warrior, then the 70 warlock and finally an entire horde kara raid. then there was another 70 warlock on the way into blasted lands. then there was that 70 priest in stv... now, we expect to take our licks living on a pvp server and all, but great googly moogly! that was a bit much.

between all the gankings and deaths caused by silly mistakes, bad luck and learning the fine art of playing a warrior, we may well have set a new personal record.

in the past we've taken great pride in our ability to avoid death while questing, even when soloing content that many players would find difficult. looking back on it, we realize that a large part of our past longevity was due to taking full advantage of the survival abilities of whatever class we were playing at the time. warriors, though... yeesh. no pets to sacrifice, no haul-yer-ass-outta-dodge abilities, no insta-hide or play-dead skills, no healing abilities (draenei aside) and no real crowd control other than a short fear that requires 1/4 of your rage bar. you pretty much just have to sit there and take it or run like a sissy and pray you don't get dazed before the mobs leash. or at least that's how we've been rolling so far... we're pretty sure we have a lot to learn, though.

in other news, we hit 45 and finally had enough arms talents to pick up mortal strike. wow. we're sure it's due in large part to the big axe were swinging, but mortal strike crits are just... juicy! 700+ on a soft target (poor imp). mmm, mmm, good!

speaking of big axes, we're also about to replace ours. being human (racial bonus to swords and maces) and also having talent points in sword specialization, we've been waiting to get our hands on a good two-handed sword to replace our axe. one more level (47) and the wait is over... we just finished crafting a [Truesilver Champion]. it's not as slow as we'd like, but it's good enough and it allows us to start taking full advantage of our spec and racial bonuses. we also cooked up a [Light Earthforged Blade] for when we have to go sword & board. the only downside to all this sharp-edged, shiny goodness is that our weapon skill with any kind of sword blows right now. we'll be spending a lot of time laying waste to deadmines in our to work on that.