Thursday (22 Oct) - A Champion of Sen'jin?

Thursday (22 Oct) - A Champion of Sen'jin?

JB rolled in game on Thursday and immediately headed to the Argent tournament grounds to pick up the three daily quests that would get her to 25 valiant seals. She intentionally avoided thinking about what would follow the turn in of those seals. Just get there, she told herself. Worry about the rest later. "Enemy at the Gates" is one of the three, and the only one that required mounted combat against the enemy knights and their foot soldiers. JB arrived and mounted up, and then went looking for trouble.

She found it up one of the rough hewn stone lanes between the snowy fields away from the base camp. The mounted knight had only a single shield showing and a small handful of soldiers around him. JB galloped in, Charging the knight and then leading the small group away from other knight groups. JB then trampled the soldiers to death, refreshed her brace of three shields, closed with the enemy knight, and used Thrust over and over until he died. It wasn't pretty or elegant, but it got the job done. JB did that two more times, then did the easier ten kills of the flyers that flapped around all over the area, and she was done.

Feeling a little more confident at the swift completion of the quest, JB returned to the Argent grounds, turned in her quests, and had her 25 seals. The main quest giver in the Sunreaver Pavilion congratulated JB and asked if she was ready for the next challenge. JB received the quest "The Valiant's Challenge" and was sent to speak with Squire Danny at the Valiant's Ring. Oh boy, here we go. A one on one joust with an npc much tougher than those JB had already failed against. She held on to the spark of confidence she got from the earlier quest despite knowing in her gut that she hadn't practiced enough to be taking on this challenge.

JB didn't hesitate, though. She mounted up, holding her lance proudly, and trotted into the Ring. It took a moment to find Squire Danny, but once spotted she rode up to him and told him she was ready. As JB began getting her three shields up, her opponent cantered onto the field, his three shields already in place. JB targeted the knight, but first he had to speak a few pompous words. Lulled by the interlude, JB did not get off her shield-breaker in time once the battle started and the knight Charged her, breaking her shield and doing considerable damage at the start of the fight.

Rather than worry about winning the match at this point, JB practiced her movement and attacks against the live competition. The knight eventually beat JB, but JB wasn't discouraged. JB got herself another mount and Squire Danny got her another opponent.

This time, JB immediately closed with the knight, and we fought at melee range with thrusts. Since we both had three shields up the damage was minimal, but the health bars of us both edged downward nonetheless. The knight turned and moved to get range on JB. One maneuver JB had learned was to toss her shield-breaker the instant the knight got far enough away to cast it, but still too close to swing around and Charge. JB did not wait for the arc of the shield-breaker to strike the knight, but urged her mount forward, closing again to melee range but now with a shield advantage, JB's three shields to the knight's two. Of course, the knight restored his third shield, but not before taking a little extra damage.

JB still had trouble with the reins, and she could not get the mount to go where she wanted it to all the time. JB also didn't trust her ability to Charge without ending up taking more damage than she doled out. So she stayed grimly on the knight, busting his shield every time he moved away and then closing to melee again.

The joust went on a long time. JB made one mistake, getting turned around and not closing fast enough with the knight. The knight got off a Charge, and JB's health dropped an unhealthy amount.

Now there was no room for error. The two health bars were virtually indistinguishable from each other. JB resumed her stalking and shield-breaking, certain that if the knight got in another Charge she was done for. After another exchange of thrusts, JB got a "low health" message. JB's mount was nearly done for. But then so was the knight's mount. Thrust, move, shield-break, close, and thrust again. Don't make any more mistakes.

Another thrust, and the knight's mount folded under him, dumping him to the hard packed earth of the Ring floor. JB had won.

JB had earned the title of Champion of Sen'jin. Even though it was not one of those vanity titles that appear over your head in your name plate, it was a title JB could be proud of.

JB was sent over to the Argent Pavilion and a visit with Justicar Mariel Trueheart. Truehart assigned JB an Argent Squire, or, as they are called by the horde, an Argent Gruntling.

JBs Gruntling

The immediate benefit for JB was that she earned ten Champion Seals for completing this phase of the competition. Ten Champion seals just happen to be what it costs to buy [Necklace of Stolen Skulls], an ilevel 200 caster item that also has +43 hit on it, more than any other single piece of gear JB owns, even her mace (+30 hit). This one piece of gear was the whole reason for going through this.

With the new necklace (and using some pretty sad green quest gear that happens to have +hit on it) JB can now say she has a hit capped set of gear. For raids with a shadow priest or moonkin, JB needs to have +289 hit. She can get to +291. Without raid buffs, JB theoretically needs +368 hit, but that goal is for another day. For another ten seals per piece, JB can supplement that gear with tournament gear for boots and belt that will replace poorer +hit gear. Time to start working toward that.

There is much more to the tournament. JB needs to pick a major city to champion and continue her progression. JB is not sure whether to go with Orgrimmar (home of the orcs) or Thunder Bluff (home of the tauren). Silvermoon City (blood elves) and the Undercity (undead) are also choices. Trolls don't really have a home city.

By the way, I learned the reason for jumping into the air and turning 180 degrees during jousts. I don't know if this is specific to joust mounts, but mounts turn in a wide arc that is slow enough for the opponent knight to hit you with a shield-break. Jump and turn is much faster, and players can either charge or close before the opponent can cast shield-break. That's the secret to winning the matches. If only JB could actually do it without falling off her horse. :-)