Please Get Authenticators

We always hear about it but never think it will touch our little world. Well, it does.What am I talking about?

Getting hacked.

It is the single worst thing that can happen to a WoW player 's account because you lose everything that you have invested in your hobby. On top of the time, gold, gear and other materials that is stolen; you lose the feeling of control, trust and good will.

No, I haven't been hacked but some people in my guild have and the ones that hit home were my 2 WoW friends, one I knew irl.

The worst part of it all is that the 2 WoW friends that got hacked, they really had no reason to have gotten hacked. They don't buy gold or surf the internet much. The only thing they didn't have were authenticators.

As targets, they were paydirt in the amount of damage the hacking caused them.

BS/JC Gemming

This is something I have never understood. Perhaps I am doing it wrong but...

A lot of Holy paladins are BS/JC understandably for the JC gems + 2 extra BS slots. However, why is it whenever I see BS/JC, they always seem to put the JC gems in random slots?

For me, I like to always put my 3 JC only Dragon's Eye gems (usually Brilliant) in the 3 extraneous BS slots:

1. Belt Buckle
2. Bracer Socket
3. Glove Socket

Why you ask? Well, I like to switch out gear a lot depending on the fight. If I have a set socket that my JC only gem is always in then I know that no matter what gear I switch in and out. It will never interfere with my Dragon's Eye gem! That way I won't be limited in gear combinations just because of either too little or too many JC only gems.

It also makes no sense for the JC only gem to be put into a colored socket because most holy paladins (HL ones, of course) ignore socket color to just do all Brilliant + Nightmare Tear. Even so, FoL paladins can still benefit from this gemming method.

Maybe HL paladins have gotten lazy and just wear one set of gear no matter what. Well, all I have to say to that is...

Don't be lazy!

VDW needs separate gearing/gemming. No, it is not for epeen because the faster VDW gets healed up, the better for the raid! There are also other fights in ICC that I use FoL gear or you may just want to mix up some different types of gear to increase haste or mp5 or what not. Gemming in this fashion makes gearing a lot more flexible!

If you're like me, I have a hard time letting go of gear because I'm always like, well I could use for this and that, etc. I always try to get the most mileage out of my gear.

What do you guys think?

JC in Cataclysm

I am like most other paladins a BS/JC, which I really believe has been the best combination so far. The fact that I actually wear plate is just a perk.

It's funny because in TBC I used to be Mining/JC simply because I wanted to be able to level up JC while leveling. I never min/maxed in TBC. I only finally dropped Mining in WotLK after Ulduar and power leveled BS so I could stack more int after the great nerf of 3.2 for holy pallies.

So I have always been a JC and now more recently a BS, in terms of being a crafter for professions. The funny thing is the only reason why I wanted to be a JC in TBC was because it was the "new" profession of the expansion, just like how belfs were the "new" race of TBC.

Yes, I am a very silly holy pally. Ahh, the days of noob-dom. =P

So talking about trends in TBC, in WotLK, the "new" has become pervasive and completely ubiquitous.

Of course, JC being such a dominant profession is backed up by its very nice benefits.

• Flexibility - You know how engineering usually better for PVPers and maybe some classes in PVE? JC is beneficial to everyone, regardless of their class/role or PVE/PVP because it stacks more of the stats you want
• Customization - Enchanting is a lucrative profession and it's nice to easily enchant anything but the rings only enchant AP, SP or stam, which are nice but not as customizable as the JC only gems with stats that you can stack such as res, spirit, strength, armor pen, etc.
• Money making potential - Even if you don't sell gems or cuts, you still do the JC daily!

JC wasn't always this nice, so I really hope they don't make it the "worst" profession in Cataclysm to make up for its popularity in WotLK. Even so, I still would like to stick with JC at the very least as one of my 2 professions in Cataclysm.

Right now, I'm really happy with what I have heard so far about JC in Cataclysm. No danger signals (yet).

According to MMO Champion:

• New Jewelcrafting dailies will be introduced.
• Many cuts are being added to support the new Mastery stat.
• Some new Cataclysm jewelry recipes have completely random properties, and can sometimes create superior and epic versions.
• Jewelcrafters will have some fun new (and potentially lucrative) vanity items, including fist weapons, rhinestone sunglasses, monocles, and stardust (sprinkle on players for entertainment).

Hahaha, completely makes JC all worth it for me!

Since Blizzard is cracking down on the NDA stuff, I guess we won't be hearing too much about Cataclysm, which means not much about the content is too spoiled. I just hope we can hear enough about the game play and class changes to give constructive feedback to Blizzard. I think everyone is at "wait and see" in regards to the 10 versus 25 man raid changes.

Crossing fingers! Till next time!

Before Cataclysm Comes!

Everyone is talking about Cataclysm but I don't really want to get too much in the know because I still remember questing in Howling Fjord and just enjoying it so much! Everything was so new and it was just like "wooooowwww" to me so I want to be able to experience that again in Cataclysm. I was such a tourist and I unashamedly loved it!

Anyway, people may have started to lose interest in WoW due to the end of the expansion coming up and summertime fever but I have a bunch of things I still want to do before Cataclysm comes out. I have no clue if I will get to everything but I will certainly try.

1. Get over 9000 achievement points - I am around 8400 achievement points atm.
2. Get a Solace trinket to play around with
3. Get a new weapon! And a whole bunch of other gear on my list
4. Complete ToGC 25 - all I have left is Anub'arak
5. Level an alt to 80. Currently, my DK is at 70 and my priest is in her 40s so we'll see which one is going to hit 80 first! =X
6. Get maxed mining on one of my alts.
7. Try to complete the legendary. This is likely going to stay a dream. I actually have a better chance of getting Shadow's Edge than getting the legendary T.T (I already have the 2 quest items)
8. Aim for the Ironbound Protodrake!
9. Maybe the 10 man Frostwyrm? Likely another pipedream as I don't do 10 mans regularly enough =(
10. Hit 100k gold on my paladin for Cataclysm (only 50k right now).
11. Freaking kill Archimonde! (Only TBC raid boss I have NOT killed)
12. Get a bridle for my squire! 
13. See 25 man Algalon and try to kill him! 
14. Get exalted with Consortium and Lower City 
15. Get Loremaster before Azeroth gets destroyed

What is your to-do list?

Interesting Statistics to Me about Me

Matticus recently did a post about his "Surprise Statistics" so it made me take a closer look at my own. So yes, this post is going to be about me. All about me. Me, me, me! =P

I'm not going to post everything but numbers that I've pruned that I thought was interesting. Hopefully I don't get carried away but knowing me, that is likely =P

You have been warned!

By the way, follow my twitter if you want me in small doses =P

Here we go!

Combat
Largest hit received: 31,286

This is such a lie! I think this just means they don't count the overkill portion so if you get one shot by something, it just registers as your hp at the time.

Largest heal cast: 2,459,898

Where the heck is this from??

Total healing done: 4,167,510,604

Holy crap, I've done a lot of healing in my WoW "career" =X especially when compared to my damage done (888,519,041)

Gamers Can Save the World & Why I Rant

A 20 min long video talking about the possibility of gaming being directed towards saving the world.

IRL.

Interesting concept, don't you think?

Also in regards to my previous post, I get that people think I am being whiny about the prospective changes when nothing is set in stone yet BUT I do think the points I make are still valid and I hope they (along with other people's feedback) are being considered by Blizzard for Cataclysm.

Holy Paladins Fall By Wayside Again in Cataclysm

Healing Hands, the new aoe healing spell for holy paladins in Cataclysm, sucks in its current rendition. Combine that with the planned nerf to Beacon, holy paladins are going to be underpowered, AGAIN.

Thanks Blizz. I know you hate paladins for real now.

Reasons Why Healing Hands SUCK

1. Short range - described like a healing totem and conjecture has been the range is real short. On top of that, it depends on where the casting paladin is standing so our movement/placement is key. Yet, we are one of the least mobile healing classes! WTH, Blizz?!
   
2. Short duration, long CD - It lasts 6 seconds with 15 second CD. So how effective can paladins really be as raid healers then? Sure we have DSac too but so do ret/prot! Why would raid leaders feel compelled to bring holy paladins to the raid?? HL + glyph is better in this regard since there is no CD associated with it.
   
3. Not spec dependent - Correct me if I am wrong but aren't all the paladin specs receiving this? It should scale best as holy but why are prot/ret allowed to aoe heal too? Ret also has Divine Storm so now they have TWO aoe heals. This seems a bit overpowered for PVP purposes as well.
4. Self only - Healing hands basically makes the casting paladin a "beacon of light" (hehe) so fights that means the raid must all spread out, too bad sucker! Also, unless the entire raid stays in 1 spot, our "aoe" healing spell will never be able to hit the entire raid yet the traditional raid healing classes are getting spells that hit the entire raid!

April Fool's Day

It's April Fool's Day today but it is also 3 years together today too =)

Here is to 2 fools in love <3

Weapon Enchants in Cataclysm

Every single healer I know has the same weapon enchant and for good reason, 63 SP is nothing to scoff at for any healer. However, there is 1 crucial element lacking in this enchant.

NOT ENOUGH SPARKLIES!

Blizzard, give us back our sparkly weapons! Make them glow for real again, so people know that we mean business. We're healers, we should glow because we're full of healing thingies!

Every one raids for epic pixels but I don't understand why in WotLK, Blizzard choose to take away one of the perks to getting epics. The whole magpie effect of the sparkly goodness!

Compare TBC enchants with WotLK enchants, luminosity dropped by a ton! I mean, even +2 beastslaying has a glow for crying out loud! How can that look more uber than +63 SP? Mind boggling!

Ditch the subtle, make it loud and obvious!

Cataclysm, bling bling sparkly weapons. Make it happen!

P.S. Yay for new Header! My gear was really outdated in the old header image =X

PVP Progression

In season 7 when I first started doing arena much more consistently than in the past and even so, on a pretty casual basis, I was only able to reach the 1900s bracket. The Relentless shoulders eluded me despite me wanting the pretty shoulders so I could match!

This season in S8, I am happy to report I have finally been able to get the Wrathful shoulders! My next goal is 2200 rating! The weapon at 2200 is so tasty! I actually use my 1800 weapon to PVE raid so a 2200 weapon would be great!

I originally played Ele/Hpally/warr in S7 and then my boyfriend decided he wanted to be enhance so we went to enh/Hpally/warr in S7. The switch didn't work out as well because he was much squishier as enhance.

The weird thing about my boyfriend is that despite his mage being his main, he actually likes to play melee classes more. So with the enhance shaman set up not working out as well, he decided to level a DK so we could play TSG.

Keep in mind, all these switches were done in S7!! And people say girls can't make up their minds! Well, to be fair, he didn't switch to his DK just yet but his decision to do so was made in S7 but he used the transition period between S7 and S8 to gather the gear to be arena ready.

As for me, transitioning from ele/h. pally/warr to enh/h. pally/warr and finally, TSG, it took me a bit. This is because the pace of the arena matches change drastically.

Bitten Achievement

So according to Bornakk...

Dammit, why do you change this after I could have gotten the 10 man achievement??!

Damn it.

Going to have to wait till next reset for the 10 man one.

And yes, I know my recent posts are short and sweet but I'll have a long properly spicy one for you soon. I hope =X

Till next time!

Stalking Feeds

Been so obsessed with Armory and WoW-heroes recently =X

Here's a screenshot of mine

It's so addicting with the new activity feed! Satisfying my stalker urges.

You have people you like to keep tabs on?

Ferraro Revealed!

Many of you probably know of Ferraro, author of blog Paladin Schmaladin. There was a lot of drama surrounding that site as it became known that Ferraro had been posting pics of another person without permission and passing it off as themselves. Then when confronted about it, Ferraro admitted to the farce and then further revealed that she/he was the 7th in a long line of Ferraro's ala the Dread Pirate Roberts in the Princess Bride (book/movie), which is also debated if that is true. This is a rough summary and I'm sure I missed many details of the whole debacle.

The Ferraro facade, TechDarling

So basically, all this drama caused so much controversy but Ferraro continues to blog (after coming back from quitting blogging when the drama broke out) as well as adding more bloggers on board his/her site. I'm sure many paladins have been helped out by his/her website, much as I have been too. Ferraro is a prolific blogger and is intensely interested in the paladin class as proven by the many varied posts on the blog.

As an anonymous blogger myself, I wouldn't want to out any one that chooses to blog anonymously. However, Ferraro has chosen to out him/her self.

I have no clue how long this has been up but I guess since WoW Armory was revamped as there is now an armory link for a holy paladin on the side, which I assume is Ferraro #7 =P

I am not sure why Ferraro has decided to do this now and apparently, without much fanfare or comment from his/her readers. It just makes me curious.

Anatomy of WoW Raiding

So yes, I have been away for a while but I've just been raiding and percolating ideas. On the drama front, my guild has been relatively quiet, something I definitely appreciate! However, that makes for less writing material. As for general holy paladin discussion, I'm not completely confident but I have some ideas forming.

Anyway, this is just a post to share this wonderful pic that made me LOL IRL from cracked.com

Enjoy!

Till next time!

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 =)

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.

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!

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.