One The Hardest Things About Playing WoW..

Is that we all live in another plane of existence and that reality is called Real Life being much much different than the World of Azeroth in all that it demands of us, our time, obligations and commitments in its various forms.

Whats often tough is finding that balance with Real Life & the things we care about there and this addictive fun game we all enjoy playing and talking about as well.

I can say I totally understand. I can say I've been there. I can say making choices are not ever easy with things you enjoy doing or fun to do. But often choices you and all of us at some point in various stages of our life will have to make. Sometime we face and make those choices more than once as well in maintaining a balance. Many of us will eventually understand the choice you made though saddened. But we understand its for the best for the person behind that keyboard that's still in touch with the reality called Real Life and all its complications.

We never forget the player and how they inspire us, their community impact, yet their presence will be greatly missed as well.

/Salute BRK of BigRedKitty. I can say I totally understand. I know just whats it like as well and its not a easy choice. Wish you well and hope you come back much stronger!

Sometimes each of us all needs a break from all of this to focus on other things of importance and rebalance our lives. Its not the end though.

Saturday Night Heroic 25 Man Naxxaramas

I was really sleepy from Friday night raid of Naxx. For sure I didn't have a 1 hour of sleep between the time Fridays raid and Saturday night raid. I was really sleepy and tired form Fridays raid and having to work all day without much sleep. So when I logged in after working all day Saturday the guild was headed back to Heroic 25 man Naxx to finish where we left off. So I got a invite along again and just helped out however I could but just learning really.

We finished the night at Thaddius the last boss in the construct quarter doing the polarity dance and not being able to get him down before he enraged. We only had 23 people in the raid for the night as well so we were also under dps for what seem like a dps race to me as well on Thaddius.

Anyway we started the night in the Military wing and cleaning it all up and got right back to Instructor Razuvious. We got him down on what seemed like the second attempt in a fun fight and I can say i just about got the hang of it. He dropped some nice gear and i guess it was just as humerous watching the raid members 1 up on DKP bidding on gear and outbidding each other. I found some humor in that. I couldn't bet on much anyway since my DKP is really low compared to many in the raid. So we were off after that and completed the rest of the Military wing.

We got to the 4 Horsemen and after a few tries and misstep during the switches we got them down. I have to say I enjoyed this fight as well. Was a blast. We did the tank the boss in the 4 corner strat it seem and sometime on switch it seem the switch didn't quite go off as well. I was just basically learning it as it was happening. We wiped a few times but in the end we tried a different strategy that worked the first time.

I was in the group for Thane Korth'azz and the strat was to have more dps stack this group and have just the tank a healer and a dps in the opposite group. We did that and on pull we killed the Thane before he even made the attempt to switch corners. That made getting down the other horsemen easier in the opposite corner from our group and thus easier to get the other 2 horseman down as well. In the process of getting down the last horsemen I ended up drawing aggro and tanking the last horsemen to the end. That was really cool as well great job by the raid as well with that strat.

We headed off to the rest of the Construct wing and oneshot Bosses Grobbulus and Gluth which was just as fun especially the Grobbulus fight. But in the end night ended at Thaddius with several attempts with a less than full raid. I was so tired I was barely awake. To be honest I was really tired as well tonight and somewhat relieved we didn't have a raid. I went took a nap and then I later spend most the time in Dalaran trying to find a JC to cut me a Champion Monarch Topaz gem for my new Pants so I could equip them and maintain my Meta gem bonus from my Helm by geming the pants.

First Raid of Heroic OS

The Guild was doing a 25 man Heroic run of Obsidian Sanctuary (OS) and our guild GM invited me along though I hadn't signed up for it. I think we 24 maned it. But it was my first time there and I barely knew much about OS I can also saw I barely remember much of it as well as it was brief it all seemed. I just knew we killed the boss and luckily we had very few plate wearers. So blessing of silvermoon be with me I won the roll and I picked up a Dragon Brood Legguards from Boss Sartharion. My luck on rolls is usually piss poor on rolls. Funny how things are though because not but a day or so before I picked up the Bolstered Legplates from Heroic Violet Hold. So I'm now using both for different good uses after geming both and slapping some leg armor kits on both of them. Was a fun raid.

Sometimes You Get Called - My First WotLK Raid, 25 Man Heroic Naxx

I wasn't expecting to be raiding as yet let alone tonight. Was just expecting to just work on some other seemingly boring thing. But my Guild GM Warrior friend gave me a friendly invite and nudged me to tag along anyway with the guild for the Heroic 25 Man raid of Naxxramas. MY UI wasn't really set up for Raiding either. But I guess you have to start raiding somewhere don't we all despite all things.

I have no clue as to how any boss or anything is in Naxx so it was all just seeing it for the first time. We had fun and I did as well. With 4 Tanks, 3 Paladins and a Warrior and rest of the raid we cleared all the Arachnid and the Plague Quarter bosses. I tanked Patchwrek almost to the very end when he went into a frenzy and all was going fine and just like that out of the blue I was face down with way less than 1% HP and rest of raid got him down a few seconds later. I guess with that I missed getting a Achievement.

I guess even though a bit over half my gear is still Blue its all enchanted and in tip top shape. Every bit of it made a difference tanking the entire boss fight. It was fun!


Being the much lesser geared Tank it didn't start off that I was going to tank Patchwrek. I think I shielded him 3rd but my threat cycle was just fast enough that I somehow outpaced the other 2 much better geared fellow guild P.Paladins and Patchwrek took a liking for me. So I ended up tanking him 99% of the fight.

Instructor Razuvious kicked our raids ass along with his 4 man DK crew. So we headed off to the Construct Quarter for Patchwrek.

This boss was fun whatever his name was. He dropped some nice loot but I really didn't have much to bit on anything. No worries though. Everything in its own time.

Not quite got that dance down yet. I was just moving wherever our Warrior tank moved, which can be a bit hard to anticipate. Maybe I should say I didn't quite understand the fight that's more like it as well. Need to head to the research department.



Was a long fun night. Got some DKP for the boss kills, picked up several Emblems of Valor. Saw some really nice gear drops for Plate. Our only Holy Paladin in the raid made out like a bandit on healing Plate which was all great for him. He's a awesome healer. But in the end I only bid on one item and got that so picked up Fleshless Girdle which dropped from Patchwrek. I really don't have much of any current gear with much blockrating as yet so was nice to pick up a gear piece and at least I now don't have to send 40 Emblems of Heroism on the other one. Kinda nice as well since I got to tank him the entire fight almost which didn't start out that way. I was just the undergeared tank along for Naxx 101 class. Fun night!

Some Heroic Love

Just being running a few Heroics. For me its usually fun despite the occasional headaches in Pugs but for the most part its all fun even on a bad day because you learn something new no matter what. But I've managed to improve my gear steadily just doing whats I'm my control to do. Steady constant gear improvement works for me as well as preperation and so I do reflect on this recent post over at Blessing of King about being just Good Enough.

So I've gotten a little bit of love when it come to boss drops on my runs as well as collecting some Emblems of Heroism all on Heroics. No its not Naxx. Its all just Heroics. I went ahead with the Emblems I collected recently and spent them picking up the Chained Military Gorget at the vendor. It replaced my Burning Skull Pendant which I still keep in my bag and I still wear as needed along with other gear pieces.

I also was able to pick up the Keystone Great Ring on my 3rd Heroic run of Drak'Tharon Keep from the last boss. I was so surprise that it even dropped when it did because I even forgot the boss dropped it. But I'm glad he dropped it so I could stop beating on him to drop it. I love running Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep that Instance is fun to me at least and its a fairly easy instance once you understand the place. Even the last boss remains my favorite for fun.

On my 2nd run of Heroic Violet Hold more like my 2nd time there in VH as well Boss Cyanigosa was so kind that it dropped me the Bolstered Legplates. Nice! I was just all too happy. So this will replace my Special Issue Legplates from the Argent Crusade Honored.

I was able to pick up Knight of the Risen King to replace my waist belt some few days ago. Can't remember what I was wearing before. But funny as it is I see that belt drop on every single one of my run of Drak'Tharon Keep from the trash mobs. I think it drops on Regular and Heroics.

So my gear has gotten much better with a bit of effort and work up to 26.2HP just doing the Pug circuit and without ever being to Naxx as yet. I got all kinds of extra blue block gear I've picked up I can't even remember. But in the last 2-3 days I think I've collected 54 Emblems of Heroism all from Heroics. I'm just wondering what I should spend it on and buy next for a good gear piece. My new friends list is getting quite long as well with new faces. It helps to Pug to add new friends mostly healers and solid dpsers. It helps to venture out your comfort zone called a guild, for me that's nothing new.

With all those Heroic runs, 16k more reps and I'll be Exalted with the Kirin Tor faction as well.

Screenshot of the Day: Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle

I miss doing my blog screenshots feature which has always being a long feature here, its been a while since I had one up.

A day at the office running Heroic UP in a snapshot. I just happen to remember to take a picture shot while I was there with my crew to try and convince the big boss King Ymiron that he really should give me that Red Sword of Courage he's hiding in there. So far he doesn't think that's a real good idea to let that blade go. So.... we will have to negotiate another day some more in a beatdown session.

The Argent Champion

Woot! Did the Argent Dawn grind long ago before Wotlk. Having done all the quests just got rest of reps from running Heroics for reps Championing on the Argent Crusade Tabard so now Exalted. Time to wear another Tabard. But I now get to wear another cool title.

Getting My Mojo Back...

I haven't as yet decided to go raiding so just doing whatever and slowly working on my gear to make it better. As well just working on my Reps with Sons of Hodir mostly so just about Revered just doing the daily quests and making the rounds in the caves killing the Vrykuls/Exhausted Vrykuls in the quest area in the cave their in Storm Peaks for the Relics for Reps.

Weapon Skilling

I decided to just go work on my other weapon skills to level them all up just because I've always done it and usually just like to maintain my weapon skills all leveled up so did that and in the process earned the Achievement for having 4 weapons skills at 400. Maybe Blizz should also give one for having all 7 weapon skills maxed out maybe. But I just went ahead and leveled up all my 2H weapon skills as well even though of course a Protect Paladin only mainly use a 1H weapon. But who knows if your duel spec as a Ret Paladin wouldn't a 2H weapon skill come in handy for using a 2H weapon as a reason to level the skills?

I found it easily to just go down to the Crystalsong Forest and pull a few small tree druid looking elementals that walk around. Remove Ret Aura to not dmg the mobs and just level up on the elementals usually have 2 at a time for the most part just using SoL/JoL. They don't hit for much and they self heal as well. When one elemental gets low on HP I just tab switch to the other which allows you to whack away for quite a while or take a kitchen break for a few mins and come back with higher weapon skills. I once remembered that having a high Intellect makes learning weapon skills faster and not sure if Blizz had changed in some patch I'm not aware of. So I just buffed my Intellect during the process with 2 elixirs in case it still made a difference time wise.

Heroics

Usually for Heroics so far I just join random Pugs for Instance groups and Heroics. Its what I've always been used to and despite all the headaches most people have in Pugs I'm fine with it. I just tend to exercise more patience than most people will. I also Pug because its how I keep my friends list outside of my guild long with other good players (mostly healers) not in my guild and with other players that are on my gear level gearing up as well. If you can find a a few good healers that like to run Instances at your gear level your close to being set for LFG in a Pug.

Anyway ran H.HoL for the second time Puging it with a melee/leather group and a young druid healer. The run went pretty much smooth. On Loken this time vs my first time here I had a AoE healer and it was much easier than the first time. The group just dps him fast and we got the Achievement for the fast kill of Loken which was cool. Average dps was over 1400 at least from looking at Recount. Compared to my first Heroic run of HoL which was more fun with my raiding guildies as most were guild friends I've known a while even though they were on their alt characters and had a few problems with Loken at the end. Their dps play was just different and felt more target focused tanking the run. So far Loken hasn't dropped the Trinket I've been looking to pick up there as yet.

While I was just out killing time leveling up my weapon skills found a group needed a tank for Heroic UK so ran off and did that for the first time and didn't notice anything that much different on Heroics vs regular except stuff hit harder of course. But the run went fairly fast and smooth so was fun as well. Heroic UK was fairly easy in my book for a few badges.

Found another Pug group and got to do Heroic DTK for a first and went fairly smooth as well. Most the bosses seem to just work pretty much the same on regular. As well some the trash at the first part of the instance did some void area spawn on ground have to get out of and the Aboms spewing their goo stuff before the first boss so just have to keep them facing their back to group. Other than that it was a fun run. We killed the bone boss at the end and for some reason even though most the group hadn't done it before we never got an achievement for the run at all which seemed bugged. I call that instance fun as well and not too hard either.

Horde had the control of Wintergasp so a guildie asked me to OT the run for with the group made up mostly of guildies for the Vault of Archavon. I've never really been to Wintergasp so never seen the instance either. I got their right as the run was about to start to the big boss at the end. I had no real explanation of the boss so I couldn't say I understand any of it as far as boss mechanics. I just remember once during the boss I had taunted and I went flying across the room and wasn't sure why. But after the guildie explained it a bit. So was a bit more clear on it. However usually I do my own research on something so that I'm usually real clear on something. At least got 2 badges for the fun.

Got into another Pug group yesterday for Heroic UP which having being to UP seems like would be a bit of fun. None had done Heroic UP before in the group. We cleared first 2 bosses no problem. On the gauntlet the group couldn't seem to get Skadis down and wiped due not enough harpoons. We wiped again on group getting caught in Skadis drake Icy breath. We tried one more time with group and couldn't complete the event and rest of the group just quit for any of 999 different reasons you all heard before. I called it a day at that point, headed back to Dalaran and added up my repair bills for community service and a bit of badges.

As well l haven't though about what to first buy with those Emblem of Heroism as yet either.

A Few Heroics

Just being running some Heroics and a few with some guildies so just got enough Emblems to pickup Libram of Obstruction. Heroic HoL was fun with exception to Loken in H.HoL after biting the dust a few times but it was all good fun and repair bills, ouch. We got him after a few dances and miss steps and finding out what strat works and what don't work with our guild Holy Paladin healer. What's your best strat to beating Loken on Heroics?

Got revered with The Wyrmrest Accord and picked up a few pieces of blue faction gear there. Picked up Royal Crest of Lordearon from H.Cot for a extra shield to my Titansteel Shield Wall. Can't hurt to have a few extra shields though it does look really nice as well.

Just working on leveling up all my other weapon skills killing time. As well working on Sons of Hodir reps to reach Exalted from Honored and getting from Revered to Exalted with the Argent Crusade so I can eventually get a new Title soon. 

Nothing New

Was on the road a bit for a while so was out of state out west for a while visiting some friends. So haven't done all that much for WoW in a week or so. For the most part when I can I just usually spend some time over on the Maintankadin Forum reading the forums catching up on stuff  I'm just not as up to speed on for the most part as well as reading a few community blogs. So nothing really new here. 

In other news my Alchemy is now 450 by way of transmuting diamonds till they were green and then making just a few flasks to finish things. So I guess I've now maxed out all my professions: Alchemy, Mining, First Aid, Fishing, Cooking. I'm happy with that. 

Late Too The Party, lvl 80.

Late to the party but eventually you get there for the second time at that with a little play time playing entirely the same spec you always played of course. Better late than never, but its good to get there eventually little by little. I dinged 80 tanking a puging a Utgarde Pinnacle run and was so busy barely say the ding and forgot to take a screen shot of the achievement flash across the screen. Oh well, 80!

That's my stats when I hit lvl 80 with some crafted gear I had a guildie craft along the way that was sitting in the bank. I read my own old blog posts after all. But getting to 540 Defense was very easy, I was there the moment I got there.

Equipped some new gear at 80 as well so only wearing one piece of green gear in a Trinket slot. All my gear is enchanted so that was no problem getting that done with my mats. All the Glyph slots are filled so looking good. I noticed in the AH on my server there is never any: Glyph of Seal of Vengeance, you know those things can sell as a Inscriptor. I had to buy a 5 pack of Ink of the Sea for 8g from AH to have someone make the Glyph. I looked for it for days and never saw any.


I just enjoyed puging along the way when needed, farming for fun whatever was needed for mats. Doing whatever I needed relaxing along the way. As for now. I'll still quest for fun as I do need to build back up my financial warchest and make a bit more money somehow. For the most part I just enjoy fishing at the fishing hole.

I haven't though much as yet of going out my way to do any real achievements. But if I could get a achievement that's worthwhile to me in how I play this game its 0-80 entirely (100%) as a Protection Paladin. I saw a recent WoWinsider blog post that ask what if you can have a title any title that says something about you, Pick a Title, any Title. Well for me its a none other than for all that's obvious: "The Ardent Defender" What else would you expect me to call it :)

As for now not in any hurry to be a Raider and doing any great deal of raiding. I hate burnout, been there too many times in the course of this blog.