Lethal Shots

Maintainence today, possibly even a patch even (conflicting sources, unable to verify either). Either way, another week has gone by. My thoughts on it:

• Not much raiding over the last week. Just the weekly three times and one venture into ICC as a healer, which did not end well. Two of the three healers on the run were alts (mine and another Hunter) and neither of us were really prepared for how healing intensive the Marrowgar encounter is.
• Randoms every day. Honestly I’m getting a little tired of them. It has gotten a little better since I cut back to one random a day per 80 (unless a guildie needs help of course).
• I jumped back into leveling my Paladin over the weekend. Decided to re-spec him to Prot, picked up a shield and one-hander off the AH, and jumped into the queue for low level randoms. So far it’s going pretty well. The XP is nice and I’ve already picked up several blues that are more suited to tanking.
• While my gear says I can heal in ICC, the above mentioned experience tells me otherwise. I need to work on my technique and maybe rework some gems and enchants. Some research will help with itemization problems, but the technique is going to be more difficult. Outside of raids, the best practice is going to be Heroic Halls of Reflection.
• I’ve been tanking heroics for about a month now and feel I have developed a pretty solid grasp on it. Now I want to move on to raids. I know it will be much more difficult, but I need to do it for the challenge.
• Back in real life, the wife and I took the kids out on a local Geocaching adventure yesterday. While the baby didn’t get much out of it (he slept the whole time), my four year old had the time of his life. It is definitely something we are going to have to do more often.
• Been playing with specs on my Hunter lately. Been specced Survival so long I can play it in my sleep. Now I’m trying to wrap my head around Marks.

That’s all I got, now give me yours.

Wow, 3.3 drops on the same day I return to blogging. Coincidence? Why yes, yes it is. Here’s my thoughts on the last week of 3.2:

• 3.3 couldn’t come at a better time for me. Just this past weekend I finally managed to complete 25-man Trial of the Crusader. It may have been a PuG, but the group was mostly made up of one guild and there were five from my guild (including me). Granted I didn’t get anywhere in the heroic versions of ToC, but I’m not a hardcore raider either.
• Also received a compliment last night (at least I’m taking it as one). Said guild who ran the ToC PuG whispered me saying they were “impressed with my performance ToC-25” and offered me a slot on their raid roster for Icecrown. I thanked them, but declined the offer. I’ve made too many friends in Soulbound and like running with them too much.
• My little Death Knight tank is coming along real well. According to WoW-Heroes he could step into 10-Ulduar and hold his own. I plan to hit the random PuG feature in 3.3 pretty heavy with him to get him geared up to raid ToC and Icecrown with.
• Even after clearing ToC-10 week after week and trying my hardest to do ToC-25 PuGs I have yet to get a trinket to drop for my Hunter. He is still using a Mirror of Truth and Greatness deck. (Yes I could buy the Trinket from the Triumph vendor, but quite frankly, it’s a piece of crap). Hopefully Icecrown will hold better luck for me.
• My little Rogue alt has stalled out at 18. That grind through the 20s just plain sucks, so I am going to do my best to do it all with rested XP. My paladin on the other hand is coming along rather nicely. He’s made it to 34 so far and after a sketchy start has turned out to be quite fun to play.

Well, that’s all I’m thinking right now. What’s on your mind?

Another week passes us by. Whats cooking in the noggin?

• Naxx 10 cleared. A ton of fun. See previous post.
• I’ve started to use WoW Meter Online as opposed to WoW Web Stats. Sure WWS has a slicker interface, but WMO hosts reports perpetually for free and is less prone to extreme lag and long ques. So far I haven’t found any functionality difference between the two.
• My Shaman’s JC is up to 430. Now I just need to level him so he can start doing the JC daily in Dalaran.
• I am debating on what to do with my DK. Specifically his Enchanting. I am accumulating a small stockpile of mats. I am trying to decide if I want to sell them or go ahead and continue leveling the profession. He can DE anything I get right now, but it would be nice to supply my own enchants. Any suggestions?
• I bought the leveling shoulders for my Paladin. Not a huge difference, but still noticeable.
• Started questing in Storm Peaks finally. Made 1000g in one day there. Not looking forward to the long grind with Sons of Hodir, but the money will be nice.

As always, thoughts and comments below.

Another week, another restart. What’s on my mind?

• Valentines went off without a hitch. Italian food, dessert, and a movie puts Santyn in good with the wife.
• Still specced Survival. And topping the damage meters where ever I go.
• Made my first official trip into Naxx with Soulbound over the weekend. 10-man version. We cleared the spider wing and downed Patchwerk before calling it. Patchwerk was a blast, with me topping the damage meter at about 2750 DPS.
• My Paladin hit 20. He is loads more fun now that he has Consecrtion. I daresay I enjoy him more than my Death Knight.
• My Shaman is making slow progress in Borean Tundra. I find myself dieing a lot and constantly out of mana. I am blaming the large gear gap between Nagrand and Northrend. Hopefully I will overcome the gap soon.
• I started a baby Druid. This is my second one. The first one I took Feral, but i hated playing it. This one I am taking Balance in hopes he will hold my interest.

Well, that’s all I got for now. Thoughts and comments appreciated as always.

I love Paladins. They are awesome tanks. They make pretty good healers (if played right) that can take a beating until we can save them. And now the Retribution versions of them give me a little competition on the damage meters. Overall they are a pretty solid class.

But that is not why I respect them. I can describe why I respect anyone who has leveled a Paladin in two words:

It’s Boring.

Yes, you heard me right. Boring as all hell.

I’m fiddling with a Paladin alt right now and he has made it to level 14. And I have been bored off my ass the whole time. The only thing that has made it bearable is that I guilded him with some friends who I can talk to while in combat.

Yes, I said in combat.

So far I have 2 self-buffs I need to keep up, Autoattack, and the grand total of 1 offensive ability. Ok, technically 2, but they share a 10 second cooldown. Which leaves me with not a lot to do but sit there  and chat with guildies while hit a button once every 10 seconds. And occasionally throw a heal on myself.

I have been assured that this alt will become a lot more interesting to play once he gets to level 20, but it’s going to be tough to get there.

So to all of you who have leveled a Paladin to level cap:

/salute