There is (site) server maintenance scheduled for this Friday and Saturday from 11pm to 6:30am. So it was patch day last night! The instancing servers completely borked, kicking us all out. We had to cancel the run, though I guess we should have known better than to schedule a heroic on patch day. I was DPSing too, I don't get to do that too often, QQ! Voice chat hasn't gone live on my server yet. It's between Team Speak and Ventrilo quality from what I hear.

I am looking forward to testing the Seal of Vengeance changes out this weekend to see how much the 5 second extension reduces the number of times that SoV drops off. The instant damage buff is sort of piddly but at least it's a buff? Oh protip, I don't think that many people realize this one: The SoV DoT will retain any damage buffs throughout the fight as long as it doesn't drop off. Meaning that, pop Avenging Wrath and equip your spell damage weapon/shield before casting SoV. Switch back after it stacks to 5.

Keiya's need list through Gruul for future reference. I haven't really examined the SSC and TK loot tables very carefully.

• [item]Wrynn Dynasty Greaves[/item]: The only item left on my Karazhan tanking gear list.
• [item]Belt of the Guardian[/item]: The pattern for this drops off of any mob in the higher level 25-man dungeons (SSC, TK, etc). I will either have to wait until it and the mats drop for me or commission one.
• [item]Aldori Legacy Defender[/item]: From Gruul, fairly rare drop from what I hear.

I am thinking that Gruul is just one of those fights where everyone has to get used to positioning. After everyone can stay out of the cave-in and position for Shatter fast without dying, focus can shift exclusively to maximizing DPS output. On our very first week we got him down to 48%, second week we got him down to 39%, last week 7% (consistently below 30% and 20%). I was absent from Gruul this week for real life festivities, but grats guys! Keep up the great work 😀
Tanking gear wise, I need one more item from Karazhan: the [item]Wrynn Dynasty Greaves[/item], which just won’t drop /lootcurse. I also need one more Furies card, the 7 (most expensive unfortunately…and I blew cash on gems and raid pots). With both, my health should be close to 14,000 unbuffed? [item]Gorehowl[/item] dropped off of Prince. Since no one wanted it I loot soaked it and slapped Savagery on it. Thinking about blowing all of my arena points for the [item]Merciless Gladiator’s Scaled Shoulders[/item] to add to my DPS set.
OH! Patch 2.2 is coming out tomorrow.

Look, I’m blogging again. Haven’t been in the mood to write long articles lately, so I have gone into a state of update dormancy while I goof off with other things 😛 (My attention shifts between various spare time activities). I kind of want to re-theme this site again, but haven’t found the time to create a custom Drupal template. Oh, and I have assloads more space and bandwidth now, so I don’t have to super chop the images down.

• The stupid breastplate finally dropped last night off of Nightbane! I swear that every guild is cursed differently drop wise. For us, it’s tanking plate: Healing crap drops by the droves, tanking gear is really damn rare.
• Guild wise: I think we’re at the point where Gruul is now a gear wall rather than an organizing and strategy challenge. Shatter deaths were minimal last Saturday.
• Noticed that a lot of guilds tend to do Netherspite dead last progression wise and was somewhat surprised. It’s a very different encounter, but I’ve never really considered it to be a difficult or taxing fight o_O.
• I need to start doing the Netherwing quests, after exalted Consortium that is my next rep goal. Would also one day like to finish off my rep for Argent Dawn and Cenarion Circle…I stopped at mid way revered for both. I don’t really need anything from either faction, it is just to feed my rep obsession.
• I just need one more Furies card before I can get my trinket: The elusive 7 of Furies.
• The Karazhan guide will be updated and finalized..one day. Might add a page for Gruul’s Lair.
• Is it just me or are there just not very many good epic tanking cloaks for plate classes? The next upgrade above the heroic blues seems to be one that drops in Tempest Keep.

I am trying very hard to resist the urge to pre-order and obsess over Orange Box (TF2)! But it’s slowly chipping away at whatever gaming willpower that I have left. Oh and, Bioshock was very fun: I actually played through and finished it! Even if you aren’t into first person shooters or role playing games, it’s worth picking up.

It's been a while since I've posted any sort of entry. I cycle between periods of feeling like, and not feeling like posting articles here just in case no one noticed. Oh, Maulgar down to my guild on our second attempt ever. A smooth kill at that. Excellent job!

So basically, I am considering exploring different tankadin builds. Specifically, to drop Reckoning and possibly pick up Weapon Expertise, the black sheep of the protection tree. I have two problems with Reckoning:

1. In order for reckoning to proc I have to get hit. Because my gear is significantly better than it was when I had first spec'd prot, I am not getting hit a whole lot (dodge, parry, miss). So it is a pretty piddly threat bonus at best. It's mostly for farming purposes to be honest…
2. My primary concern: Mobs Parry too. The more attacks, the more parries. Parry speeds up the boss' swing timer, doing more damage to me.

So the formulas
The defensive formulas for a boss mob are more complicated than the defensive formulas for a player. There are two formulas:

• If the difference between mob Defense skill and player Weapon skill > 10: 7% + (Defense Skill – Weapon Skill – 10)*.4%
• If the difference between mob Defense skill and player Weapon skill <= 10: 5% + (Defense Skill – Weapon Skill)*.1%

Without a racial weapon modifier, a player's maxed out Weapon Skill at level 70 is 350. Recall that these miss rate percentages are calculated against a level 73 mob (73*5 = 365 Defense Skill). At 355, the difference between the player's Weapon Skill and the level 73 boss' Defense Skill is 10, so the other formula kicks into effect. Recall that humans have a 5 point Weapon Skill bonus for maces and swords, so they are at 355.

The first 4 points decrease your miss rate by 0.4% per point.
350 Weapon Skill: 9.0% (level 70 player, no racial weapon bonus)
351 Weapon Skill: 8.6%
352 Weapon Skill: 8.2%
353 Weapon Skill: 7.8%
354 Weapon Skill: 7.4%

The 5th point is a huge jump: 1.6%! After that it tappers off significantly to 0.1% per point.
355 Weapon Skill: 6.0% (with 5 point racial weapon bonus)
356 Weapon Skill: 5.9%
357 Weapon Skill: 5.8%
358 Weapon Skill: 5.7%
359 Weapon Skill: 5.6%
360 Weapon Skill: 5.5%
361 Weapon Skill: 5.4%
362 Weapon Skill: 5.3%
363 Weapon Skill: 5.2%
364 Weapon Skill: 5.1%
365 Weapon Skill: 5.0% (with 5 point racial weapon bonus and 5/5 Weapon Expertise)

• 355 seems to be the magic number for weapon skill in regards to talent value
• From what I understand, Weapon Skill affects miss and dodge, but not parry or block.
• If this is true, it's not worth spending points in a Weapon Skill talent past 355.
• Recall that humans have a +5 bonus to maces and swords. So for non-humans: 3/5 Weapon Expertise is ideal. Anything beyond is a waste.

I’ve been occupied lately poking around with the guild forums/vBulletin, apparently I alternate between what I "feel like" working on lol. This is actually just something that I posted in my internal guild boards for a fairly recent 70. I figure that this might be useful to at least one person who still peruses my site. Well that and I can’t think of anything else to post.

Basic Raid Etiquette
Pay attention and work as a team. Raiding is a team effort, adjust your thinking accordingly.

• Don’t come to the raid flagged for PvP.
• Don’t inch ahead of the raid: In general, stay behind the Main Tank.
• Watch range and LoS. I can’t heal what I can’t see.
• Mind your surroundings: It is very easy to become so focused on healing/DPSing that you neglect what is happening around you. Example: If black circle of unholy death forms at your feet, MOVE!
• Come prepared: Repair, buy reagents and potions to last you for the entire raid, read strategies.
• Be Keen: Keep an eye out for special attacks and special situations.
• Let people know when you have to AFK.
• Watch your aggro: What should you do when the Main Tank first pulls a mob? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
• When fight strategies are given out, pay close attention. If you aren’t sure about something, by all means ask a question!

Healing
Though we don’t have a whole lot of healing spells, paladins are one of if not THE BEST single target healers in the game.

• Flash of Light is your primary healing spell. It is the most efficient heal in the game (efficiency = highest HP healed/mana ratio).
• Topping off: Spam Flash of Light on people to top health off. Time it so that you aren’t overhealing.
• Heal aggressively: Base your heals off of what you think your target’s health will be AFTER you finish casting. Basically: Preemptively heal and ANTICIPATE DAMAGE. If you know that the MT will be taking a huge chunk of damage, cast an early Holy Light…you can always cancel it right before the spell lands.
• It’s okay to overheal during certain situations, knowing when to do this is part of being a good healer. Wasting a little mana is better than a dead tank.
• Some bosses use special abilities on regular intervals. DeadlyBossMods will show a timer for these…watch it and time your heals around it!
• Learn to budget mana around fight length and potion use (you can use a potion every 2 minutes). Example: If a fight lasts 10 minutes, you might not want to burn through all of your mana within the first minute.
• Coordinate heals with other classes.
• While you are casting: Use this time to select your next healing target, it will save a lot of time in the long run.
• Begin the fight by using any trinkets and spells on short cooldowns (Divine Favor, Divine Illumination, almost all trinkets). Most fights last around 3 to 5 minutes; If you time your cooldowns like this you can use them twice.
• Remember that bandages, potions, and even buffs generate a small amount threat (using a 5g potion and then getting 1-shotted and wiping the raid shortly after sucks hard).

Cleansing
Whether you like it or not, it is your duty to cleanse! No one else can do it nearly as effectively as a paladin. Most importantly: Cleanse or you will get bitched at repeatedly lol.

• You must always keep an eye out for debuffs at all times. Cleanse FAST and cleanse OFTEN.
• Keep in mind that cleanse has a 30 yard range, that’s shorter than max healing range.
• SmartDebuff is a very good cleansing mod that is easy to setup. It’s a grid of names, when someone is afflicted with a cleansable debuff it will highlight in red. To cleanse you just click the name, very easy.
• Otherwise, use Clique + Raid bars (harder to setup).

Other spells
Exceptional paladins not only know how to heal and cleanse effectively, but also know how to utilize all of their spells during appropriate moments.

• Blessing of Protection: Protects the target for 10 seconds against all MELEE attacks, also prevents them from using melee attacks. This is PERFECT for casters who have aggro’d a trash mob or something. Don’t be afraid to use BoP liberally. If you BoP a rogue or a warrior they will probably hate you for life.
• Auras: Know what aura to use and when to switch, mid fight if necessary. Remember that resist auras do not stack with class resist buffs.
• Most trash mobs are stunnable. If one strays, try to stun it.

One of the big downsides to the protection tree is that it offers pretty much zero single target damage. I think it’s one of the issues that turns people off (well okay, in addition to raid needs and recruitment issues, but that’s a different post). If you know how and where to do it, Protection offers by far the most efficient method of grinding. How? AoE farming.

Keep in mind that I spec’d protection after I had leveled to 70. So if you are a leveling paladin, this post might be somewhat skewed. You can technically spec into AoE farming at level 35 (Reckoning), but it’s a much more feasible at level 40 when Holy Shield becomes Available.

You want to find a good patch of melee only mobs that don’t run (having 20 mobs running to the 4 corners of the earth simultaneously is not real fun lol). NOT CASTERS, CASTERS WILL RAPE YOU. If you are sub-70 and are leveling, I would suggest starting with 4 to 5, move up to 6 to 8 etc if that’s too easy. For moderate to well geared 70, go wild. Entire villages will fall.

Gearing Up
Protection farming isn’t all that super duper gear heavy. The better your gear, the more mobs that you can fight simultaneously. I would at the very least though, invest in a decent 1-hander (2.0 or faster) and a good shield. Your shield is probably the most important piece of your AoE grinding equipment; Find one with a high block Value and some block rating and put a spike on it. Shields with a proc on block ability are absolutely golden (recall that Block Value affects how much you block where as Block Rating affects how often you block).

I prefer to wear a good balance between defensive stats (def, block rating, block value, etc) and spell damage. You probably want to balance your stamina/int in such a way where you have a decent health pool, but aren’t going out of mana after 2 seconds. How you balance your gear is up to you and your grinding style (I tend to favor spell damage). In general, it’s a trade-off: In my tanking gear I take close to zero damage against non-elite mobs, but my mana pool is severely limited. I don’t take damage, but it takes longer to farm. In my full spell gear, I can take things down pretty fast, but I am slightly squishier.

• Shield Spikes: Get one crafted and use this over the other shield enchants.
• There’s a shield that you can get with Sporeggar rep (can’t think of the name/don’t feel like looking it up) that does a 12 damage DoT on block. That is one of if not the best farming shields.
• [item]Figurine of the Colossus[/item]: Heals for 120 on block. This allows you to pretty much chain pull MASSIVE amounts of mobs. When you start getting low on HP, pop it, and watch it heal you to full.

Buffs
Any buff that reflects damage is nice. Though Ret Aura and BoSanc damage may seem piddly it adds up, especially against craploads of mobs.
Retribution Aura: Returns damage when you are hit
Blessing of Sanctuary: Reduces damage taken by a small amount and deals damage on block.
Righteous Fury: Imp RF reduces ALL damage by 6%

Seals and Judgements
Since Reckoning will proc frequently with the amount of hits that you will be taking, your seals have a chance at procing a lot. If your damage mitigation or mana isn’t quite up to par, you might want to go for Seal of Light or Seal of Wisdom respectively. Personally, I like Seal of Righteousness because I am impatient and it speeds the fight up a little it. Same logic with your judgements: Wisdom for mana, Light for Health, Righteousness for DPS. If my targeted mob is dying fast, I don’t bother judging usually.

Methodology
Throw on a seal, judging if needed, spam Holy Shield and Consecration. Holy Shield is most important. If you want to conserve mana, try downranking spells. If you have a decent mana pool and aren’t being hit very hard, just spam max rank everything. This technique works well with good spell damage (600+). Otherwise, you can put on your damage mitigation gear, Seal/Judge Wisdom, and spam a very low rank of consecration, relying primarily upon reflective damage from Holy Shield and your buffs.

Once you have the mobs aggro’d, walk backwards until they are all in front. Remember that you cannot block or parry mobs that are not in front of you. It’s also probably worth noting that “front” is defined as a 180 degree radius. You can, if needed, actually go full run and still block and parry if you carefully strafe at just the right angle. This is useful for any encounter or situation where you might need to relocate fast or kite-tank.

Spots
Ez-Mode Consortium rep: The ethereals south of Area 52. The Consortium NPC in Area 52 has a repeatable quest. 250 rep (275 human) per 10 Zaxxis Signets. The mobs south of Area 52 drop the signets at an approximate 30% rate, in addition for a chance to get the keys. They also shit cloth and trash greens. Downside: A lot of people seem to like to grind here. I feel like a complete dick mass pulling everything.

Ez-Mode cash and Scryer rep: SW side of the middle tier of the Black Temple. There’s one side with a crapload of Demon Hunter Suplicants around a tent with a patrolling elite. Wait until the elite patrols away, then destroy them. Drops: asstons of cloth, Arcane Tomes, Sunfury Signets, etc.

BTW: The elite isn’t that hard to kill. He doesn’t drop anything other than a piddly amount of silver, but it’s fun just for satisfaction. Wear your tanking gear, JoW & SoW, blow all of your mana and go all out when you pull, he mana drains it anyways. Keep holy shield up. Takes a while but not that hard.

I’ve made revered with the Consortium, Ogri’la and the Sha’tari Skyguard, my current reputation projects. Working on the Consortium for the monthly gem bags and because it’s stupid easy, working on the other two because I want my ray mount and the daily quest gold. There are a total of 6 really easy quests that can all be completed in around an hour for 11g 99s each. The extra gold means that I can stock to the teeth with potions and flasks during raids.

Forgot to post: Took Nightbane down for the first time last weekend. It’s a fairly long and healing intensive fight. Other than that, it’s not all that super complex or difficult. I do though, usually end up popping around 3 or 4 Super Mana Potions. Having a paladin AoE tanking the skeletons makes the Air Phase pretty trivial. Picked up a nice shield for my spell damage set (which sits at around 650 spell damage at the moment).

This weekend: The Gods of loot smiled upon us and dropped tanking gear, including the elusive Moroes dodge trinket, breaking the 2 or so month long guild curse. Actually, a good mix of items dropped, including a chant. Picked up the [item]Justicar Faceguard[/item] and the [item]Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden[/item]. Also accidentally master loot nina’d the [item]Boots of Elusion[/item]. Bah…I guess it had to happen at one point or another, I’m the only officer that hasn’t mis-ML’d an epic (though there’s a confirmation check now, I need to pay more attention) :<

Also ran some quests with guildmates, farmed a bit, and had my baby mage twink ran through Gnomer. If I have a spare chunk of expendable gold, I am so going to buy a [item]Staff of Jordan[/item] and chant it with either +40 spell damage, +30 int, or if I am really rolling in the dough (highly doubtful): [item]Formula: Enchant Weapon – Soulfrost[/item] (dropped off of Illhoof this weekend). Uber PvP twink!

Other than WoW: Played some more Oblivion and what not. I really want to start running at least a couple of miles on the weekends again, and lifting for at least a half hour 2 or 3 times a week (that shouldn’t impact my schedule much at all). Since starting a regular job, I have fallen out of a regular gym routine.

There are many macros similar to these that do much much more, but these cater to my individual tastes and needs. If you want additional information, the macro section on WoWWiki has a huge honking list. Also, the World of Warcraft UI/macro forums is a decent resouce. There should be a long ass sticky detailing basic macro creation, It’s a good read.

Raid Shouting
Works in parties and raids; Only promoted/party leaders are able to use the raid warnings. %n will be replaced with whatever or whoever you have targetted
/rw Attack my target: %n!

Inspect
Inspects people 😛
/inspect

Weapon Swap
I’ve had this one since the beginning of time, it’s one of the only complicated macros in my list that didn’t break with 2.0. An bag spot specific weapon swap macro. Weapons to swap must be kept in upper-left corner of your leftmost bag. It will swap 2h <-> 1h + offhand as well.
/script PickupInventoryItem(17);if(CursorHasItem()) then PickupContainerItem(4,2);PickupContainerItem(4,1); PickupInventoryItem(16);else PickupContainerItem(4,1);PickupInventoryItem(16); PickupContainerItem(4,2);PickupInventoryItem(17);end

Toggle Mount
Press once to mount, press again to unmount (the warlock and the paladin specific mounts are considered spells). If I can’t use my flying mount, my Charger will be summoned. If I am on my huntard, his battle charger will be summoned.
/use [nomounted, nocombat] Swift Blue Gryphon
/use [nomounted, nocombat] Stormpike Battle Charger
/cast Summon Charger
/dismount

Random Mount
Similar to the macro above, but will randomly select a mount.
/userandom [nomounted,nocombat] MountName1, MountName2

Cast BoS on a specific player
If for some reason you want to cast a specific spell on a specific player. Example use: I have a guild member who needs BoS during boss fights. I can’t give him a greater blessing because it will overrride GBoK on other people of that class, so I made a macro for my convenience.
/cast [target=PlayerName] Blessing of Salvation

Righteous Defense Target’s Target
Essential macro! Allows Righteous Defense to function like a normal taunt. If an ally is targetted, RD will be cast on them. If a hostile is targetted, it casts RD on the mob’s target.
/cast [target=target,help] Righteous Defense; [target=targettarget,help] Righteous Defense

SoR Spam
Allows you to keyspam SoR/JoR without repeatedly recasting SoR. If you have a seal active, it will judge it and will only allow you to recast SoR after 30 seconds.
/castsequence reset=30/combat Seal of Righteousness, Judgement

SoV Spam
Same as above, buy for SoV
/castsequence reset=30/combat Seal of Vengeance, Judgement

BoP Target’s Target
BoP’s yourself or your target’s target if a hostile is focused.
/cast [target=target,help] Blessing of Protection; [target=targettarget,help] Blessing of Protection

Divine Favor/Holy Light
Divine Favor isn’t affected by the global cooldown. Casts DF then HL for a (use to be free) crit heal.
/cast Divine Favor
/script SpellStopCasting();
/cast Holy Light(Rank 8)
/script SpellTargetUnit(“Player”);

So Karazhan is almost on full clear; Just Nightbane is left, who we took down to 20% on Saturday, our first night of real attempts (we poked him on Monday after Prince for good measure). I’m surprised, it’s not nearly as complicated of a fight as I had previously thought (it reminds me of Onyxia a little bit, that’s probably why). It is though, healing intensive…I need to make sure to come stocked with mana potions so I don’t have to mooch off of people mid-raid.

I won the [item]King’s Defender[/item] from The Chess Event this weekend (chanted it with +40 spell damage). In theory this means that I can stop pining about the Sun Eater (and start pining about something different, like a certain trinket from a certain boss). HP broke 12k unbuffed, but I still feel that’s rather low for my gear level. I need to make a gear wish list.

Oh, and I guess the main topic of this weekly post: I finally updated and changed my UI yesterday (designed for 1680×1050, screenshots are shrunk down). The main idea was to condense it so that not so much space is wasted. I like the original default “2 columns of 12-button” layout, but the decorative frames on either side of the main bar is a waste of space. The only big difference is that the targetting frames are now on the bottom in the middle, which feels sort of awkward.

Unfortunately I don’t have a screenshot of the raid UI because I haven’t fully tested it. It’s actually not all that different because I stuck with CT Raid instead of moving to oRA2 and sRaidbars. It’s an old standby, but it works and there really wasn’t any reason why I felt the urge to change it. Plus, it’s already configured perfectly. I was originally going to swap everything over to Ace2 mods but eh, RAM usage isn’t really a problem.

Edit: Might give PerfectRaid a go tonight.