First of all yes i know it is a 240sx and not a onevia, but i like onevia.  So i picked up this car a few months ago from my little brother, its pretty beat and needs a lot of work. The car is mainly being built as a street car, but will be drifted or tracked about every other month.  I like to build cars that are low and look good, so suspension and exterior will be first for the car with motor being done last.

Little bro washing the car when he first got it.

Crappy interior needs a lot of work.

Right before i started working on it

Bros old setup. 4 lug. godspeeds. Blah

First round of mods.. S14 spindles, and control arms.  z brakes.

Next up fortune coils.    Got them valved to street spec with the usual 8/6 spring rates.  Fit and finish on these are top notch.

Ive had these wheels for a while now.  Work emotion cr kai 18×9.5 +12 all around.  Wrapped them up in nankang nsII 225/35/18.  These tires suck for grip and they are noisy on the street.  I wouldnt suggest them for front tires they maybe ok for rears if your drifting.  I will probably be switching to 215/40/18 next to give me a little more ground clearance.

Sitting on the ground finally.  Time to tuck the harness and hood release cable up.

This is with the coils maxed out all the collars removed.  Only way to go lower now is to flip the lower bracket

Installed kaaz 2way, cusco rucas, kazaama tension rods.  Flipped the lower bracket and lowered the car and also picked up a set of jdm sides and a pignose lip and installed them right before we left to head to dallas for Ou/Texas and Stance of the union and lone star bash.

It seems that both Llandegla and Cannock are busy trail building soem new delights for next year.  Llandegla are refurbishing the black route which had got pretty bashed up and have a nice new skills loop with some fun bits like a tame rock garden to practice on.

Cannock are adding a whole new trail nearby to the classic FTD and the local volunteer group Chase Trails are doing terrific work on this so go and support them if you are in the area.

Cross posted at Big Hit Box on 24 November 2009

Since my crib sheet format seems to  be quite popular, I thought I’d produce a short form of the retribution paladin info.  Much shorter than my other guides, and the EJ guide.  But packed full of information.

Specs and Glyphs

• Without DSac 5/9/57
• With DSac 5/11/55
• Use Major Glyph of Judgement and Major Glyph of Consecration.
• Use Minor Glyph of Sense Undead, Minor Glyph of Lay on Hands, Minor Glyph of Blessing of Might.
• For your last Major slot use Glyph of Seal of Vengeance if you are NOT expertise capped from gear.  If you ARE expertise capped from gear use Seal of Exorcism.

Abilities: DPS

• Your ‘rotation is FCFS or First Come First Served.  Hit the best of the abilities that is available to you at any given time.
• Priority order without 2P t9 set bonus from best to worst: HoW, CS, Judgment, DS, Cons., Exorcism, Holy Wrath.
• Priority order with 2P t9 set bonus from best to worst: Judgment, HoW, CS, DS, Cons., Exorcism, Holy Wrath.
• Only use Exorcism with a 2 point Art of War proc.
• Only use Holy Wrath on Undead only.
• You can only use Hammer of Wrath after the mob is below 20%.
• Always stand behind the mob if possible.  This means it cannot parry you.  But only if standing behind the mob won’t cause you or your tank to die horribly.

Abilities: Utility

• You can dispel magic, disease and poison and you should.
• Spare CDs and Art of War procs can be used for Flash Heal.  So can non-spare ones.  You can’t dps if you die.
• Use your Sacred Shield to reduce the damage you take.
• Lay on hands is good.  So are bubbles, Hand of Salvation, Hand of Sacrifice, Repentance, etc.  Learn how to use all your utility in a fight.

Gear

• Your hit cap is 8% hit (263 or 230 for Drenai).  You should ensure you are always capped.
• Your expertise cap is 26 or 214 rating (lower for Humans and Dwarves with certain weapons).  You should strive for this.
• After those stack strength, followed by crit.  Haste and  Armor Pen are meh – don’t stack them but don’t avoid them.  The same is true of Agility and Attack Power.  Spellpower and Intellect are bad.
• To see how your item rates against possible drops check out the Retribution Paladin Gear List.

Gems and Enhancements

• Use the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond meta gem.
• Use one Nightmare Tear +10 stats gem to activate it (this gem is prismatic and so counts as 1 red, yellow and blue).
• Use any hit/expertise gems to help you reach the cap.
• Use Bold Cardinal Ruby +20 strength gems in all slots, unless you have a yellow gem slot that will give you a +6 strength socket bonus or more.  Then use an Inscribed Ametrine +10 strength/+10 crit.
• Unless you have a profession that provides a better enchant, or are enchanting for caps, enchants and enhancements are:
  • Head: Arcanum of Torment (Knights of the Ebon Blade – Revered)
  • Shoulder: Greater Inscription of the Axe (Sons of Hodir – Exalted)
  • Chest: Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats (+10 stats)
  • Wrist: Enchant Bracer – Greater Assault (+50 AP)
  • Hands: Enchant Gloves – Crusher (+44 AP)
  • Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle (Made by BS, BoE)
  • Legs: Icescale Leg Armor (Made by LW, BoE)
  • Feet: Enchant Boots – Greater Assualt (+32 AP)
  • Weapon: Enchant Weapon – Beserking

This is a lot I build for A Town for Tessa, a neighborhood project honoring the passing of a little girl who loved The Sims. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor and passed early October. So the community over at the Creative Corner section of The Sims 3 forums decided to band together to build this neighborhood as a tribute.  If you would like to read more about it, here is the link to the forum thread.

Download Lot from The Exchange

Craig Tadlock (over at the Tadlock Enterprises Blog) made a couple good posts recently about Team Foundation Server and Team Build 2010:

Work Item Classifications
Work Item Relationships

He also came across this great blog that is focused on doing automated testing:

http://blogs.msdn.com/vstsqualitytools

as well as this link discussing custom workflow items:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jimlamb/archive/2009/11/18/how-to-create-a-custom-workflow-activity-for-tfs-build-2010.aspx

I’m setting up a local TFS test environment for myself now and hopefully soon should have some interesting information on setting up Lean build systems using this great platform.  I was lucky enough to work at a company that used the previous incarnation of Team Foundation Server and I have to admit I’m pretty excited to see what goodies Microsoft is giving us on this go-around.

This is my first build after getting the World Adventures expansion pack. Since I had already toured the destinations briefly during the simposium, the urge to build won over, so I had to get a small lot in real quick before I fully started to explore the game. I just had to use all the new asian items!

I am planning on doing a series of builds in Shang Simla, China. I started small for now. The next one I build there will be a bigger courtyard retreat.  Anyway, hope you enjoy this little lot!

Download Lot

So my mind wandered again and i designed jewelery instead of clothing lol. Also did some photographs. Just getting use to ps again. the new sets are pearls but i added a ‘gem’ ruby rose to black pearls its very fem and girly. Its a choker style with the roses layered down three strands.

I added some huge bulky earrings to this only for the fun of it. They are the kind that can be seen from across a sim LOL. anyway enjoy

not much more to write.

alex

A Flip this Lot collaboration by jisgr8 and Anjubee. This is a lot we just finished for jklegendary. It isn’t up on the exchange, so the download for it is hosted by media fire. This is a huuuuge warehouse conversion on a 60×60 lot with 4 stories of living space. There are 5 bedrooms,… 8 bathrooms, an indoor pool, a giant media room with a 5-screen entertainment unit, a library, a 2-story art gallery, a gym, a collection room, underground garage, and a nifty zen garden feature in the entry foyer. Hope you enjoy the screens!

Architecture by jisgr8

Interior Design by Anjubee

Download Lot

Slideshow

So, not many people know… but before I Re-rolled my Rogue as my main character… I was a seriously raiding Warlock from Vanilla to the end of TBC.

So… I’ve got a pretty extensive knowledge of the Warlock class and everything that they have to offer…

So, Just like I did for Rogue 101… Here we go!

Warlock 101: The Affliction Warlock!!!

The Affliction Warlock – An affliction warlock is a DPS caster class, which primarily does damage with their DoTs (Damage over Time) spells.  Being an end game Affliction Warlock are one of the most difficult to play well, but CAN provide extremely high DPS… if played correctly.

The Builds – You are going to look at 3 general builds for an endgame raiding Warlock… Haunt/Ruin w/Succubus 53/0/18 (LINK), Haunt/Ruin 56/0/15 (LINK)

Both equally good builds… the second will really help out if you are struggling with Spell Hit.

Affliction Warlock Rotations – An Affliction Warlock’s rotation heavily relies on what “type” of mob that you are fighting at any given time.  Because you are a “DoT” machine… it would be hard to do good DPS if you put a DoT on something that will die faster than you can spit out your rotation.

First off there are 3 types of mobs to think about…

1. Boss & High HP Trash
2. Single/Double Trash
3. +3 Trash or AOE Trash

Boss or High HP Trash Rotation

(NOTE… If you are on CoE (Curse of Elements) duty, then make sure to cast that first; if not then CoA (Agony))

1. CoE (or CoA)
2. Shadowbolt
3. Haunt
4. Corruption
5. Unstable Affliction
6. Shadowbolt until Haunt is of cooldown
7. REFRESH DoTs as needed with this order as PRIORITY…

• CoE (or CoA)
• Haunt (Lifetap after using Haunt to get the most out of the HP return)
• Corruption
• Unstable Affliction

1. During the last 25% of the Boss/Mobs HP:
   • Refresh Haunt (should also give you the Shadow’s Embrace effect)
   • Recast Corruption if it has dropped
   • Drain Soul. (SHARD!!!)

Single/Double Trash Rotation: (trash dies too quickly to get a full dot rotation on them).

Haunt, Corruption, Shadow Bolt until dead. (Drain Soul if you need soul shards).
+3 Trash or AOE Trash Rotation:

Seed of Corruption multiple mobs. (seed, tab, seed, tab, seed, tab, etc) FYI… “tab” means tab to a different target… lmao

Email me at Gnomendagger@gmail.com for any questions

~Giggidee Of Velen~

AKA Giggilocks

2d1250586829-who-builds-ultimate-luxury-car-maybach 62 c 1024×768 image picture of 2d1250586829-who-builds-ultimate-luxury-car-maybach 62 c 1024×768
to view full size click 2D1250586829-Who-Builds-Ultimate-Luxury-Car-Maybach 62 C 1024X768 image ( 2D1250586829-Who-Builds-Ultimate-Luxury-Car-Maybach 62 C 1024X768 image )

A Derby company is building what it believes is one of the world’s largest mechanical clocks for a park in China…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: dalian china. For a different topic see crowd level for disney world. The blog is also related to: china tours.

Rear dropout sculpted, brazed and polished.

Head tube lugs got a buff too.

Seat Tube Cluster post brazing pre polish

Frame Pump Peg

Hello! I’m going to list a couple of setups and a little bit of info about his transformations.

Transformations

SSJ: Controls: R3, the right mushroom thingy.

Da-da-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Builds:

btw the following is suggested by Oreno5267 from Gamefaqs.

1st:

Attack up 2 & Defense down 1
Dragon spirit
Super up 2
Ki power up 2
Piccolo Type

2nd: Attack up 1
Ki power up 3 & Defense down 1
Lover of Justice
Dragon Spirit
Goku Type

3rd: Earth Power
Ki power up 2
Super up 1
Active Heart
Tien Type

Suggested by Nauske from Gamefaqs.
Attack +3 & Super -1
Warriors Will
Serious!
Ki +1
Dragon Spirit

Serious!
Attack + 2
Ki +1
Persistent Threat
Quick Return
Latent Energy!

Defense +3 & Attack – 2
Light Body
Master Roshi’s Training
Super +2
Fighting Spirit!

From dyl45881
Secret Measures
Earth Power

From jason_r1888.

Essence of sight
attack up 1
Defense up 1
Ki power up 1
Super up 1
Rising fighting spirit
Goku type

My setup. I’ve tried it out and it works pretty well… Anyway Perfect Guard let’s you take no damage while guarding. Light Body is to stop  Ki Blasts (Triangle) from stunning you… Attack +2 & Defense -1 is well… obvious. Anyway, Perfect Guard, Light Body And Master Roshi’s Training makes up for the Defense loss. Master Roshi’s Training adds one bar of health to your… well, health. Quick Charge half’s the time it take to charge up a chargeable B2’s. But that make’s it easier to overcharge. overcharging means you won’t do much damage.  Only of any use when you go SSJ ’cause his first B2 is super Kamehameha which is chargeable.

Perfect Guard
Light Body
Attack +2 & Defense -1
Master Roshi’s Training
Quick Charge

Okay, Perfect Guard and Quick Charge are hard to get. (You can take out Perfect Guard and change Master Roshi’s Training for King Kai’s Training.)

To get Perfect Guard you have to complete 50 battle’s in Battle 100 with at least a “B”. Quick Charge is the same except you have to complete 100 battle’s instead of 50. To save you the trouble (Unless you already have it) of getting it, Download this And burn it using this… tutorial is here. After you burn it, put it into your ps2, select the PAL Action Replay. There are DBZBT3 code’s there.

So I have always wanted to do a build thread but after seeing all that has been happening with knock off products and originality it was hard to push myself to do this. I continued on collecting parts and ideas over the months and after recently seeing what people called “build threads” these days I said screw it, let’s show them the perfect example of the word “build”. Alot of originality, testing, screw-ups, blood sweat and heartache has gone into the work and planning on this. Alot of new ideas and custom items will debut on this car as well.

The Idea was to keep it clean and subtle yet stand out like a sore thumb. Alot of attention to detail will be focused on areas that won’t normally stand out in Hondas. A few aftermarket products will be used besides your most popular brands. No knock off products and no knock off manufacturers. And now on with the beginning of something beautiful.

Gluten

We are all so terribly awkward, it’s a wonder anyone finds love.  Our bodies are clumsy and misshapen, emitting smells and sounds designed to repel.  We are rarely beautiful—as children maybe, but it is hard to hold on to.  We watch our bodies expand and our skin stretch in compromised places and are helpless to it all.  Puberty is difficult, but it is only the start.  By the time we start looking for love we assume it’s too late:  we are already ruined.

This, however, is not the case.  Look around, there is love.  Men and women find it in spite of all the reasons not to.  We accept flaws, and do away with notions of “the one” or “perfect matches” because we know them to be hyperbole.  Instead we accommodate, and make concessions so that we might learn to love someone.  It is never easy.

Take, for instance, Michele Shrum.  We are in love—she tells me this, so I know it to be true—and imperfect: I am vain, and chubby, and bad at meeting new people, while she has clammy hands and Celiac’s disease.  We have decided these things are not substantial and that our love will topple them—she tells me this so I know it to be true—though I maintain that it is not this easy.

Celiac’s disease is not easy.  Celiac’s disease makes it impossible for Michele to process gluten, a protein found in all things delicious (bread, pasta, barley, anything processed, or found in your mother’s pantry).  If she eats any, or comes into contact with any, she gets a severe stomach ache.  If she gets enough of those she gets cancer of the small intestine.  So I ask you this:  Do you know how hard it is to eat with, or around Michele Shrum?

When we go out to eat, she mostly watches.  Sometimes she is brave enough to ask the waitress for something, though it usually takes some prompting on my part.  At Red Robin once:

“Can I get the chicken salad?”

“Sure thing.”

“Is the chicken breaded?”

“Yes, in buttermilk and panko bread crumbs.”

“Okay, can I get it without chicken then?”

“Sure thing.”

“And I can I get it without the Ranch dressing.  Can you just put some oil and vinegar on the side.”

“We can do that.”

“And no cheese.”

“So you just want spinach and dressing.”

“On the side.”

“Dressing on the side.”

“Yeah, that will be great.”

The salad arrives covered in croutons.  She looks at my burger, glistening in its own fat juices, and then at her inedible crouton and spinach pile.   It is like this for a few minutes: her watching me, me eating my burger in a way that merits an audience, until I insist that she ask for a new plate.  She doesn’t want to be that person, the one who sends back food and is hated by the surrounding diners, so she refuses.  I ask the waitress for a new plate.  She comes back with a new salad except it’s clear that it is the same salad with a few of the larger croutons removed.  The bits remaining are bold and derisive in their visibility.  I think of yelling of screaming, but Michele hates that guy, and it’s easier to cook rice at home.

At the supermarket we check each food label and end up with everything expensive.  We buy pasta and pizza crusts though they can have the consistency of either stale bread, or gummy worms depending on the batch.  We skip dessert most days though some days she’ll buy dark chocolate which tastes of darkness and nothing else.  I sometimes try to sneak things but she finds out.  She makes me brush my teeth afterwards; kissing gluten is the same as eating it.

I’ve tried to figure out what exactly constitutes gluten-free but it is beyond me.  There are too many byproducts to remember, too many additives and emulsifiers at the bottom of the ingredients list to worry about.  Food becomes simple when I stay with Michele, like a mother feeding her babies.  I eat what she gives me, anything else I consider inedible.  It is hard enough deciding if she is willing to enjoy my kisses, but whether they’ll poison her?  I’m happy enough with rice.

It is always rice.  Brown, white, basmati, jasmine, short grain, long grain, Arborio rice; it never ends.  They all taste the same, yet we try a new one every week.   We buy disgusting ancient non-gluten grains like quinoa because we are hopeful, but it is all just variations.  It is all rice, and always tastes of butter and salt, or, more likely, like boiled, undercooked, wet, gooey rice.

But Michele has to eat, so we cook.  We spend hours looking up recipes and speculating on flavors.  Most of that time is spent oogling at the pictures: the crust on a lambchop, the crumble of a pie crust, the color of a broth.  It is never rice and therefore it is exotic.  After we’ve selected a recipe, we spend a good amount of time making it gluten-free, though this is usually where things fall apart.  By the end we’ve ditched the recipe entirely.  Everything tastes of cumin and paprika but we adjust; we add more stock, more salt, turn down a burner or two until it all comes together.  We watch our substitutions break, or separate, or worst of all, crumble into tiny grains all the while hoping for the best.

I doubt it tastes like what it’s supposed to, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious.

I have also finally given the “Naked Weasel” as I have been calling it a set of nice shiny new clothes. Like the Excel, the Weasel is also receiving a “spin of factory style” paint job. It has a pearlised purple nosecone and fin can, then the rest is pearlised black.

Please forgive the state of my garage (rocket building room).

Body completed in pearl black paint.

Closeup of the fin fillets.

Body and nosecone drying.

Closeup of the pearlised black paint. Wicked huh?

Horribly blurred photo of the Weasel after the clear applied.

Closeup of the fin fillets

So the “Naked Weasel” is no more, and “Bruiser” is in place.

So I managed to finally complete the Binder Design Excel rocket kit today!!!  w00t! Since it is now complete I am happy to finally upload pics of it finished and the final stages of painting it. I will not mention it in the Aus Rocketry forum as yet though and will only keep it here until after this coming Sunday when it will be unveiled to the entire club. Those few that do regularly check out this blog will be treated by seeing it early.

Nosecone and payload bay with all bar the final coat of colour.

Sustainer in white sealer

Sustainer after 2 coats of colour airbrushed on

Sustainer after final coat of colour (applied with spray gun)

Detail of sustainer after first coat.

Rocket waiting for clear. All colour completed.

Rocket Completed! w00t!!!

All colour paint is Autoair Pearlised paint (Blue and White). The clear coat was done using leftover that my Dad gave me, and he also lent me his spray gun. That was an awesome help, and a HUGE thanks to Dad!!!

Cross posted on Big Hit Box on 28 October 2009.

One of the best Blizzard posts ever:

Dear OP,

Bye.

Hugs,GC

Spot the double-entendre in OP (original poster, overpowered).

I know some people don’t like the guy, but I’m a GC fan.  Probably because I’m a reasonable person.  And hes funny.  I may not like nerfs.  I may not like that a lot of my nerfs are because of arenas which I don’t really like.  But I am reasonable enough to understand the need for many of the nerfs.  I do feel a bit like PvE ret right now is a giant accident caused by the arena problem, and I hope that Cataclysm will tidy it up a bit.  But on the other hand, I’m competative and I bring great buffs to the raid so the scales are weighing heavily on the plus side at the moment. Whats happening in 3.3 then
Well the nerfbat has arrived. Sacred Shield has taken a massive nerf as a baseline spell.  Instead, to get the current Sacred Shield you’ll have to take Infusion of Light which is way, way up the Holy tree.  The idea is that Sacred Shield was meant to be a healing tool, and that for retribution and prot its overpowered in comparison to other tanks and melee.  Which it probably was.  Blizzard balances classes around certain abilties they are intended to use.  Its when people get creative and go outside those boundaries that things like this happen.

Divine Guardian
I’ve not been posting about the many, many changes to this spell.  I said in my first post about it that I thought it would be nerfed because it was overpowered.  It was (theres a shock).  The duration has been halved to 6 seconds.  Theres also one fairly large improvement.  It no longer ends when Divine Sacrifice is removed.

Lay on Hands
This one really worried me for a minute!  But it seems that it has been/will be reverted.  For a short while, Lay on Hands was no longer going to be castable on the paladin.  Now I love my Lay on Hands.  If it was taken away from me I would find myself being splatted far more often!  Its a great spell every ret pala should use.  Health looking a bit low and you seem to be on the wrong side of the room? LoH.  Raid damage hitting when you were already a bit low? LoH.  On 6% health and its all going a bit wrong? LoH.  I can’t count the number of times this spell has saved my life.

Now the forum trolls are out in force (OMG I’ll quit | Warriors go ‘haha’ | Nerf everyone else too ) and being fed tasty blue titbits.  I actually think the dev team does this to give us something to laugh about you know.

So are palas still OP?
This is what GC had to say for himself:

The Aura Mastery change (to 6 sec duration) is one we think is appropriate. If I had to guess, this one will stick.We are trying some things with Sacred Shield to make it more of a Holy tool and less useful for Ret and Prot (without being totally irrelevant). I don’t have a lot of faith that the implementation on the PTR is the one we’ll go with for a couple of reasons, but our overall goal is to make Ret less tanky and the Holy tree feel like it’s the right one to focus on for healing. I would expect a Sacred Shield change of some kind though.

I wouldn’t worry too much on the Lay on Hands change at this point. I don’t want to promise we won’t change the spell for 3.3, but our intent was to revert the others only change before it went out to the PTR, which is why we didn’t patch note it. We have already changed it back on our local builds.The paladin class isn’t just supposed to be for support anymore, but at the same time, the original intent for many paladin abilities was to help the group. Over time however they have contributed into making the paladin into a “one-man army,” able to play offensively, defensively and heal without say the stance changing or shapeshifting or sometimes event talent specialization required of other classes. Many of the LK balance problems we’ve had with the class are because of that core issue.With that said, we’re just not sure a Lay on Hands change really accomplishes much from a balance perspective, while it feels bad to lose such an iconic ability. We just don’t think the bang for the buck is there on this change, which is why we reverted it. But I’m not going to promise we won’t touch it.

In fact, I’m not going to promise anything with this post. Please don’t dredge it up later to try and argue against any upcoming changes. I’m just trying to clear up some confusion.

Now this is a reasonable argument.  Step back a second and pretend you don’t want to be a one-man-army who is vastly OP (which secretly we all do).

PvP aside I almost never die in raids.  In order to die I or someone else has to screw something up big time (pull aggro, healer dies, stand in fire like a moron, etc.).  I have so many saves its unreal.  And most of them I can just pop and carry right on dpsing.  Now imagine you’re a druid or a shaman or a rogue?  Do they really come close?  Shamans are the only other melee who can heal without changing form and therefore nerfing dps.  They are squishy.  Our shamans drop like flies at things I barely even notice.  So I can understand the problem.  I’d love to say thats because I am a great player, but I don’t think that would be true.

So whats really making ret palas OP?
Armor.  We have lots of it.  Plate means more health compared to mail, leather and cloth.  I’ve been a clothie and I remember the difference.  I remember stacking PvP gear to live back when Aran was hard and the extra HP made a difference.  Warriors don’t have as many other saves, so their armor is not as OP.  Death Knights are at least as OP as paladins!

Cooldowns.  We have lots of them.  I can LoH.  I can bubble, I can use an Art of War proc for a Flash Heal.  Druids can dash (reduced dps).  Shamans have Earth Shield (not as powerful sadly for them).

Abilities.  I can cast a Holy Light.  Because I get spellpower from strength its effective, even if it is a mana hog.  I can use Sacred Shield.  I get healing back from Divine Storm.  I get heals from Judgement of Light (which admittedly all other healers get too).  I get additional healing from Divinity.

I totally get the accusation that ret palas are a bit … tank like.

If I ruled the world…
Now for the opinion part, concentrate.

Theres certainly no good solution that will be implemented in 3.3.  I suspect in Cataclysm there will be a major shake up of talents.  If Blizzard want the three specs to be more distinct, then the lower talents need to do their double duty and the higher talents need to be more specialised to their respective roles.

Divinity?  Should move up if its making ret palas too tanky.  The Sacred Shield change?  Makes perfect sense.  PvP abilities in the prot tree should come down the tree so that PvP builds can access them.  Abilities you don’t want to make paladins OP in PvP  or non-tank specs should go up.   This would solve a lot of problems.  Divine Storm is good because its essential.  It can be used to put OP tanking talents out of reach of ret.  Make sure Holy does the same thing.

This in turn, would trigger a rethink of some of the talents.  Retribution is often criticised for being a bit dull at high levels.  Repentance should be lower down the tree – its dull and boring and not that useful.  The many many improved crit abilities could be consolidated and crit that should also be available to holy and prot should be lower with more interesting raid buffs and ret only crit being higher.  I’d also like to see an end to ‘increases damage on certain mob types’ abilities.  I get the reason, but they’ve caused us grief in the past.

I would like to see new abilities.  On all my other 80s (paladin, druid and death knight) there is some creativity required to get a good spec.  You can choose to take a combination of abilities that differentiate you from the rest.  In retribution, to its detriment, there are dps abilties, which you should take all of, and then utility points, which you juggle.  Thats less true of prot and holy where you make trade offs that affect how you play (holy-ret vs holy prot for healers or Crusade vs Seals of the Pure for tanks).  For ret its Vindication vs. DSac.  Thats not really the same thing.

Seal of Command could be higher up the tree, and at that point a little more powerful (just a little!) so that its clearly good for short fights all the time.  I actually like Seal twisting and that could be used to affect other things.    I’d like to see an Improved Crusader Strike that made it a bit more exciting.  Perhaps something fun that procced off of Divine Plea for us?

I’d also be happy to accept some bubble consolidation.  Even I get confused by how many bubbles I have!!!  Consolidate Hand of Protection and Divine Shield.  Put a short cooldown on it (say 3 minutes) and make it castable on anyone.  But add a long debuff on it (say 10 minutes).  So you can use it a couple of times a fight, but not on the same person.  Then make that debuff affect Divine Protection.  And instead of the shared 30s cooldown just make it so Avenging Wrath can’t be active at the same time as the bubbles (make one cancel the other – that’d make people more careful about them!)

What do you think?
How would you solve the ret pala problem?  How would you make the class more fun without making it OP and how would you reduce survivability without making us too squishy?

Peter is working on something.  Not exactly sure what it’s going to be just yet.  He tells me that this build is for a bike with cross size tires but able to fit road long reach calipers.  Could it be a type of Randonneur?

Check out the tire clearance on this fork.  That’s a 700×38 tire.

Cool Fork Crown

Reflecting on prayer time today, my thoughts wandered freely into the notion that understanding the importance, or value, of seasons may just be the answer to a lot of questions I’ve been asking lately. I think sometimes I tend to believe that I will never be free of my hurtful or painful situation, and that sometimes I tend to forget those painful situations ever happened at all. Do you relate?

To put it more simply, I can’t see past my current circumstance to understand that everything has a season and that just because something may not be the way I wish it to be now doesn’t mean it won’t be in the future. There is a purpose and there is value in every tribulation because it is through suffering that God builds our character, and it is through pain that we become the most effective leaders.

The next time I think someone doesn’t like me, or I go through a difficult week, or am in a stressful circumstance, it is crucial that I realize that “this too shall pass,” that things aren’t always bad as they seem, and that God works in the most mysterious of ways, speaking truth into our lives through surprising people or situations, sometimes, and always giving us opportunity to be made aware of the abundant grace and love he has poured out onto his children. And, to take this a step further, I must also be cautious of times when I am “on top of the world,” because it usually at these moments where I am most susceptible to fall. When I am most comfortable is when I am least guarded.

¹TO EVERYTHING there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven:

²A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted,^(A)

³A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up,

⁴A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

⁶A time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away,

⁷A time to rend and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak,^(B)

⁸A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.^(C)