Female PVPers

So if you can't tell from my little teaser photo that I posted at the end of my previous post, I've started PVPing or more specifically, doing arenas. I arena with my boyfriend just like I raid with him. We do 3s with a very good friend of ours that has been with us for a long time in WoW (he transferred with us, twice!).

Repost of my sneak peek =P

Anyway, to prepare for my foray into arena, I started reading up Arena junkies and I found blogs focused on PVP and arena. More specifically, I started reading World of Ming.

In time, reading current entries and archived entries, I realized that World of Ming originally had a female blogger named Anna but eventually quit blogging due to the unbelievable trolling in the comments. She had some type of personal drama dug up and posted in her face, meant to mortify her. And it did. As a result, she quit WoM.

Many of the blog commentators had the reaction of "Tits or GTFO" and didn't seem to take her seriously at all as she wasn't really seen as a top tier PVPer but rather more as a groupie. This all happened before I ever started reading WoM but it is what I pieced together from reading old entries and their comments.

Comments posted pics like this =T

Anyway, recently Ming of WoM hired a new blogger to write for him, Verdak, who is a female! To the consternation of WoM readers, Verdak was not a PVPer so her entries revolved around her own background as an "e-whore" as she had been involved in some personal drama in WoW and such.

Readers did not react kindly at all to her but again, the general consensus from the WoM readers was "Tits or GTFO" and they posted many, many pictures in the comments to highlight this sentiment.

I didn't particularly mind Verdak's entries but they were really not related to PVP at all so I could understand the readers' objections to her inclusion into a PVP centric blog like World of Ming.

However, the readers seemed to enjoy bashing on her that they gave WoM a lot of traffic just from her blog alone despite their comments of her entries being boring, horribly written, etc. Not only did they criticize her entries, they would criticize her as being fat, ugly, stupid, slutty, etc.

I don't think she is ugly or fat, etc

Verdak seemed to take all of this in stride and exhibit a thick skin but in the end, she may wind up leaving WoM though she has stated it is due to RL reasons.

I can't help but feel that the absence of female bloggers on the PVP scene is not because they do not exist. I feel it is because of the PVPers themselves, who do not welcome the idea of females trying to PVP competitively.

Maybe I am wrong but I got the impression from my time on WoM and arena junkies that PVPers in general tend to troll more, talk derisively, have epeen/elitism and seem to be very nasty people. There seems to be way more negative than positive feedback and many comments are done for a laugh (for the "lulz").

The PVP world, from the outside, seems like a very harsh and exclusive clique that is not welcoming in general. As a female player, it would seem very daunting to try and break into that "higher echelon" of players.

This is from the PTR a while ago, not my server on live =)

It makes me wonder if PVPers think that females cannot be good at PVP so just tend to disrespect without giving them that chance or is it because there is just a general hazing process.

Outside of these 2 female bloggers in WoM, the only other female PVP blogger I know of is Megan of Oom, who has quit blogging consistently.

Would the gender of the blogger affect your reaction to their thoughts on PVP?

Why do you think there are not many prominent female PVPers?

Do you think females are just bad at PVP?

Be truthful.

P.S. S8 Pally set looks hot!

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Iamapaladin's Purpose and Gearing Philosophy

I apologize for the very, very long hiatus. BTW, Happy belated Halloween!

When I first started this blog, I sincerely meant to blog in it weekly because I hated not having anything to read from my favorite blogs. Yet as time went by, my posts became more and more sporadic. Sometimes I would post a lot and then I would stop posting at all and repeat this again.

I don't know how many readers I have following me but this isn't fair to you guys. With that said, I am not shutting down my blog but I guess I want to clarify the purpose of this blog's existence.

I didn't really mean for this blog to be a site for holy paladin mechanic discussion but because that is what I play, that is sort of what became this site's content. The problem is that in order for this site to be even useful for holy paladins in that regard, regular and timely updates are necessary.

I don't really feel up to that as I want this blog to reflect my mood and current thoughts. I feel I am the type of writer that needs time to let thoughts ruminate before I let it out. I also tend to take a long time writing posts though sometimes that is not the case.

Some of my more popular posts were the end results of thought processes and reactions to experiences I had, which I had taken the time to reflect upon. All of my posts draw on my in game experiences but if I'm too busy posting or trying to write a post, I can't play WoW! At the same time if I am really busy with WoW, I won't be able to really post as I am just busy doing stuff in game. I just try to do this blog in my free time.

So I hope that you guys still continue reading my blog but forgive me if I do let it fall by the wayside from time to time. I hope you guys will be able to come by from time to time to read my blog. Thank you!

Anyway, now that my little speech is over and done with, I just want to note that many people like to look at BIS (best in slot) lists for their particular class or spec. However, with the holy paladin changes (Replenishment, Illumination, Divine Intellect nerf) that took place a while ago, holy paladin BIS list is actually NOT that straightforward right now.

It used to be that BIS meant haste/crit/SP itemization and the item with the most of this was win since there were usually only 1 haste/crit/SP item for a slot available while crit/mp5 or haste/mp5 was just ignored. That is definitely not the case nowadays but that also means it opens the door wide open as to what is really BIS for holy paladins.

Is there really a discussion you say? Yes, there is because due to crit being devalued, haste/mp5 is actually as valuable as haste/crit/SP (or even more!) and in some cases you may actually want crit/mp5 but it all depends on the individual paladin such as their stats or preferences.

For example, I like to use this website's loot ranking sheet to figure out what is BIS for me. I tend to value haste much more than crit and as crit/mp5 items seem to predominate in the ToC era, what may seem like BIS on paper is not really BIS for me due to my preferences.

How did I figure out how to weight my stats? Well, I try to center my stats around having high intellect as SP will come by via gear naturally as well as indirectly via my total intellect. In addition to that, I focus on keeping my haste at least around 640 - the magic number is 676, for the soft cap I believe but I actually wouldn't mind if my haste was a bit over that.

This means that with any upgrades I get, I am always balancing my gear around my haste because I am trying to always be at a good haste rating. I would use Sunforged Bracers over Bracers of the Broken Bond if I felt my haste was too low despite the higher int and SP from the heroic bracers.

As for crit and mp5, I don't actively go for those stats since I am still relying on my high intellect to give me back mana via Divine Plea, Arcane Torrent and Replenishment but even then the incidental mp5 and crit I get from gear and talents alone is sufficient for my tastes.

So with this in mind, I give int my highest weight at 4, haste a 3 weight in the loot rank sheet. Also, since I actually value mp5 a tad above crit, I give that the same weight as SP at a value of 2 while crit comes in at a weight of 1 as I have ~40ish crit in raid buffed setting and considering talents for spells.

Keep in mind, that I am what you would call a HL paladin so I gear and gem for being able to use HL predominantly. If you like to use FoL more and not HL very much at all, you would probably value SP, mp5 far above crit with int in between. The gems FoL paladins use would also be different and thus change the ranking of items in the loot rank sheet.

So what is the point of this? The point is that there is no one way to gear a paladin and no blanket BIS for all holy paladins. For example, 4 pc T9 set bonus is more valuable for a FoL paladin than a HL one so non set pieces may be much better and that is a factor that has to be individually considered. Therefore, BIS lists are moot and I have removed the BIS link from my tabs.

This isn't a very interesting post (though long) but I will eventually get around to a post on how to heal as a paladin (I hope!) for newbies. There are also a lot of upcoming changes to the paladin class and Icecrown is drawing near! I'm just going to wait and see if I have anything valuable or interesting to say about any of this. Stay tuned! =)

Till next time!

A sneak peak at what else I've been up to =P

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Mages Love Pallies and How to Die in Onyxia

...Or more specifically, how to make an Arcane Mage love you =)

Due to the buffs to Arcane in 3.2.2, my boyfriend went back Arcane as he had always been in love with that particular tree.

We've managed to rise high enough in the guild standings that we are regular raid members and I have the good fortune to raid consistently with him.

Basically, Sacred Shield + Incanter's Absorption is an absolute wet dream for him. I'm not one of the higher SP paladins in my guild (23-2600 SP depending on trinkets) and as 1 of 3 holy paladins in raid, I can toss SS on my honey guilt free!

So for any paladins that want to get in good with an Arcane mage, this is the way to a DPSer's heart!

Arcane mages, you better be nice to us paladins!

Come on, Phase 3 Anub'arak? Constant ticking damage being absorbed? OMG! My silly mage bf didn't check his SP during that part of the fight but considering that SS should absorb a decent amount, it is nothing to be scoffed at and I'm pretty sure he easily broke 3000 SP because of that phase.

Ridiculously OP.

We also did the revamped Onyxia 25 man raid. 22 slot Bag!

I was a little nervous to be honest as the only experience I had in Onyxia was fooling around in the instance at level 70 with a whole bunch of other 70s. How would the real raid instance be like?

I was quite afraid I would die to the infamous Deep Breath and feel like a noob.

I did die. QQ. =(

To be fair, it wasn't to Deep Breath. Thank God!

I got melee'ed by a loose Guardian add that the OT didn't pick up quite fast enough for 20k+, but I wasn't dead just quite yet. Then at that moment, Onyxia landed in front of me, tail facing me. I got tail swept for 1.5k and punted right in to the whelp eggs, death on landing.

A poor druid that tried to rez me after we downed Onyxia instantly spawned whelp adds from all the eggs surrounding me and died. =X

It was pretty funny though, a spectacularly WTF death.

Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying the new patch! I'm still trying to finish up Brewfest and getting the Violet Protodrake! =D

Till next time!

P.S. Continue submitting questions to ask of me =)

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Epeen in WoW

Nothing like a particularly grating incident to fuel the writing juices.

Ever since transferring over to my current server, I haven't regretted it as it is just a much more "happening" server, Horde wise. My old server really had people that were big assholes with the egos to match, though skill levels may actually not compare.

Today, I met my first douchebag.

I do not have screen shots or anything as I was pulled quickly into a Vault run right during the incident.

So there I was, minding my own business in front of the Dalaran Horde bank. How many of you just like to idle in front of banks? =P

I get a random pm from someone. I've been getting random pm's on this server but it's mostly people asking about my guild's recruitment status. I'm prepared to be polite and direct them to the right people or resources.

Instead, this level 80 paladin just randomly pmed me and asked in a very patronizing manner (reminds me of a certain other paladin blogger) about my intellect gems. I state that in heroics, can't get away without HLing so SP doesn't cut it (in reference to FoL paladins). They then responded, "what, in 5 man heroics?"

I should have known with his (I'm assuming it's a male from the manner and name) mocking response that he was out to troll me but I only say, "no." He then proceeds to link me his achievement to show he has downed 25 man Northrend Beasts and Jaraxxus on Heroic and state that how he has gemmed is working for him. I very politely let him know that great for him but that everyone has their own style.

Look I can link achievements too!

He was trying to inspect me but I had run off to Wintergrasp for Vault. He even had the nerve to tell me to come back and I informed him, "gotta go" though he ignores my subtle hint.

He proceeds to quiz me on my stats such as SP, crit and haste - which I answered (2300ish SP, 30ish baseline crit, softcapped haste) as I'm still trying to be polite since I'm still new on this server. Then he decides to "helpfully" inform me that even though his gear is a little better (I guess he armory-ed me or managed to inspect me a bit), I should look at mp5 as it is very good and helps with the Illumination nerf. I had to politely tell him again that everyone has their own style and that ended the conversation.

I had a great raid that day - my guild downed 25 man Heroic Northrend Beasts (at 43 tries left) after the previous week's non stop wiping because we changed our strategy (3 tanks instead of 2) and I got some upgrades. This random paladin trying to "help" me just brought down my mood.

I match better now!

Why did I let him get to me?

1. I'm minding my own business, why do you feel you need to "correct me" if I have not approached you for help?
2. Does the fact that your guild is a little more progressed than my guild mean I'm automatically the lousier healer/player?
3. Does the fact you have experienced a bit content than me mean that you have more authority and weight than my own opinion about my own spec and class?
4. Why are stats, guild progression and gear the only way to measure the quality of a player? Even if all of the aforementioned criteria is higher than mine, why does this mean you are automatically better or know better? It's not inconceivable for someone to outperform someone with better everything and it's not uncommon that people get carried through content.
   
5. The paladin was inaccurate in saying that mp5 made up for the illumination nerf. The fact that you would want to use FoL more often made mp5 more valuable. The illumination nerf only devalued crit, not intellect's value to a paladin. Said paladin had ~120 mp5 on me, is that a big difference? Maybe, but he was better geared than me so easy for him to say that I need this and that as his stats in general were higher.
   

I just want to say this, I do not like to gear or gem to up FoL usage. I have reasons for gemming all intellect. I could have explained myself to him if I care to but why should I when it will only fall on deaf ears.

Even so, you will never hear me telling someone that they are plain wrong to gem for all SP/mp5 as that is just another play style. If I think my way has more benefit, I will explain why but not by linking my achievements and gear as the only reason why I know better.

What really irked me was that it wasn't a discussion at all about our class. It was him informing me that I was wrong and to correct it by conforming to his way. He got a kick out of playing that he was superior to me. Basically, he was power tripping.

Achievements and gear are only a general way for people to know that you do have experience in what you are discussing. It is NOT a shortcut to make everyone bow down to your opinion. It is NOT the final say in a discussion.

Talk shop all you want but don't be patronizing "to stir debate" or "correct" people because that just means you are being an elitist tool.

P.S. All the sockets in my current gear are blue and yellow, no red sockets (I didn't plan this, just turned out this way). So I prefer to just gem all intellect with one Nightmare Tear in a blue socket. This is because to me, the extra 5 mp5 per blue gem socket (5x4 = 20 mp5) and socket bonuses (28 SP) is not worth losing the extra 10 int (5x10 = 50 int) from using Dazzling over Brilliant and it still allows my meta to be active. I had some trouble with mana in some hard modes so I had to maximize my mana until my gear catches up.

P.S.S. Don't let my rant scare you off. Please still submit questions that you wish to ask of me =)

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Writer's Block

Even though it seems like I am overdue for a post (and I am), it is not for lack of trying. I have a couple of random, unfinished posts in my archive that I am stuck on because I got bored midway writing - you know that's a bad sign - or I felt it to be a pointless post. I'm churning out drivel!

So, I thought why not cop out and open questions for my readers about anything they would like to know excluding questions that would expose my identity of course. =)

I'll see if any questions I get require their own separate posts or if I should combine all the answers into 1 long FAQ post.

Go ahead and shoot!

Boo for mismatched gear!

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