Break Time

I apologize for the lack of updates this week. All my free time has been devoted to preparing for this weekend when my Fantasy Football League will be holding it’s annual draft.
Yes, I play WoW and Fantasy Football. There should be a support group or something.

I watched the trailer for Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard’s art department has some amazingly talented folks in it. It was a really cool introduction. I still hold out hope that in the end the players actions in the battle at Ice Crown Citadel against the Lich King (who is a being of a fused spirit of Arthas and Ner’zhul) will ultimately redeem Arthas, and severe his bond to the Lich King. Much like the player character Death Knights, he will become free and ultimately help the players destroy Ner’zhul and the Frozen Throne.

Dominion has decided to take last night and Monday off of raiding. Several of the officers are feeling fatigue from the push we’ve made recently. Every top guild on Altar of Storms has eventually blown up going all the way to the heady days of Mindtrip. It is my hope that this break will help inoculate Dominion from a similar fate.

I had downloaded and installed Decursive in anticipation of the next meeting with Gorefiend. This little mod was once the bane of my existence, and I had thought it long dead.

What I refer to is my days as a Holy Paladin at level 60. I leveled up pretty late in game. Guilds were busily working on AQ40 when I finally dinged sporting more greens than a house salad. I was on the server Dark Iron at the time, and found a guild raiding Molten Core and Zul’Gurub.

My main job, as a woefully undergeared healer, was as a dispeller. There were mobs in ZG that fired an AoE poison that needed to be removed. Various mobs in Molten Core would put fire debuffs on the raid, and there was one boss who would constantly be putting debuffs on the raid. My main job on that boss was to keep the raid clean.

The first couple of nights it was pretty exciting. I had 40 name plates on my UI and I had to find the afflicted players and Cleanse them. Then I was told (not asked, told) to install Decursive. In that incarnation, it was a one button operation. By spamming my Decursive button, the mod would select the afflicted person and cast cleanse. It made the job of cleansing much easier, but it made my raiding time much less challenging, and therefore less interesting.

In one of the patches right before Burning Crusade, Blizzard removed the ability for the mod to select targets. Decursive had died what I thought was a noble death.

After my comments on Gorefiend, several people suggested I look into the mod, on which some kind Priest had apparently cast Resurrection.

Since the raid wasn’t going to happen, I needed some way to test it out. That presented itself when one of our Holy Paladins asked if I would tank a Heroic Slave Pens for him to get the last 3 Badges he needed for the Inscribed Legplates of the Aldor. I agreed.

It was amazing being back in Heroic Slave Pens. I remember my first few times attacking this dungeon, creeping around every corner, figuring out how to CC the various mobs, and how we would either kite or double tank the two Guardians pulls.

Last night it was simply run into a pack of mobs, Consecrate, Holy Shield and watch my mana. Not my health bar, my mana. Going OOM was about the only concern I had.

We ran through the whole place in 41 minutes. With an AoE class or two, it would have gone even faster. Our party was Prot Paladin, Feral Druid, Holy Paladin, Warrior of unknown spec, and Shadow Priest.

I did get to test out Decursive a couple of times when either myself or members of my party would get a debuff. I have to say I really like this current incarnation of Decursive, although the first time I heard the ‘bong’ sound effect, my stomach turned a little. They still use the same sound effect from the level 60 version.

The players frame lights up on the Decursive UI. I click on the UI and BAM, just like that they are Cleansed. I’m really looking forward to being able to use this on Gorefiend.

After Slave Pens, I was able to grab my 2v2 partner and get our games in. For this first time in our partnership, we finished above .500. We went 6-4, and had to call it early. Nevertheless, we raised our rating nearly 30 points.

I know that the 1400 bracket isn’t anything special, but I’ve never made any claims to great PVP skill. We are both alts. I consider Prot Honors to be my main and Ret Honors to be more of an alt.

We are continuing to improve our play each week. ). I’m learning a ton about the various classes, and how to fight each one, though I need to improve, especially against Mages and Hunters.

But the most important thing to me is that my partner and I are having fun (at least I am, I hope he is, too.

Comments

Darraxus said…
Grats on arena this week Honors. My arena partner is a beast of a ret pally named Muralyon. We are at 1660 atm and going to make a push for 1700 this weekend (so I can get those damned season 4 boots). Ret pally's have some amazing burst damage.
Ardent Defender said…
Decursive been apart of my UI for quite a while ever since I went to a custom UI. Makes my tanking much easier.
bobpally said…
As far as mages go (coming from someone whose main is a mage) it's all about what spec you're facing. I spec full arcane for arenas completing just enough in the fire tree to get some damage bonus and pyroblast. Ever heard the term 3minute mage? That's where it came from. Against an arcane mage with gear you're going to lose a large percentage of the time unless your timing is just right. The trick is to get him to waist his pom/pyro combo on you, then bubble and heal. After that if he's full arcane expect him to pop slow on you constantly. (all abilities increased casting time by 50% and movement speed decreased 50%)Alot of people underestimate the power of this talent, but if I'm a mage and casting 2 spells to every one of yours, or kiting you around the arena because you can't catch me you're going to lose. Depending on your 2s partner hopefully he's helping you out when you have an arcane mage in the group you're facing. Here's a little funfact for you: The 3v3 arena teams that won the most tournaments and have the highest ratings are pally,mage,warrior. My suggestion is move up to 3v3 and recruit an arcane mage that knows the spec and how to play it. If my opponent is equally geared the only class I lose to consistently are Warlocks. Stupid chain fear dot to death....
Also don't underestimate the power of LOS is arenas when facing casters, it might force them to get up close a personal much more often.

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