Monday, November 3, 2008

The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point is a Best Seller Book by Malcolm Gladwell. Its one of my many favorite Books and one of many of the books I've read when I used to actually read lots of actual "Books". These days I've tend to read many blogs. The sad thing is I can't remember the last time I read a actual real Book recently either.

"The Tipping Point is that Magic Moment when an Idea, Trend, or Social Behavior crosses a threshold, Tips and Spread like Wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate".

We all make million of choices everyday, many subconsciously. Everyday many of those thoughts or choices tip one way or the other followed by a choice which leads to an action or a thought of some kind. Sometimes its weighing the choices on a balance scale with a game perhaps.

I believe at some point something whatever it may be in the grand scheme of all things something will cause your or I to reach your own Tipping Point in whatever those millions of collective thoughts are. At that point things begin to change. I've reached mine.


Dear Silvermoon,

My faith is with me no more. It has kept me going this long in your service. I've proudly served you as a dedicated son of these lands of our people. I've traveled far in service of our land and of our people who have suffered so greatly for far so long. Fame, Fortune and Honor I've found in my great service. Faith in the Light bestowed upon me has guided me through countless battles.

I have reached my End! I can go no further in my service of our great city and people. My steadfast dedication is no longer with me. My faith now fails me. Disillusion fills the emptiness that remains. I can no longer perform my duties as a honorable Blood Knight in your service.

To Silvermoon I leave my cold steel righteous Sword, my Shield of faith, my Divine Armor in thy keeping. My loyal companion Charger I return to thy stables. All thy gathered wealth I've instructed be donated to charity for greater good.

I have met the enemy and have fulfilled my service commission. With great sadness it pains me to acknowledge I can serve you proudly no more in my present condition. I shall take my long over due and much needed leave to wonder portals to other lands and realms. I know not if I will ever return.


Son of Silvermoon
Galoheart
Ardent Defender


One day your time will come! In the journey of "My Life and Times...." and with my most beloved and dedicated Paladin. I've chosen to end my journey here.

26 comments:

Dradis said...

It is sad to see that these changes that Blizz is doing is going to send you away from the Paladin class as well. It has already done so with me. I hope to see you blog a bit more, I know you have your Hunter yet. It is frustrating, and I wish Blizzard knew how much they have been hurting the Paladin community with everything that has been going on. You can always do as I have and join the Dark Side.

I have become a Warlock. When the light fails you, all that is left is darkness. Better to embrace it then let it consume you.

That and watching people run around with their heads on fire is bunches of fun. Of course, it would probably be fun sending a gorilla into a pack of mobs and watch the gorilla pummel them to death. So many options.

Honestly, I have been having a lot of fun with my new toon. And thats what its all about right? Good luck to you, and I hope I still get to read something from you, as I really enjoy your posts.

grumpus said...

Argh no! I have always enjoyed reading your blog and it will be sorely missed from my google reader.

Good luck in your future endeavors!
-gt of claymorehill

Anonymous said...

I'm with gt. Really sad to see you go, your posts has been in some sorts an inspiration to me and my kara-geared tankadin.

all the best! I have no alt ):

Huryia said...

For the first time since I started playing this game, I feel an unbearable disappointment seeing how my (leveled as and still is) protection paladin has been handled lately by the blizz. I’m not a person of big words, nor my English is excellent, but unbearable is the true word. So without to much drama, I understand what you feel. And although I’ve always enjoyed reading your blog (great work, by the way) , I sympathize with your decision of not playing the protection paladin in it’s current state. See you on the Dark side.

Huryia
Devotion - Terenas EU

Unknown said...

Galo,
it has always been a pleasure to read your blog and it has helped me in many ways having a better time on my tankadin. I will really miss your blog and I'm sad that you have been driven so far that you no longer have fun playing paladin.
I still have my faith in the light (as well as in the incoming fixes to fury warriors), but I can understand that the fun is no longer there for you.

I can only wish you the best of luck in whatever you are going to do next, be it ingame or irl.

Fapman - Trollbane EU

Gamer Hudson said...

Are paladins ever happy? Seriously.. for 4 years it has been the emo class of WoW.

Some day someone will be able to make a hybrid class in an MMO that functions and people have respect for. Until then, we always have druids I guess. Maybe...

It is too bad that PVP has such an influence on PVE in WoW. I just play the game, no changes would make me quit. I just dont notice them to be honest.

Anonymous said...

take heart?


Ghostcrawler wrote:
Our eventual plan is to put Divine Shield on a shared 30 sec cooldown with Avenging Wrath. We also plan on changing Divine Shield's attack speed penalty (which isn't really much of a penalty) and have it apply to all damage done while the bubble is up.

Divine Protection would no longer have the attack penalty, but since Prot paladins typically talent out of that penalty, it won't have a big effect on tanking (though obviously that talent would need to do something slightly different).

All of this assumes that preventing AW from being used with DS actually makes the Ret tree a little more balanced. We'll need to monitor that a little bit longer first.

We are going to go ahead and change the mana drains to a percentage of mana so that Ret paladins don't lose so much larger a percentage of their mana than casters with 15K mana.

Dradis said...

If there is an overall damage reduction in bubble, then why even bother seperating bubble and wings?

/The Count
One Slap
Two Slaps
Three! Three slaps! AHAHAHAHAA

These are the exact issues that I have, and most likely Galo, with how Blizz is handling things.

TO THE GROUND!!!

Paul said...

You've played through tougher times than this. Get a grip.

Dradis said...

Titan grip?

Huryia said...

@paul : So true. Yet in this mad desperation to fix the retribution damage in pvp, I honestly doubt they'll compensate the protection and holy damage dealing loss. There's no time for this, and much more work is needed elsewhere, with the expansion being so close. Prot Paladin is not unplayable, not by far. But it start to look again more like a struggle rather then fun. This is my disappointment.

@dradis : now that's a grip :)

Ogscreech said...

galo iv always enjoyed reading your blog and you even inspired me to write my own one. I will miss reading it

Chris said...

The issue isn't even necessarily the state of the paladin class at the end of all of this - it's that blizzard has sent us on such a wild roller coaster ride that we don't know which end is up. They've proven they don't understand the class at all, and that they didn't bother to really test whatsoever.

To receive such massive nerfs across the board, in hotfixes to boot, has been brutal software design and development.

Druids with worse gear can likely "out-threat" me now. Warriors always could. It's back to no ability to OT, and basic-level MTing.

David said...

You're quitting? That's disappointing.

Unknown said...

Galo,

Sorry to hear you are shelving your pally. I have greatly enjoyed reading your blog and hope you keep it up in some form. Good luck in your travels.

Unknown said...

Are you quitting the game or just re-rolling?

I've also recently quit my Paladin who was holy. Ret was OP but the way they're nerfing the entire class is completely unfair. I'd hate to level as holy or prot at the moment and even grinding at 70 / 80 is painful. The forbearance and seal dmg changes are great examples of Blizzard's poor approach to the paladin core design.

Strasbourg said...

Is this permanent or are you going to try something else? I'd honestly suggest prot warrior...

Jonathan said...

I wish you well in your travels. May the Light continue to guide you.

I still love playing my pally tank.

I Play It All said...

It's disappointing to hear you're quitting Galo. I really enjoyed reading your blog and getting your impressions on everything in the game - from professions to paladin tanking.

I recently rerolled a paladin tank because I wanted to swing the light and be a strong tank in the face of big bosses (and BE females certainly are tiny)!

You will be very much missed.
/cry

-Protectorate (Kil'Jaeden)
-Raynmaker (Uther)



@edge
"Druids with worse gear can likely "out-threat" me now. Warriors always could. It's back to no ability to OT, and basic-level MTing."

If you're having problems with dps catching you on threat now, then either you're not paying attention to your cooldowns or your dps is pulling instead of you, you're not using the right gear, or you're letting RF fall off.
I've tanked through TK so far, and I have to say that it's amazingly easy to keep aggro over dps, and to out-threat both warriors and druids.

I can EASILY pull threat off of my druid off-tank in ZA on the bear and lynx bosses.
I had to hold back on consecrate almost the entire time on Gruul to remain 2nd instead of 1st on the threat list.
I held threat on Void Reaver even after knock-backs.

I'm not sure why you'd be having problems with threat gen anymore.

Unknown said...

Galo,

It's probably the right time for you then. Much better now that after a mad struggle to reach higher levels, only to be left with that same despair.

Perhaps you can still find solace in your hunter. Perhaps you'll get some much-needed reading done.

The sad part is that the things that drove you to this point carry on, and Blizz doesn't notice what gets trodden underfoot.

Hana said...

Farewell, Galo.

It's been a pleasure reading your blog in the months since I discovered it. It saddens me to hear you're hanging up your sword, but do what's right for you and good luck out there.

And from one blood elf paladin to another: Al diel shala.

Kailon said...

Dude, I respect your decision but can't help think it's a copout. I've played a few toons through hard times and i never switched due to changes blizzard made to nerf or buff the toon. I changed due to play styles. I will be a protection pally in wrath. I hope your decision is a wise one and you enjoy whatever toon you play in the wotlk. good luck.

Paul said...

I started a reply to the replies since my last reply. (awkward)

It grew into it's own post:

http://www.wulfsblood.net/2008/11/this-started-as-reply-to-galohearts.html

Gravity said...

Take care Galo. I expect it's more than nerfs that's made you leave. I'm sure it's more than just that. All the best.

Anonymous said...

Take care Galo.

May the light be with you, always.

Taco said...

While I am sorry to see you go Galo, Paladins still kick some serious butt. I still need to bring a friend to take down a Paladin who knows how to play if I am on my hunter. Hell, I would love 1/2 of a Paladin's survivibility on my Shaman. As Meg pointed out here: http://outofmana.blogspot.com/
nerfage is in the eye of the beholder.