10Man Falling Apart

Has anyone noticed it is hard to moderate a ten man or God knows a 25 man group! Last week my 10 man lost our 2 healers, and top two DPS to run with RL friends. The week before we ran to Thadius but only had time for two attempts. The polarity was confusing for people. I think for only running naxx for 5 weeks we have done well. After replacing the lost healers (a priest and paladin) with a new Priest and Druid and the DPS (mage and DK) with a Shaman and Hunter we were stuck at Grob. That fight is a real pain. I consider it the hardest fight in the 10 man game short of hard modes like 3D. Anyway, this week we are losing 2 more DPS due to softball and college finals. I totally agree that RL should come first, running a raid group is just getting very frustrating. Goodbye top two DPS...again

And you though Blizzard made hundreds of spell icons so everything would look "unique" on your spell bar. It was really so they could make a cool montage paying tribute to themselves!

Gear Rating WebSites: WoWHeroes & BeImba in Review

WowHeroes.com and Be.Imba.hu are two of the best known gear rating sights for level eighty characters. I believe these web sites can offer a good estimation of the quality of gear and where the character should perform well. These sights are far from perfect and IMO, they were not designed with paladin tanks in mind. Lets take a look at the suggested enchants section.

When looking through gear you may notice that your enchants do not get a +15 enchant for WowHeroes or a “proper enchant” in Beimba, that is if you think for yourself and stray from the typical enchants. Lets take a look at what is a proper enchant for a pally tank sword according to these web sites:

Titanium Weapon Chain

Mongoose

Exceptional Agility

Superior Potency

Lifeward

Most if not all Paladin tanks I see are using the Titanium Weapon Chain. I must ask WHY? Have these people read what benifit the item gives? Does disarm reduction and hit rating really matter for us pally tanks? Not really, if you are relying on white damage to hold agro you will fail. We hold agro via spell damage. So do we need the agility enchants, attack power enchants, or measly lifeward? If you feel like wasting an enchantable slot yes, if you desire to be win, then no.

As I mentioned above pally tanks hold agro via spell damage. So lets think about what will help us hold agro better. Think spell power! I use Exceptional Spellpower on my Red Sword of Courage. This increases all my spells damage by +50! Will agility or weapons chains give you 50 more spell damage? Hell no, they are worthless to a pally. Does BeImba or WowHeroes recognize spellpower as a viable enchant for any pally tank gear? No, they suggest re-enchating your gear to something useless! Now, I reviewed one handed tanking sword enchants but what about my biggest peeve the gloves.

They suggest:

Major Agility

Armsman

Crusher

Do we need agility? AP? 2% increased threat? The only viable enchant in this list is Armsman. 2% of a 1k hit is +20 threat, 2% of a 10k hit is +200 threat. So is there a viable option outside of Armsman? Yes, all those healers are running around with it Exceptional Spellpower! This will increase your consecration ticks, judgments, all spell damage abilities by +28. Does this mean Armsman is not an acceptable enchant? Not at all, for a paladin, Armsman, Exceptional Spellpower, and Heavy Borean Armor Kit (18 Stam) are the only three good glove enchants.

So what am I trying to express to you pally tanks out there? Don’t just go with the flow. Look at your recount data, figure out what does the most damage for you and buff that ability! That is the essence of tanking in LK, more damage! Keep an open mind and explore what is best for you.

The Introduction...Just to Be Redundant

I have been playing the massive online video game, which we all love and significant others hate, World of Warcraft from practically launch. Before WoW I played many of the Blizzard products: Warcraft I & II, Starcraft, and Diablo I & II. Does this make me an expert on Blizzard? An expert on WoW? NO! I am far from an expert, I am an enthusiast, an addict perhaps…never. However, I did just start a blog based on my life as a paladin, that may speak to my level of addiction.

My current main, I am a bit tri-polar about my main, is a Protection Paladin. Thus, the blog title Divine Plea, or should I say whimper. I currently play on a RP care bear server, but I never RP. As far as I can tell no one ever RPs on my server, that is neither here nor there, back to what is important here, ME. I play “For the Horde!” Not that the allience is made up of prepubescent children, cry babies, noobs, epic failures, and 30 something men in their mothers basements, I just like having ready access to steak!…I mean, I love Tauren. Yes, Yes, Yes, I know the alliance rules, Horde drools, in the case of the undead it is disgustingly literal and possibly infectious!…cough, gasp…I wonder what an undead hamburger would taste like…Oh, for those of you that have not figured out the obvious, I happen to play the arguably most evil playable race in the Horde, a Blood Elf. They really don’t look that evil, but turn your back and they will eat your soul. Odd that us blood elves can swing the holy light around willie-nilly when the race is obviously happily rotten and addicted to magic…See, WoW does have vampires. But this is an argument that goes back years, and I really couldn’t care. I have evil holy light power, that’s not an oxymoron…wait, wait, lets do the math; evil+holy=(anyone know?), no wonder I cant understand anything on Elitist Jerks. I cant even balance this simple equation, I am sure Bliz can!

So, should you listen to anything I write and intergrate it into your play style? No, I would never advise trying to take my play style and incorporating it into your system. Just stop playing with your obviously inferrior design and learn how to tank with win! Seriously, go tank your face off. I’ll try to find it for you.