Sunday, September 30, 2007

Life after Patch 2.2

Well lots of addon's still not updated as yet and still don't work, that's over 1/2 my addon's. I'm no addon know it all. But do use MacAceUpdater to daily update all my addons since almost all my addons are all ace based. Dosen't make for easy access to things playing WoW on action bars since well they don't all work as yet. Still waiting.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

M.I.A in Outland?

Some days time just go by so fast I almost seem to wonder where time went sometimes. I guess I've been M.I.A doing some questing in Netherstorm and taking a break from the doom and gloom of Shadowmoon Valley. A bit of farming here and there for some motes and primals and a bit of gold for the gold warchest. An instance PuG in CoT and Botanica, but then again anything Instance related for Galo is all about PuGs and life in LFG. Rest of time just reading through lots of various posts on the Maintankadin Forum for sake of knowledge & mechanics.

I really need to post up my gear wish list when I have some time. Through some questing and AH upgraded a few piece of gear for gear improvement and did some enchants to the pieces so a bit of a improvement I would say for tanking. Defense is now up to 476, with about 196 Spell Damage. However no yet at gear goal but that's ok. Its not like I have a appointment with Kara anytime soon.

Did some quests for area 52 given by a Blood Elf and was off to killing ghosts and mana beasts and at end of a long chain picked up some leggings "Legguards of the Reolute Defender" a upgrade to a green Galo had before and nice blue piece so enchanted it with Clefthide Armor for +30 Stamina & +10 Agility. The Parry Rating make a lot of difference I can tell. Bought a new belt Khorium Belt off of AH to replace my green piece for 44g only difference your gonna laugh was +8 mana and it was blue. I'm severely mana starved these days the more defense I get and often going OOM when tanking. My mana is now way less than half my health, I actually remember not long ago when I had as much mana as health and almost more. Its not my wish list piece but it works for more mana till I get better, at least I invest in my gear. Picked up some new green boots "Warlord's Sarbatons of the Champion" I saw on AH real cheap for like 7g and never seen before by Auctioneer. Bought them right away as they had lots of defense rating +22 and 33 Stamina. So enchanted them for +12 Stamina also.

Aquired Cloak of Eternity off of AH for a bit of gold a blue piece to replace my green as it had a +36 Stamina and +23 Defense Rating. Went farming a bit for mats (Primals) and enchanted the new cloak with +12 Dodge Rating for much needed defense. All the replaced gear I still keep in Galo's bag as replacement gear for DPS greens as they have lots of spell damage. In Netherstorm questing picked up "Thalodien's Charm" from quest reward on a long quest chain in Area 52 by the Scryer Blood Elf's there that was fun to do at the Manaforges. Good reps and lots of Signets and Arcane Tome from killing evil blood elfs. At one point in the chain you had to go spying and got to get a neat blood elf sunfury disguise buff which lasted 10 min and can be reapplied at end of buff. Had fun with the disguise for quite a while and seen if you never turned in the completed quest with the special disguise you could always rebuff for the disguise as long as you had it. Dunno if that has any PVP use since no one can tell your armor from looking at it. But was fun so picked up the piece there on completion and the reps help. Half way to Scryer Exalted.

At best my gear is decent for now, though not at goal gear wise but its progress. Really need to replace my chest piece and could do with a upgraded libram. But all in time. With as much as I've spent on getting and improving gear I'm thinking Galo could have been half way to a super fast Epic Flying Mount to make questing and all else faster. In time I guess.

Screenshots - The Botanica



The Botanica at Tempest Keep as seen from the Tempest Rift in Netherstorm. I'll be back!!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Paladin Overhaul in Patch 3.0

Topic: Musing

A bit of Musing maybe, Perhaps. However have being thinking about Paladin class for a while just like everyone else about changes that would like to see to my Paladin if Blizzard would make a few changes to our class for overall improvement. Paladin are often the butt jokes of other class as a subpar class to Warriors and sometimes Druids. Point is to increase Paladin defensive melee capability as a Defender and Utility as the magical spell caster that a Paladin is for group support.

I don't have all the answers but here are a few ideas I though of. So instead of complaining about improvements, here are some things I though of I would make to Paladin class and to the Protection Tree if I had the Blizzard Dev Magic Wand. Dunno how to fix Ret since never been Ret. Description below of "X" represents and unspecified amount of Holy Damage.

Paladins

Seals & Judgments

  1. All Judgements when casted will do X amount of Holy or Seal specific damage specific to that particular Seal when Judged. All Holy Seals will do X amount of instant cast damage on Judgement. Seals such as Seal of Light (SOL) & Seal of Wisdom (SoW) when judged will cause a instant gain of X amount Heal or Mana return to the Caster on Judgement of Seal as well as continue to judge the enemy for 20 sec and return Y amount of Heals or Mana to the all party members.
  2. Seal of Justice - This seal should be replaced! If not then seal should be enhanced to chance to stun target chance for 4 sec and on melee hit. Judgement of Seal will result in instant Holy damage to target for X amount and a 6 sec stun. Justice :)
  3. Seal of Blood - Upgraded. All melee attack does Holy damage equal 35% of weapons damage as usual, paladin takes damage as usual. Judgement of this Seal case instant damage to target as usual and cause paladin damage as usual. However seal now causes target X amount of additional Holy damage every sec for next 8 sec.
  4. Seal of Crusader - Works as usual. Judgement of Seal on target results in X amount of Holy damage increase taken by target. Target AP, (Reverse Crusader debuff) movement and casting speed reduced by 40% for 10sec. Judgement last 20 sec as usual.
Protection Tree (Talent)


  1. Holy Shield - Holy Shield will now Increase Paladin ability to block for 70% vs current 30% with 15 charges. Duration of will now be for 15 sec vs 10sec.
  2. Redoubt - Damaging melee and ranged attacks against you have a 20% chance to increase your chance to block by 45% (10/15/30/45). Lasts 15 sec or 10 blocks. Now a 4 Point Talent
  3. Devotion Aura - Aura now gives a 10% bonus to armor and all under effect of Paladin Aura.
  4. Shield Specialization - Talent now gives a 30% bonus to defense at max rank. 5/10/20/30. 4 Point Talent vs 5.
  5. Chromatic Aura - All of Paladin previous Auras (Shadow, Fire, Frost) now replaced with one unified Aura covering all spell magic classes for 70 Resistance to all spell magic. Only 1 Aura can be use at any time per Paladin.
  6. Blessing of Sanctuary - Blessing now reduces ALL incoming damage to Paladin by 10% after armor mitigation. Damage reduced is directly converted into mana for Paladin.
  7. Consecration - Now consecrates the land beneath the Paladin, doing X Holy damage over 15 sec vs 8 sec to enemies who enter the area.
  8. Ardent Defender - At 35 % or below Ardent Defender instant casts a Reflective Shield around Paladin and reflects 50% of all damage back to target last 5 sec. Paladin is immune to all damages for 5 sec. Does not cause loss of any target aggro. 5 min cooldown. Option (B) At 35 % or Below Ardent Defender reduces all incoming damages by 50% while Summons a Mending Guardian that heals and protects the Paladin for the next 20 sec. Option (C) At 35% or Below Ardent Defender decreases Physical & Magical Damage by 75% for 10 sec by casting a Ardent Reflective Shield. Does not remove any aggro from the Paladin.
  9. Sacred Duty - Increase total stamina by 9%.
New Abilities

1. Holy Embrace - Class Offensive Spell. Instant cast Holy Spell does X Holy damage to target and all targets within 15 feet of affected target for next 5 sec. Any Holy Judgment (eg. SOR) that strikes target while under Holy Embrace will deal Judgement damage plus 60% additional Instant Holy Damage to all enemy target within 10 feet of Judgment target (Combo). 2 min cooldown.

2. Seal of Repentance - (Protection Paladin AoE Seal, Deep Tree Talent). Use of Seal when struck target will cause target Holy Damage equal to 1% of Paladin total Stamina. (Intent is Seal Holy damage scales with Paladin Stamina & level). Multi-Mob AoE tanking Seal. Judgment of Seal on target will result in instant Holy damage equal to the total of 2% of Paladin Stamina every sec for 5sec while being judged and all enemy withing 15 yards of target also receive damage equal to 50% of target damage.

3. Devine Prominence (Paladin Spell Reflect) - Holy Casted Spell. Paladin gain new offensive ability to reflect all spells for 5 sec. Any Melee attack that strikes paladin while spell reflect is active also suffers 115 Holy damage. 45 sec cooldown.

3. Paladin Debuff - New Ability - Instant cast spell reduce target ability to cast magical spells by 25/50/75 % for 15 sec. (Magical Spell Debuff) 2 min cooldown. PVE only.


Class Changes
1. Devine Shield - Paladin Shield now returns 50% of all damage to shield while paladin is immune to damage and under Holy spell Devine Shield. Everyone will cry Nerf here!

2. Retribution Aura - Aura can now debuff attacking target. Works as normal reflecting Holy damage when Paladin is struck by any damaging attacks. Aura now has a 30% chance when struck by any damaging attack to cause a Holy Retribution debuff on target causing target to take 25 extra damage from all party members as Holy damage. Cannot be resisted. Debuff last 3 mins and can be refreshed by attacking the Paladin to refresh debuff.

3. Sanctity Aura - Now Base line ability all Paladins. Increase Holy Damage done by all party members within 30 yards to 15% vs 10%.

3. Lay of Hands - Returns 100% of Paladin Health at expense of most of mana. Cooldown on use is now 15 min vs 1 Hour.


Worked and made a lot of scrap notes about this so love to hear some of you all feedback as to what you all think. Might be the new Warlocks of WoW.


Monday, September 24, 2007

Real Life Busy Weekend

Real life busy all weekend doing the night shift on the Job, so WoW time has been slim to little just to log in for few minutes and check mail and AH. Not much happening.

Did stop by the game store over the weekend to see what's new and happen to pick up the new "World of Warcraft Dungeon Companion II" Strategy Guide $24.95 for (ALL) tBC Instances (Include Heroics/Raid Instance Strategies) that's about it. Can find a bit of this info on various websites, but nice to have it in a book guide. Got all the level Outland Instance Bosses, Instance Strategies and tips so its a good read thru killing time at work. Actually its a really nice guide to get if your into the instances.

Edited.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Second Time Shattered Halls


Logged on a bit early today and got another PUG invite, so gave it another go at Shattered Halls. The run was much faster and smoother than the first time though with a more experienced and better geared group than myself as the tank and just AoE everything with no problem. Only one died was one the priest 2 times and other than that was a smooth run and one shot all three bosses no problem. Everyone enjoyed the AoE tanking as no other CC required and had a blast.
Had to mana drink allot, helps to have at least 2 stacks full as I always do. A few people got exaulted on the run. Again no loot drop for Galo from the bosses, I guess they don't like me. Four more runs through here and should be revered with Thrallmar.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

First Time In Shattered Hall - Kicked the Boss Ass!


So finally got to Shattered Halls. Found a PUG group needing a Tank for this run and seems everyone was doing it for the first time. Great should be fun. Was a bit nervous first time in this instance and well I needed the practice with a group. We wiped a few 2-3 times on a few big trash pulls up to first boss and half way through to second boss in the big corridors with all the trash to the sides and the patrols. We figured it out after that what to pull.

A few Ill heals to late from the Shaman on a big pull and after I went down we all wiped except the Hunter. No one loss their cool which was great. Knocked down First & Second Boss all in one shot for the first time and we were rolling after that to Kargath the last boss. Cleared the last two Centurions. Tossed Avengers Shield and tanked Kargath in middle of the Arena there and never loss aggro, paid no attention to the adds just let them have the consecration ticks. Downed him for my first run and the adds ran away. He didn't drop a single loot I needed nor did the whole run either. All I got was a Blood Garnet & Shard from a DE item for the whole run. At least I completed the two quests and had some fun and practice. The group had fun and all was well with the world. May run it again later.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Why Did I Choose My Class & Spec vs a DPS Class

Its always interesting to know and hear why people decide to play the classes they do and why some people are able to stick to the classes they play vs abandoning a recently created character in WoW. Lots of Blog posts around lately on DPS classes in WoW for various reasons on or the other. Blessing of Kings have a few on DPS class problems. WoWInsider has one today on "The draw of the DPS class" which links to a great write up over at Keen and Graev's Blog on "Why do players prefer DPS role". So I found all these interesting to say the least since my class and spec is not a DPS class but a Hybrid class and spec specialized for a specific role. Protection of my comrades. Few people choose a heal or tank role due to the burden of group responsibility for a more laid back approach to high sustained DPS. Interesting!

So just why did I choose to be a Paladin first of all and eventually choose a Protection Spec (Tankadin) Why not a DPS class which it seems the great majority of people in WoW plays vs Healing/Tank/Hybrid. Why were you not drawn to seeing big crits, big numbers, quick kills and fast grinding, super fast leveling Galo like everyone else? Well its various reasons and thoughts why or maybe its because I'm a older player that value service to friends or comrades.

Long ago way before I ever started playing WoW I was drawn to the role of a melee fighter able to serve or aid my comrades. I remember growing up watching lot of movies like "Conan the Barbarian" and movies like that, movies of wizardry and of heroes in far away realms. The role of a melee fighter or Knight often appealed to me so did the role or being able to protect or heal my friends on a quest through magic somehow. Protection & Service.

When a friend of mine in another MMO I was playing kept telling me to try out playing WoW I finally gave in and gave it a shot. I wasn't thinking of yeah let me start WoW so I can become a raider and raid dungeons, do DPS and see big numbers crit or fly everywhere or how fast I can fry that mob. Looking over the classes was kinda hard to decide. After my initial trial for WoW I started playing the game.

Though had no idea how to play the game finally registered to pay & play. It was after TBC release and gave more though to a class to play. Thought hey those Blood Elf's seem pretty cool and new. Do they have warriors? Nope. They have Paladins. Though cool, Paladin are like Knighted Warriors. like the idea of been a Paladin a protector that can heal and can melee, kick ass and heal what's not to like. Well at least that's the idea I got from the WoW class description. Over time my thoughts are Paladins are unique in the people that play then all the way to the level cap. You do it in some way maybe for service to your friends and comrades.

From WoW Paladin Page:
Guardians of the Holy Light, paladins bolster their allies with holy auras and blessing to protect their friends from harm and enhance their powers.Wearing heavy armor, they can withstand terrible blows in the thickest battles while healing their wounded allies and resurrecting the slain. In combat, they can wield massive two-handed weapons, stun their foes, destroy undead and demons, and judge their enemies with holy vengeance. Paladins are a defensive class designed to outlast their opponents.
The Paladin is a mix of a melee fighter and a secondary spell caster. The Paladin is ideal for groups due to the Paladin's healing, Blessings, and other abilities. Paladins can have one active aura per Paladin on each party member and use specific Blessings for specific players. Paladins are pretty hard to kill, thanks to their assortment of defensive abilities. The Paladin can also heal with Holy Light, unlike other combat classes. The Paladin is an Undead specific fighter as well, with several abilities designed to be used against the Undead.
The key word there that made me choose a Paladin: Melee Fighter, Defensive Class, Heavy Armor, Hard to Kill, what's not to like. Didn't say they have low DPS anywhere there. Sounded like a great fighter. You can protec and serve your comrades. That's why I choose a Paladin, never heard of DPS or even knew what it meant. My idea was a Paladin like that gave me the image of a "porcupine killer" who dared you to try to kill him or her. If I can outlast my enemy and survive in reasonable time, didn't matter how much DPS I did. But then again never heard of DPS and seem like Paladin can kill things ok. At level 10 choosing protection was a no brainer, I get to use a "Shield" and be that defensive melee fighter. So leveled Protection and only later found out what a DPS class was and that I was a low DPS class. Huh! As far as I know I like the damage I do but more offense would be nice. I can survive with good health, beat mobs with my shield and mob dies fairly quick enough. Its not 20 sec kill but its good enough.

At 70 as a Paladin all your spells get a big just in power, plus you get Avenging Wrath (Wings) for 30% more Holy damage, what a surprise there. Just add more spell damage power ftw. I can pretty much fight almost any mob and fairly quickly with good gear, and survive with good health depending on tactics. You can take on a group of mobs and have fun doing it and still survive using various tactics or strategy. No I didn't choose to be a DPS class to see numbers fly or kill things quick to level up. Leveling was fun! I choose my class so can solo well and survive. To play defensive offense, survive deadly blows, survive and protect my more delicate comrades, do a fair amount of damage in the process and drop a heal from time to time as needed. I can't say I regret rolling a Paladin vs a DPS class. Paladins are Fun to play and I don't think my combined DPS is that low either. In the end the protection of one comrades is a heavy responsibility to bear, I'll accept that. Some rather not shoulder that burden to be a DPS class and for other reasons. No regrets.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Soloing and Kiting With Avengers Shield

As a Paladin and a WoW player I'm damn good at Soloing, Instances need work though, but I'm aware of it thats important. I've never had a problem leveling Galo since been protec spec since level 10. Some people love Avengers Shield and some don't spec for it. But at 41 points it was a must have for me. Paladins don't have much to range pull unless your a Blood Elf and you can Mana Tap a Caster or have Linken Boomerang (Un'Goro) which I still have and carry in bag. As a Paladin you hate Casters to say the least. OK I damn hate casters so hate to pull them at range if can help it.

I found sometime it hard to gather up melee or physical hitting mobs all in one group to AoE. So often I like to play with Avengers Shield and toss it around for fun. I found just through game play you can pick a group of mobs by tossing Avengers Shield to hit as many as possible for aggro pull. Then immediately start to run into another group of mob close by and drop a seal on those other mob in a group or close by each other, the other mobs come running into melee range and all of a sudden you got AoE action. Easy does it, it works and I do it all the time, just watch for casters.

No one ever really taught me how to kite a mob, seems a usual for Hunters and those classes. Never knew what it mean't for a long time too. In Bone Waste Land in Terokkar Forest doing a quest had a hard time completing a quest to kill a Big Draenei Demon Levixus there on the platform there at Auchindoun. I often hate to ask for help on quests. So I tried to solo that guy at least four times. I hate to give up when Soloing! He got lots of HP and the infernals adds he spawns. Finally I tried to see if could kite him to the Elite Shat'ar Vindicator or to the camp there nearby. Took a while trial and error with Avengers Shield, he kept resetting. But it eventually worked kiting him. Good think I hit F13 often to take screenshots, forget I had the pic above.

At range toss Avengers Shield and Demon comes running looks kinda slow since he so big, I start running also. I immediately drop a low rank consecration for him to run through as it ticks. I make sure he still following using \ key (to see behind me) running forward. As soon as cooldown up on consecration I drop another. He still following, good he didn't reset and run back. Try to avoid running into add mobs along the way if can help it. Drop another low rank consecration, to tick off as he run through. This worked for me felt good! I got the Demon to the Elite Shat'ar Vindicator guards, the kiting worked. Only problem.... I had a lot of other adds from consecration walking into ticks as well as infernals. Demon got killed. So that kiting worked. Too bad though... I couldn't loot the Demon. With so much adds, I didn't do enough damage to it to be able to loot it. Quest not yet complete, so its a project to do it again for the skill and fun.

Avengers Shield = Fun (lots of Aggro), toss it around for pulling, toss it to hit mobs and run away to other mobs. Toss it around a corner to pull or and safer to hit Casters that way, break line of sight. Avengers Shield do miss sometimes also. If you Kite as a Paladin some other way love to hear about it.

Kiting a Fel Reaver for Key Quest


Other than helping out a few people from LFG on group quest they needed help with in Nagrand and Terokka Forest. Did lots of Solo questing and lots of grinding in Shadowmoon Valley and around the Black Temple area for some fun & grinding signets for Scryer Reps while trying to work down my quest log for most the solo quests. Grinding not so bad, you pick up all kind of loot to sell for gold along the way, it just takes Time. Always easier for me to work on Solo quests vs waiting around in a city.

Eventually picked up a quest there from a drop off a Blacksmith there by a forge hut next to Black Temple which sent me back to Hellfire Peninsular for the quest key for Shattered Halls. Required getting some quest items I already had in bank and downing a Fel Reaver. This is the guy I love to hate when I was in HellFire Peninsular for questing, he killed me many times.

Was late in the morning and spend a lot of time flying around looking for a Fel Reaver around Thrallmar. Fell asleep as it took awhile. Found one passing by Thrallmar tossed Avengers Shield at him and ran to the Blood Elf Mages and guards in front of Thrallmar to have them kill it, happened same time the demons mob usually show up. Was lots of chaos! So pulled him into the Thrallmar gate guards also to help. Job done. However in good fun I helped the guards kill Fel Reaver for the fun by tanking him, he shot me down once and quickly recovered for a short corpse run and back to tanking him again. He almost wiped all the guards. All took about 3 mins or so of chaotic fun. Doing Solo stunts for me always work better than doing group quests at least if I die its only my fault.

Completed the quest and now have my Shattered Halls key. I guess its the first of any key I've done a quest to get so far just doing normal quests. As for questing in Netherstorm haven't done much quests there as yet, mainly just in Shadowmoon Valley mostly. So far in Netherstorm I just herb farm Netherbloom Herb there mostly to make Super Healing Potions.


Sweating at the Steam Vault


Last week was a bit buy so not as much WoW play time. This week may be a bit busy since I really need to complete a ethics course working on for a important certification I need to renew before the end of the month that's like in 12 days. However did get some WoW time one the weekend.

Completed the group quests to start the Orgri'la quests finally by tanking and killing all the gronns in a PUG group. I really don't get much help from my current guild at the moment in Outland. Only a few people at 70 right now and most of them are never really logged on. But its ok. Was a bit hard finding a group for those gronn kills for that quest chain for a while. After been made King of the Ogres for a moment was off to Orgri'la to start the rest of that chains for Reps and Daily Quests. Seem they have a very nice shield there for Reps too, will try to get that too.

Spent a lot of time in LFG for either group quests for Instance. Did get to do a Steam Vault run with a PUG. First time there in the whole instance so was a adventure just to find the entrance to the place. Beginning was a bit rough, I got Feared a lot by the casters and it drew lots of adds.... yeah died there like 2 different times on been Feared during the run into other mobs and was always messy :( Took a while learning the place! Made it to the first Hydromancer boss tanking here suddenly died when she spilled a cloud of something, hell it happened so fast I could barely notice it been so close to her....died. I guess here at this boss if you tank her when she starts to spew a lightning cloud you need to move quick to avoid massive nature damage. Recovered and 2nd go went easily as group Warlock banished one of the two elemental guards. Failures are hard to admit, but its how you learn things to become better!

Getting to second boss was easier as well as the AoE fun with the gnomes as you have to kill them all so they don't repair the boss later when he calls for it. Tanked the 2nd boss fine, and died exactly the same time 2nd boss was downed seemed I missed a heal there somewhere. After than had to hearth out quick to repair, or possibly face broken armor at 20%. Getting to last boss was all cool, was in the swing and feel of things by now. At 3rd boss Kalithresh, we down him in no time for my first ever attempt on him in Steam Vault. Was hard to run out of mana from heals with Spiritual Attunement to return mana. All that excitement or sweating more like it, forget to hit F13 for a screenshot. Was all lots of fun all else and seemed I was only one never been there before. Picked up Ring of the Silver Hand for defense needs really on tanking set. Other than the defense rating on that ring my current ring equipped has better Stam and Intell. Only thing he dropped I could use. Was a good group for the most. Things I learned here: Pull a group of mob back if possible to safe zone to avoid been feared (Naga cast fear), kill the casters first as melee mobs are easier to deal with. Things for me to work on pretty much.

Overall still working on my gear though current gear is not that bad either. Most my gear is still decent for now just normal 5 man and as I run more Instance for defense gear and from faction reps for Kara later in time. I don't have any of the normal instance that requires keys as yet to enter, so yeah its slow going.

Faction Reps Update


Faction Reputation Update:
Thrallmar - Honored - Need Exaulted for...... no reason at all. (Seems for a Heroic Key)
Scryers - Revered - 09/16/07
- Need Exaulted.
The Shat'ar - Honored - 09/16/07 - Need Exaulted stuff.
Lower City - Friendly - Need Exaulted for Alchemy.
Keepers of Time - Neutral - 09/16/07 - Exaulted: Continuum Blade & Alchemy.
Ogri'la - Neutral - 09/16/07 - Need that Shield at Revered.
Cenarion Expidition - Honored - Need Exaulted for Necklace.
The Consortium - Honored - Nothing to gain, doing it for the free Gems.
The Mag'har - Revered - Maybe a Epic Talbuk someday.
Sporeggar - Honored - Nothing else to gain here.
Sha'tari Skyguard - Neutral - Daily Quests gold fund and just for Reps or whatever.

Edited

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Calculate your Faction Reps Easily!

Found a link to this courtesy of WoWinsider in case any of you might of missed this and I'm sure you will find it valuable. If your having problems with your faction reps and want to know just what you need to do or how to get all those reps you need. Use this online calculator at WoW Reputation Calculator to figure it all out and it makes it really easy to understand. This is a really nice tool to use and bookmark. Also made a blog link to is also.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Quote: Tanking

A quote in a forum thread reply over at Maintankadin by a forum member there. I read there allot. Somehow I really like these reply that was in a thread related to Paladin tanking.


"The easiest was to practice tanking is to practice tanking.
This shit isn't rocket surgery". By Vanifae.


"Tanking is responsibility, healing is a job, DPS is a game". By Warrender


Yeah lots of Practice!

If you a Paladin Tank you need to stop by there and soak up all kind of good stuff about Paladin Tanking, Healing and Theorycrafting info, lots of it there.


Sunday, September 9, 2007

Blood Sport Reward

Picked this up in the Blood Ring in Nagrand. Its a nice mace for a Healer or a Holy Paladin starting around 66 or so on way to 70. Equipped it looks very cool with a very nice glow. I just tucked it in the bank.

How do you get it? Defeat all the mobs in the Blood Ring in Nagrand, just take the quest form the quest giver right by the ring, you'll know its got blood all around inside of it. The last Boss is Morgor - Hero of the Warmauls you'll face. Defeat him and then Defeat him again after he rezz back to life moments later and you can get this among the quest reward and a nice chunk of gold. Nice to have a good group of 5 or best to do the quest when everyone else is gathered to do the quest at the Blood Ring. That way you get more DPS for the fights and everyone else to help you out to win the matches.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Mastery of All Weapon Skills

Really you don't have to say much looking at the picture to understand it playing WoW. I don't know how many people ever really do that or even bother. A Brutal Accomplishment! Since around the low 20's always had 7 weapons in bag just weapons Galo picked up and use off and on for complete versatility even though the 1 Hand/Shield are his preferred weapons.

Used the 1 Hand weapons a greater part of the time especially from 50-70. Was tough with limited bag space to always have 7 different weapons in tow as I did use them all. I can tell you its not easy one bit to level 7 weapons to the max weapon skill. Quite frankly leveling a weapon is absolutely brutal! 1 Hand weapons action were ok. But leveling a 2 Hand weapon is brutal, it takes forever more like ETERNITY actually. Popping a Elixir for lots of Intellect helps to learn weapons skills fast and the stats also helps + BOK to boost it. Fighting unarmed is fun if you can believe it, but you would have to be a Paladin to actually enjoy that at 2.0 sec Fist Speed or at 1.43 sec speed with Crusader up.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

The Event we love to Hate - Pugging!

BRK has a nice little post about something we all know of. We have to and will all do at some point in WoW and the thing we all love to Hate with a evil eye and to much frustration it always is. List of good PUG's I've Galo has ever been on is short. So direct link to BRK: Top 10 Rules of Pugging.

Gearing Up Continues - Cross Faction Trading

Sometimes you just can't find what you want or looking for (Bracers of the Green Fortress) from your own Faction Trading and you just may not have any choice and have to resort to creating a new character on the other faction side of server to see if you can find on AH or find someone that create what you may need. If your so lucky to find what you need, then getting the item re-listed by the seller on one of the 2 Neutral Faction Auction House. That allows you after re-listing of the item to immediately purchase the item back on the other faction by your main character. Trading With The Enemy I Guess.
Well wasn't thinking of finding this Crystalforged Sword which is on my eminent list of items to obtain for my Paladin and it has never been seen on Horde faction side of server since I've been there. This is a prime Paladin Sword and a great one for me gearing up. A damn good find. Note: Helps to have some gold balance on hand at all times, you never know what your going to find and when and may need to buy it, like right NOW. Anyway my new level 2 toon hopped to Stormwind first time ever and found this on the Alliance AH and fortunately the seller was on line. /w him and asked him if he can nicely re-list it on the Neutral Auction House, he quickly did so at same price + the added charge to use the Neutral Auction House and I obtained it for Galo at 195 gold within 30 mins. I call that an Investment in Galo!

After more than a entire week of looking on AH, asking in Trade if any Blacksmith can make haven't been able to find any Blacksmith on Horde side of server that can make Bracers of the Green Fortress. Frustrating it has been. Also since Primal Nether a item needed to craft these are BoP and I'm not a Blacksmith you just have no choice but to almost buy the crafted item minus maybe the Primal Life needed and the Hardened Adamantite. Well no luck on Horde side as no one can craft these it seems. So on Alliance side found 2 Blacksmith that can craft these but none had the mats on hand or would take a week maybe. So checking AH say these these sitting on AH for 599 gold. So sent a email to the crafter and seller that I needed to buy these and if he or she can re-list them on the Neutral Auction House and if they did to let me know so I can promptly buy them. Well they are now mine for 599 gold ( 2nd Epic piece) as part of my tanking gear piece set to be uncrushable at 490 defense.

So after adding a little balance of gold from doing several quests in Nagrand and Tanking in the Blood Ring to beat all the Bosses in the Ring over the weekend. Selling tons of Alchemy Potions quite a bit actually. Gold was up about 900 gold, which was GREAT In building back up my gold reserve. I'm now again just about BROKE with about 55 gold or so. This seems to be common running theme.

For now I can't afford to enchant the CrystalForge Sword as yet, need to go questing. Need 6 more Prismatic Shards which average about 14-25g at any given moment. Enchants aren't cheap. Need lot more defense still and think will enchant bracers with Enchant: Major Defense to enchant the Bracers. So will be off to quest again to repeat this constant cycle or making gold and going broke over and over again. I wonder ...... I'll never earn that super fast Epic Flying Mount this way at 5000 gold needed. WotLK might be here before I get the mount with gear cost, enchants, instances. Still need to think about this.

Paladins as Hybrids really do have to juggle all kinds of stats depending on role one decides to play or focus on. Few days ago at one point in my armor gear i remember having almost 7000 mana pool and with just the gear equipped almost 190 Spell Damage from gear and if i popped the trinket another 12o Spell Damage for 15 sec. Great to burn down a mob. However as I add more defense to Galo, I'm constantly giving up as a trade off Intelligence stats (Also affects Spell Crits) mana & mp5. So less of a mana pool for tanking set. Our gear determine our role and often you give up many thing you do need just to get certain important stats. However more stamina is good though.

*It can be a good thing if your a crafter that can craft Epics, High level Blues or Rare items of TBC to list your self in your realm list of High Level Crafters on your Realm Forum. Every realm had a forum thread for High Level Crafters so you can search to find know who can craft such a item as long as its updated.