Well, after trying to get runs into Utgarde Pinnacle for what seems like ages, I finally got in there twice in the last week and last night it happened, the phat lootz that I've been waiting for dropped:
If you run Naxx regularly or are getting drops in Ulduar already, then you are thinking, "Phhht." For you others I would like to take this opportunity to say ....
"EAT IT!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
That is all.
On a more interesting note, there have been some major changes to encounters in Ulduar. It seems as if it was tuned a little too hard for most players so alot of the encounters are getting nerfed a bit. See this WoWInsider article for more.
Well, Knales made his move from Norgannon to Fenris successfully. The move was completed late last Wednesday night and I immediately ran a PUG heroic Violet Hold, and that went well.
That Friday night I ran 25 man Naxx with my new guild and that was a success, however we had to PUG in at least 8 people so that made things a little slow and slightly less organized than I think the leadership would have liked. I picked up 2 tanking pieces in there, which I was very happy about. Gauntlets of the Disobediant, from Noth the Plaguebringer and Bindings of the Hapless Prey from Maexxna.
I have also made some significant changes to my UI in anticipation of more raiding. Normally I run without any changes to my base Blizzard UI, just additions really. Now things are different.
When running 5 mans I use Healbot to keep up on buffs both for my party members and for myself. I currently have 4 self-buffs I need to reapply everytime we wipe.
In a raid however, this can get a little too screen-filling. Plus I would really like to be able to change what I do and do not see on my screen a bit more. So I've made 2 major additions.
X-perl changes the way you see almost everything on your screen, but it does not mess with your action bars. It gives you much more flexibility to deliver more information, in a more precise manner to yourself. I am really liking it alot.
The second change I've made is for my action bars. I have added Dominos. This basically scrubbs away the Blizzard bars and makes way for nearly complete customization of your bars.
Both of these addons will require to play around and experiment extensively before you get what you want, but as you play with them they will help you to define what exactly you are looking for in action bar and unit frames addons.
I am still not sold entirely on either of them. There are still a few things that I want to change, but I think with some more tweaking I can get there with these 2 addons.
I am still using Healbot for my buffs, which is gonna blow when I raid, but I am going to be giving Pallypower a test run this week at some point. The biggest problem with PP is that it does not support Seals or Auras, which is something that I can get healbot to keep track of.
If anyone out there has any suggestions as to where to go with these addons or if I should try something new and exciting, please let me know.
It's official. I am moving my main, Knales, the paladin tank from Norgannon to Fenris. I have a RL friend there who is in a guild that needs tanks and they raid regularly, so I'm moving.
I've been agonizing over this decision for weeks now, but finally it came down to one question: Where would I have the most fun?
My answer to that had to do with raiding, not being the only tank around and mostly just being able to get stuff that I want to do done. Plus I have spent some time with the guild that I will be moving to, and they are a shit-ton of fun to play with. Even if you're just on guild chat it's good times.
Of course, there are a number of people I will miss on Norgannon. People from my guild and players from our allied guild. I've only been with my still current guild for a little over 3 months, and while I have run up to raid leader and high level officer in that time, I think they'll get by without my tanking skills -- after all there are tanks a plenty out there. Plus I want to just throw an idea out to my guild leader -- throw some tanking leather on your druid and get in there, I bet you'd make a great tank!
So tonight after the scheduled Obsidian Sanctum run (Sarth+0) I will be hitting the transfer button. I have already cleared out my bank character, leaving some gold and items for my 73 hunter who will be remaining behind for the foreseeable future.
I want to end this with a fond farewell to someone else I will miss -- Big Red Kitty. He has decided to re-dedicate himself to his wife and family and while I applaud that decision, I will miss his good cheer and fun posts. Reading his farewell post got me a little misty thinking about my own 7 month old daughter (I hope my play time is balanced with my family time, but only time will tell I suppose).
This site is the win-ing-est! You gotta check it out. Please please please -- just do it. You'll love yourself more for having done so -- and not in a dirty way ... mostly.
Well, I'm not that mad. Although it IS interesting to note that what this guy is saying holds true today, even the Russians are a problem again, albeit not quite what they were in the early eighties.
Anyhoooo. Yes, I'm a little bit pissed. I'm angry at the people I play with in the game. This is a social game and sometimes people step on other people's toes, I get that, but I'm tired of my current situation in-game.
I am a tank, I am currently my guild's only heroic/raid geared tank. I am one of two geared tanks in our guild alliance. This means that for raids the both of us must have 100% attendance for things to happen. It also means that if I want to run 5 man heroics all I need to do is find a healer and we can pretty much get it on. However, that also means that if I'm not the in mood to wait around for someone and I decide to just get something started -- I am the focus of bad feelings because someone gets left out. It also means that if you whisper me about running something and I'm getting whispers from 10 other people, you might get missed and so you miss that run as well.
This I find bothersome.
I join guilds so it's easier to find groups and to have people to be social with. I don't join them so I can feel like I have another job. I join guilds that are casual in the hopes that someday I will find one that has a chilled out relaxed atmosphere, but that also likes to get instance runs and raids going.
My guild has recently created an alliance with another guild -- one that I really like the members of. If I had my druthers we would merge our two guilds but as both guild leaders really like their independence that is not likely to happen. But things are starting to come together a little bit -- we have run Vault of Archavon 10 successfully and PUGed 25 with no problem as well. This coming week we are going to give Obsidian Sanctum a visit and kill Sartharion with his attendant drakes already dead AKA Sarth+0. So things are moving.
But that's not really the problem. The problem is that I feel pressure every time I log on to the game. I feel pressure to make sure that everyone who wants to run something is included. I feel pressure to not show anyone any kind of favoritism. I feel pressure to show up all the time so that I can be someone's meat shield.
Now our guild leader wants to start adding all sorts of leadership roles to the guild roster. This means we would have a tank leader, a paladin leader and a herbalism leader -- along with all the other professions, roles and classes. With our guild being so small, maybe 15-20 actual regular players and a crap load of alts. We only have 5 MAYBE 6 people at 80 who can walk into heroic 5 mans. So this all boils down to people taking on multiple roles.
What will my roles be? Well, currently I am the raid leader. I am also the most experienced tank, but not officially the tank leader -- although the funny thing is that my advice is not taken when I tell people that so-and-so is not ready to tank something. Guess I'm REALLY not the tank leader. And I suppose I could be the alchemy boss, but so could our guild leader.
Really, I don't want any more titles or roles to play. I want to tank in heroics and raids and if I have to organize such things, then so be it. After that I just want to play, and not be bothered with much else. I'm responsible for enough shit at home (7 month old baby) and at work.
All this has lead me to spend more time on the PTR messing about as well as logging into low level alts that no one knows. Which is OK, but doesn't get me into more interesting content. I could honestly care less about the epic items, I just want to play content I haven't seen before and I want to skill up on that stuff.
So what to do, what to do. The extra roles in the guild should not be such a big deal (I would hope) -- just tell them that I'm not interested. The crap dealing with groups and emo kids who don't get their runs ... harder.
What really makes this an issue at all is the fact that there is a casual raiding guild, in which I have RL friends, and who I know are chilled out and cool people -- and they want me. They are running Naxx on a regular basis and they need more tanks. Also I have had a toon running with them for a couple weeks, just to check them out -- DK, of course.
One of their members even offered to pay half of the transfer fee. Ugh.
Of course, if I didn't have at least one person who I really think is a cool person-- a person who I could see really becoming RL friends with, this would all be a non-issue.
Now, I've been in perhaps 15 guilds on 5 or 6 servers so /gquit is not a new thing for me. Nor is transferring. But I've never left one guild for another. Usually a guild will just self-destruct or I'll quit playing that toon for a while and get kicked. So this is all something new for me.
Alrighty, that's all for now. More when I know more.
I am going to focus on 2 changes to the protection tree -- for this current build they are, in my mind the most significant changes (and maybe the only ones for protection? not sure).
Filling out the talent with 32 points in protection we now have Spiritual Attunement -- working much like it used to when bought from trainers.
"A passive ability that gives the Paladin mana when healed by other friendly targets' spells. The amount of mana gained is equal to 5/10% of the amount healed."
There is a lot of talk about this move and what it does for all 3 specs. At the moment it is a definite nerf to both Holy and Ret, although Holy can probably get away without it because they aren't receiving many heals from friendly players. Ret however is currently counting on this mechanic to get mana back because of the Seal of the Martyr/Blood self-damage mechanic (this takes a bit to explain -- if you want to know more check out any of a number of the retribution paladin blogs).
Eat dirt Archavon!
I think this is a great move on the developers part -- although it most likely means that they will need to do some extra work in the Retribution tree. It makes sure that when tankadins need mana they will have it.
Speaking of having mana when you need it there is another interesting change in the protection tree. Fully talented at 42 points is Guarded by the Light.
"Reduces spell damage taken by 3/6% and gives 50/100% chance to refresh the duration of your Divine Plea when you hit an enemy. In addition, your Divine Pleas spell is 100% less likely to be dispelled."
Jigajiga-what? Alright. Now this talent used to be insanely useful: Did the same work on spell damage, but lowered the mana cost of the 3 most used tanking spells. Now it gives more uptime to our biggest mana generating spell, Divine Plea.
I am not sure this is so great anymore. Sure it gives us the ability to be generating mana like crazy, for ourselves, but I think it may be too much. With Blessing of Sanctuary and Spiritual Attunement I generally have more mana than I know what to do with -- ending many boss fights with full mana. This WILL help tankadins when it comes to trash fights I suppose, when they're not getting healed quite as much, but my experience has shown me that normal unbuffed Divine Plea works just fine.
Of course there is still the reduction to spell damage, which is always nice, but I am of the opinion that this might not be one of those HAVE TO HAVE talents anymore. Testing will prove one way or another. I hope to get on the PTR tonight to get a look at just that.
