Carrara - Blood Elf Paladin Video

Here's a YouTube clip of my Paladin, Carrara, on Steamwheedle Cartel-US. She's got the Sandstone Drake out, her Magical Crawdad, and uses her carved Ogre Idol as well in this clip. She's my collector of unusual things!

Doing old Instances Solo

I've been working the auction house a lot lately, selling a good number of gems with Carrara, and I maxed out tailoring and enchanting on Skulfrak.  The high level enchants aren't selling though.  I think most guilds have enchanters who supply these to raiders, and a lot of other people just don't have the gold to spend more than 5k on a weapon enchant.  I ended up taking down the Windwalk I had for sale, and put it on Carrara's Gurubashi Punisher.

I'm still not ready to tank Cataclysm heroics for PuGs yet, so I've just been soloing some old content, which is fun with a protection paladin.  I just round up half the instance, and most of them kill themselves against the retribution aura and consecration.  I'm getting some achievements, and some of the loot sells pretty well on the auction house.  I did Magister's Terrace, and Kael dropped the Phoenix Hatchling.  I followed it up with a heroic run, and that was almost as easy as normal mode.

Gold!

I started playing the auction house with my jewelcrafter last week, and WOW. I've made around 8000 gold in ten days, just buying raw gems, cutting them, and tossing up two at a time of each type.  I've been using the mobile armory app, so it's easy to check every few hours if I've been undercut and respond.  I've been neglecting professions for a while now, but I'm also working on my tailoring and enchanting on the same server.  I may start working on my inscription toon next. Screw heroics!  This is much more profitable.

Of course, what did I do with all that gold?  I bought tanking plate for my prot paladin, so I can run heroics with her. :p

Tanked

With the recent changes in the game environment, I dusted off my paladin tank, Carrara on Steamwheedle Cartel US, and got her to level 85 last night. A quick trip to the auction house, and I have gear good enough to get me into heroics, but I'm going to get a little more practice first.

I also used the new guild finder tool to put in applications with six different guilds, so maybe tonight I'll get some responses and see which one I end up in.  I'd like a regular group to run instances with.  I love playing my warlocks, but they just aren't that valued when compared to the tanking role.  Also, my pally is a jewel-crafter, and there's a lot more to do with that profession than with tailoring.  This one just gives me so many more options.

I'd love to see my wife come back to the game, as I really miss running though some of the older content with just the two of us. :)

Kickin' it Old School - Molten Core style

I've found a new guild on Steamwheedle Cartel, and we're meshing pretty well.  On Tuesday night, we were thinking about some vanilla content, and five of us went and ran Molten Core, which was a real flashback.  The last time I was there, we were a 40-man raid, using DKP for loot distribution, and very precise strategies.  We just kicked the crap out the place them time.  In less than an hour we were done.  We made some pretty good gold too, and got the achievement.  I took my blood elf paladin Carrara and "tanked" it.

Afterward, we did 10-man Trial of the Crusader, and that was my first time in that one.  I was neck-&-neck with the guild leader on the damage meter, so I was pleased with how I did on my undead warlock Skulfrak.

Sunday night, I'm signed up to do Ruby Sanctum with these guys, so we'll see how that goes!  Time to study up!

Tanking Shortage

Expanding a little bit about what I was talking about yesterday, I'm wondering why there is a shortage of tanks in the game.  There are probably a few factors that contribute to the overall problem.

• People are too impatient, and make the job harder than it has to be. I have tanked almost every instance from Ragefire Chasm all the way up to Forge of Souls, and I can't count how many times I've had other players "assist me" by pulling.  They do it with no regard to when I'm low on health/mana, or my taunts and abilities are on cooldown.  It's always my fault if I don't grab everything they bring me, all the while relentlessly doing damage and preventing me from gaining aggro.  Especially in leveling instances where some of the mobs may be higher level than me, and I get a miss or resist with an aggro causing shot.  And if someone's below 30% mana, and I pause for them to drink, I get, "Gogogogogo".  Then, they post the damage meters, so they can brag about how much they've done.  Every class has some form of threat management, and it's each person's responsibility to do the most damage they can, but back off when they start drawing attention.  Being a good DPSer is knowing when to back off and let the tank re-establish threat.  It's all these little things that make me prefer playing my warlock, following along in the back and throwing shadow bolts.
  
• People do not help new tanks gear up.  Each of my tanking capable toons that hit 80 has faced a major problem.  I can not start doing heroics as a tank right away, because there's no way I can hold aggro against someone who has ICC25 gear when I'm in crappy blues.  If I even try, I'm booted from the group.  If you want more people to tank, be more supportive of newer tanks getting better gear so they can better tank in heroics.  This is also a discouraging point, so I feel like I have to run and gear as a DPS spec first, and then start building a tanking set, which is what I've done on my paladin.  If you're a plate-wearer in the DPS slot, don't roll on defense plate when the tank needs it.
  
• People are ass-hats.  I've been in PuGs where I've been met with the must vulgar, rude and insulting party members you can imagine.  I don't put up with it anymore.  If anyone doesn't like they way I tank, or the pace I set, they go on ignore, I leave, and 10 seconds later I'm in a fresh instance while they're waiting for another 20 minutes for a replacement tank.  If I'm on cooldown, I hop on one of my other tanks, and I'll still be in a run before them.  I just refuse to group anymore with people who are disrespectful and mean-spirited.  You would think they'd be more appreciative and nicer after having to wait so long.

I think the bottom line is that tanking can be a lot of fun, and very rewarding, but every group has the opportunity for someone to make it a negative experience, and that's why more people aren't doing the job.

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!

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.

Dragonhawk!

I finally gathered enough Champion Seals on Skulfrak this morning to buy the armored Dragonhawk mount from the Argent Tournament.  I've gotta say, it's pretty sweet!

I'm still slogging through the dailies, having gotten slowed down a bit with the Midsummer Festival activities and achievements.

I have also begun tanking 5-mans on my Paladin, Carrara.  She's still pretty behind on gear, but she's been able to hold aggro so far.  I get into the dungeon finder so fast on that toon, it's not even funny!

Dusting off the Paladin

This week, my level 80 Paladin, Carrara, gets taken off the shelf and run through some heroics.

This was my Burning Crusade character.  The horde got Blood Elves, which also opened up the paladin class to them.  Jewelcrafting was the new profession.  Carrara embodied all of that for me, and she was also my collector toon.  For a while, I was getting all of the card game loot, and she's got all of that.  The red ogre suit, the pet monkey.  She's maxed out in cooking and fishing.  She has a Netherdrake mount.  It's a shame to not be playing her more.

She's always had crappy gear, so my original intention of tanking with a paladin has gone largely unused.  There's no way she could hold aggro with some of these 6000 gearscored damage monkeys.  Her weapon and shield aren't even level 80 items.  I do have a plan, though.

Her alternate spec is Retribution, so I'm running her as that and collecting some plate DPS gear.  She got a Titansteel mace with Berserking on it, so her damage is on the rise.  Yesterday, she did the Culling of Stratholme and got some new plate legs and the Bronze Drake mount.  As her gear improves, I'll stash away items for her tanking spec, and give that a whirl down the road.

It's just about time her stuff came up to the level of coolness that has already gone into this character.