Librams Available To Paladins
The Paladin is one of those classes without an equipment slot dedicated to a true ranged weapon. Rather, Paladins have the mysterious Relic equipment slot. Leveling a Paladin can occur for quite a long time before the Relic equipment slot finally gets filled.
What do Relics do for Paladins?
Different classes with a Relic equipment slot are able to equip different objects to the slot. Each Relic-bearing class gets a specific Relic type. In the case of Paladins, the Relic slot is outfitted with Librams. Generally speaking, a Libram enhances one or more of a Paladin’s spells. Because of this, Paladins possessing specific builds will find specific Librams more useful than others.
When can a Paladin expect to fill the Relic slot?
Of the known Librams listed below, the Libram with the lowest minimum required level is the Libram of Truth, which requires the Paladin be at least level 52.
Can a Paladin find a Libram in the auction house?
Out of the 21 Librams listed below, only the Libram of Fervor is a bind-on-equip item. The remaining Librams are all bind-on-pickup. So there is a possibility of finding 1 type of Libram in the auction house.
Which Librams are useful, regardless of the Paladin’s talent specialization?
- Libram of Hope lowers the mana cost of the Paladin’s Seal spells, which is very nice. This Libram is quite rare these days, as it drops from Isalien, a boss in Dire Maul that must be summoned as part of the Dungeon Set 2 quest line.
- Libram of Saints Departed heals the Paladin upon casting a Judgement spell. This Libram is dropped by The Maker in the Blood Furnace wing (normal mode) of Hellfire Citadel.
- Libram of Avengement increases the critical strike rating upon casting a Judgement spell. This Libram is dropped by The Maker in the Blood Furance wing (heroic mode) of Hellfire Citadel.
Which Librams are especially useful for Holy Paladins?
- Libram of Souls Redeemed increases the healing effect of Blessing of Light. This Libram is dropped by any of the bosses involved in the Opera Event of Karazhan.
- Libram of Grace reduces the mana cost of the Cleanse spell. This Libram is more rare these days, as it drops from Fankriss the Unyielding in the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj.
- Libram of the Eternal Rest increases the damage done by Consecration. This Libram drops from Darkweaver Syth in the Sethekk Halls wing (both normal and heroic modes) of Auchindoun.
- Libram of Wracking reduces the mana cost of the Exorcism and Holy Wrath spells. This Libram is a quest reward for “Colossal Menance” quest obtained at the Cenarion Post in Hellfire Peninsula.
- Gladiator’s Libram of Justice increases a target’s resilience after receiving a Flash of Light. This Libram is a PvP reward item, and is obtained through a PvP vendor.
- Libram of Light increases the effect of Flash of Light. This Libram is dropped by Noth the Plaguebringer in Naxxramas.
- Blessed Book of Nagrand increases the effect of Flash of Light. This Libram is a reward for completing the “The Ultimate Bloodsport” quest obtained at the Nesingwary Safari in Nagrand.
- Libram of Divinity increases the effect of Flash of Light. This Libram drops from several bosses in Scholomance.
- Libram of Absolute Truth reduces the mana cost of Holy Light. This Libram drops from the Lurker Below in Serpentshrine Cavern.
- Libram of the Lightbringer increases the effect of Holy Light. This Libram drops from Commander Sarannis in the Botanica wing (both normal and heroic modes) of Tempest Keep.
- Libram of Mending improves mana regeneration when Holy Light is used. This Libram is available in exchange for Badges of Justice in Shattrath City.
- Libram of Divine Purpose increases the effects of Righteousness. This Libram is available in exchange for Badges of Justice in Shattrath City.
Which Librams are especially useful for Protection Paladins?
- Libram of Truth increases the effect of Devotion Aura. This Libram drops from Magnus in Blackrock Depths.
- Libram of Repentance increases block rating while Holy Shield is active. This Libram is available in exchange for Badges of Justice in Shattrath City.
Which Librams are especially useful for Retribution Paladins?
- Libram of Righteous Power increases the effect of Crusader Strike. This Libram is a reward for completing the “News of Victory” quest obtained at Invasion Point: Cataclysm in Shadowmoon Valley.
- Libram of Divine Judgement increases attack power when Judgement of Command is used. This Libram is available in exchange for Badges of Justice in Shattrath City.
- Libram of Zeal increases attack power and holy damage. This Libram is available as a PvP reward from the appropriate faction Field Scout in Zangarmarsh.
- Libram of Fervor increases attack power and holy damage. This Libram is available from many of the pre-BC instances (Blackrock Spire, Dire Maul, Scholomance, Stratholme, and Zul’Gurub) and several of the pre-BC zones (Plaguelands and Silithus). Interestingly enough, the Libram of Fervor is the only bind-on-equip (BOE) Libram in the game. Be sure to check the auction house for this one.
How To Get the Shattered Halls Key
Possession of the Shattered Halls Key permits players entry to the Shattered Halls wing of Hellfire Citadel. Having a personal key at your disposal makes things much easier, as you no longer need to wait for someone else to open the gate, or implore a Rogue with 350 lock picking skill to open the gate.
Entry Into the Citadel
The first step in the short quest chain to acquire the key actually begins in Shadowmoon Valley, and not in Hellfire Peninsula. Smith Gorlunk is located in the northeastern corner of Shadowmoon Valley (at 67, 35) and slaying him drops the Primed Key Mold.
Inspection of the Primed Key Mold reveals it is a quest item. Use it to begin the “Entry Into the Citadel” quest. The goal of this quest is simply to bring the Primed Key Mold to Honor Hold and show it to Force Commander Danath Trollbane.
Grand Master Dumphry
Luckily, Force Commander Danath Trollbane is bright enough to realize the mold might be able to be used to gain access to the Shattered Halls. He instructs players to take the Primed Key Mold to Grand Master Dumphry to determine whether or not a key can be crafted. Dumphry is located in the tower immediately northwest of Honor Hold.
Dumphry’s Request
Grand Master Dumphry is able to work with the Primed Key Mold, but explains that he requires some materials to forge the key. The player must gather or purchase them; everything can be bought from the auction house and brought along beforehand to complete this step. The materials needed are:
- Fel Iron Bar x4
- Arcane Dust x2
- Mote of Fire x4
After these materials are collected, Dumphry gives it a go, but there is one more problem.
Hotter Than Hell
Grand Master Dumphry is able to create an Unfired Key Mold, but cannot finish the key. The mold must be tempered by a scalding source of fel fire…the kind that is used to power the brutish Fel Reavers that patrol Hellfire Peninsula. Players must first kill a Fel Reaver. By using the Unfired Key Mold on the Fel Reaver corpse, a Charred Key Mold can be obtained.
By returning the Charred Key Mold to Grand Master Dumphry, the player gains the Shattered Halls Key.
Blood Furnace, Tank Optional
I was invited to a Blood Furnace at Phella’s request. To my surprise, the group consisted of a healer and (now) 4 dps classes. I was skeptical this was going to work, but I was wrong. Blood Furance, run in regular mode where 3 level 70s are involved, does not require a true tank.
The group consisted of myself (70 Warlock), Phella (70 Hunter) and Elorianna (70 Hunter) of Eternal Force, Amrys (60 Shaman) of Eternal Force, and Puffnstuff (61 Priest) of Knights of Asylum. I figured the pets would be able to handle any type of tanking involved, as long as they were getting some heals. So against my better judgment, I tagged along.
Admittedly, the pets died several times…but part of that is because simply runs over the explosive devices instead of taking a more cautious approach. One detonation resulted in his scorpion being killed.
The bosses do not have a great deal of health, and felt way too easy in regular mode. As a matter of fact, most of the trash were so low in level, I was unable to extract shards from.
The Maker dropped the Pendant of Battle-Lust (Amrys needed on it). Broggok dropped the Kilt of the Night Strider. Keli’dan the Breaker dropped the Warsong Howling Axe.
The damage output was the following:
- Phella was at 31% (309 dps)
- Illustra was at 25% (263 dps)
- Elorianna was at 23% (267 dps)
- Amrys was at 7% (91 dps)
So, it’s true. With a little bit of dps power and a pet serving as a makeshift tank…a true tank is indeed optional for regular Blood Furnace.
Scryer Tailoring Patterns
Inevitably each toon must choose to gain reputation with either Aldor or Scryer factions. For Tailors, either option is a possibility…both factions have unique bind-on-pickup Tailoring patterns to look forward to.
One of the side effects of this decision centers around access to certain non-binding patterns. These are Pattern: Imbued Netherweave Robe and Pattern: Imbued Netherweave Tunic. If you have a toon who has sided with the Scryer faction, these patterns are available from Arrond (located in the Sanctum of the Stars, Shadowmoon Valley) for somewhere in the neighborhood of 5g.
The patterns are sold in limited supply, but have always been there each time I’ve checked.
These can be sold at the auction house for at least 10 times their vendor value. The first one I bought from the vendor sold for 50g at the auction house.
Prince Malchezaar First Kill Photo
Prince Malchezaar is considered to be one of the two end bosses of Karazhan. Tonight Apex of War has slain Prince Malchezaar for the very first time. This is the team that did it.
Prince Goes Down – Guild First
This is big for us. On Saturday night, Apex of War mustered ten and went into Karazhan with the intent of working on the Prince fight. On the 5th attempt, we brought him down. It wasn’t pretty, but it counts.
Illustra was selected for the early phase of this Karazhan instance, and she continued through Netherspite. Kruenor was brought in on Prince night as the only Hunter, and there were already multiple Warlocks in the group.
We’ve been trying to use the “safe spot” strategy pertaining to the doorway (versus the far side safe spot). The first attempt was a warmup. The second tank ended within 30 seconds due to a series of crushing blows on the tank (3 in under 12 seconds). The third try we got lucky with the positioning of the infernals, and got Prince deep into phase 2. The fourth try we again got lucky with the positioning of the infernals, and got Prince into phase 3 (the first time we’d done that). On the fifth try, I thought we owned him. The tank went down with Prince still at about 20k health, I thought we were going to lose it. I got aggro and laid in to Prince with everything I had, when I got two-shotted, I saw him at 11k health and yelled for the DoTs. The last 11k seemed to burn off instantly and Prince fell right at the doorway…only 3 of us were left alive.
I was hoping for the bow, but it wasn’t to be. Prince Malchezaar dropped the Helm of the Fallen Champion and the Adornment of Stolen Souls (both needed on by Joslin), and the Nathrezim Mindblade (needed by Warlass). Joslin becomes the first member of Apex of War with both the T4 gloves and T4 helm.
This was a big step forward for Apex of War, and I’m looking forward to fighting Prince again next week.
Rockstar Escorting Thrall
Rockstar escorts Thrall during the Escape From Durnholde Keep. Captain Skarloc approaches.
First Tanking Experience
Rockstar got a chance to perform his first duties as a Protection Warrior. The selected instance was Old Hillsbrad, the Escape From Durnholde Keep. I thought this would be a good choice, because of two reasons. First, marking isn’t a huge deal, because there’s little to no time during the escort to be fiddling with raid icons. It’s usually understood party members with crowd control will control the cloth wearers in enemy groups, while the tank picks up all the melee opponents. No problem. Second, it’s a good test as far as being able to quickly identify and pick up targets, something all great tanks do.
The party comprised of myself (70 protection Warrior), unguilded Arkalas (69 Mage), Freezer of River of Deceit (70 Mage), Cetus of Element (Hunter), and Schwarztwald of Dawn of the Rebellion (70 holy Paladin).
As we cleared through the barracks area, I could tell Freezer was either in a hurry, or was just supremely confident that we could be sloppy and still handle things. I prefer a more technical execution, which means doing anything in order to reduce the chances of death or a wipe. What do I mean by this? In my experience, it is the tank who breaks crowd control. It is only the tank who breaks crowd control. The tank consults the mana situation, the tank checks the threat situation, the tank picks up a mob when crowd control breaks. Freezer had no issues immediately dealing burst damage in anticipating of me breaking the crowd control. I frequently had to use a Taunt to keep the broken mob off of him. Bad mage.
To the healer’s (and maybe my) credit, we cleared to Lieutenant Drake without any deaths. That’s fairly easy though, as the group regulates the tempo of the pulling, and the pulls are either patrols (2-3 mobs) or straightforward 4-mob pulls.
Lieutenant Drake has a Whirlwind attack; it seems like it can be avoided, but I’ve been continuing to build threat. I think in the future, I’ll probably have to join the others in trying to immediately get out of the range of Whirlwind, and then resume tanking him when the effect fades. I was also feared a couple of times, and will have to figure out how to deal with that. The fight went pretty well, and Lieutenant Drake dropped the Ravenwing Pauldrons (I believe Schwartzwald got the item).
As the escort began and Thrall led each charge against he packs of mobs, I attempted to use my Taunt to get Thrall’s initial target onto me…then I would Devastate and Revenge on the second melee target, and hope that the crowd control personnel would be able to successfully pick up their assignments. I suppose in the future I’ll have to be more vigilant of that. I thought we did well keeping Thrall’s health up by the time we got to the encounter with Captain Skarloc.
Captain Skarloc had no qualms about giving me the old Hammer of Justice. I’m not liking being stunned for 6 seconds while the boss runs around on the rest of the group. Outside of the stun, I was able to tank him fairly steadily for the fight. Captain Skarloc dropped the Northshire Battlemace (I won the greed roll) and a Red Winter Hat (Arkalas won the greed roll). It was a bit silly seeing him stride up to us prior to the fight, wearing the Red Winter Hat.
The Durnholde instance is most likely to bug during the last phase of the escort…leading up to the Epoch Hunter. Luckily for us, it didn’t. It was a bit rushed as it always is, but the healer was excellent in keeping my health up. I even had time to skin a few of the dragonkin corpses before the Epoch Hunter landed and we engaged him. I didn’t notice his abilities, save the knockback which he performed on me several times. I kept him faced away from the group, and kept getting punted further and further back. The Epoch Hunter dropped the Mantle of Perenolde. If I’m not mistaken, no one picked this up!
It was a great trial run for good old Rockstar. No one died. I was able to hold aggro fairly well, considering the frenetic pace of the escort and the presence of an eager-to-dps mage.
The damage output was the following:
- Freezer was at 28% (558 dps)
- Arkalas was at 24% (629 dps)
- Cetus was at 23% (435 dps)
- Rockstar was at 16% (204 dps)