Lich? Which Lic---aaAARGG!!

A couple of days ago, Aenur finally hit Exalted with Thunder Bluff, and thus completing the last Exalted Champion achievement. And because of that, now she has no faction to grind rep with for the time being.

I was considering getting her to The Storm Peaks to try and make friends with the Storm Giants, but at the same time I hate to leave my Champion Seal count at 30-ish (I wanted to get the Hippogryph, after all). So I took another look at the Northrend map - and finally it hit me. The Oracles. Aenur had stopped grinding rep with the fish-people since level 78 due to her inability to solo the elite Lich Artruis the Heartless. Well, that was post Dual-Spec, and since Aenur's secondary spec is Protection, and she's level 80 now, I decided to pay a little visit. And maybe bring a houseload of divine vengeance on the guy. I thought about getting a guildie to tag along, but it was a tad too early and the only people available was Beefythighs (level 32 Feral Druid) and Deadnlovinit (level 67 Combat Rogue).

When I got to the cave, latency was at about 800+ ms... a bit on the high side, but still not enough to cause me worry. Aenur swaggered into the cave full of confidence, easily disposing the few undead skellies between the entrance and Artruis. Finally - the moment of truth. Aenur swapped her trusty Titansteel Destroyer for Reaper of Dark Souls and Titansteel Shield Wall, switched her spec over to Protection, and put on her Frost Resistance Aura. Now - to pull with Shield of the Righteous...

And all hell broke loose.

My latency choose the moment just before the pull to spike to 1.9k ms, and as a result Aenur got a faceful of Frostbolts before she can even register she's under attack O_O

I quickly try to get Aenur's acts together - Judgement of the Wise, Exorcism, Consecrate, and began to systematically solo-tank the darn Lich. But the lag continued to get worse - I found that Aenur was swinging at an empty spot while Artruis had already frozen her in place and moved away to Frostbolt her, her health drops at an alarming rate, I was panicking, her rotation went south, and all the while the actions on the screen was coming in sporadic bursts. I had Aenur blew a Lay on Hand to compensate and to try to regain the advantage, but Artruis was having none of it. A couple of Freezes and some Frostbolts later, Aenur's down to quarter health.

Curses, I thought, I should've brought a Priest. But still, Aenur still haven't even touched half her skills. Maybe we can still drag a win outta this.

I had Aenur bubble, then threw on some heals. Latency choose this moment to plateau, and we quickly go on the offensive - Artruis was hit with everything that wasn't on cooldowns... Exorcism, Judgements, Hammer of Righteousness, Shields, Consecrate... mana's low, chug a mana pot, moar Judgements, Exorcism... and before we know it he's barely clinging to life and summoning his assistants. Aenur quickly mow down the crazy wolvar and switches back to the now freaking Lich, ignoring the fish-guy's word of thanks and assistance. A minute later, and Artruis is nothing but a black dot on the floor.

Aenur was a bit miffed, though. "If it wasn't for that lag spike, Lich, you wouldn't even be able to scream when we jumped you." She bit out as she bandages herself.

As for me, though, I'm glad I got that Lich out of the way. I definitely can use less lag-spiked-during-elite-encounter in my adventures.

Exalted with The Oracles (and Green Proto-Drake), here we come!