A foray into Theorycrafting

Let's do some math boys and girls!

As time ratchets forward, I'll adjust these numbers as I get to study Oak more, but this will get things started. Omg, he's gonna do some math for us, stand back folks!

So the debate here (for me) is: which is better for leveling a Ret Paladin, Sanctity Aura or Retribution Aura? Now just to be clear, the debate for me is NOT which is better for raiding or pvp. Since I'm not 70 yet, my primary concern is grinding/questing. So I'm not trying to address those aspects and I'm trying to keep this pretty basic.

And the last thing to try and determine from all this is; should a Ret Pally sometimes use one of these and at other times use the other aura? That is to say, is it situational and there is no "best" solution for grinding?

So here we go. Some of these numbers need to be tested more but here is what I have so far.

Let's start off and assume three scenarios.

Scenario 0: I'm fighting a non-caster, melee type that is attacking as fast as I am with my current weapon and doing similar damage. This is with Sanctity Aura and will be my baseline for comparison.

Scenario 1: Using Retribution Aura (Improved), I'm fighting a non-caster, melee type that is attacking as fast as I am with my two hander, and doing similar damage.

Scenario 2: Using Retribution Aura (Improved). I'm fighting a rogue-type mob that is attacking fast (some of the dark iron dwarves in Searing Gorge are like this).

(Remember I haven't attempted to factor in critting or other bonuses - I didn't want to do that quite yet since this is my very first attempt at this sort of thing)

I'm using a base weapon damage for Oak of 280/swing, a 30 second fight with Oak getting 9 melee swings in that fight. During that time he will get about 6 Holy attacks, Judgements/CS (5 second avg gaps), each of those doing a base damage of around 255.

And here are the Results:

Scenario 0 (This then becomes my standard to meet or beat.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Base melee damage: 2211
Base holy damage: 1683
Retribution dmg: 0
Cumulative damage: 3894
Base damage per sec: 130

Scenario 1: Improved Retribution Aura vs. 2H slow (4 sec) weapon, non-caster
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Base melee damage: 2211
Base holy damage: 1530
Retribution dmg: 300
Cumulative damage: 4041
Base damage per sec: 135

Scenario 2: Improved Retribution Aura vs. "rogue-type" (2 sec) melee
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Base melee damage: 2211
Base holy damage: 1530
Retribution dmg: 900
Cumulative damage: 4641
Base damage per sec: 155

So from the little charts above it seems clear that for soloing, Retrib Aura would be the way to go "most times". Again, this didn't factor in crits, SoC or other bonuses which would only add to the damage listed above.

Judging Crusader instead of Judging Wisdom (and I usually use Wisdom) creates a HUGE swing in damage but results in a total mana burn pretty much every fight. Boo! Give us pallies better mana-management or a large pool, darnit! :D

The thing I didn't allow for because it simply didn't occur to me until right now, is to factor in "misses", "resists", etc. I tried to come at this from a simple point of view and basic math just to prove to myself, if nobody else, which one would be a better way to go with Ret.

More to come concerning this stuff later. I think it requires more research, its better than doing my job at work and it's good to get this outta my head :)

(Major disclaimer: I'm not "good" at this stuff. So if another pally reads this and is offended by my lack of knowledge, then I apologize in advance. I would like some constructive input if anybody cares to share.)

Why hello you big beautiful lvl 56, pally you

The biggest news is that I'm one step closer to 60 and yet another mount that doesn't take up a bag slot :) Man I love being a Paladin! Oh sure I know that two bag slots aren't that big of a deal, but I just love that I don't have to worry about them.

Well as the title indicates; ding 56! Sort of a disappointing level though. When I trained, I only got a new rank of Frost Protection Aura and a new rank of Retribution Aura ... neither of which I use.

Which leads me to the main content of my post, which as it turns out, is talking about my next post. Let me explain. No, there is too much ... let me sum up.

I have questions about RETtribution Aura. Seems like a solo'ing Ret Pally would be running this aura all the time. Thus the Ret in Retribution, right? But I've seen few who run it and many who talk about running Sanctity Aura instead.

I myself am usually running Sanctity Aura in my travels and have always read that "thats the way to go for Ret damage". But being an inquistive little dwarven soul, I just have to see for myself and run some very generic, extremely vanilla numbers.

And that's where my "next" post comes in. Or it will. I had intended to get this all done at work today and post the numbers up here but I'm still researching. What I have found so far is a big split in the pally world. No surprise there, this is a game played by millions and heck when was the last time everybody in a guild agreed much less thousands of strangers playing pallys :D

There seems to be just as much information supporting Sanctity Aura as the main way to swing the light as there is Retribution Aura. As with so many things in this game, it most likely comes down to play-style and preference as much as anything else.

But I'm going home tonight to research this some and run numbers on Oak. I've already created an interesting little spreadsheet and I just need some of my very own Pally-data to plug into it. It should be a fun read but alas, it will have to be later tonight or early tomorrow before that is all up on here for debate and for my fellow pallys and guildies to poke fun at my theorycrafting :D

I'm looking forward to it. Onward!

Breakout from Un'Goro

Well the pvp-bowl that IS Un'Goro Crater is for the most part, finished. And not soon enough for this short, stout lager-laden-laddie. Up until Un'Goro, Oak had given as well as he'd taken, in regards to beatings in world pvp. But UC has been a lesson in humility from the first day I slipped my plate-covered tootsies into that hazy-green world of beasties and hordsies.

They all hated me everyday and I even took to playing at odd times just to get through quests unscathed. One-on-one, I do alright but I've yet to win a pvp battle when it's me against two (or more).

Oh well - enough ranting. Geez, I'm whining like a clothie! j/k :)

The good news is ... ding 54 and darn it ... almost ding 55! Whoo hoo! Couldn't help but have a little "pre-ding" celebration there. If I get on-game tonight I'll get to hit 55 and I'll also get to wear my Imperial Plate Chest Piece. Woot!

And that reminds me, I must hit up a new dungeon or two soon though and grind for a new weapon. There doesn't seem to be much on the AH lately for decent weapons at my level and I just don't think that the ol Lightforged Blade will last till 59.

The reason that I mention 59 is that from 59 to 68, I've amassed quite a collection of swords and axes in my bank; I've been building them up for some time. RW has given me a good weapon drop for 66, Bacon gave me a great drop for lvl 59 or 60 (can't remember which) and I've made some purchases too.

Maybe the best thing is to just keep polishing up the Lightforged Blade and swing it till 59.

Last thing to blab about in this post is mods. Yep I'm still using my lvling Mod and I still love it. They have even sent out invites to users of their mod to ask for help in developing it further and make it even better ... gasp! ... is this my road to fame, before me, in WoW? I'm thinking about taking them up on their offer and help them out with quest research and whatnot.

Time will tell.

But the latest thing for mods is that I dropped that old friend of mine ... Titan Panel. Queue the "sad goodbye" music. This was my VERY first mod I ever installed in WoW and I've used it ever since.

But much like an old stale relationship gone bad, I just needed more than what Titan had been offering; so it was time to move on. I mean I owe it to myself right? Why spend even more time with a mod that clearly has different interests than me? I need more. And so it was time for Titan to start seeing other players and for me to start seeing other mods.

That's when I met the Bartender.

She was version 3 which I assume means she's been around. But who am I to judge. All her buttons were in the right place and she didn't seem to mind my looking. Heck I was on the mod rebound. I have to admit I wasn't picky. Things looked good.

So I asked her over and before you know it, she was all into my interface folder and I can't say that I minded. Two crazy kids like us, needing something from each other. Bartender needing someone to pay her attention and me, to be honest, well I've always been a button man.

And although I'm loath to admit it, and I'm not usually into this kind of thing, Lou said Bartender had treated him right.

So there you have it. A man. A old mod and his new one. This game has it all.

P.S. - Get your own Bartender, btw, this one is mine.

ouch, ouch, OUCH! Unfriendly Un'Goro

What a pvp-bowl the crater was last night. Poor little Oak was cut down, split up, and stacked away for winter ... by a few different classes.

First up. 48 Shaman. He tried to gank me while I was fighting two Ravasaur-types but I bubble/healed and oddly enough, he RAN. I was blown away by that. He stuck around though .. and I don't know if this was part of his elaborate ganking plan ... but he just sorta watched me from a distance until it really got on my nerves ... so I ended up rushing the bum and embarrassingly enough - he totally owned me.

"Anger clouds the mind" - Yoda

As I came riding up, he threw down 3 totems of various types. I dismounted and entered the fray. I have to admit - my mind wasn't really into the fight as I began and it showed. He totally killed me. In retrospect, I wonder if I had ran right into the middle of his totems and threw down a consecrate .. would that have killed them while I hacked him up off to the side?

Wish I'd gotten his name though, I need to get in the habit of that so I can look people up on the armory later and check their spec/gear. I think it might help to start doing some research on how to fight various classes/specs. I need to get into this pvp stuff or switch to a pve server - lol

Anyway, not long after that, actually <5 mins or so, I was fighting more Ravasaurs (two actually) and a lvl 49 Rogue (BE - geez I hate Blood Elves), stuns me and then ... wait for it ... just backs off and watches the mobs kill me while I'm stunned. Classic. Had to hand that one to her. Very creative stuff.

So I go on, mowing through quests, undaunted ... well that's not true. In reality I was about to eat my keyboard as a snack in a fit of rage, just to make this game go away. But I pressed on instead.

So I was turning in a quest up near the entrance to UC, standing there with that big Tauren quest-giver. From out of the mist, and down the hill, I see a lvl ?? Tauren Shaman riding along. Starts to pass me ... then turns up the hill ... crap ... he 3 hits me, remounts and then goes calmly over to get his Power Crystal for which he'd apparently been after all along. So he had been nice enough to cruise up to me, use me for speed bump, and then get his quest/rep item.

Glad I could help Mr. Shama Lama. Hope I chipped your axes with my handsome dwarven chin.

Well after all this my dander was definitely up. So, it was Talon-time. I logged with Oak and although I knew better, went and got Talon.

I say that I knew better because why? ... say it with me boys and girls ... "after the horde gank you, they disappear while you get your main". I don't know how they do that. Are there night courses somewhere that they take in order to learn how to be such pains in the posterior?

Talon slides into UC and there are no horde to be found. Poof! It's like they never even were. Agggggghhhh!

But, eventually, Talon did make life rough for one lvl 55 warrior. Poor guy. Hated to take it out on him but not really. Started killing him at Marshal's Refuge and followed him clear back to Gadgetzan, harrassing/sapping him. I'm sure he hates alliance.

And I'm pretty sure I hate the horde :)

What the Flux? An evening in Searing Gorge

Well I pretty much finished up my quests last night in Searing Gorge. A lvl 49 rogue practiced his sapping abilities on me and I practiced hunting him down. :D

Other than that it was a fairly easy evening. Here is a little rundown of what I did though.

My biggest mission, having previously chosen to accept it, was to travel waaaaaay down deep in the bowels of the Cauldron in the Searing Gorge. In there, is a lvl 50 leet Dwarf that one needs to get past in order to obtain an item for the quest "What the Flux?". (Love that quest name Blizz!)

Anyhow, behind said nasty is a scroll on a table, which is your quest item. He is flanked by a lvl 50 non-elite dwarf. These guys are both something like "Sith-Pallies". They can bubble, they can sheep, they can use Shadow magic. Its quite the experience. So my plan was to go in and die once (killing the non-elite in the process) and then run back and take on the elite ... just me and him ... in a dark cave ... where no one could hear his cries for help as the blackness of cold death clutches at his soul. Ahem. Sorry, the rogue in me came out there for a minute.

So I set my plan in motion. Killed the normal guy, ran back and healed up for the elite. I run in, swinging and judging aaaaaand ... dead! But it was ME that was dead, not him.

New strategy. I run back, heal up, put him to sleep with Repentance, pick up the freakin quest item and bubble/jump from the big tall dropoff behind him, falling down several levels to the cave floor below but thanks to my bubble-chute, I was healthy as a horse.

Very rogue-like of me :) Well I figured he'd bring the whole dang place to bear down on me but instead, I was almost immediately out of combat. I was little bummed because I needed that elites head for a quest but I figured I could wait for another day.

As luck would have it, on my way out of the Cauldron I run into two hunters that needed help with that very quest. So I group up with them and head right back in there.

I do my pally thing and give them and their big cats Greater Blessing of Might (the hunters were using mainly melee attacks for some resason). They didn't seem to have been there before or it had been awhile, so I even got to help find the place and recommend a turn here or a tunnel-twist there. The dwarves in the Slag Pit also net people while they are fighting so I got to provide a few BoFs and then reapply GBoM. So that was good practice.

In the end, We kill our elite with no problem at all - both hunters were lvl 51 and one was beast-mastery specc'd. So I end up getting my quest item from the big mean nasty dwarf anyway, netting me some more experience.

Feeling rather satisified with all that and being halfway to 53 now, I think tonight I'll visit the Crater and hit 53, maybe 54. I have some Imperial Plate items that I'm just dying to put on :)

Ding 52 and a short story

Well this weekend I mustered my defenses against the The Pillow (actually just played in the afternoons) and grabbed the brass ring that has 52 stamped on it.

Nothing grand to report at 52, just new ranks of existing stuff. Guess there was one new thing though, come to think of it. I did also get Improved Blessing of Might, which is nice, and also requires reagents (of that I was not aware). Moving on.

Before I dinged though I did run into a short pvp encounter which I though was worth mentioning. It was however with a rogue so apologies to rogues in our guild as I tell this ... you guys will always be able to kick my short dwarven rear I'm sure.

So there I was minding my own business, trying to get a quest done in the Searing Gorge by rounding up 8 Thorium Daggers, and those drop from Dark Iron Dwarves. Having engaged said Dark Iron Nasty to obtain aforementioned quest item, in order to complete the previously indicated quest ... I was otherwise unaware of a lvl 53 UD Rogue sneaking up behind me.

He shortly made his presence known though however by cracking me, quite soundly I might add, in the head causing me to sag in embarrassing fashion directly in front of my dance partner who just kept right on dancing and helping my new head-cracking friend out.

Well with daggers-a-flyin' and undead noises echoing across the Cauldron, the rogue stabbed and stabbed ... until his stun faded and I bubbled. Then I healed to full health and the grin slid off his little malformed head.

He continued to fight so kudos to him for that. He got in some good licks but mine, although they were not nearly as often, were much much bigger hits and crits. You could say, I gave him a sudden case of the crits. Lol!

However his last mistake was that, he decided to try and stand toe-to-toe with a plate wearer/healer; he never moved from in front of me. Maybe it was because my mob wasn't dead ... maybe he was a terrible rogue ... or maybe he was combat specc'd; removing the need to move around a lot ... maybe he thought "heck the guy is two levels below me and he's only a pally".

Whatever his reasoning he was very wrong. He should have tried to stunlock me some more.

So after I bubbled/healed I proceeded to politely reach out and rearrange his face. It didn't last long. And he tried to run, but Judgement found him ... wanting.

Then after I had sufficiently introduced my rogue-friend to the graveyard, I turned my back on his dead and foresaken (pun-intended) corpse and killed my mob, who in all this time, had not yet found better things to do.

For whatever reason, in very un-horde-like fashion, my rogue friend didn't come back to try and dance again :)

The Pillow (background)

C'mon I HAD to write something down :) I haven't logged onto the game in so long, I just decided to basically write about the epic struggle between the The Game and The Pillow. Here lately, my pillow has been pwn'ing the game :)

But for any of you thinking that I'm leaving WoW ... no such luck for you :) The poem below was just fun blog-filler :)

The Pillow

The Pillow

(with apologies to Edgar Allen Poe)

Once upon a midnight dreary, logging on to WoW, so weary,
Whence upon mine eyes so bleary, fell an image I now am fearing,
And in my mind there came a rapping - rapping as at my chamber door.
"Tis the drink," I muttered, "sounding at my mind's door,
Only this and nothing more.

My bed so soft and calling, in my mind I felt myself falling,
To a safe and restful state, of which I'd never felt before,
But then a voice I heard repeating, twas a voice filled with pleading,
"When did we last in Azeroth explore?"
Crossing the room, I opened, my chamber door;
Darkness there and nothing more.

Again a sound came and this time longer, with a desire even stronger,
Crowing for my attention, insistent promises of something more;
So that to still my heart's beating, then to myself I stood repeating,
"Nothing to fear this evening, only someone at my door"
"Some late visitor asking entrance at my door"
"This is it and nothing more"

But panic took me and I crossed the room anxious to escape the gloom,
Into my bedchamber I tread, fearing the things of which my heart dreads,
And then again I repeated, the same just as before,
It twas nothing, just faint whispers outside my home's front door.
Night sounds and jitters, nothing more.

I approached the pc my nerves disheveled, anxious now to quest and level,
The logon screen it opened shining and then came a new insistent whining,
A familiar yet elusive sound, in my head it bounced around,
Twas the noise that I abhor, called to me just as before.
"Questing can wait longer. Come to me and rest some more"

I turned and saw my pillow laying there, calling to me as I stared,
It crooned to me a pleasant bleat, promising peace and a dreamless sleep,
The pillow; and I yearned to heed it as I stared, abhorred,
But it called to me again saying more,
Questing you need do; nevermore.

My login screen waited at attention, I heard Oak's cries for intervention,
Calling to me from that virtual scene, pleading to quest, to say hi to my team,
But the pillow again called, weaving its seduction and drawing me o'er,
At last the screen forgotten, I was captured, as by the Sirens of lore,
The Pillow called me to rest. And quest?
Quote the Pillow, "Nevermore."

Leverage says you ....

I think I feel a change in the winds says I.

Everybody else has blogged about it. Everybody has forumed about it. Everybody who's played past the noob area knows there be a big patch-a-comin and it could mean good and yummy things for those of us crazy enough to climb the limbs of the Retribution Tree.

Let's break these babies down and start the arguing early, shall we? :)

• Vindication (Retribution) frequency and duration increased and now reduces all attributes by 5/10/15%, not just Strength and Agility.

This is the one I've been waiting for. I've kept points in Vindication since I've heard about the possibility of this happening. Having this lower ALL stats on your target - well I give it a 5 outta 5 on the Critometer of Happiness.

• Pursuit of Justice (Retribution) is now 3 ranks and increases movement speed by 5/10/15% and also reduces the chance you'll be hit by spells by 1/2/3%.

I know people will disagree on this. But I hate this talent. It seems as this is a Blizz Bone that they threw at us pallies to try and get us to spend points here. I don't see the benefit though. Seems like the smarter Ret points can be spent elsewhere. The Critometer of Happiness rates this a 1 out of 5. Prove me wrong. (If you do though, most likely I won't approve your comment, lol)

Let's take the next ones as a group.

• Exorcism's mana cost has been lowered (Source)
• Holy Wrath's mana cost has been lowered (Source)
• Hammer of Wrath's mana cost has been lowered (Source)

Slap me silly and call me sally. This is awesome! Lowering mana cost always makes the Critometer rocket to new heights but it has to stop at 5 out of 5.

• Vengeance has been increased to 30 seconds (Source).

Longer lasting, more filling. The stacks get longer to build and this will only help with stabilizing the damage output for Rets. Plus I love having glowy hands :) Critometer of Happiness rating? 3 out of 5 - because they didn't mention making Vengeance proc "more" :)

• New Talent - Sanctified Seals (replacing Sanctified Crusader): Increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and melee by 1/2/3%, and reduces the chance your Seals can be dispelled by 33/66/100% (Source)

Nothing to hate here at all. Combined with other stuff later in this post, this is a very nice addition and a new place to spend some points that are freeing up from other things. Critometer of Happiness rating: 4 out of 5.

• Crusader Strike cooldown is being lowered to 6 seconds. (Source)

Aw couldn't we get the mana lowered too? lol Love the fact that we get a shorter cooldown time though. Critometer of Happiness likes it too. 4 out of 5.

• Improved Seal of the Crusader effect added to base abilitiy (Source)
• Improved Seal of the Crusader now gives the effects of Sanctified Crusader (Source)

These should probably be rated as a 6 out of 5 on the Critometer of Happiness! How awesome is this? Pallies will get 3 talent points back (that were spent on Sanct Crusader) which we can now spend someplace else, like deeper in the Holy or Prot trees. Suh-weet!

All in all I think this will be a good-news day for Rets and pallies in general. Bring on the patch! I can't wait to get this stuff! :)

Still lurking about ...

Yes it's been awhile since I've logged on ... been some time since I've posted too. Sorry about that. I know that many of you come here to get your daily dose of my ramblings (lol, right!).

But I thought I'd let everybody know that I'm alive and kicking.

Personal injury report incoming ... badly sprained my ankle recently and that hurt something wonderful (getting up there in years now, lol). The stink of it is that the doc tells me I should stay off of it as much as possible which would exclude me from family vacation this coming weekend (we have a trip planned to head back to Monterey Bay, CA).

So that's a bummer if I don't get to go out there. However, I suppose I'd get to log some serious leveling time with Oak, who is long overdue for some questing attention.

Anyhow that's all from me. If I'm at the house this weekend, which it appears that I will be, I should be able to come up with some adventurous yarns for ya'll from our Wonderful World of Warcraft :)

Ding 51

Well I skipped the "ding post" on lvl 50 because it all happened this weekend and I just always avoid posting using my cursed dial-up connection. Yes that's right I play WoW on dial up and that really blows at times. If you're the prayin' type of guildie reading this, I could really use high-speed internet soon :)

But I digress.

Well Oak has had no epic battles of late but I did run into a few epic guildies. Namely Bacon, Magnusson and Lou.

The other night, Lou was helping a buddy of his on a run from Menethil to SW and it turns out that my pal Lou seems to have never made that run himself (can you say Ebay character, I knew you could). So I offered to tag along and was really excited to see Lou in-game for the very first time.

He's really short. Lots of beard and mustache and appears to wear a monicle. Sorta like if the monopoly guy turned drug-czar. That's what struck me about him :) Ah but a finer rogue (except maybe Sylvara) you're never to find than Lou. He's of strong stock that gnome and has a winning attitude to boot! Good to see you in-game buddy :)

Next up was Bacon and Magnusson. Now Bacon and I go back a few years now, I've worked with him IRL and it's always good to see my buddy Bacon. Him and Magnusson, along with RW, were kind enough to help me out on a quest to ST (Lou, that means "Sunken Temple" - its a dungeon in the Swamp of Sorrows, lol) .... sorry couldn't resist another shot at my gnome buddy.

Anyhow I had a quest to get the following sword Lightforged Blade which is a pally chain-quest starting with Inert Scourgestones and ultimately yields this sword. (A little trivia that I've read about it is that its the only weapon in the game that adds specifically to holy damage.) It is a NICE weapon and I'm thankful to have it.

Anyhow I needed some feathers in ST for the last step of that quest. Bacon came to throw down some phat healz, RW did the big damage, Magnusson joined us and he and I did dual-tanking/off-dps.

In typical Heroes fashion, it was an odd group makeup. But with Bacon and RW there, it went off without a hitch. That Magnusson boy, I can learn much from that pally. He's a good egg and has really worked hard on his gear and that shows, as well as him being a good player. As for my performance, I felt like I held my own on dps and I had fun too.

As for Bacon, well I'd have to quote Mike Martz from back in the Marshall Faulk era. " I mean that was just Bacon being Bacon. Just when you think he's gonna do this or that he surprises you and takes it to the next level. He's Bacon". So thanks for coming man, its always great to hang with you in-game.

And as for RW - well she's my wife. I wouldn't be this far in the game or life in general without her :)

In general, it was just good to group with some Heroes for a change and I really appreciate their help.

As a matter of fact I think I'll post this on our forums just to make sure they get the proper thanks :) That's it from me!

Just one little level

Ding 49 baby! And with my last point put into Fanaticism, that means I'm only one point away from the beloved talent point that gives me the new ability Crusader Strike. Can't wait. I hope after all this time, it doesn't turn out to be a giant disappointment, lol.

The pally whacking has been going well of late. I've got a good feel for the solo PVE scene and in world PVP, I'm remaining fairly calm. I need to get my tight little dwarven rear into some battlegrounds soon and start testing my abilities there (while hording some sweet honor points/marks).

It looks as though my mod is leading me back to the Hinterlands next for a few quests, untold riches and the ever-present race of watching the exp bar whoosh across the bottom of my 19" LCD monitor (with 8ms response time). Just had to throw in a techie point there since I don't do that often on here. The mod btw is still behaving well, can't say enough good things about it. I did have one concern in that I thought they had only done it to 50 and after that, I'd be stuck alt-tabbing to their website. But it turns out that it's done to 60 now, they just released some new yummy upgrades. And the beta testing is going on clear to lvl 65. Level 70 content for it should be done in a couple of weeks.

So they are staying way ahead of me in upgrades which is great news for Oak. Keep that walkthrough coming so I can catch my guildies before they all roll alts and lvl past me (again). ;)

Ah, so much to do in this game. I can't imagine how tempting it would be to play more often if I had high-speed :)

Farewell Former Hero

Dagnabit! Dang it to heck and tarrrrrrrrrrnation! Now that I got that off my chest ... our good friend and tankdadin has moved on to another guild, thus the brief venting.

Just when you have a sweet night in questing, killing Gammerita and sneaking up on lvl 50, something like this happens and just ruins the ride. Ah Honors, if you're reading this, I'm not mad at you my friend - just teasin.

Origami has a really good post about his feelings on the matter and I do have to say, that he has some good points. That drood has a good head on his shoulders in regards to what a guild ends up being to a player after they've spent some time in the guild, developing friendships - he captured how I'm feeling about things exactly.

I blogged not long ago about being happy to be a hero and to a certain degree (as bad as it may seem to do it) I have to bump my own post. Origami's post today and that one seems to go hand-in-hand ... like paper-wad fights and good friends (couldn't resist that jab at your character name)!

Well at this point I feel as though I'm rambling which I guess you get that from bloggers from time-to-time. Kinda feels like a rainy day, even though its sunny outside where I live.

So tonight the only remedy for this mood is, with extreme prejudice, to finish shrinking my giants in Feralas! Yeah that's the ticket ... Giant spankings and watching the exp bar edge closer to larger repair bills in the future ... suh weet!

Cheer up Heroes - you can still kick me around :)

Ain't she the cutest thing?

Those eyes, those lips, those nose ... and then I had to kill her :) Well sorry Gammerita, but the xp bar wins out over your "stunning" looks.

Having put an abrupt end to our brief and torrid relationship, I headed back to Aerie Peak in the Hinterlands and turned in some quests, then flew to Menethil, boated to Theramore, flew to Gadgetzan (where I finally got my noggenfogger quest chain done), then I hearthed to Shatt, portaled to Darnassus, rode to Rut'theran Village and then ...

Ding 48!

Long way to go for that I realize but I have to keep typing in order to get around the picture of this freaking big turtle on the right :)

So yes, I dinged 48 and man I'm still loving this mod. I just run straight down my little checklist of things to do on my map and bingo, bongo, bango ... I'm still leveling faster than I ever have before. I know it's just because it keeps me focused though - no magic in any leveling guides other than that.

No new cool stuff at 48 other than new ranks of existing spells and that was a drag. But in 2 levels I'll get me some yummy Crusader Strike and I can't wait for that one :)

P.S. - Since I'm at home and don't yet have Photoshop, I can't change my lvl on my blog title but I'll get around to it on Monday so stop yelling at me. I can hear you. Quit it. I mean it now, I may cry soon.

Do you hear what I hear?

Tis the sound of 46 drawing near :) Well last night if I hadn't been so sleepy after my very long weekend in Iowa (visitin my in-laws), I'd have dinged 46 ... but alas ... I caved and dragged myself to the welcoming comfort of the feather-bed and pillow.

Tonight it will happen though. I've really been gliding through the leveling pretty easily, especially since I usually give a Oak a good rested bonus to work with. Last night I killed Lord Shalzaru over by Feathermoon Stronghold on the Isle of Dread. He is a lvl 47 Naga mob, surrounded by 2 lvl 44-45 warrior/caster mobs.

After fighting my way up to him and getting in the room with him, I rebuffed and entered the fray. For some reason the nags give me trouble. They have always seemed to hit MUCH harder than other mobs at their levels.

So I did have to bubble once, and heal/bandage but I managed to down them all. And also, I was able to pull the warrior mob separately so that I only then had the caster and the boss to fight together. Still, twas a close one for little Oak.

But tonight the goal is finish my Feralas quests and hit 46, maybe 47 (we'll see). Level 50 and Crusader Strike would be awesome to behold by the end of this weekend. I'll do my best.

Retribution > Fury

Well at least it was last night. I got jumped by a Fury specced Orc Warrior last night in Tanaris. I'll spare you the epic struggle since there really wasn't one to speak of.

Suffice it to say he charge/stunned me while I was sitting. We fought, I bubbled and healed, drank a mana pot and he couldn't keep up after that. In checking my combat log, I did do way more damage than him, critting him for nearly 1k of damage in two attacks of mine near the end. Ah those random crits you gotta love em!

So Ret > Fury ... probably not ... I just got some lucky rolls last night. But I do have to say, of all the classes I do face in WoW a warrior fills me with the least fear in PVP with Oak.

For me it goes, Hunters > Locks > Druids > Pallies > Priests > Mages > Rogues > Warriors ... hope I got em all. But Hunters ... man I hate to be kited and we pallies are probably the most kiteable class in the game.

No more blogging from me for few days. I'm off to Iowa to visit the in-laws and shall return to game and fame come Monday evening. I should hit 46 Monday night darn it :)

Ding 44 and 45

Well I made up for that one night of not questing. With a day off of work, I got in some good questing for sure. I finished all quests in the SWamp of Sorrows. Only saw 2 horde I believe, which I thought was odd what with being that close to Kara. Anyhow, I blasted through those and then my guide instructs me to go to Feralas.

Silly me though.

I spent actually too much time in SOS and should have actually gone to Feralas at lvl 44 (oh and btw, no Kang the Decapitator yet either). Anyway, now that I'm set up in Feralas, I think I may actually skip the questing there and just move on to where my guide says to be for level 45. Funny thing is that I've never seriously quested in Feralas so that would be a bummer to miss those AGAIN - lol Ah well I may be a rebel and run through those just for fun and at least see the quest lines.

I also learned when I trained at 44 that, like a boob, I'd skipped a rank of Seal of Command. My dps had been down too ... wonder if that could have been the cause? Doh! Now that I've trained in EVERYTHING that I need to have running at this point, my dps is much better.

But I am suffering from the bane of all retadins ... spikey dps ... I can't seem to keep it consistent. I think that over time, gear will fix that for the most part. I'm currently studying up on that one. But while I was killing Murloc after Murloc yesterday I noticed that the dps meter would swing from 66dps in one fight to around 180 the very next fight. Same level mobs, same fighting sequence, just different dps. I'm sure the crits were different though and I need to start reviewing my combat log and adjusting things as I can to make it better. A tad frustrating at times but hey, you gotta suffer for the build you love baby!

Anyhow, hopefully I may sneak up to 46 tonight ... we shall see.

So here is some more yammering about the guide ... I do really love this thing although it is a tad pricey, I suppose, at $35. But the mod functionality of it is SO cool. You simply follow the steps on left hand side of your map, all marked by way points on said map and bingo bango bongo, you're leveling in no time :) Very cool that you can set way points just like with TomTom. Also, I'm anxious to see what they come up with for the mode past level 50, since right now past that level, it's just an online guide.

Ok .. now I'm done.

I'm Happy Being a Hero

Since I didn't quest last night, I thought I'd just write generally about my guild.

Awhile back, our guild experienced what some might call "drama", in regards to various issues. It seems we are passed that now, and I for one am relieved, because I just hate to see people upset. I look at a guild as a sort of a "team". You have your big players, people that everyone depends on to be there and do their thing. And nobody wants "ripples on the pond" within their team, upsetting its stablility.

Because one way or another, we depend on each other to some degree. From the lowest of the lowbies, admiring high-ranking guildies in their shiny, glowing epics, to the highest of the high-levels, hoping their healer will keep them alive in Kara ... we need each other. So I'm glad my team is doing "okay" now.

So you might be asking yourself, what keeps me around these parts?

I can't say that I feel "important" to our guild. Hard to feel that way when you're a lvl 43 paladin really, lol So I know they can do without me, I get that.

But on the flipside, okay maybe the edge of that coin, I do sorta feel important in a way. Why? Well because of things like some of you taking time to read my blog, some of you even making comments (which I always appreciate), and several of you both on the rogue and paladin fronts have always been helpful and friendly with advice. Ferth, our GM, has always been cool about well .. pretty much everything (and no I don't owe him gold - that was just a compliment).

So what keeps me around? What brought me back after my first time leaving Heroes? Its those very things I just mentioned ... sort of a small-town friendly attitude. It keeps me coming right back each night, hoping to add another level to Oak, hoping I get DSL at my house so I can be more involved, hoping to find a place where I can contribute in a positive way and help make other people feel important, in the same way that I've been made to feel.

See in Heroes, you never feel "left out". I guess that's what I'm trying to say. We don't have the biggest and best website, we don't have the biggest and best gear, we haven't downed all the biggest and baddest bosses that WoW has to offer but we're a spunky little group, and I dig that about us.

And for all that stuff I know we don't have now ... we'll get there if it all fits into our general guild attitude. And that's what I enjoy most about Heroes. The game doesn't run our collective lives and that's awesome ;)

I want only a very few things from WoW.

1. The ability to "disconnect" from day-to-day RL crap.
2. To not have additional crap online that adds to my RL crap.

So there it is. Gear, rep, levels, quests, honor, arena points, glows, skillz, killz ... it's all gravy compared to those first two things. And Heroes gives me a chance at all that stuff with a group of people that I respect for their game knowledge and as good folks too. You can't ask for a better guild than that.

So raise a tankard of Ale Heroes, cheers to you all, for Heroes you all are!

Ding 43

Well I hit lvl 43 as the title indicates. The only thing new that I have to report is a brief review/description of a new mod, of which I am now in possession.

Here is the link to the site: TeamIDemise. Now for you other Heroes, this link occasionally appears in the ads on our guild site. That's how I found this site. And I have to say so far, its a good mod.

What they've done is basically duplicated some functionality of Tom-tom and Lightheaded, and put that on Steroids. You get way-point functionality, step-by-step leveling instructions, and tips for questing ... all right on your world-map screen.

I'll post some screenshots of this in-action soon. For right now, I'll just blather on about how it works :)


For the most part, you install this like any other mod. After that though, you have one extra step to do which is import there data files that modifies locations on your world map for all quests/etc.

After doing this and opening your world map, you see a LOT of little dots all over the place, which all directly correspond to a specific step in a new toolwindow on the right of your world-map. The other big difference is that the world map is now windowed, instead of full-screen. Which is a feature that I actually like.

So down your right-hand side of the world map you have a list of steps to go through. And you basically do what it says. Supposedly, its the most efficient way (according to TeamIDemise) that you can level. So follow the steps, which seem to have very little grinding mixed in. The steps even tell you when you should level.

The cost is $35 and the mod only covers levels 1-50 right now. After that you are limited to an HTML version of it that they have on their site, so you'd have to ALT-TAB in game to review your steps.

They are working on getting levels 51-70 into the mod too. And also, this mod is geared toward the alliance side, which was nice to see. They have all starting zones for all races (levels 1-10) so you can begin anywhere you wish. And lastly, it doesn't matter where you are in the game when you get this mod, you can pick right up with it and go from there.

It is pretty cool. More to come on this later. My new goal this week is to hit level 46, using this mod before I take off this weekend to visit in-laws in Iowa.

Catch you later!

Ding 42

Well another level down and many more to go. RW was ill yesterday and us being home-schoolers, I stayed home to play Wow with the kid ... er ... help around the house ... yeah that's it.

So I hit 42 and I was researching gear on the armory. I found a new toy for which to grind. Can't use it till 44 but it'll give Talon a good goal to find this weapon, Kang the Decapitator, for Oak.

Yes its epic, and yes it's an EXTREMELY rare drop but I'm up for the challenge :) I figure Talon can throw Crusader on this baby if I can get the drop and Oak should have a good weapon till in his 50's.

I took Talon over to the Noxious Lair to grind for this yesterday. It's an easy, easy grind and I cleared the whole underground lair about 5 times. Nothing but Insect Wings :) Oh well.

In the meantime, I'll keep leveling Oak and throw in some grinding for Kang as needed. That's all for now. :)

Zipping to Zul'farrak

Well last night was a pretty good evening. RW and I headed to ZF to get some quests done there and hopefully get me some xp too. I wasn't too hopeful on the xp front to be honest. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that, with my rested bonus and even with RW there, I was still getting well over 350xp for each mob. So I loved that. Although I didn't ding 42 as I had expected, there was another good surprise.

Bacon and I were chatting back and forth during my run, while he was in AB (I think). All of a sudden, he says "I need an invite". So that was awesome too! He came in swinging some kinda big lantern and slinging out phat healz all the rest of the run. So a big thanks to Bacon and RW for helping me get some ZF stuff done.

I like that place too. It's not gi-normous and the mobs are interesting fights, with just the right amount of pats mixed in for flavor. Of course, little Oak couldn't stand up to them, even one-on-one (okay MAYBE then) but most were 4-5 lvls above me and dungeon leets at that so I wasn't too bummed. They still felt it when big two hander hit and I wasn't getting too many resists. So although my dps was way down from normal, I attributed that to the monster dps Bacon and RW can do compared to me and the fact that the mobs were so much higher level than Oak.

And like the ubr-dummy that I am, I didn't have my mallet with me to summon Gahz'rilla so that part of my questing remains undone. I'll have to con these guys into going back sometime ...

Some new graphics

Well this weekend was pretty uneventfull. I did run a few quests and the only thing of note was getting ganked and then laughed at by a lvl ?? Orc Warrior who seem to think it funny how I couldn't defend myself against him. He one-hit me after his charge by MS'ing me to the ground.

Granted I was swimming past Grom'gul outpost in STV. But I was trying to give a wide berth and be respectful :) Anyhow that didn't work out. So I'm headed back there tonight to get my 9 Blue Pearls and from the Giant Clams in the Vile Reef. I'll miss STV when I'm done ... I'm just sure of it :)

The only other news to report is my playing around with Photoshop for the new banner above. Honest I didn't shirk work to do this .... nooooooo! Anyhow, let me know what you think of it. I just had to do something different to "make this mine" as it were.

That's it for me.

P.S. - I would be happy to possibly practice on other sites for banners and what-not. So if anyone likes what I've done above give me a shout. You can email me direct at rhorton35@yahoo.com

Twas the Night After 41

Twas the night after 41, when all through IF.
Not a dungeon to run, for even myself.

The AH was humming, things listed with care,
In hopes that gold piles would be mailed out from there.
My faction-mates were decked out, buffs all a popping,
And visions of professor plums, they hoped would be dropping.

My wife was in Blade's Edge, I wasn't ready to log,
So I'd just settled down, to take pics of Oak for my blog.
When over the General, there arose such a clatter,
I actually read the text, to see what was the matter.

Away to the window, my eyes flew like a flash,
Scrolled through the text, and my mind was aghast.
The red on the font of new written text,
Gave the luster of stress, of someone who was vexed.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a shout, a cry, saying The HORDE, they're here!

Through the tram tunnel they came, now 30, now 40,
I thought to myself, we're all dead, good Lordy!
There were priests there were locks, there were hunters and mages,
I knew this would be a battle for the ages.
The alliance they killed them, they lived and they dared,
But soon a cry rose, the hordes intentions were bared.

The King, someone said, protect him, form ranks!
All able bodied did, and everyone was a tank.
The bodies piled high and the horde skeletons stacked thick.
But they finally gave up, they'd failed in their trick.
The king was quite safe, the horde ran to the tram,
Someone else said, let's follow em man!

I ran to the tram tunnel, all the way to Stormwind,
Its a very long walk, don't do that my friend.
On the Stormwind tram side, horde I found waiting,
Their levels unknown, they were taunting and baiting.

One mage, with others, looked at me and sneered,
It was plain to see that his face was all smeared.
Undead he was and a sight to behold,
He was creaking and bony, making him look old.

The amazing gear that he wore and the tilt of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had much to dread.
So I threw down a consecrate and he looked at his folks,
As if to say, Can you believe this guy named Oak?

I tore into him, swinging and stacking up crits,
But he stood there and took it, I only scratched him a bit.
He laughed as a I swung "big two-hander" at him,
Two or three more hits and he stopped his small grin.

From off to the side, a lock spell came crashing,
And I fell to the mages feet, him laughing, me thrashing.
As I came back to rez, I knew I'd get more grief,
But I went through the tunnel and experienced relief.

I rezzed and I looked and the whole bunch was gone,
They'd cleared outta there, poof, they'd moved on.
The alliance were there, war torn and battered,
But we'd defended our cities and that's all that mattered.

And as the horde rode away, with their pvp levity,
I heard myself yell, See you at 70!

A quick apology

Sorry to all those who have posted recently and their comments haven't been published until today. I had set up the emails to come to my work address and I guess they were blocked. I didn't notice on my admin screen, until today, that I had unmoderated comments to approve.

So I wasn't ignoring you all. :) Anyhow, I've fixed it and learned an important lesson in comment moderation.

Tonight, I will ding 41! Catch you all later!

Irresistible Force meet ... Immoveable Object!

Okay now that I got that level 40 post outta my system, I have one more story to tell from last night. What is that you say? Two posts in one day? Is he crazy?

Maybe. But I'm gonna post it anyway. :)

So after hitting 40, I head to SS to turn in one last quest from STV at Dalaran (did you here that's moving to Northrend in the new expansion pack?). So I mount up on my amazing warhorse and head out. I turn in my quest, when SUDDENLY ... OUTTA NOWHERE! .... absolutely nothing happens and I return to my flight path :)

Then I decide to fly to Loch Modan and ride out to the Badlands. I'd researched a new quest giver out there that has a quest for both horde and alliance to get a nice plate chest piece. Me want it. So me go.

I hit Loch Modan and the local defense looks good. So I head out and on the way, I put the smack down on Ol' Sooty, just to say "remember me!?!?" and I head into the Badlands. From my last trip there I know there are two dwarves, up on a hill on the left, past Uldamaan. Since they are on the way to my quest giver that I need, I swing by to see if they have new quests for me. Even before I reach the top of the hill, I see the promise of experience and riches untold. The yellow exclamation point. ;)

Happily riding up to the quest giver I happen to notice a BE Pally standing right there with them. He's level 43 and already dismounted. Queue the dramatic music (dun dun dun!)

I play it cool. I ride up and don't dismount so as to appear all non-threatening. After all he is 3 levels above me. Then I start to talk with the quest giver. The pally engages. And this is where the title of this post comes in. My first pally to pally fight. Now I've heard of these battles, paladin to paladin - epic struggles of heals and seals. Also, I've fought pallies with Talonfist (they didn't turn out well). So I wasn't expecting much fun. Did I mention he was 3 levels above me?

At first I stayed mounted and thought, he's gonna kill me quick, why bother? So he stuns me and starts swinging and flinging judgements. After the first two or three of these I decide (and to quote Popeye) "I've had all I can stands and I can't stands no more!"

I dismount and enter the fray, albeit rather late. I figure I'm dead but I'm gonna go down swinging the big two-hander.

Suddenly, the words of a much greater pally than Oak, HonorsHammer, ring in my ears. "Judge Wisom, young padawan". So I do and watch the mana start flowing my way. And then begins the battle of my life on WoW.

There were judgements thrown, consecrates laid, heals of desperation, mana pots to slake our thrist and one bubble of hope. The earth shook and the quest givers near us stumbled from the strains of our battle.

I jumped around like a rogue, because that's still how I fight. It throws people off sometimes, I believe, to see a little paladin bouncing around them like super-ball, slinging a web of judgements while an axe fills in the cooldown gaps.

The health bars ran close and as they did my amazement rose. And hope began to turn it's shining face upon me. I stayed for the most part out of his consecrates, and he stumbled into mine a few times. He stunned me twice, and as I sagged there I thought I would certainly lose. Did I mention he was 3 levels above me? Perhaps I have.

But I didn't lose. I took him. As he tried to pull up a last heal, my hammer of justice came up and like an old friend I was very glad to see it. It hit and it was his turn to sag, as I swung my axe while he was stunned, and had Seal of Command running, I noticed that Judgement had just came up too. And with that old friend added to the party, the BE's party was over. I judged him and found him ... wanting. One last swing from the axe (as he began to run down the hill) and it was all over.

I couldn't believe it when I saw him fall. I was at a quarter health, perhaps slightly less. And at half mana. I'd bubbled once, and drank mana but I wasn't ashamed. I felt that I'd handily dealt death to a lvl 43 BE Paladin in world pvp. And as the shining gem of that battle, HE had struck first, NOT me. HE had all the advantages:

• Striking first ...
• I initially decided not to fight and just sat there ....
• He had 3 levels on me ...

It was a great, GREAT way to cap off the night that I hit lvl 40. Literally as I rode away to do what I'd come for in the Badlands, I realized that I'd gotten something far more valueable than a quest for better gear. I'd gained confidence in my playing ability and my classes damage output.

I know there will be time when the battle does NOT go my way. I WILL get owned. I know that. But this victory was sweet although, I admit, a small one.

But I won't soon forget it. And I bet he doesn't either.

The Retribution Revolution

I'll explain that title momentarily. Right now though ... DING 40!!! WHOOO HOOO! YESSS! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! /bow /cheer /freemount lol

Okay, I'm a tad bit excited at hitting 40 with Oakensledge. Man I love that little pally. It's been hard work getting here, and I've tried to get pretty decent gear along the way too. Much more so than I ever did with Talon. And it feels great.

Things to be happy about at 40

My dps is looking respectable.

I can take quite a bit of damage in a fight (3 or more mobs my level, sometimes elite).

Now I can wear plate. Just so awesome!

I'm getting better (and at a faster pace) in PVP than I did with Talon.

You know, on a side note, sometimes you just seem to find a class that fits your thinking. I think I can finally crystalize my thoughts on a Ret Pally's role in a group and my approach to the class and spec. Jump in and disagree, jump in and correct me, just don't hate me cause you're wrong (just kidding).

Anyway, here goes:

First off, I view the Ret Pally as another supporting role.

You can stand back and off-heal if you need to (maybe even main heal a 5-man).

You can keep people free of a lot of debuffs, keep them outta traps, etc.

You can do some crowd-control as needed in a group. In solo play, I just love this.

My favorite thing though ... When the chips are down and you're friends are in trouble, and this is the part that excites me, you can step up shoulder to shoulder with them behind the tank, unload everything you got, and maybe, just maybe .... make a difference in the beating a boss and help save the day.

My Sappy View
I see a Ret Pally as the gentle giants of the game (or in Oak's case, a smaller giant, lol). But they are the kind of class/spec that you'd sit down with, have an icy-cold beverage at the local watering hole; maybe they'd heal you up after a hard day in the dungeon. But then when that jerk in the bar starts making trouble, when he starts tossing chairs and saying foul things to fair maidens ... your Ret Pally buddy can change in an instant and be that guy (or gal) that you want there by your side healing you, and helping deal out damage, while you take the jerk outside and give him an attitude adjustment.

So a very tough, supporting class with an attitude, who can make their presence known when things "get real". I realize other classes meet this same standard too, like druids, but I feel a connection with the Pally class, always have.

Okay probably too much RPG in there for some of you but that's how I approach this class. It's how I like to think of myself in real life with my real life friends (although admittedly in real life, I'm not much of a healer).

And after saying all that, I think that's why this class works for me. I just love it. I want to know more about it, become a student of it; like so many of my good guild-mates have become with their classes. Only then will I consider myself a decent and upstanding contributor to Heroes Inc.

Here's to the players in our guild. All are Heroes.

STV: 2 Me: 0

Okay 2 nights in a row I was just "knew" that I'd hit 40 but it didn't happen. Imagine what I'll "know" tomorrow :)

Anyway, nothing new to report really. Just planning on hitting 40 tonight (it's becoming my hobby). Should be very doable though. Only need 20k to level so I'm hoping to make a short go of it and get back and train/get that mount.

I can feel it. We're very, very close - Ghostbusters

STV is very, very huge for a person of such short stature. Oak got about 30% into lvl 39 last night. RW ran me around through quest after quest and I appreciate that so much. However, we just ran outta time.

So maybe tonight the fabled 40 will appear.

On Plate in general:
I've picked a good plate item (feet) from the hunter's camp in STV. Additionally, the armory says there is a quest giver in the Badlands which seems to give me a good plate chest piece, and I found that guy with Lightheaded and TomTom (if you don't have those mods, go get them NOW, I'll wait .... Done? Good man!)
So I've got some plate items in the queue and I'm slavering to research more about em.

On finances:
Can't wait to ding 40 and stroll into IF for my mount. I've done well on gold, so training up shouldn't be a problem.

On gear for a Ret Pally:
I started official research on becoming a good Critadin this weekend. What I found was a whole lot of nothing. So I'll keep looking but I may be the first to blaze this trail seriously. Standing against the nay-sayers and ner-do-wells sounds like a good time to me :)

Seems as though, from what I read on the internet, is that "the only believe people who believe in Ret Pallys are ... well, Ret Pallys". Just the kind of challenge I like :) Never EVER tell me that I CAN'T do something when it appears obvious to me that the tools are right there in front of me to accomplish the very thing that YOU say I can't do.

Ret Pallys have gotten a bad rap. I'd sure like to have a hand in changing all that.

L2fight Ret Boy!

I kill myself sometimes, literally, in this game. Ever had one of those PVP moments when you hope the opposing player lets you go by, they don't, you decide to not fight, then halfway through your health bar you think "hey I think I can take em - I want to live!" ... then you start fighting and it turns out ... you coulda if you woulda but you did too little too late and now you're dead, Ret Pally Boy.

Whew! Now that I got that out.

Me (Ret Paladin): jogging (or maybe is yogging, could be a soft J) through STV
Tauren Druid: Sees me and runs me down on his obese lizard mount.
Me: I stand there waiting for the inevitable - never have fought druid with Oak before.
TD: Dismount, Starfire, starts whacking me with the mace
Me: Finally realize "omg, he's only lvl 41" - let's do this!
TD: Gets hit HARD
Me: Wow, look at his health go ... oh crap ... I didn't mana/health up from my last fight.
TD: Roots me.
Me: BOF, Seal of Crusader, Judgement, Swing the big two-hander
TD: Keeps on doing that druid thing. Switches to bear. For some reason, this is a mistake and he's doing almost no damage to me now.
Me: I'm outta mana. Need some health now too. Finally mana comes up enough to bubble. I do and drink a health pot. This proves to be my demise.
TD: Keeps hitting me and wins. I can't do enough damage to him without mana and the health pot wasn't big enough to save me.

I think what I should have done was Lay On Hands, and drank a MANA pot. That would have changed things drastically I believe.

Ah well, you die and learn in this game :)

Ding 37!

Well this weekend I dinged 37 as the title of this post may have given away already :) Just three more levels now until I can stroll into SW and ride out on a "free" mount. Okay sure it's 90s but still pretty doggone free as far as I'm concerned.

I did get to equip Herod's Shoulders, which look amazing on Oak. I'm starting to dig this gear that makes you look like a Mack Truck :) VERY different from the stuff that Talon wears and for my part, I think it's more fun to look at. Doesn't seem like rogues get cool looking gear until the set items start showing. The bigger, bulkier melee classes seem to get cooler looking gear much sooner. I dig it!

Not much else to report. Just counting down those last 3 milestone levels. I'm gonna try and hit 38 tonight if I have time.

Herodious Deadious

Last night my wife (Robzwench) ran me through the Monastery. She downed Herod, Mograine (sp?), Whitemane, and the Houndmaster. So that completed Down the Scarlet Path for me and got me a nice new axe (Bonesplitter). Additionally, Herod's Shoulders dropped so I have that for next level.

With my rested bonus, I got nearly through all of lvl 36, which I was surprised by given that RW was there. But that was great!

When turning in my quest at SS, the town was being sacked. Multiple lvl ?? horde hit me.

Solution? Bubble FTR (For The Retreat)! I bubbled and calmly took my flight outta there. That's gotta make those guys mad.

Lastly, I was heavily laden with a copious amount of greens/blues and from the sale of those I should make near 40g. Woot! Woot! Woot!

Whistling a more serious tune

I know this is supposed to be about WoW. But I've got some real life stuff going on that I need to "get out". I guess this is as good of a place as any.

Over the last few months here where I work, two really good friends have moved on to other opportunities; the most recent to leave, his last day was yesterday. I wish them all the best. They are both awesome men and I'm glad to know them (if you read this, you know who you are). Today is my first day of neither of them being here.

So this all raises many questions for me and gives me solid assurances on some areas as well.

• I know who my friends really are. They are the guys that moved on/are moving on. The others here are just co-workers. Decent people, by and large, but just co-workers after all. These are the people that you talk to, you get to know on a "surface level" but no real depth. Sure you wish "co-workers" well but in the end, they are just ultimately strangers that you know slightly better than the "complete" kind.
• I did have some fears as to whether I could do my job here without these guys around. They are guys you depend on daily to get you to laugh when you're totally ticked at the world. You go to them when you're stuck on a problem. Sometimes not even a job-related problem. And when you get to that point, that you'll discuss personal issues with them, you need to realize as I have that you're trusting these people with your life to some degree. Because their input could alter your personal decisions. That affects your life. So not to be dramatic but it's a big deal when those folks move on and your communication is reduced to electronic means for the most part.
• It's lonely being alone, lol
• As far as my wondering if I can do this here alone ... I'm a programmer, k? But over the years I'd found myself slipping into a daily repertoire with these guys. Usually with me, not as the lead role in a conversation, but more as a support role. Kind of an off-healer, you know? So I began to doubt myself as to whether I'd be able to come up with "technical answers" like I used to do; or would I flop? On that note, I believe I will survive. Sure it's gonna not be as fun to figure out things without being able to collaborate; but at least I realized that I'm not a complete idiot.

This place where I work has changed so much. And with my friends being gone, it just really casts all of the "no fun" into sharp relief. I think I'm about done with this place as a developer.

Someone put it well the other day. "This place has always underpaid it's employees but they offset that by making it a fun work environment, not a consultant "get it done faster" atmosphere. Now they are bringing in the consultant atmosphere but not raising the pay to match it. So if you have that atmosphere already, you may as well go look for money somewhere else."

I think I will.

More on our guild world pvp night

Okay, I'm learning more and more from better bloggers like Honors and Bacon that this blogging stuff is much like a diary. I knew that but I have a hard time putting it into practice. But here goes.

I did learn one important lesson from our world pvp night. Okay two things. Alright probably more than that but we're going to limit it to two things okay? Stop yelling at me.

• I really like my paladin better than my rogue. Many times that evening I was thinking how much more straightforward and fun it would be to be playing Oak at that lvl instead of Talon.
• Dial up and guild events really don't make good bedfellows. The lag was beyond my wildest dreams in Orgrimmar. Thus the bubble-hearthing (or my best approximation of it.

Having said all that I do think that I will now keep Talon if for nothing else than money-make for my alts. When you think about it, a rogue (or any stealther) is a great class to have at a high level for just funneling money to alts.

• You can stealth to many areas others can't; to get drops, etc.
• It's an awesome class to bring into the area and park while your lower level class is grinding. Say what you will about rogues but they still have that "scare factor" of killing you quick, then vanishing. And you never know when it's gonna happen again. I do love that so much.
• Talon is an enchanter and can DE anything the game. That's valuable to me now that all items are instant through the mail (within your account). Yes I realize that had nothing to do with stealthing but I'd already got my list going.

Tie all that up to the fact that you can do these daily quests at 70, and I can funnel quite a bit of money to Oak with Talon. Should be able to keep Oak in the AH's finest for a loooooong time.

A wrinkle in their time ...

Well last night our guild raided, Grom'gol, Crossroads, Orgrimmar, Tauren Mill, and the Undercity. I helped as I could with Talon. Good times were had by all ... Alliance :) The Horde however did not have so good of an evening. I was around for the killing of flight masters, taking over of zeppelins, the wiping out (in it's entirety) of Grom'gol.

Our guild master was awesome with just jumping right into the middle of flight master after flight master! I loved it!

I wasn't able to hang with them for the whole evening what with my dial-up connection and all. I lagged out at Orgrimmar and had to hearth outta there.

But it was fun while it lasted and I hope, hope, hope we do it again :)

I got a new axe-itude!

Ok so this isn't the most epic weapon in the game but it's a solid blue that should last me quite a few more levels. It's the Corpsemaker and I'm pretty excited about it.

It's great to have a family that also plays WoW. They went out and ground this out from Razorfen Krawl today for me. Thanks to RW and Ironsword for doing this!

Ding 35

Ever-creeping closer to "free mount" day, I dinged 35 on day before yesterday I think it was. Man, leveling to 40 seems SO easy this time since I've already done this once! It really helps knowing where everything is and I'm continually amazed at how much that speeds up the process.

Tried 3 runs last night with Robzwench through Razorfen Krawl to try and get my Corpsemaker, two-handed axe. So in those 3 runs to kill the Ramtusk Overlord, I got what you may ask? Three helms and axes - not so much. Ah, we'll try it once more tonight perhaps and see how things go.

I'm not sure that its the best two-hander for me at my level but it sure beats what I'm using. More research is called for, this is a certainty.

Sounds like this Thurs, some guildies might be going to Scarlet Monastery, and there could be a drop or two in there for yours truly.

"There's got to be some sailors on this rock crazy as you." - Mr. Gibbs
"One can only hope." - Jack Sparrow

New blogger coming soon

A fellow pally who I know very well in real life has his blog site up and going - just waiting on his first post now :) Keep checking back. I'm sure it'll be there soon.

Ding 34

I step closer to that elusive free mount and of course one step closer to being out of StrangleMeSlowly Vale. After my escapades last night I did grind on mobs in the Wetlands for 5 mins or so and got my level 34. Woot! ... or should that be Wevel? Oh well.

Trained all my stuff and emptied inv and logged. And good night for Oak. I did learn that Divine Shield (my new ability) triggers the cooldown for Divine Protection. Ah there goes my dream of 3 bubbles :) You learn as you go.

Level 35 is not that far away ... there is this Polearm on the AH I'm eyeing (with Talonfist's money of course) ... but we'll see how that goes.

One Night in Gankland

It was a dark night in STV. Then it got darker.

Dark with loads of horde as I was questing with my little Pally but thankfully they were mostly my level. As a precaution though, I brought in the big guns (i.e. Talonfist), parked him close to my questing area and logged out (this is a page from Bacon's Big Book of Questing) Love it! :)

It all seemed so easy; grind out 15 Bloodscalp Ears, edging closer to lvl 34 and then hit the hay early. I was not to be so fortunate as that. Now I don't mind getting ganked. Something about having played my rogue for so long and then switching to a non-stealther, somehow takes the edge off. I think it's because I know I can't "vanish" and get away.

See when you have something like vanish and someone dots you up, it gets stressful because you're always trying very hard to escape or run. But with little Oak, you know you can't run ... you have to fight. So you settle in for long haul, give it your best effort and whatever happens happens. I like it much better.

Anyway back to my story. So I started in on my Ears. Things were going well and then I heard stealth. But I saw both rogues too so they weren't too high level. However, I thought .... gee its STV and if the shoe were on the other factions foot, they'd run me outta here so they could quest. Heck I have a lvl 67 rogue waiting in the wings so why not use him? :)

I logged.

Talonfist comes in from stage right.

I thought to myself ... gank ... but then listened to the good voice on my other shoulder and decided, sap. After a few of those, they'll get nervous and leave right? Wrong. They were both only lvl 30 and 31 and I thought they wouldn't mess with someone 35+ levels above them. Wrong again.

I wasn't watching or I got cocky but one of them got way to close to me whilst I was in stealth and must've got a lucky roll. He actually saw me. I'm such a noob. Well he decided to take a shot at me. Gouge/mutilate/dead. Not much of a fight.

But while I was visible, the other one turned and ran at me too. Unbelieveable. Same fight, second verse. All the time I'm thinking ... what are THEY thinking?

I logged again, got my Ears and hearthed out with Oak.

Never being one to avoid a rested bonus I logged back in again with Talon to park him in Sentinel Hill. So on the way out of STV, I thought I'd swing by the hunter camp and see if any low-level alliance are being pestered by horde. The little camp was littered with 3 horde and some skeletons, all low-level (30-33) hordies; they took the shape of one hunter, one warrior and one priest.

As I rode up, I aggro'd (somehow, bad roll again) a lvl 30 Young StrangleThorn Tiger. Geez, c'mon. Okay so I dismount to kill it and just as I do, the horde priest pulls it off me. How nice of him. So I decide to help and be friendly. I help him kill it. One mutilate and done.

No sooner than I sheath my daggers, the lvl 30 warrior charges me. Are you kidding!?!?!? And he has the nerve to hamstring me. And it works - oy!

So I gouge and toddle behind him and kill him too. Meanwhile the undead priest is laughing his face off. Finally I get Talon parked back where he goes.

It was a long night, filled with crazy low level horde and odd rolls. But that's why we play this game. For the love of variety.

First Strike

Welcome to the wonderful World of Warcraft as seen through me and through the virtual eyes of my (currently) level 33 Retribution Specc'd Dwarf Paladin on the Altar of Storms server.

This blog will follow the adventures and trials of my favorite handsome bearded character as he travels around from quest to quest, fight to fight, and epic item to epic item.

Read on true believers ....