– When I play games seriously, I always aim to be one of the best. If you spend this much time on a game, you might as well aim for the top, says Nihilum shadow priest Havar "muqq" Ameen (25).

By KIDARCTICA

If Curse had accepted him, the world might never have gotten to see muqq melt faces in Nihilum. – I think they told me and Quantz to apply again once the Paid Character Transfer (PCT) was open, but as a matter of chance, we decided to apply to Nihilum instead, muqq reveals.

Zeksy Beetch
At the grand age of one, Havar's family left Kurdistan and came to Sweden as refugees. In Gävle they found a home, and merely five years later, young Havar got introduced to gaming.

– My older brother got hold of a Commodore 64. Through the years, he acquired other computers and consoles like Amigas, NES, SNES and Megadrive, and we kind of kept going until we hit the PC. The most memorable moments from my earlier years would be waking up early during the weekends just to sit and play Metroid, he remembers.

Pretty early, Havar's family got a 33 mhz 486 PC with a 30 MB hard drive. PC gaming got explored through Warcraft 1, Carmageddon, Colonization and Civilization. Though he always liked RPGs, and when EverQuest was released, a guy at Havar's school mentioned something about an RPG with a first person view.

– I really had no idea what it was all about, and had it lying on a shelf for a couple of weeks before actually installing and trying it. Before I knew it, I was trapped, he recalls.

As his friend recommended a druid, that was the class Havar started out playing, a female one that he named Aeriell "after a certain Disney character for lack of imagination". But later on, he wanted to try a DPS class, and switched to a rogue as his second character.

– The rogue was called Zeksy, a pun of "sexy". You could have surnames as well, and I had Beetch as a surname for Zeksy. Add them together, and you get a nice phrase. Although a GM removed my surname later on!

Enter mupp
Havar got thoroughly addicted to EverQuest, and in particular he remembers huge PvP battles over outdoor raid bosses and getting a Primal Velium weapon for Zeksy the rogue. Interacting with other people, raiding and improving his character kept him going until he stopped in the middle of the Planes of Power expansion.

– I quit because of lack of time at that point, and the interest had dwindled a bit. As for online games back then, I didn't really play anything seriously or competitively, I mostly stuck to all single player games until I started playing FFXI, he explains.

In FFXI, he played a Taru-Taru, a small, furry creature prominent in magic. The game had him captured for a year and a half, but the lack of high end PvE content made him and several other guild mates switch to World of Warcraft when it was released in the USA.

– I played a rogue on a server called Alleria. The lack of healers when I hit 60 made me frustrated, so I rolled a priest shortly after, got it to 60 in a couple of weeks and played a priest ever since. The priest was called mupp! he says.

The name was taken from Final Fantasy. His character had looked like a small, furry Muppet, in Swedish called a "mupp". Since then, the name has stuck with him, not necessarily because he likes it so much, but more because he doesn't care for nicks and hasn't bothered coming up with anything better.

New Beginnings
– Back then, I was stuck in a random no-name guild, as people had barely started raiding Molten Core. I had a hard time getting into a good guild that raided seriously, and the raiding hours were terrible for me here in Sweden. So I decided to re-roll to a European server where I could start from the beginning, muqq recalls.

Around May 2005 he created his second priest on Darksorrow, a European PvP server. The plan was to level as fast as possible to get into the best guild on the server, and it worked out well. After a week or so, the black-haired female undead priest with the black features was level 40 and joined RUIN!, which eventually became the best horde guild on Darksorrow.

Downing Kazzak was the guild's first PvE achievement. After that, they went through Molten Core, but the guild leader ditched them after their first Ragnaros kill. Officer muqq wasn't ready to quit just yet though. He took on leadership and brought the guild through Blackwing Lair, AQ40, and they also downed the two first bosses in Naxxramas.

– You have to realise, our raiding guild wasn't anywhere near hardcore. We were the average raiding guild found on so many servers around the world, the guild that struggles with poor attendance and members real life-ing or switching guilds. Consumables were never heard of back then, and people, well, they played poorly, says muqq.

The PCT became the solution and salvation. muqq was tired of the constant recruiting and having new players on end game encounters. The server had no good recruits left, and no merge was possible since the one guild they could merge with refused, no matter how much they tried to convince them that it would be for the better for both parties. Along with his good friend, Quantz, who was an officer in the guild, muqq started preparing his application to other guilds.

This is when muqq could have become a Curse player. With the PCT a few weeks away, he and Quantz approached them, but were told to apply again once the PCT was open. So instead, they decided to apply to Nihilum based on their world first C'Thun kill, and the fact that they were actively recruiting.

– We figured we had a good chance of getting in, as we were the people back then who actually did use consumables and who had resist gear in order, even for schools that weren't even needed. In addition, we actually bothered writing thought out and proper applications. A good application goes a long way in having a chance at joining a guild, even though your gear isn't the best. Two days after our applications, we got answers from Kungen that we were cleared for trials! muqq remembers.

The Race for Kel'thuzad
At that point, priests were Holy, and muqq was no exception. After one raid with Nihilum, he was hooked. Playing with likeminded, funny players who used Ventrilo not for raiding, but for friendly chit-chatting, and the speed and accuracy of the raids was perfect for him.

– Nihilum was in dire need of members that summer, and the trial went just great, he recalls.

Then the race to clear Naxxramas started. Death and Taxes was doing well, and Deus Vox proved that Loatheb was killable. When Death and Taxes got Four Horsemen down, Nihilum did the same a few days later only to struggle with frost resistance gear for the Sapphiron fight.

– We had issues borrowing Frozen Runes from other guilds, so it took some time to gear us up. Finally we managed to get 40 people in frost resistance gear, and we started working on the encounter. I'm not entirely sure, but I think we spent perhaps one and a half day on it. The evening after that, we got our kill. Death and Taxes was one day ahead of us at that point, muqq remembers.

Four guilds were in contention for getting the world first kill on Kel'Thuzad; Death and Taxes, Risen, Nihilum and Deus Vox. All of them encountered various problems with despawns or server downtime, and none of them got him down before the weekly reset. Nihilum was the closest though, with two wipes at one measly percent.

– At that point, we really thought we had lost the race. It was a huge downer for us; many of us pretty much thought it was over, that we lost the world first on Kel'Thuzad. Magtheridon had huge issues back then. It was always laggy from raiding time till 2200 or so. I remember us starting at 1500 back then, clearing all of Naxxramas up until Kel'Thuzad, one full day behind Death and Taxes's reset timer.

– The very next day we started around 1800 I think, warmed up on Kel'Thuzad and did attempts just to get the fight down in preparation of getting world buffs for the final try. At around 2200, the server stopped lagging. We felt we had a good chance at taking Kel'Thuzad down. So we came back, packed with world buffs, and one-shotted him.

– I remember our IRC channel being packed with fan boys waiting for the news, and I think there are quite a few screenshots of how Orgrimmar looked after the kill. There were hundreds and hundreds of level 1 characters around, wanting to inspect us, talk to us and ask us questions. It was the first time I heard Nihilum members scream that loudly in Ventrilo. Everyone was hyped, happy and relieved. We had been pushing quite hard before the kill, so it was a great feeling to have accomplished it.

The Shadow Side
Since then, getting world firsts has almost become the standard for what is widely regarded as the best guild in the world. muqq himself has moved on from being a top healer to becoming a top DPS-er. The undead female has full tier 6 gear and there are only a very few possible upgrades left in the game for her. Interestingly enough, muqq had not originally planned on exploring the shadow side of priesthood.

– I used Shadow simply for levelling up, I had intended to switch back to Holy once I hit 70 and started doing instances. At least that was the plan, muqq reveals.

Though at 70, he realised that Shadow priests had become a huge asset in raids. Paladins, now available also to the Horde, took a lot of what had formerly been Holy priest raid spots. With several Holy priests in the guild already, muqq chose to stay Shadow to see how it played out.

– When I first started playing a priest I did it out of necessity rather than actually enjoying playing the class. I don't mind playing support roles, and healing as a priest is quite diverse with many abilities to use, so I stuck with it for all this time. With TBC, the shadow tree became very viable as well, which made the class even more fun to play, muqq thinks.

While some people consider DPS classes as easier to play than say, a tank or a healer, muqq thinks that being a top DPS-er can be hard as well.

– Being an average DPS-er isn't that hard; nor is being an average tank or an average healer. But if you want to be one of the best, things will get harder, even as DPS. I am far from the best, but having a supportive raid leader that puts you in a group with a shaman is a good starter, along with understanding the weaknesses and strengths of shadow priests. Their main role is playing support and being a mana battery for casters, while providing a little DPS and healing.

muqq points to mana and threat as the two biggest issues of shadow priests. To deal with those issues, he makes sure to keep track of his dots and use consumables in fights.

– Threat can be managed if you ask the guild to install a threat monitor such as KTM or Omen, which greatly helps you maximize your performance without dying in the process. As for mana, all you can do is being prepared with mana potions, asking to be in a group with a shaman, and perhaps hitting up a friendly feral druid or two in your guild. If you have one, ask for Innervates. If you don't have that, well, conserve mana, and plan for the entire fight so you will last from beginning to end.

Holy priests have become more and more obsolete in raids, and many end game guilds only use one. muqq thinks that Holy priests are a bit underrated, and wouldn't mind switching back at some point.

– While I do feel Holy priests are the underdog amongst healers these days, they are still potent if played correctly. For now though, I think I will stay Shadow for raids, but I might go Holy just for fun while doing arenas or random battlegrounds, he says, adding that he only does PvP for fun.

Marriage Proposal
As a Shadow priest, muqq got to experience what is his best World of Warcraft memory so far – the world first Illidan Stormrage kill. While Kel'Thuzad had been huge, clearing Black Temple first was even bigger.

– Kel'Thuzad was big back then, but we had a huge crowd watching us this time, even larger than the Kel'Thuzad one. As usual, when we returned to the cities, the crowds were waiting, our website got hammered to death, the forums were alive and we were the hottest thing in WoW at that point of time.

Having a lot of fans has both ups and downs though. muqq likes the fact that people appreciate and admire the guild's achievements and characters, but sometimes it just becomes too much.

– People might think we're arrogant and elitists. But most of us are just regular people playing this game for fun, to enjoy ourselves and get away from any real life obligations and commitments we have. It can become a bit tedious answering the huge amount of whispers we get every day, so aside from installing add-ons to block whispers from low level players, we sometimes choose not to respond to people and focus on playing instead. People think we ignore them, or that we're too good to answer, but often we are just busy or raiding. There is really no way to deal with it. Sometimes we answer, sometimes we don't.

– What is the question you get asked the most?

– "How much spell damage do you have?" Or "Where in Orgrimmar are you?" muqq grins, and reveals that his female undead can normally be found in the auction house or on the bank roof.

His passion for female characters comes from the simple reason that he sincerely enjoys owning opponents while playing one, for the added humiliation it gives. In addition, he admits that they are normally more pleasant on the eye when running around with them all day. The choice of a female character lead to what was his weirdest fan experience.

– One guy asked me to be his wife. I said "I'm a guy", and he said it was OK, he didn't mind, muqq remembers.

Just Another Peon
In the real world, 25-year old Havar is single and lives in his own apartment in Gävle where he studies to become an electrical engineer. When he is not studying or playing World of Warcraft, he often plays single player games, watches anime or hangs with friends.

– How much time I spend on the game depends. Right now it is not more than perhaps a few hours during our three raid days per week. At times you might be occupied with an alt, which makes you log in and play for many hours, or new PvE content has been released, which requires you to be logged on and raid for six to eight hours every day, he says.

muqq has few alts for having played since the start of the game. He has one inactive level 60 rogue from pre-TBC, a PvP hunter that is level 70, and a protection warrior that tanks Karazhan once a week.

– Alts are just that, alts. You play them to pass time, and for fun, but I think I will be playing a priest until I quit WoW, muqq admits.

So how long will his priest keep dishing out the dots? muqq doesn't know the answer to that question.

– I'll be playing it through the entire Wrath of the Lich King, at least. As long as I enjoy the game every time I log on, I will keep playing. Then again, there are always new games that can impress and make you switch. If I quit, it will most likely be for another game, he thinks.

For now, it is still World of Warcraft that holds muqq's attention. What keeps him going is being able to do PvE content with people with an equal mindset, being able to play with friends and having a character with its own history and being able to adapt and develop the character into his own liking.

– It is pretty much the basics of what an MMORPG has to offer, just that in my opinion, WoW does it the best out of all the MMOs out there. In the end, one thing that made me transfer to Magtheridon and Nihilum, from being guild leader and raid leader and doing all the administrative work, was the ability to just sit back and play. No commitments. No requirements. Nothing to do, just log on and play and raid, which I enjoy. That is the best part, and the reason why I love being just another peon.



muqq on:

– gear stats

Spell damage and hit rating are your most important stats. After capping your hit rating at 16%, you should look into improving your spell damage as much as possible. Crit is nice once you are getting very well geared, but do not take it over spell damage or hit unless you are already capped. I would say once you have two or more pieces of tier 6, or around 1200 spell damage, you can look into crit. The problem is, even with high crit at lower spell damage, your mana probably won't allow you to use a whole lot of Mind Blasts and Shadow Word: Deaths anyway, which makes crit even worse than it already is for shadow priests.

– tailoring

Tailoring is a great way to get good gear early on. It rivals tier 5 in dps output, and is a great choice for any spellcaster, really. Once you get tier 6, you can live without tailoring. It was a huge advantage being a tailor early in TBC, and one of the reasons that made spellcasters outperform the melees and hunters early on. Tailoring is still very viable, also for those raiding Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep.

– spell rotation

I use Vampiric Touch - Shadow Word: Pain - Vampiric Embrace - Mind Blast - Shadow Word: Death - Mind Flay - Mind Flay. Reapply dots as they wear out, and a good dot timer is good for this purpose. Depending on how well geared you are, you can keep Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death on their cooldowns. For lesser geared shadow priests: Shadow Word: Pain - Vampiric Touch - Vampiric Embrace - Mind Flay. Keep Mind Flaying until dots run out, and then reapply them. Once you get better gear, include a Mind Blast after the Vampiric Embrace and keep Mind Blast on cooldown at that point.

– user interface

muqq's UI can be found in the following thread in the Nihilum forums:

      Muqq's UI Thread

muqq's user interface