Distractions....

"Hello, my name is Dradis, and I am completionist."

This has got to be the worst part about changing characters at this point in the game. I have somewhere around 2000+ achievement points on Dradis. Draedus, however has somewhere around 200+. I know, not even being 70 yet will tend to hurt my ability to get those achievement points. However, there is a drive to work towards them. My other completionist tendancies also feed into the achievements. For example, I would like to max out all of my primary and secondary professions. I also like collecting pets, mounts, tabards, etc. And there are achievements for all that stuff.

I also like having my map filled out. I would also like to get Exalted with as many factions as possible. More achievements.

So where is the distraction you ask? Well I would like to spend some time getting some of those things knocked out. Problem is, I need to work on getting to 70 first, which precludes my achievements. I guess there are somethings that I could be working on though that may help me out a bit.

First off I can work on professions while I level. And this is the order I would work on them.

-Tailoring
-Engineering
-Fishing
-Cooking

First aid is practically maxed out as it is, so I am not worried about that one. That list alone, along with running dailies, should be enough to keep me busy until WotLK. I will also need to be working on making money for yet another epic flyer. Ewww.

Once WotLK hits, I will be running my way up to 80. The only thing that I am going to take time out for is going to be the holiday stuff. I wants my holiday achievements! The Violet Proto Drake is awful hard to pass up. After that, it would be back to exploring and and grinding rep, and running dungeons and raids.

Lots of distractions. But thats a good thing. At least its a good thing when you are not leveling to beat the clock. Oh well. Is it 11/13 yet?

Chain Killing DoT Death Rotation of Death

As I soldier on with the newly transferred Warlock, Draedus (I am soooo original), I have made a few observations. But, first I want to get you all up to speed real quick on her progression. So I started yesterday at level 60. I am now level 62 (and a half), and I don't even think I am halfway done with HFP. I would suspect that Draedus is going to leave there at about level 63 and a half, provided I can get groups for Ramps and Blood Furnace.

Spell damage has gone up to a whooping 327 with Fel Armor. Fel Armor is super tasty by the way, and no Warlock should leave home without it. Is there any reason to go back to Demon Armor at this point? Anyway, that spellpower increase is almost triple what I started with. Single target DPS has increased from around 250dps to 350dps. Of course, I have learned that single target killing is for sissies. Generally I try to DoT a mob, move to the next closest one, DoT them, lather rinse repeat. Hit Dark Pact as needed, keep moving. Generally you can just follow the trail of dead bodies if you need to find me. Of course I can't keep doing that forever, I have to loot at some point ya know. When doing this I can typically run at about 400dps. I have managed to keep that going for a maximum of 10 minutes. I stopped though because bodies were disappearing on me.

Ok so here is what I have found so far. I have created this rotation as it seems to be the most logical to me to have the longest DoTs cast at the beginning, although I haven't really sat down and thought about why that makes sense, so there is a good chance I am doing this backwards. Here is the rotation:

1) Haunt - Ok this is short duration, but it serves two purposes. It keeps me topped off moving from mob to mob, and casting it early almost guarantees that it will have enough time to go off. It also increases the damage of the all the other DoTs that get cast next.
2) Siphon Life - This keeps me evened out, since it seems to heal for about as much as I get hit for. It can't quite keep up with the fast hitters though
3) Curse of Agony - Next longest DoT. Straight damage.
4) Corruption - Shortest DoT. Straight damage.
5) Unstable Affiction - Has a cast time so I save it for last, I have no reason not to do it ealier, it just feels right.
6) 2x Dark Pact - Regen my mana to the tune of about 1600 over 2 GCDs. Maybe throw another one in there if I need it.
7) Move to next mob, restart DoT cycle. Usually by the time I get to step 3, the last mob dies at my feet.

Generally, I keep out my Imp, leave him shifted, and just use him as a mana battery. Fel Armor is always up.

I am more then open to suggestions. I also realize that this probably won't work to well in a group, but I will burn that bridge when I get there.

Again though, this is still the honeymoon stage. Although, I actually don't mind dying for once on a toon. I think that is because I just keep trying to push myself and see how crazy things can get before I am overwhelmed. Sure I die quite a bit, but my wake of destruction, mayhem, and /dancing more then makes up for it.

Anyway, I blame this all on K and Richard (just cause Richard is cool). K, you have created a monster, I hope your happy. I know I am.

And thanks to Jendreka for the invite on my new toon to No Maam :P

Breath of Fresh Air

As I stated in my recent post, I am done with the Paladin thing. Of course I will still play Dradis, but she will be for grinding dailies and doing my auction house stuff. I really hate drama. This Paladin crap over the last few weeks has been nothing but drama, and I am just a little burnt out on it. So I have decided to move on so I can stop getting hung up on this crap and actually continue having fun.

So I spent a good bit of time last night figuring out which class to re-roll. After a lot of time looking and thinking, I came to the conclusion that the Warlock was the way to go. I have a mid level Undead Warlock on Azjol-Nerub that I really enjoyed playing, so it made sense to me to go with that. I made a level 1 Human Warlock and started playing earlier this morning. About fifteen minutes into it, my brother came in to see what I was doing. I told him, and he said "Oh, well I have a level 60 Human Warlock that I haven't touched since before the Burning Crusade. You can have her if you want."

Yes please! Thank you! I quickly setup the account transfer, Blizzard approved it, and voila! My level 1 Warlock was magically transformed to a level 60. Guess thats what its gonna feel like when you roll a DK. On the upside, I am already somewhat familiar with the class from playing that Undead Warlock, so figuring things out and setting up buttons wasn't too bad. I specced Affliction, and I will give that a whirl for a while. I will probably toy with Demonology at some point for Metamorphasis if nothing else, but I need to work on getting to 70 first.

So first things first after the transfer. Lets take a peek at what I have for equipment. A few blues, bunch of trinkets, and about 111 spellpower. Nothing great but it should be servicable until I get some Outland gear on. Whats in the bags? Lots of engineering stuff. Bunch of trinkets, a few Dark Runes, and some Whipper Roots. Interesting.

Next up is a skill inventory. She still needed Expert Riding. She has 300 Mining, 300 Engineering. Decent fishing. 1/75 Cooking. Maxed out First Aid. Not too shabby. My first thought is to drop mining. I have Dradis to farm and make money in the AH, I have no intetion of farming ore, skins, or herbs on my Warlock. Engineering seems neat, so for now it can stay. If it proves to be useless, well I can drop it later. So what would I pick up in place of Mining? Tailoring! There are some sexy tailored pieces that I would like to make, and I suspect it will stay that way through WotLK.

Ok, inventory check completed. Off to the AH to get some new bags because those 14 slot Runecloth bags just weren't doing it for me. After that, it was over to the bank to check out that situation. The bank looked a little empty, mostly full of just engineering supplies. Thats ok though. So I went ahead and picked up all the remaing bank slots, replaced the crappy bags that were in there, and now I have a lot of storage space.

Next thing up was to take a quick trip over to the riding trainer in Elwynn Forest. I got the training, and the Epic Mount. Great, now we are cooking with gas, as Jendreka would say. I would do the epic mount quest, but once 3.0.3 goes live, the Epic Mount will be trainable, so there is really no point. Especially since this is going to be quite a race to get to 70 by 12:01AM November 13.

Anyway, next stop was the Dark Portal and Outland, and off I went. I completed the quests to get me too Honor Hold, did the the quests to get me out of Honor Hold and into the zone, and I did the first two quests out there before heading off to work.

First impressions are really really good! Of course this is still the honeymoon stage, but I actually feel pretty powerful and there is a lot of flexibility. I think the trick is going to be figuring out how to take on 3 and 4 mobs at once, but first I need to get a spell rotation down. I am going need to do quite a bit of research to figure this class out completely. Should be fun!

So This Is What We Were Looking For

This is exactly what Ret needs. Thank you Peregrine. See Blizz? Was that so hard? I mean yeah, this would take extensive testing and a good bit of tweaking. But it really makes much more sense.

Forget About It

Well after much debate with myself and reading on the various blogs and forums, I have come to a conclusion. Blizzard cannot and will not bring Ret to a level of competitivness that will balance both PvE and PvP needs. By GC's own admission, this is extremely difficult, like 'Yikes!' difficult even. There have been more then a few good suggestions from players on different approaches to fixing the issue. I won't bother repeating any of them since no one cares. Also, there seems to be a feeling among some that players are not developers, therefore our opinions don't count. I feel that assertion is the very reason that our beloved class and spec will never reach equilibrium. As it is, it would seem that the only way to ensure that Paladins are balanced is to suck the fun the out of them.

And no I don't mean the only way to for Paladins to be fun is by having four second HoJ kills and topping every and all damage meters. I mean the macro right below might actually be the extent of Ret Paladin interaction. One button is not fun. Our 'rotation' is just hitting any one of three spells that isn't on cooldown. No tricks to it, nothing to setup, no strategy required. That macro would do that with out having to think too much about it. And according to a lot of forum trolls, the mana ineffiecency that is now causing this sitation is the price we pay for having Mana instead of Rage or Energy. At best, that arguement is laughable. At worst, it shows a complete inability to want to keep things on a level playing field among Melee DPS classes. What happened to bring the best player, not the best class? WotLK hasn't even started, and that is already out the window.

I refuse to have so much time, energy, and even a bit of emotion tied up with something that I have a feeling is destined to fail. That is just a bad idea. The writing is on the wall and it would be best to heed the warning. If by some miracle Blizzard does figure out how to balance Paladins AND make them fun, well I may be back to my Paladin. But I am tired of being stuck on the bench in hopes of something better from Blizzard. I did that for most of TBC, I won't do it again for WotLK. There is a lot fun to be had in this game. I won't miss it this time around clinging to a dead class.

But no worries. I am going to park Dradis in IF for now. Once again she will be relegated to the role of money maker and bank. And thats ok, because I need that too. I need a toon to fill that role, so why not make it the one that is least likely to actually ever provide group or PvP viabilty?

So now the internal debate rages on.... what class to play? Its a tough choice. But I have all night to mull it over.

It was foolish jumping the gun so fast with the Paladin. Everyone saw this coming from a mile away. Everyone but us Ret Paladins it would seem. Oh well.

The blog will still run though. Because, well I get bored at night, and I need something to do.

No, You Go Ahead..... I Will Keep The Bench Warm

Well looks like our dps cycle is down to three buttons and thats how GC wants it.

We will also have no mana to spare for any spells outside of this rotation, much less utility spells of any sort, so that eliminates that idea. So here is what I have come up with. Its the new Paladin Uber DPS Macro.

/assist focus
/castrandom Crusader Strike, Divine Storm, Judgement of Wisdom

Now if I can figure out how to have SoComm refresh off of that same button. Then I can just set the Rogue as focus, put the Rogue on follow, watch TV and just keep mashing one button while doing ok DPS and keeping Replenishment up for everyone.

If that doesn't sound like fun, well I don't know what does.

/yawn

/pass

Where did I put that Hunter.....

I Would Have Settled for the Nerf Bat........

Well, looks like we are getting hit with the nerf nuclear missile. I agree that our damage is a little out of whack at the moment. I have out damaged a T5 Feral Druid on several occasions (yes this means you Curdt). Do I feel that was right? No, especially considering that I am still sporting a lot blues and only have one piece of T4 and two pieces of badge gear. My gear is pretty crappy. I should not be able to out DPS anyone in T4, much less T5. Sorry Curdt.

So what is Blizzard's solution? Nerf us "to the ground, baby!". And I am not talking just overall damage output, nope. I am talking about mana efficiency as well. I guess we just weren't going OOM fast enough. But, here is the thing. You nerf our damage, fine. It was not entirely unexpected. But you nerfed our utility at the same time. Huh? Yeah that's right, utility in a group has also been nerfed "to the ground baby!" due to the changes to Judgements of the Wise.

JotW has been reduced from a 100% chance to return 33% of base mana upon casting Judgement to a 100% chance to return 15% of base mana upon Judgement successfully landing. This is a big change. Now its absolutely imperative that we are hit capped just to make sure that our Judgements land. And I believe that Judgements are based on spell hit, which means that we will still have a 1% chance to miss. That combined with an over 50% reduction to mana returns is a little crazy.

And I will say that I have gone OOM in fights before, even on trash. I had started to rely on the fact that my Judgements would be able to get my mana back up long enough for me to DPS for another 8 seconds until I could Judge again. What happens now if I am OOM and waiting for my mana to return enough to Judge, only to have my Judgement miss? I will probably have to stand there for even longer. But I won't be waiting for the Judgement cooldown to come back up, I will be waiting for my mana to regen enough to even cast another Judgement. If my Seal drops off in the mean time, I am going to be real screwed since I won't have the mana to up another Seal and then Judge. This also means I will have to tweak my Seal refreshes as well to lengthen the amount of time that I am able to DPS. Where I used to refresh seals when they had 20-30 seconds left, I am going to have to move that to 10-15 or less to conserve mana, which means I run a bigger risk of putting myself in the situation I just described. Hell, that situation has already occured on more then one occasion as it is, with the exception that JotW would be there to get me back into the fight. Not anymore.

So what does all that have to do with utility? Well essentially, Ret Paladins will no longer have extra mana for Cleanse, FoL, or Hands. I had been doing all of that in combat via Healbot. It was great being able to take some of the load off of whoever was healing. Not anymore. We won't be able to spare the mana.

The other issue I have is that we are a melee class, and more and more we are becoming a physical damage class. That is fine, but I don't see what sense it makes for us to be energy starved when it seems like Warriors, Rogues, and Feral Druids don't have the same problem. We should not be energy starved if we are doing a normal DPS cycle. Adding in things like FoL, Cleanse, etc, should negatively impact our energy pool. However, we should not be stuck auto-attacking because the devs cut our legs out from under us. Just a quick comparison to Rogues as far as regen rate goes:

Rogue - 20 energy per 2 second tick, which is equivalent to 20% of their energy since they only have 100 energy. Complete energy refund every 10 seconds. This is counter balanced by the relatively higher percentage cost of their abilities and the lack of gear to increase their base energy (some exceptions and talents apply, however this is not the rule).

Paladin - Chance at 15% base mana per 8 second Judgement cooldown. Complete base mana pool refund every 56 seconds, however this will is not be the entire mana pool. This also assumes that none of the Judgements miss. This is offset by the relatively lower percentage cost of abilities. Regen rate can also benefit from Replenishment and Judgement of Wisdom. It does make for an odd position since JotW does not scale with Intellect, but JoW and Replenishment do.

Although I don't have any solid numbers right at the moment, it would seem that there is a great disparity between Paladin sustained DPS and Rogue sustained DPS just based on longevity. We should, by all rights, be able to DPS as long as a Rogue provided we are just doing our damage cycle. Again, adding in extras should negatively affect our mana pool. It will also negatively affect our damage output since those extras reset our swing timer. I don't know how Warriors work, but it seems like they usually have a pretty steady supply of Rage. If they don't, then they should, and they need to bitch at Blizzard. Melee DPS should be on par with each other for their ability to sustain their DPS, other wise some is gonna be left out in the cold. Even Enhancement Shaman do not have mana issues that I have seen. Most of them don't even run Water Shield. Where is the parity?

At this point, I am concerned for the future of Ret Paladins specifically and Paladins in general. I really feel bad for Holy Paladins since this nerf is really going to screw them on damage output, whereas every other healer is getting a damage buff. Holy has to do dailies too ya know. Not to mention that they are going to have to level up in a few weeks. And until that dual spec feature comes online, there is going to be a shortage of Holy Paladins in WotLK. Prot spec should come out of this ok, but that remains to be seen.

I am going to wait to see how this plays out. If it feels like I am playing my 2.4 Ret Paladin again, well I don't know what I am going to do. I have done so much with Dradis over the past few weeks. I have earned a lot of achievements, seen a lot of content, and earned a lot money. She is my first toon to get 70 and I was really looking forward to having her be my first toon to 80. I also really only have time for one character between family, school, and work. I so desperately want that time to be spent on Dradis, but I refuse to be stuck with a boring sub par class for another expansion.

Would I give up WoW if this nerf is as bad as it is starting to look? No, I have too much fun with my friends and there is a lot about this game that I love. I have 8 other classes (9 after the expansion) to play that I have never used at 70. I have a Hunter sitting at 61 and a bunch of lowbie alts that already have a few levels on them. So worst case, I can pick up with one of them and keep on playing. But I don't want too. Aside from Dakkar the Hunter, my other toons have a long long way to 70.

Not to mention, the Paladin is very me. There is something very appealing to me about the lore, the style, and the symbolism of the Paladin in WoW. For those reasons, I would rather stick with my Paladin and have her be the first to see Naxx, two handed sword firmly in at the ready. But, I will have to wait and see how much crack the Paladin development team at Blizzard is smoking before I decide what to do.

And a final comment to Ghostcrawler, although s/he will probably never see it. I really hope you do right by Paladins and genuinely take the plethora of information available to you from players into consideration. If you can't do that and if Ret Paladins are left in the horrible state they were in for all of TBC, I hope that Blizzard will see fit to find a more capable replacement.

PS: Draydis is now on permanent hold. Additional leveling while bored will be done on Dakkar and/or Dradias.

Where is my Metal Pumpkin Head?

Ok, this Horseman is making me just a wee bit cranky. I have put him down, oh, 25 times or more. Its an easy fight, don't get me wrong. I lay out the mad DPS, his head comes off, I pimp slap it around and he dies. Easy easy. Supposedly there are adds, but I have yet to see any. So anyway, this guy has that awesome helm that he drops. I could really use it because its a substantial upgrade from what I have. Problem is I have seen it drop once. One time in 25. Thats a 4% drop rate. And that is crap. I have ten more days to try and get that helm. If I fight him 5 times a day for ten days, that means I have to put him down 50 times. Out of those 50 times, I may get the chance to roll on that helm twice, if my current experience is any indicator of the drop rate. If there are any other Pallies or Warriors in the group, that means I will have competition. So basically, I will have to get in groups with no plate wearers to maximize my chance of of getting the helm that I might only get two chances to roll on.

Alternatively, I can try to get Sitri or Curdt or Octavian to tank for me (I dont think they have much interest in that helm), Moontree and Cary to DPS, and Jendreka to heal. That would be ideal, but I don't see any of them being too keen on killing the same guy literally 50 times so I can get one piece of gear. And I can't blame them. I am not too keen killing that cackling bastard more then I already have.

And this is where I think Blizzard has gone wrong on this holiday. I can deal with a low drop rate on the mounts. I can even deal with the low drop rate on the pets. Those are all vanity items that really don't have any affect on anything. They are a good way to show your dedication to getting a holiday bonus. The gear, on the other hand, should not be handled like that. The drop rate on the helm, the sword, and the rings should all be about the same. It only makes sense.

Now, don't think this is all QQ. I actually really enjoy everything else about this holiday. Everyone seems to want to participate. Whether its grouping for Headless Horseman, trading wands, throwing pumpkins at each other, or even doing some extra PvP for the "GNERD Rage" achievement. It is nice to see that almost everyone is getting involved. This has also been a good chance for me to go travel to some of my favorite places in Azeroth for some trick or treating. There's even free apples, which are actually kinda useful. Even the candy gives you some nice buffs. All in all, its fun! Way more fun then Brewfest, especially this years Brewfest.

Targeting Trouble

Ok, so one of the issues I am having is changing targets quickly during Heroics and Raids. I was in Magister's Terrace today to get my heroic key, and I spent more time standing around then DPSing. This was mostly due to targeting and then attacking issues. Here is how things have been going:

1) Tank marks skull
2) I right click skull, ready to attack when I get in range
3) Tank pulls, builds some aggro
4) I walk up to mob and start my DPS cycle
5) Mob dies, tank changes targets

Here is where it gets tricky for me.

I can do a few things at this point.

a) Left-click target the next mob, hit an instant
Upside: I will not loot in the middle of combat by left-clicking
Downside: If the mobs are closely grouped, I may end up clicking the wrong mob. Also if my abilities are on cooldown, I won't start attacking immediately

b) Right-click target the next mob
Upside: I will immediately start attacking the next mob
Downside: Again, I might get the wrong mob in a close grouping. I run the risk of looting in combat

c) Click the tank's frame, hit assist
Upside: I will be targeting whatever the tank is targeting, I should start attacking
Downside: Very slow since I have to click a frame and push a button. Usually my mouse is hovering over the Healbot frame for some instant FoLs and Cleanses. That means I have to go to the other side of the screen with my mouse and then hit assist. Also, I have noticed that I don't always start attacking when I assist

d) Click the tank's target, hit an instant
Upside: I will be targeting what ever the tank is targeting
Downside: Once again, very slow. Also I run into the issue of my abilities being on cooldown

e) Make a macro to target the tanks target and start attacking
Upside: Macro will do exactly what I tell it to do, providing consistant results
Downside: Macro will do exactly what I tell it to do, provided I tell it to do the right thing

Option e) seems like the best choice. All I would need to do is unbind my assist key and use Dominos to rebind it to a macro placed on the actionbar. The question is, what is the best way to approach this, and what would the macro look like? Lets look at another set of options, this time for the macros:

a) Set tank as focus, have macro target focus's target and attack
Upside: One button to press and I am locked on to the next target and swinging
Downside: I would have to remember to set the focus before each run, not a big deal, takes two clicks

b) Have macro target the tank's target and attack
Upside: Same as above
Downside: I have to remember to change the tank's name on the macro before each run. This would be big deal as it would be a pain to do it on the fly since I have to change the actual macro in the settings menu

I can't think of any other way to do this then those two options. The obvious choice to me would be option a). Now you might be wondering why I chose to use attack instead of assist. Mainly its because I don't trust assist. I have attack on assist enabled in my options. However, it seems like when I use assist, sometimes I don't even go into the ready position and I just stand there looking around. That is not confidence inspiring to me or my party. By using attack I know I will attack that target. My only concern is if I hit it twice and the tank is still on the same target, will it cancel the attack? That I will have to find out, but for now it's what I will be using.

So this is the macro that I came up with off the top of my head:

#showtooltip Attack
/Attack [target=focustarget]

As far as I know, that should work. The first part should allow the button to flash if I am attacking. This is just so I know its working. You can leave that out if you have more confidence in these things working properly then I do. The second part is self explanatory. Again, this is off the top of my head and may need to be revised later.

Hopefully, this will solve my targeting issues and make the world a safer place for the poor souls who group with me. I may even see a DPS increase..... scary.

Paladin Reloaded: Levels 1-12

Well I did like I said I would. I rerolled a new Draenei Paladin. He looks pretty sweet too! I didn't realize how much I would like the Draenei male model, but they have neat looking cast animations, neat swing motions, and the run is not to bad once you get used to it. I still think the Draenei female has the smoothest run though. Whatever Blizz did with them, they need to do it with every other race in the game.

The new member of the clan is named Draydis. I wanted that name, and I got it! I was pleasantly suprised about that. I already regret the haircut and facial hair choices, but thats ok. I just have to go the barber now! Hehe.

So how is leveling? Is it different now then it was before? Short answer is yes. Long answer is different is not better, but it might not be worse either. From level 1-4, there is very little to do. You up Seal of Righteousness and auto attack. Then you get Devotion Aura, which is one button that you never have to push again for a long long time. The next thing you get is Blessing of Might. Up that and your Seal and let the auto attacks do their thing. Once you get Judgement of Light, things get a little more interactive. You get to drop that every 10 seconds. It also applies a debuff to the mob so you get healed. Sweet considering you are generally getting healed for as much as they hit. A little later, will will also get Judgement of Wisdom, which should help with mana if needed.

You also get your first Bubble, which is now a 50% damage reduction, and a 50% attack speed reduction. This is a little different to get accustomed to. I used to hit my bubble and bandage or heal. Now, bandaging is not an option, since there is damage coming through that will interrupt you. Healing is an option. However, I have just been using it when I get a third add to help with damage mitigation. I pop it early if I think I might might need to. This is a bit different from how I normally play. With the regular Bubble, I usually wait until I am at 10%-20% health, pop the Bubble, bandage, heal, and then back to fighting. The new, early Bubble is best used when things have to potential to go bad. It is also on a 5 minute cooldown, so don't be afraid to use it.

I have also found that I no longer wait to use Lay on Hands in a dire emergency. It is on a fairly short cooldown now, so if I need it, I use it. I have found myself low on health on a few fights, so I just use after the fight to get myself to full, and then I press on. The chances that I am going to get in big trouble in the next 20 minutes are pretty low, so I don't mind using it as an uber health pot on a 20 minute cooldown.

I also just got my Resurrection spell. It still has that new spell smell since I haven't even used it yet.

All in all, this is way easier then anything I have done before. I am right around 4 hours played and I am at level 12. Not bad. It helps that I know where everything is, but still. No deaths, mobs die fairly fast, a mana pool that is perpetually full. Whats not to like? The only downside is that there seems to be less to do since you dont need to reseal all the time. At this stage you are basically auto attacking.

Something else that helps with leveling is I knowing how to gear your Ret Paladin. For anyone who is new to the Ret Paladin scene, here is what to look for in gear at this level range.

Strength/AP->Stamina->Agility->Int

Try to stack as much strength as possible. Strength gives you 2 points of attack power (AP)before any other modifiers. You want your melee hits to hurt really, really bad, so more attack power is a good a thing. Stacking straight AP works well too. Keep this in mind as well; if you have to choose between two similar pieces of gear and one has strength and one has AP, just multiply the strength by two, and pick the gear with the higher number. At this level there is really no advantage to having Strength over AP. You aren't going to be specing into Divine Strength right now, and the chances that you are going to have Blessing of Kings on you for any length of time is pretty slim. Also, while you are leveling, stamina will be better then agility. The more stamina you have, the better your chances of surviving a tough situation. That means less corpse runs, which means less wasted time.

With that in mind, agility is next on the shopping list. This will give you some defensive stats (armor, dodge, and maybe even parry), as well as crit. Unfortunately, agility does not give Paladins AP, unlike Rogues, Hunters, and Druids. At this point, crit is not a really big deal. Yeah, it will be nice once you get a little higher up in level and your melee swing crits and procs SoComm, SoComm crits, then you hit Crusader Strike, it crits and procs SoComm again, and SoComm crits again. That is when a mob explodes. If it doesn't, you are probably fighting a raid boss and you probably just pulled aggro. When things like those big SoComm proc and crit strings happen, I get a little excited. But again, don't worry about crit right now. It will come along on its own. I think base crit is close to 5%. You get early talents that bump you up by an additional 8%, giving you about 13% before any gear is factored in. So really, there is no need to focus on crit since 1 in 7.6 swings should crit. That isn't what I would call reliable, but it ain't bad either.

The last area for stats is intellect. I am having absolutly no issues with a base mana pool at level 12. I don't think I have stopped to drink one time yet, which is awesome. I feel Huntery in that I don't ever need to stop for anything other then self heals. I haven't even used a bandage yet because I have more mana then I know what to do with. So really, this stat is one that is a "nice to have." More mana is never a bad thing, but do not go out of your way for it. I think Ret Paladins have finally, thankfully, moved passed the days of 3 kills, drink, 3 kills, drink, 3 kills, drink. This will save a lot of money in water and food.

Finally, I would like to throw in a word about talents. At this low of a level, there are not a lot of options for talents. You have Divine Strength, Parry, and Benediction to choose from. I went with Benediction for 3 points. I don't see a point in Parry at this stage since everything is dying so fast, and I expect that trend to continue. Divine Strength seems like a bit of a waste too since you don't have enough strength to see a real benefit from this. Mana efficiency, however, is always a good thing, and this reduces the cost of all of your instant spells. The only spell you should be using at this point with a cast time is Holy Light. I think that this talent option will help with leveling speed more then the other options. Downtime is fastest way to increase your /played, so efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.

Enough with the QQing, and I actually mean Ret Paladins this time

This rant is in response to the second and third comment made on this post on Suicidal Zebra's blog:

The change to the aura bonus would have probably been done anyway, so I really dont see what your getting at there. Any other class with a similar buff gets a3% percent damage increase, we were getting 2%. That means there would be a reason to stack a different class from the perspective of buffing the group, which is what Blizz was trying to avoid with the expansion.

Avenging Wrath got simultaneously nerfed and buffed. As it was before, the only spec that benefitted from it was Ret. Prot may have had it hot keyed as an additional threat generator. Holy had no reason at all to use it unless they were soloing. The way it is now is far more beneficial to Paladins as a class. Also keep in mind that Ret comes with passive healing now via Divine Storm, which means that you benefit the group even more when you pop Wings by increasing your DPS and taking just a little more of the load off of the healers.

Sanctity Aura was kinda crappy compared to what we have now. The talented Ret buffs are far more useful to the group and Ret Aura is fantastic for tanks as a passive threat generator. Compare that to Sanc Aura which only helped Holy Priest damage (when was the last time you saw that?) and Paladin Holy damage (ie only you because Ret Pallies would rarely get more than one spot). And, by moving Sanctified Retribution up to 3%, that means you are only losing out on 9% of your previous damage buff. Actually probably less then that since that 1% applies to everything and everyone, not just your personal Holy damage, which was probably not even 50% of your overall damage, unless you were fighting undead or demons. And don't forget that Crusade got buffed to add 3% extra damage to all targets plus an additional 3% damage to Humanoids, Demons, Undead, and Elementals. So really, how much of a DPS increase were you getting out of Sanc Aura? Was it enough to outweigh the additional passive DPS you provide yourself and/or the tank through reflective damage? I would be willing to bet Sanc Aura was giving you far was less then you think it was.

Also keep in mind that the remaining 6% of holy damage is more then made up for by Sheath of Light increasing your spell power by 30% of your AP, AND most of our spells scale with AP and SP now instead of just SP or AP. So now our spells and attacks just got even more powerful. Combine that with 3% haste from Ret Aura as well. So tell us again why you would think that we got screwed by losing Sanc Aura?

And what about our buff to mana efficiency? I was hitting every single damage ability I could in Kara almost all the time. I had to drink 8 times through the whole run. Judgements of the Wise in itself is a huge buff to our DPS. No mana means no CS, no DS, no Holy Wrath, no Exorcism, and no Judgement. Not to mention the fact that we gained a ton of mana efficiency by only needing to up our Seals every two minutes, and we no longer have to worry about SotC, effectively eliminating and seal twisting that was needed to increase DPS.

The Vengeance nerf kinda sucked, but it frees up two points. And honestly, we are more then fine on DPS. I am still wearing mostly blues. I ran Kara today and not only topped the meters for DPS, but topped the meters for overall damage at ~19.8%. The next closest for DPS was a very very well geared Cat Druid at ~17.5% overall damage. Knowing that, its hard to make a case that we are doing bad. If the roles were to be reversed at level 80, I would still be fine with that.
So, Mr. Anonymous, I really fail to see why you are making it out like we are getting screwed at this point and already saying "GG for paladins." There is nothing to support the idea that we are going to be useless in WotLK. Far from it considering that once we get more comfortable with cooldowns and rotations, we will be able to spot heal while dpsing, providing even more utility to a group.

So lets summerize the Ret changes:
1) Double to Triple DPS
2) 3% Damage/Haste Aura
3) 3% Extra Damage (Crusade)
4) Better passive threat generation for the tank
5) Easier gear selection
6) Better healing output and capability
7) CC for 1 minute on a 1 minute cooldown on five different mob types
8) Passive group mana regen
9) Passive group healing
10) 3 instant cast AOE spells
11) Talented +50% crit to HoW, usable on mobs below 35% health now, instant cast
12) Better scalabilty with gear
13) Nearly infinite mana, even with a base mana pool.

Overall, we are getting more buffs then we know what to do with. Its easy to focus on the negative, but things are best viewed as a big picture. There is, however, a lot of reason to be concerned. History has a tendency to repeat. However, a tendency is not a guarantee, and right now Blizz is giving some much needed love to the class/spec combo that has always been considered the underdog of WoW.

Something else to keep in mind is that we are supposed to be balanced for level 80. We are ten levels low. The way I am specced, the only two things I get in 10 levels is BoK, which doesn't benefit me unless there is another Pally in the group to give me BoM. I also get Divine Strength, which will help even more with gear scaling and increase my DPS a little by way of an AP and SP increase. Other classes won't be spending 61 points in any one tree though. That means that they can go down far enough to get into the third tier of their tree to get their 11 point talent and fully buff it. Or they may even have points left over for other talents in a third tree.

The thing is, all of that is obvious. Blizz knows it. They also know that we are not going to gain just a bunch of new ablities on our way to 80 that will significantly affect our DPS. I can't believe that Blizz would be too shortsighted to realize that and nerf us "TO THE GROUND BABY!" I just don't see it happening. However, I don't see being #1 dps all the time, now and forever, regardless of gear. That should not be something that carries on to WotLK. If I can make mobs explode into a pile of goo by looking at them cockeyed, well that would make me not want to play more then having things back the way they were. Easy mode is fun for very short periods of time, but not in the long run. If easy games were the epitome of a good time, we would all be playing Minesweeper with one mine on a 10,000 square map.

On Rolling a New Pally

So I have been doing some thinking here at work today. I really need a project for this blog, and I would like it to be Paladin related. If I don't come up with a project, well I think that this may turn into a place where I put random thoughts more then I already do. I already have several alts, with Dradias being the most interesting at the moment, so it would almost seem silly to start up another alt, much less on a class that I already have. But I actually enjoy leveling. It is fun for me. That and I get to start fresh on achievements, which is good and bad. And I really want another Paladin, for some unfathomable reason. I am also curious to see how big of an impact the new changes in 3.0.2 have made on the leveling curve for a Pally. Will I be able to beat my Hunters time to 61?

The idea would be to start this Pally up from Level 1 and go to all the way out to Level 80. I could document the journey here, and hopefully it will be of some use to a fresh Paladin leveling to 80.

I also decided that my group of alts needs a little testosterone thrown in there, as I have no male toons at all on the Alliance side. Doesn't say much for me other then I am impressed (obsessed?) by pixelated curves. So then it comes down to race. But there is only one race that can be a Paladin and that is the Draenei. Right. So thats out of the way.

.....
.......
.........

What was that? Dwarves AND Humans can be Pallies too? Surely you jest. And those hoity toity Blood Elves?! What is this world coming to!

Yeah ok so there are four races that can be pallies. I am going with Draenei. And here is why.




If that is not a good enough reason to roll a Draenei, I don't know what is. Ok well the extra 1% to hit is awesome and so is the Gift of the Naruu. So no complaints on either account. So, we are going with a Paladin Space Goat. But what kind?

Not furry enough to be a Gorilladin. And it would seem that the LOLadin's time has passed so that is not an option. Well I am hoping its passed. So options are PAOEladin, Tankadin, Shockadin, Holydin, Retadin. PAOEladin and Tankadin are close, Tankadin have more points in tanky talents, PAOElodin having more points in damage talents. But I really don't feel like being all tanky, at least not as while leveling. Killing mobs for XP just takes way too long. Questing is the way to go. Shockadin might be dead, so that is a no go. Holydin is not the way I wanna roll. So that leaves Retadin. Darn. Oh well, it is what it is.

So Space Goat Retadin it is. Now for a name. Just for the sake of consistency, I think I will be looking for something close to Dradis. Maybe Draydis. It will at least start with a D. Why D? Cause its my favorite size.

Batteries people! Batteries! Jeez!

Anyway, time to go home. I am going to make my baby Pally, study for my test in the morning and take a nap. More to come. But probably not until Sunday night. I have my itty bity gamer in training all day Saturday and Sunday morning. Then I will need to take her back home on Sunday,sleep a bit, and work on more homework. Maybe I will squeeze in a post with a picture of the new toon. We will see.

Heroic Sethekk Halls Part Deux

Well Sethekk Halls was the heroic daily, again. I died thrice this time around. I will say that the first death was all me. I got behind a serpent and he bounced me into a bunch of mobs. I pulled aggro and wipage ensued. The other two, I don't know what happened, but I will not take responsibility for it. There was a point where it was just me and Octavian, the other Warrior tank overlord. Ikiss had taken out Jendreka, the Healy Shammy, by sheeping him and then teleporting on his head. Ikiss proceeded to beat him unmerciful. He dispatched our hunter and the other shammy as well. And then there were two.

Had I updated Healbot, Ocatavian and I may have made it through alive. As it was, Octavian was doing really well. My heals were doing ok too. The problem I had was I was so reliant on Healbot that doing multiple clicks to change targets and get off a heal was something I wasn't used too. I needed to heal myself and I just couldn't go fast enough. Then Ikiss smacked me around like I owed him money. My Shiny Plate Metal Ass (SPMA) was on the floor with a quickness. To Octativan's credit, he managed to work Ikiss down to 1000+HP before he bit the dust with the rest of us.

We regrouped and laid the smack down on his ass. It was gratifying, but epic win was within reach before. Alas, I was not prepared.

There are a few things I learned from this run:
1) Just because I am DPSer, I need to be prepared to drop heals. Not just willing, because I have not problem with spot healing, but completely ready. I have now installed the updated Healbot. I will need to reconfigure it for healing as a Ret pally instead of a Holy pally.

2) I need to get a mouseover Righteous Defense macro going and then hot key it to my gamepad somewhere. When the healer says he has adds, I don't need to be messing around with looking for the Righteous Defense button, clicking it, then clicking on the healers frame. Its way too slow, and if a priest or a druid is healing, they will go down quick, so seconds count. I can take a beating a lot longer then they can.

3) In relation to the above, I also need to see what the new pally bubble does. If it reduces my incoming damage by 50%, wipes fear and debuffs, and allows me retain aggro while using RD, then it might be a good idea to have it hotkeyed as well.

4) I need to setup a macro that allows me to quickly switch to my tanks target and assist him/her without the need to actually click anything.

5) I should probably be greeding everything, since I can disenchant. This will allow everyone to roll on shards and I have to do less thinking. I may need to run this by the group if its a PUG. If its any of us in No Maam, then that may become a standing rule.

6) I need to find a new aggro meter, unless Diamond has been updated. I really like Diamond, but when I checked the other day it was still an older version. The new threat stuff in the default UI is nice, but I think it's a little hard to see. I have a enough issues looking for things as it is, so trying to read the tiny threat percentage in the target window is not helpful.

If anyone has any linkage or suggestions for the above, let me know.

New Name, Same Great Taste

Just an update. I changed my display name to Dradis from Ryukyu. Dradis makes more sense and it should make me easier to spot. Most of you probably won't notice. It's all good!

Followers!

Holy crap!!!! I have two (2) people following my blog! I am honored to say the least. Don't be afraid to drop a line guys!

Odd thought of the Day

Ok, so I have been thinking about something. My DPS in full Ret Spec and full Ret gear used to be like 450-500dps. Now I am hanging around 1000-1150dps. In PvP, one of my main issues that I feel kinda squishy. I also feel a little squishy in PvE, as I demonstrated by dying twice last night in Heroic Sethekk Halls. I am wondering, would a shield fix the situation?

The problems that I can think of with this idea are that my S2 Sword is really really nice, and makes up for a big chunk of my dps between stats and the sword damage. However, I am curious about how much dps I would lose by going to a one hander of some kinda. Obviously, for a fair comparison, I would need to get a one hander the is probably intended for an Enhancement Shaman or a Rogue. I need it to be high dps, but it needs to have a slow swing speed. I also need strength more then anything else, which makes me thing I should look toward a mace intended for Enchancement Shaman. The next thing I would have to look at is a shield. I have both of the SSO shields in my bank, however I am not sure that either of them would be what I need. Defensive stats would be nice, but some strength and stamina would be nice to. Hmmm.....

Research will be required, but I also have a test to study for when I get home. Maybe I can take a few minutes and look around on WoWHead for some options before I study. The goal is less squishy, while keeping the same spec and the same Ret feel going. I feel its a worth goal. And if I go down to like 700dps, I think I could live with that. Any less then that, and this might be a little pointless. Of course it might all be pointless, but you never know until you try. I would love to be the cockroach of Alterac Valley. A cockroach with a machete. That would make my day.

Back to work!

UPDATE: Ok, so I looked into this. I don't think it will work well unless I can get the S2 Shaman mace and a higher end shield with Strength. Something like the Bulwark of Azzinoth, which I will never see. Even at that, I am not so sure it will work out. I am going to test this with some gear I already have, but I don't expect much.

So Warriors Are OP, And I Like IT!!!!

It looks like Warriors got a huge buff. My buddy Sitri was the tank for a Heroic Sethekk Halls that we ran before I went to work. Jendreka was on heals, Odama was our Hunter (sporting Uvuros it would seem), and we had a random Warlock in there too. Before I get into details of the run, here is basically what the damage meters looked like at the end.

-Dradis (me)
-Sitri
-Odama
-Warlock (can't remember your name, sorry)
-Jendreka (I think he took out a few critters :P)

I can understand why I was at the top, and hopefully Odama and the Lock do too. Mainly it was AOE damage. Between Consecrate and DS, I was doing a lot AOE damage. And so was our tank. He was sitting at about 750-800 dps on about every pull. I was sitting around 1000-1150dps. Can't remember the numbers for the other two. The crazy thing is I only pulled aggro off of Sitri once, and I think I was on the wrong target on that one. The problem for our Hunter and Lock in this situtation should be obvious. With all that AOE damage, my numbers and the tanks numbers were a lot higher. Not to mention the fact that the hunter needs a little time to change targets because once a target is down, the pet runs back and he has to get the pet turned around back to the next mob. He can still pewpew from the back, but that is single target DPS, so he was getting no credit on the mobs that Sitri and I had already half killed while taking out Skull.

Our Lock would be in a slightly different boat. She could have dotted up all the targets and just made sure her DOTs kept ticking. The only problem with that is it takes a while for the DOTs to do their thing, and the mobs might be dead before that happens. Admitidly, I was not paying a lot of attention to the Lock, so I really don't know if she was hitting Shadowbolts on trash or DOTing them up. In any case, I think the group makeup was less then optimal for the Lock to really show what she could do.

And to all you Resto Shaman who are crying that you are no longer viable, put a sock in it. Jendreka did a great job of healing the group and he seems to be more then happy with state of things. I know I was! My shiny plate metal ass did hit the ground twice, but I don't think that was Jen's fault, most likely mine for being dumb :P

Back to Warriors, I really really like the changes that Warriors have recieved. Warrior AOE tanking is the awesome, and they can FINALLY dps. It never made sense to me that a mob would be more threatened by someone who was hurting him for 1/4 of what everyone else in the group was. I know how the mechanics worked, but really does that make sense?

Warrior Tank: Hello Mr Boss.
Boss: Oh hello Mr Tank what can I do for you.
WT: Well I am going to hit with this whiffle ball bat for a few minutes
B: Well you know how angry that makes me, in fact if you do this, I will have to kill you.
WT: That's fine, but do you promise to ignore the Rogue that is going to perforate you, and the Mage that is going to shove shards of ice up your ass?
B: Well yeah! I REALLY hate being hit with whiffle ball bats, so I think the person I will be focusing on is rather obvious.
WT: THWACK!!!

I welcome my new Warrior overlord..... don't nerf Ret :D

Also, I would like to bid a fond farewell to The Elven Knights. You guys treated me well, and I really liked the cut of your gib.

I would like to follow that up with a thanks to Jendreka, Moontree, and Sitri for inviting me to your newly formed guild, No Maam. GO BUNDY!

EDIT: I guess that would be overlords, since Octavian is bound to rear his head at some point :P

The Hotfix Post

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11228403882&sid=2000&pageNo=1
Well this sounds a lot better then the official forums QQers do. I am holding out hope that GC and crew make good choices and don't turn Ret Paladins into the running gag of WoW again.

Honestly, this all seems to revolve around PvP issues. I see very few people on the OFs complaining about Ret in PvE. With that said, as long as I can do well in PvE, I won't be real concerned with the nerfs. I would like to see the improvements in PvP stick as well, but that is not my major concern. In any case, I tested my DPS on a target dummy. I am sitting at 1150 dps instead of 1250 dps like on my last test. Same gear. Not a real big issue IMHO. YMMV.

What's that sound?

Oh shit! It's the NERF BAT!!!! Incoming!!

THWACK!!!

THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK...........

.......

........

..........

THWACK!!!!

Oh the pain! The pain of it all!!! Where is my Shaman? I am in need of heals.......

To the QQers.....

Sucks being on the recieving end of the shit stick huh? Now imagine that you have been on that end for, well since the game started all those years ago. Such is the life of Ret Paladins up til yesterday. And it won't last. Let us have our moment. In the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "STOP WHINING!"

Nerfs are incoming, or at least that is what GC indicates. As long as we are balanced with other melee DPS, its all good. I have posted this on a few other blogs, but it bears repeating. We NEED to be OP for a little while. Ret Paladins have zero credability among most of the WoW community as solid, sustained, DPS. A reputation has to be built from the ground up in order for us to be accepted among the masses, regardless of our actual output. I can guarantee that there are people who are still saying 'LOLRET' and 'We don't need Ret DPS' right now, in game. Our rep is that crappy.

The other thing to keep in mind is that most of us, myself included, have no idea what a Naxx geared level 80 Paladin is doing for DPS. Is it too high, too low, on par? That is really the only thing that is important in the long run. These 'problems' with Paladins that people currently have are really only applicable for the next month. After that, its literally a new game. And asking for Ret nerfs now is a little short sighted, because these are the people you are going to be bringing with you to Naxx. If they are under performing in Naxx, you have only yourself to blame.

And I know that you might say, "What do I care? I play a (insert class)." Well you should care, if for nothing else then you start riding that slippery slope. Paladins get nerfed to the ground. Who is next? Druids? They are more of a hybrid then Paladins, and even now they can DPS and Tank within the same spec. Nerf them. Then what? Nerf Shaman. They are hybrids too, and they should not be able to dps like a Mage or a Rogue. Nerf Warriors too. They can tank, so they shouldn't be able to DPS like a Rogue. Good job, now you just defeated the whole point of what Blizz was trying to accomplish by making the game less class based, and more people based. It shouldn't be "Is there a Rogue on?", it should be "Is Gimbel on?". The difference being a good player should always be picked over a good class for any role, which is what Blizz is shooting for. Be it healing, DPS, or tanking, you should want to bring good players, not have them warm the bench because they rolled the 'wrong' class. So yes, this rampant QQing can affect you. Be careful what you wish for, or we might be playing TBC all over again.

Will The Real X-Perl Please Stand Up.....

For those of you using Curse.com to get your updates, know that as of right now, they have the wrong X-Perl linked on the main X-Perl page. Here is the one you want. Enjoy!

New Plan now that the Patch is out....

Ok so the patch is here and things seem to be working. I only got to play for like 30 minutes before I had to head off to work, but oh well. Early Tuesday morning I started downloading updated addons. I thought I was terrible clever. I was wrong.

It would seem that Outfitter, Bagnon, X-Perl, Healbot, WIM, Auctioneer, Dominos, Deadly Boss Mods, and Postal were all supposed to be updated for 3.0.2. I downloaded them all. Only Bagnon and Outfitter are working at the moment. Sigh.

So when I get home I am going to go through all my addons again and see if I can at least get the majority of them to work. I really just need Auctioneer, Dominos (or equivalent), and X-Perl (or equivalent) to work. And even at that, I really could just do with Auctioneer. I have over 100 auctions to manage, sometimes 200, and I don't really enjoy scouring the AH for deals on gear to DE. Auctioneer handles all that for me, and I don't think I could do without for to long and still make money. Now should also be a primetime to get my mats sold. I think that with Inscription coming online, there is going to be an increased demand for enchanting mats since enchants can be sold on the AH now.

Once I get my addon situation squared away, I am going to start knocking out those dailies with blazing speed! I need to finish paying Jendreka back after all. I also need to check and see if I can still get the "of the Shattered Sun" title. I really doubt it, but it will take all of two seconds to check. After that, I am going to see if I can't get into Kara somehow. I really want to see it.

Then I am also going to work on getting as many low level quests knocked out as possible. This is just for rep and for the quest achievement. Yes, I am going to be an achievement whore. I have been waiting for something like this for a while, and I fully plan to have some fun with it.

Then there is the alt. Thanks to Euripedes and Jendreka, I have rolled a Mage alt. Draenei female named Dradias. What can I say, I think Draenei females look good and they don't run like they have a pant load. At this point she is sitting at level 11. Anytime I am bored, I will be logging on to her to level.

This is my third Mage by the way. The last two were deleted in fits of frustration. Highest I have reached was level 16. This time around is going way smoother for some reason. I don't know why, but it is. I think I may have learned how to play the game better in the last few months since I rolled my last Mage. We will see though. If things start to go crappy this time though, I will just shelf her and come back when I am less cranky instead of getting all delete happy.

Mage is a challenging class. Mana conservation, spell rotation, and spell cooldowns are all things that need to be managed to be successful. As a clothie, you are dead if a mob can get few good hits on you. There are also no emergency buttons like Hunters, Rogues, and Paladins have at the same level. Basically, you get Frost Nova. If that is resisted, it's on cooldown, or you get another add after using it, you are screwed. Now, do realize that I will be immenesly harder to kill as I get more levels and new abilities. Especially once I get Ice Block and I can just wait for my Frost Nova to come back up. That will be handy. Blink will also be handy for escapes as well. But that doesn't help me now. Right now, I have to be crafty and rely on controlling the situation while having an escape plan ready. Of course in most cases an escape plan is just as simple as keeping in mind a safe path of escape and having a health pot on a hot key.

Dakkar may also get a little love as I hear that Steady Shot is trainable at level 50 or so. She is 61 at the moment, so really close anyway, but I was getting a little bored with the lackluster damage, the high mana usage, and same old button presses. Adding Steady Shot should help to alleviate those problems, except the mana part. I am also curious about how the new talents will work out. After all, she got a full refund too. I don't really see myself getting to into Dakkar though. She is way off on the back burner. I will have her to level 80 for WotLK at some point though, I just am not really making her a priority.

Then there are my boatload of alts on Azjol-Nerub. Well, honestly, I have no interest in them. Aside from my bro, I don't really know anyone else on Azjol. I don't like the economy there, and I don't like that it is in Mountain Time and I am on Eastern Time. 2 hour time difference is a pain in the rear. Runetotem is at least only on Central Time. 1 hour makes a huge difference, for serious. My brother has also been rarely home lately. This is not a bad thing at all, but it means that I don't really have any incentive to be on his server. I also relinquished Crushwolf back to him at his request. I had no room to argue since I had very little time invested into her and only $25 for the character transfer. No harm, no foul. Now my highest level toon is Ryukyu at level 48. I am curious to see how leveling is with a Paladin now that the patch is in full swing, but I am more tempted to start a Draenei male Pally named Ryukyu rather then continue leveling on a server that I could care less about.

I ramble a lot. For that I apologize. I also realize that my posts have very little in the way of gaming content. Well once I figure out something to write about that is more then me just thinking out loud, I will post it. Until then, this is all you get. If anyone has any ideas, drop me a line. I may do something about how I make money and perhaps do some analysis, similar to the Greedy Goblin but with a different slant. Soemthing that is more enchanting oriented and more on how to make things like Auctioneer work for you.

I might also do a few pieces on how to solo instances as a Ret Pally. With our improved AOE, mana regen, health regen, and instant FoL, we should be able to do at least as well if not better then a Prot Pally. I think I will start with the lowest level instances and work toward the highest. I can do this while I finish out a bunch of those achievements. I guess I will need to work out a format for that as well so it is easier to read. Thoughts and comments on that idea would be welcome.

Oh yeah, in case any of you didn't know, Ret pallies are weak sauce now. Please feel free to come up and take me out in BGs. No really, we can only equip cloth armor and our max DPS is like 200 in full S4. So really you Warlocks can just walk right up and melee me down, I promise I won't hurt you. Would I lie to you?

Epic Fail......

Well maybe that is a little harsh, but I was looking forward to playing quite a bit before I have to go to work at 9:40PM . I finished off my Logistics and Globalization homework before I went to bed at 8am. I have studied a bit for my Statistics midterm as well. Now I have made dinner, cleaned the house, made some phone calls, and posted a blog earlier in the day. And guess what? I still can't log into WoW!!!! I should work on this blog a bit since it looks like I will have downtime until at least 9:00PM EST, but I just cannot focus right now.

Do you remember what it was like on Christmas morning when you ran out to go see all of your presents under the tree? Well I am kinda feeling like that. Except, instead of presents under the tree, Santa's fat ass is stuck in my chimney and there are no elves around to dislodge him.......

MOVE YOUR ASS BLIZZ!!!

It is 6:12PM EST. The servers were supposed to be up 1 hour ago originally, 12 minutes ago as of the recently updated login screen. I am going to make some soup and drink a beer. This better be up when I am done. Or so help me..... I will QQ on the official forums!!!

The Patch Cometh!

Well, so says Green Armadillo at PVD, sorta kinda anyway. It would seem that the patch is coming sooner, rather then later. And I can't wait! I will finally be able to do some wicked damage with my Ret Paladin, Dradis. I have been wanting more damage out of her since Verigan's Fist started getting a little underwhelming at around level 31. I am also looking for to, gasp!, nearly infinite mana! Yes, it's true. I have been messing around with Dradis on the PTR, and she can keep on Judging, Consecrating, Crusader Striking, and Divine Storming as long as there is something to hit. I would have to add another spell to my cycle in order to really start killing my mana efficiency. One option I have been toying with is leaving Healbot running and throwing out spot heals when Art of War procs. Usually, I have a lot of freetime as far as GCD and spell cooldowns are concerned, so throwing out spot Flash of Light, Cleanse, and even any of the Hands should not be a problem while I am DPSing.

I don't think I am even going to bother with anything other then dailies and working the AH between now and Tuesday afternoon. Once the servers come back up though, I am heading straight for AV. After that, I am going to see if anyone is up for a few heroics. I have never done a heroic, but I suppose now is as good of a time as any to start. I need a few Badges of Justice for that sweet Ret libram anyway. Then I am off to solo a few instances!

The only thing that makes me sad about the patch is that I am fairly certain that my shot getting 'of the Shattered Sun' goes away with it. I am not going to be able to raise an extra 1000g that fast. For that reason alone, I would like it if the patch waits another week, cause then I would be able to get the title, it would only take 4 days of hardcore dailies to get it. As it is though, I only have about 1 days worth of time if it hits Tuesday. I might be able to squeeze a few dailies out before the servers restart. But even that would not be enough. Basically, I would have to see all of my enchanting mats sell between now and Tuesday morning if I want to have enough money. But oh well, I should have planned a little better and this would not be an issue.

I am also going to be working on Rogue, Metalsnake, over the next few days. She is not really a high priority though. I will probably work off the rested xp on all of my toons actually. I will also need to roll a few new toons so I can have one of each. I am going to sit down one day and work out a rotation so I can just keep leveling my alts with only rested XP. I may do that later this week. Of course once Wrath hits, its going to be all Dradis, all the time. Alts will wait, but that is what alts do. Dradis is also going to be my achievement monkey, so I will have to make time for that as well. The other toons will just be there to serve my beck and call, well except maybe Dakkar the Hunter. I am somewhat attached to her, but mostly because she rocks the house.

My prediction on the alts that I will end up playing the most will my Hunter, Warlock, Rogue, Druid, Mage, Warrior, Shaman, and Priest in that order. In fact, now that I think about it, I probably won't get the Priest very far. I have never had just bunches of fun playing a Priest, but who knows, I was probably doing it wrong.

Thats it for now. Back to work. I need to study a little too, I have a test on Tuesday for my Statisics class. Sigh..... I despise maths.

Well that was fun!

I have not posted for a while, or even edited my last post. And I will tell you why. Blogger locked my blog. They suspected I had started a spam blog. Come on guys! I know its a sparse and uninteresting blog, but for serious! Anyway, I am glad they are looking out for that stuff, just don't lock my blog again. K thx.

In other news, it looks like my list below is way off, and I will edit it this weekend. I can't edit it at work because stuff like WoWWiki and WoWhead are inaccessible. Provided I can get all of my homework done for college, I will fix it. I also should have my baby girl tomorrow night through Saturday, so no updates there.

I have been running around on Dradis for the last couple weeks, leaving Ryukyu virtually untouched. I've been having too much fun running around with my boys on Runetotem to be concerned with my Horde guy. I finally got some gear upgrades for my Ret set too! Brewfest got me the Empty Mug of Direbrew. I got Exalted with Ogri'la for the Vortex Walking Boots. Of course, Jendreka, Matt, and myself had to put the beat down on a bunch of demons to get the Apexis Crystals. Matt needed them too for the same boots. I also got Exalted with the Skyguard at the same time and picked up a Blue Nether Ray. And to top it all off I got the Merciless Gladiator's Greatsword! I have been working at getting this for a while now, and it was a great upgrade from the Legionfoe I have been toting around. Found an enchanter to slap Savagery on it too, so now its even better.

All in all, I am making fast progress on Dradis, and it feels great! I am actually having fun with her again! Now I need to grind out a little more honor for the S2 Helm and Chest, grind out some mats for the Black Felsteel Bracers, and see if can weasel my way into a Heroic for a few Badges so I can get my Libram. I also need to max out my Enchanting, Fishing, and Cooking. And there are about a billion other things I want to do.

Of course, once the patch hits and I am doing some better DPS, Battlegrounds will go a lot smoother for me. I might also have a fighting chance at getting into a Heroic as well so I can get a few Badges. As it is, my DPS is ok, but not really impressive, and I might have a hard time keeping up on damage. I will also need to keep doing dailies for a while until I max out my Two-Hand Sword skill, which is sitting at 345 right now.

A special thanks to Jendreka for the loan. He funded over half of my epic flying mount training. Only 3000g to go and we are even! :P