Sitting in the Morning Sun...

I was able to log on last night with the patch installed and messed around with Balth in his Ret spec. (I didn't bother with prot, since I am still new to it, and I had heard some NASTY stories about Prot Pallies having some massive threat issues)

Anyhow, here are my thoughts and observations from the perspective of a Ret pally.


Talent Tree

Um, well, this is rather odd, since the talent tree is designed around a level 85 toon. You really need to pick & chose your talents. Here's my current talent tree: LINK (and strange, it shows I don't have the top tier Ret talent, which I do. Weird)

Since I'm 80, I don't have to deal with the "wait until level X before you can use talents from other trees" but that kind of bugs me. But eh, it is what it is. I may tinker around myself, or I may just wait until EJ or others get it figured out.


Spells/Abilities and Rotation

Hmmmm.... This will require some getting used to. Art of War now has this bizarre on-screen signal thing, and took me a bit to figure out what it was.

The basic rotation is boring.

Judge, CS, Exorcism CS, CS TV (Templar's Verdict) and keep going while watching for HP procs and AoW procs. Oh, and throw in the occasional Hammer of Wrath (when you hit Avenging Wrath) and an occasional Holy Wrath.

If you are fighting multiples, replace TV with Divine Storm.

It's still pretty much an FCFS rotation. Just that Art of War now procs a lot less, AND you need to monitor your Holy Power.

Watching Holy power so that you can use it only when you have 3 stacks is a pain. Having to watch for that, as well as the rare AoW procs and yet still run an FCFS makes it difficult to maintain raid awareness. Do-able, but tedious.

I know I will miss the AoW proc for Flash Heal, but maybe the HP use for the new heal (can't remember what it's called) will be an adequate replacement. We shall see.

The good news is that there's no longer blessing of Wisdom AND blessing of might. Both are now one in the same. And it lasts 60 minutes. That's nice, but our seals still only last 30.

The seals seem (from a practical standpoint) unchanged.


Glyphs

You now have three levels of glyphs, instead of two:

Minor, major and Prime. Eh, kinda cool, and a bit more customization, but minor seems to be completely useless, and major is slightly less useful. So, it seems like same as before, but with more trash-glyph options. A wait and see is in order for ay final verdict.


Gearing

Well, the idea of reforging is cool, and Mastery could be neat as well. The only problem is that you are very limited in what stat you can give up, in order to gain something else.

Most of my items allow me to give up Crit or Haste, and replace them with a boatload of semi-useless stuff. (Mastery may very well be great) The only problem is that I desperately need crit (to keep/improve my AoW procs) and now that Haste affects Crusader strike, I can't really afford to lose that either.

I do have one item that allowed me to convert 20 points of Hit. The only problem was that I was then a tad below hit cap. (I had a 0.01% miss on level 83 bosses) I reverted it without testing.

BIG NOTE Librams (for paladins) now can accept gems!

Also, the T-10 bonus (2 pc) is no longer that annoying Divine storm CD reset, it's a flat 5% damage buff. I just hate wearing an effing skirt.


Look and Feel of the interface, etc

There are some nice changes. The mouse over and slide out info on the Character Sheet are very nice, and the tips and info there is pretty helpful.

It will take a while to get used to the new party/raid group thing. I am really used to the old style. This new one looks like an improperly locked frame from Vuhdo and will definitely take getting used to.

Overall, it's probably fine.


Overall

So, what's my DPS? Against a dummy I used to be able to get 5,900 or so, with only self buffs. (no food, etc) Last night I was struggling to stay above 5k, with the occasional nibble at 5,100.

There's some ok and interesting stuff here, but overall, I'm just not happy.

I have talked with a couple others, notably a rogue and a warlock, and they seem fairly happy with things. Per the Rogue:

I'm enjoying all of the changes. Though, the only thing that actually
changed for my rogue was my DPS. I went from averaging 4.5k to now averaging
5.5k. Rotation and all that other mumbo jumbo stayed the same.

How are things in your Baileywick?

He Got Knocked Down, Didn't Get Up Again

Yeah, being a RetPal is kinda like that: big, in your face, and moderately disturbing. But it's not without its occasional joy.

per esempio

I had just finished a successful fight in Wintegrasp and was heading over to the vendor by the Mammoth to investigate getting a set of Titanforged Shoulders of Triumph (Thanks for pointing out the guy, Cynwise!) My Carbonite (yeah, I still use it) was flashing that there was a Hordie flying around WG Fortress. I didn't see him, so I flew on.

As I was perusing the wares of Champion Ros'slai, and found my shoulders (I don't have enough WG Marks of honor yet), the Hordie, a Druid in flight form, swooped down.

I mounted up and promptly lost him. However, there was an Ally toon on his helicopter giving chase to something and I foollowed.

Yep, t'was the druid.

The three of us circled around, high above Wintergrasp fortress, and the druid wouldn't sit still. I hoped he would sit still. He NEEDED to sit still.

I had a plan. It was one I had tried before, but hadn't worked yet.

He finally stopped moving, high above the fortress, and I flew another dozen or so feet higher, directly above him.

I dismounted, promptly started falling, and cast Hammer of Justice, and, in passing by him, I meleed him.

Before I hit the ground I cast Divine Shield. I grunted as I landed, but walked away without damage.

*splat*

The druid wasn't so lucky.


[EDIT] after re-reading this, it may not be apparent what happened for those who don't play Pallies:

I cast Hammer of Justice on the druid, which stunned him for a few seconds. The melee/autoattack "dismounted" him so he started falling.

While stunned.

Reflections of... the Way Halls Could Be

In general, I don't sit around and ponder tactics in fights, especially in Heroics. Other than trying to remember the "run away when this happens, don't attack when this happens, etc," I don't much worry let alone care.

even if there's a sub 1k DPS there ;)

Overall, the heroics are so dang simple, that even at my gear and skill level, they just don't take much thought or preperation. Tank & spank, go hit stuff, and try not to get TOO much aggro. (I believe I have more armor & health than many tanks did when msot heroics were first released)

So, it's a bit of an oddity when I go into a heroic, with decently geared folks, and reasonably intelligent folks, and yet we wipe. Multiple times. (and never finish)

Such was the case of my one (any only) foray thus far into Halls of Reflection.

We wiped 3 times in the first room (the one with the multiple phases) and then we died multiple times trying to out run Arthas. (Here's one thing I figured out that may help some: when you are on that path of ice walls, Traveller's Mammoths can be summoned to repair equipment)

Anyhow, we tried 4 or 5 times, and usually died at the last wall, with one or two mobs left, and Arthas came and ate us.

One time really sticks in my head: we had only one mob left, with low health, when the Lich King rained on our parade. What irks me is not that we came so close and failed, but that another 10,11 or maybe 12 seconds might have bought us enough time.

Say, if I had taunted Arthas, bubbled, and pulled him away. (or maybe bubbled THEN taunted, whichever)

Would the extra (effective) 8-10 extra seconds have given enough time to drop the last mob/wall?

Would Arthas relent, if the wall was droppedonce I had died?

Is Arthas even tauntable like that?

If it did work, would I be able to get credit, emblems and loot (because I know for certain I would die as soon as my bubble dropped) because the group would HAVE to leave my corpse... alone... untended on the icy mountainside... (and/or would I be able to run ack) After all, the survivors would be on the airship or flying boat at that point...

Can a Pally bubble survive Arthas' full attention? (I assume so, for all 12 seconds)

Where is Hoffa's body?

What would YOU do for a Klondike bar?

So many questions, so few answers...

I think our failures were due to us all being "marginally geared" for the instance, with none of us being exceptional players. As a group, I believe we were pulling 7-8k total DPS and the tank could usually keep aggro. The healer may have been a bit of a weak link (we wiped on that first room multiple times until Kattastrophe stopped DPSing and helped heal) However those fights at the walls seem to be mainly an aggro and DPS thing, and I think the DPS was just not sufficient.

Ah well, it was still an interesting fight, and neat in the sense that it was something we HAD to work at, and couldn't just blow through it.

Helter Skelter, and this is FaceRolling?

When I'm in a group, and we're starting a Boss fight, my cast order looks like the following:

- Sacred Shield

- Avenging Wrath

- Judgement (wisdom) as I run into the fray - range = 10 yards

- Crusader strike

- Divine Storm

- Exorcism (if AoW procced, if not, skip)

- Consecration

- Crusader Strike

- Judgement

- Divine Plea

...

...

...

.

Bascially running down "FCFS" (first come first serve) using my action bar as shown above. If two spells are available, use the one to the left. (again, as viewed on my action bar)

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For the occasional Boss, this is the entire fight, and it's pretty easy. (ie, a "faceroll")

.

But, that is pretty rare. Usually it looks/sounds more like:

.

- Sacred Shield
- Avenging Wrath
- Judgement (wisdom) as I run into the fray - range = 10 yards
- Crusader strike
- Divine Storm
- Exorcism (if AoW procced, if not, skip)
- Consecration
- Crusader Strike

SHIT!!! HE MOVED!!

-Turn

-Run over to the boss

-get into rotation

-SHIT! I'M IN THE FIRE!!!

-run out of the fire

-heal

CRAP I'VE GOT AGGRO!

-Hand of Salvation

ADDS on the HEALER!

-Righteous Defense

TANKS POISONED!

-Cleanse

-back to rotation

TOO MANY ADDS!!!

-Bubble

-Lay on Hands

-Run back to Boss

-Restart Rotation

-CRAP! MANA!

-Divine Plea

-back to rotation

-BOSS DIES!

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THAT is more "the norm" for the raid Boss fights I've been in. And in PvP, it's even more complicated.

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HOW IS THAT FACEROLLING?!?!?!?!?

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I sit & watch range DPS do their pew-pew, and the healers clicking on Healbot, whilest I'm foundering around trying to do 3, 4 or more things in different directions, while still trying to "do my job" (DPS)

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All the while, I read "Retpal = faceroll" and I get pissed.

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And to make things worse (and my fault - no blame here) I don't have Vent, so I *should* be reading the battle text.

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Except there's no frikkin way I can.

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During a lul in a recent ToC fight, I noticed the phrase "Well, have Balth bubble you". I have no clue when that was typed or who I was supposed to bubble (or with which bubble, we have 3)

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Sorry for the rant... and maybe it's just because I'm still pretty dang new to all out, balls-to-the-wall fights, but calling this class "super easy" is just mid boggling.

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EDIT - drat... formatting is all cattywompus again, so I had to use periods to separate the paragraphs

I Can't Fight this Feeling Anymore

As you read through this post, and my previous posts (and possibly later ones?) one thing may become obvious: I’m a walking poster child for ADD. Even though my posts will generally have a fairly discreet “point”, I know I ramble around quite a bit, and that’s AFTER a ton of edits and re-thinks.

And this very much translates into my play style and gaming preference. I want to do a little bit of EVERYTHING. I Tank, I DPS, and I have plans to try my Retadin hand at healing in a BG.

I am what I am, and there’s no use beating my head against a wall fighting myself.

Anyhow…

The other night I was just hanging out BSing with some other folks in Elwynn, and this lvl 80 Deathknight (DK) asks me if I’m a healer or a retadin:

“I know you’re not a tank cuz your health is way too low”.

Interesting thing to notice, and a good eye! (though if you’re inspecting, why not just look at my talent tree? I’m 5-6-51, VERY clearly Ret)

Then last night I’m running some housekeeping errands in Ironforge and I get a PST asking if I want to tank UK. (Utgarde Keep? Not sure) A big part of me would LOVE to pug a 5 man. I’ve never really run a 5 man, and a chance to work with others would be AWESOME! (even if it is a PUG)

But, there were a few reasons I had to beg off:

- Even though I carry a shield, I’m not a "real" tank. I have pretty good armor far a level 71 (10,800, PLUS another 800 Devotion Aura, if I chose) but I do NOT have enough health (IMHO 8,000 isn’t enough to give a healer time to heal me) and I have limited aggro maintaining abilities. I think I should probably be able to handle off-tank (OT) work though, if things went well.

- I have never run Utgarde, never read up on it, and would be a huge liability. I am learning that many bosses require you to know, AHEAD OF TIME, what to expect, and I’m simply not there. Combine this with my “tunnel vision” (ie, I am NOT good at reading the chat/text during the fights) and I would be a wipe inducing fail-tank.

- Perhaps I am specced/equipped “well enough” that I could make a reasonable attempt at tanking, except, I have never done it in a group before. I get the impression that tanking can be a challenge all by itself (especially in a PUG) Now, combine that challenge with the fact that I am “less than ideally specced/equipped” as well as being a complete n00b/inexperienced, it just seemed like a recipe for disaster.

- Lastly, it was nearly midnight, and I work in the morning. Even if the group were willing to put up with the previous deficiencies, I simply didn’t have the time.

I think when I get the “spare change”, I will dual spec and give full-on Protadin tanking a try.

But how am I doing DPS-wise? Not sure, but I *think* I’m doing ok.

In a boss fight last night, we fought Hungerfen for the third time, and finally beat him. (As mentioned above, it’s amazing what a little reading/preparation will do) During that fight, I was 100% tank/ 100% DPS. I was taking enough damage in previous encounters that it seemed wise for Kattastrophe should run her healing spec Shammy (she already “had enough spare change” to dual spec) Kattastrophe did almost nothing except heal (she had 71 DPS for the fight – lol) In that fight I was just a tad below 1,000 DPS. It was a long, single foe encounter, and I had to stop attacking when he put up his vines, so it was a pretty good showing, IMHO. I think 1,050 DPS is a reasonably accurate description of what I can sustain in a long single fight, assuming I don’t have to wait 10-15 seconds in mid-fight…

My best single foe encounter was ~1,350 DPS (I even screen capped it) but that’s exceptional, because just about every attack critted. In 1v2 or 1v3-4, I will often hit 1,300-1,400 DPS, simply because my Consecration & Divine Storm are nice AOE attacks and boost my numbers.

Then again, in short fights (10 seconds or less) I will often get 400 DPS…

What do you guys think is a bare minimum requirement for tanking at ~ level 70? (health, armor, etc)

What about a melee DPS? (like my Ret)

Cry Havoc! Let Loose the Dogs of War, Vengeance is MINE!!!!

I just dinged level 64, and with that I now have Seal of Vengeance!

Um, ok…. and?

Until now, I have been using either Seal of Righteous (SoR) or Seal of Justice (SoJ). For straight damage/DPS, SoR is preferable because the seal deals extra damage, but against casters (or frikkin Rogues) SoJ is my preferred seal because it can stun/interrupt. I catch some flack for this in some of the forums I visit, (they also strongly argue against my sword & board preference) But hey, it works for me.

I have read in numerous places (for example, Elitistjerks.com) that Seal of Vengeance (SoV) is the new hotness. Especially after Seal of Blood sorta went away and Seal of Command got reworked.

But how different in DPS are all these judgments?

I am NOT a theorycrafter, and I don’t even know where to begin to realistically make any calculations. This means I gotta do thing the empirical way: clobber stuff and check out the numbers (Most folks – me included – use Recount, the add-on that records DPS and all sorts of other data: Recount (at curse.com) )

The ideal way to do this is to find a medium level boss that will take ~2 minutes to kill (solo, obviously) and fight him using the normal attack rotation, one fight each with each seal being used in only one fight. This gives you real world fighting DPS for each variation. There are a couple issues with this that make it a “last line” type of test:

1 – Boss fights are rarely exactly the same, so you end up questioning whether the differences were performance (DPS, etc) or were just a fluke of the fight. Realistically, you need to try at least 3 attempts with each judgment/variation, and with 3 options (in this case) that means 9 individual fights. That takes a lot of time.

2 – Your armor & weapons lose durability every time you fight, and the tougher the fight, the worse it will be. This means you have to trudge to someplace and repair armor/weapons between each test. So an already long procedure just got a LOT longer.

So I did what many folks do and use the test dummies. (this is really only an option when you get to higher levels, since the lowest level dummy is level 60 – meaning anyone below level 56-57 or so would have a hard time doing ANY damage )

First I thought I would just use the judgments alone and see what happened. Due to the nature of Recount, and the 8 second cooldown between judgment spells, it recorded each judgment as an individual battle, and didn’t add/average them.

OOPS.

To avoid this, I decided to alternate casting Judgment and Consecration. Consecration should work well because it produces a pretty consistent damage over time (DoT) with ~87 damage every second.

The results? Very strange: SoR was best and SoV was worst. WHAT?!?!?

Well, in the reading I did, there’s something about SoV proc-ing (a proc is when a special action/result/attack/etc “proceeds” – ie it happens, and the word is shortened to “proc”) and stacking, often with melee auto attacks. (it actually said a lot more, but I’ll be honest; I only understand half of it. What’s a “white attack” anyways? I dunno…)

So I then repeated, using auto attack, and alternating judgment and Consecration every 4 seconds. I let it run for about 2 minutes, stopped and took a screenshot of the results so I could review them later. Here they are:

Seal of Vengeance

Seal of Righteous

Seal of Justice

I put the numbers into a table and did a little calculating so I could see the DPS (and not the %) of each type of attack.

Now we’re getting somewhere!!!

SoV CLEARLY has the advantage. BY ALMOST 100 POINTS!!! And SoJ has a MUCH bigger loss of DPS than I had realized. I still like the stun effect, but I will need to “swap Seals” in mid fight so that I can maintain DPS, and still try to get some stun effects.

I then tried the test dummy with SoV and my normal full attack rotation. (I haven’t had the time to repeat this with the other 2 Seals yet)

And this data put into the chart for comparison:


That’s roughly 609 DPS. Based on some quick addition, I would expect my SoR to be roughly 520 DPS and SoJ to be roughly 475 DPS. THAT IS HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!

My next work will be finishing up "full rotation" data for SoJ and SoR, since it's clear that the Seals *so* get affected by other attacks. So things may be better (or worse)

I will think about doing the tests on some Bosses, now that I have an idea, but we shall see.

I also plan to try out a 2 handed weapon to see just how much damage I'm losing out on. (but that will require a re-spec - theoretically - to get the 2 handed specialization talents) We shall see how much time I want to spend doing this, instead of questing or farming.

Back in the Saddle, and out of BGs for Now

EDIT- Not sure why, but Blogspot is screwing up my formatting, so this could look strange. I had to use the "-" to force paragraph breaks. SORRY!

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After one more loss last night in Warsong Gulch, I'm done camping at level 39. I will run through a few more times just to get the honor marks, but it will probably be as a level 40 or 41. I still want my Trinket and Protector's Sword.

I also learned something that is a bit of a "Doh!" thing for me:
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Judge based on which seal you use.
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So, for me, since I use "Seal of Justice" most of the time, I should be Judging with Justice. Why? Did you ever seee this little tidbit in the Seal description?
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Unleashing this Seal's energy will deal 75 (or whatever number)
Holy damage to an enemy.

I never knew what that meant unti lI asked someone in a forum. I wondered; is it a proc? do you have to actually target someone else when you put the Seal on?

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Nope: when you cast a Judgement for the correct seal, THEN it does the extra damage. So, cast Justice with Justice, Light with Light, and Wisdom with Wisdom. So obvious... *facepalm*

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In other news, I picked up a couple recommended Add-ons: Pally Power and Recount.

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Pally Power is an Add-on that is intended to allow pallies to keep everyone in the group/raid with the proper blessing, and keep it up to date. I can't figure the damned thing out. And now when I tried to minimize it, it went away completely, but still shows up on my other (non-paladin) toons. ugh.

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Recount allows you to keep track of the damage you & other group/party raid members do. It's also a good way to measure DPS (damage per second) both during battle and as an after report. DPS numbers aren't really that important at lower levels, but they are a good indicator of how well optimized you are. Run one fight with one setup/gear/spell rotation and note your value. Then try a different routine and see how they compare. THAT is a huge deal. Also note that DPS values for Paladins will be different in PvE compared to PvP. (also note that DPS can't realy be measured in short fights, it should only be taken over a long fight)

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DPS Stuff

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For example, I soloed all the way thorugh Dead Mines the other night. I wanted to get some "greens" for my Enchanter to disenchant. (and it's low enough level that I wouldn't get any EXP)

In the longer fights, I was getting multiple 114 DPS results, with a couple of 131 fights. Shorter fights were in the 95-95 range. (Overall, I'd say I was getting about a 100 average)

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In comparison, in my last couple PvP matches, my best average DPS was 52. (since BGs are so dynamic and active, I never took the time to hunt down my numbers, fight by fight) I had a couple in the low/mid 30s and one game was only 14.

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If you are "in a fight" (your level indicator is replaced by 2 crossed swords) it is measuring time. And if you are chasing someone across the valley and not hitting them, you are spending lots of seconds doing nothing, and your DPS will drop significantly.

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Aside from the dynamic running aspect of the PvP compared to the PvE, the biggest "loss" to DPS in a PvP fight is due to not having Exorcism. For me, Exorcism hits for 300-350 points, and it hits for 600+ when it crits. (which for some reason is almost half the time) If we take a rough average, I'd say my average is about 450 points per use. Since it has a 15 second cool down, that means I can cast it that often. 450 points every 15 seconds (450/15) is 30 damage per second (DPS) Not having this spell is a HUUUGE loss in damage potential in PvP.

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When patch 3.2 is released, we will once again be able to use xorcism in PvP. The "hitch" is that it will require 1.5 seconds to cast. I believe it will be the same for PvP and PvE.

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That means it will be on a 16.5 second rotation (15 second cooldown, + 1.5 sec to cast). Doing the same math from the previous PvE example, that means 450 points in 16.5 seconds, or 27.3 DPS. That's nearly a 10% loss. FUCK!!!! Now, since it's not all the damage I do - only part of it - the final loss in DPS won't be 10% (probably closer to 4%) but every bit hurts. After-all, Pallies, especially Ret pallies, are hybrids, so we are never going to be the best at anything, and this will hinder our cross functional "jack of all trades" abilities.

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Yes, it will be a nice tool to help fight the ranged players, EXCEPT you need to stop for 1.5 seconds to cast it. Which means they can keep running (out of range), melee you to slow down the cast, or stun/interrupt it completely. Is it better than a sharp stick in the eye? Yes. Am I happy with the implimentation? No. Then again, I guess it's better to get it "pre-nerfed" than to get a neat new PvP toy/ability, and then to have Blizzard take it away again.

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But it's going to really screw up the PvE damage I can do.

Here Comes the Judge: Spell Rotation

JUDGEMENTS & SPELLS

This is where the rubber hits the road. And part 3 of this dig into my methodology is by far the most involved. this is partly due to the nature of it, but also due to the fact that PvE and PvP have some very different requirements (and limitations)

PvE

My spell of first choice in PVE is Exorcism. It’s instant cast, it's a Pally’s only “ranged” attack (30 yards vs 10 yards for regular Judgements) and, when it gets a critical hit (when it “crits”) I can hit for over 600 damage! WooHoo!!! Once Patch 3.2 hits, I'm not sure WHAT I'll do, because it will require a 1.5 second (interruptable) spell cast time. I will still use it, but it will completely FUCK my PvE playing.

Next is either Judgement of Wisdom or Judgment of Light. Since I’m usually more likely to be hurting for mana (also, I often quest with a healy Shaman which is mana intensive too), I usually use Wisdom. When the foes get a bit tougher, and I’m worried about health, I’ll use Light.

My usual fight consists of:

Exorcism – Judge – Judge – (Judge?) – Exorcism – Judge – Judge – (Judge?) … ad infinitum with auto attacks during the cooldowns.

If the guy I’m fighting is a Boss, or a tougher than usual character or if there are multiple mobs I’m going to be fighting at once, I will follow the above sequence EXCEPT I will use Hammer of Justice on the “baddest” enemy as soon as the enemy is within melee range. This stuns him for 4 seconds and interrupts any spells he was casting. This is to limit how much damage, and how quickly I take damage.

In cases where there is more than 1 enemy, (of any significant threat) I will cast Consecration just before they get within melee range (or, just as they get in Consecration range) I will still use the above rotation, but I will add Consecration into the rotation every time it comes off CoolDown (“CD”) I don’t really LIKE Consecration (It costs a TON of mana, and it doesn’t do THAT much damage) but it’s the only Damage Over Time (DOT) and only Area of Effect (AoE – affects multiple targets at once) spells Pallies have, and anything that shortens the fight (and how long we are taking damage) it’s a good thing. You are pretty much guaranteed to need to drink a mana potion after any fight where this gets used.

During these same circumstances, I will often cast Divine Protection right as the melee fight starts. It’s “only” 12 seconds and “only” reduces damage by 50%, but it’s a life saver. Due to the long effective CD (2 minutes before you can receive it again) I don’t use it unless it’s really needed. Divine Protection is “ok”, but it cuts YOUR attack damage by half, so, even though it slows how quickly you die, it also slows how quickly THEY die… and with multiple bad guys, that means you’re getting hit by THEM for more time. Bad idea. I will use Divine Shield when I need to heal (and still have mana left) but it's not ideal.

If I’m tanking, and someone else in my party is taking more damage than they can/should, I will cast Righteous Defense, to get them to attack me instead.

The only other odd or “quirky” spell I will use is Turn Evil. It sends evil (undead, demons AND MINIONS!) running away for 20 seconds. It’s simply a way of keeping multiple enemies from attacking you at once. It only works on certain types (listed above) so it’s very situational, but it does come in handy.

If absolutely needed (for escape, or chasing) and IF I have been iced in place, or webbed in place, I will cast Hand of Freedom on myself to be able to move.

OH! Healing! Um, I heal as needed. Even though Rets aren’t Holy, we CAN do a fair share of healing; on ourselves as well as any party members. Usually I leave most healing until after the battle is over, but sometimes, it’s mandatory to replenish during the fight. So here’s my “SOP” for in fight healing.

1 – Gift of Naaru: It’s a racial ability for us Draenei. At level 35-39, it heals 560 points over 15 seconds. It’s NOT a major “OH SHIT!” button to be used at the last moment. It should be “This fight is lasting a while, and I’m GOING to get low on health.” You need to be able to survive for 15 seconds to get the full benefit, so I use it a bit earlier than I feel.

2 – If I haven’t used it already, I use Divine Protection. It SHOULD have been cast already, but this is my time to check/make sure.

3 – I will use a healing potion now. I don’t use it first, since I might need to take a mana potion.

4 – If I can, I will cast Holy Light. (I don’t bother with Flash of Light for myself – you will probably lose more health than you gain during the casting time – Yes, Holy is nearly twice as slow, but can give you 4-5 times as much health)

5 – Lay on Hands (LoH) – the final “OH SHIT” button. The good news is that it SHOULD buy you lot more time to fight, heal, mana up, etc (and the spell gives you a little mana to boot ANNND reduces the damage you take for a time afterwards!!)

If someone else in the party needs healing, I will help if I can, but in PVE, I focus on tanking/DPS, so I will be slow at best. To be brutally honest, if it comes down to another party member or me being saved (especially if they are about out of mana, or there are a bunch of enemies left and the party member is squishy) I will save myself first. I can take more punishment and continue fighting, LoH myself if needed, and then resurrect them after the fight. If I save them, and end up dying myself, it can often mean a wipe.

PvP

The first, and most frustrating thing is that as of now (pre Patch 3.2) Exorcism doesn't work in PvP. Not even against Minions. (It will be re-introduced in PvP in 3.2)

As for how I fight, it really depends on the situation:

Killing an enemy flag carrier:

• Hammer of Justice - Nothing slows a running flag like a 3-4 second stun
• Judgement of Justice - The next best thing (in our arsenal) is this. IT will slow the enemy down so he can be caught more easily.
• Consecration - Once the "dash" slows (if it does), I will cast this. It does slow damageto ANY enemy around.
• Auto-attack - when sitting on CD, (which is a LOT of the time) I simply keep swinging my sword.
• Repeat.

Protecting OUR flag carrier (me or someone else) - both are about the same

• Hand of Freedom - Put this on as soon as carrier gets close to enemies.
• DO NOT cast Divine Dhield. (at least on yourself, haven't tried it on others) If you cast it on yourself before you grab the flag, you won't be able to pick it up. If you cast it on yourself when you have the flag YOU WILL DROP IT!!! (not good)
• Divine Protection has worked fine for me (but only protects 50%)
• Cast Judgement of Justice (JoJ) and Hammer of Justice (HoJ) on any folks that get too close behind
• I will cast consecration as I run simply to injur the folks chasing me/us.
• Keep close to the Lay on Hands (LoH) to heal/save the carrier.
• If I'm the protector, and not the carrier, I will sometimes drop back a bit, and hit the chasers, trying to get a "Seal of Justice" proc that will stun the follower.

Grabbing the Flag (in their base)

• I usually drop from the blacony. I cast Hand of Freedom as I fall, I cast Gift of Naaru as I run (It's a "HoT" - heal over time) and after I grab it, I run like hell. I think Divine Protection works ok here.
• I keep my finger/mouse on the LoH button so tha twhen/if I get low on health I can make it a little further.

General PvP Fighting.

This is the toughest, and the most variable. I will HoJ stun ranged attackers (Mages, Warlocks and Hunters) and Rogues (and theire damnable stuns) Then, once I close the gap, I just Judge, Consecrate and auto-attack.

For Melee attackers, I will hold off on HoJ, and rely on JoJ to stun them. I TRY to wait on using the HoJ until I need to heal.

Always try to fight in a group. Save team mates as best you can, but if the odds are 3:1 or 4:1 against, better hold off, unless there's incoming help as well. Because chances are, as soon as you engage in a 1:2 or 2:3 engagement, THEY will get help, and you get to spend 25-30 seconds waiting to respawn...

Another One Bites the Dust: 11 Losses in a Row on Warsong Gulch

Seems like the story of my WoW life, at the moment...

(Sorry for the rambling here...I have a bunch of small things that tie in to my main thought, but are hardly worth their own post)

You would think that the random PUG nature of most Battleground (BG) fights would lead to a more random outcome. But, for whatever reason, the Horde always kicks out butt. While I'm not the best BG player on the world, I regularly end up in the mid to upper end of my team's score (with killing blows, honorable kills AND healing) Since I'm so "average", I doubt it's simply my being inept that is causing us to lose so much. The only thing I can say is that going up against teams of 3-5 Rogues, a couple Warlocks, Hunters and Druids seems to be a tough thing to beat.

The Rogues in particular cause my team (me) fits in most games. It seems to take 3 "normal" players to kill just one skilled Rogue. And if you have 2-3 skilled Rogues on the other team, (not to mention the REST of their team) it feels like you're playing short handed the entire match.

The "best" game recently was the last one. We actually had 2 flag caps (I GOT ONE MYSELF!!!) and had a fighting chance. In the end, the other guys just played better. This game was odd in that it wasn't a blow-out.

I'm not sure why wowarmory.com shows my current record as it does: 31 games on Warsong Gulch (WG) with 13 victories. Assuming the total number of games is correct, I've won 10 times: I have received a total of 51 Marks of Honor. I get 3 for each win, and 1 for each loss. If you do the algebra, that works out to 10 wins (which still feels better than I've done)

Anyhow, Balthazario is now a level 39 Paladin and should be at the "top of the heap" for the 30-39th level bracket. I am FAR from twinked at this level ( the only "NICE" piece of equipment I have is my shield:

Salbac Shield - A 1400 armor shield.

And as much as I would like to "twink out" and upgrade everything to the maximum so I could do better in WG, I have to save my money. At level 40 I get to use Plate Armor, which means that in another 20,000 EXP, every piece of armor I have will be way sub par.

The good news is that a couple pieces will be things I can make as a Blacksmith (plate helm and a couple mithril pieces) Blacksmithing for the win!!!

Also, on the topic of upgrading your armor & weapons: Scrolls of Enchanting are the bomb, if you can find the right one, for the right price. They are relatively new to the game, and they allow Enchanters to make an "Enchant to go". They don't have to buy armor/weapons, enchant them, and hope they guessed right.

You the buyer don't have to spend hours on the trade channel finding someonewith the recipie, etc to enchant the item you have. They simply put the enchant on a scroll, put it on the AH, and we the buyers, simply buy it and apply it to our item of interest. WIN-WIN!

Twink-le, Twink-le, Little Star. How I Wonder How BLUE you are...

We all see twinks, and if you've ever played a Battleground (or Arena, I guess) you've played against (and been killed by) them. You know, the level 29 guy with all blue equipment, and the ability to kill you in 2 hits (or one!) Yeah, those guys.

I'll be honest here: I'm a *little* envious of them. Heck, I spent several days grinding through Warsong gulch, just to get a silly sword (and I got the ring -Protector's Band- a couple days before that) So this is NOT a dig at them. They put in a TON of time and gold to create them. (and to be honest, the only thing that really pisses me off are the rogues. None of their abilities, BY THEMSELVES are all that bad, but the combination they have is just horrid: stealth, ability to stun FOR 8-10 SECONDS, and immunity to stun (the last is the worst) seems to leave them mostly invulnerable, and WAY too deadly.

I know that the auction house (AH) offers many things that are cool, but it still doesn't really explain ALL the stuff they get, since much of it is "BoP" (binds on pickup) or is a quest reward, or simply never makes it (or rarely) onto the AH.

So, my question is this: HOW do people get all this stuff, and still remain a low enough level to be so lethal? This is NOT a dis on twinks or anything. It's a serious question.

For example, I get curious about who has what, especially Paladins that are around my level, so I do a lot of "Inspect"-ing. (right click on a toon to highlight them, then right click on their picture and "Inspect" is a pull down option) The other day, I ran across a level 29 pally that is clearly a twink:

(color represents item color - note, all blue except for one green)

Frostreaver Crown.........................Helmet ..drop/AH ...lvl 27 ....182 armor.. +4.. str ..+15 sta ...+4 spi
Sentinel's Medallion.........................Neck .....PvP ..........lvl 28.....none ..........+8 agi ....+5 sta
Azure Shoulderguards of Soldier...Shoulder 4 Aces... lvl 20.....151 armor.. +5 str.... +5 sta....+5 crit
Caretaker's Cape............................Back ....PvP......... lvl 28.... 25 armor ......+6 sta ...+4 spi ...+70 armor .+7 spell power
Shining Silver Breastplate..............Chest .created ..lvl 24 .....214 armor ...+14 str ..+6 sta ....+4 all stats
Green Iron Bracers.........................Wrist ..created... lvl 28....... 131 armor.. +5 sta ...+9 sta
Grubbis Paws .................................Hand.. Boss...... lvl 29......144 armor.... +6 str... +5 agi ...+9 spi ..+15 agi
Highlander's Lamellar Girdle ............Waist... PvP........ lvl 28......128 armor.. +11 str ..+4 sta.. +5 int
Dreamsinger Legguards ................Legs ....drop/AH ...lvl 21.....179 armor ...+8 str ...+8 sta.. +5 spi
Highlander's Lamellar Greaves.......Feet ....PvP ...........lvl 28..... 157 armor ..+6 str ...+6 agi.. +4sta... +4 int.. +7 sta
Protector's Band............................. Finger... PvP ........lvl 28 ..... none ..........+6 str... +6 agi ...+4 sta
Seal of Wrynn ................................Finger .....Quest ....lvl ? ...... none ..........+3 str +...3 agi ..+4 sta... +4int.. +3 spi
Rune of Duty.................................. Trinket..... PvP .......lvl 20......none ..........+4 sta ....+3 health /5sec
Insignia of the Alliance ...................Trinket .....PvP .......lvl ?........none .........Removes all movement impairing effects
Crescent of Forlorn Spirits ............1hnd Axe .Quest... lvl ? .......22.8 DPS ....+29 spell power ......+8 crit
Resplendant Guardian ...................Shield ....drop/AH...lvl 26......680 armor ...+14 block ....+7 sta... +7 spi ..+5 block

I plan to ask this guy how he did it. (his name is a fart joke, and even as "old" as I am, I still find funny) If he responds, etc, I'll post what he has to say...

I have an idea as to how SOME of it's done:

1. Plan ahead, and figure out EXACTLY which items you want to get.


2. Plan out which instances to go on, and when.


3. Get a (or 2 or 3?) level 80 (or whatever) level buddies to help out.


4. Enter the instance as a group/party as soon as twink is JUST high enough level to enter.


5. Disband the party in the instance to prevent the twink from getting unnecessary Exp.


6. Lvl 80's kill all "un-needed" mobs. Since twink is not in party, (s)he gets no Exp.


7. Twink gets first hit on Bosses, lvl 80's clean up.


8. Twink picks up good loot.

Or, if the "random" dropped stuff is where the good loot comes from, get even more buddies to join in, so that the Exp are diluted and prevents the twink from levelling too quickly. And, I would assume, the same buddies would get together and repeat the process for THEIR twinks.

To me, that sounds like a TON of planning work, and cooperation. And that's exactly why it doesn't bother me. (unless I just got 2 hit killed by them ;) ) The amount of effort it takes is just amazing.Now, I will say it's just a *BIT* unfair when a group of 3-5 (or more) of these uber twinks go into PvP and mop the floor with the rest of us poor mortals. As long as it's over quickly, I won't complain TOO much. It's not fair, but it isn't really bad sportsmanship, and I still get my Mark and Honor Points.

Bad Sportsmanship will be the subject of another post...

Quick "Protector's Sword" update

I FINALLY got enough honor points to buy the sword. My DPS barely went down.

My stats? (with no buffs)

With Verigan's Fist - 47.7 DPS
With the sword - 44.8 DPS

With my "full, normal" buffs (Devotion Aura, Seal of Justice andBlessing of Might) my stats are:

With Verigan's Fist - 52.6 DPS
With the sword - 49.7 DPS

I am REALLY happy with that.

The BIGGER difference is my armor:

(full buffs)

With shield - 2202
without shield - 1557

So I trade a ~6% loss in DPS for a 41% increase in armor (and a faster attack/more crit chances) That's easy math in MY book!

*Note to anyone that doesn't know honor points - For each type of PvP battle you do in a Battleground, you don't get regular experience points. You get Marks of Honor for participating(3 for a win, 1 for a loss) and Honor Points for you individual performance (flag captures, enemies killed, etc) Each of the Battlgrounds (well, most of them) have a special merchant you can buy special PvP equipment from. Swords, armor, trinkets and such, and you pay for them in a combination of Marks of Honor and Honor points.

The sword I bought cost 316 honor points and 30 Marks of honor. The honor points were easy (for this purchase) but the Marks is what took me a while.

Knights in White Satin, (or Green Armor?): What's a retankadin anyways?

This is mainly a followup to how I am playing WoW at the moment... if you look at my talent tree on my wowarmory LINKaDILLY you can see pretty clearly that I am speccing a retribution paladin.

I enjoy being flexible and doing damage. But, my style of play is to run head-long into a fight and, in the process, get the ever-living-crap beat out of me, sort of tank style. To mitigate this, I am trying to more robust on my defense. Not sure I'm anywhere near there, but time will tell...

To put this in perspective, I am ususally running as part of a duo; me and a healing shammy. This means I MUST be able to function as a tank, at least in PVE and in what little PvP that I do. (limited to Battlegrounds at the moment) So there you have me: a retribution paladin that thinks he's a tank.

With that segue, I'll mention that I am currently hanging out at level 29, and "farming" Warsong Gulch. Why? I want the Protector's Sword. I know most ret pally builds I've seen center around 2-handed weapons, but I REALLY like having a shield. (I don't have one now, because my current weapon, Verigan's Fist, a two handed mace, is by FAR the best weapon I have found)

The problem with 2 handed weapons?

• You lose the extra off-hand item, which costs all sorts of upgrades (+ strength, etc)
• You lose a TON of armor (remember my retankadin aspirations) At the moment, if I could add my shield, I'd gain nearly 35% more armor (going from ~1,500 to ~2,100)
• Your attacks are slow. I am maxxing out my ability to hit crit and stun. More attacks perminute means more opportunity to stun. (Seal of Justice and Heart of Crusader) And in my book, that's AWESOME.

Now, that's not to say that I'm not giving anything up by going one-handed. WoW is most definitely a zero-sum game: to gain something, it usually means giving something else up. In this case it's the outright amount of Damage Per Second (DPS) I can put out. But, IMHO (and I'm no "WoW theorist" with the math to back this up) the extra armor and the extra chances to stun are worth the loss...

Cheers for now...

About How & Why I Play WoW: The Song Remains the Same

I am an avid gamer. Not causal, not hardcore. I belong to an online gaming community dedicated to adult, mature gamers. It started around a bunch of HALO2 players that got sick of all the whiny brats, but has evolved into a larger, more diverse group. It's still very XBOX/360 centric, but there are PS3 players and WoW players as well.

One day, after a rather brutal run in Warsong Gulch, I lamented about it, and how I was trying to get better equipped. (As of now, I'm a level 29 Paladin, somewhat equipped - I have no blue/purple stuff, only green) The replies I got were "don't worry about it, just get your ass up to level 80 where the REAL fun begins."

Huh? Come again?

Sorry, but I'm not going to grind away for 1-3 MONTHS just so I can start "playing the good stuff". This is supposed to be fun, NOT a job. Maybe you can get from 1 to 80 in less time, but that's not the point. I want to have FUN getting there. (if I get there at all)

Who be me?

So what is it that I "do do" while I'm playing? Im playing on the Auction House, buying, selling stuff, or farming for stuff to sell. The whole economy aspect of WoW is facinating; the daily/weekly cycles, the lunatic over pricers, the idiot price cutters and everything in between.

I'm running around collecting pets (albeit half-heartedly) or exploring or running all the quests I can find. At some opint I even hope to get into the whole underlying storyline. It's like second life, but with magic, a purpose, and no eye pupils.

More on this later...

A battle for Stormwind: Safety Dance

Last night I was selling/auctioning off a last bit of loot in Stormwind, when Carbonite (one of my plug-ins) starts pulsing, and I see on the local defense that Stormwind is under attack. The blinking circles are located near the battle masters and me being me, I ran over.

As I ran up the corridor to the King's Chamber, I saw a few corpses littering the ground; mostly guards, but a couple Horde as well. I continue on. In the "Throne Room", nothing. In the Battlemaster's room, nothing. I zoom in my map, and see that the ruckus is in one of the side rooms.

I mosey on in, and I see about a dozen Horde all firing into one corner, withe half of them actually in the corner in a massive scrim. I think there were about 10-12 of them in the room. After waiting a minute or two, I finally see the ONE Alliance character in the middle, and it's King Varian Wrynn. He's a regular Cuisinart in the corner, spinning like a fiend, with all the Hordites pouring damage into him. Wrynn keeps spinning, dancing, damaging the Horde, only to have them healed up.

From what I saw, there were 6-7 tanks in the corner, a hunter (or something) with a MASSIVE gun, a couple mage types, and one girl running around (healer, I think) I should have gotten a screen cap, but I was just too stunned. (I've never seen a real raid before this)

At this point he's lost maybe 20-25% of his health. As I sit watching (or in a few cases start jumping in front of the Horde guys to try to distract them) I saw a couple level 80 (elite) Alliance Guards run in, only to be cut down in a few seconds.

I got a little bored and went into the throne room, and I see a small fight down the hall, where one Horde straggler just got ripped apart but the now arriving Alliance players:

A death Knight with his minion

A druid in Tree Form

A few others

The Alliance mainly takes up position in the entrance to the fight room and starts working on them, with the Druish tree running around inside.

*SNAP* The Death Knight yanks someone out of the room, and the Alliance members annihilate him. Soon a few more Alliance PvP folk show up, rush the room, and the fight's over within another minute or so. (well, one Horde member had hidden somewhere, and tried to run out a few minutes later, but got killed ASAP)

VERY cool to watch as a n00b!

A word of warning to other newer folks out there:

• If you do nothing in the raid, you cannot be hurt. You can dance, spit, sleep, whatever, and the raiders can't hurt you. (you are "PvE" - player versus environment - and immune to PvP attacks)
• If you are flagged "PvP", you are a target.
• Enjoy the spectacle!
• "Check out" the enemy players (or alliance players) Bring up their character icon next to yours (being careful NOT to attack!) and right click their picture. Select "Inspect" and you can see all their equipment.
• If you heal, or participate in ANY way, you will be flagged and become a target.

One Tin Soldier Rides Away - (a Little Better Equipped)

As I alluded to (hell, I plain said it) I am going into some gory details about re-equipping my Pally with some better equipment. Based on my digging around various forums & blogs, the Paladin seems more equipment reliant than some classes, so this is MUCHO IMPORTANTE!!!

And for a starter, THE weapon to get is VERIGAN'S FIST LINKY . (well, for levels 20-29) It's the loot from a Paladin quest called "The Test of Righteousness" LINKY Everything I've read says this is THE weapon to have/get. (just look at the stats) But, as of yet, I still haven't compelted this quest, because I only recently found out about it. It's long, involves entering 3 different instances/dungeons and isn't easy.

As of now I have a sword & shield that are also loot from other Paladin quests. (I kind of prefer having a shield because it gives you one more item to have enchanted/etc)

Anyway, back to the story at hand...

It had the strong belief that I was sorely under equipped. To verify this, I did a little looking around.

I went into wowarmory.com and looked up my toon. There's a neat functionality to your character's info: it helps you find upgrades for each item. If you mouse over an item, it will give you the information to one side, with all the pertnent information about damage, armor and enchantments, etc. That's neat, but it's the same information you can get in-game. Now if you look right next to the item icon will be a little arrow (see picture to the left)

Now you take your mouse and mouse over this arrow and the box changes. If you move your mouse over this and click it, it starts to open up a world of possible changes you can make. It shows the options you have right now (items that you can use) as well as items that may be useful to you in a few levels

So what the heck do you do with this info? Me being me, I created a spreadsheet that listed out all my equipment, along with the relevent stats:

(I appologize for the fuzziness of the image, it's a .gif, but this blog still insists on making them less than ideal)

I looked at them, and colored them based on how "good" they were. Red = horrible, Orange = needs help, White = "ok", Green = pretty good, Blue = Class specific (pretty good)

I then went through each equipped item I had, looking for possible upgrades that I could use AT MY CURRENT LEVEL. I didn't pick blues or Boss Drops since they are nearly impossible to find on the Auction House (AH). So based on this, I created a "wish list" of sorts, that gave me an idea of what types of items to look for in the AH:

With this list in hand, and about 18 gold I earned by mining, I went into the AH and started spending. I bought the stuff I could find, or something similar if I couldn't. I also realized I had an open finger for rings, a helmet spot, as well as 2 trinket spots and a necklace spot. (turns out I can' get trinkets yet, or a helmet) but I spent just about all 18 gold, and made a HUGE change.

I got new everything, with the exception of sword & shield. (I also got a necklace and second ring, and replaced my first ring)

I went from 1329 armor up to 1419 armor. 90 points! Not too shabby! (though not as large as I had hoped, but there is a brighter spot - see below)

Yes, this is a LOT of stuff to type in , but it helps see if I missed anything, and keep track of what I'm doing, as well as help out the next time I need to upgrade.

As I mentioned I was a tad upset that I hadn't had a gain of 200-300 in armor. In fact, when I went back to WoWarmory.com, I didn't even get the full 90 armor points, because of some of my other stat changes. I only gained 86.

(taken from my WoWarmory page)

But this bit of data shows something else: I made MASSIVE gains in my abilities, especially in strenth and stamina. Did I make the right choices? I dunno!

The bad news is that I went back in to the Battleground and got skunked just as bad as I had originally. The "real" good news is that I am now able to practically solo Deadmines, and can handle a LOT more AI enemies (mobs)

Cheers for now!