Karma
The scourge invasion heralding the arrival of the Lich King has called many to arms, to join the Argent Dawn in trying to repel the undead threat. Large, floating necropoles have appeared throughout Azeroth, spawning beneath them crystals of necrotic power and small armies of undead. Most of the undead are the rank and file of the Lich King, but the occasional leader crops up. These leaders, rare mobs, drop epic-quality items when killed.
I have been pushing back the undead as Sapphire, even though I am only 67th level and the mobs are all 69th to 70th, with the rare mobs being 71st level and almost conning red to me. With the new and buffed powers available to me as a protection warrior I have found myself quite capable in defeating these undead, although some care needs to be taken. The rares often pull adds from close by and it is too much for me to take on so many at once. Even so, with good use of my abilities and taking advantage of the time difference of playing on a US server, I have been able to kill quite a few rare undead mobs in the past week. Each time they drop some epic trousers, and each time they have been mail or leather, not the plate that I wear as a warrior.
That I haven't yet got the plate trouser drop is not too much of a worry. I am not 70th level yet, which is required to wear them, and in fighting the undead I have picked up enough necrotic shards to satisfy the Argent Dawn to give me the shoulder and glove pieces of the set from their quartermaster. I am doing quite well from the invasion. I am still on the hunt for the rare mobs in the hopes of getting a third piece to drop for me.
So it is that I am hunting the undead in the Blasted Lands, beneath one of the necropoles, early one morning. An almost-fully powered crystal is waiting in one area and as I scan the undead lingering around the shard I spy a rare armoured skeleton on the other side of the crystal to me. I ride around to start clearing the undead to get a path to it when I notice also that a second warrior is in the area, and she has the same plans as me. Having got there first and being in the process of getting to the rare mob I accept that the mob is effectively hers, having no intention of stealing it opportunistically no matter what personal gain there may be. Instead, I linger behind her and wait until she pulls the rare mob and has clearly tagged it, at which point I pull the add off her to give her an easier kill before helping with the kill itself.
We both fight our way out of the mobs and get back to safety. I mount up and start riding back to investigate other crystals in the area, but as I ride around the shard I see another rare mob has spawned close to me! I dismount and pull the closest undead to clear a small path, killing it fairly easily. I cast the Draenei heal-over-time racial ability Gift of the Naaru on myself and would like to heal a bit more but I see the other warrior has decided not to show the same chivalry to me as I did to her, as she is running through the undead mobs to get to the rare before me. I think I at least deserve an honest shot at the rare and charge in to action. Sadly, the other warrior seems spiteful and instead of helping trains all the undead she has on to me. There is little I can do and I am overwhelmed. When I make the run as a ghost and recover my body I see that the warrior is busy killing the rare herself.
I'm not quite sure why some people are so selfish, but I am also not going to get riled by her actions. Pausing briefly to add her name to my list of ignored people I mount up and ride off, heading back to Nethergarde Keep to fly to a different zone threatened by the scourge invasion. As I ride back I notice another necrotic crystal and, lo, another rare mob! Not only is there no one around but this rare mob is right on the edge of the camp, with no additional fighting required to get to it. I charge in and kill both it and an add relatively easily. By an act of karma, the Blessed Legplates of Undead Slaying drop and I have the third piece of my undead slaying set, ready for when I am 70th level.