Random Bits

Meh, busy lately. Oh, Heroes is back! If you haven’t seen it, all of the episodes are available online at the official NBC site. A few other things that I have been up to when I’m not in the office or on WoW:

  • Watching: Stargate: Atlantis, & Ergo Proxy. Ergo Proxy is an anime series that I’ve started recently. Sylistically, it’s very similar to Witch Hunter Robin (not surprising, same director). Contextually, it reminds me of GITS + Blade Runner + maybe a smattering of Matrix? I wouldn’t say that Ergo Proxy is an instant classic, but it’s interesting…worth a watch.
  • Reading: Finished Into a Dark Realm by Raymond E. Feist (favorite fantasy author). I have to wait an entire year to read the next one 🙁 This book is actually the latest installment in a fairly long line of books; The Riftwar Saga being the first trilogy (Magician, the first book, was broken up into Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master in some releases).
  • Playing: WoW, Peggle, and Kingdom Hearts II. I have a stack of unfinished games that I set down for the Burning Crusade. I would like to finish some of them before I lose my place and have to start over.

Paladin PTR Changes
Several paladin changes were made in a recent PTR patch. Well, it’s a start but I’m not going to start cheering until Illumination is at 75% :P. I actually haven’t had a chance to take a gander into the test realms. Perhaps I will this weekend, I want to see exactly what changes were made to the talent trees (paladin = poor, I don’t want to respec).

  • Illumination now returns 60% of base mana cost, up from 50%.
  • 1h weapon spec is now working, and is causing 5% more damage to spells like consecrate and holy shield while a 1 handed weapon is equipped.

Tanking Notes

  • Your heroic tanking gear goals should be roughly similar to your raid tanking goals. Technically, if you are talking absolute bare minimum: since heroic bosses only go up to level 72, you can do with 485 defense. Also remember that mob only deal Crushing Blows when they are 3 levels higher.
  • I rescind my comment regarding never running out of mana. The more geared you are, the less mana you get back because you aren’t getting nearly as many heals (as of 2.1 over healing doesn’t return mana). Hasn’t been that much of a problem in heroics/raids yet (still have to budget mana during certain fights though).
  • If you are seriously considering being a raid or heroic tank, collecting Arcane Resistance gear is a worthwhile endeavor (Tempest Keep, Curator). The Enchanted Adamantium set gives 140 total with all 4 pieces, 30 from the JC neck, 30 from each of the JC rings, there is a shield that drops in heroic Ramparts for 20 (I think). Aim for 200…don’t be like me, who spent a crapload of gold rush buying at the last moment.
  • Rep: Tanks will want to get revered Keepers of Time (best pre-epic tanking legs, 1-handed spell damage sword, the head enchant) and exalted Sha’tar (epic slotted shield and epic healing mace) for the goodies. Make sure to complete the Keepers of Time quest line, the last part (Black Morass) gives 8,000 rep.

To-do: Site
Though honestly, the only time I really work on stuff like this is when I am procrastinating or have had too much coffee.

  • A short guide to pre-raid tanking gear.
  • Cheat sheet for Kharazan (for my own sake, I swear wowwiki goes down whenever I am looking shit up mid-raid).
  • A tanking “cheat sheet” that is, a reference for stat formulas and what not without the 10 pages of babble.

To-do: WoW

  • Farm mats for the Bracers of the Green Fortress
  • Get +40 spell power chanted on my tanking sword (lol been using the exalted HH one just because it was epic…though the revered KoT blue sword has more stam :P). I am a bit below where I want to be spell damage wise. I put +30 int on all of my weapons for the sake of skilling Enchanting.
  • Farm Primal Mana for more Arcane Resist items.
  • Get exalted CE…2.5k off. Close to exalted for KoT as well.

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