Too cool to be forgotten
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Jan 29th 2007 at 4:27PM
My friend is a fairly ordinary resto shaman -- a little bit of Earthfury, a little bit of instance blues, a whole lot of enthusiasm for dropping totems and healing people. He did a bit of raiding last winter, but took a six-month break from WoW until the Burning Crusade lured him back in.
He jumped through the Dark Portal with all the enthusiasm of a reunited lover, ready to take on Outland and replace his gear. But he quickly noticed that people were pointing and laughing at him. Why? Are tauren shamans that unusual? No -- there was something wrong with his gear. But what was wrong? A couple of whispers later and he had his answer -- his Skullflame Shield.
The whisperers told him that the Skullflame Shield is not the best shield for a shaman. Actually, the Skullflame Shield really isn't the best shield for anyone (aside from someone tanking Nef, on which it actually worked pretty well for us.) The only stats are 10 fire resistance and 10 shadow resistance, along with a 3 percent proc to steal life and a 1 percent Thunderfury-like proc. Just what a healer needs -- more aggro.
My friend is smart enough to realize this, but he still refuses to replace his shield. "There is nothing in the game that looks as cool as this," he told me, "And I know it sucks but it's really awesome, and I'm not giving it up."
I know the feeling. I felt a little sad when I replaced my Bloodfang Spaulders -- yeah, they're pretty terrible, but they made me look all red and glowy. A warlock pal of mine who recently hit 70 said he'll be sorry to see his Plagueheart Helm go. He loves how it looks, plus he's the only person on our server who has it.
Do you have any pieces of gear you'll be sorry to replace? Something that looks undeniably cool or has good memories attached to it?
Filed under: Items, The Burning Crusade
