Just Admiring the Shape of your Skull

     Welcome to my first interview entry, part of a series entitled "Just Admiring the Shape of your Skull," a quote taken from the above movie, where I will interview owners of the skull and their experiences with the aforementioned item. As stated in my final Brooch blog, my inaugural Skull blog would be an interview with Special aka SK-Triks, the leetest owner of the Skull. He is a three-time Glad, not to mention a Vengeful Gladiator, which I will quickly digress upon. Unlike other teams, Triks earned VG with four other players [including Emolol, Eatmobananas (rip) Jones (so hot right now)] as part of a two team effort running RMP and RRD, the catch being everyone had to be within the 100 PR requirement to earn titles which was around 2550, a truly astonishing feat.


     I was not sure as to which direction I wanted to go with this interview so I decided to answer some questions I myself had about the skull as well as cover some technical questions such as gearing around the skull, maybe a little politics surrounding the skull.  The interview was conducted via SK's messaging sytem, thanks to Special for taking time out to answer my questions!


BF: Please introduce yourself to the readers

Triks: Hey, what's up, I'm Mike, I play a priest as my main on Cho'gall named Triks. I've played 3-4 different comps to the top rating in my battlegroup throughout all the seasons in the 3v3 bracket, and qualified for the Blizzard hosted 2v2 and 5v5 tourny realms, however couldn't play on either due to ineligibility of my teammates


Given the skull's massive stats, how did this influence your gemming / enchanting? What made you decide to go super offensive with crazy static haste?

Well, when I first began lolpve, I always had the intention of eventually obtaining the Skull, even though I raid mostly as holy, my lolpve guild is one of the top tier guilds, so I knew it wouldn't be long before I could eventually get this item. My favorite stat on the item is the massive amount of hit on it, for just 1 item, this allows you to gem/enchant for more stats, which is obviously great. I reached the hit pvp hit cap with ease, which allows me 2 gem for haste and enchant for more healing. My original lust to gem for a ton of static haste was that blizzard had put in the crazy haste weapon with over 250 passive haste if I'm not mistaken, so I wanted to use that and my static haste, but sadly, it looks like they are never going to put that mace into the game, so for now, I'm just capping my resil again, using a few peices of pve gear, and praying they put that weapon in.


Now I won't go far into detail about the situation as it is a bit illegal so to say, but do you feel that Mykke fully understands the power the skull has? do you feel he appreciates it?

When we played with Mykke on priest, he was poppin that **** on cooldown, almost reckless. I think he understood the power, but was too inexperienced to HANDLE it :P. Who doesn't appreciate 1.4 burns and 1.1 flash heals.


How do you feel about the fact the scarab brooch has been dethroned by the skull? Would you still go through the effort to acquire the brooch?

The brooch will never be forgotten, a legendary item to our not so legendary choice of trinkets. Its greatness will never be forgotten, and everyone should take a moment out of their day to remember the brooch, 10-16-06 Never Forget, If I knew I could get this item by organizing an aq raid, I would do it without hesitation, but now that everyone understands the power of the brooch, due to people who do great work like yourself, I would have to undoubtedly ninja the item to obtain it, and well, can a stolen brooch be truly appreciated?


You were part of the 5v5 regionals, did you ever face Koorban and his brooch? (if so, how did it work out)

On the 5v5 regionals realm that my team and I qualified for, our shaman and paladin both were using accounts registered 2 a friend of theirs that lived in Australia I believe, dont ask me why, so sadly, I was unable to compete seriously on this realm, however I threw together some stupid comp 5s just to mess around on, and the only team we played was the 4 dps team named Clan Hex. However, Koorban and his brooch played on my battlegroup (Illidan, Rampage) so I faced the brooch probably hundreds of times. The first time I saw him use it, I said to myself and my teammates, WTF WAS THAT (This was back in season 1). I even went so far to ask a friend of mine from the same server, but alliance, Dej aka Celex as to what it was, and he was also clueless, so I had 2 go on Koorban's server, and ask him what it was. He kindly linked me the greatness that we know today as the Scarab Brooch. One thing most people don't know is that, Valsing, a paladin on Koorban's team, organized weekly Aq40 runs, in effort to obtain himself a brooch, which he got after multiple runs, so this 5v5 team was packed with 2x the brooch power.


In the clips we have seen Koorban utilize the Brooch, do you think he used it to its fullest potential? Is there anything you would have done different or even better?

I always thought Koorban was a great priest, most people would agree I believe, and his use of the brooch was always well timed I thought. As most people know a priests main role in 5s is dispelling offensively and defensively, and the all important mana burn, but as soon as someone was in need of heals, Koorban would pop his brooch and begin to flash spam. I would use it the same way.


Do you recall the exact date upon which you receive the skull? What were the circumstances? (I ask this as I could not locate it on your dkp page) How did you feel upon receiving the skull? Who was the first person you messaged to say you got the skull?

I recieved my Skull 6-23-08, we run BT on mondays. I rolled 1-1 on the item, and there was another roller for the skull, however it was a trial, and I had been member for quite awhile, so the decision was easy for the officers in my guild. When I first got the item I was ecstatic. I immediatly equiped it to my bottom trinket slot, PvP trinket on top amirite, and used it on cooldown for the next hour or so, the graphic is just amazing. The first tell when I received the Skull was from a friend on Cho'gall named Rubicon, who whispered, "grats". My first tell sent was to one of the best warriors I know, a player I had been playing 5s and 2s with for 3 seasons named Kesher, just a simple link of the item, and he understood its power already.


At the time did you feel it would immediately become a part of your OP gear build or did this come about at the beginning of S4?

As soon as I got this item I put it in my Arena outfitter set. I re-enchanted my s3 gloves with healing, and regemmed a spell hit gem with an 8 resil until I got s4 shoulders.


What was the first moment of power...epiphany if you will...that you experienced with the skull?

My first moment of power with the skull was a 5v5 game vs a cleave team, warrior, enhance, rogue(with 2glaives), pally, priest, and for some reason this team didnt target me, I popped all my cooldowns, and had the paladin oom in about 10 seconds, and the game was easily won.


We know that the skull and PI stack, do you have a special name for this macro? What are your skull binds?

I use the blue plus sign icon, and it's called lolwtf, simple yet fitting name imo, who doesn't say omg fuk cc him or something when they see skull popped. My bind for Skull is Shift+X (PvP trinket is X), my PI+Skull macro bind is V


In the games you have played thusfar in s4, what was the most game breaking moment that was the result of a skull tap?

My most game breaking moment thus far in s4, was my push to the top as priest/druid/rogue with dj, emo, and myself at the beginning of s4, on our game to 2200 in 3s (First team to 2200 in 3s) I got 3 pi, skull burns off on a druid(Playing WLD), that later proved costly, because he ran oom, and his team lost the match, and we all acquired our shoulders.


How do you feel about the other priests using the skull for disc purposes? Such as popsicles, dw and crysalid to name a few. Given they're not on the same BG as you do you believe you can outskull them?

I feel that the skull is the best trinket atm for a disc priest, maybe not for 2s, but most definitetly for 3s and 5s. So other high rated priest that have access to this item probably know what they are doing, though I do believe I can outskull them with ease


Who is the most underrated user of the Skull of Gul'dan? Secondly, the most worthy adversary with the skull?

If Ely or Muldoon had Skull of Gul'dan they would be the most underrated users, and my most worthy adversaries.



As everyone knows, you play with Neilyo and Neilyo hates PvE. Has he ever berated your excessive use of PvE gear? Do you think he as well understands the power of the skull despite his distaste of the means required to attain it?

Well, we both understand that live is nothing like lan and online tourneys, so using pve gear on live really only gives you an advantage at lower ratings, but those don't really matter anyways, on live, 75% of the teams are using a ton of pve gear, whether it be glaives and 4/4 for a rogue, or skulls on bad mages and locks. As far as him understanding the power, I think he enjoys watching my pop my cooldowns on someone who is stunned in a bad spot, and making them pay for it if I'm left alone.


Is there a possiblity of any footage being released to show the people the power of the skull in a disc priest's possession, perhaps in an upcoming neilyo vid?

Hopefully in the upcoming months I'll be able 2 buy myself a new computer, but in my current situation, my computer is too ****ty to fraps, but maybe in Neils new video there will be some skull clips for the viewers



Any shout outs / thanks to the people who helped you acquire the skull?
Shout out to my man Brooch, everyone who hangs out in Emo's Dojo, and my main tanks Litho/Digdug, and officer in my guild Twp, always has my back for items I want