It’s story time! There can never be too many PuG tales. Every time we think we’ve seen and heard it all, something unthinkable happens and the world must be informed.

I had my epeen sliced and diced and put in the blender yesterday. And I liked it. It was a Pit of Saron random group. (Why do I feel like saying that implies it’ll be a great story?) We had a warrior, we had a shadow priest, we had a rogue and we had a hunter. I assumed the warrior was tanking, but I checked everyone’s health to make sure. Ok, yes, he has the most. Not by much, but it should be enough. Thats the furthest I go. I don’t do gearscore and I don’t manually inspect. In a PuG, I figure I’m stuck with these people for better or for worse. Judging them as we zone in does more harm than good.

We buff, we pull. The rogue insta-dies. The trash goes down ok, not too much damage, looks like it’ll be a decent run.

We clear to the first boss. We pull him. The rogue insta-dies. Seems like we’re taking more damage than usual, but it’s ok, I like some exercise. Oooops, the Spriest has aggro! Quick! Hand of Protection! Ouf! I better salv her, just in case. How’s the hunter doing for aggro? Seems to be ok. Where’s his pet? Oh. At his feet. Well, at least auto-shot seems to working. It was a rough go, it lasted awhile, but we got him down. I still have most of my mana. Not bad, not bad.

Clear some more trash, then time for Krick and Ick! We pull. The rogue insta-dies. The hunter auto-shoots, his pet at his feet. It was a long fight, but it’s ok, I’m always complaining that fights are too short anyway.

Now for the tricky trash part! We pull. The rogue insta-dies. Mobs are flying everywhere! No danger of the hunter or the pet as his feet pulling aggro, but the poor shadow priest carrying us… Hand of Protection! Hand of Salv! Oh dear, oh dear. OMG somehow the hunter is almost dead! Eeeek! Good thing I timed that big heal well! Crap! I’m being attacked all over. Um. Um. Holy Wrath! Bubble Sac! Oh no! Oh no! The priest! Aaaaah the tank! Curse beacon falling off! Aaaaaah!!!! Holy Lights were spammed all over the place, I was on the edge of my seat. I must keep my team alive! I must, I must! Healing Anub’arak 10 on hard mode is cake compared to this!

Slowly the damage lessened. Despite clever use of Divine Plea and Divine Illumination, I was almost completely drained of mana. I was sweaty and shaking. And, oh!, how I was feeling smug. “God, I’m awesome.” I thought to myself. “I can’t believe I just healed through that. I love me.” Surely, they will compliment me on this incredible feat of strength!

Fat chance! I used the rest of my juice to rez the rogue and I sat down to drink. “Mana!” I called out.

“Mana shmana,” thought the tank, who ran ahead to pull the next group.

There was no point in even getting up. There’s no way I would have time to reach him. Besides, it’s not like I had any mana to use on him anyway. I exhaled, closed my eyes and let death take me.

“Attack the bone guy next time” ordered the tank.

I rolled my eyes. “Wait for the healer next time.”

I expected an apology, but, yeah, I have really unreasonable expectations. And I think healer text is only visible to other healers anyway. The tank completely ignored me.

“That guy hits like a truck”

I tried again: “He does. So why did you pull without me?”

Yeah, invisible healer text. It’s ok, I know I’m amazing and wonderful. I mentally stroke my epeen for a bit as I’m drinking.

When I’m done, we get into position. We pull. The rogue insta-dies. The tank gets two-shotted. Legit wipe. I admit defeat and ask for a shackle this time. Luckily the shadow priest must be a part time healer because she completely got the message and made excellent use of her shackle. The rogue insta-died a few more times with following pulls, but we reached the cave.

The cave was…like…nothing I had ever experienced before. We ran in. The rogue insta-died. The ground was littered in blue runes. The poor hunter with his pet at his feet. He must have been tossed around by every single piece of falling snow. But unless they get one-shotted, I don’t abandon my teammates. I kept him alive each time! As I’m running and dodging, casting any heals I could get out, I see the poor shadow priest almost dying. Nooooo! Hand of Protection! Uh oh, the mobs are coming for me now! Um. Um. Um. Holy wrath! Bubble sac! I vaguely wonder why the tank isn’t tanking any damage… I shrug and place my beacon on the shadow priest instead.

For what seemed like an eternity, I did everything right. I used Lay on Hands at the right moment. I kept Hand of Protection and Hand of Salv on cooldown. Whenever my greater heals were interrupted by the dozens of zombies eating me, I cast Holy Wrath and ran to the tank. I used every trick in the book to avoid running out of mana. Going by how many times I cast Hand of Protection, the fight lasted at the very least 6 minutes. 6 minutes of intensity. 6 minutes of deep focus. 6 minutes of spamming Holy Light between running. 6 minutes of having my face eaten by ghouls. I kept all 4 of us alive, using every trick in the book.

By the time we reached the end of the cave and the shadow priest had cleared the trash, my epeen had become the longest epeen in epeen history. Surely, they will thank me now! They will congratulate me! They will wonder how I managed this awesomeness! They will write songs in my honour!

The tank turned to me and spoke in party chat. Excited to receive approval, I turned to read it. What followed was the most extreme epeen crushing I had ever experienced, yet, at the same time, it completely made my day.

Tank: u need mor spirt
Me (not sure if I read it right): Spirit?
Tank: ya
Me: Um…
Tank: so wut if i forgt n i
Me: Paladins don’t use spirit.
Tank: u need wuteve u use 4 mana regen u run out of mana so fast

Well, I did have my ego obliterated, but it was worth it. So worth it. I can’t believe I forgot to take a screenshot.

I’ve never been so proud to claim that I’m a fail paladin. Damn my lack of spirt!

Christmas is finally here. For me, this means a respite from the madness of holiday shoppers; a day of peace. It also means five more days of post-holiday madness until New Year’s Eve, when I get my next “two-day weekend.” Also, since I just celebrated my birthday, it means I’m closer to being an old man…

I’ve been awake since before 7:30 this morning, since that has been my habit of late. My better half is still sleeping (it’s almost 10:30am), which is good for her. We’ll be spending the day eating, enjoying gifts, listening to Christmas music, watching a holiday classic or two, talking with family, avoiding the freezing rain that’s coming this afternoon, and maybe playing a little WoW.

Well, not maybe… since I’ve been awake, I’ve been playing a little on my new paladin, Joliffe, who I intend to keep as A) my first dwarf toon that doesn’t get deleted, and B) a toon that I try to level to 80 without dying. It’s fun – I’ve never really done certain quest areas, and it is my hope that this time I can spend time in Loch Modan, Desolace, and some of the other places I’ve unintentionally skipped in previous go-arounds. Joliffe is 10, and I just made the trip to Loch Modan this morning.

I’ll also be running the daily random heroics, of course. Must. Get. Emblems of Frost.

At any rate, enough about WoW.

I wish you the happiest of days today. Merry Christmas!

- Russ

Deciding on which class to play can be tough, especially if you don’t know what the different classes do, or how they fit in a group. You can choose a class based on your play-style, like a strong melee where you get up close and personal with the enemy, or a ranged class that can do its damage without getting close to the enemy. There are certain classes that are great for solo leveling, while others perform much better in groups. I think the most important thing when choosing a class is to pick something that you are going to enjoy playing. If you are going to be grouping a lot and running instances or raids, then pick a class depending upon the kind of role do you wish to fulfill when working with other players in groups. In a typical party of 5 members,  there is one tank, one healer, and three damage dealers.

A Tank: A tank is someone who takes damage for the whole group. A tank does this by generating a lot of threat so that the NPC mobs attack the tank instead of other members of the party. During a fight, a tank needs to make sure that no one else in the group is being attacked by mobs. They get taunt abilities to do this. A tank focuses on gears with stats like defense rating and stamina. 

A Healer: A healer is someone who heals friendly players when they take damage, keeping the group alive through difficult fights. Being a healer does not mean you can not deal any damage. You get your set of damage spells too, but healing will be your primary role. Aside from healing, a healer can also buff fellow players to boost their stats, remove their debuffs, and resurrect friendly players. A healer uses mana to source their spells. Gears with stats like Intellect and Spell Power are very useful to healers.

A DPS: DPS stands for Damage Per Second. Damage dealers are commonly referred to as DPS. As a damage dealer, you main goal is maximum damage output. But, sometimes, dealing too much damage might cause you to steal aggro from the tank. The primary stats for gears depends entirely on the class and the talent tree that you choose.

With that said, lets get familiar with the different classes.

Warrior

Role: Tank, Damage.

Armor type: Heavy

Damage Type: Melee

Races Allowed:

Alliance: human, Dwarf, Night elf, Gnome, Draenei.

Horde: Orc, undead, Tauren, Troll.

Warriors are a strong and powerful class that can use a variety of weapons, unlike other classes. Warriors can dual wield, use shield, two-handed weapons, and even guns and bows. They can wear Mail armor at level 1 and upgrades to Plate armor at level 40. Warriors use rage for their special attacks and abilities which is generated as the warrior takes or deals damage.

PALADIN

Role: Tank, healer, Damage

Armor type: Heavy

Damage Type: Holy magic and Melee

Races Allowed:

Alliance: Human, Dwarf, Draenei.

Horde: Blood Elf

Most people say paladin is an over-powered class. You be the judge of that. With plate armor, a  heavy weapon (and shield), and healing spells, they can be hard on an enemy. A Paladin can be a healer, a tank, or a damage dealer depending upon the talent tree you choose. Each talent tree  calls for a different set of gears. The Holy tree is for healing, Retribution tree is for damage dealing and Protection is for tanking. Paladins get a special ability that lets them bubble and become immune to any kind of damage for a certain time, which can be a great advantage if used correctly. Paladins use mana as their resource for spells and abilities. A Paladin can also buff or debuff friendly players and can resurrect too. At level 20 and 40, they get their own special mounts without having to train anything from the riding trainer, and are much cheaper. For first timers, the Seals and Judgements could be a bit confusing, but besides that, it is a fairly easy class to play.

HUNTER

Role: Damage

Armor type: Medium

Damage Type: Ranged shots, traps.

Important Stats: Attack Power, Agility

Races Allowed:

Alliance: Dwarf, Night Elf, Draenei.

Horde: Orc, Tauren, Troll, Blood Elf.

Hunters are one of the best classes for solo questing and leveling, and PvP. They are a pure damage class, no matter which talent tree you pick. They specialize in ranged damage with Bows, Cross-bows, or Guns. Hunters wear Leather armor until level 40, then they can wear Mail armor. Hunters get to tame beasts, turning them into their pets that can deal damage to enemies or hold aggro while the hunter deals his damage. As a hunter you must learn to keep your pet under control, and use it correctly. Hunters can also track enemies like beasts, humanoids, elementals, undeads, etc. which is an advantage over other classes. Tracking enemies make them appear on the mini-map. Moreover, they can set traps to slow or damage the enemy when stepped on.

PRIEST

Role: Healer, Damage

Armor type: Light

Damage Type: Holy and Shadow Magic.

Important Stats: Spell Power, Intellect, and Spirit (if healing)

Weapon Type: One handed weapons, Wands, and Staves

Races Allowed:

Alliance: Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Draenei.

Horde: Undead, Troll, Blood Elf.

Priests are a primarily healing class, but their talent tree Shadow allows them to deal damage if desired. Priests have numerous buffs that can be very useful to people. They can also debuff and resurrect friendly players. Sadly, priests can only wear Cloth armor, but they get many defensive abilities to make up for the lack of armor. Priests use mana to source their spells and can heal multiple targets at once, not to forget their ability to fear multiple targets at once. Not the best class to level solo, especially if you choose the holy tree.

SHAMAN

Role: Healer, Damage

Armor type: Medium with shield

Damage Type: Melee / Spell

Races Allowed:

Alliance: Draenei

Horde: Orc, Tauren, Troll

A Shaman can be a healer or a dps, depending upon the talent tree and they can choose to deal melee damage or spell damage from the talent trees. They can be pretty strong with Mail armor and Shield. Shamans can call upon totems, one of each element: earth, air, fire, water that can give buffs to party members or damage the enemy and for various other purposes. Shamans can also temporarily enchant their weapons.

MAGE

Role: Damage

Armor type: Cloth

Damage Type: Spell Damage>> arcane, fire and frost.

Important Stats: Spell Power, Intellect

Weapon Type: Staves, Wands, Daggers

Races Allowed:

Alliance: Human, Gnome, Draenei.

Horde: Undead, Troll, Blood Elf.

These cloth wearing casters are one of the best damage dealers in the game. Aside from that, Mages can conjure food and water for self and party members, make portals or Teleport oneself to all the major cities that belongs to their faction and buff friendly players with “Slowfall” to reduce their falling speed (this prevents you from falling and dying). Mages can also remove curses and polymorph an enemy or freeze them to ground to keep them from getting close. Mages are very much desired in groups for these abilities and is a fun class to play.

WARLOCK

Role: Damage

Armor type: Light

Damage Type: Spell Damage >> Shadow, Fire

Important Stats: Spell Power, Intellect

Weapon Type: Staves, Wands

Races Allowed:

Alliance: Human, Gnome.

Horde: Orc, Undead,  Blood Elf.

You will either love them or hate them. I’ve had more fun leveling my warlock than any other class. Warlocks wear Cloth armor and specialize in DoT (Damage Over Time). With abilities and ‘Fear’ and ‘Howl of Terror’ to keep enemies at bay, and multiple abilities that lets you transform your mana, or your opponent’s health into your health, they can be very powerful. Most importantly, Warlocks get pets, minions rather. Minions are acquired through a series of chain quests that are available from the trainer at various levels. The play-style of the three talent trees are very different, even though they all focus on dealing damage. Warlocks can do rituals to summon demons or party members, create Health Stones and create Soul Stones. At level 20 and 40, Warlock can get their special class specific mount from their class trainer without having to visit the riding trainer.

DRUID

Role: Damage, Tank, Healer

Armor type: Medium

Damage Type: Melee, Spell >> Nature and arcane.

Races Allowed:

Alliance: Night Elf.

Horde: Tauren

Druids are a very versatile class. They can wear Leather armor only. Depending on their talent tree, they can tank, heal or dps. Druids can shape-shift into different forms to fit the needs of the situation. They can tank in bear form, that makes them just as powerful as any plate-wearing class. They can DPS in cat form, sneaking like a rogue or in Moonkin form, dealing spell damage. Or they can heal in tree form. Druid are awesome at which ever role they choose and can put up a tough fight.

ROGUE

Role: Damage

Armor type: Medium

Damage Type: Melee, Poison

Important Stats: Attack Power, Agility

Weapon Type: Dual Wield, Sword, Daggers.

Races Allowed:

Alliance: Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome.

Horde: Orc, Undead, Troll, Blood Elf.

A Rogue can stealth and attack their enemies, catching them off-guard and eventually killing them with their heavy damage. Most of the time in PvP, if you’re sapped by a rogue, chances are you will be killed by it. Their abilities to immobilize the target and sneak up to them makes them very powerful. Rogues use energy to source their abilities. Rogues stack ‘Combo points’ when they deal damage. When enough points are stacked, they can use a finishing move to deal a heavy amount of damage. Rogues can also Pick-Pocket and Lock-pick. They can be a very fun class to play.

DEATH KNIGHT

Role: Damage, Tank

Armor type: Heavy

Damage Type: Melee, Spells  >> shadow and frost, diseases.

Weapon Type: Two handed or Dual Wield.

Races Allowed:

Alliance: Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome, Draenei.

Horde: Orc, Undead, Tauren, Troll, Blood Elf.

Death Knights are a hero class, which means they start at level 55. All Death Knights start out in Ebon Hold, regardless of the race or faction. Death Knights are powerful Plate wearing fighters that can also tank if talents for tanking are chosen. They can summon minion to help them in combat.

Guess what was waiting for me in my email when I woke up on Christmas Eve! Yep, yep! A wonderful Christmas guest post all for me! I’m so excited! And the topic? Best choice EVAIRE!

My Secret Santa was none other than the excellent Phoenix from Azeroth Metblogs. Thank you so much!

Look – I know how you feel. You’ve been reading the musings of a certain bossy pally for a long time now – I have too – and you still don’t know what to get her for the holidays. Let me help you out, as someone who even has a pretty pally damage machine waiting just for those times when I want to haul off and hit something with a hammer.

But before I get to that, you need to understand how you relate to Paladinica Bossifica Spoonula. I’m a hunter by trade; the way we handle things is to be as far away from the Big Nasty as possible, steady our gaze, and pew pew pew to our heart’s content – if you spend more time looking at the pretty graphics than you do looking at your cooldowns and making sure you’re on top of when your next shot is ready to proc or that your AP trinkets are up, you’re doing something wrong.

The paladin, on the other hand, is a different, strange, bewildering beast. They hit things up close! They shoot a cloud of righteous fire out of the ground around them! It’s madness! Seriously, the quickest way to a paladin’s heart is to treat them right: understand the class, don’t start shooting until the consecrate goes off, don’t make them heal if they don’t want to, remember that as long as a paladin has mana it’s on, if your pally friend is of the holy variety make sure you give them plenty of room (but don’t go so far as to be out of their healing range!), and then you see them pop their wings, you’ve got some serious competition for the top of the damage meters, so turn up your game.

Okay, is that settled? Now that you understand the heart of the paladin, you may be wondering, what could I possibly get my dear bossy pally for the happiest of holidays? I have the perfect gift: Her very own brand new shiny hunter!

You think I’m kidding, I’m not! A paladin and a hunter? Killer combo when it comes to damage, rep grinding, dailies, leveling, anything! You don’t even have to worry about spec, regardless of your spec or the pally’s spec, you two are destined to make an awesome combination – no foe will stand in your way.

That being said, someone help me tie this bow around my waist? What!? Go find your own pally!

Ophie’s note: Yessssss! I get my own awesome hunter! Phoenix is MINE MINE MINE now! I bet he didn’t know this, but for the longest time in my WoW playing career, my partner in crime was a hunter. And he’s right, a pally/hunter team rocks. My teammate has long since been forced to leave the game and I miss him a lot. (I can’t help myself: “A new hunter? For me? I hope I don’t break him this time!”) Thank you again so very much, Phoenix!

EDIT: Forgot to add the links! Sorry about that! Fixed now!

This will probably be my last Allods post for a while as the beta is now down until the 29th of the month.  I am still unbelieving that I am liking the game, especially as much as I do.  I am actually going to miss it until the next phase!

I shot about 40GBs of video while in-game over the last phase, most of it inside the starting area.  I am a total noob when it comes to video editing so I have pieced it together and learned as I go.  This next video is a pretty simple one, it is the Empire starting tutorial, which takes place on board an Astral ship.  I did no real editing to this and kept the in-game audio, all I really added to it was annotations through You Tube, but you can really see the attention to detail and the production values in the game.  This one is in HD so you can get a better idea of the graphical detail.

Notice the quality of the voice acting, the fire on board the ship, the animations and the small details.  The game screams high production values throughout.  This is truly a triple-A MMO.

The next video was actually not filmed by myself.  I downloaded it from the Russian forums and posted it on You Tube because there were few examples of Allods PvP on You Tube.  All credit for the video goes to RazGib on the Russian servers for this excellent video.

This video reminds me so much of the early WoW days.  The combat is fluid, the animations are excellent and the fights are just plain fun to watch.  The paladin is also very, very good.  I thought that maybe Paladins were just over-powered until I saw the second fight, where he fights another paladin.  He absolutely obliterates the guy.  He is just good….damn good.

Hope you enjoy the videos!  Let me know what ya think!

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Let’s hope they make Bing their default search engine héhé.

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This weekend has been busy for me.  I work retail so the Christmas holiday is hell.  Long hours, on my feet all day, customer stress, it all adds up to a very, very tired blogger.

Even with being dead tired, however, I could not resist logging many hours in on Allods Online.  I knew that Monday was the close of this beta phase and I really wanted to see more of the game, plus the game is just good.  Really good.  And getting better.

The weekend started with getting my summoner up to level 10 and finding a group for Xaes, which is the first instance in the game for the Empire side.  I really wanted to see if Allod’s engaging game play would continue to shine in instanced content.  I was not disappointed.

Xaes takes place inside the Empire capitol city of Nezebgrad.  Keeping with the Empire’s industrial/magical feel, the instance is inside and around a factory/sewer area of some sort.  There are a number of quests that can be picked up, both outside and inside the instance and completed within.  The instance requires a group of six on-level participants and is highly challenging.

I have been let down by instanced content many times after WoW.  Every MMO since WoW has dropped the ball in some way as far as instanced dungeons are concerned.  WAR’s instances were horrible.  The mobs were buggy and had pathing issues, the bosses were buggy and had abilities that, many times, did not work.  LotRO had decent instances but the loot tables for the bosses were horrible, though that may have been fixed since last I played.  No MMO has had instances that felt as “smooth” as WoW’s.  Something always let me down.

Allods Online’s first instance was like WoW.  That is a compliment and, for me, a pretty big one.  We went in with a group of level tens, a paladin tank, 2 summoners, 2 mages and a priest.  The mobs had no pathing issues or bugs that I could see, the instance was well laid out and the bosses were challenging without being infuriating.  They also dropped good, useable loot.

The bosses, of which there were three, were mostly of the “tank and spank” variety, which one should expect from a level 10 instance but they did have a few special abilities and adds that caused us problems.  The trash was also challenging and there was enough of them to keep the instance engaging but not boring.

We advanced through the instance in about an hour or so and did not have a wipe, though we did come close a couple of times.  We found it necessary for the summoners to aid in healing during the boss fights, in addition to DPS’ing as the Priest had trouble keeping the Paladin alive at times.  There were many places that we had to use the Mages crowd control abilities to hold one mob while we concentrated on another and we had to plan out a few of the pulls, especially near the last boss.

Xaes is a very good instance, especially for a low level one.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and would do it multiple times.  I would put it up there with Shadowfang Keep as far as low level instances are concerned.

I ended up going through the instance a second time last night, though this time we had a level 20 paladin tanking.  Of course, that allowed us to run through in just a few minutes.  I recorded some video and am currently uploading it to youtube to post on the site, expect that later today.

In addition to leveling my summoner, I created a paladin and began leveling him.  He is now level eight and I think I may just like him better than the summoner.  There are some unique mechanics involved that make the paladin different than any other tank I have played in a MMO.  Let me tell you a bit about the paladin mechanics.

Offensively he plays pretty straight forward.  Many of the paladins abilities place a “seal” on the opponent.  Once you stack enough seals, you then use another ability that “detonates” the seals.  This does direct damage, places a DoT on the target and slows the target.  The amount of damage, the size of the DoT and the amount the target is slowed is dependent on the number of seals on the target at the time.  Seals can be stacked up to three.

In addition, the Paladin has very limited healing.  However, this works totally different than a WoW paladin.  Unlike the WoW paladin, main healing is not an option.  Instead, a paladin’s healing is mainly used as occasional heals to top himself or a group mate off.  Heals require “Canons”, which are obtained through prayer that can not be done during combat.  The prayer is about a five second cast and generates ten “Canons”  The first heal a paladin gets is a small HoT placed on the group member with the lowest health.  This is an instant cast which consumes two “Canons”.

Defensively is where the Paladin really differentiates itself from any other tank I have played.  The paladin has a mechanic called Barriers which absorb damage and stores it for ten seconds.  At the end of the ten seconds all damage is then done to the paladin at one time.  This sounds bad but the paladin has abilities that can absorb the damage, reflect it back at the target or spread the damage out over a longer period.

In short, the paladin has some control over when he takes damage and how he takes it.  This allows him to communicate with his healers and prepare them for damage, making healing spike damage easier.  One result of this is that I believe that there will really be a big gap between truly good paladins and mediocre or bad ones.   A good paladin will make boss tanking easier on the healer but a bad one could truly be a nightmare.

I am still not fully knowledgeable on how this mechanic works but I look forward to mastering it.  As of now, it looks like my main will be a paladin, so I will get much more time with him to master the mechanic.  I really do not want to be one of those bad paladins!

Stay tuned for the video coming later tonight!  Right now I am going to bed!

I keep learning all of these utility things and I feel like such a paladin padawan. Like I learned Hand of Salvation. I know a ret pally will use this on themselves to make sure they don’t pull threat and then go splat. Is it typical for a pally healer to use it in a similar fashion to put on a DPS? Should I save it for myself in case I have a terrible tank and am pulling healing threat (not an unheard of situation, believe me).

Anyway, I keep logging on with Vid determined to look into these things beforehand, and end up saying, “Meh, I’ll figure it out” and just diving in. Today I managed to squeeze in three full instances; leveling handily from 23 some odd to 26. Incidentally – I’m referring to people by their classes instead of their names here to preserve at least some anonymity, not because I actually call people “Tank” or “Hey you person that smacks things.”

Stormwind Stockades – “Shaman didn’t pull shit!”
First up on the random menu, home to Stormwind’s nastiest criminals. No really, these guys are level twenty. One of them even has a BoP blue, they mean business.

I’m learning a few pug cues I never really paid attention to before. One: when your tank walks into Stocks and says “Which way?” you’re probably not in for a great run. Those of you who’ve never had the dubious ‘pleasure’ of enjoying this instance may not know what I mean… it’s a corridor, in essence. You start at the centre. You can go left, and then after you’ve cleared left, you’ll be going right. Or you can go right, and then you’ll be clearing left in due time.

It took us so long to go through this instance that by the time we were going right, we had re-spawns. I didn’t even know Stocks could HAVE respawns. The warrior tank didn’t exactly know what he was doing, but we muddled through regardless. Poor DPS at these levels is giving me ample opportunity to judge Wisdom and then flail ineffectually at things with my healing mace to try and get some mana back. I think it’s working somewhat.

At one point we had a group member drop, just as we were coming to the room with the ogre boss. Now, I’m a little vague on the details of what happened here. I’m pretty sure I saw the hunter’s wolf run into the room on the right. I’m tempted to say I saw the warrior tank sprint merrily into the room on the left. And I know for a fact that I followed the shaman into another room. The tank exclaimed gleefully while we were running back to our bodies, “I think I counted ten at one point!”

Did you know the graveyard you appear at when you die in Stocks is in Elwynn? Neither did I! On the long run back I coached my group members on the finer points of not aggroing half the damn instance. “Do you think we need a fifth?” the tank asks. “Nope, we’ll be fine if we don’t pull all three rooms. The hunter pulled a room, you pulled another, and the shaman ran into a third.” The shaman insisted he was only following the feared warrior tank (this is possible) with an emphatic, “Shaman didn’t pull shit!” I had to give him credit for his conviction, but being that I stood in the doorway of a room full of mobs into which he cast a lightning bolt… I remain dubious.

We go back in to try again, unfortunately we somehow lost Dextren Ward in the fray, and he won’t respawn, so we can’t chop his hand off. It’s during this confused trash clearing that I realize something. Every single green that drops, the Hunter is rolling Need on it. When he rolls need on Bright Mantle, I call foul.

Me: Hunter, why are you needing on everything?
Hunter: cuz I can use it and make my armor better
Hunter: do you know how hard it is not to die from melee as a hunter?
Shaman: You should play a lock priest or mage they wear cloth
Hunter: I need the best possible protection
Me: I hope Bright Mantle helps, lol
Hunter: I can use Cloth, Leather and when I hit 40 Mail.
Shaman: Cloth is for a damn caster type… you should only roll need on Leather
Me: I am sure he does, LMAO
Hunter: O chit I gotta go, sorry
Hunter: but cloth shoulders were the best 4 now
Me: Good luck with your melee problem!

I liked the Tourette’s shaman, he tried to get the hunter to give me the shoulders but I demurred. I left the group secure in the knowledge, at least, that the next time the tank should know which way to go (left or right), and the hunter… bless him, I’ll bet he never runs out of mana, he has such high spirit!

Blackfathom Deeps – Please light one candle at a time, guys
I actually made sure to collect the easily available quests for this instance in case I happened to get popped in line for it – and it pays off! I gained at least half a level from these instance quests; they were all red and orange to me. My second instance is everyone’s favourite murloc-ridden, Twilight Cultist dwelling cavern. I have a fond place in my heart for this instance, because it was the first one I stumbled through as a completely noob priest with no idea what I was doing, a year and a half ago. I hope I acquit myself better as a healer this time around and I can make up for past wrongs. I remember it because being my first character at the time, the other party members actually pointed out how bad my gear was – “lol you need better gear!” and I shamed them by saying that it was my first character and I couldn’t afford the AH prices to buy anything.

Vidyala, on the other hand, practically glows when she walks she’s so laden with antiques, so nobody tells her she needs better gear. I join the instance in progress, they’ve already downed the turtle boss, and a mage joins at the same time as I do. We head down the tunnels as the mage begins attacking neutral crabs or something. I tell him we don’t need to kill those, we’re trying to get to the group. As it turns out, the group comes to us, as we reach the first true boss: platform jumping.

I can only assume that the current generation of young WoW players missed out on Mario or something, because we spend an inordinate amount of time waiting for this poor mage to manage three jumps in a row to make it across the water. I remember there’s a cheat you can run along the wall and skip it, but instead I watch as the shaman coaches the mage by showing him where to jump. Amid “lol wut r u guys doing,” everyone comes back to find us. “I’m helping this mage!” The funniest thing is, this is probably the hardest part of the whole dungeon.

Eventually he gets it and we move on – I have to tell the party “to please stop attacking random crustaceans,” and they manage to restrain themselves for the most part. We had a hard time keeping this party together and at one point I thought we wouldn’t finish it – the mage dropped early on, the shaman not long after. Eventually they’re replaced by a hunter and another rogue. It dawns on me, as we’re moving through the Twilight Cultist section and the hunter’s pet tanks a mob off in the corner and dies – my healing UI is not set up to display warlock or hunter pets. I must remember to fix that before I run another instance.

I really haven’t met many tanks I particularly like or trust doing this. I wonder if that will change or improve as I reach higher levels? They’ve been mostly bumbling and blissfully unaware of the fact that the healer can’t heal them if they run on ahead out of range, or if the healer is completely out of mana since they pulled an entire room of murlocs with their face.

By some miracle though we get this one done, too. I even get a piece of loot at the end! Moss Cinch is better than what I’ve been wearing and we only have cloth-wearing casters, so I need roll on it. Cuz I need it to make my armour better. Do you know how hard it is to avoid being killed in melee as a holy paladin? At 40 I can wear plate and I’ll roll Need on that, too!

Razorfen Kraul – Would anyone actually eat the meat that drops from these mobs?
I need to start taking into account that these classic instances…they’re often LONG. These aren’t “I can knock out a quick instance in 20 minutes” kinds of places. They’re more like “Let’s venture into a tangle of thorns and pigs and see how many times we can get lost, mmkay?”

I’m going to be frank here and admit that I recall very little of this actual instance. The tank was pretty decent, except for the expected oblivious understanding of my mana restrictions as he chain pulled while I gasped along behind. Mana, btw, is lasting a goodly long while now. Flash of Light is helping me a great deal to not just spam massive heals; if we have many melee I can cast Holy Light on the tank and see if the little heal from the glyph will top them all off, and spot heal FoL where necessary. A few pulls in here got pretty hairy, and actually the last boss (some big pig lady?) was interesting, she was casting a chain of lightning sort of effect the whole time. I’m not sure what the range on the jump for it was, since she was tanked in a little hut at the top of the stairs.

Anyway, at that point I realized how intense pally healing can get at this level, when you have a lot of AoE damage going out. If you aren’t constantly casting, you’re doing it wrong. This place had a lot of annoying debuffs I couldn’t dispell just yet. Magic effects, curses. No poisons of course, because those I could dispel.

At some point the tank, hunter and I got hopelessly, uselessly lost on the other side of the instance from the druid.

Tank: “Crap guys, I really have no idea where we are.”
Hunter (as we pull a pair of quilboar) “Why don’t you ask these guys for directions?”
Me: “He won’t, guys never do.”

(You know it’s true). At the end of the instance time is getting really tight for me since I haven’t eaten and we’re raiding in about an hour. Once we finally manage to find the rest of the group I tell them I’ve got five minutes, tops, so let’s get this done. A few minutes later they’re still messing around and I say, “Less talk, more killing!” I mention this only because it prompts the warrior to say, “I’m the one doing all the killing here!” and I tell him, “Well, I’m keeping you alive while you do it, so we’ll call it even.” The feral druid is mightily offended by this, and he interjects, “I disagree! Everyone knows it is us who are doing the damaging, you tank things but we will damage them.”

I glance over at the damage meter. Of course he’s right…kinda. In practice, the feral druid has done less than half the damage the tank has, and none of the DPS are even close to the tank. I point out that he put me on follow and went AFK to eat supper for half the instance, although his theory is sound. The tank links the damage meter. I’m actually a little ashamed to be running a damage meter in an instance at this level. So far the hottest DPS I’ve come across is doing a whopping 50 damage per second! Quilboar don’t have that much HP, y’know.

Alright, firstly, I see you’re wondering what a ‘flavor-class’ is – well, it’s a new class which uses the mechanics of an old one! This is so for two reasons: firstly, the folks at WOTC have done a great job with their classes already in my opinion – the mechanics are sound and I don’t want to mess with them too much. Secondly, making a class like this means that any tight-fisted DMs will be more likely to let you use the class in game!

The following class is based off of the paladin class, found in the PHB1. This means that, unless otherwise noted, you’ll be using the stats for that class. There are some mechanical changes found herein, but this is an example of how a class can be very different with just a change of flavor.

So, without further adieu, introducing….

The Necromancer

“I am the omega, champion of life’s conclusions. Your vitality is forfeit, your death is my pleasure.”

 Class traits

Role: Defender

Power source: Necrotic. You are a life-drinker, your very touch can weaken and corrode.

Key abilities: Intelligence, Charisma, Wisdom.

Armor profiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chainmail, scale, plate*; light shield, heavy shield.  *(see special)

Weapon proficiencies: Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged.

Implements: Maces, wands.

Bonus to defense: +1 Fortitude, +1 Reflex, +1 Will

Hit Points at 1st level: 15 + Constitution score

Hit Points gained level: 6

Healing surges per day: 10 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Religion. From the class skills list below, choose three more trained skills at first level.

Class skills: Arcana (Int), Bluff (Cha), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis).

Special: A necromancer’s armor may not be of the conventional sort – instead of spending money to buy unreliable metal armaments, a necromancer may purchase or find certain regents or spell components that allow them to create hardened bone armor, or encase their bodies in swirling spirits who’s incorporeal nature passes much damage coming their way off into the shadowfell or some forgotten realm. Of course, this special armor would have the same cost and benefits of its more mundane counterparts, but fits with the character idea much more readily.

Students of death and the dying arts, necromancers are feared opponents on the battlefield, excelling in pain, weakness and the trade of life. To them, vitality is little more than a currency to be borrowed or stolen from enemies, and then utilized for their own ends. Often fearsome to behold, to see one wading through your front lines is often enough to sink even the most ardent hearts.

Though fuelled by necrotic energies, your real power comes from your own self-belief: not only are you strong enough of will to wield such potent, forbidden magic, but it is yours by right! Where others waver and wonder, your motivation is pure and simple, and your confidence is your strength. While others bicker and argue about sentiments like morality or virtue, you’re putting your not inconsiderable talents toward getting the job done; whatever it is you’ve decided that job entails.

Show the forces that oppose you the folly of their convictions for, just as death is inevitable, so too is your indomitable will!

Creating a Necromancer

Necromancers are intelligent, sly and willful individuals; as such, they rely most on the Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores, though a little Constitution will certainly help your necromancer stay in the battle for longer. Depending on what drives your necromancer, these dark exemplars often focus on besting their foes in the physical world, or calling on their allies from other realms.

Reaping Necromancer (as per Avenging Paladin)

Your foes fall before you like the chaff at harvest. Each enemy you end only spurs you onward to further victories!

Gravetongue Necromancer (as per Protecting Paladin, with bluff instead of diplomacy)

Though all necromancer’s may commune with the dead, you have a particular talent for commanding the spirits which surround us all.

Implement

Necromancers often use a physical focus to draw power from the shadowfell and other places. Like other spellcasters, necromancers may use a wand as such a focus, but it is the mace, a symbol of subjugation and raw power, that has come to represent this dark character more than any other weapon.

Necromancers and Deities

Necromancers are not usually born so, and many come to their unique talents through solo research, or at the guidance of a secretive cabal or lone tutor. Many serve more powerful beings such as Orcus, Vecna or Asmodeus, though some serve no deities, only themselves. These individuals, driven by their own wills and desires, are not bound by dogma or ritual, and as such often find themselves with power not possessed by their more subservient counterparts.

Good necromancers are fewer still, and more often fall under the category of ‘reformed’. These individuals seek to turn their talents against their former allies, or even against their past deities! Though often mistrusted by those they would adventure with, a necromancer is not unaccustomed to cold receptions, as well as overcoming great tasks alone.

Necromancer class features

Necrotic Surge (as per the Paladins ‘Channel Divinity’ power)

Oncer per encounter, the necromancer calls upon long dead spirits or pure necrotic energy which they then bend to their will.

Necrotic Surge: Dispell Afflictionas per ‘Divine Mettle’, with Intelligence subsituted for Charisma)

With a vast knowledge of things that cause pain and weakness, you put your talents into removing such an affliction, rather than causing it.

Necrotic Surge: Spirit Linked (as per ‘Divine Strength’, with Charisma substituted for Strength)

Incensed by your will alone, nearby spirits drive your next attack home.

Deathmark (as per the Paladins ‘Divine Challenge’ feature)

With a wave of your hand, a nearby enemy is seared with a symbol unique to each necromancer; no matter the creature’s ability to communicate or percieive the word around them, all beings understand the empty chill that means they have been chosen for death.

Transfer life (as per the Paladins ‘Lay on Hands’ feature)

Understanding that, on rare occasions, others may need to be relied upon, the necromancer siphons some of their own life to ensure an ally remains standing.

Necromancer Powers

Necromancer powers are called siphons – that is, they siphon energy from elsewhere; either from the shadowfell, nearby corpses, or from their enemies themselves! They are also attuned to the echoes of life that surround us all. These ’spirits’ can be used in a myriad of ways, and are often the source of some potent siphons.

When manifesting itself, a necromancer’s necrotic energy could be green and swirling, red and stark, purple, screaming skulls or whatever you like. As it is driven by the will of the caster themselves, most necromancers have their own, particular signature that emerges by itself.

Though based on the paladin prayers, anywhere you see the Strength modifier used in your PHB, substitute the Intelligence modifier for your necromancer. Furthermore, substitue ‘necrotic’ anytime you see ‘divine’ or ‘radiant’ used as a  keyword.

Level 1 At-Will Siphons

Life Drain (as per Bolstering Strike)

As you beat your enemy into submission, you steal their life force, using it to remain standing long enough to beat them some more.

Sapping blow (as per Enfeebling Strike)

Your enemies are not only left bleeding from your attacks, they find you take a portion of their vitality as payment for the honor of standing against you.

Death seeker (as per Holy Strike)

Your weapon finds your enemy more readily, driven by your solemn promise to bring the creature peace eternal.

Vengeful guidance (as per Valiant Strike)

The fools think they have you trapped, but with so much raw life around you, it’s like being in a candy store… of death.

Level 1 Encounter Siphons

Softened resolve (as per Fearsome Smite)

With the touch of your weapon, your opponent feels the cold inevitability of their own grave; suddenly their own weapon feels heavier in their hands as their strength falters.

Incorporeal Attack (as per Piercing Smite)

Your weapon becomes momentarily etherieal, passing through armor as if it didn’t exist. As it collides with an enemy, it releases spirits trapped between words who seek out and inhabit the necromancer’s enemies.

Grave barrage (as per Radiant Smite)

Your weapon is driven forward by the presence of life-hating spirits who wish to share their burden of death.

Entrails’ armor (as per Shielding Smite)

As parts of your enemy are disjointed from the whole by your weapon, you use their essence to form a makeshift breastplate for a nearby ally.

Level 1 Daily Siphons

Bone talon (as per On Pain Of Death)

A crushing hand of bone rips through the ether and grasps one of your enemies, reaching deep into their flesh. The bone has but one command; bring the pain to those who seek you harm.

Vital transference (as per Paladin’s Judgment)

With the touch of your weapon, you steal the life force of an enemy, and send it to someone you deem more worthy.

Soul beacon (as per Radiant Delirium)

There are many malicious spirits in the world, and you convince them to turn their hatred toward an enemy; the feast is on. Flitting between corporeal and incorporeal forms, they stab, grab, bite and tear at your foe, and their horrible countenance remains with your enemy long after they have disappeared.

So, there you have it, the first level of a new flavor-class! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know. Perhaps there is another class you’d like to see rediscovered, or maybe you’d like some more of the paladin’s powers flavored-up this way? I’d love to know what you think if you’ve played this class in your own game.

Happy role-ing!

With the holiday retail season in full swing, I’ll admit that I haven’t used the new LFG very much. There are many in my guild who have been running tons of heroics, but I haven’t had the time or the desire. In fact, including today’s random, I only have six Emblems of Frost on Abenadari, although I have only missed one day with Anacrusa (she has 46), since I’m keen on getting started on my Tier 10 gear, so those two Frosts per day are important. Yes, the paladin has sadly been on the shelf for the most part.

However, tonight I decided that I’d like to get her into a few heroics, since I have the time. I ran Nexus first, and that went fine. Then I got into a group that had had someone quit right after they started, so I got to run the whole thing, and that also went well – I was surprised to find that I was really the only competent damage in there. We had a DK and a mage in the group, with a warrior tank, and the warrior had the second-highest DPS in the group. Since I’m not terribly well geared, it was a good feeling to know that I was doing something right!

Just now, I drew the dreaded Oculus, and while I was not thrilled, I was still game to do it. However, when I got there, there were only two other people in the party. I was lead, so I cued us for more, but then the healer left.

So the mage and I were sitting there, chatting for a few minutes. Finally, I told him I was going to call it. Chances are that, with a dungeon like that where so many people hate it, getting three people to stay would probably be tough. So we called it and left. Now I’m making a small pizza and waiting for the Dungeon Finder cooldown to expire so I can re-cue.

It was kind of a funny experience. I know that my guild has put together full groups and drawn Oculus, and while there were groans, they still completed it. I imagined that there would be more people that would grind it out. However, based on this small sample, it looks like the place is still fraught with issues (even if they’re perceived), despite the nerfs that came with Patch 3.3.

Anyway, the pizza is done and my cooldown is up, so back I go into LFG. Hopefully I won’t get Oculus again, not because I won’t do it, but because my faith in a group staying together is not strong, not strong, my friends!

Stormwind Stockades
There’s no question that this is a slow method of leveling, but it’s convenient. I just have to login, make sure I have water to drink and bagspace, hop in the queue and away I go. So I would call it both incredibly slow and incredibly fast. Today I was randomly queued for Stocks, which impressed itself upon me as the singularly most boring instance in the game. (Somebody remind me if I bitch about the wolves again). But, at least it is fast and easy, but there’s really not much return for time investment. BoP blues? Just one. Greens? Only a few. It’s like someone took all the trashiest trash and just crammed it in a few hallways with the same repetitive rooms lined up one side and down the other. That said, the instance was fast and easy owing to some other good group members.

I encountered my first issue with the Looking for Dungeon system, though. Well, maybe “idiosyncrasy” would be more accurate. Anyway, the group was nice, we all got along well, so the leader said, “Who’s up for another?” Everyone was. The only problem was that the extreme outliers (myself, at level 22, and another pally at level 26) were basically making it impossible to queue for something appropriate to all of us. The other group members were 24-25. It kept giving the error, “One of more of your group members do not meet the requirements for this dungeon.” So it would try to queue us for Gnomer (shudder) and then say we couldn’t go because I was too low level. Then I can only assume it would try to queue us for something like Deadmines and encounter the same error with our level 26 friend.

I suggested we queue for something specifically – I can do RFK at this level, or BFD, or whatever, but the two hunters immediately dropped group. I speculate they want the “Satchel of Helpful Goods” granted from doing a random, every time. Which is a shame because it was a good group. Now I only hope I can avoid being queued for Gnomer during the course of my leveling, which inevitably means I will run it five times, minimum.

So far, it looks like I’ll be the only one taking part in this week’s shared topic, but it’s okay, I’ve never been all that good with sharing anyway. The shared topic (which probably isn’t going to be shared) for this week was suggested by Rilandune of A Rogue’s Tale and the original thread can be found on Blog Azeroth.

This is a topic I have planned for an upcoming piece. It happens far too often that players of another class simply do not understand your own class, and for that matter everyone elses. The classes within WoW are so dynamic that there is a large gap in understanding between those who play [insert class here] and everyone else who does not.

What 3 core abilities, be they spec dependent or core class spells, would you most like to see every other player know and understand? These could lead to better teamwork in PvP, or cleaner, more concise raiding environments where, for instance, everyone understands how the Hunter Misdirection works.

I’ve written in depth discussions about specific spells before, notably the Blessings, Divine Sacrifice and Beacon of Light. If you’re interested in the ins and outs of paladining, I suggest you check them out. I’m going to bend the topic a little because, lets face it, I never do things the way I’m supposed to. Still, when it comes to paladin spells, some things need to be said. Said, and sometimes beaten into people by my giant spoon. So here’s what I’m going to talk about: the use of my tanking shield, resurrecting etiquette and the darker side of blessings.

Things you (and me and them) can do with a tanking shield

A shield can be used to block, which decreases damage taken. You can also use it to bash enemies over the head, which damages and angers your victims. And if you have to, you can throw it from a distance to grab an enemy’s attention or to shut them up for a few seconds.

Not a tanking shield

Me: I can’t line of sight, could someone silence that caster for me?
Person X: Use your shield.
Me: *sigh*

What they say is true, if a pally tank does does their talents properly, Avenger’s Shield will silence for 3 seconds. On the downside, it also dazes whatever it hits, so chances are the silence will run out before those casters reach us. It’s also on a 30 second cooldown and takes up a lot of mana, which is sometimes an issue in a 5 man. Yes, it’s a great spell, but it’s not always available.

And just because I get asked this all the time, Block Rating increases a tank’s (or anyone’s, really) chance to block an attack and Block Value increases how much damage will be absorbed by a block.

How to Die and Be Rezzed Properly in 6 Easy Points

1- Really, you shouldn’t be pulling aggro (unless you’re the tank) or standing in bad looking things in the first place.
2- Paladins can’t battle rez. As long as we’re in combat, you’re not getting a rez.
3- If the rezzer in the party seems to be at least sort of aware of what’s going on, don’t ask for a rez.
4- If the rezzer has died and will need to run back, release and run back too. The rezzer isn’t below you in any way. If he has to run back, so do you.
5- Upon rezzing, sit down and eat. If the healer is busy drinking, then you should be busy eating. Don’t expect to be spoonfed health points.
6- Upon rezzing, thank the rebuffers. Don’t ask for buffs unless it’s really obvious they forgot.

Why do I always get so pissy when talking about rezzes? Anyway, moving on.

Be Patient about Blessings

If there’s more than one paladin in the party, it might take a few minutes to them to come to an agreement. We’re not like priests or mages who can just buff the whole raid with one click. (And if priests and mages sometimes screw up, then we’re allowed a break!) While the system is far from the headache it used to be, it can still be confusing to a new level 80 paladin, especially one who doesn’t have PallyPower or ZOMGbuffs installed. Personally, I discuss buffs (I’ll do kings, you do might) in party/raid chat at the beginning of a PuG so the others can see whats going on, but it doesn’t seem to be common practice.

Also, if you get battle rezzed, you’ll probably be given a temporary 10 minute buff. It’s ok. Most fights are shorter than 10 minutes and you’ll get a full buff after you’re out of combat.

Note that Blessing of Sanctuary (3% damage reduction) is a prot talent and must be given by a tank. Note as well that Blessing of Might and Blessing of Wisdom can be improved via talents points. These blessings are identical to a Warrior’s Battle Shout and a Shaman’s Mana Spring Totem, respectively, so a crappy version of either Might or Wisdom can be overwritten by the improved Battle Shout or Mana Spring Totem. In the future, when the Might given to you by the holy paladin disappears while there’s a dps warrior in the group, you’ll know why.

And there you have it

3 spellish things about paladins that I wish everyone knew. If there’s something you wish everyone knew about your class, there’s still a few hours left, feel free to join in on the shared topic. Despite what I say, I really don’t mind sharing…too much.

Seal of Vengeance while using a one-handed sword and shield (for fun)

Hi everyone lets talk a bit about Paladin Seals today and specifically Retribution Paladin Seals. Seals are self-buffs that Paladins give themselves.  Seals along with Judgements work together to make the Paladin classes “combat system.” Only one Seal can be active on a Pally at a time and the affect lasts for 30 minutes. All Seals also damage your opponents when activated.  So you could use your Seals as another attack when other attacks are in cool down.

There are six Paladin seals; Righteousness, Command, Justice, Light, Wisdom and Vengeance (Corruption if you’re a Hordie.)  There used to be eight Seals but in Blizzard’s never ending quest to Nerf Paladins they eliminated Crusader and Blood.  Hmm that will make a good post, my dislike of Death Knights and how Pallys are always nerfed by Blizzard.  See what they did for Ret Paladins in the last patch, not a Fing thing.  But I digress as they say.

As a Retribution Paladin you’re concerned with basically two seals, Seal of Command and Seal of Vengeance.  These are the two seals I use, in combination with Judgment of Wisdom to restore mana, almost exclusively when raiding.  Occasionally I may use Seal of Light or Seal of Wisdom based on the situation to restore either health or mana when out by myself questing or mining etc.  However in a raid it’s the healer’s responsibility to keep your health up.

Seal of Command increases melee damage with additional 857 to 1007 holy damage per attack and will also strike up to two additional targets in front of the Paladin. Use this Seal when you don’t expect combat to be long and generally in Player Vs Player environments.  In raids I use this seal when fighting trash mobs enroute to the boss. This technique is working rather well for me.  Many trash monsters don’t last long enough for you to get five stacks for Seal of Vengeance let alone for you to get enough stacked attacks to outpace the sustained DPS from Seal of Command.

If you are going to be in a prolonged fight such as with a boss, Seal of Vengeance will produce much more damage over time.  But in shorter fights Command produces more damage.  Seal of Vengeance needs to stack five times before you start getting its affect.  Once stacked five times (five melee attacks) Seal of Vengeance then grants 37-38 percent additional damage per attack based on the weapon damage and 776 additional holy damage (Holy Vengeance) over 15 seconds.  In a long fight this adds up to a great deal of damage.

Lord Jaraxxus

You do have to be careful.  Any boss fights that causes you to frequently change targets will significantly lower your DPS in that fight if you are using Seal of Vengeance.  In such cases consider using Seal of Command instead.  A good example of this is 25 Toc’s Lord Jaraxxus and the Mistresses of Pain he summons.  When my guild runs this raid all the raid DPS switch from Jaraxxus to the Mistress when she is summoned.  When this happens you loose your stacks for Seal of Vengeance on Jaraxxus.  The Mistress doesn’t last long enough for Vengeance to be of any use. Seal of Command causes much more damage to the Mistress than Vengeance, so you should switch to Seal of Command for the Mistress.  Then you can switch back to Vengeance when you return to Jaraxxus or stay with Command as the next Mistress will come out just about when you are starting to get some benefit from Seal of Vengeance again.

Don’t suffer the horde.

Current Paladin Seals (From WoW Wiki)

Removed Paladin Seals (From WoW Wiki)

Just a short update on my experiment. I LOVE THE DK. I haven’t tanked on her yet but I did dps ramps….400dps vs 200 for the second place spot. I’m leveling her as un-holy right now and she totally fits the archetype of RPG characters I like. In most RPGs where I can customize my characters abilities, ie; oblivion, KotOR…I choose a warrior type and beef up something like fireball or in the case of KotOR, force lightning. With Death Coil, I have that built-in fire-ball. Something starts to run…death coil and it drops. Plus I get to yell “GET OVER HERE” ever time I death grip something….I know you do it too, stop judging me. I don’t have un-holy presence yet, but all the dots and AOE from un-holy plus blood presence means, I never have to stop to eat even after battling 4-5 mobs. I wasted an entire weekend with her doing BGs. That was some fun, foes just melting under my axe. I can definitely see why people complain about DKs. I am an unstoppable killing machine. I did gain a level in AB, but I think as a leveling tool, questing is much better still.

 Since 3.3 has dropped, I haven’t had as much time with her as I’d like and she’s just dinged level 61. The leveling seems to go fast and I fully expect to have her at least to northrend within a week or 2.

I re-made the paladin and he still sits at level 1, mostly because I’m loving the DK so much. He’ll be the first toon I pick up when I tire of the DK.

I did get the druid to 30 (or close to it). Same ole, same ole. Nothing really new here, still a killing machine in cat form but pretty fun to play but I have spent more time on him than the other classes so far. I’m going to give him a break, get the DK to northrend and catch the pally up before I continue with any leveling here.

In the coming weeks, now that we have the new LFG tool out, I plan to tank some level appropriate dungeons on each toon. Test the waters a bit, I guess. I’ll give updates as the runs happen.

That’s about all I have to report. I would like to thank Shawndra for her interest in the project. I’ll try to keep some short updates rolling in. Be on the look out for a posting coming up that will probably get me banned from the blogging world….hint: I bash christmas…

Adventures in Shadowfang Keep

Well this is new and exciting! I’m here, I’m excited! If you stand too near the door at the front, it pulls a pat. If you panic and back up – you back out of the instance and get teleported back to the Exodar. Then you say “OMG OMG OMG” while frantically trying to click on the “Teleport back to instance” button.

When you get back, act cool as if you meant to do it, nobody will know the difference.

Shadowfang Keep has, um, wow. A lot of stairs, a lot of worgen. Worgen, stairs, ghosts – wtf was that a ghost horse? worgen, stairs… Bear tank says “I have to go, guys, my dad needs the computer.”

Priest and Rogue turn to look at me.

“…Why is everyone looking at me? Well sure, I can wear plate, but I don’t… you know, that’s not really what I…”

“…”

I finish SFK as the ‘tank’ while Voss looks over my shoulder shouting, “That one got away from you! Are you turning with your keyboard? OK now taunt it. If they pull aggro it’s their own fault. Let that guy die.”

Amazingly, we finish with no wipes or deaths. I very decidedly unselect ‘tank’ from my random group options and toss myself back in.

Shadowfang Keep…again
Well sure, RNG, I guess I could run SFK again. If you insist. Crap, I aggroed that pat by the door again. Aaand, why am I getting a loading screen…? Oh right. That’s the entrance door, again. This group was a mixed bag. Our valiant pink-haired gnome warrior lead was tanking but not with any real zeal. At one point a shield dropped and I greeded assuming he’d take it – great shield, right? For tanking? He passes and says, “Nice shield, too bad I’m Fury lol.” He did not badly at holding aggro though, for a guy in battle stance with a two-hander. I guess at lower levels it doesn’t really matter too much.

I’m starting to dread running into hunters in these things. One hunter only brought out his pet about halfway through the instance. We’d pull a group, and he’d run in to start DPS – with his axe. He need rolled on [Some Cloth Thing Of The Owl]. I tried to see if I could out-DPS the pair of them but we had too many reckless pulls where I had to heal a great deal. (Glyph of Holy Light is WIN). This tank was nice about waiting for mana when I asked him, but it was always a surprise to him. He’d say, “Oh, k.” I imagine his thought process: “What? Why are we stopping? Where is my healer? You need to refill that funny blue bar? Why is that? Oh it powers your SPELLS. So it’s like rage. Only more like… peaceful? Okay, we can do that.”

Five minutes later “Mana, wait please.”
“What? Why are we stopping? What’s with you and the blue bar, can’t you just hit something and fill it up? No? Siiiigh.”

Arugal turned me into a worgen and for a moment I was inexplicably in Silverpine, and a worgen.

Shadowfang Keep – why do something else when you could do it again?

Another bear tank, this one stuck with us until the end. He said, “Just to let you guys know, I haven’t done this before.”

I told him, “You’re in luck, because this is my third time today!” I know all about the worgen. And the stairs. And the other worgen.

This group actually sort of redeemed the other ones. We had a nearly silent ret pally who asked quietly (I don’t know how she did it quietly, but somehow) if she could Need on an axe that dropped. We had a good hunter, everyone dinged at least once during the instance (including the wolf, “Buddy”) and much fun was had by all.

I can’t think of anything else noteworthy that happened. I think some wolves were killed.

Notes for next time: I’m level 22 now! My mana is lasting longer and I really don’t need to drink as much as I did. As Jorah observed, I could go to BFD to tackle some elite murlocs. You might think that with all of this pugging I’ve got quite a lot of blue gear drops – you would be wrong. I did snag a leather belt upgrade and like… some cloth gloves that had more int than the ones I had, yes they have spirit, yes I know that’s bad, but they were better! I know better than to expect spellpower mail, though – I remember what it was like with my elemental shaman. So I’ll make do with what I can as we go along, and someday a long time from now spellpower plate shall drop and I will say IN YOUR FACE because only another plate wearer can roll Need on it… And I’ll lose the roll to a DK.

Wait times to kill wolves are still under a minute. My flashy heals are much in demand!

Ever tried mixing chocolate with peanut butter? Of course you have. It’s amazing.

Ever tried mixing chocolate with, let’s say,  cucumbers? Pickles? Most likely you haven’t. Just the thought sounds disgusting and vile.

The thing is, there are some things that go together and some things that don’t. This applies to food, clothing and yes, even role play.

A Blood Elf aligned with the Argent Crusade works. An Troll who works for the Kor’kron could even work. A human who works along side the Dragonflights could work as well.

But some things don’t work.

A gnome who believes that technology is evil would be very..very far stretched and highly unlikely.A high elf in Silvermoon, etc etc. A paladin of the Silver Hand who is actually a Black Dragon.

Wait, that last one.

Oh, yeah.

Someone is attempting to pull that last one off.

Though the RSP never comes out to actually say “I AM A BLACK DRAGON HEAR ME RAWR” The Title “Onxy Mantlet” suggests that, indeed, this woman is a black dragon (Onyx? Onyxia!?) and a member of the Silver Hand.

“But Lan,” someone will say, “I thought the Silver Hand was a force of good in the world and the Black Dragons were usually evil!”

That’s very true, reader! You get a cookie.

The Black Draognflight, according to WoWWiki states: With their lord, Deathwing, either missing or dead, the black dragons seek to appease only themselves. The creatures are immensely powerful and cruel and revel in mortal suffering. The black dragons are the enemies of every other dragonflight, especially the great red dragons of Lordaeron.

And the Silver Hand? It’s a group of Light loving Paladins and warriors who fight against the evils of the world.

Black Dragons = Evil
Silver Hand = Good

Those two things do not mix.

Now, to the rest of the RSP

Dark gray, almost black scales on her cheeks, neck and shoulders, and a long, whip like tail that swishes back and forth behind her. No. No, goddamnit, no. If you’re a dragon, you AREN’T. GOING. TO. LET. OTHER. PEOPLE. KNOW. Like I stated in the LAST Black Dragon post, black dragons would not be allowed to enter the lands of the Alliance..or the horde. You know what happens to black dragons?

This.

The scales on your face and the tail swishing behind you is only going to alert guards to KILL YOUR ASS. Not to accept you into the Silver Hand.

Currently: Her scales are highly polished, and shiny, like they’ve been given a good grooming recently, and are actually dark, dark blue in color. Oh, thanks the Light she knows how to take care of her scales. At least she’ll look good when she’s being hung up from the rafters for being an evil dragon. Those shiny scales, no matter how much they twinkle and shine in the sunlight, won’t save you from what you really are…

A poorly written character!

I’m spent. Lan out.

What’s up with skipping bosses in Old Kingdom? I’ve seen the mushroom dude skipped a couple times, but lately people are skipping nearly all of them. Groups seem to only do the vampirical fire orb boss and the last boss. That’s three badges you’re intentionally skipping! To that I say “double yoo tee eff?”

That’s three badges people! What… why… I don’t get it! If you’re only after the frost badges, that makes sense. I guess being the tank or healer, with your instant queues, skipping a boss here and there doesn’t really matter at all. But when you’re a DPS looking at ten minute queue times, at least, skipping a boss here and there that would take a minute to three minutes to kill is really painful.

So here’s to you, boss skipping tanks: you suck and I hate you.

-=-

My ret paladin is equipped with Quel’delar with furious and relentless gladiator gear in almost every slot. My mage is full furious head to toe with a 251 weapon from ICC. In both cases, it’s rare to even see another player on Horde with gear approaching my own.

Imagine showing up in a random battleground. It becomes swiftly apparent that you are, by far, the best geared person in there. You’ll see one or two pieces of furious gear kicking around here and there, and the highest iLevel weapon you can see is 219. You look around, and you know, you fundamentally know, your gear is way beyond any of these people.

That feeling is… very strange. It isn’t really a good feeling either, it’s just… strange.

I’ll try and illustrate what I mean. I spot a rogue, so I put Living Bomb on him, then scorch him twice as he’s running towards me. Both scorch’s crit, so I throw Pyroblast at him, which also crits, killing him. Four global cooldowns. Dead rogue.

And I’m standing there, thinking: “is that it?”

On my ret paladin, I spot a resto druid. Only 21k hitpoints, so I figure it’s a bit squishy. Can’t let it go unmolested, so I run up to it, judge it, crusader strike, then… it’s dead. Judgement, autoattack, crusader strike flat out killed it. It took absolutely no effort.

It’s reached the point where I can often carry the entire horde team, by myself. Decessus (my death knight friend) runs into the same thing all the time. When you have two flag caps, five flag returns, are number one for damage dealt, killing blows, honorable kills and healing done… something is very wrong.

It isn’t a good feeling. Effortlessly stomping all over everything, only dying when you are completely out of cooldowns and fighting 5 or more people at once… maybe this is why the high end PvPers avoid battlegrounds more often than not. There’s no challenge.

-=-

Changing gears a bit, why is it that people with arena titles (Rival, Duelist, etc) are almost always absolute rubbish at BGs? More often than not, when I see an arena title, that player is simply going to flat out suck.

They may be good at killing other players, but when it comes to BG objectives… there’s just no hope for them. Then, when we start losing, they begin the caterwauling in bg chat that they are awesome, and everyone else sucks and is terrible, and any criticism of them is simply met with “lol nice gear”.

-=-

There are a lot of bear tanks in LFG. I have almost never played with a bear tank before. There was one back in TBC that I raided with… but other than that? Never grouped with a bear tank.

But now? Literally every other instance is a bear tank, with the other half evenly split between warrior tanks and DK tanks. And all of them are actually pretty awesome. I have yet to group with a fail tank. Sometimes you get a tank with 200 epics and I have to ease off the DPS throttle a bit, but overall there are a lot of good tanks out there.

There just aren’t any paladin tanks.

Not one.

It’s eerie. Where the crap did all these bears come from? Have they always been there? Are there just zero bear tanks on Duskwood? That latter could be it. Every bear tank I’ve ran with have all been from different servers. Maybe there just isn’t any on mine.

-=-

Running the new 5-mans is actually more fun as a ret paladin than as a mage. Mostly it’s because I can’t do anything CC wise as a mage, but as a ret paladin… those new instances are my bitch. Repentance one, fear another, stunlock a caster, the whole time Seal of Cleave Command running…

Le sigh. Why can’t I polymorph undead again? Or dragons? I am a master of the arcane, I can control time itself, yet I can’t turn a level 4 skeleton into a turtle. What the hell?

Fear not, loyal readers. I will never switch to ret paladin full time, largely because I basically despise playing one in a raid setting. There is no sense of rhyme or reason to a ret paladin’s DPS “rotation”. There is no rhythm, there is no rotation, there’s barely even a set of priorities. You have six buttons with various cooldowns that brutally conflict with each other. Having spaces where you have nothing to push for three seconds is common. Having three abilities all come off cooldown together happens about every twenty seconds.

It’s incredibly annoying.

Screw ret paladins. Mages rule.

Yesterday evening, there were only four of us online that were willing and able to go to heroics.  The fifth that was on is still in the midst of leveling his first toon.

So, Chawa (BM Hunter), Brokentree (Druid Tree), Melancoly (Shadow Priest), and I (Druid Bear) wanted to give Heroic Halls of Reflection a try.  We had completed it on Normal, so we knew how it worked.  We just were eager for the extra challenge and phat lewtz of the heroic.  So, I would end up tanking on Naturalregis, BT would heal, Chawa and Mel both as DPS and we’d have to pug our fifth.  No problem, we ended up with a Ret Pally (who was actually quite good).

On our first attempt, we wiped on the 9th wave due to a little poor coordination and one bear lacking in rage to provide a swipe.  Yup, my bad.  Anyway, second time around, no problem.  Good work from the DPS in CC and good heals.  Got through the General and our evil selves no problem.  On to the epic chase!

Funny tangent – the first time I came up to the Arthas/Sylvannas fight, I tried to pull Arthas off of Sylvannas.  It worked.  And I got one shotted.  Yeah.  I’m bad ass…even if I’m slightly daft, as well.  

Anyway, this run, I did no such thing.  We watched the fight and got the chase all fired up.  We lost our Pally at the start of the second group, not quite sure how.  (I think it was Abonimation spew.)  Battle rez from the healer.  We lost the Pally again, battle rez from me.  We wiped on the last group due to the tank not getting aggro on an additional Abomination.  D’oh!

Similar thing happened on the next run, minus the Pally getting smushed twice.  Instead, it was Chawa’s turn to get puked on by one (or some?) of the Abominations.  She bravely and selflessly encouraged us to save ourselves and go on without her.  Aaaand with both battle rez’es on cooldown, that was going to happen anyway.  Sorry, hun!

Third run was going well.  Lost another Abomination but was saved due to a well-timed misdirect from Chawa.  Then one of the casting dues (forget their name) decided to hide next to Arthas so the Pally bit it trying to take him out.  Didn’t have the DPS to finish off the Abominations.

By this time, Mel and BT had called the next run to be our last due to that whole wacky real life thing.  So, we rip through the first three groups.  It was going really smoothly.  Again, some good misdirects from Chawa and I actually got a good growl or two in.  Casters went down, and Arthas was getting close.  We went nuts on the Abominations. 

Then BAM!  Last one Abomination went down!  Start running like a mofo!  Arthas was on our asses!

So I ran.  Right into the ice wall. 

I wasn’t getting anywhere.  What the hell?

Then I see Arthas standing next to me, driving his sword into the ground.  And we were dead.

WE HAD IT FRIGGIN’ DONE, DAMNIT!  OUR WAY SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLEAR!

/heavysigh

Arthas is a jerkface.  An unfair, perverse jerkface.

(Forgive me for putting NKotB in the title, I couldn’t help myself no matter how much I twitched as I wrote it.)

In the blink of an eye Blizzard dropped a nice little change on us that completely changed the running for best in slot gear for level 19 twinks. The Waist and Back slots are the ones being filled with new items, and you get these items for queuing yourself for random dungeons using the new LFG feature which rewards you with a Satchel of Helpful Goods. These satchels hold a single BoP Blue item for you that in the level 15-19 bracket will be either a cloak or a belt. As you get higher in levels you enter different Satchel Brackets where other types of items drop. The type of satchel isn’t based on your level though, it’s based on the instance’s level.

When you queue for a Random Dungeon in the level 19 Twink bracket, the minimum level to queue is 15 by the way, then you will randomly join either Ragefire Chasm, Wailing Caverns, The Deadmines, or Shadowfang Keep. That’s good for Alliance toons who would otherwise have to corpse drag their way through Orgrimmar to get to the instance, but any of the four are available. The Deadmines are pretty easily accessible by Horde characters though part of the run can be a bit dangerous if they don’t have a high level escort, and the same can be said for Alliance getting to Wailing Caverns though it’s not quite so dangerous as it is a long trip. Shadowfang Keep is easily accessible by Horde toons while being rather dangerous for Alliance toons as they have to travel through three zones worth of higher level mobs.

When you use the LFG feature you no longer have to run to the dungeons, instead you get to be teleported there instantly and when finished you are teleported back to where you were before. It works now just like the BG queues have been in the recent patches where you can queue from anywhere and join from anywhere.
So those horrible runs for gear that twinks had to do before are no longer required. You can queue for specific instances as well if you want, but you do not receive the Satchel of Helpful Goods that gives these items below.

Cloaks (Back Slot)
First up we’ll talk about the cloaks as those seem to be what drops for me most often. The generation of the items is completely random, so you never know what you’re going to get, and from what little amount of information is available for us right now it seems that each of the different suffixes has the same drop rate as well.

First off, let us take a look at the cloaks that are currently considered, for one reason or another, to be the best in slot (BiS) cloaks for twinks prior to 3.3:
Spidersilk Drape +4 Stamina, +4 Spell Power, +4 Hit
Caretaker’s Cape +4 Stamina, +2 Spirit, +5 Spell Power
Tranquillien Champion’s Cloak +7 Stamina
Miner’s Cape +6 Stamina
Firebane Cloak +5 Stamina, +5 Fire Resistance
Sentry Cloak +4 Agility, +5 Stamina
Glowing Lizardscale Cloak +6 Agility, +2 Stamina

You can see here that the primary attribute that people look for in a cloak is Stamina, which is typical for twink gear since you want as much health as you can get. Next up we have your class’s primary stat which is either Spell Power or Intellect for casters or Agility for weapons-based DPS classes.

Now we’ll take a look at the new cloaks rewarded by the Random Dungeon LFG feature:

We see here that again Stamina is a consistent stat across all of the cloaks that can drop. What stands to put these cloaks above others that are offered are the additional stats that they contain as well.

Here are the new BiS cloaks for each class in my own personal opinion:
Druid: Tumultuous Cloak of the Elder, or Spidersilk Drape if Hit is needed
Hunter: Tumultuous Cloak of the Bandit/Monkey
Mage: Tumultuous Cloak of the Elder, or Spidersilk Drape if Hit is needed
Paladin: Tumultuous Cloak of the Soldier/Battle/Bandit/Monkey for DPS, or of the Elder for Holy
Priest: Tumultuous Cloak of the Elder, Caretaker’s Cloak, or Spidersilk Drape depending on stat preference
Rogue: Tumultuous Cloak of the Bandit/Soldier/Monkey/Battle
Shaman: Tumultuous Cloak of the Elder/Soldier/Monkey
Warlock: Tumultuous Cloak of the Elder, or Spidersilk Drape if Hit is needed
Warrior: Tumultuous Cloak of the Soldier/Bandit/Battle/Monkey

I feel that all of the cloaks that we previously considered to be best in slot gear for level 19 twinks have been pushed out by the new cloaks offered from the LFG, with two exceptions. The Spidersilk Drape still holds its place if you find yourself in need of Hit Rating, and the Tranquillien’s Champion Cloak having the highest stamina bonus in the game still holds its place for that reason alone. Even still, you’ll likely find me going for one of the new cloaks over these existing ones.

Belts (Waist Slot)
Now we move on to the new belts. The generation of the items is completely random, so you never know what you’re going to get, and from what little amount of information is available for us right now it seems that each of the different suffixes has the same drop rate as well. keep in mind that there may also be other suffixes that we have not yet seen drop, or that Blizzard will add in later. This list consists entirely of what I have been able to find through my own LFG and through research on Wowhead.com

First we’ll look at the belts that are currently considered, for one reason or another, to be the best in slot (BiS) cloaks for twinks prior to 3.3:
Keller’s Girdle +3 Stamina, +8 Intellect
Girdle of the Blindwatcher +7 Stamina, +8 Intellect
Deviate Scale Belt +5 Agility, +6 Stamina, +3 Hit
Belt of the Fang +5 Agility, +6 Stamina
Blackened Defias Belt +18 Attack Power
Cobrahn’s Grasp +8 Strength, +3 Agility
Stormbringer Belt +5 Strength, +2 Stamina

And now a look at what the LFG rewards have to offer us.

Again we find that Stamina is a prevalent stat across most of the belt choices, and there is a third stat on most of the belts which make up for the slight decrease in one stat or another where they might otherwise be the same or slightly worse.

So far I have been unable to get a full list of the suffixes that can be applied to the Earthbound Girdle and the Vigorous Belt, so I am going to skip the BiS analysis of the belts for now and will cover those once the information is made more available to us on all the suffixes.

Further adventures of a very new healing paladin. The following day saw me visiting the Looking for Dungeon tool once more.

Deadmines
By this point I was about halfway through level 19 and I really wanted to hit 20 and get some horsepower. So off I go to another random instance, which turns out to be DM. Not before picking up a Glyph of Holy Light, though. Which is supremely awesome! I also got Glyph of Lay on Hands for my minor glyph. I should note, BTW, that I’m experiencing wait times of less than 5 mins, and usually more like about a minute or less. I zone into a fresh DM group that seems ready to go; a mage, two shaman, and a warrior tank. Even though I’ve respecced my meager holy spec to try and get more int I am still having some issues with mana so I’m struggling along behind the tank a bit as he rushes ahead.

Things get interesting when he starts bitching at the shaman “wth shammy, y u do that? don’t run ahead of me.” At this point I told him “Yeah, and don’t run ahead of ME because I’m trying to keep up but I need to stop and drink sometimes in-between pulls.” It gets ugly when there’s a pat that comes in on us from behind – oblivious, the ‘tank’ rushes on ahead to aggro the next group. I manage to get in-between the two fighting groups to keep him from dying and keep the squishier folks at the back alive but I’m pretty OOM by the end and I say, “WTH, why would you go and aggro another group when there are still mobs back here?”

His response: “Because I am the tank, and I can do whatever I want, that’s what being the tank means.”    Needless to say, it went downhill from there. We were at the point where you open the door and go down the spiral staircase to fight some goblins as the shaman were arguing with Mr. I’m The Tank, Foo- one of them said, “Well she’s heals, so she can just let you die, don’t heal him!” Of course I am going to keep healing him though because not healing him means we’ll probably die. But as soon as I can catch him in-between combat (apparently you can’t use Vote To Kick in combat) I vote to oust him and he’s gone. We go on to kill the next boss with the enh shammy tanking – she was tanking half the time anyhow, I figured she’d be fine for it, but after this it got a bit hairy. Enh shaman had to go, a new tank joined the group but he’s all the way back at the beginning and we’re already in combat. We start to go back to meet him but he’s already dead. He releases and runs back but doesn’t wait for us to reach him – gets killed again. At this point we’re all pretty fed up, and the tank ends up just quitting and the group falls apart. No Satchel of helpful goods for incomplete DM.

Wailing Caverns
I queued for another random awhile later hoping to get something short, but scored out with WC again. In this case the tank went one direction, two of the DPS went another… it was just the tank and I, I got put to sleep, he died, I died… Two of the DPS left, I sensed it was going to be an unenjoyable experience so I told them regrettably I’d have to go and didn’t have time to wait for more people.

That said, I’ve managed to get from about level 17-20 just with the above mentioned instances. I have a horse! And I learned Flash of Light. And put one point in Illumination, which is possibly a bad idea with the low levels of crit that I have, I’m not sure. I think that having a smaller, less mana-intensive heal will help me top people off a little bit and should help with my mana situation. I also learned Consecrate apparently. And Kings! Which is  really powerful at this level, I mean it’s great at every level, but it helps me squeeze a bit more out of my meagre stats. So that’s my pugging experience with my baby pally so far, we’ll see how it goes from here. If I wind up in a Gnomer pug at some point I may have to abandon the whole venture.