Trophies of a Hunter, Part 1

If you’re like me, when you watch a movie that has some kind of adventurer like Indiana Jones, you wish you had a trophy case or wall on which you could display your great collection of items proudly. I’m a pack rat. I have a hard time throwing out stuff because many things have sentimental value to me.

Over the past year, I’ve gotten to see more content in WoW than I originally thought I ever would. In the process, I’ve gotten my hands on a lot of really random things that I find too good to throw away.

My collection is taking up a decent amount of space in my bank, but I don’t want to throw it away. I’m sure a lot of people feel the same way about their pre-BC gear. If I had my hands on [Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers] or [Lok'delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers], I wouldn’t throw it out for anything.

So what kinds of stuff do I keep as trophies?

Armor/Weapons

• The [Wrathtide Longbow] drops from Warlord Kalithresh in Heroic Steamvaults. Yesterday’s run was the first time I’ve seen this bow drop, and I’ve done the instance many times (and have reached exalted with Cenarion Expedition last week). This bow has one of the slowest speeds and is quite good for a Marksman or Survival hunter before you head into Karazhan. It’s not good for Beast Masters because it’s way to slow for MQoSRDPS if you are using a 3:2 shot rotation. The catch? The drop is quite low since, as I mentioned, even I’ve only seen it once.
• The [Recoilless Rocket Ripper X-54] is probably the closest thing there is to a rocket launcher in WoW. I keep it mainly because it looks just plain awesome. I’ve seen a lot of pre-Kara tanks use this gun because of the stamina buff. I only wish the ammo is rockets, not bullets.:-P
• [The Hands of Fate] is a plate gear for paladins that’s a reward from one of the quests in a chain originally needed for attunement for Tempest Keep. The reason I keep this piece is because my guild name is “The Hand of Fate”, so it’s nice to keep around.
• I actually don’t have the [Malefactor's Eyepatch] yet, but I have the quest that provides it as a reward. It’s definitely going to be a keeper in my collection. Come on, how can you pass on something that makes you look like a pirate? It’s even made of mail instead of leather for the other eyepatches in the game!

Trinkets

• An [Argent Dawn Commission] is needed to collect Scourgestones from the Plaguelands. I visited the Plaguelands area not long before I headed into Outland. Keeping this trinket still opens the possibility of my increasing my Argent Dawn reputation. I also have an inkling that the Plaguelands may come into play again during world events prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich King.
• The [Chained Essence of Eranikus] is needed to complete a dead-end quest in the Swamp of Sorrows. The quest chain takes you to the Temple of Atal’Hakkar. Eranikus is a green dragon who tried to fight the Nightmare in the Emerald Dream. I’m keeping this because the poison effect is pretty nifty. I didn’t want to lose it to a dead end quest that Blizzard may extend in the future.
• [Power Infused Mushroom] is a reference to Super Mario World, where you get 200 points from stomping on mushrooms. Initially, I found this trinket to be somewhat useful when I had mana issues in the early 60s before the +Intellect gear started coming in.
• The essential [Carrot on a Stick] is a quest reward of killing Gahz’rilla in Zul’Farrak. It’s one of the first trinkets you will be able to receive once you hit the 40s. Mount speed increase is nice when you’re still on the slow mounts.
• Now I never was able to test how well a [Hypnotist's Watch] works in reducing threat because I had better trinkets, but it’s an interesting use effect, so I’ll keep it around anyway.
• [Mark of the Chosen] was useful back in the 40s when I was still learning how to keep aggro on my pet. At least when I went into occasional melee, I had a chance of receiving the nice buff.
• At first, I had a hard time in choosing [Devilsaur Tooth] over [Devilsaur Eye], but the effect was unlike any other trinket I’ve seen, so I decided to keep the Tooth. The Eye is easily replaceable with any of the AP trinkets from Outland (although the Hit rating is nice). I feel like the Tooth would benefit Beast Masters more during those pre-BC levels.

Now if only I could keep the heads of each of the elite beasts I had to hand in to Nesingwary and his son. Those would be 8 items I will proudly keep in my bank.

Next time, I’ll talk about some more random items I’ve collected as trophies or just because they were cool.