My Dual Spec Retribution Gear.

This is my Dual Spec Retribution gear so far on a o/17/54 build that I've managed to put together without too much extended effort. Most just pieces I picked up from Heroics when I had the option to pickup the piece and no one else needed it. Rest from Factions since I'm Exalted with the major ones already and few crafted pieces. A few options I just picked up with a few badges since didn't have much else to use them for atm.

My Retribution Gear Set so Far...

2H Weapon: Titansteel Destroyer - Greater Savagery

Bracer: Dragonfriend Bracers - Greater Assault 

Chest: Breastplate of Undeath - Super Stats 

Cloak: Cloak of Bloodied Waters - Major Agility 

Shoulders: Spaulders of the Giant Lords - Greater Inscription of the Axe

Neck: Chained Military Gorget (Using my Tanking Neck piece)

Helm: Spiked Titansteel Helm - Arcanum Torment Gem: Meta & Blue

Gloves: Heroes Redemption Gauntlets - Crusher Gem: Red

Waist: Jorach's Crocolisk Skin Belt - Gem: Blue & Red

Leg: Staggering Legplates - Icescale Leg Armor Gem: Red & Yellow

Boots: Death-Inured Sabatons - Greater Assault Gem: Blue & Red

Ring 1: Ring of Scarlet Shadows - Gem: Blue

Ring 2: Stained Glass Shard Ring - 

Trinket 1: Incisor Fragment

Trinket 2: Mirror of Truth

Libram Slot: Libram of Furious Blows

Glyphs Major: Seal of Blood, Exorcism, Judgement.

Glyph Minor: Blessing of Might, Sense Undead, Lay of Hands.

So far it seems decent to raid with and do decent dps when switching to dual spec for guild raids or just whenever playing around on quest or whatever. I can spend spend money just for a Neck piece but I just rather use my tanking neck piece for now since it has decent stats and hit rating on it. Being a tank and dual spec as Ret I don't have any priority for gear upgrades in raids and I'm not counting on picking up much since guild have lots of melee dps and dps plate as well. And I guess its not much a priority to focus on quickly improving my Ret gear over my tanking gear set(s). May have to run a few guild 10 mans as dps maybe for any upgrade but not sure how much upgrades can possible get in 10 mans other than tier pieces maybe.

If I pickup upgrades from raiding them I guess that will just be fine I guess. A Libram upgrade I'm sure I can pickup on a next Naxx raid hopefully as I'm not going to spend Emblems of Valor to pick up dual spec gear over tanking gear pieces. But at least I did put some work into the gear to make it decent for raiding utility and can provide some utility when needed as a option. But that's my gear I had together after the patch went live. But WTB more bag space, with all that gear in my bag I barely have any free space.

If you know of good gear upgrades to above do let me know. PvP is out since I don't PvP. I may  have to dps a few VoA to maybe see what comes up as well and with the Argent Tournament for weapons which I'm already working on.

Related Post: Dual Spec Stats, First Time Ever Retribution

A Week in Raiding Naxx 25 and Upgrades

Our guild headed back to Naxx over the weekend. Fortunately it worked out with my work schedule that I could attend the raid and not working night shift at work. The biggest problem attending guild weekly raids is usually my work schedule that week as my shift can switch back and forth from nights to days to nights etc. So we headed back to 25 man Naxx with a full raid. 

Sometimes raid missing a person or two but this time it was full. We had almost all of our various usual guild tanks in the raid most having a duel spec as well so one or two was dual as dps as needed. But we had enough tanks for the raid as tanks. I was pretty much OT for most of the raid for this week and that's all fine. On some boss when I wasn't really needed as Tank I just switched to my dual spec for now as Retribution and did DPS. I've never really DPS as a Paladin, In raids or other than leveling up my Hunter alt but that's just questing etc. So on some boss like Heigan I DPS and lived through it, thanks to our druid that was the marker for the fight. That was fun. On that movement intensive fight I did like 1994 dps with our guild top Ret Paladin at 2445 dps. Not too bad I guess.

I kept switching back and forth as needed as we cleared the various quarters of Naxx. Sometime it felt like a pain switching back and forth, loosing my own buff I casted on the raid and some people loosing Paladin Buff since I was casting Sanctuary on everyone. Other time having to remove and add Righteous Fury buff and change Seals every time changed. I was also consuming tons of mana drinks to refill mana on dual spec switching. 

On Loathlab I believed it was I had switched to Retribution and not long after the fight started Loatlab kept eyeing me and I got one shotted. WoW! Cause had Righteous Fury buff up and forgot to click it off switching back and forth from Protection to Retribution. So I inspected the dirty floor of Naxx the whole fight. These just things to be aware of dealing with using dual spec. But we one shot him so was all good. Needless to say I still didn't feel good doing floor inspections. I'm always harder on my self when stuff happen and I know its clearly my fault because it runs through my mind constantly.

On Thaddius who many in the raid hate I especially have grown to like this guy though not on my first visit. As long as timed and made the jump getting to him was fine. But on Thaddius I DPS'd as Ret the fight as the only Retribution Paladin in the raid at that point and we one shot him. Much different to a week or so ago when we had a hard time trying to get him down, not beating the enrage timer and people dying the whole fight. But this time everyone with a bit of experience seem to be more aware what to do. We didn't loose anyone on Thaddius and for DPS as Retribution I did 4664 dps and thats with having a Tanking flask on for HP. I'm not sure how good that is but I was number 10 for dps with the top dps a Rogue at 6369 dps followed by the 2 Warlocks. That's most dps ever did ever and still learning rotating spells for Retribution. But it did help on the Boss.

We cleared up all the wings of Naxx 25 with exception of the Frost Wing and called it a night. I was glad because only got 2 hours of sleep or less before had to go to work. Needless to say that contributed to been sleep at work all weekend long and just being generally tired. The next night we headed back to Naxx to do the Frost Wing which is guild progression bosses for guild for Naxx 25 man raid. 

Sapphiron who gave us a hard time before last week got one shotted this week and was good to see him go down for 14/15 Naxx 25. So off to Kel'Thuzad (KT). Though I've read raid strat before don't always make as much sense till you see it happen. One of our other raid Protection Paladin gave me some pointers for the boss stratergy as well as on my assignment for the fight. Especially since I've never seen or been to Kel'Thuzad before. I've never raided Naxx 10 before so of course never seen his either. But I was assigned to the adds for phase 1. On Phase 2 didn't do much but cast a judgement here and then and just help dispel the frost debuffs from KT on the raid. On Phase 3 I was assigned to pickup 2 of the Guardian of Icecrown adds, the big bugs. I don't remember how low we got KT on the first attempt but it was supposedly less than 20%. That was our best attempt if I remember correctly. 

On the that same attempt I wasn't quite aware or told of a mind control that KT does. Well I got mc'd while on the bugs and got sent charging through the raid killing almost everyone and wiping the whole raid while under KT mind control. I barely knew what was happening and almost seemed funny. Just the wipe was not. That was one our best attempt. I think we did like 4 or maybe 5 attempts in all that I can remember on Kel'Thuzad. One one attempt I remember after the first one in Phase 4 I picked up both Guardians of Icecrown. I was just left of KT chamber where he spawned. I had zoomed out camera angle a bit. I picked up the first Guardian that came though the portal with Hand of Reckoning since it was close. Then saw the other one at the far portal from me heading to the raid. I cast Exorcism on that one to pick it up. Not long after tanking both I went from full health to dead just like that flat. WoW!

On another attempt which seemed like one of our best attempt as well also but had no idea how low KT was on HP. On this attempt we had lost lots of dps and just seem like the raid was just hanging on. One the things was that the raid was melee heavy and lots of the melee on KT had died. Me and the other Protec Paladin in the raid was on the Guardian adds in Phase 4. Seem like we were on those adds for what seem like forever. Quite a few dps had died mostly melee. Healers seem to be doing all they could best I can tell. Those bugs seem to keep getting much bigger and hitting much harder and stacking lots of their debuffs. Just reached a point both OT went down and whatever of raid was left wiped. 

We tried! But after the raid man it seem to get a bit nasty in the guild chat post raid for a while. Some people from the raid and some in particular was pointing fingers at each other or everyone else. Some dpsers was just mad that KT wasn't one shotted or because he didn't fall over and croaked. None of the Tanks in the raid was complaining nor did any of them did. I had to /w the other Protect Paladin that was in the raid asking why people seem to be generally so bitter and negative just because KT didn't fall over like a loot Pinata. 

I just went repaired, called it a night in progression as a guild and logged off for my less than 2 hours of sleep before having to get up at 4 am for a damn sleepy hang over at work. In all i got 4 hours of sleep all weekend. Which reminds me I got more sleep when I wasn't playing WoW and when I was on my recent break from WoW. I slept much better and more restful during all that time. 

Naxx 25 man Upgrades.

So with all the knocking over bosses in Naxx 25 man last week and this week I picked up these upgrades with my DKP often at low bids since most the tanks seem to be a bit civil on bidding DKP for stuff or they have it or a side grade already. DPS always go nuts bidding on stuff which is often amazing to watch.

Bindings of the Hapless - Really needed to upgrade my bracers from the ones from H.Strat Cot.

Gatekeeper - A great upgrade especially with the hit rating as well on it for my ring.

Helm of Vital Protection

Token to pickup Valorous Redemption Shoulderguard

Token for Valorous Redemption Breastplate

Burdened Shoulderplates

Inexorable Sabatons

From Heroics I also picked up another Red Sword of Courage which I've personally seem 4 times now and now have 2 of them each with a different enchant. One has Exceptional Agility Enchant the other Red Sword of Courage has Accuracy Enchant. I carry and use both as needed.

I saw Broken Promise drop 2 times in the same raid from 2 different bosses which seemed unusual. But be nice to see what happens when Last Laughs drops from KT eventually. One of our tanking Warrior and the other Protec Paladin picked up Broken Promise though. I couldn't outbid the Paladin anyway. He has way too much dkp already and don't have way that much.

While in the raid as Retribution Libram of Radiance dropped. I was wearing Libram of Furious Blows I expressed interest in picking it up to replace the green one I was dpsing with in the raid. We had no other Ret Paladin in the raid and the other Protec Paladin didn't seem to care. The Holy Paladin got it, some in raid says I was off spec anyway. Oww! In the Plague Quarter on trash I was still in Ret spec after Heigan was downed and I saw Inevitable Defeat dropped. Nice! I have no idea who got it but seemed like a nice Ret 2H. Since I was dual spec as Ret only I couldn't roll on it anyway and wouldn't seem fair to for all the ones that use A 2H in the raid. One the DK may have gotten it but unsure. I don't count on ever being able to get any upgrade from dual specing as Ret spec while helping out the raid in 25 man Naxx. 

My Ret gear is decent for raids to dual and provide some dps as needed but so far but I may just end up going Prot/Prot for my dual spec. I did spend all the money to fix, gem, enchant my Ret set so its in good working order. But it less worry and agony as Prot/Prot and I can stick to only worrying about tanking upgrades unless no one really needs the plate, which don't seem really likely with as many people with alts that are in our guild. Plus I enjoy being just Prot anyway and I may just stick to that.

Glyphs from 3.1

I've managed not long after the patch to acquire all the new worthy glyphs for Protect Paladins through AH at a low and affordable price all less than 50g each. I picked up enough Glyph of Divine Plea that I was able to mail one to each of our raiding Protect Paladins since they had yet to get it. As well picked up Glyph of Hammer of Righteous and Glyph of Salvation for situational use or maybe use on my dual Prot/Prot spec.

The Argent Tournament & Achievement System

Yeah its Saturday, for me it is on my work schedule still midweek for you maybe. Sorry I haven't been in the Office inking out blog posts. Really being a little tired from late night raids and early morning wake up for my commute and work. Just don't always work well for energy. Anyway I've finally decided to answer that mail call for the Argent Tournament and headed up to Nothern Icecrown and have been a bit pre-occupied doing the Argent Tournament quests whenever I can. 

So far I'm really having fun enjoying doing tournament quests when I can in the few days I've started doing the quests. I've only made it to the Argent Valor level so far. Late start, but at least it progress. I'll probably try to complete whatever dailies I can for the Tournament whenever I can. They are really fun.

I found this link on my Blue Tracker I saw yesterday and helpful as well for the Argent Tournament on the WoW Forums linked here. 

Another blog I read Zanderfin's WoW Casual Raiding, Leiandra has some helpful strategy as well which can also be helpful doing the Argent Tournament and a good read of tips.

Achievements & Achievement System.

I've thought about Achievements for some time and about eventually making a blog post about it with my own perspective. I know many people have for a while now. And I've thought about it for myself for some time as well and most importantly in just how I play WoW on my own time. 

I think Achievements are fun and fun for the masses in WoW to do and gives something else to do to either add to your character or occupy your time to do so you don't feel bored. For me I've never being bored in playing the game or how I choose to even playing one character mostly. I've always had and set personal goals to chase after or spend time doing for me because its important to me in how I spend my time doing whatever I like or enjoy doing with my time. 

For the most part and for some time I've personally decided to just buck the trend of Achievements and the whole pursuit of it or the running around doing stuff that I really don't care about in one way or the other and just be if you can call it a Under Achiever. If your looking at points gained then I'll be that and be quite content with that as well. 

For the most part I really don't look or pay that much attention to any of my Achievements when they do happen to achieve them. Some achievements do mean much to me for my own reasons. Like being high level skilled in every weapon and having over 4 weapons skilled over 400. It means much to me because I've always done that even before it was a achievement back in BC. No one said you had to level all your weapons skill, why do it. Because I wanted to and I can use any weapon with skill if I ever changed. Quite often its a surprise to me when Achievements happens and I prefer it that way when it happens. But I do notice some Achievements if they flash by to fast doing something else. I take the position that If I accomplish something or meet the requirement of it and it happens by surprise then I quite fine with the Achievement when it happen. 

I'm never really going to go out my way to do an Achievement especially if I don't really care one way or the other about doing it or even if I do care as well. Nor spending extra game time doing something I don't care that much to do even if its damn easy to do. I still don't care that much to go out my way to do so. Even if Its something I may care about and even yet I still might not do it either. For example I've always had max skills in every profession I've had while leveling and at cap. I really love fishing in game and do it all the time for my own personal reasons. But do I really care to chase after running around fishing in every fishing pool in Northrend just to get an achievement just to say I fish. No I really don't. But then I've also fished in just about every region of Azeroth as well leveling up fishing because I actually love doing so during BC. I've fished in every area just because I fish allot and caught thousands of fish in the process. But its easy to do and wont take long to go out to do..... I don't really care! If it happens in process of doing something it happens! Do I really need to make X number of food to get a Achievement for it or eat a cake? No! Though I have many or most of the recipes I really don't care to do so either. 

I'm usually always busy doing something in game or grinding it for my own reasons and I'm never bored either. Achievements are great and nice to pursue if you have time and care about them. So for me personally I really don't care that much to spend any more precious time to go do something I really don't care that much about doing or accomplishing just for accomplishing sake. If an Achievement happen in the process of doing something them that's all fine to me being surprised when it happen. I spend my time as I choose doing whatever I choose to or not choose to do. But if you like chasing Achievements for whatever your reasons they its all good keep chasing it. For me I've decided to be a Under Achiever and if and when a Achievement does happen by surprise in doing something I'll be quite content with it. 

Noblegarden and Me!

This fits right in with how I feel about going out my way to do stuff for Achievements. Festivals are nice in Azeroth I do enjoy them at times especially for unique items and stuff. It gives many players something different to do and a break from doing other things they feel bored at doing. Festival events are and can be fun to do and thats cool as well and adds other things to the game for fun and everything else.

As for Noblegarden and me. I quite frankly don't care much for it! And I'm not going to be spending any time doing a single thing for the event. Don't care how easy it may be either. Thats just me. I'll be busy doing whatever I feel is important to me to do in game during the time. But If you like Noblegarden and its your thing thats all fine too. Go to it and happy hunting pink ears, costume and all in good fun.

Saying Goodbye to "Out of Mana"

Megan at Out of Mana a fellow blogger has decided to give up blogging and maybe quit WoW and move on as well. She also locked the post for no comments as well. So i'll make mine here :) in a post of my own.

Megan has been around just about as long as I've been around here on this blog as well myself when they were lot less WoW blogs then there now. She among one my very first readers and supporters as well helpful as well in comments. Those things are noticeable. But many other fellow bloggers seem to be quitting is this a trend? 

I can understand that very very well having taken my several breaks from WoW. Sometimes you have to leave and go do other things in RL it happens. RL has a way of getting you to focus on its needs. And it will happen to You! Megan has always being very witty and often very color full in words in how she has written her blog often PvP oriented as well in the long time she's been around. Megan you will be missed in the community. But whatever you choose to move on and do, I can only wish you well as well and much success. We all have to leave and move on at some point! Guess when your OOM your really OOM.

The Retribution Primer!

Here is a very good link and read over at Eye For An Eye to all the Retribution FAQ you want to read if you do in a very solid listing. Its worth the link it it helps someone out. Enjoy!

Dual Spec Stats. First Time Ever Retribution

Eventually made it to the trainer in Silvermoon and decided to cough over 1000g of some that patch money made investing in selling glyphs on AH. Pick up Dual Specialization with a secondary spec as Retribution (Ret). Settled on a 0/17/54 spec just for dps and utility for the 0.01% time that I probably may be playing the spec. As well more importantly spend some time learning how to play a Retribution Paladin properly.

With the dual spec this officially is the very first time ever in all the time I've ever played my Paladin that I've being a spec other than Protection. So I guess I'm now Prot/Ret with Ret as a secondary spec. I didn't get all that excited about it. Its just the way the game is evolving and I'm kinda rolling with it. But I'll always be Protection spec because that's just what and how a I enjoy playing the game all the time. 

Anyway with that all out the way I pulled some gear out my very crowded bank that I've collected along the way running Instances here and there knowing dual spec was going to be here soon and just in case I decided to try it out. A few pieces already had our guild GM who's a BS make the pieces with mats I already had on hand. As well other gear pieces from the various Northrend factions since I'm already Exalted with all the major ones in Northrend.

So this morning after work I logged in, tried out that switching spec. Throw on all the gear pieces I had for Ret which filled almost every slot. The Libram Slot just failed for having a ideal Libram. Anyway got a high lvl JC in Org to fire up cutting a bunch of blue quality gems I needed and luckily she could. So I gemed every gear slot with various AP/Stamina and Strength gems. 

Then I found a happy easy going Priest Enchanter peddling her service and fortunately she had all the enchants I needed. I have a bank full of enchanting mats that I collect all the time from having my guild priest DE all the green gear I always collect which is lots. So I usually retain a bunch of mats for the purpose of enchanting my tanking gear. So had the Priest Enchanter enchant all my gear with the necessary enchants and paid her 60g for the prompt service. And the stats in the picture is the result of all my gear being fully gemed and enchanted as a Retribution spec for the very first time. Seems ok.

So kept looking over my stats on gear. I'm already hit capped it seems already. Dang! Things seem to look good to me stats wise for being in Ret gear just over a hour maybe. So started looking around Org to see what some other Ret players suppose to look like. Looking around mine seem to look decent. Inspecting many players I was just surprised at seeing some people looking around that had on various socket gear and various gear pieces that didn't even had any gems or enchants in them. Was seeing how I fit in as a newly minted Ret Paladin. 

Anyway that's how my stats looked with what I had in my bank for gear. Just have to learn and refine the playing skills of a Retribution Paladin with the dual spec. My gear don't seem to be too bad already. What I don't like so far is switching back to Protection the gear don't stay on for the spec or not yet implemented. Fills up a already filled up bag with Tanking gear just sitting in my bag. I guess I'm now Naxx ready after a hour of throwing on some gear.

5 Reasons For Loving Exorcism in 3.1

Have being playing around just like you with all the new good stuff from the recent patch 3.1 and for the most trying to get used to some the new Paladin class changes as well. But I have to say with the change of Exorcism now working on "any" mob and critical hit on Undead & Demons I'm really loving the change. I feel like i'm now doing more dps as well. Let thy mob feel your righteous wrath.

Five Reasons to Love Exorcism.

1. Its more usable as a spell "now" than previously. Before it only worked on undead and demons. Now after patch 3.1 you can now use Exorcism on "any mob" and feel real righteous doing it. Thumbs up on anything undead or demon which now goes critical on hit. 

2. Its a DPS boost as well for the Paladin. If you have the spell glyph for Glyph of Exorcism its 20% extra damage for dps and threat as well.

3. Its on a 15 sec cooldown so you can use it quite often with the short cooldown. Running around questing and farming I pull ever single thing with exorcism. Allows much easier flow to get HS up and then Shield Slam with ShoR.

4. You can use Exorcism to range pull "any mob" or any single target you like  with high dps and initial threat.

5. Using Exorcism now gives you another single range pulling tool (30 yards) in your bag of spell trick on "any mob" without always having to rely on Avengers Shield (AS) which is on a 30 sec cooldown for a range pull. Nor do you have to rely on Judgement pulls either at 10 yards when AS is on cooldown before your trigger happy dps starts blasting before you even hit the mob. And if your range pulling Undead/Demon its pure goodness again. 

Bonus: Exorcism has a much lower mana use cost at 8% of base mana vs  Avengers Shield at 26% of base mana. It makes a noticeable  difference.

Extra: You can fire Avengers Shield away at a pack of mobs and then fire Exorcism right behind it for even more goodness on "any mob" for a pull and more initial threat if you like.

Now you can feel more righteous as a Paladin and purge all those mobs with a bit of Exorcism goodness. Hot sauce if its Demon or Undead.

On another note: My guild will take a shot of a peak inside Ulduar this weekend. Too bad i'll be busy working the night shift at work all weekend :( 

I also cleared the week so far since patch 3.1 up over 2500g from AH (Wall Street for me) just selling Glyphs on my lvl 58 DK with inscription 360. Good Week! Guess I can buy a dual spec with the extra funds :)

Enjoy Fishing!

Its no secret my second favorite thing to do in WoW is to go fishing. I've always loved to fish as a high level fisherman. I just don't care much for the fishing achievements running around doing them. I fish for the love of it. Often like to go fish for Dragonfin Angelfish obviously. Use it to make Dragonfin Fillet. Its a valuable food buff for a Tank and of course to sell on AH. And its one thing about me. I have and always carry lots of food buffs. 

I'm never going to starve as a Tank for food. I farm all of my own food.... through fishing of course. And I sure don't like to beg for food in Instances or raids. When I'm on a guild raid guess who often drops that Fish Feast for buffs for everyone else? 

But as a Alchemist Tank (rare). I found a good use for making Elixir of Water Walking. Its obvious how to use it. Stand on the lake and fish. You rarely have to fight any mob. Though beware of your surroundings. If you get hit you can loose the buff so don't be crazy using it either. You only have to run around on top the lake to the next node. Sure beats fighting the mob to get to the hole on land and the next guy as well. Mount up, fly across lake, dismount and fish at node. Win. Of course it looks funny to the next guy you there standing on water as well. Its cool way to fish.

In 3.1 It seems the fishing timer has being reduced from 20 sec down to 16 sec, so seem its faster to fish. Also when you now catch a fish I've notices the splash now makes a much louder noise as well so you know you caught something. Fishing seems allot faster to me as of the patch. Of course I do it because I enjoy fishing. It also helps pays the bills as well. 

Screenshots: New Drake

Upgraded my Epic Netherwing Drake to a Epic Bronze Drake after beating the timer in Heroic Cot Stratholme. That Pursuit of Justice helps allot for 15% movement speed and chain pulling all the way to the extra boss with 4 mins to spare. Of course I won the roll evidently. And help I didn't have to spend a dime to upgrade my mount. Though I still love my Netherwing Mount because I really had to work allot to get that one at Netherwing Exalted back in BC.

Tip: Never let Arthas stand still longer than he has to once the event has started. Keep pulling and keep running to the next boss. Good dps helps greatly as well. 

Searching for Glyphs

Still no Glyph of Divine Plea spotted anywhere on my server on AH. Seems it will be a wait for it to show up. But if you can find a few of these books which drops from Northrend mobs it seem the new Glyphs added in the patch can be learned from one of these too. Or you can profit and sell them on AH for high profit.

Was running a Heroic UP tonight and this one dropped on a random mob on the gauntlet run. I noticed it right away. Seems they do drop after all and in Instances as well. So I was luckly enough to get it. I figure I let my lvl 58 DK with 360 Inscription have it to find something good from the new patch. When I later tried use it I notice you have to be lvl 425 to use the book. Ahh Damm! That means I would have to level my DK to lvl 65 to use it. 

I had no plans to really level up the DK at all. But if I want to find out what's in the book I will have to. I'm sure I could get a tons on AH for it if I wanted to as none of these books are on AH either. I'll keep it for my DK to use if I can find the time to lvl him to 65 so I can get new Inscription training. But if you find one of these they can be quite valuable as your sitting there wondering where your new class glyphs are. Probably locked inside one these books.

On another note, Glyph of Exorcism seem to have allot of kick being now usable on any mob especially when it crits on undead/demons using it around Northrend. As for AH since patch 3.1 I think I raked in at least 1Kg just in Glyph sales alone leveling up my alt in Inscription between yesterday and today.

WTB Glyph of Divine Plea, Where?

Has anyone being able to find this Glyph or make it as yet. Can't seem to find anyone on even my server that can find it or make it as yet. Anyone seen it yet on server? I'm guessing its probably discovered through Northrend Inscription Research or by some other means since it doesn't seem to be at a Inscription trainer. If so may be a while before spotting it on AH is common. 

If your trained in high lvl Inscription you need to start doing some research to find these new recipes added in Patch 3.1 or go out and start killing lots of Northrend mobs to find these books that drop from them that has these new recipes. So you can help your local Tankadins out on your server. 

I dare say when found it will probably be expensive due to high demand and short initial supply. That's just AH economics to me. Someone will make a killing on AH. Tip

Patch 3.1 Is Here

The entire WoW seems all too delighted with the new patch happening. As well new stuff to do pillaging the new raid dungeon of Ulduar for its spoils and duel specing.

I've barely had time to be bored with the current content since i haven't been at it for months like most people that was all too bored already. I've barely been to Naxx less than 5 times and only on Heroics with the guild. I haven't given a care in the world to being worried about spending any extra effort doing anything with achievement. If it happened in the course of doing something it just happen that way.

So being trying to catch up with new stuff coming in 3.1 when I can, which haven't being all that much either.

Duel Spec
Honestly I really don't care that much about duel specing on my character. After all I've never respec at the trainer ever but for Protection spec the entire time playing my Paladin. I don't pvp so never had a use to respec either. But with patch 3.1 Duel Spec is now in the game now and I barely have 1500g saved up that I hate to have to spend 1Kg for dual spec. I'll probably go what I consider broke in my book by picking up Duel Spec when I make it to the trainer. So with 100% certainty I'll go Ret for Duel Spec as I don't do healing. On some my Heroic runs Tanking I've picked up a few good pieces of Ret pieces when no one else needed them so they will get some good use maybe.

Ulduar
I don't have much of any opinion. But I hear and read lots of damage (AoE) to go around so need good tanking gear and good geared raid groups. I'm not sure how well my guild is prepared for Ulduar since we are somewhat short of healers. And you need very good healers there as well. You probably won't see Ulduar getting pugged like you see 10 man OS or Naxx like every min in trade chat on your server. All things otherwise I'm reading stuff just like you do too on Ulduar. The Blizz Trailer is really cool too.

New Protec Spec for 3.1?
I'm not quite as sure yet. But I'm thinking I'll probably go with a spec of 0/53/18 or so for my own personal main spec picking up Crusade than going with a generic cookie cutter spec. You pick your own flavor of a spec for your own reasons. As for a Ret Dual Spec I'll probably go with a generic one since I'm much less likely to be dueling as a Ret unless its for some unknown reason though I'll be less likely to be running around as a Ret except to refine the playing skills in that spec. Who knows maybe I'll just have 2 viable Protect Specs as a choice maybe. I'm really not as yet sure I really want to have to maintain 2 very different sets of Plate gear when I already have to maintain various sets for my main spec as it is.

Updated: I think i'll settle on this spec and glyph together most likely as a personal choice. Will keep a few of these for personal flavor when desired. Not much good choices for minor Glyphs as usual.

Recent Upgrades from Heroic Naxxramas

Last time over the weekend when our guild was in Naxxramas picked up a few upgrades with my DKP which isn't much in the few times being to Heroic Naxx. Never on regular. Didn't have time to add them to the last post or link them either in a post so just dropping them in here.

Anyway picked up these pieces which adds to rest of my tanking gear sets. Getting a shoulder upgrade seems to be the hardest thing though I have good blue shoulders though.

Valorous Redemption Handguards
Helm of Vital Protection
Chestguard of the Exhausted
Inexorable Sabatons
Defender's Code
Libram of Resurgence. Junk more like it.

Had enough Emblems of Valor from Heroic Naxx so picked up the Platinum Mesh Cloak. It was a debate between this cloak or the ring from the vendor so I went ahead with the cloak as a best in slot since it was kinda likely that I would pick up a Tanking ring at some point easily. Plus I had enough defense that it wasn't a problem either getting the cloak.

During Naxx the tanks seem to be pretty calm about working out gear among themselves bidding on gear as needed. Some already have upgrades and or better and many new drops are sidegrades compared to someone else with a blue geared slot gear. So most of all my gear was low DPK bids on gear especially since I main as a Tank and raid only on one class character.

But what was funny was watching on some drops dps and healers bid up from nothing to several hundred DKP for some drops which was amazing and just fun to watch unfold. It was almost crazy at times to see a DKP bid on a item start not at low DPK but at over a 100+ on first bid and sometimes several people bid on it or bidded it up much much more to make them spend the DKP to get the item. But at time people started bids at over 50+ DKP or over 100+ on first bid and maybe only one person or no one else bid on the item. I just stood there and watch this with all amusement and thinking that person wont have much DPK left.

I remembered the Bracers of the Unholy Knight dropped from Instructor Razuvious I think was the item. Other tanks had good pieces and it might have been a minor upgrade or sidegrade. So our guild Warrior Tank and GM who often raid co-lead needed it too. So it was between me and him good friends as well for the item as we had the same Heroic blue bracers on. We bid and at a certain point at 50 DKP or so I just said man its yours. All good! I knew I couldn't out bid him after all he's been raiding the entire time with loads of DKP, but he spent it to get it. He raids much more than I do also. I didn't have that much more DPK anyway.

Same was when the Breastplate of the Lost Conqueror token dropped. It would have been great upgrade to get to maintain my 2 piece gear bonus on gear over the Heroes Redemption Breastplate. So I bid on that some, up to a certain point then stopped. Warrior GM whispered me asking if that was all I was going to bid or the others was going to win it. I said, nope not bidding any more. I'll get it eventually but I rather save the DPK for something else really needed more for the gear slot especially since I already had the Heroes Redemption Breastplate already. Improvement it would have been yes. But rather save the DKP for something else need to upgrade when it drops. Was all amusing.

Heroic Naxx: Time for a Nap Thaddius!

Yeah take a permanent nap in a deep unholy grave Thaddius! That fight is so much fun for Heroic Naxxramas it took us three times. The very first try could of made everyone eyes bleed. Its was running flawless. We were up against the enrage timer and the last person dropped for the wipe with Thaddius at around 115k health. That was sick.

But we got a few more practice in and got him on the 3rd try. Everything cleared except the very last 2 Bosses in Heroic Naxxramas. Was a good night in Heroic Naxx and a great job by the guild 25 man raid tonight. And I left with Epic Loots for the pillaging.

Heroics: Who's That Guy?

Was asked to come help out 3 guildies on a Pug run of Heroic UP. It wasn't the daily. Their last tank wasn't very good according to the healer and barely had enough defense as well keeping him up. The other dps it seem wasn't as good either according to them. All the things that gives Heroic Pug a bad name and all the reasons plus a thousand more why you don't pug. Yeah I know.

So group was on the third boss and had problems on Skadi. So we got Skadi squared away. But I noticed something about one the dps on recount and same dps kept dying as well. Yeah like in the pic. So though it was a fluke. So on last boss I reset my Recount log again. And yes about the same sub 600 dps. I can say more than often I see dps like this more often than rare in Heroics.

But the question is which I though was fun. Can you guess which class that dpser is? He also had on 5 pieces of Epics and rest Blue gear.

The Pitch & The 31 Day Blog Challenge

I'm not sure just where to start writing here. Matticus over at "World of Matticus" the exceptional blogger that he is has thrown out a challenge of sort to to other WoW community bloggers either to come up with or refine a Elevator Pitch about a blogger's blog. Your own Blog! He does do while participating in ProBlogger 31 Days of Building a Better Blog. ProBlogger a blog which I also subscribe to and read outside of WoW for quite some time.

So whats a Elevator Pitch? According to Wikipedia.

An elevator pitch (or elevator speech) is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds and 100-150 words) - Wikipedia

My Journey & Perspective

Most people on my WoW Realm don't know that I blog about WoW or rather that I blog about anything at all. I don't think they rather care that I do or maybe and that don't bother me much either. But from time to time I've being /w by many that came across my blog by some means and found it interesting that I actually did blog and enjoyed the read.

Very few people in my own Guild if any even know that I blog or that I have done so for quite some time. Or that they are aware that I blog about anything interesting. I'm sure they would be surprised to know I blog. But then I don't even know if they care that I do either. I can only think of one member in my own guild that was totally surprised that I did and let me know that they read here.

I don't think I'm exceptional either. But I do put forth the effort to blog and in some regular fashion over the 3 years or so minus a hiatus. Its not easy to keep up blogging daily or weekly as it can be time consuming effort. I do this out of pure fun and enjoyment about the game I play. The same game that you also play.

So whats my blog about? What has it ever been about all this time? Whats my Elevator Pitch? My blog is Ardent Defender and its simple about exactly what it says under the title:

"The Life and Times of one Dedicated Protection Paladin in World of Warcraft". The various Perspectives of A Tankadin and the World he lives In.

Its about my World and my unwavering Dedication to my class and the spec that I play. Its about my journey as a tank from where I was, navigating the rough waters of Azeroth to some unknown chartered destination. Its my journey and the various perspective that I have from my own personal experience and point of view on that journey as a tanking class and a player. But a player dedicated to his class. I often reflect and teach through my own experience and give my perspective as such.

I did refine the title a little bit, but maybe I'm the only one that remember exactly what it said before. Over the course of almost 3 years I've stayed pretty much consistent with the theme of my blog. I blog about the life and experiences, trials and setbacks of my one character and my thoughts of the game and life within it.

I'm not sure how much more I can refine my own blog title for a Elevator Pitch. I'm not sure how great a job I do writing here. But I've stayed pretty close to my own blog theme in my own little corner of this community.

Ardent Defender is about my life and times as a Paladin (Tankadin). Its perspective from my experiences, trial and setbacks. I share about my journey through the World of Warcraft. Its not about Theorycrafting or number crunching, because I leave that to the pro's who has that kind of time. I do have perspective and I share those as well reflecting on my own wisdom and experience.

Its about my life and times.... and that is what I choose to write about and reflect on from my own perspective.

Camera Wide Angle View

I was doing OS the other day and was having a hard time seeing the flames all around and what I would of liked to see with the boss all over my screen. So figured had to be a better way to get a far out zoom wide angle view of the entire seeing instead of the Boss filling up my view screen on my UI. So went looking around and eventually found a short useful thread on the WoW Forums with what I was looking for with this script:

/script SetCVar ("cameraDistancemax" ,50)

You type the script in chat and you should then be able to zoom out far at max distance a with wide angle view on your mouse of all around. Much easier than the WoW Interface. It seems to save the setting on relogging. Makes a huge difference on what you can see with a group when your up close looking at a big boss in a instance or raid. So just though it be useful to someone else putting it up here.

8 Mile Marathon of Persistence.

Determination and Persistence while continuing to persist can get you a long way despite repeated setbacks if you just sometime decide do whatever it takes. Its Blue Trinket, its not Epic but its a damn nice trinket. The effort to arm wrestle it from Loken eight times in a row was EPIC!. I can be pretty damn persistence when I need to and was going to keep it up until he did.

Think its a loot conspiracy by Blizz on the loot tables because on ever single run before loken dropped plate fists which no one in all 7 runs could even use. Last week sometime Seal of the Pantheon dropped in HoL and a Ret pally needed it from me (tank) for his "off spec use" and gave me heartburn's. Since then have had to endure daily runs of reg HoL while Boss Loken mocked me on every visit. Just made me more persistent!

Its usually hard to get a group or anyone at that to run reg HoL since the trinket only drops on regular HoL. But LFM Heroic HoL..... Yeah "me me pick me" and they crawl out the wood work for a run. And actually after at least a daily run and today eight gruelling back to back to back runs of reg HoL loken finally got tired of seeing me and just gave up and handed it over. I can use the defense so I don't have to gem my gear for it.

Just damn glad the marathon or persistence is over. I'm tired of seeing Loken. Also picked up Pauldrons of the Colossus from Heroic Gundark on the 2nd boss the elemental to upgrade my shoulders. For every single run I've ever done of Gundark that elemental has dropped nothing but a helm in over a dozen runs. It finally changed the loot drop to something new and behold some plate shoulders. Was all too happy to say the least. With 60 new Emblems of Heroism picked up Heroes Redemption Handguards at the vendor.

Faction Championing
And by the way all these instance runs now also Exalted with:

Argent Crusade
Kirin Tor
The Wyrmrest Accord

Now also exalted with the The Sons of Hodir from doing all the dailies and turning in daily about 50 Relics of Ulduar to speed things along. So can get the Exalted shoulder enchant as needed. Glad that grind is over as well. Be Exalted with Knights of the Ebon Blade in no time soon as well.

Edited: 04/06/09 - Other gear picked up same day.

I Had A Good Day!

Got a few of my Pug friends and we hit up several Heroics for a while one after the other including the daily whatever it was. I needed the Faction Reps as well. So luck be with me this time running Heroic UP on a smooth run King Ymiron decided he's getting tired of seeing me often enough so he decided to hand over the Red Sword of Courage and let me be on my way. Hail to the King!

We headed off to Heroic Violet Hold and had some fun there with the bosses and what you know the Lavanthor Talisman droped for me. Hey Thanks Boss! Kept running a few more Heroic runs with almost the same crew and knocked out about 15K reps to get Exalted with Kirin Tor Faction. I barely even noticed I was exalted then. Awesome. So when I headed back to Dalaran I made my way over to the Kirin Tor QM and picked up the Fireproven Guantlets to upgrade my Guantlets. Don't seem like many good choices to spend Emblems of Heroism on but went ahead and just spent some of all those badges being collecting from Heroics and picked up the Heroes Redemption Breastplate. I can use more block rating atm trying to get to the blockcap.

Did a few other Pug runs of R.HoL for community service to and to see if I could pickup the trinket from Loken. On my third back to back run he dropped the Seal of the Pantheon. But a Ret Paladin in the group rolled Need on the tanking trinket as well and outbid me the Tank for it. He said he needed it for his off spec. huh! Reminds me of all the craziness that will happen when dual spec lands. I almost got severe hearth burn there on what seemed like a good day. He apologized a great deal... no worries man! Ah well another day I guess, good times don't last long.

Headed off to Storm Peaks to farm up some Eternal Air for a while in one the large cave there. Returned to Dalaran and got all my gear gemed up and Enchanted and called it a day at the office. I guess It was a good day overall.