Lich King not HC down

Despite most things just trucking along here, and news of Cataclysm coming thick and fast, some things of note do still happen back in plain old Wrath. One of those is the most recent kill of the Lich King by my guild on 10 man normal mode.

Although a lot of people are on heroic modes and finding difficulty with LK Heroic, our guild has struggled a whole lot on the normal mode of the fight. The requirement for no one to make a mistake has caused a load of trouble with a raid makeup which is usually made from whoever signs up on the night, and has to do Sindragosa first. We started to keep a single lock with just LK up and get a load of guildies who just wanted him dead, to keep bashing away on various nights. After a couple of months of this for 1-2 evenings of 3 hours a time, we finally managed it. Now the heroic modes are unlocked for easy Lootship loot and some harder ones, to keep interest for the mains who are all geared out from ICC 10. The step up in difficulty from the rest of ICC 10 is quite pronounced, and may not bode well if all fights in Cataclysm are this hard.

So not a world-shattering achievement by any means, but for our little guild who started raiding in Karazhan and spanked the Prince good but didn't make much progress into ZA, its game over for this expansion's bosses and grats all round. Pity I wasn't there, but hopefully I can get into another LK attempt some time.

Cataclysm: Levelling Enhancement as actually Enhancement

So a few days ago this crazy blue post outlined the changes to the talent system in the expansion. The relevant bits are:

If you choose Enhancement, we want you to feel like an Enhancement shaman right away, not thirty talent points later. When talent trees are unlocked at level 10, you will be asked to choose your specialization (e.g. whether you want to be an Arms, Fury or Protection warrior) before spending that first point. Making this choice comes with certain benefits, including whatever passive bonuses you need to be effective in that role, and a signature ability that used to be buried deeper in the talent trees. ... The passive bonuses range from nergle... to more interesting passives such as blah... or the ability to dual-wield itself for Enhancement shaman.

Apparently Wow.com found reference somewhere that Enhancement Shamans would be getting Lava Lash too, although they didn't link to the source.

This is actually quite exciting for a levelling Shaman. With Primal Strike obtained at level 3, you get to attack things with a 1 handed or 2 handed weapon and do some decent damage, instead of slinging lightning bolts at things in melee range. Then at level 10 when you wisely choose the Enhancement tree, you get dual-wield and lava lash and have the following to play with:

• Primal Strike
• Earth Shock
• Flame Shock
• Lava Lash
• Lightning Shield

Unfortunately Windfury Weapon imbue doesn't show up until level 30, but Flametongue weapon does appear at level 10 so slap that on both weapons, follow a simplified Enhancement priority and Robert is your mother's brother.

Hopefully the talent tree shakeup will make more tasty stuff available sooner, and they will make WF weapon available early. This might even make me reconsider leveling an alt come Cataclysm. Goblin Shaman anyone?