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Showing posts from September, 2007

Return to the Arena

Last night I got on really late. I was at practice for a friend of mine who is recording a live CD tonight of their band playing. I'm running the "tech booth". It's me, a lightning guys and the sound guy. I coordinate everything going on the big screen from a computer terminal and give instructions and feedback to the other guys. It's fun, and it's hectic . Tonight will be the live performance so I hope we get a good turn out and that I don't screw up too badly. There are a couple of times where I have to time up a video with the band and if I'm off, it will be painfully obvious. When I finally did make it on, I headed out to do my dailies. Since I've been helping my buddy all this week, I kind of knew that raiding would be out for me. I flew back to Evergrove and ran into Bacon. I offered to help him with his Dailies but he declined. I was flying back to Shattrath when I get a message from Jagdelf , a hunter from my old guild, Heroes Inc. He wa

My Very First Email Question

Much to my surprise, I received an actual email from an actual reader of my blog, asking for help with his Paladin. So let's take a look at what our inquisitive new friend may want to know from Honorshammer's Seal of Wisdom. Hi, First and foremost, thank you for the Honor's Code Leveling Guide for a Paladin . It helps. I am a true noob . Have been playing for a few months now. I have a Human pally 43 with ret spec. Everytime I get an invite ( not many times), they want to know if I can heal? It seems thats what everyone is looking for. I am very happy with my character so far. Only until very recently, I have soloed all my grinding and questing. Of course, the higher I go the more difficult this gets. My questions is , "Is this the right level to respec to may be Holy tree?". I truly enjoy healing peeps . It takes the pressure from the fighting all the mobs and you feel good when you Lay hands on a tank that's about to die. I just don't

The Mob Formerly Known as Prince

Last night I hopped on Honorshammer ready to take a shot at Prince Malchezaar. We were a little short on people so we borrowed some from a guild called Rise. Every one of my previous attempts would end with me eating a burst and dying. This always happened during Phase 2, and usually during the enraged part of Phase 2 (from 40% to 30%). The log would look something like this: 05:46'55.671 Prince Malchezaar gains 2 extra attacks through Thrash 05:46'55.687 Prince Malchezaar's Melee hits Honorshammer for 4292 (257 blocked) 05:46'55.921 Prince Malchezaar's Melee hits Honorshammer for 3868 (257 blocked) 05:46'55.937 Prince Malchezaar's Melee hits Honorshammer for 4474 (257 blocked) 05:46'55.939 Honorshammer dies There was nothing I nor my healers could do about that. We went back last night. I bought a Flask of Fortification off the AH. Once Phase 2 started, I used my Dawnstone Crab everytime the cooldown was up. I went from facing him with 13

Clothes Make The Man

I have no less than 6 sets of equipment I maintain, and lug around with me. There is actually a 7th (PVP Healer), but I don't usually have that on in my bags. Raid Tank Set Uncrushable, 12k Health, 13.7k Armor, 498 Defense, 243 spell damage, 4.3k mana Eternium Greathelm, Strength of the Untamed, Spaulders of the Righteous, Devilshark Cape, Jadeskull Breastplate, Bracers of the Green Frotress, Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden, Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard, Timewarden's Leggings, Boots of Elusion, Violet Signet of the Great Protector, Andormu's Tear, Dawnstone Crab, Darkmoon Card: Vengence, Crystalforged Sword, Crest of Sha'tar, Libram of Repentance Heroic Tank Set 12.7k Health, 13.7k Armor, 490 Defense, 200 spell damage, 4k mana Eternium Greathelm, Strength of the Untamed, Spaulders of the Righteous, Devilshark Cape, Jadeskull Breastplate, Bracers of the Green Frotress, Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden, Girdle of the Immovable, Timewarden's Leggings, Boots of Elu

Or' The Ramparts

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So last night I logged in Honorshammer. I was basically hanging out waiting to see if the Kara group from Wednesday would reform and get back into Kara. While I was waiting FallenAngel asked me to help him with a group quest in Western Plaguelands. Mowbray was also able to help out. I did a little mining and was able to snag a Large Opal and some Thorium to make Hummer a Simple Opal Ring. +12 agility which is nice, but he can't equip it until level 47. Nothing much was happening in the guild, so I was preparing to go to Shattrath and start working on Dailies. I've decided my new goal is to save up enough gold to get my epic flyer. Currently I'm at 1200g. As I was preparing to head off, I got a tell from a Mage named Synefeld in the guild <>. They were putting together a Heroic Hellfire Ramparts run and needed a tank. He had been the PuG mage in one of my Shattered Halls runs. He had been impressed with my tanking and wanted to see if I would go. Our group

5 Bosses with the new Guild

Dateline Karazhan . Mal Katai sends 10 brave adventures into the depths of Kara. It was me ( Prot Paladin), Raydz ( Prot Warrior), Helios ( Resto Shaman), Serachoix (Holy Paladin), Maxpayne playing his Priest alt, Faceeraser (Fire Mage ), Stdbaker (BM Hunter), Bladedancer (Rogue), Haust ( Boomkin ), and Snowson (Feral Druid). We cleared Attumen and Moroes . Moroes dropped his Pocket watch . While its a nice trinket, it's not very high on my list so I didn't roll against Raydz when he expressed an interest in it. Moroes also dropped some Paladin healing boots which I picked up since the Holy Paladin already had them. After Moroes , Max had to go so we grabbed a PuG Shaman named Bigwood . Double Totem fun! We cleared our way to Maiden and I switched into my Healing gear. We had someone DC during the fight and couldn't 9 man her. We wiped at 15%. We rezzed up and got back into position, and killed her the second time with no issue. Next up was Opera

Welcome

Well it looks like my little blog post on Leveling up a Paladin in World of Warcraft got linked from main WoW site. You can see the link here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/classlinks.html#paladin So welcome to all the people coming to my blog for first time. I truly hope you find the guide helpful and that you'll enjoy the Paladin class as much as I have. You'll find my email on the left hand side of the page. Feel free to drop me a line with questions, comments or flames.

Shadow Tanking

Last night I logged on in hopes of getting into a Kara group. Mal Katai is a little different in that they don't really schedule much. It's kind of when people get on, put the group together and go. I've been told this week is a little different because the Guild Leader and his wife moving and not being online. I managed to get with Snowson, one of Mal Katai's Feral Druids. He knows the recipe for making Ironshield potions. These are great to pop during a bosses enrage to reduce the damage I'm taking. We rescheduled the Kara run for tonight. I'm really looking forward to getting back in there and tanking some stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to get a couple of upgrades tonight as well. It looks like I really gave up a sweet gig that I had in Heroes. There is usually only one Main Tank in a guild, and I had that spot for Heroes. I gave it up in hopes of doing some 25 man content. I know that in 25 mans we will need a Warrior main tank. There are just some fights

Flip that Tank

Last night I logged on about 8:15 or so, 45 minutes late for the raid. Tonight is my daughter's dance class and I already know I won't get onlilne until after 8 again. Bloodsky is the best guild on the server for PVE progression, but I can't get on early enough to make their start times. I've tried for a solid week and my real life just won't permit it. So rather than being dragged through farming runs, I decided to leave the guild and try to find one that fits my schedule a little better. I still want a guild doing 25 mans. Face and Sevenn wasted little time in getting me an invite to Mal Katai. Mal has two teams working on Karazhan and has done High King Maulgar in Gruul's Lair. I did a bit of farming on the Etherel's south of Area 52 for Consortium rep, when Face asked if I'd like to do a Heroic. I agreed. It was me (Prot Paladin), Face (Mage, spec'ed Arcane), Splinterdc (Warlock), Mowbray (Holy Paladin), and Threehands (PuG Rogue). We d

Flying Solo

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I got on late Saturday night after watching the first half of the Nebraska / USC game. I was really hoping Nebraska would make a game of it, but USC was just too strong for them. As the game got out of hand, I logged into WoW. Much of Bloodsky was doing Arathi Basin while others were running a Kara. This was a different group from the one I had joined earlier in the week. So, on a whim, I decided to see if could solo Scholomance for some Dark Runes. Dark runes are one of my "secret weapons" as a Tankadin. I use them in place of banging a mana pot when I need some mana. Not only do I get mana from using the Dark Rune, but I also lose life, life that needs to be healed and getting healed gives me even more mana back. By definition, if I'm not taking enough damage to get enough mana to keep my threat cycle up, then I'm not taking enough damage to have another 600 to 1000 life put me in much danger. The soloing did not go real well. There are a ton of

Honors Progression

A world boss or an instance that is listed means I've been in a raid/group that has killed that boss or cleared the entire instance. If an instance is listed as Heroic, it means I've done it on both normal and Heroic. If an instance isn't on the list (say Blackwing Lair) it means I've never done the instance. For Raids, I've listed all the bosses, and bolded the ones I've killed, and listed the ones I've attempted but not killed in italics. MT next to a boss/instance means I have Main Tanked it, OT means offtanked. If I've done both, I only show MT. Nalorakk and Void Reaver are kind of weird in that the Main Tank on them switches several times during the fight. Wrath of the Lich King Naxxramas Azjol'Nerub (D) Utgarde Keep (D) The Burning Crusade Sunwell Plateau Kalecgos(T) / Brutallus / Felmyst / Eredar Twins / M'uru / Kil'Jaden Black Temple Naj'entus(MT) / Supremus (T) / Akama (T) / Gorefiend(MT) / Gurtogg Bloodboil(

Breaking new ground

Last night I was able to get online right at 7:30pm and managed to get an invite to the raid. We were doing Doom Lord Kazzak. So I gathered my consumables and flew out to Hellfire Peninsula. Doom Lord is an outdoor raid boss. If he kills someone of your faction he gets healed, and you only have 1 minute to kill him. Apparently there were some players in the area from another guild and they managed to foul up our attempt. One of the suspects came to the Guild Forums to plead his innocence but some in the guild were not buying it. After that we flew to Shadowmoon Valley, and took on DoomWalker. Stonegard, the guild's well geared Tankadin was in the raid, and it was awesome to be running with him. It was great to see that he was given an role in tanking for the fight. I know its not my class, it's just my gear/being new. We were able to get Doomwalker down. I didn't pay much attention to the loots. I can't bid on anything yet and even then I don't have much DKP.

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date

Another night, another missed start time. So since joining Bloodsky on Monday, I've made exactly 1 start time and 1 raid. I knew they had 7:30pm starts when I joined the guild adn I thought I could make them most nights, but I was wrong. Looking at the situation I don't see anyway I can improve it without making Raiding a higher priority than it should be in my life. So what are my options? Assuming they will let me stay in Bloodsky after my Initiate period is over, it will only as a Social member. I can still get raid spots, but I won't have priority. They generally run Kara about once a week and still do Gruul's and Mag's. So I might be able to get invites to some of those runs. Some of their people are pretty tired of running Karazhan. Of course if I can't make their start times, it doesn't matter what they run. I could go guild shopping, and try to find a 25 man guild on Altar of Storms that Raids 25 mans, needs a tank, and has a schedule that meshes wit

Initiation

My initiate period does not seem to be going real well. Last night was my daughter's night for Dance class, so my wife doesn't even get home until 7, then we like to eat some dinner so I didn't make the 7:30pm invite time. So I opted to jump on Honorshummer for a little bit and just get away from it all. Eventually I logged onto to Honorshammer. The Guild was doing Void Reaver and Alar. I flew to Shadowmoon Valley to work on a quest there called Ashtongue Corruptors. This is the Black Temple Attunement chain. After getting all 4 fragments, you have to go talk to someone in the Warden's Cage. I'll be honest I've read that name a dozen times and it never clicked until I did the quest last night. After you talk to the guy, he sends you to kill one of Illidan's Satyrs. The guy had two imps with him. I put on Fire Resist aura and went to town, downing him with no problem. I go back and turn in the quest, and he sends me to talk to Akama, the Akama. (Okay,

Opening Night

Last night was my first night in my new guild, Bloodsky. I made sure I was as prepared as I could be. I had all my pots, food, etc, and I was at the stone ready to go at 7:30pm. Then I find out there was a change of plans. Instead of diving into SSC, we are going to Doom Lord Kazzak. We get 40 of us and fly out to fight him. See, Kazzak is an outdoor boss, not in an instance. So we fly out and set up and start to fight him. My main goal for the night was to basically not screw up. I threw a couple of heals on the Main Tank and the fight was over before it started. Next up, we flew out to Shadowmoon Valley to take on DoomWalker, another outdoor Raid Boss. We all had to get in groups and spread out. I was a bit surprised at first that I wasn't on the taunt rotation to take him when he did his overrun, but after some thought I can see what the Raid Leader was thinking. I'm brand new to the guild, and they had not done the fight before. Plus, this was a 40 man raid, not a 25

Unexpected Opportunity

"Unexpected this is....and unfortunate." What a crazy couple of days its been. My last post was all about how I was coming to grips with my own casualness and accepting that I'd never see the endgame. The very next day, I receive an invite from a guild named Bloodsky. A 25 man raiding guild working their way through Serpent Shrine Cavern. They were actually looking for a Protection spec'ed Paladin. I don't know if I can communicate how rare it is for a 25 man raiding guild to actively recruiting a Protection Paladin. Apparently, they have had one, and had good success with him. However, for real life reasons he can't raid as much, so they are looking for another Prot Paladin. I filled out an application on their website. I was 99.9% certain that they would turn me down. A Karazhan geared tank is fairly useless in SSC. However, it turned out that my current gear was not that big an issue. When looking at my gear, they saw someone who really put some time and go

Coming to Grips with Casual

I'm starting to have to come to grips with my "casualness". Over the summer, I got pretty caught up into WoW and Honorshammer . There was the whole keying craziness, then the gearing up to "Kara ready" obsession. Next up, it was hitting 11k hitpoints , then 12k hitpoints . Then it became a search for every last gear upgrade until I could say I honestly had the best gear I could get pre -Kara. Finally, there was the push to Kara and tanking every boss in there. Attumen ? Tanked, even once tanking both Midnight and Attumen at the same time. Moroes ? Tanked. Maiden? Tanked. Opera? Big Bad Wolf, Romeo, and Tinman Tanked. Illhoof ? Tanked, but not defeated. Aran ? Haven't tried him. Netherspite ? Haven't tried him. Chess? No tank needed there. Prince? Tanked, but not defeated. I have loved every minute of it. Tanking is a blast and we have such a great group of people in Heroes Inc. We have the first half of Kara on Farm. Thoughts turn to what's next.

Farm Status

I think it's safe to say that Heroes Inc has the first half of Kara on "farm" status. This is the definition of Farm Status from WoWWiki : "Farm status" is a term used by players in reference to instance dungeons and bosses , in particular endgame raid content. An instance is said to be "on farm status" if the guild or raid group is capable of completing the content easily and repeatedly, thus farming loot for the benefit of its members. The group was Me ( Prot Paladin), Origami (Feral Druid), Ferth (MS Warrior), Sameth (Holy Priest), Dlow (Holy Paladin), Sweatyz (Holy Paladin), Lakini (Balance Druid), Regolos ( Afflication Lock), Jagdelf and Leeroy (BM Hunter and Raptor), Darolyn (Shadow Priest). We blew through all the bosses leading up to and including Curator. For Opera we got Romeo and Juliet (or whatever Blizzard calls them so they won't be sued). This is the last Opera event that I had not defeated, and in my humble op

An Officer's Guide to the Paladin Tank

Iqrado of Calamitous Intentions of Scilla has written " An Officers Guide to the Paladin Tank " It covers the basics of how Paladins generate threat, and the strengths and weaknesses of Paladin Tanks. You can also check out my post " Tankadin in 25 mans ". This is a compelation of posts from the MainTankadin boards, most of them by Psiven. It includes specific examples how boss fights where using a Paladin can be advantageous and where Paladin Tank strengths really shine. Check them out, and show it to your Guild.

Sun Eater and Merciless Gavel

I didn't do a whole bunch over the weekend. Friday night was my Fantasy Football League draft. Yes, I am into Fantasy Football and WoW. Is there a support group or something? I did manage to run Heroic Mechanar on Saturday night. Its amazing how much harder an instance that is over say Heroic Botanica. There are a couple of mobs in there that are really tough. The 4 demon grenader pulls, and the Tempest Forge Destroyers. The Destroyers cast a self buff called Charged Fist. I had a Rogue and a MS Warrior with me. They got "most" of them interrupted. If they didn't it was lights out for ole Honorshammer. We got to Pathelon and managed to get him down. The party started dying to adds. My healer (Holy Priest with Angel form) died when Pathelon was at about 5-6%. It was just me and him. I poped Lay On Hands, drank a Mana Pot and activated my Dawnstone Crab (dodge trinket), and went to town on him. (How much Aggro do you get by healing yourself for 15k?) I managed to