Uldor the Fallen Warrior

Creation:
Uldor was created as a bank alt. I don’t know when, but I know he existed prior to May 23rd 2005 – the weekend my daughter was born. Since WoW was released right at 6 months prior to that, Uldor is probably one of the oldest characters in the game. I named him intentionally based on two things: “Ul” was inspired by the known ancient dwarven / earthen cities of “Ulduman” and “Uldum” (“Ulduar” I would learn of later). The second syllable “dor” comes from the first syllable of my Warlock (Dorgol). Thus I have a name that is established as definitely part of Azeroth and yet still part of my own unique world. I would later discover that Uldor is a name from Tolkien’s Silmarillion, a fact I would use when fleshing out Uldor’s background (his brother is named Ulreq, just like the Tolkien story).

So why did I create Dwarf Warrior? At the time the decision was a pretty simple one: I didn’t want a caster and I didn’t want a healer. I did want someone who could kill Rogues and looked impressive in Plate – Dwarves fit that bill.

Leveling (1-59):
As a bank alt, Uldor spent an unknown amount of time at level 6. Or was it 8? Maybe 10? All I know is that for months he never left Ironforge. He simply received mail and posted items to the Auction House. It has been too long since I actually started leveling him, so I don’t remember what triggered my changing him from bank alt to dedicated character.

I do know that I abused him for awhile in the mid-30s. My Warlock was working on his epic mount quest and needed 10 Elixir of Shadow Power. I am and always have been thrift with my funds, so I refused to buy the herbs or the Elixirs. So I leveled the Warrior to 35 (where he could train top-level Alchemy) and then used my Warlock to farm the herbs. This turned out to be rather profitable as I was able to max out his Alchemy LONG before he hit max level. In fact, he produced more income than my Warlock did – my Warlock had no real tradeskills (I think I had Skinning and Tailoring?) while the Warrior was able to do an Arcanite Bar Transmute every day.

After awhile, though, I started leveling again. Uldor did fewer instances than my Warlock did. Come to think of it, I don’t remember him really running ANY 5-mans while leveling. I’m sure he did some (and I could probably check his Achievements for some ideas), but I can’t really remember what they were.

At the Cap (level 60):
Level 60 for the Warrior meant I had a few options. I distinctly remember telling myself I wouldn’t farm the Valor set as I was feeling pretty much done with Strat, Scholo, and Blackrock. I know that in the end I still ended up getting that full set, so I guess I didn’t hold to my word. I even put my hand to tanking for awhile (though I never actually setup a Protection spec… I tanked up to UBRS in Fury and Arms spec, though).

For a great while I considered my Warlock my “raiding” character, while my Warrior was my “PvP” character. Battlegrounds were my home, and (not to toot my own horn) I was pretty good.

As I mentioned in my post on the Warlock, I cancelled my account for a 4 month period during early ’06. When I reactivated I decided to put some serious effort into the Honor system.

In the original Honor system, ranks were earned and gear was granted based on rank. A player could expect to gain access to a full set of blue gear by the time they reached Rank 10. Mounts were available at Rank 11. Epics started coming in with Rank 12 and 13 – with Weapons being limited exclusively to Rank 14. I never even considered the possibility of reaching Grand Marshall (R14). I set my sites on Rank 11 – there I would gain access to really cheap mounts and a pretty cool title (Commander).

Sadly, I didn’t quite make it. I was on track to hit Rank 11 the second week of December ’06. Patch 2.0.1 – which revamped the Honor system – was released the FIRST week of December ’06. I had obtained the full blue set of armor (which I never really liked due to its yellow color), but I didn’t get the mounts or title I wanted.

In general, I have fond memories of my Battleground experiences. I remember being frustrated at lower gear levels and I remember being frustrated with the lack of healing in PvP. This was one of the driving factors in the creation of my Paladin during The Burning Crusade.

The Casual Crusade (60-70):
The release of The Burning Crusade saw my Warrior staring from a different perspective than my Warlock. Dorgol was fully geared and enchanted from raiding. Mobs were of no real threat (other players were a different story), so questing was relaxing and enjoyable.

Uldor, though, died fairly early and often in his early attempts at questing. Despite wearing a solid set of gear with a decent weapon (the Unstoppable Force was decent back then!), I suffered greatly if I encountered more than one or two enemies at a time. Downtime was ridiculous (even as a cook) and I went through bandages and food like they were going out of style.

The Burning Crusade was really the darkest days for him as a “character”. When I finally did get him to 70 (after my Warlock went from 60-70 and my Paladin went from 1-70), he didn’t really accomplish much. I was asked to tank Mechenaar just a few moments after hitting 70, and while we succeeded I did a horrible job.

Like my other characters, though, I did complete every quest in Outland. It was just too easy to make money that way. If memory serves, Uldor completed all of Blade’s Edge, Netherstorm, and Shadowmoon Valley post-70 netting me a solid 2k – 3k gold. Like most of my other characters, Uldor never had a “slow” flying mount – I bought epic flying and my epic flying mount within seconds of 70.

Uldor did see another wave of love at the end of the TBC era. Similar to my experiences in Classic WoW, I found myself farming battlegrounds for gear and fun. My PvP skills were rusty – but then so was my PvP gear. I dropped Alchemy and leveled Blacksmithing (never. again.) so I could have a decent weapon (I believe the term “Skillherald” was tossed around).

By the time WotLK released, Uldor was sporting a full set of Season 2 Gladiator gear. I finally saw my first heroic post-3.0 release (after the famous 30% nerf to all PvE content), though I went in as DPS and not as a Tank.

In preparation for WotLK Blizzard opened up free transfers off of Boulderfist. I took them up on the opportunity, sending my Warrior to Galakrond. Uldor would sit there, mostly ignored, for close to a year.

Wrath of the Alt (71-80):
Galakrond became my “things to do when Boulderfist is down” server. Mostly, though, it was PvP. I was level 70, wearing a full set of Season 2 PvP gear, using a tier 5 level weapon. My opponents in Alterac Valley were level 61-70 players in questing greens / blues. I was like a god. I’ll admit, that feeling of being overpowered was a blast. There were a few other similarly geared players in these AV, and they made things even more fun.

Of course, this fun came to an end as soon as I hit level 71.

The strangest thing happened around that time. I was invited to run a 5-man instance as a DPS player. This had never happened before. In Classic WoW Warriors COULD do decent damage, but at the low end it was pretty much expected that they Tank. In TBC this became even more the standard thanks to Heroic-mode 5-mans. Of course, this could all be my imagination and Warriors could have been happily tearing up the damage charts. They just never did it around me.

It was around this time that I setup the mod PowerAuras to help with proc-notifications. Overpower and Execute procs turned my Warrior into a killing machine. I died early in TBC questing, but I was invincible in WotLK questing.

I managed to make decent friends with a Paladin tank who was leveling up around the same time, and I found myself invited to his groups regularly. Around level 77 or 78 I stopped questing and decided to go back to my old haunt – the Battlegrounds. I bought a full set of Savage Gladiator PvP gear, equipped my De-Raged War Axe, and went back into the killing fields. And once again my experience proved to be a considerable edge over my opponents. I was like a bull in a china shop – I could be stopped, but not until after I made a huge mess. I managed to level all the way to 80 in PvP, ultimately hitting the big number in Arathi Basin. And, just as it happened when I left level 70 behind, much of the fun disappeared as I went from “overpowered” to “cannon fodder” to Arena geared 80s.

So Uldor was left alone and abandoned at 80 – just like he was at 70.

However, Uldor found a new purpose with the Random Dungeon Finder. Initially joining up as a DPS Arms Warrior, I held my own on the damage charts. The queue was slow, but I filled in the time by doing dailies for Cooking, Fishing, and the Sons of Hodir (no Tournament for me!). After a few gear upgrades, I found myself buying a 2nd spec and switching to Fury. After a few more dungeons, I found myself geared enough for tanking - which is where I am now.

Queue times for tanks are ridiculously fast. I don’t even have time for dailies (unless I MAKE time). At this point Uldor is sitting on a full tanking and DPS set, with no real upgrades available. Of course, I have no NEED for upgrades since I have never – and likely never will – tank a raid.

As a side note, Uldor was fairly lucky and won both the Reins of the Blue Drake from Oculus AND the Reins of the Blue Protodrake from Utguarde Pinnacle. This annoys my Paladin to no end since that character is my main collector.

Sitting on the Sidelines, Again (Present):
I still log into the Warrior on occasion. There are a few pieces I could upgrade if they would ever drop, so I like to run things every once in awhile. However, he is mostly waiting for Cataclysm, where I expect him to go through some serious changes.

Looking into the Future (Cataclysm):
Uldor the Dwarf Warrior is already dead. Literally! Uldor the Dwarf Death Knight is level 80 on Boulderfist and is, in my mind, the exact same character as Uldor (the Warrior) was.

Cataclysm will bring a new character to life, though: Prisoner the Goblin Warrior. With paid faction changes Uldor will no longer suffer from dual identities, and I’ll get to experience the fun that is a Goblin.