Honor's Code

Thanks to everyone who suggested the Ghost Iron Dragonling. I had one of our engineers make me one. The plan was to spend the evening banging away on normal modes and Klaxxi rep, but between the trinket and some quest reward 437 boots, I noticed I was just 2 points shy of what I needed to start running heroics. We had a group forming in guild chat with 3 DPS: a Warlock, a Hunter, and a Feral Druid. My Warlock friend suggested I buy some PvP gear to get over the hump so I could tank for them. I only needed to have the gear in my bags, I didn't even need to equip it. I usually hate ‘gaming’ the system in this way. I feel like I should only go if I legitimately have the gear needed. I don’t want to be selfish and risk everyone else’s time and repair bills just because I want to run Heroics before I’m ready. All three of my guildmates assured me that Heroics were pretty easy and they were willing to risk it. I bought the chest which put me over the hump. I figured that if I just blew ...

Now that I'm 90 I'm completely overwhelmed by the amount of stuff you can do. There are so many different reputations to start, not to mention I have two entire zones I haven't even started. My primary goal is getting the gear needed so I can help the guild out by tanking heroic dungeons and eventually be available to tank raids. First thing I did when I logged in was to spec my Level 90. Thank you, Matticus ! I went with Execution Sentence for my Level 90 talent. The next order of business was to head to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms since I had already done the quest to unlock it, and buy flying. Yeah, flying! My current iLevel is 421. I need 435 for Heroics. My lowest pieces are my neck (399), one trinket (399) - the other is the Brewfest one (470!), chest (414), sword (414), and shield (414).   I didn't have a ton of Justice Points saved up from Cataclysm because I was burning them trying to get up to LFR before Mists so I could see the Deathwing raid, which I did. T...

Last night I finally made it to level 90. I was busy finishing up the quests in Kun-Lai Summit when I saw someone in the guild asking for a sub 90 dungeon run. Most everyone in the guild is already level 90 and they are busy grinding away on Heroics. There is some quirk to the LFG system where if you have someone in your group who has a much higher iLevel than the rest of the group, it won't let you queue. I knew I was close to 90, but I offered the services of my shield. The group was Paladin Tank (me!), A Boomkin, a Warlock, a Shaman and a Tree.  We got the Shado-Pan Monastery. I was a bit nervous. I had tried to tank Shado-Pan Monastery back when I was 87, and it didn't go well. That was a pure PuG and immediately the DPS Death Knight and Priest healer were concerned about my health pool. I've been playing WoW a long time. I had a really hard time getting my head around the concept that having over 200k hit points was considered being low for a tank. After ...

I finished up the Jade Forest last night, and I have to say I really like the way Blizzard worked the story lines into the zone. The end of the zone was excellent and set up the Jade Temple dungeon well. I loved the cut scene at the end, and how we deal with the aftermath. I saw some guild mates asking to run a regular dungeon and I volunteered to go along. I was fine with going as Retribution, but they figured I wanted  to tank. For the first time since coming back to WoW, I was going strap on my shield and tank. I quickly read the Basic Training thread on MainTankadin so I would have a clue as to what I was doing and off we went. This was my first time in the Jade Temple dungeon and my guild mates talked me through the fights. We had a very good Death Knight with us, and I struggled to maintain threat, especially in AoE situations. I really missed not having Righteous Defense. Note to self, Sha puddles HURT. Yowza! I was tanking the floor for the rest of that pull. I like tha...

I'm working my way through the Jade Forest on Honorshammer leveling with all the speed of a rush hour commute. Most of my guild mates have already hit level 90. Me? I'm Level 86 (and a half!). The questing in MoP has been very good so far. The stories are good, not great, but they move along well and leave the focus on questing. In SWTOR, I felt like I was constantly trying to get to that next bit of Class Story. With WoW, it's all just one story. The arcs aren't as separate. It's not told with the same intensity or panache, but I enjoy it. I did enjoy the one quest where the scouting party comes back and you relive their tale by taking control of them at different points. Very nice use of phasing and voice acting. I do have to question the Hozen. They talk funny, and seem to be put in for a bit of comic relief. I think I liked it better when I was killing them by the bucketload early on in Mists. To me, the Hozen seem to be WoW's Gungans. Retribution I'm ...