Honor's Code

Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is a max level toon.

I was sitting here trying to think of what Christmas message I'd like to send out to my readership this year. The very fact I can talk about having a readership is still a very humbling thought to me, and I wanted to send out a message to let you know that I appreciate you making me a part of your day. I loved the Peanuts post I did last year, but I really can't repeat it. So here is my Christmas post for this year. For God So Loved YOU that He gave His one and only Son, that when you believe in Him, you shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 Have a very Merry and Safe Christmas!

Once again, I've been inspired by World of Matticus . Sydera was talking about how many of us find ourselves without time or access to World of Warcraft this time of year. You may be stuck on a long car trip or flight to Grandma's house. She went on to talk about some recommended reading to get you through your time away. As I was commenting on the topic, I felt like I should flesh it out and make it into my own topic. And seeing as I didn't really have a topic for today, this works rather well. First up on the Honorshammer Suggested Reading List is The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. The first two books in the series have recently been made into films. Narnia is a magical land filled with mythical creatures and talking animals. The first book in the series, The Lion, The Witch, and Wardrobe introduces four children that discover Narnia. These children are prophesied to end the evil times and the never ending winter that has fallen over the land. The adventures th

Zul'Drak was a pretty fun zone to level through. The zone almost feels like two zones in one. You have the Argent Crusade half, and then the Troll half, which has a completely different look and feel to it. The Argent Crusade half is dark, gloomy, and filled with Undead. The Troll side is snowy and brighter and filled with, well....Trolls. One of the first things the good guy Trolls do is ask for guidance from their gods. If these guys look a little familiar to you, it's because theses were the Animal Bosses in Zul'Aman. I guess now they are the good guys in the fight against the Ice Trolls. Most of the time you are working for Har'koa, one of the new Animal gods. He's the same model as the Spirit Beast that every Hunter seems to want to tame. Big congrats to Araxe in Mal Katai who recently napped the Spirit Beast for his very own. I look forward to seeing it in raids (once I start raiding). The storyline in the zone concludes with a fight with the Prophet of Ak

Over the weekend I attacked my little issue with not being Crit capped. First off, I took the boat from Stormwind to Borean Tundra. Since I had not been to Borean on Honorshammer, I didn’t have any flight points over there. My goal was Coldarra and the small quest hub at the Transitus Shield. I banged out all the quests I could there and opened up a new daily, called Drake Hunt. And this is where my quasi-role playing side pops up on one shoulder to argue with my Tank side showing up on the other. The quest involves you capturing a Drake and taking it back to the camp where it is summarily executed to further the ‘research’ of the Reds. These Drake have committed no crime save the color of their skin. Because they are Blues and not Reds, they are being rounded up and executed. This is wholly different from killing the Blues actively attacking Wyrmrest Temple. I’m not sure a Paladin, especially my Paladin, would be comfortable with this mission. The quest giver is Raelorasz, a Red

Matticus had a post about this interesting survey he found on Psyblog . I decided to take a few moments and see how I measured up. So what did the twisted bits say about Honorshammer? Your Top Character Strength : Fairness, equity, and justice Treating all people fairly is one of your abiding principles. You do not let your personal feelings bias your decisions about other people. You give everyone a chance. Your Second Character Strength : Capacity to love and be loved You value close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. The people to whom you feel most close are the same people who feel most close to you. Your Third Character Strength : Spirituality, sense of purpose, and faith You have strong and coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe. You know where you fit in the larger scheme. Your beliefs shape your actions and are a source of comfort to you. Your Fourth Character Strength :

Honors hit 79 last night. I'll do my normal DING post a little later. It was a fun level, but I've got something else on my mind. I'm going to be Level 80 really soon. When that happens, (I hope) my friends in Mal Katai are going to start inviting me to come with them to Heroics and Naxx. But there's a small, little, inconvenient problem. I'm not ready. My goals to be ready for Heroics/Naxx are 20k Health, 20k Armor and 540 Defense. I'm really close on the Armor and Health, but I'm way off on the Defense. My defense is sitting at 485, which would be great for Burning Crusade Heroics, but isn't anyware near what I need for Wrath. So what's the aspiring Tankadin to do? Well I headed myself over to Maintankadin and started searching for threads. I found a couple of threads that detailed out a set of gear that gets you to 540 without needing any drops from Dungeons, because as long time readers of the blog will note, I've had terrible lu

I put together a group for Drak'tharon Keep. And by put together a group, I mean I grabbed Ferth and a guy from Mal Katai and Ferth filled the group Dlow and my good buddy, Bacon from Heroes. I had been wanting to do Drak'tharon Keep because you have to go into the dungeon to finish off the Drakuru quest line. I realized this is primarily why I always ended up raiding. The storylines eventually lead you into the raid zones and to continue following them, you have to raid. Drak'Tharon, like most of the instances I've seen in Wrath was short instance. The entire group was a little over leveled for the instance which probably contributed to the ease with with we dispatched with the mobs therein. The second boss was a Lich type, but was in a protective bubble. You have to kill all these adds and slowly whittle away at the bubble. Once the bubble is down, you engage the boss. The boss didn't pose much trouble. The third boss was probably the most fun encounter i

I continued to explore and quest through Grizzly Hills. First on my agenda was my big meeting with Loken. It wasn't the big reveal I had been hoping for, but the guy seems to be in awful hurry. Bad guys never have patience. He'd probably kill the Overseer of Dun Algor for falling so far behind, especially after I blew up their power core, but I saved him the trouble. As I continued questing, I found yet another attempt by the Elves to grow a World Tree. This one was called Vordrassil. These guys have a serious thing for big trees. Overcompensating much? I not saying, I'm just saying, you know. Anyway, not too long after they planted the thing they cut it down. So I'm down in the trunk investigating it for a Druid at Amberpine, who can't fathom why they'd plant the thing then cut it down. I was fighting off a Saronite Horror (who, much to my disappointment, did not drop Saronite ore), and the Saronite Horror says "Yogg-Saron". Now I'm thinking

Here I am talking about gear again. The irony of this gear plan is that I'm more confident in the ranking of the Retribution gear than I am in the ranking of the Tank gear. There are so many theories and approaches for ranking tank gear. I have my approach, and other's have their own approach. If you feel I've really missed the boat on a piece of gear and where it's ranked let me know. I'm sharing my gear plan with you in the hopes that it will help you in gearing up your Tankadin or Retribution Paladin. You will not see a single piece of spellpower gear on this list. I will not be building a Healing set this time around. I started to put wowhead links on everything but ran out of steam. I've left a couple of items on here that aren't upgrades for me anymore because I wanted you to have a more complete list, however, depending on where you are gearwise, there may be items that are upgrades for you that I didn't include on the list. By Raid 25 mans Obsidi

Those luminaries over at Maintankadin have done it again. I found this thread discussing diminishing returns and how to figure out when defense is superior to dodge. I suggest you read the entire thread but let me try to give you the cliff notes version of the conclusions. First of all, Defense is always better if you haven’t reached the Block Cap, the old Uncrushable of 102.4%. Defense is the most efficient way to reach the Block Cap. Once you have hit the Block Cap, to get the best avoidance, and taking into account diminishing returns, you should keep your dodge rating roughly equal to your defense rating . We can also conclude from this that after Block Cap, Defense gemming is generally going to be a poor choice. This is something you considered AFTER you are uncrittable. Remember your first goal must be the Crit Cap.

Honorshammer is still questing in Grizzly Hills. It wasn't very long before I hit 77. This nessesatiated a quick trip back to Dalaran (much to the dismay of my poor computer). I plopped down my 1000 gold and got ready to fire up the engines in the ole gyrocopter again. It was so nice to be able to fly again. The freedom and speed was really nice to have again. While I was in Dalaran, I met up with Leejenkins who had crafted me a Saronite Bulwark. This was something of a bittersweet moment for me. I don't know what it is, but there is something about tanks and their shields. To a tank, the Shield is the most defining piece of equipment you own. When you saw someone early in Burning Crusade with an Aldori Legacy Defender and a Sun Eater, you knew that guy was tank. Before Sunwell was released, you knew the guys with the Bulwark of Azzinoth were 'The Tanks'. So for a while now, Honors has been defined by the large beating heart of a demon on his back. Now, Kaz'Rogal

Sorry for the lack of updates this week, my WoW time has been somewhat limited. It’s a little bit frustrating because I’m sitting like half a bubble from 77, and I can’t wait to fire up the engines in the ole Gyrocopter again! I got a reminder that I play on a PVP server Tuesday as the Horde were out and feeling quite scrappy. One Death Knight really had it in for me. He must have attacked me 6 different times. I think I killed him about 4 times and he killed me about 2. Looking back, I didn’t use my cooldowns well when he got me, or I might have been able to pull those out. I’m dang hard to kill that last 20% if you don’t have some sort of burst attack like Execute or Hammer or Wrath. The basic strategy I’ve developed for Death Knights to start with Turn Evil on their pet if they have it out. I’ll get my Seal up if it wasn’t already and get a couple of hits on him while I keep cleansing off any debuffs, most likely diseases, that he puts on me. Since I took Improved Hammer of Just

On the advice of some of my commenters, I decided to go back and do quests in Grizzly Hills that set up some of the story for Zul’Drak. But first, I wanted to finish a quest to bring some items to a guy near a wrecked Steam Tank. The items would take up precious bag space. Of course, I turn those items in, and get another quest item to use. So I had to finish this little chain before I could go to Grizzly Hills. This particular chain had quite a payoff and you end up riding on a Storm Giant, and getting to go toe to toe with the giant Level 80 elite that had been patting around the main road in Zul’Drak while I had been questing. My giant’s aggro radius was somewhat large, and he had a knock back attack. I still had Track Undead on, and at one point it looked like a scene out of Aliens with 100s of little red dots converging on me and my rather large buddy. I was able to dispatch them all fairly easily with my Giant. Once I finished the quest, and turned it in, I directed my at

(WARNING: Halls of Stone spoilers!) Friday night I got invited to run Halls of Stone with a group from Heroes Inc. The group was myself (Protection Paladin), a second Protection Paladin (who was healing the run), a Shadow/Holy Priest, a Warlock and a Mage. The Priest helped out with healing in some of the more intense parts of the dungeon, but for the most part the Protection Paladin was able to keep me up. The only one of us who had previously been inside Halls of Stone was the Warlock and it had been a while. He didn’t remember much of the mechanics of the boss fights, so we were literally flying blind. We never wiped, and I’m not even sure we had a single death. I don’t know if this says more about my tanking or their healing or the difficulty of Normal mode instances. Halls of Stone was incredibly fun, and may be my new favorite instance. The artwork and layout are very nicely done, but the story and lore in the dungeon are even more incredible. The instance is in the s

Rook – Kaylaan’s Spaulders Badger – Mantle of Abrahmis (no they weren’t Badge gear, but they were from Kara where most people farmed their badges) Justin – Justicar Shoulderguards Crystal – Crystalforge Shoulderguards Sixpack – Lightbringer Shoulderguards Sunny – Pauldrons of Perseverance Valorous Redemption Shoulderguards – Naxx25 – Loetheb Burdened Shoulderplates – Naxx25 – Gothik the Harvester Pauldrons of Unnatural Death – Naxx (25) – Anub’Rekhan Only Do 10 mans----------------------------------------------- Heroes Redemption Shoulderguards - Naxx10 - Loetheb Abomination Shoulderblades – Naxx 10 and 25 - Patchwerk Wapach's Spaulders of Solidarity – World Drop BoE epic – Lucky or Rich Pauldrons of the Colossus – Gundrak (H) – Drakkari Elemental Sunny-------------------------------------------------------------- Iron Dwarf Smith Pauldrons – Hall of Lightning (H) – General Bjarngrim Crusader's Square Pauldrons – Culling of Stratholme - Trash Sixpack / Honorshamm

(This post will contain major spoilers about quest lines in Zul’drak) Last night, just before I logged off, I dinged Level 76 in Zul’drak. It’s been pointed out to me that I should have done Grizzly Hills prior to doing Zul’drak, but I didn’t. I’ll probably end up doing Grizzly Hills on the Hunter when I bring him up. I can take him Borean Tundra to Dragonblight to Grizzly Hills and only repeat the Dragonblight quests which would be pretty cool. Zul’drak is growing on me a bit. There are only a few areas that are really dark, and I’ve moved out of those. I’ve now spent an entire level as Protection and the biggest difference I see versus Retribution is our resource renewal system is clearly inferior. You can tell you are meant to need Spiritual Attunement to keep your rotations going. Ret is much more self sustaining with Judgements of the Wise, although even as Ret I found myself needing Judgment of Wisdom. In both cases, I’m stopping to drink more often than I’d like. But thinking

Next up, we look at your amulet or neckpiece. Rook – Mark of the Ravenguard Badger – Necklace of the Juggernaut Justin – Barbed Choker of Discipline Crystal – Frayed Tether of the Drowned Sixpack – Pendant of the Titans Sunny – Collar of the Pit Lord And now to the list: Nexus War Champion Beads – Quest Reward – Eye of Eternity 25 – Only 1 quest item drops per kill like Onyxia’s/Magtheridon's Head or Kael’s Verdant Sphere Boundless Ambition – Naxx25 – Kel’Thuzad Only do 10 mans --------------------------------------------------------------- Drakescale Collar - Quest Reward – Eye of Eternity 10 – Only 1 quest item drops per kill like Onyxia’s/Magtheridon's Head or Kael’s Verdant Sphere Heritage – Naxx25 – Can drop from Faerlina/Patchwerk/Noth/Razuvious/Anub’Rekhan Medallion of the Disgraced – Naxx10/Naxx25 Trash drop Amulet of Autopsy – Naxx10/Naxx25 – Heigan the Unclean Pre-Raid ----------------------------------------------------------------

Since this is the first in the series, I’d love feedback about the format, and what could be done to make this more helpful. I'd also be interested to see if people generally agree with my rankings or they feel some of these pieces are out of whack from where they should be ranked. Let’s start at the top with your headpiece. First, let’s review our intrepid travelers and see what they were wearing when they boarded the boat to Northrend. Rook – Felsteel Helm Badger – Faceguard of Determination Justin – Justicar Helm Crystal – Crystalforge Helm Sixpack – Lightbringer Helm Sunny – Helm of Uther’s Resolve The list is ordered best to worst, top to bottom, meaning the best items are at the top of the page and they get progressively worse as you go down the page. As you look down the list, you can find each of our team member’s names. Anything listed above their names would be an upgrade for them. Anything below would not. Keep in mind that even though something might not be an overall