What happened to Paladin Schmaladin?

UPDATE: They're back!  have a good day everyone!
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Today's a slow day.  and when slow days happen (believe me, it doesnt happen often anymore), i tend to browse through all the blogs i usually visit.  Well today i caught up on a bunch of blogs but when i finally tried to read blogs on Paladin Schmaladin, i was shown this:

I have two requests.
1. if anyone knows what happened, please reply.  that site has been a great resource for paladins for so long, its sad to see it go.  maybe they're purging all the old guides. who knows.

2. can someone please show me how to put borders on my pictures? this editor isnt the greatest, but i'd like a definite separation between my blog's background and a gif/jpg i put up.

Thanks all!

I have done zilch on my 80s

I just wanted to say that, for about the past month or two, i have done zilch, zero, nada on my 80s. 

This is in part due to getting my girlfriend to play.  Now she has several characters, six of them being bloodelf warlocks.  But she does enjoy playing her paladins.  yes, with an S.  There are several classes she does get bored of though.  She doesnt like hunters and elemental shamans.  she likes the melee classes more but sometimes goes and plays her mage.  even as a mage, she casts things in melee.  no really.  that's how you know she's one of those up-close and personal (or in-your-face, depending on perspective) kinda people.  She now has a rogue which has leveled past 50 in about a week.  she's into combo points and stuff (which i really hate, and hate even more now that it has infected other classes), being sneaky, backstabbing folks, etc.  she's dual spec'ed assassination and subtlety (which, after about two hours of practice, she is able to pronounce that word correctly). 

"so i am trying out my subly spec"
"its suttleteeeee".
"so anyway, subaly is.."
"SUT-TLE-TY"
"yea subably is great"

Anyway, lets talk about her two paladins.
One is level 78, almost 80.  We're getting there.  The paladin is paired with my shaman, who's a healer.  and i figured i could have simply dual spec'd Resto/Elem and not have to deal with gear changes much.  She's dual spec'd Tank/DPS on the paladin.  Preferring tanking more since somehow, it does more dps. odd or what?  the only problem is that she's never seen many of these dungeons in northrend before, so playing with guys who have played for years is difficult, mainly because no one wants to wait.  if that was me, i'd let the anxious dps die.  actually i do let them die since i heal on my shaman.  Healing on the shaman is quite fun actually.  i dont bubble spam. i dont rejuv spam. i only have one shield, my HoT has a cooldown and my AoE heal is limited due to a long casting time and proximity issues.  which allows me to THINK.  =]  Thank you bliz on this one!

The second paladin is a Holy/Tank.  More tank, less holy.  about level 50 just waiting for paladin #1 to ding. She's liking the healing but does have mobility issues due to not having a shield/rejuv like mechanic, which stays on the targets even when she's not in LOS.  I did install Vuhdo for her so things got a lot easier (the easiest being the ability to tell who really needs a heal) since she's able to see the health bars better and can tell who has aggro.  Unlike me, she's into the whole combo point/holy power thing.  for healing, its just holy shock, holy shock, holy shock, word of glory.  that's half of the healing.  the other half is Holy Light spam.  that's it.  i've been trying to get her to use her "hand" spells more but often, they're not needed until level 80. and even then, some people still do not know how to use their spells. but i digress.....

Anyway, so there's an update about me and my gf.  we're going to level our DK's next.  im blood tanking and she's unholy dps (and still wonders why she's doing 2k dps while her paladin, 6 levels higher, is only doing 1k dps.  my opinion: dumb combo points).  we're early 70s getting queues for AN and OK, if that gives you some kinda perspective. 

And so, this is why for the past two months i've basically neglected all my 80s.  It is not why i havent been posting much, however.  This is due to moving to a new job environment.  Im doing the same thing, just with another team of people (old boss retired, they wanted to keep me in the company so i had to work for another team).  Different location too!  I'm in the edge of the financial district in San Francisco.  Awesome place to be in the early mornings.  there's about three coffee shops on every block. and my new team is giving me a lot more to do, so less time blogging.  I'll also get to those Patch 4.0.1 changes when i can, but i've been playing more on my shaman to try to get him to 80 these past two weeks that i havent really been able to really write about any other class.  oh, and they took away treeform. it almost makes me want to close this blog.

Anyway, im hoping my posting pattern doesnt drop off like it did in october. Six.  SIX POSTS!!! grrrr.

On dying slowly... but still dying.

I die slower.  I dont die less. but i die slower.

Devynity has gotten a few more pieces of PvP gear, you know, the intro stuff you can get from emblems of triumph? yea, those.  and also, has enough honor to get the libram and a pair of bracers.  Next up would probably be some rings, necklace, trinkets and cape. The belt and boots require some arena points, so im just going to see if i can get comparable gear from WG or honor only. although they arent better, something is better than nothing.  I'm getting closer to 600 resilience (and 2k spell power!), which is helping me to live just a little longer, allowing me to pull off another heal or two.  in WG, its great. but i still have to remember to beacon myself, use righteous fury and remember all of my special spells for pvp and healing.

I tend to run low on mana quite often.  i do not know why as i dont really pay much attention to the mana bar as im fighting.  i always shield myself, holy shock whoever i can, and flash heal as much as i can.  i have been seeing dismal numbers when i do flash heal though, so i would switch to holy light.  this is a great heal and one i'd like to continue using, if it werent for the mana costs and things, i do like to use this spell.  whats even cooler, is that my casting is sped up by my sacred shield.  sacred shield is the awesomeness.

My damage sucks. i mean im a healer right? but still, wouldnt it be nice to have some attacks like every other healing class?  no.  those attacks need to be talented.  Here is what i can use to attack as holy:
1. Holy Shock, which does crap damage.
2. Judgement, which also does crap damage.
3. Shield of the Righteous, yes i do wear a shield, and this ability does crap damage (since its really a protection ability and my equipment has almost no strength, cos you know, im a healer).
4. Consecration.

Here is what other classes get as damage spells if they need to:
Priests: Devouring Plague, SWpain, mindblast, smite, penance if speced.  notice how almost all of these spells are available to the healing priest in all specs?  notice they're modified by spell power?
Shamans: Shocks, any shock, lightning, chainlightning, fire totems.  Note that the shocks and ligthning spells are what other shaman classes use as well.  notice that they are modified by spell power?
Druids: cancelform and start casting your balance spell attacks, starfire, moonfire.  notice how moonkinds also use starfire and moonfire.  notice how they're spells, so they get modified by spell power.

Notice that the DPS spec for paladins is RET. it has nothing to do with spell power.  we get STR gear as ret.  we use it to kill things and increase our spell power and damage via STR.  when we reduce our str to zero, and put all our attacks into holy, shield of the righteous does squat.  consecration does some damage, but its as impressive as making the ground glow.  but whatever helps right? Then there is the judgements, which is on an 8 second cooldown, or 10 if you're not specced.  and of course, why would you be specced for that? holy shock has a 6ish second cooldown. but the problem with that is that its 6 seconds.  twice to four times longer than many of the other spells mentioned above.  i can fill that time up with countless moonfire spams, or wrath spams. lightning bolt spams with frostshocks weaved in, or dot up a player then mindblast/smite after i fear them.  actually no, im exaggerating. but my point is that i can do more "stuffs" on my other characters than on the paladin if i need to kill something (you know, when you're the only one left and there's a big seige engine beating on your wall).

See the difference?  on the other hand, when you back a holy paladin into a corner, they will last for a while. but they most certainly would not have been able to take out any dps type class. heck, put him in there with a tank and they can duel for 30 minutes with no winner.  put him in there with a priest and you get a duel that will last until cata. 

what do i want? another offensive spell.  also, a better control spell... hammer of justice is great every 40 seconds, but thats every 40 seconds.  how else will i keep them away from me?  consecrate and stand in the middle of it?  lol. jump off a cliff? thats about it.

Updates Updates Updates Aug 23

General Updates

I have been spending more time on Ysondre than I have been in Ravenholdt because I have been leveling my shaman and priest with my girlfriend as of late.  This is not to say I have abandoned my old realm.  Ravenholdt is the perfect sized realm, "medium" population with a horde imbalance of about 3 to 1, that means 75% of the population is horde.  What this does mean is that world pvp is not too lively, as you'll find some horde outnumbering alliance.  but it also means that when alliance do find the time to harass a town, they will do it in force, 10 deep, with air support.  and usually in Thrallmar (of course, the lower level town).  It does have a pretty mature market, with gem cutters with all cuts, glyph makers with 20 of each glyph at all times and a wide array of crafting mats, not to mention the entertainment to be had in trade chat.

In Ysondre the life is a little different.  There is much less going on in the AH, so mats are limited, especially mats to level professions.  people can easly control a market for a limited amount of time, buy up all the mithril and relist it for more (but always having to watch out for small time undercutters).   bags are limited as well, as are item enchants and enhancements.  bags are limited by the low amount of netherweave due to the low amount of people leveling through outland.  and those are the highest in-demand bags.  special enchants are hard to get as the supply is lacking. however, common enchants are lowly priced since there's a lot of supply and little demand.  things are quite skewed in ysondre.  so if you're looking to make some gold and don’t mind "farming" please go there and mine and herb.  seriously.  sungrass should not be selling for 40g a stack.  sungrass??

one thing I've noticed is that people do not know the value of some items.  I die a little inside when I see cut golden draenite.  why?  because the cut versions are trash, used only to skill up points and tossed while the uncut variety are used for tailoring.   yes, tailoring.  at 10-20g a pop.  why? because tailors need four of them to make their silly slow flying carpet.  not only are you tapping into a market with little or no supply (check the AH for fel iron ore or adamantite ore or even the gem in question, and you will see almost nothing, or something that's omg overpriced), you're about to provide the tailor (who's second profession is probably enchanting, and NOT jewelcrafting or mining) with something he is not able to produce on his own… ever. 

In any case, the difference in both servers cannot really be seen in the beginning levels, as leveling through the world can be a dry and lonely experience.  you will not find a lot of people questing to learn about the lore. heck, do people even read the quests anymore? or do they just pick it up and look on their map for the dots to tell them where to go?  im guilty of doing that but it is because I've already done those quests several times and do not need to be reminded of the story.  If cata is going to change the entire face of azeroth, I'd love to quest again through to level 85, just to see the lower level's updated story, from all angles (and that means, yes, I might have to roll a troll…. or a gnome now).  but yea, my point was that you will not see too many people leveling these days simply because there's the dungeon finder.  it makes leveling emmensly, immensely, whatevers, easy.  well not that easy. you still have to do "OK" and this teaches people how to perform in groups at an earlier level, and more often.  one complaint I had previously was that people do not know how to perform in groups because they simply never did it due to it being "too hard" to find groups.  well now you can easily do it.  and do it often!  so with repetition comes competence.  or at least I hope so.  no longer will a fresh level 80 walk into an instance for the first time because turning in quests was much easier to do.  no longer will we have to learn two different "games" when we play this game.  one at level 1, and the other at level 80.  although both are available starting at level 13-ish. 

On Leveling

What I noticed differently about this game is that I have been doing instances to level up way more than I do questing.  a couple of years back, I would be questing most of the time, trying to get my player to a higher level.  I did find that while questing, I was able to learn the little details of my class, but it wasn’t until I started playing with other people in instances that I really started to understand how my class played in comparison with others and how it can benefit others.  When playing solo, I learned my spells well and well enough to use the different spells in different situations in groups.  What I find lately is that everyone who parties with me knows quite a bit about playing in groups, especially post level 25.  but, they do not use all of their tools to their advantage.  somehow, leveling through instances requires knowledge of only several abilities.  It’s a great way of learning to play in groups, but I find that it doesn’t help people actually learn everything they need to know about their class. 

One Trick Ponies

What I see the most? People are not utilizing all of their skills, but only resorting to AoE style of play.  Because many tanks can simply group a bunch of mobs together, the dps usually busts out with their AoE type spells (blizzard, volley, rain of fire, etc) and try to burn down all the mobs at once.  this makes it easy, actaully.  although healing through it might not be as before (I'll explain that in a bit), things seem to work and we move on to the next batch to start the process all over again. 

What happens when people use their AoE all the time?

1. no one gets cc'ed. no one gets "crowd controlled".  no one is dazed, sheeped or forced to repent.

2. no one interrupts.  casters, with 3 second casts usually, do not get interrupted.  shield slam? no. hammer of justice? no.  wind shear? no. kick? no. silence? no.  counterspell? no.  of course not.  all of these spells are learned in raids or in arenas, of course, at level 80. 

3. no emergency spells.  what is this? a near wipe! oh lets just wipe.  actually there are many emergency spells that every class has that will help to live longer, and possibly to avoid a wipe.  im talking interrupts and cc's, but also those damage mitigation spells every class should have by now.  divine protection, last stand, shield wall, fears, frost nova, and so forth.  what usually happens is that the hunter or warlock's pet takes over tanking and no one really has to blow any of their cooldown spells.  one other thing is that mobs hit for less damage comparatively, so some healers will find it a lot easier to heal four people (each with one mob on them) than healing a tank with four mobs on himself.  sometimes I even prefer to heal four "tanks" than just one.  tis weird.

4. no synergizing.  This means no one is really talking about ways to improve their dps with other members.  should warlocks toss curse of the elements? which totems are best with this group composition? why are you giving me "dampen magic????" stop overriding my blessings! etc.

there might be more, but this is all I really wanted to talk about.  all of this should be learned during our play time leveling, if not through discovery, than its through being told by someone in the group (sometimes without an explanation).  but being told by someone in the group is often a matter of chance, so we leave it up to chance to learn how to best use our abilities?  sigh.  but whether or not we know how to really "play" our character, or why our character is doing crap damage vs everyone else, what matters most is that we learn how to work as a team.  the above four points kinda illustrate how, as a member of a team, we can help each other out.   

The Resto Shaman

I've been leveling up a shaman recently with my girlfriend's paladin.  he's been quite a blast to play actually.  What I've learned from having only one heal for 20 levels, and now having a second heal, that healing with a shaman is indeed, boring. but thank god we're not just limited to healing. no really, there are several instant attacks that you must utilize as a shaman.  must.  even at the cost of mana.  because you helping to kill things faster makes instances faster, even if you have to sit and drink a little.  here's my little bit of insight I want to share for those in levels 20-30. 

1. include the fire totem. magma totem over searing totem. blast it on cooldown.

2. save frost shock for runners.  if they don’t run, earthshock to reduce their attack speed (but if you have a warrior/druid doing demo shout, this becomes unnecessary).

3. target any caster and windshear their spells.  less damage taken means less you have to heal.  windshear is on a short cooldown so you can do it multiple times a fight.

4. always keep water shield up.  they are your mana resource.  glyphed water shield rocks too.

5. at level 30, always recall your totems.  this saves you some mana.

After level 20, you can easily contribute to the speed of many dungeons by adding a ltitle burst dps when needed.  just remember to watch your mana usage and hold off at certain times.  especially when the tank is taking heavy damage (but those are often the best times to dps.  oh so juicy).  but I always have to remember I signed up to heal and so I should heal first and foremost. 

The GF's Ret Paladin

My girlfriend has been trying to level up her paladin for over a week and has gotten her to her mid 30s today.  Not much to say except that she usually top damage meters.  Is that great or what?  well she tops dps.  im sure she gets it from me.  but I think what makes her dps high is that I mention several things about her fighting.  always judge on cooldown, and always use seal of command.  so she's rocking through the instances with very little problems and doing pretty good damage. 

Now that her paladin is about the same level as her warlock, we'll be leveling together.  all four characters.  her lock and pala with my priest and shaman.  I guess I'll have to check out the different combinations (theres just two, but hey, trying to see how they fit together) to see which one works best to boost our dps and healing.   you know, that synergy thing.

Basics for Understanding Seals and How they Work.

Imagine a Rifle... with a grenade launcher.


Seals are like a clip.

Judgements is like firing your gun's grenade launcher every 8 seconds while you do normal rounds every 3 seconds or so.

Your gun's grenade launcher takes about 8 seconds to recharge.

After 30 minutes, your clip needs to be reloaded or you get no magical bullets or grenades. NO GRENADES!!!

Different clips do different things. one shoots a 3-way shot. another shoots bullets with light infused for extra damage. and yet another shoots a round that causes the bad guy to bleed a little. and yet another clip, when shooting bad guys, will give you mana, whatever that is.

And the grenades that come with these clips... they do different things too. 


So when you use Judgement of Light, think... GRENADES. 
when you do your auto-attack... then normal magic-infused rounds.
when you do your auto-attack and forget to turn a seal on, think crap normal rounds with no special magic.


see how simple that was? magical guns ftw.

TL:DR
1. Keep your Seals up always.  a gun with an empty clip is a useless gun.
2. Use your Judgement of Light or Wisdom every 8 seconds.  EVERY EIGHT FRIGGIN SECONDS.
3. No seal? your auto attack sucks; Yes seal? your auto attack rocks.


Any questions?

To Devynity.... and Beyond!!

This post will be about Devynity, my almost level 80 paladin.



As many of you know, he's leveling through this game as ret. from day one, he's been ret (yes, i leveled him to level 10 on the first day or so and gave his first retribution talent point) and will probably always be ret. One of the reasons he will stay ret is because i already have a paladin tank on another server. so making him a tank would mean going through the whole gear set grind. im happy with the gear i already have for Devynity, mail pants included. there is really no reason why he needs to do tank stuffs, unless he wants to get insta-queues and attempt to roll on dps plate vs. dks, paladins and warriors. but he doesnt. he wants to get priority when it comes to rolls for dps plate. he doesnt want to ask, "is it ok for me to need for offspec, please?" i mean if i even see a dk/war/paladin in the group when im taking, im going to automatically pass on the dps plate drops unless they dont "need" it. its just another concern i'll have out of the way. i dont really want to deal with it really.



The other reason why Devynity will not be going prot is because he's got no bag space left. none. nada. he's got an enchanting bad in the bank and filled bank full of frostweave bags. he's carrying around all frostweave bags and his backpack. he's got a bunch of enchanting mats that he still needs to use to skill up his enchanting (currently pretty low, in outland enchanting levels, but enough to DE nr blues but not purples). He's got inscription to about 85, but there's absolutely zero room for herbs, glyphs, parchments, inks, pigments, etc. zero room. All of his fish are sent to the alts to sell. There are a bunch of enchants he still needs to get rid of (that no one wants to buy!).



So because of the limited bagspace, the many professions he's already got to deal with and the constant annoyances of tanking heroics (see many previous posts about this), he's not tanking. ever.



Sorry Manda, i know you wanted me to tank stuff for you. i wish i could. but i wont. i love dps too much to change. i wish my gearset can be stored in a different bag. i wish i can put it in a closet instead. you know. all soulbound gear should be stored in a closet. that would rock.



SOOOOOOO..... moving on, devynity will be doing heroics when he reachs 80. he will get to do heroics instantly, i believe, as much of his gear is now pretty decent, with almost no green gear except maybe for a trinket, but thats it. most of his gear is level 175+ so hopefully he can get into the heroic randoms quickly. also, he's specifically choosing Culling of Stratholme, Halls of Lightning, Utgarde Pinnicle and Oculus instead of using the dungeon finder tool. these four instances are more beneficial. god knows why a level 79 should be doing halls of stone or worse, gundrak, for their daily random. but i'll do them if i have to. i dont want to tho. i'd sooo rather do the other four level 80 instanes because really, those are the places where i will actually get gear that will count to getting me into random heroic runs. otherwise, im stuck at 80 doing regular HoL over and over or... buying my gear. desing flaw anyone? indeed. especially when people dont even do normal instances anymore at 80, unless its the later instances like forge of souls.

But seriously blizzard, why do you make us suffer through normal halls of lightning for the 8th time when we're already 80, have two pieces of triumph gear? only because we have a trinket that is level 135 and a cape that's level 156? we cant even queue for ToC because our gear isnt good enough yet? what is this shit? When my warlock guildie hit 80, she ended up having to go through two instances before she could actually join a heroic run. in those runs though, she did upgrade three different items. but the upgrade wasnt by a whole lot, and in the end, when we did enter normal ToC, her dps was about the same. (i get it tho, you want people who randomly q for groups to at least qualify via some gear scoring system, and so it will eliminate some of the fruststrations of pugging at 80. but still... i have 6 80s. come on now.) /rant


now back to devynity's progression. he'll continue to fish. he'll also continue to cook. what he'll stop doing is inscription altogether for the next month or two. i really just want him to get a good base of enchants and get a feel for the enchanting market on our server. also, i'd like him to continue to fish for gold and kirin tor rep. as well, he should be able to dish out some good damage in heroics. he'll be a character with just a few pieces of triumph gear, as i dont really care of he does 2k dps or 3k dps. actually, i'd like him to stay at around 2k dps (which means get all the ilevel200 gear from heroics bosses) which may mean i'll only use my triumph badges for my libram and only my libram.

why do i want my dps at 2k? because thats really all i need in heroics. sure, doing more might be stroking my epeen, but then again, anyone in iCC gear should be able to do more than 4k dps anyway. so what does that have to do with anything? do i really want to repeat Krakkenskull's and Akeelah's project on Devynity? i'll have to think about that. but i do realize that if i only do heroics for now, there's really no need to be buying better gear. those "free" drops from instance bosses are just fine. granted, i might have to run the instances many times, but im going to do that anyway. in the end, i really dont think it will matter except, unless i decide i may want to pug ICC. rep runs? sure! GKP runs?? i'll still have to amass some gold. pugs? this might be a good time to just join a pug for the hell of it. we'll see.

but that's it for my plans. thats all devynity will be doing. hopefully, if i like ret enough, my prot paladin will dual spec ret. i dont know why. i just think it will be fun. maybe. i dont know entirely where im headed with this. i just know that devynity is a blast to play, but his playstyle will get boring eventually. i dont want to go the pvp route though, since i know i have other characters im leveling up just for the sole purpose of pvp.

all in all, things are a little busy for me on RH, as im with a new guild. which gives me reason to be there. but eventually, if i dont find anyone to talk to in-guild, i might just quit the guild. i mean im there for some social interaction, but its been almost a week, and i am welcomed with silence most of the time, even when i say hello or when i ask how's everyone. i get zero response from the 15-20 people online. this does make me sad and i dont know what to tell my friend who invited me to join the guild. we'll see how that goes. but for now, and for the past two years, i havent been able to really find a home.

Paladin DPS (getting started)

How Devynity DPSes right now at level 74.

Lets start with the basics.
I have outland level 70 gear mainly with some northrend gear. my health isnt stellar, but almost hitting 10k health. After getting one-shotted by bosses in Ahn Kahet, i think having a little more health would help. shedding some of this outland gear (although it has served me well) will help to not only increase Devynity's dps, but also his survivability.
Most of my gemable gear are gemmed with strength. this gives me maximum output in terms of base damage. But this gear is also gear i've picked up from outland and are pretty much outdated.
Most of my gear are enchanted with +crit, +hit, and maybe some armor if there is nothing else.

So there isnt much else to say about my gear. it isnt the best. heck, i dont even have the basic quests in northrend to get the quest rewards for nexus, ahn kahet, azjol nerub, or drak tharon keep. although those instances do have decent drops for a paladin, it's not enough to fill out my gear. the rest will need to be quested to get, or crafted. i do not want to really switch out my gear tho. although i know i might be doing a lot more dps if i were to be using the spiked cobalt set instead of outland dungeon gear. we'll see. i might just do a makeover tonight. just for the hell of it. hello AH!!

in terms of dps, devynity is doing about 1k to 1.4k dps depending on instances. in AN, he's doing 1.4k dps. in Anh Kahet, he's doing 1k dps. the level difference could be the case, but i find that i should be doing Drak tharon keep and violet hold anyway at my level.

So anyway, gem str, enchant str, crit, hit. thats it for gear.


So when i actually go out into battle, what exactly will i be doing?

1. I always start off with Judgement. Judgement of Wisdom, in the case of 5mans.... since really, no one really needs healing from my Judgement of Light, my only concern here is that i have enough mana. I have the two judgements on toggle, so if another pally continues to judge wisdom, i will switch over to light. Even though my judgement will return mana, and my first attack (if i am full on on mana) will waste my mana return for that judgement. it is ok though. in 8 seconds i will be judging again and will get more than enough mana back to continue to ass kicking. however, if mana is key, you can always start off with a divine storm and crusader strike, then judge to get your mana back.
Assumption: you have talented for Judgement of the Wise.

2. I follow up my judgements with my other attacks. i usually hit crusader strike and divine storm next. if there's a lot of mobs or if it's a boss that will last a while, i would consecrate as well. i would continue to get a crusader strike off while waiting for my judgement to refresh. when i see the big hammer animation, i know that divine storm (and possibly consecrate) will be ready for use in 2 seconds. and the whole time i am spamming crusader strike. it seems that crusader strike is the oddball when it comes to damage rotations. its on a shorter cooldown than the other abilities. making it the button i spam.

3. Procs: when Art of war procs, i hit exorcism. thats it. sometimes i may use flash of light on people, but for the most part, i will use exorcism when art of war procs. this is instant, so it doesnt break my rotation much.
The other proc is the hammer of wrath proc. when a mob hits 15% health, we can use that spell. it never misses, so thats one great thing about it. it deals a big chunk of damage and can be talented to crit more. those are the only two real procs i look out for. which is enough for me, if you ask me.

4. Special cases. if there's a caster that's far away enough for me to CC, i will CC. i will, honestly.
if we are fighting undeads, expect me to use holy wrath in my rotation as well.

Paladin-centric Battle Buffs:
Auras:
Use retribution aura unless the tank is a bit squishy. then use devotion.
If i am in a fight with lots of fire, i'd use fire resist aura. same for shadow and whatnot. it all depends on the fight. but for most trash pulls, i'll use retribution aura.

Blessings:
I use blessing of kings always. why? because its annoying when warrior's battle shout override my blessing of might. that's basically it. besides, kings rock. do not rely on blessing of wisdom to help you with your mana regen. you should have plenty of regen elsewhere.

Seals:
I've talented in seal of command. i use seal of command. do not use seal of wisdom or any other non-dps seal. there's just way too many ways to regain mana at this level its ridiculous. using seal of wisdom usually means you're bad at managing mana with what the game has given you. same goes for blessing of wisdom. dont do it. dont use seal of light, justice, etc. use corruption on bosses and command on trash pulls. always. why? more dps i guarantee. and lets not forget to mention epeen means everything. so top those meters. everyone has a meter. they lie if they say they dont.

Judgements:
Use any. most will use Judgement of Wisdom because it returns mana. You should already have the replenishment effect on you from all judgements. Why i think Wisdom>Light is because the healers should have zero problems keeping the 5man group up. face it, at level 74, no one cares about replenishment either. so what really does matter here is what you think will benefit you the most. you will get healed by healers if they dont suck. but you will not be given free mana by anyone else unless a druid feels generous about his innervate. use judgement of wisdom and let the healers do the healing. besides, divine storm does some healing. if you run with a bear, you get healed every 8 seconds due to crits. why i also think wisdom>light is because they do the exact same damage to the mobs. its the secondary effects that we're after.

Thats basically the gist of paladin dps. i hope this helps others. ask questions if you want, i'll answer them. there's a lot more that goes into paladin play, but this is the basics. questions? comment me.

Plans at 80 on Ysondre

My leveling days in Ysondre are coming to a close pretty soon. I started a few days before i started this blog and figured it would be something worth writing about. besides, there's so many tree healing blogs out there that anything you may get from me would probably be less valuable than the many other tree healing blogs out there. besides, they're all anticipating cata changes at the moment while im still QQ-ing about 5man loot. heroic, or whatevers.

So anyway, back to my two characters on Ysondre. I've past 10k gold in little time. all while leveling. i have my DK at 79, ready to hit 80. just 10% more on my experience bar and i'll be bathed in that goldeny swirl of light they call a ding. or something. My pala is 72 and will simply do daily randoms, do daily fishing, cooking and try his best to get into more outland dungeons (this is where he excels anyway, being level 72 and all). Not to mention, having Ingvar's axe, it makes dps a breeze. most of my other gear is really from TBC. maybe the rings are not. but my chest, shoulders, headpiece, gloves, boots, etc. my shoulders and headpiece are the pvp honored rep variety. still, i pull off over 1k dps in utgarde keep. i think its due to the bold bloodstones and bold scarlet rubies he has.

My plans for my DK, Krakkenskull is this: To have him run heroic dungeons to collect gear. he will have only gear from heroics. that's it. no triumph or t9 gear. what he gets he'll get from running heroics. but he can get a boost with ToC, FoS, PoS, and HoR. these isntances are higher tuned and will drop better gear. i am still wondering if i should equip any of the gear i get from these instances tho, since i really want Krakken to have only ilevel200 gear. i dont know why. just to see how well he can do in "crappy" gear vs people who have all i232 or i245 gear. i know my other dk, Devyn, has pretty decent gear. no icc gear tho, but still, triumph gear gets me icc ready correct? whatevers. people are in blues doing the first wing so let me see how well my i200 gear will hold up against better geared people. we'll see.

The other reason i am having krakken just run heroics for gear is because he's in a guild of about 12 toons. this means a few things actually. in terms of unique accounts, there's much less. im a "Lord" in the guild but i really do not know what that means. We are called Knights of the Round so i am assuming we're all kngihts and pretty "round" IRL. it also means that i usually see no one online. not a single soul. not for most of the times i've been on. i did see one other person online last night, for about two hours, but that was it. the other times i find that its really dull and boring. i guess i could recruit, but i really dont know any of the guildies well to even want to recruit for the guild. i do know one person in the guild. but she's off playing other toons on other servers. i think i will just drop guild one day. but not sure when. not sure if i should just keep krakken there to run randoms since, really, you dont need a guild for that. Sorry Manda, its really lonely.

My plans with Devynity is still to do the same as what im already doing. namely, to gain rep with outland factions, to collect more enchanting recipes, to get more outland gear and gem it with bold bloodstones, to fish, to cook and to make a killing off the AH. actually, i havent really made as much as i hoped. mainly because the JC market tanked and my initial plans backfired somewhat. now, i am going to go farm some mats (i know farming sucks, but hey, 50g for a stack of cobalts is nothing to scoff at) or something. my fishing is making some gold (glacial salmon, icefin angelfish, darkclaw lobsters), my scrolls are selling well and my gold is over 10k. hoping to double that once i get a footing on northrend JC and enchanting recipes. It will be a fun ride i hope, as this may be my final project playing wow. we'll see how that goes.

By the time Devynity hits 80 though, i hope he can raid with his guild (at least do the weekly as a raid). they have quite a few people with at least 20 on during the weekends. this leads to the possibility of raiding. we'll see. during the week though, there's maybe 10-15 on, but by the time im winding down for the day, there may be 2-5 people left (1am, pdt). Although the guild Devynity is in is more of a social/leveling/casual guild, there is still talk about raiding and doing content together. there will be odd "fun" things to do like the jenkins achievement or doing 5mans together. they also have a lottery/raffle we can join (although it does seem a bit skewed since alts join in too) on a weekly basis, with an entry of 5g. we usually get over 100g, with about 10-20% of the funds going to the guild bank (all of which i dont see... yet).

i am hoping this guild will do things together often. they have a decent player base and some showing of leadership. although i do not see much else happening in the guild, if enough people hit 80 with intentions of raiding, we may pull something off. we'll see. as far as i can tell though, we're not much more than a bunch of casuals who kinda know what they're doing. a lot of us are pretty smart and can do more than just spam a single spell. i've partied with a few and, although i do see some elitists in the guild, i do hope that they will be a bit more laid back even in raids.

Monday Report

Here is an update for those who care to read about my adventures (I know its Tuesday. But yesterday was Memorial Day so i am posting this a day late).

Krakkenskull
This past weekend was pretty dull to say the least. i tried leveling my DK, Krakkenskull, to 80 but stopped short at 79 that week. went and did Hodir rep and went all the way to getting the quests for Halls of Lightning. I spent about 400g on Ulduar Relics and used most of them to gain Exalted. One more level and i can add some shoulder encahnts and never have to worry about hodir rep again. what's pretty awesome is how after i actually turn in the quest to make nice with the Sons of Hodir, i jump straight to Honored rep. wow. that's pretty friggin easy if you ask me.

And Krakken went from mid level 75 to 79 doing mostly instances. He's now pretty sick of VH, DTK and Gundrak. Startig to get sick of HoS.

VH has been a bit of a snore. I've been getting the same bosses over and over and it doesnt help that they drop everything i needed already, the first five times i was there. but now, the second five times im going there, i have never gotten the core hound or the big eyes with tentacles. its been the water revenant, the etherial, the voidwalker, or the arrokkoa and his two friends. same drops, over and over. same routine over and over. although the only real variable is the tank, since no tank is the same, they often make the instancea bit more interesting.

I went through DTK about five times only. yes, that's it. i went through it twice before i actually did the quest for drakuru, collecting about 30 mojos. that's 15g worth of mojos. the other times werent really noteworthy.

Gundrak is amazingly fast tho. especially since the bosses are all pretty close to each other and 1/3 of the instance is essentially skipped (the parts with the trash). overall, its a fast 4 bosses and maybe some loot.

Finally, Halls of Stone has been annoying. Sure, its fast, but that 5 minute survival event has lost its lustre as of late. the people that i've ran with are usually competent enough to stay out of the lazer beams, but they do ignore the purple orb, since i guess, 30% speed decrease and decreased damage really isnt that bad of a debuff. still, not much good stuff to be had there. but i've only ran this place maybe five times on krakken. it's not too bad yet. i really enjoy the large pulls and increased dps, especially when i see an Killing Machine proc and i oh so conveniently have howling blast on standby. that will give me quite a lot of damage to pad my numbers. lol. i feel almost like my warlock doing Seed of Corruption on everyone. it does feel good to boost numbers. but in the end, i know i should be dead last in boss fights.

I queued once specifically for halls of lightning and got my two hodir quests done. loken sucks. how did he blow so hard i do not know. these fights are fun still, but they seem so easy nowadays. has northrend content been nerfed that badly? or is everyone i am going with just rolling alts now? they seem to know all the fights, backwards and forwards. of course, when i started doing these instances, it was done in heroic mode, but i figured, at level 78, it would be just as difficult doing normals.

So after the daily heroic (for ze emblemz!) i will be specifically queing for Culling of Strath, Halls of Lightning, Utgarde Pinicle, and Oculus. Hopefully i will not have to repeat any of these, but chances are, i'll end up having to do a few of them twice. There are two quests inside UtPin that will give me some decent gear and good exp.

Oculus is always fun and is a well-needed break from dw-frost-dps. riding dragons is always fun. what i did wish was that the controls may be a bit more intuitive, that the dragons are used a lot more during the instance than just for transportation. really, we dont even really fight on the dragons until the last boss. what a lame design. may as well keep them as taxis for us and have us kill the boss the old way. nope. it seems like bliz wanted to confuse the hell out of everyone and introduce three new "vehicles", each with their own special mechanic. not only that, but they give us almost no time to learn how to use these new vehicles. whats more? these vehicles are never used later on.... ever. even malygos' encounter calls for a completely different strategy. wtf? granted, these are awesome ideas but hey, Aces High doesnt cut it. and giving us an instance (a very annoying one at that) and giving us mounts we wont use until the last boss is... THE STUPID.

So after having said that, i cant wait to DPS on the wings of the amber drake!
Build 5x shock charges then detonate. then build 10x shock charges, then detonate. run when boss in his shifted plane and he summons balls. timestop right AFTER he does his enrage. Eregos is easy sauce now.

Krakken has also been topping the dps charts vs. pretty much every class. he was outgunned by an 80 warrior. and also a 79 mage who was 3 bars away from dinging 80. what else? 2k dps on average. at 78. in halls of stone. k? not lying. im amazed really. i didnt know these figures existed pre-80. on my first dk, i leveled as a tank, with a tanking spec and in tanking gear, so my dps never went over 1k until i hit 80. then i tanked for months and got my dps to about 2k finally, before switching to dps. and frost dps is a blast. that's how dks should be played. as frost dps. and i started off doing 2k dps with entry level weapons and entry level gear (rep gear, pvp crafted gear, etc.) and quickly jumped in dps. one last thing to take note is that i switched to dps before patch 3.3.3, which made frost dps a lot better. and i see it as i can duplicate devyn's level 80 dps at level 78. not bad at all. what does this all mean? bliz buffed frost dps. thats all. and rightly they should. i cant wait to fight shamans for lowest dps in raids. i can hardly wait. hero class my ass.


Devynity
Devynity is still doing fishing dailies, and should be almost at 300 now. ghostfish is easy to catch compared to 10 terrorfish. easiest daily tho, is finding the severed arm. outland fishing isnt so bad either. although the darkfin darter takes a while to get right. He did ding 72 and also went off to the Black Morass several times, each time with people who need to do their elixir mastery quest. im still hoping to get exalted with them before i hit 76, since 75 is the last level we can queue for it specifically. i think. if anyone knows how a level 80 can queue for this, please tell me. please!

Doing the daily dungeon run sucked for Devynity. somehow, he's getting into crap groups. Please see other post about the buckets of asshats. nexus shouldnt be so bad. but in any case, asshats make me value the good parties i join. well it took me about two hours to finally get a good group to do my daily. and of all places, we went to AN. woot! now when i say good group, i did not mean it was easy. i had a warrior tank who turned with the keyboard still. she didnt have a clue how any of the fights went. so we wiped several times. The healer dropped. but we got a new healer who actually did some dispelling. woot! the tank learned the fights pretty quickly, but the mess with the spider boss took up half the instance. Anub took forever too. his burrowing didnt make the fight more fun, as the developers might have thought. in any case, that's basically all i did with devynity over the weekend.

Other
I still will need to get on my priest and take some screenshots. hopefully i can heal well. i havent healed on her in ages. will have to though since i do want to do a blog entry on healing. since, after all, this blog is called One Tree HEAL. and obviously, i havent been healing in a long while!
Hopefully, i can get back into Druid healing too. I may druid heal first thing come cata though, and end my days on wow that way. speaking of the end, i dont find very many things interesting in wow anymore. as im leveling up two melee dps (DK and Pala) i find that there isnt a lot more to do. leveling an Enh shaman will be similar to leveling a dk or pala. i thought about it and figured its too soon to go through all that leveling again. 58 levels of ugh until i hit outlands. then it becomes less ugh. but still ugh nonetheless. im all heroic'ed out, so going through northrend would suck too. maybe its time to throw in the towel unless i can get my gf to play with me. maybe i'll go alliance. lol. who knows.

Monday Report

Ah... the Monday "TPS" reports! it is that time of the week again where i have to update a few things and make sure all of my customers are paying, or at least, have a reason to not pay on time. Now this often interferes with what i really want to do, which was to recap the weekend (which i briefly did in the previous post) and reflect on a few points of discoveries for this week. I think that having some form of contemplation is good, even if its very little or if it results in absolutely nothing.

DPS is leveling out. I remember pretty well the few days of blogging about 200 dps and i do remember my first venture into RFC, where my dps was a whopping 17. 17 dps. that was crazy cool since everyone else was doing 8 dps. But it slowly got better. in fact, it kept jumping every few levels. but now it seemed to have leveled out as i find myself sitting at 1k-1.3k dps since 66. I remember 66 vaguely because this is when i got my awesome hammer from the hydra boss inside underbog. i added some STR gems to it and it made a gigantic jump in dps, so much more than the hellreaver. also with the gloves, chest and boots having a bunch of slots, i gemmed them with bold bloodstones and perfect bold bloodstones. those are cheap and are way more than i really need at my level. so since then, my dps hasnt really changed much. i did have a lot of fun with holy wrath on demons and dead/undead things as well as timing my divine storm and consecration right. all those add to the awesome aoe dps. there are many times where i did pull aggro but it wasnt too hard to finish off the mob before it killed me. i did venture into UK once and got my ass handed to me for pulling aggro, so my hypothesis was correct. i can "safely" pull trash mobs from the tank in outland, but not in northrend. although this had led to a bunch of butthurt tanks who, instead of try to be better TPS, decide to hold a pity party at our expense and either afk out or leave. TPS is threat per second. come on guys, im hitting the same mob you're hitting and im pulling them off of you. maybe you should learn to tank?

So my analysis is this. DPS stops at around 1k around level 66 and stays that way until 73, when most people get their gear "up to par" with the dungeons up north. this gear i speak of has stats that go well with the new system of play, or new stat priority, or new damage formulas Wrath brought on in patch 3.0. Once we are able to do Violet hold and Drak Theron Keep, we should have gear to decently outdo 1k dps. Please note this is also my theory. It is by no means what happens normally, as there are many classes and many ways to buff your dps. i mean give a warlock seed of corruption and there you have it, 4k dps at level 75. but this analysis is based on my own ret paladin with his own playstyle. also, i speak of overall dps, and not just single target dps since most of what matters in instances is the AoE dps anyway. When raiding happens, i guess we'll have to fine tune things. but for now, no boss is really on some kinda "enrage" timer where we can wipe if we take too long. so the limiting factor is really, or should ideally be, the healer's mana.

So going back to the topic, i feel that this stagnation in dps can be a good and bad thing. one, it can help me focus on fine tuning my play without really worrying too much about dps. in UK, i was top dps at 1k dps overall, but had a 500dps on prince keliseth, mainly due to running back and forth killing the frost tombs, and getting frost tombed three times with the first time not being freed until i yelled "HELP". I figured i'd be a little higher than that. we'll see how things pan out tho. but keliseth really drops my dps more than anything in utgarde keep. but fine-tune i will do.

i do notice some abilities that i will never use and one is repentance. oh why dont they just give me that ability at 80 instead of sacred shield? i'd sooooo love a trade. i'd run and SS myself all day if i could. it would make things a lot more interesting than a silly CC that i'll never use (not just because everyone is AoE crazy, but also because, well, there is no real spot for me to use it besides MGT. really, i've only used repentance at magisters terrace. and the tank didnt even notice. nope. he went and pulled a second group and left the CC'ed mob standing, only to get out of it and blast a hole in me. thanks stupid tank. oh and at the five super friends right before Keal, i asked which mob should i CC, but by the time i finished asking the question, the tank already charged in. needless to say, no one survived. no one knew how to fight that fight. everyone thought the naga chick was tank and spank. but there's gotta be a reason why all five of them are standing there right? i mean its pretty close to a perfect group and killing the healers first would have been nice. i mean stupid tank should at least ask about the fight. anyway, that group dropped and i was stuck trying to figure out how people can be so bad when it comes to thinking. i mean yes, tank and spank requires little thinking, but when it comes to fighting groups or bosses where there's more thought involved, people seem to get anneurisms and die, and politely drop group asap so we dont have to waste a /kick.

OK these reflections are turning out to be rantfests. but maybe that's what they're supposed to be. i havent had a deep thought in the past several posts. its been very... dull to just hear me mention stupidity. and it angers me tho, to see this kind of dumbness and see people, instead of wanting to figure out what happened and fixing it, to just dropping group and thinking that the current wipe was due to just "bad luck" or " bad group composition" or because the tank just sucked. sure. it could be one of those things, or all of those things. but how will you overcome these things if you're just gonna drop group each time a wall pops up. these instances are supposed to be hard. they're supposed to be challenging. they're supposed to involve a kind of synergy in a group where everyone works together to try to accomplish something a single character would be unable to do. instead, i feel that the mentality is one where people want to progress through. and progressing means they level up. no, it does not mean beating a boss. it does not mean learning your CC's or utility spells. it doesnt even mean decursing. i was cursed several times throughout many runs before and i wasnt dispelled until i actually had to ask for it in party. what? seriously. isnt 200 mana for a dispell worth it to the group?

anyway, my point is this: Progression means to level up and not to accomplish a goal.

This really shouldnt be the way to play. otherwise, any monkey can play this game and progress. i wanted to down the bosses and get the achev for accomplishing the instance. sure i can leave, level up to 72 and do the instance again. but why do that? i can do it perfectly fine at 70. i dont see why we cant all make the corpse run, talk about the wipe, and then kick the boss' butt. no, im stuck with people thinking its not worth the effort because leveling was so easy in comparison (then why did you q for a friggin instance then?!!!??!?!????). why deal with this "harder" bs when the easy stuff will lead to the same thing... and that's to gain experience points? why deal with having to move out of the fire? why deal with lowering my already low dps so i can CC someone? because it keeps everyone alive dumbass. it allows us to move on to the next group of mobs or bosses. this is not always an aoe fest where the tank grabs everything and we all hope the healer can heal through all of that while we dps everything down. maybe part of the game is to play using all of our tricks. maybe that makes the game actually fun??? If you dont want to deal with it, dont queue up for dungeons. if you want easy, go do a quest and leave the instance queues for those who actually want to do this. /facedesk

But alas, through 70 levels we were forcefed one way of playing, the easy way of playing. so why not take the easy way when it comes to leveling? finish off your quest while waiting for another instance queue. and hope that you dont get the same hard instance, or that if you do get the same hard instance, mechanarlol, that there will be a great healer, or great tank, or a great dps that will carry everyone through so you dont have to learn anything yourself, so you stay unchallenged, so you can continue pressing your usual three buttons.

So ok, since i have ADD and cant hold a constant thought for a paragraph, im going to just post this rant and call it a week. Have a great one everyone. i hope to type about happy things later on.

Last week's goals

From Last Week:
This weekend's goal:
Get Devynity honored with Lower City
Get Devynity honored with Sha'tar
Get Devynity honored with Cenarion Expedition
Get Devynity friendly with Keepers of time
Get Devynity friendly with a drunk elf
Get key for Shadow Lab
Get key for Tempest Keep Get to 70 (so i can equip most of the gear that will drop in the level 70 dungeons)
Level Krakken, who is currently 75, to at least be 78 (which should be easy considering he's got so much rested exp and im pretty familiar with northrend content.

So i got honored with Lower City. That was quite easy as i've already done a few Crypt/Sethekk halls runs. I only had to do several quests and was done with that. For the Cenarions, i had to do the quests in HFP and then three in Zanga.

I am currently friendly with the Sha'tar and Keepers of Time. Hopefully I can get a durnholde run once in a very logn while.
I am close to honored with the Sha'tar, but half of my Mech/Bot/Alca runs keep turning into wipe fests. Im pretty sure i would have better gear too, but yea.

I found the key for shadow labyrinth by accident. after killing talon king ikiss, i picked up two spirit shards. figuring that i may have missed two from the first boss, i ran back. then i read that someone in my party picked up the shadow labs key. omg omg. so i ran back to the dead talon king and found the chest in the back of his chamber. it was huge. why didnt i see it before? lol.

I leveled Krakken NADA this weekend. he did get one emblem run on friday, and that was all the action he got over the weekend. instead, i took Devynity to Bay of Storms and fished lobsters while waiting for instance queues. yep. got him to Jouneyman and went over to Sholazar to do the daily fishing. So much fun... almost dying. level 70 in a 75 zone isnt too great. maybe it will be better when i hit 72. but anyway. got the ghostfish sucker and yea. psychadelic... in black and white!

one thing about the lobsters is that its used as an easy 5 points from 295 to 300 cooking. Otherwise, someone's going to have to do DM runs for the Tuber recipe (and then find tubers). The darkclaw recipe isnt BOP, so you can find that in the AH. Greater mightfish and sunscale salmon are the other two fish that will get you to 300 easy. I am thinking i will sell each lobster for 5g each. 25g for the last five points to reach 300 cooking skill. that's not too much to pay for. i think i'll be making a few hundred gold, although not all at once. this is one of those slow selling items.

On a good note, i've been making about 210g profit for each Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Agility i post. They never come back unsold. and they always sell for 300g. that's 50% more than what auctioneer saw before. i am aparently the only one selling this stuff now. =]

I say 210 profit because the essence of airs are 60g to buy (though i can buy them for 10g each on certain days), and the shards total about 30g. so that's 90g invested. although i only buy the shards and i "farm for free" the airs. i can farm about 40 airs in about an hour, so that's 600g worth of stuff in one hour. now that 600g isnt going to come instantly. im investing for the long term returns.

2h Agility isnt selling as well though. i'd say the demand for that is 1/4 that of the agility enchant. the only class that will use the 1hander agility is druids. rogues dont have two handers. death knights have their runeforges, and paladins and warriors prefer strength. at least i think that's true. now i know agi increases physical crit, armor and dodge. so these can also be great pvp enchants for any melee class. i do see it selling slowly though. im selling it for only 500g anyway. it may be steep. but look at the rogue that coughed up 600g on a pair of agi for his daggers. the 2hand wielders are getting a 100g break!

In general, things are slowing down. Instances are taking a little longer to start (i imagine a lot of people do not want to do Botanica, mechanar, or Arcatraz. I'd rather do those than go through UK/Nexus again for the 1000th time. What i didnt get at level 69, which was really really dumb on blizzard's part, is i couldnt queue for normal outland randoms. i could not at all. i had to pick them individually. when i hit 70, i could only queue for random outland heroics. now i understand heroics is a 70s thing, but that about mechanar/botanica/arcatraz? shadow labyrinth? shattered halls? in normal? those are level 70 instances!! and at 69 i couldnt queue for ANYTHING in outlands. and at 70 i could only queue for outlands heroics. this is pretty broken if you ask me. even at 70, there's still some folks who would like to join a random for outlands. they beat Utgarde Keep in so many ways really.

And on that note, i'll have to pause and get back to RL work. i'll continue with my analysis shortly, if i have time to spare.

One Hour til the Weekend

My guild had some interest in doing Outland Heroics and Raids. I think i'll sign up and join them. I have been inside Botanica and Mechanar or something, but that was as a level 70 being run through by a level 80 DK because, well, he wanted to acheivement for Outland Dungeon Master. He did get it, and i did get to see the inside of a crystal spaceship. It's a pretty awesome sight inside the walls of one of those spaceships. I would never be able to live inside one of those things, considering everything looks like its made of stone. But add some sofas and lounge chairs and you can make any one of those crystalline-walled rooms look comfortable and cozy... in space.

That's essentially where we were. Since Draenor has been shattered into pieces, i am sure most of the planet has been destroyed and the zones we see now are but a fraction of what the planet used to be. Of course, all of the seas are gone so its not too far to assume that most of the atmosphere is gone as well. flying up that far would bring me close enough to be shot out into outter space with a cannon. im pretty sure of it.

What else, the old city of auchindon is just as cold a place, possibly because they were both created by the draenei. Running through mana tombs, sethekk halls and crypt showed me a large underground city filled with stone walls and empty space. it is almost as if the draenei had dwarven tendentcies to build cities underground. but not really. only part of their city was underground. the rest was probably pretty awesome to look at before the explosion that left us with the bone wastes. What amazes me is how the archetecture is completely different from all the other races in draenor and azeroth. I mean not just that its different from them, but that all the others are unique in its own right (which also leads me to wonder why gnomes need such big doors in gnomeregan).

So im a little bit excited about doing the higher leveled outland instances that i went ahead and got the shattered halls key made, complete with killing the voidwalker (i did this by aggroing the voidwalker when he's passing thrallmar to the east, and then making a beeline towards the mages standing outside. Once i died, it only took the mages about a minute to kill the thing. once it dies, i have until it despawns to forge my key. and forge my key i did!). i am also trying to figure out how to get the shadow labyrinth key as well as tempest keep. i do not remember a requirement to enter steamvaults. i did escape from durnholde but forgot to accept the escort quest. so i'll have to do it again. but thats fine. i like that instance, i really do. and eventually, hyjal! So the raids will open up as well. Kara, SSC, TK, BT, Hyjal, Zul Aman, Sunwell. I think that covers it. MGT will be awesome too. Magister's Terrace. Even at 80, we cannot be lazy about this instance. Im sure Gruul's, Mag's and that last one in sunwell will be great.

What i am concerned about is the organization. I would love to just do a 10man of these. Perhaps there will need to have 15-25 of us in the raid. i dont mind. the more the easier. i just hope i do not ever have to heal, or tank. as a ret paladin, as you've read the other day, i do not want to do anything else besides dps. its pretty fun in 5-mans so 10-mans shouldnt be much of a difference. i know its a bit harder to tank and heal, as i've done both in 5-mans. i can attest that dps is a lot less stress. my responsibility is to dps and move. that's basically it. i have no responsibility to others really. but if i have to, i will taunt a mob off the healer, or even the warlock who's trying to out dps me. the difference between me and the warlock is that i do not die after two hits, maybe after five, but not after two hits. so its much better the mobs pound on me than on the warlock, and only until the tank grabs the stray mob's attention again.

In any case, about organization. I've been in guilds where we've attempted some runs here and there. some were successful, some werent. some took forever and some were pretty quick. what all of these had in common was that a bunch of us ended up really liking raiding, and wanted to do more while the rest of the guild wanted to level, or quest, or do 5mans and then end up leaving because they want to raid. and other times the raid leader just did the raid for fun with no intention of doing more later. there was a guild that i was in where the guild leader took a break and left it to one of his officers to lead. lead we were not and the guild ended up breaking apart about a month later. the lame duck guild leader decided to give the leadership to others after the fallout, although he was given plenty of opportunity to turn the guild around during the month. he was just benefitting from someone else's hard work, and the butt kissing and ass licking helped him gain the position but it didnt help him keep it. ok rant aside, i just hope things dont fall apart after a while. to finally be in a raiding and active guild would actually help a lot. it may change my playing habits a bit.

Anyway, i am hoping our first steps would be in outland heroics. Im already honored with Thrallmar to get their heroic key, but im friendly with lower city... and thats it. meaning, i need to improve my standing with lower city to do heroics in auchindon, then figure out a quick way to get my rep up with the sha'tar for tempest keep instances. lastly, honored with the cenarions in order to do heroic coilfang instances. i think keepers of time will come... in time. and maybe i can start doing netherdrake quests. that does mean i will have to buy epic flying. i did break 5k gold two days ago. it is pretty slow but i've found that enchants sell pretty well, although a bit slow. i do get some competition with fiery enchants but i have zero competition with the agi to weapons. although, honestly, there's no competition because theres practically no customers. in any case, i did gain my last 3k gold from enchanting mainly, and a few AH flips. i have been buying frostweave cloths for about 10g/stack and reselling it for 15g-20g a stack. netherweave as well. and i've also been selling some raw gems because practically every character and their mom is a JCer. so yes, the future looks difficult due to the slow economy. but that doesnt mean there's no gold to be made. what i need to concentrate on right now is rep (cenarion, lower city, shatar and keepers of time). i guess i can also buy some of that intro-pvp gear they started handing out some patches ago for the level 70s wanting to enter the pvp game.

So there is your critical-hit wall-o-text. I am just writing because i am at work and none of my bosses are back yet. also, because i can actually edit posts right now. its a good thing to do to keep busy and plan for the weekend. i do have this urge to level all the way to 80 but i think maybe i should just stick it out and wait at 70-72 and do everything outland has to offer with my guild. I can level my DK instead. that works. level Krakken to 80 so he can actually get some decent JC cuts. yay. sounds like a plan.

This weekend's goal:
Get Devynity honored with Lower City
Get Devynity honored with Sha'tar
Get Devynity honored with Cenarion Expedition
Get Devynity friendly with Keepers of time
Get Devynity friendly with a drunk elf
Get key for Shadow Lab
Key key for Tempest Keep
Get to 70 (so i can equip most of the gear that will drop in the level 70 dungeons)
Level Krakken, who is currently 75, to at least be 78 (which should be easy considering he's got so much rested exp and im pretty familiar with northrend content.

Update: Where to now?

I'd like to say that I am now 20% away from 68 and hitting northrend soon. Although it will be sad to leave outland, I feel that northrend is just as stale, being that I've gone through all of the zones already. I've gone through several areas with my first 80, then switched it a little on my DK, then a little on my paladin, then a little more on my druid. actually my second druid, the healer, went through as little of northrend as possible. she chose to pvp and run instances most of the way through. she pvp'ed in pve gear and at 80, was able to gear up both fairly quickly. she was first to buy dual talent specialization as well as use the game's gear set changer. later on, my dk received a similar treatment as she went to dual spec as dps once her tanking gear basically maxed out, from emblems of course.

Now that I've leveled a paladin from 1 to 67, I do not want to give him dual talent specialization because he is ret. he will always be ret. he's grown up as ret and should never stray away from the light. he's learned to swing his manner one way and one way only. besides, wearing a shield is just not him. he sucks using a shield. he's tried it. never liked it. his arms ached for massive damage.

So I will keep my paladin as ret. for now at least. hopefully my guild will have several tanks that will run heroics with me to get gear. I will not need to spec into prot unless we're doing raids and someone needs an offspec tank to cover for the night. they are thinking of doing some outland raids so I feel that maybe this guild is for me. at least for now. I still do not like the constant "grats" on everything, and the stupid addons that tell you when a guildie gains a level. No really, I just hate leveling now. every time I ding, I see "diamond star skullGrats Devynity on [level]!!skull star diamond xD" from an addon someone has. and half the time, it’s the guild leader. i can live with it, but im just not used to it. but then again its better than having no guild interaction, no guild chat, or even guild events. at least we have a raffle and some guild events. that's a plus. im pretty happy about that. maybe im just jaded with leveling life. who knows.

So with level 68 coming, I really do not know if I want to actually go to BT or HF to do any quests there. it’s the same quests on both sides. maybe I'll run off to help the Tuskars save their homes. I will still go do pugs as much as possible. those emblems are juicy and the random gear would be great to get, even though DE-ing them would make me… 1gold/DE. I think I'll try to save up the shards to buy recipes. doing quests would probably get me lots of gear to DE. but I don’t even know if I want to do that.

I started off with a tauren druid when I ventured into northrend. she was feral, and I was slow at leveling. I went through BT, then did parts of HF, then helped the Tuskar and Taunkas on both ends of the map. Then went through Dragonblight and finally went to grizzly hills before I was able to buy cold weather flying. once I got cold weather flying, I went off immediately to storm peaks and opened up the sons of hodir. then I went to icecrown and opened up the shadow vault. I ended up doing levels 78-80 in icecrown. it was pretty fun, and being under 80 meant I had to watch my distance most of the time. I think I ding'ed 80 somewhere by the fleshworks or by the scarlet island west of icecrown.

My second character to hit 80 was my DK. she spent most of her time going through the same thing my druid first went through. she didn’t veer much off that path, but she did venture a little further into zul drak. she actually did some of the quests from the argent stand and did quests for trapped spirit animals in the snowy areas.

My third 80 was my second druid. she did BG and Instances only. she did a few quests but that’s all. nothing much. she doesn’t have much rep with anyone besides northrend because she would wear tabards and such. that's about it.

My fourth 80 was my paladin. she leveled as prot from 60 to 80. she was a blast to level because it was so hard for her to die. the only problem is, in order to get any mana back, she had to group four mobs together at once to fight. otherwise, blessing of the sanctuary would be inefficient. I started in BT and HF, like usual. I skipped grizzly hills and most of dragonblight. since I was a tank, I had better success with instance queues and got a lot of exp through it. I ended up skipping most Dragonblight and Grizzlyhills and went straight to Zul Drak. I did the scourge side of zuldrak and went to sholazar. yep, new zone, and ended up leveling to 79 there. then she went to icecrown and opened up shadowvault to get the tabard. and that's it.

Between those four 80s, I've logged a billion northrend instances and know much of the zone. the only other thing I can really do is get on an ally and level through their zone. lol. but I wont. not yet at least.

So there, I don’t know where to go. maybe I should just level in SMV and Netherstorm. lol. I feel like skipping to dragonblight and doing the wrathgate event, then, since im a paladin, I will run off to zul drak to help the argent dawn/crusade there. it will be fun. then I can go back and do some baron rivendare farming for his mount. that should get me to exalted with the dawn. The Argent Champion is really all I want. =P tho… the title, The Light of the Dawn is very very enticing. =]

Stop asking for Might

Here is the problem. I zone into an instance with a warrior tank, shaman healer, hunter and mage. I bless everyone with Kings. EVERYONE.

Then the hunter asks for might. i tell him no. he gets a hissy fit. the mage is good, he knows kings is best with this comp (composition), so he doesnt speak up and ask for silly Wisdom.

I know reagents are cheap, and once the warrior does his battle shout, the hunter will lose his "might". so i will end up having to buff him with kings again after a few pulls. waste of two symbol of kings.

Stop asking for Might. im the paladin with the blessings. i know what im doing. they're my blessings to give and i know whats best for you. trust me. besides, i dont have improved might, so deal with it.

Then the hunter goes off asking why it's not improved. i tell him once his dps outdoes me, then i'll put points into it to try to stay competitive, but as long as he's pulling 500 dps, and im doing 1,100 dps, its not gonna happen. This happened in Auchinai Crypts, we were both level 66.

Also, to all the priests, mages, and casting druids out there, i will not buff you with wisdom if there's a shaman in the group with mana spring totem.

And just to drill it into you guys, even without a warrior or shaman in the group, you're still getting kings. learn to love it.

Daddy's got a new... 45

Actually its a 51. a 51 point talent called... Divine Storm. It should really be called Hammer Storm, or Storm of Hammers because that's basically what i see when i use it, a bunch of yellow hammers swirling around me (supposedly hitting things within range).

And i've used it ever since hitting 60 and am loving it in groups. Its pretty much an attack for groups, but like seal of command, it still attacks single mobs as well. Althought i will not use divine storm until i've exhausted all other options when fighting one on one, i will use it as it does cause damage. Some say its a waste of mana. but who cares. i get mana back all the time. this shouldnt be a problem.

So with this new ability, i went into instances and, throughout several instances, got the hang of this ability really quick. with multiple mobs, this spell comes out right after my judgement of wisdom. sometimes i put consecrate down but for the "snap" effect on me, especially when im running after mobs who are after the healer, divine storm grabs them pretty quick. this annoys the tanks tho, since they were planning on pulling mobs off the healer, yet i figured its much better that i get hit instead of the healers anyway.

Some tanks just cant hold aggro and i have to wait a few seconds before i begin my onslaught. but still, seeing that the tank grab a group or two only invites constant AoE damage everywhere. the mage knows it, the warlock knows it. the other dk knows it as well as the hunter. they all know to use blizzard, rain of fire, dnd or volley when the tank stops. that's all i see. and i add to the madness with divine storm, seal of command and consecrate. its crazy awesome dps really.

divine storm works with my seals. so i tried seal of righteousness. it was ok. my dps dropped significantly so i will go back to seal of command even though divine storm does not work with seal of command. i mean it works. it just doesnt "work" as in, i dont get seal of command procs from three mobs at once, just one. this works fine, and my dps is pretty good. low on mana? go to seal of wisdom, hit divine storm and my mana bar will increase about 40%. then switch back to seal of command to recommence the ass-kicking.

I can see why some tanks get upset at me when i dps. its really really fun and yet it takes a bit of patience to start the mayhem. however, there are tanks who are really good and are able to keep the mobs on them better than others. i love running with these tanks because i am able to just run amuck and have a blast. they make running dungeons really fun. whenever i do grab a mob, if i find that i can handle/kill them before they kill me, i will usually stay on the mob and attack it. I know this is bad come northrend instances but for now, its fun so lets keep it that way. i still keep judgement of wisdom on cooldown along with divine storm*. crusader strike is in there but it is not so bad if i prioritize it after everything else. yes, its dead last on my priority list.

Here's a list of my priorities now:
1. Judgement of Wisdom
2. Divine Storm/Consecrate
3. AoW-Exo
4. Hammer of Wrath
5. Crusader Strike

Since my consecrate is glyphed, i will use DS/Consecrate in tandem, one after the other.
If the mobs have ample health and i can do an instant Exorcism, i will. if they are nearing death, i will use Hammer of Wrath and save the insta-exo for the next mob.
I will then use crusader strike if everything else is not available, which is still quite often. For example: After running into a group and hitting judgement of Wis on a mob, DS/Consecrate, i watch for AoW. if its not there and the mob's not at 20% health yet, i will hit CS. nothing else to hit really. so CS it is!

Im still running with retribution aura, but with fire resist at the last boss of BF and ramps.
Having DS is so much fun now. and with the ret resource management system ingrained in me since level 1, i am able to best use this ability with my other seals. i must admit tho, if i did get this spell at lower levels, like level 10, or 20 or 40, i would be misusing it as a dps only spell. but its much more than that. plus if i glyph it, which i might, it will heal me. i wont be using this yet tho, since the only reason i would get this glyph is to counter seal of corruption's drain on my health. i dont have that seal yet, so no point using it.

Final thought before i end the post today, it appears that some paladins use other seals with divine storm constantly instead of seal of command. i do not find these seals usefully on all the time. they should be situational. but i do see some paladins with seal of wisdom on always, or seal of justice for the stun, or seal of light for the heals. but really, i'd rather just use seal of command for the damage and will consider another seal+DS for its bonus effect when i need it (and i really only ever use it for mana regen using seal of wisdom).

Though i am thinking the only competitive seal to use instead of command would be seal of corruption, as it will add a DoT/bleed on the target. and this stacks. but a 10-second cooldown on DS will mean the debuff must tick for more than 10 seconds (which i believe it does) and the mobs must stay up for more than 30 seconds for the SoCor to even be marginally more useful than SoCom. 30 seconds is three applications of Corruption/Vengence. dont forget that 30 seconds does not include the time the tank started the fight to the time i actually hit my first mob with DS. So with groups dying so fast, SoCor may not be at all that high of DPS. at 40 seconds, i should have my 5th application of DS, which will push all mobs to 5 stacks of Corruption, which will do more dps than SoCom. but that's 40 seconds.

At zero seconds, i will have 1 stack of SoCorruption.
At 10 seconds, i will have 2 stacks of SoCor.
At 20 seconds, i will have 3 stacks of SoCor.
At 30 seconds, i will have 4 stacks of SoCor (I believe this is when SoCor>SoCom, however, not cumulatively, but starting at this point).
At 40 seconds, i will have 5 stacks of SoCor, which is max.

(Just to clarify, the above scenario shows stacks of Corruption on my peripheral targets. They do not show stacks on my main target, since most of my attacks will be on my main target, the stacks of Corruption will add up much faster. If i have SoCor on, the only multi-target attack i have that can apply Corruption will be Divine Storm, and that attack is on a 10 second cooldown. My main target will be at 5 stacks of Corruption in a few seconds. Judgement, Autoattack, DS, CS, Autoattack (about 4 seconds) will put my main target at 5 stacks Corruption.)

So SoCor will work well in heroics and raids where the groups consist of 3 or more mobs, all lasting longer than 40 seconds to kill. all. That means, ideally, they die at the same time. if one dies with two left, SoCor becomes a little less effective, and switching to SoCom may be a good choice midfight.

So i've actually tried some experiments with SoCor and it only procs/applies from physical hits, so no divine storm. This makes the choice very easy now. SoCor on bosses, and SoCom on everything else.

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Talent conundrums: Now that i have basically what i need from the Ret tree, i need to go to the other trees to round out my paladin. currently at 5/5 divine streath from the prot tree. so where to now? I can complete Judgements of the Wise, but 2/3 is all i really need. i've gone so many levels with it at 2/3 and have zero problems. im not saying i dont stop to drink every now and then. i do. but with it at 2/3, i really dont have to stop constantly to drink. and by just switching to Seal of Wisdom and hitting DS, i can get back a crapton of mana.

What i dont like is Seals of the pure, which increases damage from my seals. This looks like a boss fight talent, as it does not include seal of command, but instead, includes seal of righteousness and corruption. this sucks for me as i dont really need to maximize corruption. with what i've stated earlier about SoCor, i dont think i will be using it too much. and i will experiment with it when i do get it later on, but until i see actual hard numbers on my recount stating that SoCor>SoCom, i will not be using it. So no Seals of the Pure just yet.

I also do not like Divinity, that ret talent that increases my heals and my healing received. sure, AoW-FoL, or Art of War procced Flash of Light, will indeed heal me for a little more, but i am not really in danger of dying often. and when i do, the extra healing probably wont cut it. Besides, that's a GCD i could be using to finish off a mob.

There's three talent points in the Ret tree that i need to fill in, but are basically useless to me. One adds 1% to my haste. wow. one whole percent. i think its called swift retribution. i have 2/3 talented, so 1 left and i dont really need it atm, will finish it out later. anyway... and the other increases my hammer of wrath crit chance by 50%, PLUS does something special to my avenging wrath, which i dont get for another 5 levels. the hammer of wrath buff is good if i were fighting raid bosses, where the boss' health will be below 20% for quite a long time. but for outland instances, even northrend instances, even heroics, bosses that drop down to 20% stay alive long enough for me to toss out 1 or maybe 2 hammer of wraths at the most. so two talent points in that is not worth it.

What i do want to get is another tanking talent then. Anticipation. yes, for soloing. less healing; more killing. that's the motto. lets do that. 5/5 deflection, 5/5 anticipation. then i can finish out my ret tree until level 74. this is where i will have to decide once again, where to spend my talent points (Divine Sacrifice/Guardian maybe?). There's not a lot more going on. once i hit 80, i'll definitely respec and take out deflection as well as anticipation (dodge/parry) and put it somewhere else. i'll have to analyze where the talents all go at 80, but it will remain pretty much the same. just remember im leveling and some survivability is preferred over mana-savings, which is quickly countered by my seals/judgements/procs.

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* When i mentioned having Judgement of Wisdom and Divine Storm "on cooldown". this is what i mean. When i use an ability that has a cooldown of say, 10 seconds. that 10 seconds is the time it's "on cooldown". For my friends, many of you are DK's, so one ability with a long cooldown is Army of the Dead. once used, the ability is "on cooldown" for 10 minutes or so. i think its less now. but that's still a long time. for Rogues, Vanish has a cooldown, and when you use it, for the 2 minutes following where you cant use it anymore, that spell is considered to be "on cooldown".

so when i say i try to keep Divine Storm on cooldown, i mean i will use it as quickly as i can, then use it immediately when it becomes available, thus putting it into its cooldown state. this keeps the spell "on cooldown" whenever i glance at it. if you take snapshots of my screen every second, 10 out of every 12 seconds, ideally, you should see Divine Storm "on cooldown". i think everyone understands me now. basically use the spell immediately as it becomes available- this will keep the spell "on cooldown".

Updates pre-weekend.

I wanted to mention that Devynity has reached level 58 and will be questing in HFP shortly. He made the trip there last night and learned Grand Master Enchanting. He will have to make his way on foot (horse) to Falcon Watch to learn First Aid. Enchanting is doing well. I gained Honored with Timbermaw Hold and picked up both agility enchants. I also stopped by the frozen lake in Winterspring last week and, on my second kill, got Enchant Weapon - Icy Chill. second mob. awesome. Finally, in terms of enchants, I picked up crusader from the Scarelet mages right outside Hearthglen in WPL. I cleared the tower once. no enchant. I returned to the tower about five minutes later and killed all the mages on the bottom floor. the last mage on the bottom floor had the enchanting recipe on him still. yay! so there. now all I need is to buy crusader orbs and I should be able to make a few of these.

1. Fiery is selling slowly. 80g a pop sells but not too fast. so maybe two a day if im lucky. sometimes 1. sometimes 0, especially when I get undercut. but for the most part, I am the only seller (or at least, that's what I see when I check the AH).

2. Icy Chill enchant hasn’t even been made due to the various materials I need to buy (and I don’t quite have all the mats in the AH). I'll have to stock pile them up when I can. I want to sell 10 and see how much I can make. 10 is a decent number to get a basic idea to how well these things may sell.

3. Crusader will most likely be my money maker. It sells for almost 200g in my other realm, so it should sell decently here as well, especially for the alts with heirloom weapons, this would be a nice enchant to have (Fiery is probably the cheapman's version of Crusader).

4. Agility. I posted agility to weapon for 200g. and agility to 2h weapon for 400g. will see how that fare. Auctioneer has seen a few and priced it for 180g/350g, respectively.

update: Fiery sells. Agility sells. Agility sells so well i increased the price by 100g and they still sell. for me. not you. dont try to copy me if you're on another server. just understand your market first.

As I go through Outland, I will be disenchanting a lot of items. Hopefully I can disenchant enough to level my profession towards 375 as soon as possible. The reason being is that echanting post 375 is a lot easier due to many saronite shufflers (although it’s a lot less than before) and the greed/DE feature. Enchanting using Infinite Dust would be a breeze. And with prices of shards so low (about 4g each), I can basically buy all of the higher level trainable recipes from the vendor in Dalaran. all good stuff. hopefully the market there isnt as saturated (relatively speaking, ofc) as the gem market. Otherwise, I guess I may just sell novelty enchants like Crusader, Fiery, Agility, and various other Pre-60 enchants for the levelers and twinks.

Also, cooking's at a standstill since I am totally unable to find anyone selling Greater Mightfish, Darkclaw Lobsters or Whitescale Salmon to level my cooking past 300. I can take a trip to Azhara and try to fish it myself (which leads me to wonder how the Azhara fishing zone will change in Cata). So my cooking is stuck below 300. Fishing is just too much of a pain to level right now. perhaps when I reach 80 I'll have enough time to just relax and fish. fishing should be relaxing right??

Also, what's a fish without eyes?

a fsh.

One last update: Dinged 58 before the weekend started. leveled through HFP and instances only to 64 by Sunday. will be trying to hit 65 by the end of the night. peace.