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 :)