New Discovery: Flask of Pure Death

Quite a bit busy all this week working at nights till the weekend, so not much time to write post or play WoW this week. But did had a little time to just log in and brew up some Elixirs to draw down my over stocked herb bank for space. Discovered Flask of Pure Death in the process. Not bad for Elixir Mastery. I should be Master of discovering Flasks!

Secret: Make a heck of a lot of high level Elixirs/Flasks and potions. However in my case making a lot of Elixirs seem to be working for me. Thats about my 5th Flask Discovery.

Altism, No! Just Band of Brothers.

After a year of playing Galo and with only one lvl 70 character, a few Epic Mounts, almost 10k gold just seem kinda nice to start playing around with a few alts. Outside of soon getting to raid Kara, I've just about done most of everything I feel the need to do for the most part. Galo's life these days just boils down to doing Heroics for Badges of Justice (48) and getting to raiding soon with the guild in a few weeks.

So at other times playing around with a few alts may be fun in itself and having a few other leveled characters. My Band of Brothers I call then. If anything helps to learn a bit of the different classes. Don't have any plans to blog about any of them and not sure either if I will or not. But so far just a simple goal of getting them all to lvl 20 be the goal at the moment and see which one I like to play. So created a few New Alts. So far playing a Druid & Warrior seems fun. Maybe 2 more Tanks, who knows. However just nice to relax and learning to play another class for fun. Made them all Horde of course!

Krovon - Lvl 35 Hunter (Mining/Skinning)
Eshelon - Lvl 20 Rogue (Leatherworking/Skinning)
Eternallord - Lvl 18 S.Priest (Tailor/Enchanting)
Bodvar - Lvl 13 Warlock (Tailor/Mining)
*Krathalas - Lvl 10 Mage (Jewelcrafting/Mining)
*Voodoolion - Lvl 5 Shaman (Herbalism/Mining)
*Gorias - Lvl 13 Druid (Herbalism/Skinning)
*Legendaire - Lvl 12 Warrior (Engineering/Mining)

Introducing Blog Azeroth

Found this new newly created WoW blog community which was created a few days ago Blog Azeroth. Credit goes to Phaelia for creating this for the WoW bloggers community as a way to get together and share ideas and as a resource to all those thinking about diving in headfirst and creating their own WoW blogs. So nice budding community there so far as it has grown pretty fast as you can find many your favorite WoW bloggers there in some fashion. Can find many WoW bloggers you may not have known and many people looking at how to go about creating their own blogs.

Its a nice way to learn some of the things from many of us how have being blogging a while to share lots of tips, tricks and information to help each other out as a community to make each other life a little bit easier. I've stopped by there, lots of interesting forum threads going and answered several threads. Will be a interesting community. Will stop by there often when I can.

Here is the official introduction to the community courtesy of Phaelia:

Blog Azeroth was created to facilitate the exchange of information and foster community among Warcraft blog authors. While we all appreciate and thrive upon building our own separate communities of readers and -- in some cases, members of the class upon which we have focused -- we are all part of the same community. Many of us struggle with the same problems, be it the cumbersome migration from one blog platform to another, knowing what stats are the most helpful, or gold spammers trying to take advantage of a publicly available platform. By sharing what we've each learned individually, we increase our collective knowledgebase. And all without having to hunt down an e-mail address or post a comment in an attempt to contact each other!

I hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to get to know your fellow blog authors and be generous with what you've learned!

So in case you missed it now you know where to find it if your a blogger or someone looking to start their own WoW blog. Put it on your blogroll and make useful use of the community resource thats there.

Heroics Instance, Once a Day Only.

It occured to me today that you can only successfully run a Heroic Instance once a day or until it resets once you've killed the boss. Yeah that sucks for racking up Badges of Justice for your favorite Instances. Ahh Bummer! However ran Heroic Botanica today again for the Server Daily Heroics and we ran it with relative ease and got 7 Badges for the Fun. 5 Bosses and 2 for the quest. Was mostly a early morning guild run of me, Shadow Priest, Warlock, Mage, Holy Paladin. Smooth run one or two people died here and there but was good run. So up to 38 Badges of Justice. WTB more Badges of Justice.

Got asked to run Heroic Botanica again for another group. Wasn't sure how the Instance reset worked on Heroics no one in group did. So not too soon noticed when we got to the boss that "Hey No Boss". Duhh!! Became apparent then. So group had to reset and find another tank. Yeah Sucks!! Seems you can only run a Heroic once a day as you become saved to the instance after the first boss kill. Looked it up on Wowwiki and found out that the Instances reset at 10am server time daily. Hey wasn't aware of that either. Always kept wondering how that timer worked and started counting when I entered Heroics and different Heroics on the same day. Well now I know.

However did notice running Heroic Botanica with 1 Warlock is fun, 2 Warlocks rocks for CC/AoE with a Tankadin. Many mobs are CC immune. 2 Warlocks with either a Shadow Priest/Hunter/Mage for DPS rocks just as much and works well. I've run with all those combinations as just works out well. Running with a Heavy Melee group in Heroic Botanica, at least for me and my experience never works out that well. I've run it with 2 Rogues for DPS and that just never works as great.

So far for Heroics I'm running the Instances I'm really familiar with and good at that being All Colifang Heroics, Mech and Botanica. I'm really good at Arcatraz on regular, but I've never tried that place on Heroic mode, imagine it can be rough there. SH on Heroics haven't done as yet. Auchindoum Instances on Heroics can just about rot in Hell can't say I ever wish to go there. As for now until raiding Kara starts next month a goal of 3 Heroic a day is all cool if can find groups/time to do either Heroic Botanica , Mech, UB, SP, SV daily. Maby I'm nuts but that would be at least 12 Badges of Justice a day. Imagine if I could pull that off everyday be allot of Badges of Justice. Yeah Nuts! But I'm good for it.

Cooking up Stormchops

Only took forever since Patch 2.3 to get this Recipe. Have done the Daily Cooking Quest almost everyday and only selecting Meat for the reward for chance to get this recipe. Finally got it, must be a rare recipe. Have all the new cooking recipes now. Will have to try it out. I remember when Lightning Fish was almost worthless, had tons of them from fishing. I guess its time to go fishing soon in Feralas at the Horde camp there in the river and at the Verdantis River in Feralas under the bridge. You can catch Lightning Fish there for a good spot. Anyone tried this Recipe out yet?

Tales from Heroics: Problem Healing

Ran Heroic Mech tonight for some more badges and picked up three more so up to 31 Badges of Justice. I've ran Heroic Mech before quite a few times and it can be a short good fairly smooth run. Mostly I've had a Shaman or Priest or healer. Can't recall ever running with any other Healer, but a guildmate wanted to do Heroic Mech and I went along and we had 2 DPS from PuG's a Mage I knew well and a Holy Paladin I somewhat knew so rest was me a Warlock, Hunter (survival).

We did fine clearing everything with little problem, with exception of every so often I end up going face down before either the Tempest Forge Destroyer died or Boss died. That happened at least 5 times on the Tempest Forge Destroyers, once before the Mechano Boss and 4 times on the 2nd Destroyer in Nethermancer Sepethrea's room. That was damn frustrating to say the least. Almost seem we got stuck on that one Trash Destroyer. Enough that the Warlock dropped out and we picked up another Mage for his DPS spot. Popped a Greater Stoneshield Potion and we got him down in no time and seem like a piece of cake them. So I though what gives? I'm in my high block gear and at 491 defense, 13k armor and 323 blocking. I also died on Mechano-Lord Capacitus about 8 sec before he eventually died by the rest of the group. On every death me being the tank I was the one that died. One thing I can really say its a complete waste of consumables in elixirs totally. Can't say how much of those got wasted even though I'm a Alchemist and it don't cost me that much but it was still a waste all the same.

But anyway we got the last boss and the Sun Eater never dropped. I've never seen that thing ever drop ever. A few plate pieces dropped and a Epic legging piece I passed and let the Holy paladin pick it up. After the group wanted go back and try the Fire boss. I was a bit reluctant but if they wanted to give it a go, i'm for it. So we did. In the process both Mages died in the process and the Hunter got disconnected or something like that but was back a while after. So I ended up kiting the boss around and around in circles down to less that 10k health with the healer and eventually died. That was the best attempt especially considering the other dps died early, actually best attempt ever. We tried 2 more attempts again and just did not work. We called it at that point especially since I needed to repair with about 8% durability.

On checking Recount to see why I died noticed something. On every encounter in which I died that Recount showed I died from not enough healing or not being healed fast enough. The only heals I saw recorded was Holy Light heals. In a 12 sec period of time on several encounters I went from 12-13k health to 0 with one and no more than 2 Holy Light heal. Often It was just one heal I noticed on every death. At no time did I ever notice a Flash of Light heal and I can't say I noticed any of them either as they were all big heals thus my spiky healing. The Holy Paladin is for the most part a raiding Holy Paladin. Personally I hate going face down and especially repeatedly for the same thing. I've noticed this on the entire run that my healing at best was pretty damn spiky. Made me blew my Lay of Hands right at the start of Heroic Instance on the first Destroyer due to spiky heals with less than 200hp. Now I've never done any instance healing. But as the tank I've had many healers Priests, Shamans and to a lesser extend Druids just a few times. But I'm like where the hell is the Flash heals? Every heal the Holy Paladin threw was what seemed like a Holy Light heal and that ended up costing me a total of 8 deaths and 92% durability on armor when I left the instance.

I've being having this problem before not with ALL but with many of the Holy Paladin healers I've had in Heroics when I'm getting hit like a asteroid. I can honestly say I'm not a big fan running with a Holy Paladin in Heroics as my first choice. Yet I know there are some good Holy Paladin healers out there, but what the hell gives when ALL your getting on the tank is Holy Light heals. I'm waiting forever to get healed at deaths door. Every time I died the healer had way more than 3/4 bar full of mana and he had over 10k mana at that. I'm dead in the time it takes to get healed in situations like this. Frustrating to me it is. Healing efficiency my ass it aren't no good when the damn tank is dead waiting forever to get healed. And it don't look well the next time I think about doing Heroics when I see its a Plate Healer because I will always have my doubts of how long will it be before I'm face down when I'm doing my damn best to stay alive. So what gives with healing like that?

Tales from Heroics: Botanica

Heroics are fun and can be fun with the right people or group. I've being hitting up the Heroic circuit for Badges of Justice and running with the new guildmates through the instances. Yesterday I did Heroic SP, UB, SV. Today we had Heroic Botanica and hadn't been to Botanica in a while either let alone on Heroic mode. So was me (Tank), 2 Warlocks, Hunter, Holy Paladin from the guild. Run went well other than once we wiped on Trash adds but I was Soul Stoned and another time we had one or two in party died. We one shot all 4 bosses no problem so picked up a few more Badges of Justice so now up to 28 Badges.

Most the bosses are all the same just hit much harder. First boss Sarannis just hits you with lots of Arcane damage and debuff. Rest just seem to hit much harder that's about it. Boss Laj on normal usually just fight him up on the platform he's at. On Heroics I just kited him back to the hallway and room before the room he's in and works well in controlling the adds and barely having adds at all, but seem a much slower fight as he TP back to his platform and then back again to group in the other room, but barely had adds. Warp Splinter just does more damage. So we had a good fast run with a few minor hiccups.

Taking a while getting used to working with my guildies on runs. For the run I just changed into my max block gear set which has 330 Blocking a little different to my regular tanking set which has around 290 or so blocking. Makes a lot of difference wearing a higher block set for taking all the hits. Once time I died was due to none the mobs marked for CC not getting any CC or CC in time just before Boss Laj room. I did notice one thing though being that the Holy Paladin didn't cast a single Greater Blessing the whole time. I had to ask for rebuffs many times of 10 min blessings. At one point the Holy Paladin completely ran OOM on the first boss I think it was and I had to blow LoH to save my hide and from a wipe. What was not funny was watching him go completely out of mana and wondering why he not use a mana pot. Otherwise he did ok. The other time a few people died due to adds going to second boss the Botonist. Was a good run for the most part. But in the end I'll be honest to say in 5 man and Heroics of all the runs I've done and all the healers I've had, though I've had various some being excellent and some being ok healers my favorite healers are the more versatile healers in a 5 man Instance in my experience for versatility especially in Heroics and they doesn't wear plate.

As for gear picked up Gauntlets of Dissension for alternative gear set.

Tanking With Decursive

Decursive is a addon that you can download is a Cleansing mod. Its there to help you remove negative effects or debuffs and for a Paladin thats all the same things your Cleanse button can do been Poison, Disease & Magic. For me as a Tank on my hotkey bar with all my other buttons I don't have a Cleanse button since I use Decursive witch floats just above all my button bar and sits on the screen almost at eye level to see it or instantly read the debuff when it shows up quickly. Often I'm always cleansing myself if I can as the tank, I can't wait around for the healer to do it so I often do it myself unless they beat me to it... Especially when tanking Heroics you want to remove debuffs on tank Quickly.

When I get hit with a debuff (posion, disease, magic) or something like that I can see it right away or in group party. Other square shows up beyond the one you see in the pic and it shows up Red and lists the group member and name of debuff on player. You can see what the debuff is and just hit quickly to remove it from whoever the party member is with just a click on the red button when it lights up with the name of the person. Pretty easy to use. It does come with options to setup the addon as you need, but i've only had to set mine once. But its easy to use. For Tanking its real easy and awesome addon to have (must have for me) and use to remove to cleanse stuff right away. Sometimes i'm so fast on it i've removed priests buffs too in my party. Just watch what debuff is and cleanse it as needed. In Heroics it really helps to have it handy especially in Colifang Reservoir Instances where stuff can really stack up quick.

You can find it and download it from Curse or at WowAce.

Boosting Tank Threat With SpellDamage Trinket

I think I have 3 other spell damage trinket at this point other than the Darkmoon Card Vengeance Trinket which is always equipped. When getting up to the boss and you need an Extra boost of threat there is a few things you can do short of having a Destruction Potion (yet to find) available to use for kicks. So what's one of the things you can do. Well one of the things you can sometimes do in a 5 man Instance or Heroic is to switch trinkets and use the Scryer's Bloodgem Trinket from Scryers Revered if not there is one from HellFire Peninsular if you have that, name eludes me as WoW is down for maintenance. But I use the Scryer's Trinket. Pop Avenging Wrath (Wings) in between threat cycle right before you redo Holy Shield, Consecration and Judgement of SoR. Nice threat boost.

Always pop spell damage trinket before consecration and not during as it uses the spell damage you had before use when used in the ticks. Gives nice boost to threat with the spell damage trinket for 15 sec and cooldown last 1.5 min. Always use when cooldown is up. As to how to fit that into your threat cycle, everyone is different depending on their threat cycle but have Judgement of Crusader up when you use it for amplified holy damage. I always have the trinket with me, it may not always be equipped but always there to use if and when need.

Tanking Threat Cycle - Variable
Ready Seal of Crusader (*Depends if using SoR instead)
Avengers Shield
Holy Shield - Before boss
*Judge Crusader/SoR (Depends on first seal)
Consecration
Pop Spell Dmg Trinket
Pop Avenging Wrath (Wings) - 30% boost to damage.
Holy Shield
Judge SoR - When Ready
Consecration
etc repeat

If you open with SoR for snap aggro threat on Boss the of course on next cycle Judge Crusader. If Crusader first then Judge and use SoR. All depends on how trigger happy your group is and up to your style. When need to use Judge Wisdom do so later on if need in threat cycle. However if i'm using the Spell Damage Trinket I will try to pop it and use Avenging Wrath both before I renew Holy Shield/Judgement or SoR, Consecration on the next cycle for greater threat boost when each comes up for use. But that's the basic idea with a spell damage trinket while tanking IF using one. However everyone playstyle can be different.

Related Info: Spell Rotations & AoE Threat @ Wolfbloods Writings

@Goldsoon. You Comments Will Be Removed!

I'm thinking when "goldsellers" and gold selling outfit start leaving lots of random comments all over your blog especially at 1am trying to sell gold or point people to their site your pretty much out there in the Blogosphere. Especially if your being noticed enough for them to start dropping gold selling comments all over in an attempt to sell gold. I know why some people on their blog moderate their comments. I personally don't at this point to keep blog comments more open but will Moderate it if I need to. But every goldsellers comments have been and will be removed when seen, because I see and know where everyone of them shows up anywhere on my blog comments.

So to "Goldsoon" the person leaving all those comments all over my blog and I know your leaving lots of them and on many other peoples blog too. I don't need your gold, nor do I want your gold and i'm not going to promote your site or anyone else here on my blog and comments will all have being and will continue to be removed. And quit putting your comments on my site because as fast as you put them there I WILL remove them as well as EVERY other comment you or anyone else put there as well as your anonymous ones. I know ever single comment made on my blog in comments and I get a bloggers record of it. And for each comment you "Goldsoon" put there it will be REMOVED just as FAST and I can do it even while I'm Mobile Anywhere on my IPhone as well. So its no point leaving gold selling comments on my blog as I will exercise the right to remove every single one of those comments with great pleasure. And I WILL!

The lengths goldsellers go through to sell gold. Yeah I aren't putting up with it here and on my own blog. I will take great pleasure in removing all those gold comments as well as the stealth ones that get spammed at 2am in the morning. And to any readers that visit or lurks here PLEASE DO NOT CLICK on any readers comment that hints to or points to a gold site. If its questionable as a link PLEASE DO NOT CLICK on it. I hate to have to resort to moderating comments but its last resort if need be.

Happy Birthday Galo - One Year of WoW.

Its amazing the stuff you can forget and remember in this game both which is allot. But today is Galoheart's Birthday for One year of WoW. So if I can't remember it who will. Yeah exactly one year ago 01/22/07 on this day I booted up that TBC 2 CD set of WoW jumped in and decided to roll a magic energy mana addicted Blood Elf. Rolled Galoheart my ever loving Paladin and one year later I'm still going on the very same toon from one year ago. Remembered the starting zones back then, you think the Horde was overrun with Blood Elfs back then. Hundreds of them back then in the starting area. So you heard it all back then as one of the many BE's. "BE's will never make it". "Not Part of the Horde". "They won't last". "Pretty Boys". "They don't know how to play". Yeah everything you can think of I heard it. I just did what the energizer bunny always do......just kept going, going, and going. If you being around since WoW Beta my hats off to you for being in the game that long. Galo haven't.

So kinda nice to look back and laugh at it all after one year of WoW. Yeah Galo is still going. The little Blood Elf that could and still playing the very same class/professions I rolled one year ago. Do You or Can You remember when you created your character and when your character Birthday is?

Happy Birthday Galo!

MIA in WoW & A New Guild

Short quick post since be running out the door in a few min to my morning commute but have being missing in action in the blog office playing WoW a bit. So no one going to fault you for playing a bit more WoW when you can...Right?

Over the last week made a decision to move on a find a new guild considering my opportunity to run Kara is limited at best in guild. So in the end /w GM of guild nice guy the Mage and just told him being straight up of my decision and why I've come to my decision that i was leaving the guild and brave the waters to find another. He was quite disappointed though he understood and wished me well. So from there I moved on NOT blowing up any bridges in the process. Said goodbye to guildies and went on way way so I didnt have to stealth quit like most players often do. To explain in short my reason I looked at it this way: The guild is a great guild and pretty much completed Kara and already have a warrior as a MT. I really don't care about being a MT but just more about having a function and progressing. However the guild already had 10 Tanks maybe 12 with at least 6 of them being P.Warriors and several F.Druids and 2 P.Paladin Tanks if i remember. So looking at my crystal ball to my logic there really is not a place for me there even if my guild is progressing nicely and they have good people. There just is not a place for me there to be usefull or get to see and run Kara on my own merit without looking at being subbed in just so i could get a chance to pick up gear whenever i get the chance to do so.

So with that moved on for good. I decided to join another friends relatively young new guild a Warlock friend that i used to and still run with in PuG instances with when i was hitting 5 man for gear hard. His guild is much smaller and more a usefull place to be. They will be starting new in Kara at end of first week next month. Interestingly enough allot of the core people in the guild i also knew from 5 man instance in PuGs. On a small server when your a good tank you almost seem to know many people if you do PuGs allot, it sure helps to be good then. Always good to make friends in PuG's never know and on a small server you almost know everyone as your rep gets around. However the funny thing was i was the 9th signature not too long ago when he was forming his guild a few weeks ago which i helped him formed and then after left just to remain solo back then. So he was glad to have me join his guild where a P.Paladin will be needed and can make a difference. So that's that and so far so good.

Have being a bit busy running Heroics for Badges so a bit of time doing that when i can and so far Heroics are fun and not too eventfull just racking up badges. So doing that have being consuming a bit of time playing WoW, which means if playing WoW hard to be writing blog on the days when i have limited time to put some though into what i'm writing. In between trying to run Heroics i just spend my time Fishing Highland Mixed Pools to try and catch Mr Pinchy bit in the process of doing that i just catch a lot of Furious Crawdads which makes Spicy Crawdads which makes nice buff food and sells well. Well time to hit the door..

Mr Pinchy Caught and........He Got Away...Cries

Been trying to catch the rare and elusive Mr Pinchy since the day I could fish in Highland Mixed Pools at the elevated lakes in Terokkar Forest. Every good fisherman dream to catch Mr Pinchy. I finally caught him and red handed on my fishing hook and HE GOT AWAY.

In the process of capturing the screenshot for you readers I hit the wrong key on my keyboard and before I could bind him as he is BoP Poof he was gone before I could even bind him. AHHHH.

/Cries
/Hearthbroken

I will catch him again and Im not going to make a single post until I catch him AGAIN. Too tough a statement to make there to live up to. I'm challenged to re-catch him again, so will see how long it will take. I'm gone get about 5 stacks of Aerodynamic Fish Attractors and fish the lakes till he crawls out on my hook. For some people high level fishing is Serious Business to get a Mr Pinchy. If anything I'm going to make a fortune catching Furious Crawdads and Golden Darters in the process. Will see how long it takes in my free time when not running Heroics.

Techniques & Making Money in WoW - Part 1

Everything I say here is from my experience, profession and observation in the game and leveling. Oh, and I don't know everything either. WoW is too big to know everything or master everything and every profession properly.

Start this with a few thought and things to think about.

The WoW AH Economy makes no sense! The WoW AH Economy really makes very little sense.

The Law and Supply & Demand AND Greed will usually drive the AH market as it relates to pricing Items. The more the demand for a item the higher the price. The rarer the item the higher the price. The more in demand for a item the lower the AH pricing of the item.

The more people selling the item the more bottom low the item price. The more the underbidding the price of the item already on AH.

The more unaware of the item the player the more ridiculous both high or low the item price.

Opportunity will always exist when you find something other players hate to do. Find that thing they hate and get good at doing it, doing it often and doing it well.

Find a nitch Item in the market where no one supplies and become the supplier. Selling that market item now becomes yours to own.

The player that understands the Item or market price of a item can manipulate the market.

Scarcity of market item is good IF your the seller of a valuable sellable item.

If your the only one farming it, you have a good chance at setting the market price.

Few people know how to sell their items well.

Knowing how to use your profession or skill can make you money.

If I Could Start Over, I Would...

Always good when a fellow blogger ask a question and one becomes a team player in responding to a question asked by One Among Many on her blog. Altitis responded with what he would do on his blog.

I've thought about it and to be honest there isn't much I would do different but a few things and here is why.

The day I started paying for WoW after I bought the game disk at Best Buy and a WoW BC Strategy Guide the character I rolled on 01/22/07 a Horde BE Paladin (Galo). It would be more than obvious to you that its the very same character I play, main as and blog about life as. Galo also has the 2 very same profession that he choose on day one being both Alchemy & Herbalism. The day I entered Outland almost every profession that I had was almost at max skill level. So I've being more than happy with all my choices.

What would I do different starting over if had to do:

1. I would choose 2 gathering professions being both Mining & Herbalism.
2. Install AuctioneerAdvancedSuite addon right from the get go. Did't find Auctioneer till my 30's leveling.
3. I would mine every node as fast as I could find it using mining sell it on AH and use the money to invest in buying the biggest bag slots up to 16 slots. Then level and mine & herb everywhere for gold and cash leveling up.
3a. Biggest problem had was not having big enough bags & bag space starting out.
4.***At 70 what I would do different is instead of running Instance for Tanking gear like I did to gear up before I had my Epic Mount. This time I would spend all that time Mining & Herbing Outland dry of Ore and herbs selling it on AH to get to 5200g for the Epic Mount. Having done that, I could now mine and herb Outland faster and make more money with more dailies and gathering profession at a faster rate to pay for all my gear enchanting and mats. Then decide to gear up and go raid. At that point, having money would be no problem at all and neither is having repair bills either. (Doing that would solve any money problem I could ever have in WoW)

So knowing what I know now, if I really had to do it all over again I would do just that!

Taking Pride in Wearing & Maintaining Your Gear.

I was looking through the Armory and I'm still not updated in the Armory listing. So as I was browsing through some profiles listed there when something occured to me. It had also occured to me before. The thought being some players really don't take pride in caring for the hard earned gear they wear, wearing it properly or with the proper enchants. Reminds me of the Hunter I once say in Heroics with Blue and low grade gear, with no gems in socket and no enchants at all anywhere.

I've seen it many times, players sporting nice blue gear or 70's Blue/Epic gear with no gems in socket, no enchants on gear or weapon and if its socketed with gems often its with low grade gems on high grade gear. I've seen that many times. While browsing the Armory today I say that too looking around. If you random inspect some players looking at their gear you see that too and on gear pieces your well familiar with. Its often possible that many players don't know or research the proper enchants for their select gear or try and find the best gems for their gear. Its also very possible that many don't have the money to care for their gear properly and enhance their gear even though they are in guilds and raiding. So as a result you sometime and often see nice Blue and Epic gear just plain worn with no enchanting at all or cheap enchanting to gear. You see a Tank with +8 Stamina on a Blue prime tanking leg piece and +5 health to chest. Where is the pride in having your gear in tip top shape for your guild Instance raid encounters to do your job. Does it make a difference if its not in tip top shape, yeah it does. You also don't have to do a darn thing to your gear if you choose not to also. However not having the correct enchants or the right and best gems on your gear does affect the peak performance you can get out of your gear for that raid encounter or instance. Having your gear always repaired and ready to go goes without saying when heading to a instance or raid.

Its possible that many players look at their gear and say well, why should I even bother. Next raid with my guild my gear may drop and it will be epic if your in a raid and when I get it I will enchant that. Maybe it will drop, maybe it won't, who knows. Hey your gear is a reflection of you and the quality you put into enhancing the peak performance of your gear with your given class spec. Your gear says a lot about you. If you can barely maintain your gear now, you will almost be hard pressed to do it when its better quality gear. As a Tankadin, I always took the time to put pride and work in enhancing my gear. I've catalog almost all my gear on my blog and I put the pics up when I enchant it. I took pride at 70 with green gear that was the best I could fine until it was later replaced with better, though many I wore a long time. But I absolutely did it with the Blue gear I wore. I enchanted every piece of gear I wore with the best gems possible for that piece of gear and i was not rich either when I did it. I spent a lot on enhancing my gear. I can't remember wearing a piece of gear for longer than 2 log in sessions without getting it enchanted or gem socketed.

I remembered looking for a week on my realm to get a Thorium Shield Spike for my new shield when I was in my 60's, eventually I got it. If it needed enchanting, I went out found the mats and properly enchanted it. Was I working at saving money back then, yeah! But I put time and effort into my gear pieces for Tanking. If it needed gems, I found the best for gear piece and bought it. I retained enchanters that I knew could do the things I needed, bought raw gems and found a JC to cut then. Often I bought extra gems. I have lots of gems I have in my own bank for future gear upgrades so when I get the gear, I already have the gems. That's taking pride in caring for your gear to do the job you demand of your gear at its peak performance. Many players do indeed take pride in their gear, yet many players don't even though they are head over heals for a Blue/Epic piece. later they just wear it and fail to enhance their gear. Take pride in the gear you wear, its a total reflection of the work you put into caring for your gear and getting top performance out of it.

Progress on Being Guilded and Whatever

So far life is much uneventfull and in some ways life almost haven't seem like it has changed as much. For the most part I just have a lot of green guild chat text in my chat log which is the most obvious thing to note and often it seems humerous at best. For the most part I can't say I ever respond to it much unless someone ask something significant enough for me to respond as in asking for help on something or such things. So far life is quiet and Galo just goes about his life as usual.

Helped out a guildie running SL and SV for some gear, just reps for me but thats about it so far. For the most part I tend to spend my time in LFG as I always usually being doing. Old habbits are hard to break, but for regular runs of instance I just like to PuG it. I'm used to that and if so its just to complete my faction rep gains. Most my guildies tend to do BG's allot for Honor gain for gear inbetween Kara runs or on days off. Since I really don't PvP being in the BG's just dosen't interest me much, however I haven't as yet decided to get the PvP mace as yet which is only thing that interest me there.

Started signing up for Kara runs on guild forum, but so far not really needed or as yet. We have about 92 people in our guild and counting the Armory out guild now had 10 Tanks. Yeap 10! Main tank is a Warrior and Kara geared and a few other protec Warrior Tanks also in Kara. Also have a few Feral Druids with Kara gear some and 3 Protec Paladins of which 2 are in a few Kara gear pieces already. For the most the guild has now downed all Kara Bosses. Currently the guild is recruiting other classes but closed to Tanks as we have plenty obviously. Some people are leveling other Alts in guild in their spare time. Its a good guild in my opinion and feel of things, yet for the most I almost feel useless being there on some days. I'll be honest to say it feels hollow in some ways that I may never get to say I had a guild Kara first being there or the attempt to do so. I've prepared but I'll never see that day trying to get a guild first in the act of attempting to do so. But from where things are its all fine. I'm also willing to give things some degree of time to assess things looking ahead. For now I'm not worried too much. I'm confident in my self if I ever have to change course if be and purple loot dosen't run my day also. I play WoW for fun!

So for the most inbetween LFG to complete any faction reps or working on Heroics for Badges I guess I tend to spend my time doing whatever. Sometimes its dailies I feel like doing, doing quests for overall. I constantly farm Herbs to and from places which I tend to make a game out of filling up Alt GuildBank slots for fun or fishing to see if can catch Mr Pinchy which I have yet to catch as a goal for fishing. I'll catch him sooner or later. On my Alt Banker its all about running his empire on AH selling anything I send him, reselling stuff or managing his 2 bank tabs. On some days to be honest the game seen to feel a bit boring to say the least. Someone asked in comments what my non leveling Alt Banker Personal Guild of (1) is called: Legion of Armageddon.

Warchest: 6200g

Galo's Karazhan Tankadin Gear Wish List

Should call it a Goal list for Karazhan however compiled a Tankadin gear wish list of Karazhan Boss Loot that I hopefully wish to acquire when I'm raiding Kara. At least that way I don't have to wonder when a piece of gear drops whether I need it or not. So its for my reference to mostly and which loot drop from which boss of items I need. Plan to keep this list updated and check off each item on it as I get it for my set. I'm not planning on collecting any Healing gear pieces so its not being listed, but if it drops and I'm only one that can wear it and I get it that's fine but its won't be gear pieces I'll be worried over or trying to collect.

Tanking Gear:

KARAZHAN TRASH MOBS (Any)
Boots of Elusion *Best* - Obtained 02/16/08

ATTUNMEN THE HUNTSMAN
Vambraces of Courage - Obtained 02/09/08


MOROES
Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable - Obtained 03/28/08
Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch

MAIDEN OF VIRTUE
Barbed Choker of Discipline
Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden - Obtained 02/15/08

THE CURATOR
Wrynn Dynasty Greaves
Gloves of the Fallen Champion - Token for Justicar Handguards

SHADE OF ARAN
Shermanar Great Ring

NETHERSPITE
Mantle of Abrahmis

CHESS EVENT
Battlescar Boots

NIGHTBANE
Shield of Impenetrable Darkness - First guild drop 02/23/08
Panzar'Thar Breastplate

Prince Malchezzar
Helm of the Fallen Champion - Token for Justicar Faceguard. First guild token drop 02/21/08

Optional Spell DMG Gear Items if can:

ATTUNMEN THE HUNTSMAN
Spectral Band of Innervation - Obtained 03/18/08

MOROES
Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran

CHESS EVENT
Ring of Recurrence

PRINCE MALCHEZAAR
Adornment of Stolen Souls
Ruby Drape of the Mysticant

Weekend Highland Fishing

The weekend was kinda laid back and uneventful for the most part. I'm usually always in LFG even for no good reason at all and sometimes just by habit I'm there, just to see whats happening. So did a SV run for a group needing a tank, which gets me closer to exalted with CE. Ran SL for a guildie that needed a SL run with 3 others from PuG. All unevenfull for the most. So most the weekend just did Fishing to restock supplies. I hadn't fished for a while so made a weekend just fishing and relaxing while I was in LFG.

Fished in Nagrand at the two big lakes from Fish Pools for some Ice Bluefin (+23 Spell DMG & +23 Spirit when cooked) and Figluster's Mudfish (+20 Agility & +20 Spirit when cooked). All great for tanking. If you hate to fish get used to it since all the best food buffs are from Fishing for food ingredients. So fished allot of fish and picked up lots of crates and motes of water. Think I got like 3 Primal Water all together. I just made the rounds from fish pool to fish pool in total relaxation and never had no competition for fishing pools. Actually never saw a single person while I was fishing. So stocked up my Alt GuildBank with lots of fish buff food.

Rest of time spent in Terokkar Forest fishing Highland Mixed pools for Furious Crawdads. I fished all 3 Highland Lakes just going from pool to pool and restart it all over. You need a Flying Mount to get to those areas. I had a bag full of Aerodynamic Fishing Attractors (+100 fishing for 10 mins) and just fished all the time. Most you can ever get from a vendor is 2 of those lures if they have them so I usually bank them and stock up for fishing. Combined the Lures (+100) with my Fishing Skill (375) and Fishing Rod (+25) thats 500 fishing to fish Highland Mixed Pools which you just about need to have. By the end of the weekend I had over 180 Furious Crawdads which makes Spicy Crawdads (+30 Stamina & +20 Spirit). Best food buff for Tanking around also. Also fished 85 Golden Darters which makes Golden Fish Sticks a nice healing food which I may sell for a handsome profit for a in demand fish. So I also have a Alt GuildBank full of Tanking Buff food. You don't have to ask me to farm food, I think I'm pretty good at it.

Fished up lots of Curious Crates which I left unopened and sent to one my Alt to inspect for the Fishing Journal. Since Galo already had the skill for Find Fish I can't view the journal in fished up crates if its even there at all. So had a alt do it and ended up with enough crates that each of my alt got their own Fishing Journal which was 6 journals. While fishing Highland Mixed pools fished up allot of Inscribed scrolls. In the end I had over 20+ scrolls. Lots of scrolls for Stamina/Agility/Intellect. I can make good use of those. Of all the places I've found scrolls ever I think I found the most fishing in Highland Mixed pools...Blizzard must have a sense of humor with fishing.

Netherwing Mines Loot Gear

I don't really take time to do my dailies as much anymore dedicately. I still do over half of them still though. I really don't need the gold as much but though I'll still take it. When I was leveling 65-70 I used to wonder where you find all that green gear on AH because I just could never find much except on quest reward or having to buy it on AH allot. So over time doing dailies running thru Netherwing Mines I've noticed that place is full of level 66-70 green gear and I've gotten a lot of good green plate too. I sell it all on AH. I usually consecrate the side of the mines with the Ravagers and the Flayers from end to end clean collecting crystals fr dailies and usually leave there with 4-5 pieces of green gear. Today I had a Blue Furies Card drop surprised me a bit but then again its all lvl 70 mobs for random drops. So I decided to put up pics of Mob Info and all the green gear I've gotten off of them. So gear I've gotten multiple times for green drops. Thats from the addon Mob Info.

A Re-Spec Change - Dropped Reckoning

Over the weekend decided on a Re-Spec change. Still 0/48/13 in my build but decided to finally drop Reckoning. For many high level Protec Paladins (Tankadin) it can seen to be a love and hate relationship with Reckoning. Many raiding Tankadins usually drop points from the talent or drop it all together from their spec due to the parry effect it can do on Prince which is best avoided. I loved the talent leveling up for all the grinding and fast action. However I've been evaluating it for a while and especially when grinding doing my dailies and after a while decided to drop it from my spec.

Reckoning proc is unpredictable for its seal proc when it does proc and wearing tanking gear it barely ever does proc much or hardly ever. So decided to drop my 4/5 in Reckoning and put 5/5 in One-Hand Specialization. Really hard to find a good extra point anywhere in protection tree so steal one point from Spell Warding. So far since the Re-Spec I can't say I've misses Reckoning. I went out to the BT and pulled all the Demon Hunters in sight and still never missed Reckoning. Ran through the Netherwing mines for the dailies, pulled everything and still not missed Reckoning. The 5% increase from One-Hand Specialization is noticeable increase or Seals/Judgement and especially on consecrations which can be 30-40% of my damage. Thats probably the 4-5th time I've ever Re-Spec.

Tell us What You Intend........Blizzard

So I was strolling on the WoW forum to see whats happening in our world and came upon this thread and when I hit a certain point I just couldn't stop laughing. It goes like this.

A Druid named Satichel was sincerely asking in a Thread to Blizzard Tell us what you intend with the direction of the game between PvP and PvE and on the state of both sides of the game and and the lack of information from Blizzard. So Blizzard poster Nethaera responds 2 different times to no one satisfaction in the thread:

We intend to keep focusing on fun, advancing the storyline of World of Warcraft and Azeroth and finding ways to continue giving players a challenge while making as much as possible still accessible. We intend to add siege weapons in PvP and we intend on continuing to make great PvE encounters.

There will always be argument about direction and many will argue for or against a direction as if it is the way to go or the way not to go, but World of Warcraft offers many things to many people and we like it that way. We want to continue to entice players to take part in many facets of the game.

And 2nd time again:

Not moving toward fun. Continuing to work to create fun as we always have. Their question was very general and leading. I answered in a general way to show that nothing has changed or is changing in so far as our philosophy for World of Warcraft. We want our players to have fun. We want our friends and family to have fun. We want to have fun ourselves. Whether they are having fun or not or think what we have in store for the future is fun or not, is wholly based on their own opinion which they have every right to.

This isn't about PvE over PvP or vice versa. They are both a part of the game and will continue to both have some level of focus put into them by the development team.

So futher down is one player a lvl 70 Paladin named Pallymcbeal responds below to sum up things from Blizzard response in the thread.

You keep using this word, fun.

You are effected by Cyclone
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You start to have fun
You are effected by Cyclone
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You start to have fu...........
You are effected by Cyclone
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You start to....
You are effected by Feral Charge
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You sta...
You are effected by Bash
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You start to have fun!
Your partner is effected by Cyclone
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now
You are unable to have fun right now

I was laughing my ass off after that. I had to post it.

Tanking: Having Confidence & Right Attitude

Tanking is a real visible task or job depending how you look at it, but many people who tank or new to tanking lack allot of Self Confidence in themselves. Some players who Tank are intimidated by the four other people in 5 man Instance who watch them do the dance of trying to dish out pain on a mob or a boss. For others they are intimidated by their peers in their raid group or fellow guildies. From whatever angle you may look at it some players that perform the role of a Tank in a group whether its a Druid, Warrior, Paladin (Tankadin) lack the confidence in themselves to do their job.

Sometimes it can be due to lack of Tanking Experience or new to the Instance. In others they may just not have the right Skill and Attitude. Then they are those players that just plain suck at Tanking period! Not everyone is cut out to effectively perform the role of a Tank. I kinda think their are two kinds of Tanks in my opinion. Their are those who play a tank for whatever reason and their are those that are dedicated to Tanking and work at it to become as good as they can be. As a result you can have different attitudes while tanking for a group. You can be nervous yes, but you should not feel intimidated to perform infront of your group or guildies on a instance run. If anything those people there with you should also be supporting your and rooting for you so their ass don't get hit behind you. My first lvl 70 instance was Shattered Halls. Was I nervous of course, but i was confident in self though in knowing what to do as best as I could. I did let group know hey its my first time here and a bit nervous! But after i got the swing of things all that went away. Rest was just reacting to what happened and I did fine on my first SH run. Yet in time with experience came greater confidence and a bolder attitude.

With experience in anything comes confidence in your ability whatever it may be. Good tanks know their gear, know their skill or what they can handle. Sometimes you test your self to see how much you can handle to now your limits with a group and a good healer to support. They know how they are going to take down the mob and what they going to do. The know how they are going to do their dance before they even get there. A lot of that is having confidence in your ability. You can't control the things you can't control, but you can control how you react in a given situation when something unexpected happens or a pull goes not as expected. You should never panic as a Tank, if you do others will just as well. Never Panic! You can't be thinking about what the other people in your group thinks or thinking your going to fail. Anyone wanting you to fail don't belong in the same group with you. You have to have confidence with a group behind you that you know just what your doing on selecting a target, which target you decide to kill first or CC if need to while knowing how your going to tank the boss in a 5 man instance. In a raid its more people and things are more coordinated for the purpose of a raid.

So you have to have the idea and confidence in you as a Tank that when your at the boss that I'm going to break both his knee caps, I'm going to smash um and I'm here to deliver to you Mr Big Boss a open can of Whoop Ass! That's the kind of attitude you need to have. Have confidence in self knowing the limits of your gear and skill that you can do what your there to do and not feel embarrassed if you make a mistake or be worried about what other people think of you while your doing your job. Just do your job and do it well, that's all you can do. Everyone at times makes mistakes and will make them again, that's human nature though you try to minimize it. I once almost pulled the entire middle of SL in room going to BlackHeart. Instead of a Exorcism on the multi handed lady mob I accidentally hit AV shield and it bounced. Its was indeed oh shit but I didn't panic but the group almost shit their pants. I held my ground and tanked um all. If I was going to die as long as my healer did not let me die I was going to die on my own feel and kill them all before they killed me. That's Confidence and Attitude.

Confidence is Attitude which comes from experience and having the right attitude is very important in doing your job as a Tank. I myself have a long way to go to still tank many things in the game, but I have confidence even though I'm sure I will make mistakes along the way. Tanking is a lonely Job! Its often just you and the boss up close often trash talking each other with most people at some distance away. You have to have confidence in your Healers that they are not asleep at the wheel and that the DPS will do their job while your doing your to the best of your ability. Your job is not to worry about what other people think of your while doing your job, deal with that later after the run. If your doing everything your can do at the best of your ability and skill that's all you can do and that's about all anyone else can ask. But walking into a instance and thinking to your self that you suck and saying to your group/guildies that you suck is the wrong attitude to be having. I wouldn't want to be in any group with a tank that think and says he sucks. That's acknowledging defeat before you even try while doubting your ability.

If you lack confidence that bad you may need to seriously consider playing something else besides a tank and doing tanking duties. Tanks are often leaders in groups and who wants to follow a tank that sucks or one with no confidence, as a matter of fact who wants to group with such a person anyway. Players want to have fun and they like a confident tank that acts and perform confidently. You don't need to be a arrogant tank or have a arrogant elitist attitude. You just need to have the right attitude that you know what your doing and confident in doing it and that you can handle the situation with a group. You also need to show it.

As a Tank you cant be afraid to fail. So many people seem to be afraid to fail or even try. People often hate PuG's and decide well its a 5 man PuG Instance run and I'm not going to try because the PuG may suck. Yeah maybe, but good players are in PuG's too. The People in your guild were often found in PuGs. You just never tell the ones in your guild that they suck when you know they may. So what. You cant be afraid to fail tanking in a PuG. If it goes bad it goes bad, maybe you learn something while at it. When you have confidence in your self as a Tank, running a PuG for a 5 man is no big deal. You have to think that your there to kick some ass in a instance and your gonna kick ass before it kicks yours. Its OK to be nervous but you can get over that easily after you smashed a few mobs and cracked some skulls and have them smell the ground. If the tank don't have confidence its hard for anyone else to have it.

Experience running instances over and over to develop skill in self and in group develops confidence over time. The attitude is something you have to have or develop over time while having the confidence in your self, your group and healer. Attitude is something you develop from within and no one can teach a Tank how to have that. But when tanking tank with confidence and a big bold attitude that's your there to put a royal smackdown on the boss and your not going to be intimidated. Don't worry about what your group think while your doing your dance of pain in front of the mob or boss. You may fail, but kick some ass before you get your ass kicked if you do.

Moving Forward

Hope you all started out the new years as expected and hope all that you wish for in the new year comes true or close to it. So for the new year decided to join a guild. Its also the same guild I joined briefly some time ago and left on neutral terms after a chat with the GM. I stayed in touch with the guild though I wasn't in it since I still had a few friends there. They have a new GM (Mage) now which is also a friend I ran many Instance with and I just made the decision to join them and see where things go from here. I had the choice to join a few other guilds and some more progressive ones also but i decided on this one (again). They run Kara weekly and they were more than happy I decided to rejoin then. Its a big decision in some way to join a guild yet I can be just as independent without one. If anything maybe Galo will have lots of drama to share now that I'm now in a guild maybe. Will see how it all goes.

In other news I decided I'm no longer committing Galo to doing as much daily quests or as I should say have a need to do anymore for now. Reason being in my Alt guildbank I now have 2 bank slots slam full of stuff one full of valuable herbs/food buffs from farming and the other full of Elixirs/Flasks/Potions and gems. I'm also sitting on over 5200g at the moment and I really don't need anything to spend much on except repair bills. So looking at things just no need to run dailies for cash, all it does is just pile up with nothing to spend much on for now until WotLK. I mean... I know how to make money so just no need to even try to do dailies.

So having some time to think as always until the time all eyes in Azeroth face to the North I ask myself do I have what it takes to be a good Raider? I know I have the work eithic, but time is my greatest enemy due to my extensive working hours.