Icicle DPS Tanking Toy

Lucky Lucky me. I picked this up this morning just doing a H HoR run. Just the luck of all things I was able to win it with no real melee in group and have it to use as a dps/threat weapon toy. At least another weapon to add to my collection for gear swapping as a dps/threat weapon. Can easily maintain above 540 defense as well with it equipped so all good.

Not if my Shaman can only be so Lucky to pick up a pair of those let alone just one. Anyway I can have fun with it when I need to do dps tanking with SoComm (Seal of Command). A Shaman probably get heartburn seeing someone dps tank with it lol.

Been thinking of what to put on it and did a bit of research over at Maintankadin boards. And I probably end up putting Berserking on it. DPS tanking fun times with a Icicle toy for awesome dps. Someone else probably get heartburn thats been trying to pick that up in Heroics.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

WotLK Beta: Current Tank Gear at lvl 80 and 540 Defense.

Mostly making this list for myself and future reference or to later update it for reference. Current gear at lvl 80 in WotLK Beta with minimum 21K+ HP, 5644 Mana, 540+ Defense (Uncrittable) depending on which Trinkets used. All gear enchanted with minimum of lvl 70 Enchants and some WotLK Enchants as obtainable as most are just way to expensive in Beta.

Helm
The Crusader's Resolution. Quest Item with The Argent Crusade in Icecrown. Enchanted with Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector from Argent Crusade Revered.

Neck
Burning Skull Pendant. Unknown Heroic Drop I luckily picked up on AH at astronomical price. This was upgraded from the Amulet of Deflected Blows I had picked up also from Utgarde Pinnacle lvl 80 Dungeon.

Shoulder
Crusader's Square Pauldrons. Dungeon BoE Item drop from any mob in regular Cot - Stratholme lvl 78-80 Dungeon. Enchant Greater Inscription of the Knight (Scryer Enchant). Upgrade enchant would be Lesser Inscription of the Pinnacle from Sons of Hodir Faction Honored.


Cloak
Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions. Faction: The Wyrmrest Accord - Honored. Enchant Cloak - Titanweave.

Chest
Reanimated Armor. Dungeon Boss Item drop from Utgarde Pinnacle lvl 80 Dungeon. Enchant Chest - Exceptional Health.

Bracer
Svala's Bloodied Shackles. Dungeon Item drop from Utgarde Pinnacle lvl 80 Dungeon. Enchant Bracer - Major Defense.

Glove
Daunting Handguards. BS Crafted Item. Enchant Gloves - Armsman.

Waist
Tempered Saronite Belt. BS Crafted Item. Has a Eternal Belt Buckle socket added. I put a +21 Stamina gem in the Belt Buckle. Upgrade Belt would be from dungeon The Oculus: Girdle of Obscuring.

Leggings
Special Issue Legplates. Faction: The Argent Crusade Honored. Enchanted with Jormungar Leg Armor Kit. Bloodstone Gem. (Current)
Daunting Legplates. Previous leggings from BS crafted before upgrade.

Boots
Slaughterhouse Sabatons. Dungeon Boss Item drop from Cot - Stratholme lvl 78-80 Dungeon. Enchant Boots - Greater Fortitude.

Ring 1
Solid Platinum Band. Dungeon Quest reward Item from quest to Gundrak lvl 76-78 Dungeon in Zul'Drak .

Ring 2
Dragonflight Great-Ring. Dungeon Boss Item drop from The Oculus lvl 80 Dungeon.

Trinkets
Crusader's Locket. Quest Item reward in Icecrown on Argent Crusade quest.

Scarab of Isanoth. Quest Item reward in Dragonsblight.

Horn of Argent Fury. Quest Item reward in Zul'Drak on Argent Crusade quest.

Seal of the Pantheon. Dungeon Boss Item drop from Halls of Lightning lvl 80 Dungeon in Storm Peaks.

Indestructible Alchemist Stone. Alchemy Crafted at lvl 75.

1H Weapon
Eternally Folded Blade. Dungeon Boss Item drop from Halls of Lightning lvl 80 Dungeon in Storm Peaks. Enchant Weapon - Potency. The WotLK upgrade enchant to this enchant seems really mislabeled with AP vs a new Strength upgrade enchant for WotLK. Good WotLK Enchants as also very hard to try and get with mats that require a epic item DE for shards also. Better than no enchant at all.

Shield
Titansteel Shield Wall. BS Crafted Item. Enchant Shield - Exceptional Stamina. This shield replaced my BS crafted Saronite Bulwark.

Libram
Libram of Repentance. Upgrade Libram of Obstruction with 15 Emblems of Heroism to purchase in Dalaran.

This post is linked on side bar and will continue to be updated as necessary!

If you plan ahead in WotLK having some mats can make things easier eg Arcane Tomes for Shoulder. Saving all green gear while leveling to get DE for Dusts, Shards and Essences. AH prices were astronomical in Beta. I had actually saved up every piece of green BoE gear collected in Beta from 70-80 sent to my alt and later had them all DE by a enchanter for mats which made it easier for me to afford and obtain gear enchants.

WotLK Beta: UnCrittable in Beta?

With all the Beta testing of content. How hard is it to get to 540 Defense? The Uncrittable cap seem to be 540 Defense or 690 Defense Rating at least which gets you to the Uncrittable level at 80 by a lvl 83 Boss. As well the only big defense cap you seem to have to worry about for WotLK as well for a Paladin or Warrior Tank.

That didn't seem to be all that hard to get to in my opinion if you've given it some effort and done some fairly easy quests, the Dungeons themselves and the quests they give. As well Dungeon Quests does give some really nice item rewards. Also including a few pieces of BS crafted gear if needed, much of which I already had on already. That's pretty much all I did and just focusing on improving gear pieces really which are all blue in every slot except one or two AP trinkets just switching them around. Currently at 20.7 HP and 5734 mana in the screenshot.

I have all the gear enchanted yet not all the very best enchants as yet due to mats cost in Beta at astronomical levels and ability to obtain some mats. The hardest thing to obtain was getting the Epic Shield crafted which I wrote about previously which took a bit of effort getting some mats and some farming. Then transmuting over days to get the required mats from that. Not very hard it was all around but nothing like crunching numbers trying to get to 102.4% with gear for uncrittable and uncrushable in tBC.

Recent Patch Changes.
With the recent Patch Hammer of the Righteous (HotR) now does 4 x Character Sheet DPS which is still based off of having a high weapons dps. The spell still read as previous and has not being updated as yet in the tool tip. That DPS is modified by AP as well from buffs. Seal of Corruption/Vengeance has had some damage reduction change of some sort done to it again but most noticeable in the ticks which previously ticked for 10 now ticks for 5 on a target. I'm just really clueless with that change to say the least.

I've heard Sacred Shield may have being changed though the spell tool tip is unchanged but I haven't tested it to be able to tell. Devine Plea now has a 15 sec duration vs 10 sec and seem to affect Holy Paladins more but I do notice the change as Protect as well.

*If I have time will update this with the gear pieces I have on.

WotLK Beta: New Face Smasher.

Upgraded from my crafted Saronite Bulwark Shield. Upgrade from that would have been the Leeka's Shield from Cot Stratholme which drops from the last boss which I hadn't seen drop as yet in few runs.

But was already doing some transmuted with Alchemy for Titanium Bars with the cooldown of 3 days as well as having my Hunter mine Saronite for Ore. Crystallized Essence you get from some Elemental Spirits or from mining which are the new motes which gives Eternals the new Primals. Some Titanium I bought from AH (5 bars) cost a pocket full I'm gonna say like 2500g ouch!!. Extortion sounds like a better word. But that's ok. I know how to farm money to make it back. One does need to invest always in a good shield.

All those it took to craft Titansteel (expensive) which you need to eventually craft the shield. Lots of cooldowns. Had a BS friend from a PuG craft the the Shield which does look nice. There are about 4 good pieces of gear a Tank can get crafted from Titansteel.

Currently Revered with the Argent Crusade with a bit of the reps from wearing the Argent Crusade Tabard. So as a Tank you get to pick up the new Helm Enchant as from previous post on factions. The Shield Enchant is fairly easy to get as well as far as mats.

Tip: Easiest way to get enchanting essences is to save and DE all your greens up to 80. Or it will cost you. All my greens from 70-80 I just had them all DE for lots of the new WotLK essences.

WotLK Beta: A Blade!

A nice Blade. This the best Blue Tanking Sword i've seen so far. It dropped for me tonight in Halls of Lightning from 2nd boss. You can pick up a few nice ones leveling if you think ahead. Wyrmrest Accord has a nice one as well leveling up at Revered.
Its not Epic but its still nice. Sure beats looking at my sword on the live server. Yeah Beta.

WotLK Beta: Shield Spec & Tanking Gear Re-Itemization.

Have tried to constantly long on since the new Beta Patch and have barely being able to stay logged on longer but a min or so before it crashed. Three mins if I'm that lucky to see changes among other things. I gave up after trying for quite a while. Good thing I'm working today anyway. But several changes are now live, some are quite big.

For Paladins, Hammer of Wrath is now a instant cast spell. Great news there.

Shield Specialization now DOES increase BV gained from increasing Strength stat (2 Strength = 1BV). So it's now useful again to increase BV from gear stat especially for WotLK.

Judgements are again currently bugged in Beta. Will have to wait another week for a fix I imagine as before.


Tanking Gear Re-Itemized:
All Epic tBC Tanking gear which includes T4 - T6, Vendor Badge Gear has been re-itemized. Items changed to either add Strength as a Tanking stat which affects Tanks and Tankadins gear. I'm unsure if the change also affects Heroic gear as well, but I can only assume it probably did as well if needed.

Spell Power & Intellect has been removed and some stats adjusted and Strength added as new stat. Spell Hits as well has been removed also given changes for WotLK. This change affects All tBC "Tanking Gear". Some crafted BS Epic gear with Intellect has remained unaffected for example "Belt of the Guardian". Items such as Trinkets, Rings, Neckpieces, Cloaks seem to remain unaffected by the itemization change. These changes DOES NOT affect Holy Paladin gear in tBC. I'm sure these changes will probably go live in Patch 3.0 as well.

Will try to screenshot some the gear changed tomorrow since currently not at home or on a PC.

I Got Me A Phat Epic Hammer!

This is my New Epic Toy. Ohhh no Galo has turned to Death Knight!

Recently acquired this Epic piece for some 2H fun. Was actually Inspired by Invisusira who's vids I like and is just a awesome tankadin. Her stuff is also linked at side bar and is a member at Maintankadin. Saw this Maintankadin Forum thread she had there on the board. So went out and acquired the HAMMER. Actually had not heard or seen this 2H before. It was added in the game back in 2.1 I think it was.

The only known crafter on my entire server is an Alliance NE Warrior with the Recipe to craft it. Thus as far as I'm aware I'm probably the only person with this Hammer and a Horde on my server also, because it was actually crafted by the Alliance NE.

Its one the best 2H spell damage weapon in the game Armory currently that's usable by a few classes for the spell damage primarily. But this is awesome in the hands of a Protection Paladin to use for the spell damage to power all spells when not using a shield and using a 2H. A high spell damage weapon with Seal of Righteousness does a lot of damage or with Judgement of Crusader. For Alliance that may be prefered with Seal of Vengeance.

Galo has Max Weapon Skills with every single 2H weapon a Paladin can use as well as every 1H weapon also. Fully skilled in all weapons including unarmed skilled. I love to use a good 2H for my spec. Its awesome to use in various encounters when or where a shield is not required. On equipt my defense only dropped to 488, just barely under uncrittable. So most loss was shield stats, Armor, Blockvalue and some defense. At least I have a solid 2H spell damage usable weapon in my arsenal to carry and use when needed. Hello Mob here I come.

How Did I Acquire it.
Had asked on Horde side and in the higher guilds but no one could craft it. So pulled up my Realm Forum on the WoW page. Looked in the Crafters Sticky page for all listed realm unique pattern crafters. No BS listed as crafter having recipe. Entered in search function on the same Realm Forum page "Hammer of Righteous Might". Got (1) hit. Was for a Alliance NE Warrior BS that just few days ago got the recipe and was listing it to be added to realm crafters list. BAM good deal!

Well don't have an alliance toon, so immediately created one a Human Paladin. Logged on Alliance side. Did a /who for the named crafter and BAM he was on but running raid in SSC. /W crafter asked if he had the recipe and could craft. Did a quick chat that I needed a Hammer crafter he said can craft it. Yeap sure can and he had the needed Nethers, but not the mats. Cool no problem. Next day logged on and the crafter was logged on. Chatted for a few mins that I needed the hammer crafted and if he could craft it. He didn't have mats and would have to acquire then. We had a deal and in 15 mins the time it took me to get to a Neutral Auction House and buy the item. I had my Epic HAMMER! I tested it out un-enchanted and SoR in my gear proc's for about 150+ yellow damage without JoC.

I guess its sometime good to just be sitting on a pile of cash with nothing much to buy but a New Toy. I'm sure the BS was happy. I can even use it on Shade of Aran doing dps since you can't tank him. Imagine 2 points in Reckoning. Hmm, lots of food for thought. Anyway a new Toy.

Gear Upgrades 03/18/08

Picked up the Gauntlets which dropped from Maiden on Friday which replaces my Felsteel Gloves. By picking up the Gauntlets with enough defense stats and blockrating on them to maintain uncrushable at 102.4% that allowed me to go ahead and spend the 60 Badges and pick the Girdle of the Protector to replace my Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard. When I replace a gear piece I still carry it in bag in case I need to interchange gear pieces for tanking.

Having both new pieces equipped brings my HP up to 14.5HP with 14.7K Armor. It leaves me just slightly below uncrushable but fully raid buffed that's fixed. However I always carry enough interchangeable gear to fix that also, which can be fixed by changing one ring or re-equipting my Blue belt piece as needed. My Defense has also dropped a bit also. So on any future upgrades I will have to keep my defense needs in mind also. So that leaved me with 31 Badges in the bank to save for my next badge item. It only takes me a few days to get up to 60 Badges or a week of 3 Heroics daily to get up to 100Badges on the badge grind. No Welfare Epics equipped or purchased here!

As for next item I'm aiming to replace my Leggings with the new patch 2.4 gear piece Inscribed Legplates of the Aldor (100 Badges) which has lots of avoidance for Boss Tanking. The Unwavering Legguards (75 Badges) are nice but will get those much later if can for AoE tanking Leggings considering patch 2.4 new items. All depends on how long it will be before patch 2.4 arrives and whether or not the new badge vendor will be unlocked or have to wait for that to happen on server, not sure.

Edit: Last night we started this week Kara raid. We cleared first 4 Bosses no problems. Opera we had R&J again. We seem to be getting those 2 for Opera allot. Picked up Spectral Band of Innervation last night from Attunmen for my DPS gear. Increase Badge saving count from 31 to 38 Badges of Justice.

Related Post: Galo's Karazhan Gear Wish List.

Tanking Gear Upgrades

Spent 35 Badges of Justice and picked up the Badge cloak to replace my Blue Devil Shark Cloak with the same Enchant for Dodge. The cloak is much better than the Gilded Thorium Cloak that drops from Terestian Illhoof and all of Kara. Replacing it gives me more Armor, Stamina, Avoidance rating and enough to maintain Uncrushable rating with Holy Shield though not by much. I still carry the old cloak and swith gear as needed for the block value on trash or like in Heroics downgrading gear so mana in not as much a problem getting heals from taking some damage.

Replaced the Felsteel Helm with this. If had won the Justicar Faceguard it would have being really nice. However spent 50 Badges and picked up the pre 2.3 Badge gear helm at the vendor. Especially since seem no new helms for Tankadin on the horizon for Badges in 2.4 either that I have seen. The new helm is also better than the Eternium Greathelm that drops in Opera House for Tankadins. So again get more Stamina/Avoidance a little less Armor. Having the Shield Block Rating on it to maintain Uncrushable with Holy Shield allows me to un-equipt my Figurine of Colossus in my Trinket slot for Block Rating and replace it with my Netherwing Exalted Trinket the Commander's Badge for more Stamina. I've never got to use it before much anyway. So usefull at least the Trinket for pure Stamina which added about 520 HP total.

Since I'm now Revered with the Violet Eye replaced my Andormu Tears ring from Black Morass with the Violet Signet Ring. That allows me to get more Stamina and keep up Defense though I be just under uncrushable. Been just under Uncrushable that's easily fixed by doing a few things easily by just switching from my Continuum Blade back to Crystalforged Sword for the BlockRating. I can have BoK up if need or eat a Warp Burger for the almost 1% avoidance if needed. I carry lots of consumables always. Point is I have options if I need them depending on what gear I need at any one point in time. Every good Tank carry lots of extra gear as options depending on what gear pieces they need at any one time.

Every piece of my gear worn I get it fully Fully Enchanted when its bought and before I even wear it the first time. I take a lot of personal pride in wearing my gear and keeping it updated as best as one can. With all three pieces of gear change that allows me to remain Uncrittable/Uncrushable with Holy Shield. Also increase my Stamina HP from 12.8k to 14.1k unbuffed and with more Armor. So I finish the week now with 9 Badges of Justice in the Bank. So need to burn the candle again with more Heroics to get at least 60 Badges to get my next piece.

75 Badges of Justice and a Chest Piece!

Being M.I.A. doing Allot of PuGing action....... Heroics that is. Yeah that scare some people PuGing Heroics. But If you want the Badge gear you do what it takes with or without guildmates whether they logged in or logged out. However I'm used to PuGing anyway. So with 75 Badges of Justice picked up my first (correction) second badge reward item piece a few hours ago Chestguard of the Stoic Guardian which will replaces my Breastplate of the Righteous.

Was really hard to decide what to get, but in the end decided on the chest piece especially since its not going to be replaced anytime soon in heading into Kara this weekend unless WotLK shows up quicker than expected. Anyway pulled some gems out the bank and socked it and got it fully enchanted before trying it on. Looks Awesome and with nice HP boost allot more Armor and Avoidance with a taste of Dodge Rating. Also still fully UnCrittable/Uncrushable with Holy Shield in my Kara tank set. More badges ahead!

Edited:
Had spent allot of time researching and deciding what Badge piece to get, here are some Paladin (Tankadin) resources all linked on the sidebar. As always the Maintankadin Forum is a resource for Tankadins.

Tanking Gear Evolution - by Zen Tanking
MT Gear Progression - Maintankadin Forum (Tankadins)

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.

Tankadin Gear Gems and Enchanting Guide

I was crusing around as usual on the blog beat and Honor's Code had a blog post up on a Gem and Enchanting Guide for Tankadins. His guide was also attributed to a new extended guide post over on the Maintankadin Forums which I usually spend a bit of time reading. Really makes a huge difference if you know how to gem and enchant a Tankadin gear properly. Can save you a bunch from mistakes and from using poor cheap gems to socket good tier gear as well as enchanting. Don't play cheap with good tanking gear or tanking weapons. Do it right or be a dead tank!

Tankadin Gear Improvements: A Short Guide

Posting it here obviously to everyone else that it relates to to be able to find and read both guides over at Honor's Code and at Maintankadin Forum. So thanks to Honor's Code for finding it before I did. If anything you should really read his blog too which is linked above. He does have a excellent blog for a Tanking Paladin. Both are excellent reference guides if your not already sure which enchants to use for tanking gear and from where as well as how to gem your gear for needed stats. I know I can't remember everything so from time to time I myself have to re-read stuff to be sure including the stuff I forget sometimes. Will also post it in my guide section for Paladins of course. You may want to bookmark both the thread links that way I don't have to answer everyone questions LoL. Saves me allot of time.

Heroics - Libram of Repentance

Well its finally now mine. Standard Paladin tanking Libram for Kara and beyond. With Holy Shield up I can attain uncrushable status without it gear wise. Now I'm easily uncrushable with it and Holy Shield up wearing my normal good tanking gear pre-Kara. Earned my last 5 badges completing daily dungeon for Heroic Steamvault. The Libram cost 15 Badges of Justice at G'eras in Shattrath city. I've now completed all my 5 man pre-Kara gear goals.

So how was Heroic Steamvault? Well be in my next post.

Broke the Steamvault Bank!

Persistence: Basis of persistence is the power of will. Most people are easy to give up on their goals at the first sign of difficulty in a task and throw it away and move on at the first sign of opposition or misfortune. Few people carry on despite all opposition, until they attain their goals.
So far I've achieved to get almost all the tanking gear I've desired to get from regular 5-man Instance for tanking or as alternative gear set combinations. I'm already Revered with Cenarion Expedition with Heroic Key for Colifang Reservoir. last night did one Steamvault in less than 40 mins. Beat every boss into a quick pulp including Warlord Kalithresh who we beat into absolute submission and he finally released his grip on the Steamvault bank and gave me my: Breastplate of the Righteous. Pays to have Persistence!