Tanks for Tards

I kid of ran out of steam last night.

I finished up all my tournament dailies on Skulfrak, and stood in Dalaran watching trade chat. I was hoping to get into a Malygos (Eye of Eternity) weekly, or maybe ICC. The chat was so elitist though, gear checks, scores, link achievements, etc. PuGs are not places for those who haven't done it many times before. If my guild was doing it, I wouldn't need a PuG! The one I'm in has stuff scheduled Friday and Saturday night, so that doesn't really work for me. Trish works a few evenings, but not the ones they've scheduled.

I just didn't feel like running heroics again, and it was getting late. I cycled through a bunch of my other toons, and I didn't want to get into one of those massive vanilla instances, so I ended up logging off and watching a movie.

I recognize that guilds will have advantages coming up, but I just can't get into things where I have to depend on other people for something.

Another trend I've seen the past week is tanks selling heroic runs, and DPS offering to pay tanks to group with them. You know there's a problem when one mechanic is so out of balance that others will view them as a commodity. Hell, maybe I should dust Carrara off and make some money! I really like the warlock class the best, but there just isn't any demand for them, no matter how awesome he is. He kicks much butt in PvP, where my pally has problems. Maybe if my paladin had better gear with some resilience, I'd do better. I don't even see healers in this kind of demand. Are there really so few tanks, or are there just no good, well-geared ones? Maybe nobody wants the job of leading the group, as DPS just get to follow along and blast stuff.

There's definitely a problem here that they need to address. Maybe if they let warlock and hunter pets have a tanking tree in the talents, it would open things up a bit more, or certain pets who could be used as tanks.

I logged into my human paladin Vez on Skywall this morning, and she only had 4 silver. She's level 46 and I spent all the money she had made on a dual-spec and 2-hander.  I only had a few minutes, so I thought maybe I'd take her over to Howling Fjord to do some more fishing for cash. Then, I saw it: "Looking for guild charter signatures. Paying 25 gold. Don't have to stay." "ME!!!!" I now have 25 gold, 4 silver on her. :) That's a little better.

So, I'm thinking it's time to play one of my paladins some more.

Warsong Weekend!

This past weekend, Warsong Gultch was the weekly Call to Arms battleground in WoW.  That means a ton of experience for all your low level toons!  About every two and a half wins, I'd gain a level.  A loss would be about 10%.  That's with no heirloom items on this character.

So, my new human paladin Vez on Skywall US went from level 38 to 46, and gathered up more than 10k honor.  Not bad at all!

The only downside is that you're not getting any new gear or gold while doing battle.  I've got her fishing capped at 450 now, though, and sneak off every once in a while on a fishing expedition, and she's had over a thousand gold. so far.  A few trips through the dungeon finder, which is near instantaneous for a tank, and she's back in all current level blue items.

Sweet!

She's coming up on some of the last prot talents for tanking that will fill out her rotation.  Having a lot of fun bringing this one up from scratch!

Inventory Reduction Sale!

Everything must go!

Lately I've been preparing for Cataclysm, deciding what and where I'm going to play.  I know for sure I want a Goblin warlock, and after seeing more about the Worgen, I think I want a warlock with them as well.  They both just look so cool!

The goblin will be on Steamwheedle Cartel.  I'm deleting a level 48 gnome rogue I haven't played in years to make room, and it has the perfect name already.  The toon was holding a whole bunch of junk from back in the day, so I went in with the remote auction house, and just put everything up for sale that I could.  Quite a bit sold, and I stripped the toon pretty well and sent everything over to my 80 human warlock, who will remain on SWC. I love how easy it is to sell now, right from the bags, bank, or mailbox.  So, I'll have some bags, some heirlooms, and some gold to give the new guy quite a push.

My new alliance home lately has been on Skywall.  I'm leveling a human paladin, and she'll be joined by the Worgen.  In 12 days, I've gotten her to level 34 and made almost 750 gold, mostly from fishing.  Every single thing I get goes on the remote auction house.  There are so many people leveling and working on professions, you can get a premium for all that mid-range junk right now.

The bright spot is that it's really helped me clean out my bags of all the crap I've collected for the past 5 years!

Around the Mirage Raceway One last Time

As I entered the lower 30s with Vez, one of the places I wanted to visit and run through one final time before it goes away was the Mirage Raceway and Salt Flats in Thousand Needles.  This morning I ran around collecting rocket car parts, killing Gazers, scorpions, buzzards and turtles, etc for all the various parts the goblins and gnomes need for their racers.

I love all the little details of the place.  The shipwreck from a long-since dried up sea, the rocket engines embedded in the mountainside, the trail and the smoking hole in one of the mountains with the crashed racer on the other side in Tanaris - the remains of some crazy bastard who blasted himself through half a mile of rock.
The racers will be moving to a floating barge with a bunch of new things for us to do, but this classic version will soon be a memory, so I'm glad I got one last visit in.

Gone Fishin'

My leveling on the new human paladin on Skywall has hit a snag with the surgery on my left hand.  I can't use it at all now, so tanking an instance is just not going to happen.  I took a look at what I can still do to make some progress, and came up with fishing.  I did a bit in Stormwind and Booty Bay, and was skilling up a fair amount.  I checked the guide at El's Extreme Anglin', and was reminded that all the quests, books, and level requirements have been removed from the profession.  So, following El's advice, I took my pole, climbed on the boat to Howling Fjord in Northrend, and parked myself next to the trainer on the shore.

At level 31, Vez now has a fishing skill of 407 and over 470 gold in her bag (having already paid the 35 gold grand master fishing trainer).  I'm popping out and using the remote auction house to sell everything I catch.  Most of it's junk, but it gets a few gold a stack.  But every so often, I pull up a Glacial Salmon, which sell for between 2 to 4 gold each on Skywall.  A few stacks of these and Vez now has money for quite some time.

It's possible to do this on a level 5 toon, or a newbie death knight.  As long as you have enough coins to buy the fishing skills, a pole, some bag space and auction fees, you should be able to get a finanial foothold on any realm with fishing.  You also will need an abundance of time and patience, because you're making gold from those who don't.

I resumed leveling with some light questing.  I guess it's kind of cool, because the dungeon finder wouldn't give me one last tour of the old zones before they're changed forever by Cataclysm.

Paladin Tanking

Knocked off a little more on my new human paladin on Skywall yesterday.  Vez is now level 28.  Tomorrow, she'll be a week old, and I'd like to reach 30, but I have surgery on my finger in the morning, so I may not make it.

The last toon I ran leveled through the dungeon finder was a warrior, which fell into a very nice set of aggro tools around the 50s.  I already have an 80 pally tank, so I know my usual rotation, but there are some big holes to fill in yet at this level.  As this is my first toon on Skywall, I have no heirlooms or enchants on my gear, so it's pretty bad compared to some of the folks I get lumped in with.  I have managed to hold aggro despite the behavior of some party members.

Open letter to potential party members:

Hello, I am Vez, and I will be your tank for the duration of this run.  Please refrain from the impulse to pull for me.  Especially if I'm at 5% mana, and sitting down to drink, and have stated my intention in chat.  I know you're in a hurry, but my taunts or consecration require mana to work, so I'm going to finish my beverage while watching you dig yourself into an ever-deepening aggro hole.  My motto is, "You pull it, you tank it."  My only concern is keeping mobs off of my healer.  If the healer dies, it's the tank's fault.  If the tank dies, it's the healer's fault.  If a DPS dies, it's their own fault.


Follow me, and we'll move steadily and methodically through the instance and come out finished.

More progress on Vez

I put a few more levels with the dungeon finder on my new human paladin, Vez, on Skywall.  She's 27 now, and she's tanked everything up to Gnomeregan.  She's six days old and already eligible for Scarlet Monastery.  I'm amazed at how fast she's going even without heirlooms.

Time for another alt

To pass the time while waiting for Cataclysm, and spend a little time in the old world before it's changed forever, I rolled a new alliance alt on the Skywall server.  Vez is a human paladin, and she left the Northshire Abbey just last Friday night, and she's already level 24.  This is a brand new realm for me, so no heirlooms or inherited gold and bags, so it's a very fresh start.

My goal is to make a new home for alliance toons and maybe some worgen when the expansion drops.  I'm still planning a goblin, but the worgeb look like a lot of fun, too.  It's been very distracting seeing all the new race/class combos and revamped talent trees coming in the next few months.  I think I enjoy leveling more than I do running at max level, so I should be set for a while!

Vez is tanking, having done Ragefire to Razorfen Kraul so far.  I'm making a little bit of gold from mining, but have spent much of her time so far in the dungeon finder.  I know my blood elf pally pretty well now, so her abilities are clicking pretty fast.