Pugging 10 man Sarth 3D (Zerg)

This is a very old unpublished post (at least 2 months old) that I dug up. I just thought that I should finally publish it since I did make the effort to write it.

I still don't have the 25 man Sarth 3D achievement as of this writing. I still want it. I remember back then, our guild went through a lot of pain trying to get it but certain key figures really held us back. So painful.

Any horror stories?
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Ever since MMO-Champion linked the Russians zerging 10 man Sartharion 3D, puggers went wild with excitement as the zerg method trivialized a raid instance that had up till then been regarded as highly tuned.

With that said, even though the strategy has become much simpler, it does not mean that 10 man 3D zerg is easily puggable.

How to be a Tank Loved by Healers

Many of us interact with tanks on a daily basis in WoW. Either they are tanking for you in raids or heroics. They are either pugged or guildies or friends. Yet all of them need the back up of very special people in order for them to bask in the glory of being a tank - healers.

As healers, tanks can abuse us until we call it quits but if you want to be a tank loved by healers, there are some very simple guidelines to follow.

1. Don't be squishy - Are you at the defense cap? That's a start. Get some dodge, parry or whatever the hell mitigation stat you need so you don't blow up when you get hit. Oom healer = stressed healer = pissed off healer.
2. Give us some leeway - You can have all the mitigation in the world but it won't matter to us if your HP is 20k. We need some breathing room in case you take a big hit and we're not busy praying our heal lands in time before you take another big hit and hit the floor.
3. Do your job - You can have the best HP and mitigation but that doesn't mean anything if you can't hold threat. If healers get heal aggro doing their jobs and die, it's your fault and good luck finding healers willing to heal you. If you're not going to do your job right, then healers don't need to do their jobs for you.
4. Don't make us carry you - Many times, bosses have predictable abilities that do a lot of damage. If it involves causing the tank a crap ton of damage, don't just expect us to heal through it, blow some tanking CDs to help us a bit because most likely the entire party or raid will be taking damage too that we need to heal up.
5. Position yourself right - Don't LoS us! Don't OOR us! Don't tank with your back facing the mob! Don't stand in crap! Etc, etc.
6. Give us our due - Sure, you are a good tank but remember tanks have a symbiotic relationship with healers, so don't forget to give us a nod or some type of acknowledgment. Our job is thankless enough already.
7. Suck up to us - If you really want brownie points, flattery works best. Bribing too =) This way you get your own pocket healer whenever you need one. Hey, works out to the benefit of both parties, right?

Anyway, a lot of this is common knowledge but I'll be damned if I don't come across tanks (especially pugged ones) that flout these guidelines regularly.

Share some of your tanking horror or glory stories in the comments! Till next time!

Dueling Etiquette

I remember my first duel. I was leveling in STV near Grom'gol and I came up against another player, who was ~2 levels higher than me. I don't remember their class. There was no greeting or emote, just a duel window popping up suddenly while I was questing.

I was curious to see how duels worked so I nervously clicked the "accept" button. I really wanted to win my first duel but to my chagrin, I was losing. At this point, I already knew that even with my HP low, being oom was a bigger concern. I used my mana pot to try to regain some precious mana but too late, I was dead before I could heal myself up to full.

Later on, I told my boyfriend what had happened earlier and he told me that I did wrong by using a consumable. This was my first hint of the existence of a loosely followed dueling etiquette.

Random Update Again

I've been doing lots of arena and raiding. Insanity for 10 man heroic still eludes me for whatever reason. Our guild in 25 man raids is slowly making progress in 25 man heroic Anub'arak. As of last night, our best attempt had him at 22% health and we have been much more consistent about reaching phase 3 so he is close to dying! We also reached Anub'arak with 49 attempts left which will help give us the extra time to learn.

Funny thing is that on our server, no guild has downed him yet. I have never been part of a server first so it would be nice if we did it but there have been other guilds learning him for longer so the odds are in their favor. I would just be happy getting the down, to be honest.

In terms of arena and PVP, I've finally managed to reach the honor cap for once! Well, I have grinded a lot of honor but never have I ever been in the position of having a crap ton of honor I don't need to use right off.

I plan on grinding BG marks so that when I need to use honor to buy S8 off pieces, I will have it. It was quite brutal needing to grind the armor for the offpieces though luckily, vault was nice to me in that area.

I also got my first piece of Relentless gear! And no, not from VoA, which refuses to drop Relentless for me! I'm just disappointed since my shoulders really derail the entire look. I hope I can get the matching shoulders soon!

Anyway, this is just a random update on what I have been up to in the game. I've been keeping up with what is out for 3.3 but I don't have any real ground breaking opinions. I'm pretty happy as my guild is doing well and my 3v3 team is slowly but surely making the climb to 2000 rating. I'm working on being a better player and I am glad I am meeting my in game goals.

I definitely need to be better about screenshots, lol!

Till next time =)

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

Character Achievement Updates

I know that as an anonymous blogger, it is hard to see what I am up to in game. The most I have been able to offer in terms of spying potential is posting screen shots of my gear or achievements and linking my spec/glyphs via wowhead talent calculator as I can't link my armory so as to preserve my anonymity.

The bad part to this is that I keep finding myself changing gear slightly but the worse is the achievements as it's hard to keep it updated consistently.

If WoW Insider hadn't posted this article, I wouldn't have ever known there to be an alternative. That's why I've made a facebook profile for this blog. You can see a link to my facebook listing in the lefthand side of this blog on the sidebar.

Why a facebook profile? Well, so I can use Achieved (facebook addon) to announce any new achievements I get in game. I will try my best to keep that updated fairly consistently. Best of all, I can retain my anonymity!

Maybe in the future, I will feel more comfortable with revealing my in game character on this blog, but for the time being, I hope you all allow me this privacy.

Feel free to add me as a friend too!

P.S. I know this isn't a real post again. I'm considering different topics but they all don't seem particularly exciting to me.

Return to PVP

Ever since WotLK came out, my activities concerning PVP has greatly diminished. In TBC, I would run BGs with other people as a semi-premade and I discovered how fun WSG could be when I had despised it before.

I'm sad to say that in WotLK, I have played the new BG, Isle of Conquest, only once - no exaggeration. I just stopped doing BGs after they changed Alterac Valley and introduced the Strand. For whatever reason, I lost interest in doing BGs though we would rock them whenever we played.

As an arena player, I only did my requisite 10 games a week. In S6, that was the most I ever played but I only went up to 1000 rating in my 2v2 since me and my partner stopped playing as that was around the time we started pushing for more 10 man Ulduar hard modes.

So basically, PVE was sacrificed for PVP, not that I really cared as I was always more concerned about PVE rather than PVP. I was always an ultra casual PVPer.

A New Home

You guys haven't heard from me in a long time, have you? I really do apologize for that. I guess it feels like a lot happened in game yet not that much at the same time. I suppose I'll talk a bit of what I've been up to though if you do keep tabs on me, I subtly update certain parts of my site to show what I've been doing even if I don't post.

Despite all the frustrations of being in a 10 man guild, I honestly believe that it is the best way to raid. It is just that when you are a 10 man guild pushing for hard modes with no real talent pool to recruit from, the guild dies a slow death.

Anybody can be a raider now and it's great that Blizzard has made it easy for people that are relatively new to join the raiding scene. The problem is that most people simply cannot devote the time and effort to get all the hard modes or achievements they think they can get.

It is human nature to want more for little expenditure but it is also human nature to overestimate your own ability and underestimate your own flaws.

With that said, yes, my little 10 man guild died a sad death as my priest partner finally quit. They had been wanting to quit for quite a while but there simply wasn't a suitable replacement for him. He was that kickass a healer and a good replacement was just no where to be found.

My server also had suffered a rash of guild implosions, all around the same time - leading to the formation of our 10 man guild. The raiding scene still hadn't quite recovered either when our 10 man guild finally fell apart.

As such, I had to make the hard decision to leave the server I called home. I had transferred there from another server as well but I had spent the most time on this server.

Random Update

I know I haven't blogged in a while but I have been experiencing a bit of writer's block. I don't really feel like I have much to say or rather, I have several thoughts floating around in my head that I don't really know how to express yet. It's all a jumble, a soup of random bits and pieces of mismatched ideas.

I'm still ambivalent about the holy paladin changes and now with recent news that prot paladin mechanics are getting changed, it just makes my eyes roll. I think that us paladins are probably the most adaptable of all the WoW players as we have experienced some of the largest changes in WoW and people tend to just belittle that.

For those paladins sticking it out and not rerolling, I salute you!

Anyway, real post coming soon I hope, just no inspiration has really hit me and I don't really want to post another rant. That can get tiring after a while.

Till next time!

That One Person

So despite my last post, I still do not have I Love The Smell of Saronite in the Morning. It was due to one person in our raid.

Two particular ranged DPS we had in our raid kept reacting too slow. One of them has a crappy computer and is laggy. He reacted a bit slow but still managed to perform tolerably.

The other one, I don't know what his excuse was but he was the worse of the 2 by far. He would call out shadow crashes and wind up being the only one eating it. I would be thinking, "dude, why you watching out for other people when you can't even watch out for yourself?"

Every time he got the life leech, he would always cause other people around him to eat more ticks by not reacting fast enough. He would also do stupid stuff like run with the life leech people instead of compensating and running the other way so the life leech person wouldn't have to run back the other way into more people.

PVE Healing = Prot Vs Holy

I've mentioned previously that my little 10 man guild is intent on getting hard modes. One of those next on our list is I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning, which is the General hard mode. We also intend on 2 healing it as we really don't have many options though my partner is a kick ass priest.

General Vezax is a mana control fight as there is basically no way for me and my partner to regen mana via normal means such as Illumination, Arcane Torrent, Replenishment, Divine Plea or Shadowfiend. While researching the fight, I learned that you can use a pot so that will be the sole way for us to regen mana and has to be used as a last resort after the Saronite Animus comes out. I also learned that healers can use Spark of Hope to minimize the cost of spells.

Why We Raid & Loot Drama

I've obliquely revealed that I quit my 25 man guild and started a 10 man guild with my boyfriend and other friends.

As a 10 man guild, I think we have been fairly successful. We've only been established 3 weeks and in those 3 weeks, we have cleared Yogg Saron and gotten more hard modes than the ones we got while we were still in the 25 man guild (Heartbreaker).

I am probably one of the most enthusiastic in the guild pushing for hard modes. This is because most of us have 25 man gear and farming 10 mans for loot will rapidly cause disinterest in the game. Every WoW player needs goals and challenges to look forward to or there is no point in being a WoW raider.

Sure, it can be frustrating and demoralizing when you are in for a night of wipes when learning a fight but it makes all the more sweeter when you get that elusive first down. That feeling of everything coming together in a cohesive, well-oiled running machine during raid is so very satisfying and every time it happens, you remember why you raid.

Loot is just your reward, your gravy on top of your mashed potatoes. That said, loot can also cause a lot of drama, especially if you feel loot is being distributed unfairly or unevenly.

So if people raid just to raid, why does loot matter?  

PVE Projections for Holy Paladins in 3.2

Blizzard seems to have made it their policy in WotLK to design fights around stressing healers to the limits of their abilities. As such, mana regeneration is a vital standard to tweak. Mana regen for healers was deemed too high by Blizzard and spirit based regen was famously nerfed.

Now in 3.2, Replenishment will be nerfed. On top of that, holy paladins in specific will be targeted as Illumination and Divine Intellect is nerfed. Holy paladins are therefore facing a 3 pronged attack to their mana regen mechanics.

Currently, holy paladins favor stats like intellect, crit, haste and spell power. Mp5 is a stat that is mostly ignored for reasons I have detailed in previous posts explaining how mana regen works for a holy paladin.

So with the nerfs to Replenishment and our talent buffing our own intellect along with "buffs" to itemization allocation of mp5 on gear, will things change much for holy paladins?

This is my own opinion formed through my experience on the PTR, my current healing experience and my knowledge of my class. So feel free to disagree with me (respectfully if you so please).

Glory of the Hero & Ulduar Achievements

At long last! My bf surprised me with this when I logged on. I was only missing 20 min Occulus. He's so sweet *sparkles in eyes*

I love that it is red, I can finally put away my green proto drake =)

So far, the new 10 man guild has been doing well though we still need to recruit more people for a more stable roster. Easier said than done, of course.

However, we have cleared 10 man Ulduar (except for Algalon) and done a bunch of hard modes. Our newest Achievement was I Choose You, Steelbreaker and I got the quest item! I can't wait to work towards unlocking Algalon =D

Till next time!

Leaving My 25 man Raiding Guild

I was reading random blog entries about guilds such as giving negative or positive feedback and it made me feel quite off put about my guild. I was relatively happy when I first got invited into guild because it was an actual raiding guild rather than the previous dictatorship ruled guild that I had come from. We downed stuff in Naxx, Malygos and Sartharion with relatively few hiccuups (though some such as failed 25 man 3D) along the way. It is when Ulduar came out that our weaknesses as a guild became glaringly apparent.

Now, I understand that everyone plays this game to have fun.

But.

When you are in a guild that raids, it is important to remember that you are part of a team. Being part of a team means you need to carry your weight. Even if you cannot, the point is to try.

Don't wipe the raid. Don't stand in crap. Stand in stuff. Don't pull aggro, do have enough threat. Don't have connection issues. Don't run OOR of healers. Don't stack up, do stack up. Follow instructions and play your role.

Your reward is the loot that the entire raid earned together. Teamwork, it's a beautiful thing - a symphony of harmony at its apex.

Update: Hiatus Lifting Soon

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, my dear readers =)

I've recently left my 25 man raiding guild to form a 10 man raiding guild. I've always found 10 man raids more fun, more intimate than 25 man raids. My old guild did some things I disagreed with and an incident happened that was the breaking point, basically.

I was a part of a group of raiders that were mostly core raiders and our exodus from the guild basically forced their break up. We were definitely painted as the villains but honestly, if people are unhappy raiding, why should anyone stay?

Anyway, some real posts incoming!

Algalon Quest Event

The top Hordeside guild on my server was able to grab the server first for 10 man Algalon, thereby completing the quest. They announced it in trade that they were going to start the event soon and everyone clustered around the sculpture near the Alliance bank (South).

I liked the event but it seemed people felt gypped as we got a scripted speech from Rhonin, de facto leader of Dalaran. I just thought it was cool how night turned into day from the blazing light arising from the sculpture. The speech also reminded me of the Independence Day speech made by the President, "We will not go quietly in to the night!"

I think even after patch 3.2 comes out, I will always want to kill 10 man Algalon. Heroic Algalon is a near impossibility for me right now =T

Anyway, I hope some of you experience this event. Till next time!

Happy 4th of July!

The Unspoken Rules of DI

Most raiders know of Divine Intervention, the paladin only spell that kills the user and places a bubble of immunity on the target. The target is immune to all damage but cannot move or cast anything until the buff wears off after 3 min or until they click it off themselves.

I actually leveled all the way to level 70 in TBC and as a fresh 70, I was talking to a fellow holy paladin about DI and how useless a spell it seemed to be. I remarked that what was the point of a spell that killed yourself and thought it was a very quirky spell.

I later discovered I was a noob.

My mistake in my first experience using DI was that I had targeted no one and therefore, I only killed myself with no discernible advantage. The whole point of DI is that it is a wipe saving mechanism. With that said, there is actually a whole art to using the spell.

PTR 3.2 - More adventures on the PTR

So I can see that my adventures on the PTR got quite a lot of attention and thank you all for commenting. =)

Now, it was my objective to really put myself in healing intense situations when I next logged on the PTR. It was then I discovered something about the PTR servers. Pugging is damn hard even with a much larger pool of puggers with higher gear level (via premades like mine). It doesn't stop people from dying to stupid stuff like void zones or flame walls. -.- It was one of the most difficult Sartharion 1D fights I ever had to heal through.

As you can see, I got more used to the changes but the entire raid took a crap ton of damage. I also think some of the healers weren't that good as some of them consistently ate flame walls. It seemed some of the puggers had no clue about the new T9 gear that they could buy so some of them were handicapped in comparison to me. (Note: I didn't bother censoring as I usually do because this is the PTR, not like it is live servers. If you were one of these puggers and want me to censor, I will gladly do so)

I'm just glad that I restructured my gear and I was almost full T9 or I wouldn't have been able to support my healing done. In general, I felt that haste was much more important than crit so I balanced my gear appropriately (I wasn't even close to 676 soft haste cap). In my opinion, paladins will have to settle for lower crit so they have more haste, spell power and mp5 as well as continuing to gem for maximum intellect. Mana regen is even more important than ever as spell power is easily gotten from the new gear.

PTR 3.2 - Initial Impression for Holy Paladins

I've never been on the PTR before but with the severe mana regen nerfs incoming to holy paladins, I knew that I wanted to experience for myself how bad the nerfs really were before passing judgement.

I wasn't able to copy over my main in time but a premade paladin character was successfully copied over. The paladin got a lot of sweet gear for all 3 specs for PVE with full sets of T8.5 and complete Deadly gear for PVP, pretty nice hook ups.

I wasn't completely happy with how the holy set for the premade paladin turned out but I got to see the Mimiron 25 trinket, score! With that said, the enchants for all the gear was pretty funny such as PVP res enchants for shoulders/head for PVE gear and really weird enchants for the tank set.

Screenshot Update

I've realized that many of my recent posts are long wordy blocks of text so I thought I would give my readers a bit of a break and post screenshots instead.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, no? I have to say I just have never been in the habit of taking screenshots though I should as they are the best way to document and relive moments past. Screenshots are the photograph of WoW and we should all be photographers =)

I've said before that my guild hasn't been doing so great in 25 mans due to the summer as we can barely get 2 raid days going let alone the 3 raid days that is our aim. Even so, we made significant progression in 10 man Ulduar. Though it may be because of some nerfs that we made headway, it is still a great feeling to progress.

Like an idiot, I didn't ss our Mimiron down but somehow I remembered to ss the cool gate we saw before we reached General. Oops =X

Paladins in the next patch

I know that there may be a little or a lot in store for us holy paladins in the next patch but we will see then how the upcoming changes to holy will really affect us. I just want to point out one little thing.

A new line of dailies and rewards for players who have earned the title of Crusader will be available with two random seal-awarding dailies.

• New Heirlooms
• New Argent Crusade Banner
• New Argent Crusade Tabard: Ports you directly to the Tournament grounds.
• An Upgraded Squire: As any good squire should, this upgraded squire now has a mount.
• New Mount: A new Argent Crusade paladin-only charger will be available.

Muhahaha, did you see it? I'll show you it again.

New Mount: A new Argent Crusade paladin-only charger will be available.

So do your Argent Tournament dailies and save your Champion Seals! I love being a paladin so much sometimes =D

P.S. I just realized something, paladins really did get the pony they wanted, didn't they? =X

Random Macros

There are many ways to heal, tank or DPS and it's up to the individual gamer to decide what kind of style of play they wish to utilize. One tool that helps players out are macros.

For me, I don't use many macros at all and prefer to manually click things or just press keyboard keys/key binds. The few macros I have are based off of basically 2 macro commands. I shall now teach this to you =)

/cast [insert spell name here]

/castsequence [spell 1, spell 2]

So simple, yeah? So for the /cast command, I use that when I want to combine using a spell/ability with a simple /say or /party or /raid or /rw or one or more of the above to announce its usage. If it is a spell that is cast on someone, I use %t in my announcement message so that whoever I am targetting at the time I use the macro will be announced as the target. Then the macro becomes:

/cast [spell]
/say [spell] used on %t


In addition, if you don't want to pick a completely new icon for the macro for your action bar when you first create the macro, just pick the question mark as the icon. This way it automatically makes the macro pick the normal icon of the spell that you use. If you want to mouseover your macro button and see the tool tip, which will help you see the CD too, insert this snippet above the beginning of the macro in the macro input box, like so:

Raiding Limbo

Just random thoughts I am jotting down so they jump around alot.

My guild is having trouble raiding 2 nights a week, let alone 3 nights a week. That means no progression at all. Maybe it is summer fever? Whatever it is, it is frustrating. My guild is definitely better than our previous guild but not by much, honestly.

Our guild definitely needs serious work on its healing core as I regularly outheal our shamans and resto druids in Ulduar. By alot. I heal to the point where there are some fights I nearly oom and have to pop my trinket, DP, Arcane Torrent, mana pot, everything to get all the mana I need to continue healing.

My guild has officers that are mostly friends and there is a long history behind the guild as it existed in Pre-BC days then broke up and reformed in WotLK. There is some obvious biases at hand here as certain events in game have allowed me to see. I know attitude is a big part of being a raider but I do not think that just because someone is a friend that you should be happy that they take the nearly BIS cloak off Sartharion 2D as the only non-guildie in raid.

In other news, I started leveling my priest alt and she is level 33! I also am going to try to level my DK so I can level up BS and quit mining on my paladin.

I am nervous about what 3.2 holds in store for holy paladins but I think that GC finally realizes that paladins are not requesting a nerf to our mana regen in any way. I think he sees that us paladins are merely pointing out that the mp5 on gear is laughable compared to the mp5 we get from stacking intellect. Hopefully, paladins do not get nerfed TO THE GROUND. *crossing fingers*

P.S. Instead of keeping my ulduar gear lists up to date, I've made an actual gear list as you can see it in the tabs under "Gear List" I know that it lacks any commentary but I hope it is still helpful!

Pally Tanking 101

Hey all, I thought I would take a break from all the Holy paladin centric posts to write a bit about tanking as a paladin. I have had experience tanking as a prot pally early on in the expansion along with in TBC mostly in heroics. I was actually the OT when me, my bf and our irl friends were all wiping in 10 man Naxx trying to get KT down (usually because we would hit enrage timers). Remember those days?

Anyway, I know there is a TON of great prot pally resources out there that any aspiring paladin tank can look up so my goal is NOT to replicate that. I just want this post to kind of be a very simple, easy guide to prot paladin tanking as I am not a great paladin tank by any means.

So here goes!

I. Spec & Glyphs

I have just listed some preliminary specs I made up but feel free to tweak them however you see fit. I will make a comment though as to why there is only one point in Improved Judgements. This is due to the optimal tanking rotation called the 969 rotation and having 2 points in Improved Judgements will throw it off.

MT / 5 man Heroics: this or this
OT: Example here

Anonymity as a WoW Blogger

Everyone seems to be blogging about a certain scandal about a certain paladin blogger. I'll give you a hint - it's not me. I'm going to assume everyone knows what I am talking about as it is the talk of the WoW blogosphere right now. I am not going to pass judgment or talk about the scandal.

Instead, I want to talk about how I present myself on the internet.

As all of my precious readers know, I am basically anonymous on this blog. I really don't think I've slipped up much or dropped many hints at all as to the name of my WoW character, server or guild. I really really strive to be anonymous. This is in direct opposition to all other WoW blogs I have encountered so far.

Why is it important that WoW bloggers identify themselves and present themselves honestly? Is there a stigma to being anonymous?

I find there to be much more benefit being an anonymous blogger compared to being out there in the open. Though there are drawbacks to both methods of course.

I. Advantages of Anonymous Blogging

• No trolls can find you on your server
• You can speak honestly without retribution from people that may follow you on your server and know exactly who or what you are speaking about, thus avoiding e-drama
  
• Your real life information will be harder to discover unless you, yourself, volunteer said information
• You will not be subject to "lol @ your arena" or "lol @ your gear" comments people tend to get when they post on their mains in the WoW forums
  

II. Disadvantages of Anonymous Blogging

• Anonymous or not, there will be trolls or disrespectful fools
  
• People may think you are talking out your ass - "post on your main" syndrome
• You have to be careful and censor yourself or you might drop too many clues
• You can't tell your friends about your blog unless you really trust them
  

I guess this is my choice to make and I hope all of you respect my need for anonymity even if you disagree with the reasons for it. So far, I've been pretty happy about my choice and maybe in the future I may reveal myself but I don't think that is likely.

The Dilemma of Holy Paladins

So some of you may be wondering what crawled into my pants and died from my previous post.

Well, basically Ghostcrawler got this bright idea that paladins should want mp5 and actively try to stack it as their mana regen. In short, he wants to mess around with the foundations of what makes a holy paladin tick JUST so we won't bitch and complain about the poorly itemized gear (mp5 heavy) in Ulduar (the T8 bonus is still shat, no matter what, compared to T7).

Why am I so mad that Ghostcrawler is mucking around with paladins? There are a couple reasons.

One has to do with the spells that paladins must use to heal and that we are the ONLY healer class STUCK as single target healers. Another reason is to do with the large contrast between our 2 main spells in terms of effectiveness (HPS) and efficiency (mana cost). Another important reason is how our mana regen works despite the claims of Ghostcrawler to the contrary. Lastly, mp5 is an archaic stat that has lousy lousy scaling but is being foisted on us. I will elaborate further on each of these points and then you'll know why I think Ghostcrawler is a f*cking ignoramus.

WARNING LONG WORDY POST AHEAD!

I. How Paladins Heal

Paladins only have ONE way of healing, single target direct heals. We have no AOE heals, no HOTs or smart heals. Anytime we land a heal is usually a result of a conscious decision on our parts to target and cast a spell.

We have 3 spells in our arsenal, which are Flash of Light (FoL), Holy Shock (HS) and Holy Light (HL). HS is on a 6 second CD (or 5 if you glyph for it) and is instant cast but is very mana inefficient as well as unreliable since it is on a CD. That leaves FoL and HL.

Upcoming Changes to Holy Paladins?

This comment by Alcara from Sisters of Elune (US) summarizes exactly how I feel about the potential changes to Illumination as proposed by Ghostcrawler.

Maybe some of you other healing classes out there don't sympathize, well screw you! You are the f**king ponies. Rest of you commiserate with my QQ as this quaint little tale aptly illustrates... T.T

Long ago, in the magic land of ponies, there was a donkey named Ruprict.
Ruprict was kind of strange, because he was a donkey and he lived in a land full of ponies. The ponies could all do great things: some of them could run very fast; some could jump great distances; some could even fly!


Ruprict couldn't do any of those things, and sometimes the ponies made fun of him. But the one thing Ruprict could do better than any of the ponies; he could run for a long, long time. This made all of the fast, jumping, flying ponies jealous, because although they were all very special in their own way, the[y] didn't like how a donkey could do something better than them.


So, even though Ruprict sometimes wished that he could run slightly faster, or jump a little higher, or even just glide a little bit, he was still happy, because he was special.


Then a mean crab came along and pinched Ruprict really hard, just above his hoof! Oh, how it hurt! (the crab was later trampled to death by the ponies, but that's a different story)


From then on, Ruprict couldn't run very far anymore. In fact, he could only run as far as the fast, jumping, flying ponies! Then the ponies became especially mean, because now they could do everything as well as poor Ruprict, and many other special things as well!


Unfortunately, there is no happy ending to this story. Poor Ruprict no longer had a place in the magic land of ponies, and left. (Ultimately, all of the ponies choked on their own vomit and died; but that, too, is a different story)
THE END

WTF Blizzard! Sure, make paladins more fun to play but why does that mean you have to freaking break us in half to get there?

Patch 3.1.2: Equipment Manager

We just got a new patch and the equipment manager that we were supposed to get in patch 3.1 is finally here. I tested it out on my alt and it seems straightforward to use.

To enable it, you go to your interface options and underneath the controls, you check off the very last box that says "Use Equipment Manager." With that option checked on, in your character sheet will be a new icon in the upper right hand corner. For those that use outfitter, this icon will be underneath the outfitter icon so you must disable it to access the in-game equipment manager.

When you click on said icon, you will see empty boxes. Each box basically represents a potential item set you can save as an outfit. Just equip what you would like to save as an outfit and click save. You will then be able to name the outfit and choose an icon for this outfit. The first few icons that appear will be those in your outfit for easier identification.

As a basic equipment manager, the Blizzard in-game option is quick and easy but I find the fact that you must access it from the character info sheet to be annoying. With that said, I dislike Outfitter's automatic equipping of certain item sets though that can be disabled. However, Outfitter allows you to have all your outfits on a bar that you can click without accessing the character sheet. In my eyes, this makes Outfitter a better option as it offers slightly more versatility.

Then again, it's up to you guys to decide.

Can't Login

Login servers are down =( I was stuck at authenticating for 30 minutes... I wouldn't mind so much if I didn't have to worry about raid in like 15 minutes when invites go out. I really hope this gets fixed soon!

New Best in Slot Option

So I recently received a troll comment about the layout of my site. Funnily enough, I had already planned a best in slot post to be maintained as new gear came out if that is what he had wanted.

In the future, if you want to use my site as a guide for a holy paladin and you want to be rude about it, I would like it very much if you just refrain from commenting because this site is done on my free time and I write how I want to write.

Of course, making it easy for my readers is a concern of mine but I am not interested in pandering to trolls. All I hear is "wah, wah, wah - I'm reading this site but it's not adhering to my exact specifications and it's their fault because the world must cater to my every whim! WAHHHH~" STFU

*shakes head in disbelief*

BTW, for all of you non-crying readers, I have made a BIS gear guide and located in one of the tabs below the banner. Enjoy!

PS I have also posted more on my character's actual stats as listed in Armory along with my current gear under the My Character tab under the banner.

Screenshot Update

I haven't had the desire to post recently since a lot of real life issues came up along with in game. Our guild has been trying to get our 3rd raid night going but so far the 3rd night has been used to farm 25 man Naxx on mostly guild runs with a few puggers.

As a guild, I feel our progression has been good but outside of our 2 raid nights on Tuesday and Thursday, most people will not sign on so we have basically no 10 man runs going on and if there are, we can only do them for 1 day if we even have the right people on. As a casual guild, we are really well off but with Ulduar out, those that are poor raiders really look all the more poorer in the new content.

Anyway enough of that, I'm going to make this a pretty fluffy post today since I don't have the concentration to do the intellect for paladin post I had been planning. So screenshots galore coming right up!

On my server Horde side, there is only 1 guild that has cleared Yogg Saron I believe (with a 2nd guild working on it) and I had the pleasure of seeing the hilariously freaky looking T8 rogue helm. This screenshot fails to capture the kookiness of the new T8 helm.

Legendary Fragment & Drama

Sorry for the lengthy vacation. I really haven't felt like posting to be honest. This is a really wordy post so... =T

So yesterday my guild downed 25 man Emalon, Flame Leviathan, Ignis, Razorscale, XT-002 and Iron Council. We took a bit of time to get Iron Council or we'd have gotten down Kologarn as well so I think we performed relatively well.

Just that off of Ignis, our first shard of the legendary mace dropped. I had no clue how it would be decided but it potentially was a hot button issue due to the healer make up of the guild.

As a guild, we recently lost 1 of our 2 holy priests and they were the more senior of the 2 to another guild though she raided with us still on her resto shaman. Then the day before the raid, she also left that shaman too. She was definitely one of the top healers in the guild but as she had been hospitalized for approximately a month, she was basically far behind in the line for consideration to receive the legendary. However, she rendered all this moot since she is not in guild anymore. I just hope she is happy where she is now.

Ulduar Paladin Checklist, Part III

Warning! Long post ahead!

So I didn't expect there to be a Part III but I was writing my gear list and it got longer and longer with all my additional comments so here is Part III =X Parts I & II here if you missed them.

Gear, continued

Weapon: Replacing Hammer of the Astral Plane +42 crit/+31 haste/+461 SP/+44 int

• 
  
  Turning Tide -5 crit/+17 haste/+59 SP/+6 int Perfect itemization right here. Only thing better is the legendary!
  
• 
  
  Runescribed Blade +10 crit/-31 haste/+89 SP/+7 int With so much haste on Ulduar gear, maybe having a weapon with a lot of crit is the way to go, plus that spell power upgrade is nothing to sneeze at =X There is spirit on this weapon though so let the priests/druids/locks/mages get this weapon first if they need it as they benefit more from spirit than us paladins.
  
• 
  
  Guiding Star -42 crit/+18 haste/+89 SP/+4 int Loss in crit but in this case, the sheer gain in SP can tip the scale in favor of this as an upgrade.
• 
  Torch of Holy Fire -42 crit/+17 haste/+59 SP/+3 int The Guiding star is better so I'm sort of meh about this weapon.
  
• Furious Gladiator's Salvation -31 crit/-31 haste/+131 SP/+10 int (Dazzling Forest Emerald) So no crit or haste but even more SP gain than the legendary! Well, I still wouldn't use this weapon personally but if you can make up for the loss of haste and crit elsewhere, this weapon can be a great asset for you.
• Constellus -13 crit/-31 haste/+131 SP/+9 int (Dazzling Forest Emerald) The sheer gain of SP might make the loss of crit and haste worth it but I feel the next weapon on the list is better despite it being a lower item level.
  
• Aesuga, Hand of the Ardent Champion +3 crit/-9 haste/+89 SP/+21 int (Brilliant Autumn's Glow) Negligible loss of haste for other stats, =)
  
• Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings +5 crit/+15 haste/+126 SP/+10 int Legendary, baby!!! Perfect paladin itemization and a nice proc! New BIS for sure.

Guild Beef

This is a copy of my guest post over on WoW Fail blog. Enjoy!

---

So everyone knows that the pride and joy of "pro" guilds when it comes to raiding is getting to claim world firsts. This is how guilds like Nihilum, SK Gaming and Ensidia entered commonplace knowledge of the more serious WoW raiders. Right now there is a stranglehold by EU guilds of world firsts it seems. Of course there can only be one world first and that mean pro guilds are essentially vying in a neverending competition until a victor is decided. With competition naturally comes shit-talking and rivalries, then shenanigans or drama.

I never really thought it possible in the WoW hardcore raiding scene but apparently it does happen.

Example here on the Ensidia website in the comment section of member, Buzzkill's blog with an inflammatory post demanding all guilds to basically, BRING THE PAIN! LOL

Quite amusing to find a crack in the professional facade that Ensidia and other "pro" guilds usually maintain. Usually we associate guild drama with the little people that are unruly and chaotic (such as Wow Insider's Guild Watch segment) rather than the highly regimented and strict "pro" gamers.

Ulduar Paladin Check List, Part II

Warning Long post ahead!!

So in Part I, I talked a bit about my spec, glyphing, gemming and macros. The biggest part supporting a holy paladin's ability to heal is the gear though. The gear that we choose ultimately allows us to fulfill our roles in raids as healers. I am of the school of thought that paladins should go for intellect with a balance of crit and haste!

Keep in mind that once you get to ~50% crit and 5-600 haste, each point of crit/haste you stack beyond that will not improve your healing ability as much. Thus, you can treat crit and haste as having a “cap” so to speak. There is no cap to intellect stacking though since it increases spell power, crit and your mana pool! I'm currently wanting to hit 30k raid buffed mana but as of now, I am stuck at 29.5k raid buffed if I wear certain trinkets.

On a side note, I dislike mp5 very much so though I will not discount it entirely but I will not focus my entire gear set around stacking it exclusively. Meaning that if a particular piece of gear that I am using has it, then whatever but I will not specifically seek out gear solely for it having mp5. So let's get to it!

Gear

I am listing items from highest to lowest preference. Net gains or losses are being compared to the item being replaced. The only stats considered are crit, haste, SP and int in that order.

Site Changes & WoW Update

Hey guys!

So I'm sure some of you have noticed some of the tweaks I have done to my site such as adding the row of links below my header along with adding feedburner! I finally figured out how to add it and I just redirected my feed though the true implications of that I do not know yet. Yay, I have 40 subscribers! Welcome! Sorry that the first post you guys see after subscribing via feedburner is this drivel =X

I've noticed recently that everyone and their mothers seem to be posting strategy guides to downing bosses in Ulduar so though helpful, I doubt I will post my own. It would take way too much work anyway. I might come up with one when I have a more comprehensive view on Ulduar in general but right now I am still tentatively figuring out my optimal healing style for Ulduar.

Ulduar Paladin Checklist, Part I

So since Ulduar is out, I wanted to do a more comprehensive analysis of the gear out there along with detailing some of the reasoning behind my spec/glyphs/gemming. I wound up writing a long post so I'm going to split it up so it is more manageable to read.

Gems

I will be listing in order of preference from highest to lowest. I don't have the new epic gems included as they are not widely available at this time.

Ulduar So Far

So I managed to hit Ulduar late Tuesday night with my guild. We had a lot of people sign on and sadly some people that normally raided with us logged due to the instability. We still managed a 25 man roster though we had to sit out a good DPS warrior as he logged on a bit late.

I saw a lot of other guilds outside of Ulduar. Excitement ran high as people chattered on vent. Our poor lock couldn't get a summon and other people were wondering why they were not being summoned despite their repeated requests. Seems like there were also a lot of other guilds outside the instance as well.

When we finally managed to all zone in, it was pretty late. Our GM and RL were also basically discussing via vent how to do the raid strat for Flame Leviathan and listing all the boss' abilities. The explanations took quite a while and I feel most of the raiders, myself included, started to zone out and stop paying attention. When it came time to attempt Flame Leviathan, all of us zerged him and got him down to ~40% but we wiped due to the Overload. It took us about 3 tries. Hilariously, on the successful attempt, my boyfriend was to be loaded into the catapault but the driver aimed it wrong and my boyfriend died! LOL! Kind of funny. I was on a bike, tarring and slowing down the boss. Quite fun to zoom around on that bike.

Razorscale was the hardest fight so far I had to heal, worse than 25 man OS 3d as it was really really hectic avoiding the flames along with the random fire bombs that rained from above as well as healing through the chain lightnings. Sorry no screenshots as I was too busy running around healing =X

My boyfriend and I also tried to get the new boss in Vault the next day but the server crashed on us and the entire raid got stuck while clearing the trash right before the boss. When we all finally came back in, the raid basically evaporated. Very frustrating.

Well I hope we get to down Razorscale and move on to more bosses in Ulduar. It feels refreshing to see new content despite all the bugs and server problems.


See you guys in Ulduar!

Ulduar!

Boy I sure am glad I made a comprehensive list for myself to refer to since Ulduar is out a tad earlier than I expected.

Kind of funny how things panned out. First people were like, "Oh it's a distinct possibility that Ulduar will be out this week." Then it became, "Oh, the patch is probably going to hit this week" and now it's like "PATCH COMING OUTTTT OMGGG!!"

Hahah, well we have been waiting quite a while for this patch so it was only a matter of time.

Anyway, I'm betting I don't update as often as I will probably be raiding content!

No clue as to what my guild has decided yet with the legendary. I sense some potential drama there. I'll keep you guys posted =)

Till next time!

Woot! Finally!

After 2 months of wanting this achievement, I finally got it! I am now "the Undying" DUN DUN DUN!!

Yay! Unbelievably, my raid leader's alt/new-main-in-waiting was also in group and got a crap ton of upgrades too =) This raid run was actually full of bantering on vent and the mood in general was relaxed, unlike our previous runs, which were more tense and sober. Of course there were stressful "OMG" moments here and there but Lady Luck smiled upon us and we got what we set out to achieve.

A rant on loot

So I had a guild meeting last night because of loot issues with EPGP.

There was a problem with people getting full EP while waitlisted for a raid (25 man OS 3d) that they had no business getting invited to nor would they ever get invited to because of their gear/skill level. (greens/blues? never done naxx? or heroics? constant fail?). This of course led to problems when it came to 25 man Naxx as there are still some pieces progression raiders needed but due to the EP that casuals on the waitlist earned undeservedly, the casuals or friends/family would take key items from raiders and thus, hinder our progression.

Well the officers fixed that by making people waitlisted get 50% EP since it is really not fair to get full EP for an entire raid day while doing BGs and then coming in on farm days to take loot from raiders that said person will never use for progression raids. All in all, I'm really happy with how the guild leadership handled things. They listened to raider concerns and implemented policy to make sure things were fair pretty quickly.

However, there were some complaints.

Sholazar Basin

So I finally got around to doing Sholazar Basin over the weekend because I was helping my boyfriend level his herbing alt, who was level 78 and now 79! It is a very fun place to do quests. I felt like a tourist as I kept taking screenshots. I got a big kick out of some quests as you can see =)

How it all started

So around 2 years ago, I started playing WoW.

My boyfriend had already been playing and his other friends also played. When I started going out with him, he was still leveling his mage to level 70, the max level at the time. I remember always being curious as to what he was doing and he would tell me that it was so boring because no one would help him as all his friends left him high and dry since they were all max level already. He really didn't play much but I remember watching him inch up slowly level by level though he didn't play much in my presence.

I never really played an MMORPG before except maybe a free one named Knight Online for like 10 days though I used to play console RPGs (FF7 FTW!). I don't quite remember how it started but I think I asked my boyfriend how to use his character. So he lent me the controls and showed me what spells to use to kill mobs. I remember when he said "mobs" I thought, why are they mobs? I was so nub =X

=)

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

If I hadn't met you, I would have never played WoW.
I would never have met all my online friends.
Just as our relationship had our ups and downs, so did our journey in WoW.
Our bittersweet and unforgettable 2 years, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

So here's to us:

Two fools in love.

3D Armory

This is such a cool site! I don't know why I got such a kick out of it =X

On a short hiatus from posting as my real life obligations are kicking in along with 10 man raids coming up. I'll post when I can!

Till next time!

My plans for Ulduar: 3.1 guide

Warning! Long post ahead!

Ulduar 3.1 is going to come out soon it feels as they wrap up testing for the bosses. Alot of changes are coming to paladins, a lot of nerfs especially for holy paladins. Fair or not, these are all changes paladins either have to deal with, reroll or just quit WoW.

Adapt or die, plain and simple.

With that said, I'm trying to plan out what glyphs, spec and gear pieces I want once Ulduar goes live with random screenshots through out.

Like so =P

Currently, I'm in the midst of struggling to choose between prot or Holy-PVP as my 2nd spec for dual spec. I have the gear to be a decent OT in 10 man Ulduar but as my boyfriend and some regulars in our 10 mans inform me, I am not allowed to go prot. =X

Blog award!

Oh Em Gee! I got my very first ever blog award by WoW Fail Blog! And the reason is

"This award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant."

*Blush* Well, now that I am done tooting my own horn, the truth of the matter is that this is a make-pretend award =X

Post soon!

Sorry! I haven't done much in terms of WoW. My guild hasn't progressed to 25 OS 3d and I haven't gotten that many new achievements recently. So hence, the lack of posting. Well, I'm coming up with one but it will take a little bit of work.

Anyway, I hope that you guys that stop by regularly try and say hi sometimes! =)

Till next time!

Failed Undying

So I just tried to do an Undying run. Tried. Needless to say, I am not :insertnamehere: the Undying.

We were on the very last boss of the last wing (Spider, Maexxna). The boss is literally at 1% health and we get webwrapped. The tank had no hots, healing debuff. We see his hp inch down down down and we come out of webwrap, but it's too late. MT dies and 2nd in aggro gets gibbed immediately (a lock). Everyone lets out a collective groan and 2 seconds later, Maaexxna goes down.

It was so demoralizing to do so well and be so close to getting the Undying that everyone just lost focus after that.

We actually wipe on Sapphiron because the MT died again as well as a healer dying because they hid behind an iceblock and wasn't out of line of sight (LOS). Our 2nd try, my boyfriend and another dps also died because they misjudged when to LOS during the air phase. We managed to get Sapphiron down but it was messy.

Then on to Kel'Thuzad. Oh boy, was that a mess.

Speed F*cker

I think I got him good, LOL

I've got a little case of the writer's block. I know all of you are positively salivating for my next blog entry so I'll try to work on it =P

Till next time! Enjoy the weekend!

Musings

To tell the truth, I've actually been feeling a little sad.

I used to be part of a very tight knit group of WoW friends but for whatever reasons, we are dwindling.

Thinking back on it though, people come and go in WoW just like in real life. Just because we play WoW not knowing how the other person looks like or what their real names are doesn't mean that the relationships we form with each other are not important.

As WoW players, we experience a sort of strange paradox. It is just a game and yet it is also not just a game.

We have to know how to have fun in WoW and not take it too seriously but at the same time, we can't take it completely easy and think that it doesn't matter what we do or say in the game because it is just a game.

So where are the boundaries? When are we too serious and when are we too carefree?

Screenshots

So ever since starting this blog, I got into the habit of screen shotting more often. I never used to screen shot even during moments that I wanted to remember. I don't even know why because I am basically catering to my boyfriend =X But even though my boyfriend is my only reader, I am glad that at least I got into the habit of screen shotting because of this blog.

Why am I thinking about this? Well, I came across my boyfriend's screenshot folder and as I sorted through them for the very few ones I had taken, I really became nolstalgic. All those screen shots, even if they were bad or boring, represented a snapshot in time and alot of times, I would be sharply brought back to the past and remember people or events.

That is why I really regret not having screen shots of much of my WoW "career" because with the passage of time, memories becomes blurry as if behind a thin veil. Screenshots are the photographs of WoW, they bring the distant memories out of the fog and let you reflect on the past, the present and the future.

Websites

When I first started playing WoW, I was only focused on leveling. As a noob, I was mostly left to my own devices after my boyfriend PLed me through the first 20 levels. Since he did it sporadically, I basically did most of the quests I had available through those first few levels so I didn't drop many quests because they were gray to me from being leveled too suddenly.

I did things the vanilla way - no add ons or anything. Until one day I had trouble with a quest, I forget which one, and my boyfriend says to me, "Why don't you just look it up on wowhead or thottbot?" to which I responded with a "Huh?! What is that?" Lol, I was such a noob. I would still read the quest summary but if I had trouble, I would go to thottbot usually.

I also remember my boyfriend showing me WoW Armory and asking me, "Isn't this cool?" but I kind of didn't understand what the big deal was since I was in greens and blues still leveling. Epics to me were like a galaxy away and everyone seemed to be in epics on armory. I didn't get why people would want to look up other people and kind of forgot about it.

The Undying

Warning: Long rant ahead!

So my guild very recently completed a 10 man Undying run. For those of you that do not know what I am talking about, this achievement means that whoever was in 10 man Naxx did not die on any of the bosses for that raid id. For those who completed this achievement, they get the privilege to display the new title, "the Undying," behind their character name. Many guilds use this title and the Heroic Naxx equivalent, "the Immortal," as a way to display their superiority.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't see anything wrong with being proud of having such an achievement under your belt because it isn't one that depends on random luck or grinding for massive amounts of time but is indicative of your own ability along with that of your group. However, having such an achievement available means there will be drama-rama.

Remember Zul'Aman?

That was THE 10 mans to do in TBC when it first came out. By then, Kara was a joke and many people thought at first it was supposed to be the next step up from Kara since it was a 10 mans. Dead wrong. You definitely needed gear beyond Kara or uberly skilled at your class if you were undergeared to clear ZA. Most likely it was guilds that did 25 mans that did ZA, not the casual family guilds that were only doing Kara.

The thing is that ZA didn't offer great gear, maybe some pieces that were really really nice but alot of the stuff wasn't that great and it looked horrible imo! So why did people want to do ZA?

They did it all for the bear.

Gear

It's sort of funny how much things change. I mean if you think about it, our character never really changes in physical looks unless you pay for it. What we wind up working for in WoW is for the pretty skin that the clothes, ie gear, our character wears in game. Sure said gear has pretty stats but what it comes down to are pretty pixels. And when it comes to tier sets, you start looking like alot of people. I feel like there was more variety in TBC. Well here is how my paladin looks now.

Here is how my paladin looked then, I actually still kept some of the stuff around. The picture on the right is what I used to look like mostly. Before I got the t6 shoulders though, I used to use the Mount Hyjal shoulders. It looked so gross I felt but I slowly got used to it. And yes, I did raid with my S4 stuff =X

Ulduar gear - Rant

Warning: Long rant ahead!

Well, we've been seeing alot of prospective items from the Ulduar bosses and I gotta say when it comes to the spell power plate, I am NOT impressed. Just because the level of the item is higher, it does not automatically make it attractive (see my previous post comparing plate heal boots currently available in game).

In fact, all of the items I have seen so far have mp5 on them and either have crit or haste not both. This irked paladins on the forums that many have posted complaints on the WoW forums about how elemental shaman gear is more attractive, subsequently leading to troll comments about how if our mana regen weren't OP then maybe mp5 would be more attractive to us. =(

Mounts

So everyone knows that there is an achievement for having a crapload of mounts. Having 50 mounts will earn you an albino drake and if you keep getting more, you will eventually get a Dragonhawk mount, with different colors depending on faction. I really really doubt I can actually get the 100 mounts that you need for the Dragonhawk mount but maybe the 50 mount drake is still possible for me. I believe I am at 30 something odd mounts right now. Here are some of my favorite mounts.

The Amani Bear is a reward you get for completing the timed chest even in Zul'Aman at level 70. It is no longer possible to get this mount. It is an ugly mount but it is more of a trophy than anything else, but I am still fond of it.

The black PVP Hawkstrider mount is very easy to get but I always liked the chicken mounts. My first epic ground mount was a Purple Hawkstrider my boyfriend bought me since at the time it was really expensive to get the Paladin mount for the quest.

Alts & Leveling

So even though I am level 80, it is my only high level character. I have a purgatory of characters doomed to be lowbies =X

I just never got into the leveling aspect of the game. Even with my paladin, it basically took me about a year of on and off leveling to hit the max level at the time, which was 70. Since my boyfriend had already been level 70, I was basically mostly left to my own devices though he did help power level me in the 1-30 and once I hit Outlands. Leveling to 80 in the expansion was the fastest I've ever leveled, which took about a week, but only because I had my boyfriend as my leveling partner this time around.
I also managed to do the Deathknight story line but if you complete that, your DK is only around level 58, a mere gain of 3 levels. Yet I had the ambition to level up BS (though not yet maxed) for my DK just because I thought it would be nice to be able to make myself belt buckles whenever I wanted. =X

Preparing for Ulduar

So everyone knows that Patch 3.1 is going to come out with ETA of 1-2 months. Right now we're being bombarded with news almost daily of class changes, item additions, boss strategies, etc. It is a little hectic to sort through all that.

Even if you keep up to date on everything, there is no guarantee you will know exactly what is in store for patch 3.1, so how can you prepare for when it goes live?

1. Keep raiding - right now content is very easy and completely puggable, there is no way you can't do at least one 25 man raid a week. Vault of Archavon, anyone? Ulduar is going to be a step up in difficulty and if you want to get through Ulduar, you need better gear. Even if you don't get the drops you want, you can always use the Emblems of Valor/Heroism to buy upgrades. Now's the time to push progression because you will be left behind in the dust when Ulduar is released. Who wants to do Malygos or Sartharion 3 drakes up when there is a whole new instance to explore and raid? No attunement too?! Exactly!
2. Do dailies - Dual spec is something that alot of people are excited about or nervous about, depending on who you ask. The thing is it costs 1000g! Also, if you want an upgrade of the Kirin Tor ring, it is an extra 1000g on top of the price you pay for the ring (if you don't have it already). There are also a ton of new glyphs that will come out and can be selling for exorbitant prices due to their initial rarity. No matter what you want to get from the many new things included in 3.1, it is always good to have some gold on hand for any purchases you might make.
3. Farm reputation - Have you always put off getting exalted with a faction you need to purchase an item from? Now is the time to do it. Sons of Hodir is practically a necessity as it gives you a shoulder enchant much cheaper than the TBC one along with gold from the dailies.
4. Farm badges - Sure there is a new badge coming out but does it mean that the old badges are not relevant? No way, with heroism badges you can buy frozen orbs along with rare quality gems for any gem sockets you get in gear. And I bet there will be new items for purchase with Emblems of Valor badges available in the future due to 10 man Ulduar dropping Valor badges.
5. Achievements - Come 3.1, the proto drake reward will be taken out for raiding achievements on heroic and normal difficulties. Now's the time to do all the achievements you were putting off!
6. Class changes: Research the changes your class will be going through and plan accordingly. Will your play style change drastically as a result or do you have to gear/gem differently? These are all things you can prepare for before Ulduar drops so you can hit the ground running.
   

These are some of the things I will be doing in preparation for Ulduar, namely raiding. What are some of your goals before 3.1 goes live?

Till next time!

Paladin changes for 3.1

Warning! Long entry ahead!

According to wowhead and numerous other sites, Paladins will have many changes. The ones affecting holy paladins are (my comments in red):

Skills:

• Sacred Shield: This effect cannot be cast on more than one friendly target at a time. (NO!!! Not my sacred shield!!! I love love love sacred shield!! I am one unhappy holy paladin -.-)
  
• Forbearance reduced to 2 min duration. (No real difference, just means I can use Hand spells on other people more often. I tend to only use DS on myself. )
• Warriors can now remove Divine Shield on paladins!!! (They are really bent on nerfing PVP for paladins -.- I guess holy paladins are now the new red headed stepchild of Blizzard instead of ret)
  
• Exorcism can now be used on all targets, but is now a guaranteed critical strike vs Undead and Demon type mobs. (This will make questing much faster)
• Hand of Sacrifice: The damage transferred by this ability is now capped by the Paladin’s health. (I guess this is to prevent people from taking advantage of this so that content won't be too easy, especially in combination with the next change)
• Auras will now persist through death and affect a 40 yard radius. (Since aura mastery got changed, about time they made our auras baseline 40 yards!)