When I first started playing this game, I started off with a male night elf hunter named Kurnmogh. Kurn was my raiding toon throughout Vanilla. Kurn is the toon who did the Tier .5 questline. Kurn is the toon who got attuned to places and cared about rep. Kurn was the toon I was on when learning to raid lead. Kurn was basically awesome, considering the utter lack of content my old guild cleared. To this day, my Rhok’delar quest is one of my cherished memories.
Throughout the years, I have done more and more stuff on my paladin. Three months into Burning Crusade, I was raiding on the paladin, never to look back at the hunter. Sure, I got to get in on our Tidewalker kill on Kurn, sure, I got to get in on our Gorefiend kill on Kurn, but Madrana has been my raiding toon since April of 2007.
And even then, I insisted all those who knew me previously as Kurn continue to call me Kurn.
This blog is called Kurn’s Corner because, well, I like the alliteration, but also because when I play WoW, I really still feel like Kurn is my main. I do all the stupid shit on Kurn. I did all the holiday stuff on Kurn, I’m still working on a screenshot project on Kurn, I did a Sarth 10 3d zerg on Kurn just last week.
Sometimes, it really saddens me to see just how much I ignore poor ol’ Kurn. Haven’t done much more than the weekly and maybe a daily random or two on the hunter for a month, and not even the weekly all that often. I just don’t have the time to raid 12 hours a week on the pally, go through parses, write blogs, do RL stuff AND do anything significant with my hunter.
But I managed to get my four-piece T10 on Kurn today. I have the 251 helm, chest and shoulders and the 264 gloves, plus the Leggings of Northern Lights and, of course, Zod’s Repeating Longbow.
I’m not quite “done” for the expansion on Kurn, exactly — I still have a couple of projects in mind — but I felt such a sense of completion when I picked up my helm today after my daily! Sure, my shaman, priest, druid and mage are all thoroughly neglected, sitting in various pieces of T9, if they’re lucky, but it was important for me to get Kurn a nice gearset of T10. It’s not a matter of ego, it’s not even really a matter of pride. It’s a matter of my remembering my roots, remembering that there was a time when I topped damage in Molten Core, remembering that there was a time when I was the go-to kiter for Hakkar adds, remembering that there was a time when people wouldn’t run with a hunter in my old guild, unless it was me.
Kurn may not be my main raiding character in Wrath. Kurn may not have been my main raiding character in Burning Crusade. Kurn may not even be my main raiding character in Cataclysm. But Kurn is still an important part of my in-game identity and that old hunter deserved the effort I went through to get some semblance of decent gear.
I feel satisfied by the effort I’ve put into the hunter this expansion. I might be a little disappointed that I may never kill the Lich King as a hunter, although I admit that the responsibility of tranq shotting the horrors is more than a little overwhelming. I haven’t been responsible for tranq shotting anything significant since Magmadar.
But as we come to the end of Wrath of the Lich King, I feel like Kurn’s done a lot. I’ve done parts of all the major instances on the hunter — cleared Naxx, done chunks of Ulduar, done the Lower Spire a ton of times, done Ony, VOA over and over again and played in Ruby Sanctum one night.
It’s been a good expansion for Kurn and I like that I have 4pc T10 to show for it.
I sense a renaming of the blog to Madrana’s Minute. Maybe Madrana’s Musings.
Walks – Hell no! Apart from anything else, no one can read any of my blog posts in a minute. :P
The blog was also originally mostly about my ramblings as a GM. And Kurn is the only one who has been GM. Madrana was always an Officer Alt. ;D
If it hadn’t been for the name “Kurn”, I may not have become as regular a reader as I am. It takes an eye-catcher for me to become a regular on blogs highlighting classes that I don’t play (and I didn’t have a Pally when I found you); be it a catchy name or an awesome writing style. You possess both, by the way. :)
Kurn has always been one of my favorite supporting Next Generation-era characters. I wish that they had utilized him more…
It’s always the 1st character we played that seems to hold a special corner in our memories! I miss my baby hunter in BC….regret never getting them past 24 and then deleting them. Also the lvl 9 undead warlock when WoW 1st came out, and the 15 tauren warrior…
Will – You are, perhaps, the sixth or seventh person in FIVE YEARS to tell me that they recognize the name as Worf’s brother from TNG. I used the randomizer, got “Kurn” thought, “Hey! That’s Worf’s brother’s name! Yes, I can totally see that as being a good name for my night elf.” And then it was taken. So I went with “Kurnmogh”, since they’re the Sons of Mogh. So it’s kind of like a last name. ;)
I wasn’t a huge fan of the Klingons, to be honest, but I grew to like them as the series progressed.
Thanks for the compliments, by the way!
slice – Yep, the first impressions are the longest-lasting, I guess. I was in such AWE of Darnassus when I first came across it on Kurn, for example, but when Madrana finally got over to Kalimdor, she was like “meh”. ;) It’s like… I experienced all the jaw-dropping awesome stuff on Kurn and then was jaded enough on Madrana and subsequent toons that I just didn’t care so much. Just playing on Kurn can bring back dozens of memories. Going through Kurn’s BANK brings back dozens of memories, most of them precious. :)
Yeah, I think Mailynn will always be my “main” of sorts, even though I really do like healing on the druid a helluva lot. And she will likely be the character I transfer to E’T once Cataclysm comes out. But I think that’s a huge accomplishment regardless of the lack of real play time. I don’t think I have a 4-set of Tier 10 on any character.
My pleasure. And the compliments are well-deserved, of that I can assure you. :) I’ve very much enjoyed reading your columns and Tweets, even though my baby Pally probably won’t ever be Holy, and even though I’m not in your echelon.
I hope that my comments, and the Twitter conversations that we’ve had, have been as pleasant for you as they’ve been for me. Perhaps one day I can even earn a Follow. A guy can dream…
I was at first stunned that more people, in those five years, haven’t mentioned it to you. But then again, we’re not all Trekkers, and some of them might not be the type to comment on a name.
Until next time, I will try some of this burned replicated bird meat…
Well I’m the same. Everything was done on Echo my main even as my alts expanded I couldn’t not think of him as my main character.
Oh and you might find 2pcT9 2pcT10 more dps than 4pcT10 at least until you upgrade all of the t10 pieces to 264.
Mailynn – I edited your comment because you used your real name as your posting name and it ended up in my to-be-approved filter. ;) It was a pain in the ass to collect all the Emblems of Frost without, you know, raiding very often. Madrana’s drowning in the damn things, but poor Kurn…
Will – Please don’t take offense if I don’t follow you (or most people, for that matter) on Twitter. I follow those I know online, from my old guild or my current guild or from other spots online, plus some of the official/fan sites and some healers, primarily. There’s just so much traffic that I have trouble keeping up with it as it is. :/
It shocks me that more people aren’t Trekkers, to be honest. ;)
Enjoy the burned replicated bird meat? Or would you prefer some prune juice?
Echo – Online identity is a weird thing, a strange beast, to be sure. I couldn’t tell you WHY I identify most as Kurn, but I do. Madrana will forever be an “alt” even if I’ve spent more time on her than on Kurn.
As to 2pcT9, based on what I have (all 232 Conquest), the 3 251 pieces and the 1 264 I have more than make up for the lack of critical SS dots, at least according to femaledwarf.com. Since I won’t be upgrading my 251s to 264 and probably won’t raid more than a couple of times between now and Cataclysm, I’d even be okay with the DPS loss, just to have the opportunity to play with the two set bonuses. But it does make me feel better that the 4pc is better than what I could achieve otherwise. :)
No, no offense will be taken. Frankly, I’m surprised that I have as many followers as I do, what with my being a regular guy; as opposed to a blogger or some other prominent figure in the overall community.
And for not following me, you’ve been more consistent as far as responding to me than most of the people who do. So I sincerely thank you for that. I’d say that at least half of the things that I Tweet to people seem to get lost in the aether. Which obviously gets frustrating at times.
And yes, the replicated bird meat was wonderful. As for the prune juice, I must confess that I’ve never had it.
Oh yeah, oops. I stopped paying attention to where I was posting and just got tired of all of the pseudonyms. Ha! I’ll try to remember to use Mailynn.
Also, getting emblems of Frost is a pita when you don’t raid very often. I don’t think the Druid has even 1 piece of T10 gear. She’s decently geared, just not with T10. And the Warlock… ugh. Poor thing. It’s all just so depressing to think about.
You know, sister… Your hunter has and will always be my favourite of your toons. Kurnmogh is the reason I started a hunter and twinked her at 19 – after spending a few (being modest here) hundred gold on doing so. Uhhhh. Let me rephrase.. spending a few hundred of YOUR gold. ;) Basically only to play her for maybe 2-3 WSG weekends, and a few times here and there. This is all before battlegroups btw people…
Then, one day I decided to GTF to 80 on the hunter (Hamhunter at the time on ET) only to be brought over to Proudmoore with BoA chest and shoulders you so graciously made possible. At this time, a name change was in order and I decided on ‘Je’. A French pronoun that means ‘I’ in English. LOVED the name.
The hunter was pretty much a JOY to level. Due to my vanilla experience I flew through 19-58. I hit Outlands and by the time I was in Zangar I was in my late 60’s. At which I believe you had your Druid join me – correct me if I’m wrong about that. Then the dungeons were all I did. Woth you tanking/healing for insta-queues.
I loved it.
But. What I really fell in love with on my hunter was PvP. I’ve always been more into destroying horde. I’m pretty sure that 30% of my levelling Je was in BG’s. I remember sitting at IBGY and waiting for it to cap. Heading south past TP and just getting into EPIC AV battles, sniping from atop little hills next to trees and just living FOREVER.
Once we hit 80, I still was more into PVP and we ended up arena’ing together… at your chagrin perhaps, but I think we had fun. You made it possible (along with majmaj the increda-DK) for me to get the PVP gear that I have (Relentless – 251) which still brings me about the only pleasure I get from this game to date.
So, basically, thanks sister.