The Move

For anyone interested in following me still, I have moved as I had stated before.

If you wish to read my new site and the things I will be posting there, head HERE.

Thank you for reading here, and I hope any readers I do have will head over to my new site and continue to read there.

Thanks and see ya there!

Changes

Well, I haven't been able to post recently because of Finals at school and me having to write 12321380324239 papers of varying lengths.  Spring is a crazy time for college students.

Anywho, SUMMER IS HERE!  That means free time for WoW and blogging.

Due to my guild's need for competent DPS (especially ranged....we have some damn fine rogues) I have switched my main character to my hunter, and it has been a blast.  We already had enough healers for Ulduar25, so I sacrificed my beloved paladin and first main to help out the guild.  It has been great fun, though, and I don't regret the decision.  I still heal on Senor (as I did tonight in a Ulduar10 group the guild had thrown together).

Well, with this change, I have decided to start fresh and create a new blog, as the paladin theme here seems unfit for how things have worked out for me in game.  I will be starting a new blog, not just about huntering but about WoW in general.  I will begin working on this probably tomorrow if I have some free time, so if you read here (not sure how many of you there are), stay tuned for a link over to the new blog.

Thanks for anyone who has followed, and I'll see you soon!

Senor

Ulduar

Well, my guild hit 25 man Ulduar on Sunday for the first time. 

Flame Leviathan is a fun fight, and it only took our guild 2 attempts to get him down.  He dropped a new enchant (which I am not quite sure the use of is yet) that I won the roll on, and even a fragment of the new legendary, which our resto shaman won the roll on.  Congratulations to him!

We tried XT-002 for an hour and a half after that, but to no avail.  At first, it seemed that our healing wasn't sufficient, but we quickly found that our DPS wasn't doing the job.  We healed through tantrum and everything just fine, but we didn't make the enrage timer.  We decided to call it for the night, and try again last night.

It didn't go much better.  We still managed to live through most of the fight, but the DPS just wasn't there.  We then tried Razorscale, and we just couldn't get it after all of those wipes on XT, and decided to break until this week to keep everyone from hating Ulduar so early on.

On the bright side, ARENA SEASON 6!  My mage friend, Agney, and myself are doing 2v2.  We are both pretty new to arena, so I don't expect to be competing at high levels, but it is fun and even after 12 games today I can already see improvement.  I am playing as ret to provide a double-burst composition.  I would play as holy, but I find Ret much more fun to play in PvP.  Forget min/maxing....ENJOY THE GAME!

First Impressions

Well, 3.1 has been pretty solid (at least for me) so far, after they took forever to implement it on Tuesday.  Here is what I think so far.

Ulduar

Haven't been yet, but tonight is our guild's first 25 man so I'll see it soon.  I've heard it is definitely a step up from Naxx, and that the trash can be surprisingly tough.  I hope it is a challenge and that my guild will be up for it.  Progression raiding is much different than the farming we have been doing for the past couple months.

Dual Specs

LOVE THIS.  I can heal a heroic, then go do dailies and switch to Ret (which is so good, especially now since Excorcism works on all targets).  I haven't had the chance to DPS an instance as Ret yet, but I think the results would be damn good.  Also, the Ret tree is THIN.  I used 51 points in it and had all of the talents I wanted, and had 15 left over that I had no idea what to do with.  I ended up picking up the pvp talents and going down the protection tree.  There just isn't that much to the Ret tree right now.

On my hunter, I dummy tested (briefly) all three specs, and decided to switch it up for a while and go MM/BM.  All three specs were pretty even in DPS, and while I like SV, I wanted to try something new.  Picked up a wolf pet, as well, since their furious howl is now hunter and pet only, which means it stacks with other AP buffs.  As BM, it gives me 300~ AP for 20 seconds with only 8 seconds of downtime, so the wolf seems the way to go.

Argent Tournament

I'm finishing up my last daily now to get the required 15 Aspirant Seals, so I'll be starting on the Valiant stuff hopefully.  I like the dailies, they are quick, and the mounted combat seems somewhat interesting, although I suck at it personally.  Overall, I think this will be a great event and only get better as it progresses.

What are your impressions of 3.1 so far? How is Ulduar for those of you that have been?

3.1 is here

Well, it's finally here.  Patch 3.1.  Ulduar, dual specs, the Argent Tournament, swimming mounts and new fishing dailies.

I'm excited, but I'm also curious.  Personally, I have never been part of a guild that is going to try and progress quickly through conent.  Plus, I have never gone into an instance where there is little written about the strategies of the bosses in the raid.  There is definitely Ulduar information, obviously, but not to the extent that there was information about Naxx when I started raiding (a little later than most) that.  It's going to be a new experience for me to be with a guild that is pushing for progression on raid nights, not just farming the same bosses every week.

I'm also curious as to how my guild will handle the trasition.  No more playing alts, no more being late for raids...everything seems like it's going to be back in order after a little down time.  Raids are also starting earlier, which is going to keep some people out of them unfortunately.  Also, how are we going to decide who goes on 10 man runs?  I'm assuming we will have 2, maybe 3 groups going, but who is in what group? We have been running 25 mans for months now, and reverting back to 10 mans will be different.  We still plan to run 25 mans on our regular raid nights, Sunday/Monday, but the 10 mans have me wondering.

That said, my guild will be fine.  We will probably not compete for any server firsts (as there are a couple of guilds on my server that I know will be there all night tonight and tomorrow and the rest of the week), but I know we will progress fairly quickly and keep everyone happy.  I'm hopingi the DKP resets, personally, but I doubt it's going to happen.  We have too many people who have obnoxious amounts of it because of farming Naxx25 after they were all geared up, and it would be these 10-12 people ALWAYS getting gear in Ulduar before anyone else, who joined a little later, like myself.  We'll see.

Dual specs is incredible.  I simply can't wait.  Holy/Ret for my paladin.  Probably PvP Ret, but most retribution specs can go either way without too much trouble.  I never minded paying to 50g to respec.  It was the GLYPHS that annoyed me to hell.  Replacing them every time, then getting my old ones back again...those days are finally over and I'm exstatic about it.

I'm curious as to what will happen to Naxx10, and possible Naxx25/Malygos.  I already see OS being shunned by most people (my guild hasn't run it in over a month), and now people are just dropping Naxx completely and focusing on Ulduar, which is understandable I guess.  My guild hasn't killed Maly25 yet, mostly because we have had one good night of attempts and that is it.  But, we cancelled our Maly25 night immediately when Ulduar was announced for today, and I'm sure it is going to get left aside while we push through Ulduar.  Then again, people were running Karazhan well into BC, so I'm sure Naxx will still be pugged or run or whatever.  

If all of this seems crazy to you, it probably is.  I have personally never been an active raider who has cleared most content and been waiting for a new raid.  I've done Naxx, Maly10, and OS, and I have Valorous/ilvl213 items all over my character.  I even have my hunter in some 10 man epics.  I've never been in this position before, and it's interesting to me, if not a little scary in some ways.  It's very weird to think of the gear I just worked hard for and spent a lot of DKP on is now going to get replaced, but that is the game right?  It all works out, and I'm curious to see how it plays out for me and my guild.

Anyone else nervous/curious/(insert feeling here) about the patch? Why?

Top 10 Bosses in WoW (from my PoV)

Here are my Top 10 bosses in WoW.  This isn't an official list, it is my opinion, based on different reasons.  You may certainly disagree or share your favorite bosses in the comments, and I encourage you to do so!

Honorable Mentions:

Gluth (10 man, as ONLY a hunter)

As you may know from previous posts, kiting Zombie Chow on 10 man Gluth on my hunter is my favorite thing to do in the game right now.

Mekgineer Thermaplugg

Yeah, Gnomeregan is obnoxiously long and full of trash, but it was great, and this boss was no different. Who's on button duty?

Malygos

This fight is tough, but its great.  I love doing it (even though I've only completed it once).  Tons going on, damage buffs, bubbles, pressure, and riding dragons at the end.  It's great when it all comes together.

The List:

10. Nightbane

The first of 2 Kara bosses on here.  I liked this fight because of how tough it was.  The fight was long and really made you focus for more than 2 mins to get him down.  GET OUT OF CHARRED EARTH! STACK UP! SPREAD OUT!  TURN HIM!  Lots of yelling in vent, lots of pressure.  Loved it.

9. Herald Volazj

The first time you fight this guy (if you haven't read up on it) is chaos, but its great.  "Why are you guys attacking me?!?!?!"  It's a great mechanic.  No other explanation necessary.

8. Onyxia

I never fought her at 60, but she was the first raid boss I ever killed, at level 64.  She's a huge dragon, breaths fire, and has a tail swipe.  This is what WoW is about at it's roots, and fighting a giant dragon was awesome.  Plus I soloed her and got 163g for it (before they nerfed that).

7. Princess Theredras

"Woah, shes HUGE! and gross lookin."  That is everyone's reaction when seeing her for the first time, and after fighting through Maraudon (which took seemingly forever), she was a tough fight for appropriate level players.

6. Big Bad Wolf

I am a huge fan of the Red Riding Hood theme, and telling someone to run around in a circle dressed in a little gnome costume never gets old.  The other Opera events are "meh," but this one really shines.

5. Thaddius

This fight is a giant check on the mental capabilities of your raid.  I like it because of not only the HUGE damage people can put out, but because it requires everyone to be on their game.  One person can ruin it for everyone, so it holds people accountable for their actions.  PAY ATTENTION!

4. Sapphiron

The room is cool, the spawn animation is cool, and the fight is cool.  Hiding behind iceblocks to avoid huge damage? Awesome.  It's fun as a healer (but stressful) too, which probably makes me partial.

3. Mr. Smite

My personal favorite boss in the Deadmines.  It's really the first fight where anything different happens.  It's still tank and spank, but the first time he stuns you and runs to his chest, you are like "what the hell? what is he doing!?"  Plus, as alliance, he's the first giant Tauren I saw, which was really cool.

2. Heigan the Unclean
Ah, the dance.  It's priceless.  It's fun, but challenging (especially at first), and I love the fact that even if half the raid dies, you still have a chance.  The first time my (old) guild downed him on 10 man, I was solo healing our tank, OT, and one dps for 14 mins before Heigan fell.

1. Mograine/Whitemane

Scarlet Monastery, for a lot of players, is both a pain in the ass and a ton of fun.  I ran it so many times, but hated it because of the ridiculous run to get there as alliance!  And, there were always horde outside ready to attack.  But, when we did get in there, this fight was a hell of a lot of fun.  "Yay, we killed the boss!....oh wait? who is this b***h? OH SHIT!"  Killing a warrior like Mograine only to find out that his woman was rezzing him and now you had to fight BOTH was a crazy feeling, and it was essentially the first "event" style boss that I remember fighting.

My "Elevator Pitch"

Well, it seems to be the "thing to do."  The 31 days to a better blog challenge is working it's way around the blogosphere, and it seems only natural for me to join the party.

Except, I'm not doing it just because others are.  I like writing, and to write about the game which I enjoy most is great.  I am getting more visitors, and would like to really improve this blog as much as I can, both for you readers and for myself.

So, here is my "30 second, 'dis is what I got for ya, read it and wheep Elevator pitch" for Beacon of Light:

Essentially, this is the musings of my time in Azeroth.  I've played a Holy Paladin since early 2007, when I reached level 35 and said "screw protection, I am trying something new."  Yes, I leveled from 35 to 70, then 80 as holy, and it was a damn fun ride.

Here you will find my experiences, opinions, and rants about how the World of Warcraft works and evolves.  I am mainly a casual (what does THAT mean?) raider, but as you can see from my previous posts I like to explore and dabble in other things, which I am not so good at.  PvP, Raid Bosses, Healing tips, add-on questions, strategies, and even a little bit about a certain Hunter alt.  All of that will be here, hopefully in a readable, interesting way.

I don't theorycraft, and you won't see me analyzing a piece of gear for min/max purposes and things like that.  Other people do and will do that much better than I ever could.

I write about how I enjoy (and sometimes don't enjoy) the game.  I'll never forget my first time in Deadmines, with my level 37 hunter friend (in RL) and his level 40 warrior buddy running my through.  I'll never forget re-rolling to my paladin with said hunter friend (who rolled a mage) and being so damn happy to be able to wear mail armor.  The Paladin and Mage that were rolled are now our mains, and with another RL friend playing an 80 warlock and a brother with an 80 warrior, we make a damn good team and always have a blast doing whatever it is we do.

Nor will I EVER forget the first time (at level 28) that I ran into horde territory with said friend warlock.  He was level 20 and had to hit the Barrens for his Sucubus.  We were scared sh**less, but amazed by this area we had never seen.  That moment, I think, hooked me into the game.

It is these kinds of stories and musings that you will find here.  For me, the game isn't about numbers, but about the experiences with friends (real life or in game), good or bad.  That is what makes the game interesting and dynamic, and I hope to convey that as I continue to try and blog about Azeroth and my time in it.

My Love/Hate Relationship w/ Wintergrasp

Ya know, Wintergrasp is great.  Siege vehicles, lots of honor, destructible buildings, and incentives.  I love it.

But, Wintergrasp sucks.  People don't understand it.  Siege vehicles, unlimited amount of players, lag, no role for healers.

Alright, Wintergrasp.  You are great, but you suck at the same time.

I love riding in a siege vehicle, hurling fireballs at walls and knocking back hordies with my knock-back thingamajigger.  I love getting 3k honor even if we lose (often in 10 mins or less, which makes the honor/hr unbelievably worth it).  I love killing Archavon for easy Emblems and a chance at Tier 7/S5 gear.  It's great.

But I hate (HATE) when people don't understand how to win.  Running around on your mount is near useless when you are trying to capture it.  Get in a vehicle and attack the walls please.  I hate Siege vehicles and HAVING to use them for "PvP."  It's not about my player skill, its about how well I can mash 1 or 2 buttons and aim a boulder at a wall.  I hate how, as a healer most of the time, I can't really do ANYTHING to help out my teammates except for be in a vehicle.  I can't heal the vehicles, either.  When my vehicle gets destroyed, I am out in the open for 29 hordies to destroy and I can't do anything to any of them, even with Tenacity.

And Tenacity! Oh Tenacity...how I hate thee.  Tenacity "levels the playing field" right?  WRONG.  I don't care if I have 70k health!  I am surrounded by 30+ horde instantly, and no amount of health is going to get me out of a chain of stuns and crits.

My server is heavily (not as heavily as some) horde favored.  Last I knew, it was about 3:1.  The number of raiding/PvPing level 80s is much more unbalanced in my experience.  I don't care how many stacks of Tenacity I and my teammates have, we are outnumbered every time.  Every. Single. Time.  Generally, we get somewhere around 30-35 people fighting for Wintergrasp, depending on the time that can reach 50-55.  

The problem is the number of Horde that show up for the fight.  During off times, when we have 20-30, they generally come in with 60-70 people and just utterly destroy usl  During peak times, when we can maybe get 50, they show up with well over 100 people.  No amount of tenacity is going to help us when we have that many people burning down our vehicles.  Its just not going to happen.

So, Wintergrasp, I will continue to endure your painfully fun, yet annoying, game for the good honor and Commendations in hopes of someday being at least a little competitive in the Arenas.

P.S. - Tenacity sucks.

PvP?

Normally, I'm not big on PvP.  I've never done well in Arenas, and never really enjoyed the BGs.  Recently, however, I've been PvPing quite a bit in my free time.  I respecced Ret for arenas last week, and with an arms warrior friend we won 5 of 8 arena matches, which is about the most success I've had in Arenas in my time playing WoW.

So, with this high-flying feeling of success, I've been playing as Ret in my non-raid days and running BGs, Wintergrasp, etc. to get honor and work on getting some PvP gear.  It's been fun...much more fun than it used to be playing as Holy.

So, I've been trying something different lately.  And I encourage you to do the same.  It keeps the game fresh, and you might end up enjoying something you never thought you would.

The Weekend

Well, I got lucky on a Naxx 10 run that my guild threw together and got some T7 shoulders and chestpiece on my hunter during the run.  I was doing about 2.5k dps throughout, which I was pretty happy with.  I volunteered (begged?) the druid leading the raid to let me kite Gluth.  I absolutely LOVE doing it...it's so much fun.  Probably one of my favorite things to do in game right now, as weird as that sounds.

I also respecced Ret to do some arenas with an old warrior friend of mine, and we suprisingly went 5-3 in the 8 games we played.  I've never been a fan of arena (or been any good at it), but it felt good to win some games.  I didn't have any ret pvp gear either, so if I can collect some of that over the next couple weeks we may be able to stick around 1500 or so.  That would be an accomplishment for me.

I seem to be getting a few readers (maybe because I'm starting to post on other blogs? I dunno), but I appreciate you guys coming here and reading my stuff, even if you don't comment.  I'm going to be away this weekend visiting my girlfriend who I haven't seen in over a month, so I'll be back posting probably Sunday night or Monday.  

Thanks again all! Enjoy your weekends, in Azeroth or otherwise.

Adios

Well, BRK went away for the weekend, and when I typed in the URL to his site today to check out how he was doing and if he had posted anything new, I was completely shocked to find his Farewell Post.

He has inspired me (and certainly so many others) in so many ways.  Not just in Azeroth, but in life too, and this is no different.  He is taking (at least) a 3 month break by the looks of the post, planning to rededicate himself to his family.  I applaud him with unbridled vigor, as he embarks on perhaps the most important quest of all: raising a family and maintaining a loving marriage.

WoW is a hobby, and as many of his commentors (210 and counting, which I'm sure is a record of some kind) have already said the obvious: RL>WoW.  Always.

He inspired me to level my hunter, and is the reason I no longer play like a huntard, even at level 80.  His blog was the first WoW blog I came across, not knowing even what blogging was or how someone could blog so much about the game I enjoyed playing.  I was in awe, and still am at his astounding knowledge, wit, and humor.  He kept things light, fun, and informative, and every post made me either laugh or go "aha!" in a way that nobody else could.

As a paladin (which you preached to hate (: ) and as a new fellow hunter, I salute both you and your decision, BRK.  You will be sorely missed by most everyone who plays the game, as you can see in the comments on your post.  Good luck, and may everything work out for you and your loved ones.  I hope you can return to the community one day with a new sense of balance.  

Adios, good sir.

//EDIT//

BRK's Farewell Post has garnered over 750 comments since it was posted yesterday.  This is a true testament to the vast amount of players and readers alike that he had an affect on, all of whom wish him nothing but the best.

Hit

Hit Rating.

Ya need it, there is no way around it.

Of course, on my paladin, its useless for me (unless I am Ret, which is rare.)

But on my hunter, its causing me to pull my hair out!  Everytime I get a new upgrade, I have to look at my hit rating and rework some gems to make sure I am hit capped.  This usually costs atleast 100g to redo it all and make sure my stats are where they need to be.

Thankfully my paladin doesn't have to deal with that.

Screw you hit rating.

Gluth

Playing my hunter lately, I had an old guildie (and good friend) ask me if I could help his guild with their progression through Naxx10, mainly by kiting the Chow on Gluth.  I immediately accepted, and went to YouTube to watch a video on how to do it as a hunter.

Lay down a frost trap, run around in a circle, shoot new zombies.

It was great fun.  Much better than just pumping out DPS or spamming heals on people.  It was fun to use some long lost abilities, and do something useful and necessary that wasn't just "pewpew."

I wish Blizzard would put more mechanics like this into fights.  Priests are needed for Faerlina or Razuvious, and the kiting on Gluth is really cool to do.  But other than that, there isn't much else.

I did a fine job kiting, and I had a blast doing it.  Gluth was downed, and I got my T7 leg token to boot.  We downed Thaddius right after, and then I graciously bowed out of the raid so they could bring in a 3rd healer for Sapphiron.

Anyone else love Gluth or kited his Chow before?

What happened to tier sets?

Well, news is out that the non-set pieces that are dropping in Ulduar are the same models as the Tier 8 set pieces.  The holy paladin Tier 8 shoulders will share the model with the other plate healing shoulders that drop in Ulduar.

Blizzard claims this is to prevent people whining about the "clown" syndrome that occurred in BC.  While the colors may not match, at least most of your armor will match in a model sense, making your look "cohesive and clean."

Nobody wants their character to look foolish, or be wearing blue shoulders, a white cloak, red boots and a bright yellow chestpiece.  But seriously...matching models? What has happened to the Tier sets?

I wasn't raiding before BC came out, but I remember walking into IF or SW and seeing a paladin wearing Judgement or a warrior in his Wrath set was awesome to see, and I knew that they raided and I knew that they were wearing the best gear.  Obviously, Tier sets have come a long way since level 60.  Those sets were for any spec of the class, and now of course we have specialized sets for different specs and such, which is obviously a good thing.

But, now the only difference between the Tier 8 sets and the rest of the gear in Ulduar is going to essentially be color.  This seems ridiculous to me.

Also, weren't the Tier sets in Vanilla WoW the best in slots most of the time?  People strived for them, not only for looks but also because they were simply the best items you could have.  The epics you got along the way were great, but they were there only until that coveted tier piece dropped that you could snag.  Now, at least for Holy Paladins, 3 of the Valorous pieces are really "best in slot," but using a fourth is a good idea for the 5% mana reduction on Holy Light.

So I ask, then, What happened to Tier sets?

I'm Back

First, let me apologize for the disappearance.  I have been incredibly busy for the last month or so, and posting has been something I've had to put on the back burner.  Things have settled down now, and I am going to be putting up a post every 1-2 days from this point forward.

Updates from Azeroth:

My hunter has just hit 80.  I've been playing him quite a bit for a little change of pace, and its been great.  Survival is definitely OP.  I just hit 80 yesterday, and while I only have a few different pieces, I put out 2k DPS on 10 man OS last night after hitting 80 yesterday morning.

I joined a new guild, which only raids Sunday/Monday nights.  This has given me some extra time on the Hunter, hence him being up to 80.  The guild is great, and has Naxx 25 cleared.  Last week we cleared the place out up to KT, and we wiped on him at 13k health left.  It was miserable, but we were already 30 mins past our raid time, so we called it.  He's goin down this week for sure.

So, in summary, I am back, and I will be posting more regularly while I try to balance my game time with my end of the semester workload.  

Luck

Get to Revered with the Oracles.

Buy mysterious Egg.

Open it 7 days later ---> Green Proto Drake.

First try.

Buy second mysterious Egg.

Open last night ---> Green Proto Drake.

Again.

So far, I'm 2 for 2 on proto drakes in my Oracle Eggs.

Sadly, I had to throw away the second one, as I can't sell it or use it.

The odds of this? I'm not sure they even exist.


In other notes, I did pug Naxx 10 last night, and had a chance to finally play around with the new Divine Plea. Surprisingly, I still used it quite a bit. You have to compensate for your 50% loss in healing by using some bigger heals, but in the end you still get quite a bit of mana back. I'm going to continue to use it in mana-intensive fights.

Drakes and Shields

I finally got Maexxna to drop her shield the other day. It's great, and is definitely an upgrade from the shield available from the emblem vendors.

And, lucky as I am, I got the Green Proto-Drake from my very first Oracle egg! I couldn't believe it...I was waiting all week for that thing to hatch, and when I opened it I near fell out of my chair when I saw the purple writing.

Sorry to those of you that have had trouble getting this from your eggs. I am truly lucky in regards to this, even though my loot rolls in Naxx are hardly ever luck-worthy.

Flying on this thing around Sholazar or Icecrown for ore while listening to the new Fray CD has become one of my favorite parts of the game lately. It's relaxing, profitable, and downright fun.

Bye Bye, Crazy Mana Regen

Well, the changes to mana regen across the board are all over the forums today, as well as all over the blogs. For the actual words from Bornakk, check the link to Banana Shoulders.

Divine Plea is getting nerfed. Instead of losing 20% of your healing while it is active, the number is being upped to 50%. The devs say they want it to be a decision for Holy Paladins, rather than a "use on every CD" ability. It was apparently originially intended for Protection/Retribution.

On Heigan the other night, we had 4 people left alive after the second "dance." Me healing, a Ret pally, a Prot pally, and our MT warrior. I was able to heal the rest of the fight (very little damage actually), and end at nearly full mana because of Divine Plea. The fight took 15 minutes, but we got it done, and I easily solo healed it with absolutely zero mana issues. Without Divine Plea, it probably would have still been possible, but certainly mana would have been a more pressing issue.

This change could be huge. In fights like Heigan, there is minimal damage being done, so Divine Plea can still play a roll, esepcially if you have others healers alive with you. In fights like Patchwerk, where you probably cannot stop healing for even a couple of seconds, mana becomes much more of an issue. Mana pots are down to 1 per fight, illumination only goes so far, and you may not have Innervate/Replenishment (although Innervate will be nerfed a bit too because of the changes to "spirit based" mana regen) in your 10 man group. Mana regen is getting tougher, but luckily paladins have been optimal in this area, so a nerf like this may just bring us back down to "good."

Blizzard also says that they design things around Replenishment, even in 10 man situations. My group that I run with honestly has no ret paladin, survival hunter, or shadow priests. If they are to design encounters around the assumption that Replenishment is in the raid somewhere, then I may be having more mana issues in future encounters. They have stated they are looking at adding Replenishment to more classes, which could help, but we'll just have to wait and see how this and other changes go down in the 3.1 patch.

(And, for the record, we Safety Danced our way to an easy Heigan kill this week, even with a new DK in the raid group)

I Want A Mammoth!

It's official.

I have decided to save my gold. 16000 gold to be exact.

I want a Traveler's Tundra Mammoth.

I already have epic flying. I have bought some epic gear from the AH. I have helped my brother gear up his warrior. I have nothing to spend my gold on. So I am saving.

My hunter is 73, and I plan to completely grind to 80 on him simply by killing/skinning beasts. That's it. Some quests, some instances, but mostly skinning, which is incredibly profitable.

I have been mining my ass off, farming eternals to smelt Titansteel bars.

As of right now, I am still about 10000 gold short, and it will take some time for me to save up for it. But it's just so cool, and I want one so badly, that I am willing to penny pinch and wait for it.

I can't wait.

Just cuz you can, doesn't mean you HAVE TO.

This might seem obvious to some (maybe most) people, but I figured I would put this little information out there anyway.

I'm a paladin. I can wear plate. However, that doesn't mean I HAVE TO wear plate!

Currently, I am wearing 2 pieces of mail gear (because every boss we kill in Naxx flat out refuses to drop plate healing gear). The boots and legs are great for healers, whether they normally wear mail or not. My group having no shamans in it, I immediately snatched these up.

This can be true for hunters too. While Blizzard has done much better at putting intellect on the mail hunter/shaman gear, sometimes a piece of leather is much better than the piece of mail that you are wearing. This may not be true in the end game, but especially while leveling it can be.

Now, Paladins are capable to wearing leather and cloth too, but I personally don't like to. With the spellpower changes, a piece of cloth is going to be worthwhile for any caster, and I'll leave those to my mages or priests who need upgrades first.

Bottom line: wear the gear that makes you a better player and upgrades your gear. Don't get hung up on the "plate, leather, mail, cloth" classification (to an extent) and focus on the stats you need.

Lunar Festival

Well, it's been a busy first weekend back here at school. I had some friends come visit, so my play time was way down. Nothing today, so I'll hop back into Azeroth and maybe try to get some of the Elder achievements done. After I really got into the Hallows End achievements (and got the "the Hallowed" title), I really haven't been able to push myself into the others. Winter's Veil required some Ogri'la stuff, which I wasn't going to go back and start since I hadn't done it at 70 at all. The Lunar Festival seems fairly easy as far as achievements go, and I love getting 83 alliance rep every time I find one, so I may push for finding all 75 of them. Could be close enough to get me a tiger mount from Darnassus. Who knows.

I finished off the Argent Champion title late Thursday night, after Naxx. I did get the Chivalric Chestguard, which I am probably actually going to wear instead of my T7 piece! Its disappointing that they failed completely to put spell crit on the holy paladin T7, but I'd rather that than Mp5 any day, and will probably gem up the non set piece and wear it instead. The only thing that may keep me from switching is the 10% crit chance to Holy Shock from the set bonus. More Holy Shock crits means more instant Flashes and more 1 second Holy lights, which is never a bad thing. I'll be testing both out in some heroics today and tomorrow and see what the differences are and if one really is better than the other.

Happy Elder hunting to you all!

I have no idea what to call this post. Oh well.

A real life friend of mine who was in our guild (and topping our DPS meters in our 10 mans) has left our guild and joined one of the top 3 raiding guilds on my server (which isn't much on the Underbog, but they are certainly ahead of my guild in numbers and progression). He wants to see more 25 man content and plays regularly with people from the guild anyway. It's his decision, and if that is what he wants then he should do it. I wish him luck. It's not like we wont group up or do fun stuff together.

I have been thinking of switching guilds, much like him, but have come to the conclusion that it won't make my play time any more enjoyable. My guild is progressing through Naxx 10. It's not top end raiding in the slightest, but we are doing it together and everyone is downing bosses for the first time in our raids. The guild my friend is joining has been there and done that. I would rather be with a group of friends and progress as a guild and be an integral part of the progression than join a top end guild and tag along with people that have done it all before. That's just me.

I also started a small guild on my server, as I have started a new mage alt. After making her and questing the starting zone, I realized how many brand new players there were around. I decided I would start up a guild to help these people out and get them some friends/connections on the server. I am going to level the mage ( probably slowly), and help the guildies out, setting up "run nights" where I'll hop on my paladin and run some people through instances. I'm trying to provide a place for newbies to be able to ask questions, maybe get some help, and level together. I hope it works out.

Back to School

Well, I am back at my college today, getting ready to start the new semester and everything. Such a blast.

Game wise, my guild did go into Naxx a few days ago, and we cleared the Arachnid Quarter. Some quick reflexes by our two tanks trading taunts helped us get by Maexxna. No good pally loot from any of the three bosses, but our resident priest healer picked up a couple of good cloth pieces.

We did attempt Patchwerk a few times. First time, not nearly enough DPS. Second time, a littler closer. Third time, somehow our MT didn't know about the enrage at 5%, and proceeded to flip out about the "bugged encounter" and how he enraged earlier the DBM was saying he was going to. Needless to say, that was the closest we got.

It seems the last 5% shouldn't be too bad if the tank uses Shield Wall/Last Stand, but we couldn't get it to work. Who knows what was going on.

That fight seems to be made for holy paladins to heal. The OT was taking more damage (lesser gear and lesser HP, and the hateful strikes come quick), so I healed him with Beacon on the MT, and the other paladin did the opposite. It worked out pretty well, as the tanks stayed alive. I had no mana issues, using Divine Plea on every cooldown (which you really should do in every boss fight) and having mana pots to back me once per fight. A ret pally with Replenishment never hurts either.

Is it really that easy?

A couple of bloggers (Coriel over at Blessing of Kings and Tobold on his blog) have recently been commenting on the difficulty of the end game and the overall accessibility of it.

Personally, Naxx isn't really easy for my guild or myself. The strategies are complex to some people. Anub'Rehkan is pretty easy once you get the hang of it, and it only took my guild 3 or 4 tries to down him. Faerlina wasn't too bad, and we got her on the second try. But Maexxna was trouble, because of her enrage and web ability. We simple couldn't get past that 30% enrage. We didn't go any further last time we were there, but it certainly wasn't EASY. It was a challenge, especially because we had 4 or 5 people that had never raided on any level before.

Obviously for those that raided in SSC/BT/SWP, Naxx is going to be easier. Naxx is the ENTRY LEVEL raid. This really isn't the "end-game" per se. Its the beginning of the raiding in Wrath, not the end. Nobody is downing Arthas or the major bosses of the game yet. How many people cleared Karazhan during BC? A lot. Sure, it wasn't until after the place was nerfed a little and people starting gearing up more through badges and such, but a lot of people got through Karazhan. Why shouldn't a lot of people get through Naxx too? Yes, it is early in the game. Do you think people are going to be clearing Icecrown Citadel left and right? Just because a guild clears Naxxramas this month doesn't mean they will be able to waltz through Icecrown. The top notch guilds, like Ensidia, are going to clear stuff quickly. It's inevitable, and quite frankly measuring progress based on these people would be ridiculous.

My guild heads back into Naxx tonight, trying to get down that damn spider. I'm not expecting us to get it the first time through, but I would like to clear another new boss too. We'll see.

Bottom line: for some people, Naxx is easy as pie, and congratulations to you for clearing the place already and farming it. But for others (and probably the majority) it really isn't as super easy as it is being made out to be. I agree the end game shouldn't be for everyone, and I think Ulduar and further raids will jump up a notch in difficulty, which is probably a good thing.

Stepping Down

I have decided to remove myself from the Raid Leader position of my guild, after an incident that occurred the other night. I had scheduled a Vault run, which would get badges for people while also getting a couple of our 80s some T7 stuff that would help them gear up a little. But, my GM (our MT) pulled himself and 2 of our DPS into a Naxx pug that not everyone could go to. So my scheduled Vault run was effectively ignored. Why am I raid leader? I'm not going to be if my scheduled events are going to be ignored like that. The officers of my guild subsequently decided (without my input) that there was a need for 2 raid leaders to discuss and schedule things. The new RL actually has more experience with the current content than I do, which is great.

Needless to say, after this little situation, I stepped down. I still like the guild, and want to give it a chance as a simple raider and regular member. I will leave the inner workings to someone else who feels like dealing with all of the crap that comes with it.

No new gear updates or anything like that, with the exception of the fact that I am now saving Emblems for a trinket, because the green quest reward I have had since 74 needs to be replaced. Quickly. Anyone have any ideas for trinkets that are out there? I have a blue one from the early icecrown quests, but that is all I have been able to find.

Guild First

Well, my guild was planning on doing Archavon last night, but of course by the time everyone was online we had lost Wintergrasp. So we decided to try Sartharion 10 man. We had 8 guildies in the group, and pug'd a Death Knight and a mage for DPS. We one shotted the dragons surrounding Sartharion (which was excellent since it was the first time for atleast half of us). After a few wipes on Sartharion himself (one when he reached 180k), we finally downed him with no deaths. It was a great feeling to have the guild succeed at something as a team.

The mage in our guild picked up his T7 gloves, one of our preists picked up a nice neck, and I got the Satchel of Spoils, which had 5 Emblems in it. That put me at exactly 80 Emblems, which I used to FINALLY buy my T7 chestpiece. The 2 piece set bonus there is incredible. Look at it! 10% increased Holy Shock crit chance. That means more healing, more procs of Infusion of Light, which means quicker Flashes and Holy Lights. I'm excited to see how it plays out in a heroic tonight.

Yesterday, since I had the day off, I also got a couple of other things accomplished. I finished the Exploring achievements (damn you Kalimdor), and also hit exalted with the Wyrmrest Accord and bought myself the beautiful Red Drake mount. I think I'll work on the Kirin Tor rep next, if for nothing but the head enchant. The Ebon Blade really has nothing for me at this point.

Gear/Namecalling

This isn't about elementary school spit-spats, it's about the roles of people in my guild (and maybe many guilds, who knows.)

As the raid leader for my guild (although I hate the title, because I work closely with my GM to plan things and get things going), I have had the somewhat un-enviable job of telling people they need to gear up a little before they join a Naxx group or something like it. You can't just ding 80 and start healing (especially) Naxx 10.

A priest in my group yesterday, who is now 79 and only 2 bars from 80, was told by our GM that she needs to have 1300-1400 plus healing to start healing in Naxx. She said she had about 1100 right now, but she started going on about how "if you won't let me go, how can I gear up?"

I don't know if this is a result of the fact that Karazhan was easy late in BC. I was one of those people that went from dinging 70 and never having run a heroic to healing a Kara group that was outgearing the place, which helped me gear up quickly. Maybe this priest had the same experience.

But you can't just expect to hit 80 and raid. As much as it may suck, you need to run regular 80 dungeons, especially as a healer. You can't just jump into heroics right away (unless maybe you are DPS, but you know my feelings on that). You need to gain reputation by doing dailies and taking what little rep the regular dungeons give. Once you get a few pieces from Oculus/Strat/HoL, and maybe a few crafted/rep gear pieces, you can start doing the easy heroics like Nexus.

She also said to me "well you are raid leader, so you are going to be 'top heals'." What does that mean? I have 1630 bonus healing right now, by far the most in my guild at the moment. But what does "top heals" mean? And it's because I am the raid leader? I hate these labels...I'm not going to take the healing loot just because I am raid leader and have the most bonus heals. We don't have a "main healer" or "off-healer." Why label people and make someone feel superior or inferior to others? Everyone contributes to the raid, and if they don't then we look for a replacement the next time. If I pull 2000 HPS and this priest only does 1700, what am I going to do? Deny her loot or kick her out of the raid? That's just ridiculous im my opinion, and that is why I hate assigning titles to people. It causes resentment and animosity that we just don't need.

I'm not saying labels are all bad. Having a designated main and off tank are essential, and I may assign myself to the main tank and have others raid heal. Being the raid leader has nothing to do with my skill as a healer, but more to my commitment and planning skills.

It sucks having to be the bad guy sometimes, but people need to do the work that I had to do to get geared up, especially as a tank or healer. It's not like the end of BC. You have to do all the dungeons, maybe (GASP!) multiple times to get the gear you need to start heroics/raids. The expansion certainly is more accessible (and easier to an extent), but it still requires a commitment to access that easier content.

It's Been A While....

Well, sorry about the lack of posts recently. Lots of family stuff to do, family visiting, and working lately. So is life.

Lately, I have been pretty relaxed as far as playing goes. I have started exploring on my Paladin (got all of Eastern Kingdoms done, but that was easy as I quested there when I leveled. Kalimdor is going to suck.), while simultaneously mining everything I see so I can send it to my new warlock twink so she can level mining by smelting in the cities. Hard to argue with the mining health buff.

Hopefully tonight my guild can get back into Naxx, and hopefully clear the two bosses we cleared before and maybe a couple others. I have geared up a little, and my brother (our off tank) is finally at 540 defense. We'll see how it goes!

Happy playing to all of you.