I've Finally Made it to the House of Fun! It's Madness!

Yep, I dinged 80.

I did so on the pentultimate (I think) quest with Thorim (poor guy!)

And now comes the long slow progression for better gear. (or should I say grind?)

Yeah, maybe grind is a better word, since getting the gear necessitates a fair bit of grinding:

- for stone keeper shards
- for emblems (heroic, valiant, etc)
- more rep (Hodir, Oracles, etc)
- Argent tourney factions and emblems (btw, do all factions offer the same gear?)
- ToC
- ToC
- ToC
- other raids that I'm geared well enough for
- mats for crafting a couple more pieces of armor (1 titansteel bar per day - ick)

I know for a HUGE portion of WoW players, dinging 80 is the START of the game. Me? Well, let's say I'm a bit ambivalent about it. From an "achievement" point of view (the real meaning, not the little pop-ups you get in-game) I'm VERY happy I made it. It's been a loooong long road.

The downside? For the last couple months, WoW has been a LOT of grinding. Rep for Kurenai (for the mounts), rep for sporregar (for that shield, AND the pet) for the Netherwing (yep, more mounts) Now, it looks like I will have to do.... more grinding! And not just for cool mounts (that netherdrak is frikkin awesome!) but to get decent/good gear.

The good side? Katt & I have found a guild that seems to be a pretty close fit. We're still very much the outsiders, but seems really nice. We;ve run a few small raids with them, Pugs and friends and it seems fun. (does everybody treat a raid like it's a race?!?!? lol)

I've already started to collect (and gem & enchant) some better gear, though I have a LOOONG way to go to even be "adequate".

The majority of the dailies aren't too bad, since they're pretty quick, though a couple (Argent and Hodir) ones can be a bit slow. And the gold you get from doing them is pretty nice (I've been getting 200 gold an evening, including the profit from any items sold)

I'll post more of a sit-rep later, since this is getting a tad long...

One last topic before I wrap this up: the Thanksgiving quests.

I DID complete my mission impossible, though not without further incident. (NOT of the Horde kind). While hiding inside a Furlbog disguise is cool, it can also hide the fact that you are (or are not) in the proper Pilgrim outfit. Needless to say, it was after I finished stopping by all 4 Horde cities (and didn't get the achie) that I realized that I had been improperly garbed in 3 of them (DOH!)

I eventually got my Turkey (and my Title) in a pretty fun holiday celebration. *golf clap for Blizzard*

Oh, and I got a letter back from my Undercity killer. (she?) was VERY nice about it and even appologized. Evidently she had just gotten ganked herself and had the urge for payback. I responded back with a "not a prob, I *was* flagged after all. lol"

Mission Impossible... Pilgrim's Peril

Our Hero

*Cue Music* LINKY

Your mission, if you chose to accept it, is to infiltrate the four major Horde cities and sit at their thanksgiving table.

The chances of death and humiliation is extreme. Use all of your available assets.


As with most dangerous solo missions, disguise is key. In this instance we will use Dartol's Rod of Transformation

I'm a Furlbog!

Disguise: Check.

Look, I'm a Hordie!

Aggressive, spikey armor and growly "Hordish" Bear: Check. (I had to borrow 200 gold to buy the bear lol)

Here goes Nothing!

(note - entering the fortifications to get to the tables will flag you PvP)

THE DISGUISE WORKED!!!!!!

uh, no it didn't....

(but I did get a chance to sit before I died! lol)

I actually logged off, logged in as a Hordie and sent a nice (if sad) note to my killer. I haven't checked yet to see if I got a response...

As of now, I am starting my own meme that IS a meme: no sad panda, just a sad furlbog.




So I trudged off to silvermoon (which doesn't get you flagged for going to the table)

Yes, I am actually sitting here, but the "camera" angle I chose, to best show Silvermoon, also happened to hide me behind the centerpiece...

.

A couple things of note:

• I was able to get both the Ghostlands and Eversong Woods without incident. Well, I got flagged twice, but no deaths (on either side) resulted. Though a couple low level Hordies probably messed their shorts. (If the horde actually wore skivvies ;P )
• I tried to get to Silvermoon by see. You can't. I went out to sea north of Brill, and I fiollowed the coast all the way North, East and South and the FIRST place you can re-enter the continent of the Eastern Kingdoms is EASTERN PLAGUELANDS!! meh. A waste of 10 minutes and a water walking potion.

Tonight I shall continue to on Thunder Bluff and Orgrimmar... stay tuned!

Raid-eee-Days.... Food for Thought...

If you've been browsing wow forums and blogs for a while, even if you're nowhere near level 80, I'm sure you've heard much-a-doo about "Raid Food".

What is "Raid Food"?

It's food eaten by high level characters (level 70 and up) that provides more than just replenishing health. It takes 10 full seconds to be applied. The Fish Feast above is one of the more popular raid foods because it provides stamina (health), mana, attack power and spell power, which are usable for pretty much every player class and talent out there. It's high level, because you need to be a level 70 or higher to eat it. But clearly, it's a pretty awesome munchie, and the buff is it's own class ("well fed") and can exist in addition to spell buffs, blessings, potions scrolls and other effects.

Feasts are foods that feed more than one person: they usually feed an entire group or party.

But I'll let you in on a very poorly kept, but rarely acted upon, tidbit of info: "raid food" exists for all levels of players.

Take the food item below; Beer Basted Boar Ribs.

If you have taken up cooking, it's probably likely that you never bothered to make it, or if you did, did you notice that it provides a buff to stamina and spirit, as well as the normal health return? One other thing to note is that many "buff foods" require 2 separate ingredients to make, or require single, annoying to get, ingredients.

A full list of Buff foods is HERE, on wowwiki.com. It lists the foods, as well as the buffs you get from each, as well as the level needed to eat them.

So, not only can cooking help you out when you get to higher levels, but there are some clear benefits to "cooking well" and "eating well" as you level.

Bon apetit!

Raid for the Cure - a BLAST!

It alls tarted quietly enough, with us arriving

in Shadow Glen to a growing group of pink...

Lots of dancing and merriment

We could only guess what any brand new players must have thought as

we streamed through Dolanaar

"WE'RE ON A BOAT" ... uh, yep! lol



I got caught checking my mail, so a thoughtful chap
on his Mammoth gave me a lift.
(thank you Jardal!!!!)



And then the horde of Horde arrived and it was hugely amusing (dancing bears for the win!!)

Making a racket in Ratchet, awaiting our boat...

And dancing on the roof( since we couldn't bring down the roof)



Thanks to all involved, ESPECIALLY to the regular residents of Kael'Thas and the suportive guild, Sidhe Devils! Well done!!!

Blogging life with a Polaroid

I've been busy in Azeroth, but haven't accomplished much, and haven't been able to coherently put thoughts onto electrons for a real post, but I wanted to link to another blog.


http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/15131.html

By Chris Higgins.


This blogger ran across a website with THOUSANDS of posted pictures, taken one per day, over the course of 18 years. The pictures were taken by another gentleman, and the linked blog takes you through some of them and a lot of commentary.

One of the more touching things I've read lately, and might lead some of you to pull a Kleenex or two. Both the original website and that blog are the epitome of sharing life via the web.

(many of you may have already seen this, but it's new to me,)

I Get By with a little Help from My Friends...

When I got home last night, Kattastrophe had already done her dailies and was traipsing around Northrend trying to get the last few ore nodes she needed to hit 450 in mining. She had just landed in Amber Ledge when I started my log in. To her surprise there was a 1 v 1 battle (not a duel) going on between a level 75 Belf Paladin and a level 70 Human DeathKnight.

I urged Kattastrophe to help out and nail the Belf, but even against a weakened foe, and in her Elemental spec, Kattastrophe didn't want to poke the nasty Pally.


So I flew out from Dalaran to meet them. While flying, I tabbed over to wowarmory.com and looked him up. It was probably a good thing Kat didn't engage the guy. He was in mostly Boss Drop purples, with the rest being blue. (well, he had one green trinket)

At the same time, this Pally is running around trying to get folks to fight him. And, well, being an annoying pain in the butt.

As I lapproach, I see him running around.

The moment I land, I turn to face him, and bring up my Seal of Vengeance. He responds by asking for a duel.

Moi?

[REFUSE]

Nope, I'm not in this to fight fair, I'm in it to win it, damnit!!


A moment later, I hit him with Hammer of Justice and just start pummeling the guy. He had the advantage of better gear, but I had the advantage of shammie that had just switched to her healing spec.

I got him REAL low, and he got me sorta low. He did Lay on Hands, I just fought and absorbed the lovely shammie heals.

By the time I stood laughing over his corpse, I had dealt out 29,400 damage (Katt had added about 2,000), and had received about 27,700 in heals. He was completely dead, and I was at 75% health.

That's actually a bit troubling. But a quick look at the numbers below, and you can see why: even thoughI've got better offensive numbers (and my DPS *WAS* better) his added armor and TONS of health...

And I mean CRAZY health ... he "sits" with 14,700 health, and in my "normal" setup, I have 9,800. We both had the IDENTICAL weapon. He had some much better gear, but he had opted for more stamina and "tanky" gear. (A lot of his was the Tempered Saronite" stuff (I have a couple pieces I use for my tank spec)

Honestly though, I don't think his gear was magnitudes much better than mine. Yes, he has several Boss Drop Epics but my gemmed chest piece is pretty fookin epic, so I can't really cry TOO much.

That said, I wouldda prolly had my ass handed to me if not for some (ok, GOBS) of healing. In my best fight, I can only put down ~15-20k healing while still doing damage (more usually in the 10-15k range). BUT, that's at the cost of a significant amount of damage, and my DPS wsn't THAT great in this fight. (granted, I was being lazy and sloppy because I knew I had a ton of healz in my back pocket)

Regardless, even though we won, he really did a nice job in his fight. On my best night, with a lot of luck, I *might* have won in a real 1 v 1 fight. But then, with good friends around, who needs luck?


Take a look at the results below: The guy had MONSTROUS stamina and health for a Retpal (seems he was of the same mind I was and went for survivability with the ability to hit - a type of ret-tankadin)

LOOK AT THAT STAMINA!!!!!!!

I use Seal of Vengeance, he used Seal of Command.

...interesting...

We Got a Long Way to Go, and a Short Time to Get There...

OK, so maybe time ISN'T so short but still...

I finally got around to getting my dual spec. Yay, I’m officially a tankadin as well as a retadin.

Ho-lee-crap! It is a major change of pace! Not that I’ve tanked with any groups or anything, but even sauntering up to the practice dummy is all kinds of different. Fighting PvE just amplifies it… Lots to learn and it’s not the kind of thing you want to try out for the first time in a PUG.

Let me ‘splain to those that haven’t made the dual plunge…

(The first part kinda just highlights the changes that ALL dual spec folks have to deal with, but the last half (or more?) gets into some very specific Ret versus Prot yabbering)

And here… we… go!

There are 3 big things that change when you get a different spec, to the point that you are essentially using a completely new character:

1 – Talents & Glyphs – in general, nothing you know about your old character will work. In most cases (unless you have a PvP version and a PvE version) you are talenting for a completely different game style. Just researching what tree and different talents is nuts! Look at my talent numbers above, and it’s clear there’s not much overlap.

2 – Gear – This may actually be the easiest part of the change: at least for the under-80 crowd. For a ret pally, you want strength, strength, strength, with some attack power, crit and a “dash of haste” (hey a pun…) For a tankadin (Protection spec) you want stamina, block, defense and THEN maybe strength. While I’m probably getting the exact order of importance wrong, the basic premise holds true – there is gear that is primarily Ret, and there is gear that is primarily Prot. It’s fairly easy to see the difference and grab what’s right. It can be expensive, time consumingh and space consuming (in your bags) but it’s not all that tough.

3 – Spell/ability rotation – YIKES!!!!! Here is where things get a bit hairy. First, the basic spells I use are a tad different, and the WAY they’re used is different. Hmmm… this point is gonna get long, so I’m going to break it out even further… But in general, all your spells, abilities and how you use them will be changed. Either they are unusuable, or are less effectual, AND you will usually get something completely new to learn how to use.

POINT THREE, BROKEN DOWN - Paladin Specific

Ok, for a Ret Pal, you use what is referred to as “FCFS”, which is “first come, first serve”. In practice, this means simply looking at your regular spells, and using the first one that comes off global cool down, and, if 2 or more do, picking the “best” one. Because the spell times, cooldowns and such are so all over the place, there's no real "best" rotation. The basics are:

Hammer of Wrath
Judgement (usually wisdom for me)
Crusader Strike
Divine Storm
Exorcism
Consecration

Just start casting them in that order, and recast the next one to become available. If two come off cooldown at the same time use the upper one.

Though to be honest, if it’s just me, or me & Kattastrophe, I will pull with Hand of Reckoning, and then Judge them when they get in range, THEN start the list as above. But then, knowing to do that little thing to maximize damage as the baddie runs towards you, is part of knowing your character.

I don’t have that comfort/knowledge with the Prot build yet.

In Prot, you actually DO have a spell rotation; the 9696969 (or the 696969696)

For me this is usually as follows (I got it from tankspot.com HERE )

Judgment
Hammer of the Righteous
Holy Shield
Shield of Righteousness
Exorcism
Hammer of the Righteous
Judgment
Shield of Righteousness
Holy Shield
Hammer of the Righteous
Exorcism
Shield of Righteousness

And repeat. Over & over, til death do us part.

(also I will try to pull using Ardent Defender – which can hit up to 3 targets. YAY!)

Here’s a Pinkraidframes vid of it in action:




Learning to use this, when to bend it, how to watch threat/agro on other members so they don’t get their face chewed off, etc is a BIG deal. Test dummies don’t help with that…

There are 2 good taunts that we can use:

Hand of Reckoning – which taunts and can do damage on a single target

Righteous Defense – which pulls up to 3 attackers of a raid/party member


Now, I know *how* to do them, but one thing I would LOVE to find, is something like healbot, but shows whenever team members are taking damage (when they shouldn’t be) so I could just click that bar/frame/whatever to taunt them off.

Is there such a thing?

Lastly, I’ve been running into one other possibly MAJOR issue when I try to play as my tank spec – I keep going out of mana. FAST.

Now, if I use Seal of Wisdom, and I Judge Wisdom, the problem takes longer to manifest, but is that REALLY the way it should work? I had always thought that Tankadins should Judge Light (for the health rejuv) and that Ret should be the one to Judge Wisdom.

Now, I usually hit this problem when fighting “trash”, and I *believe* that we should be getting mana back from our shield blocks, which doesn’t happen much against low level trash.

*shrug*

I know Consecrate is a mana hog, but given it's the only AoE we have, I can't think it's advisable to skip....

Any thoughts?