One Dreaded Final

So I have one last thing to do and then I'm finished with this stupid course. Loading myself up for a four-hour session of a hand numbing experience. I got six points already from the seminars, all I need is 19 points or more to pass. Here's what I know so far: Anarchy is what states make of it, postermodernism is stupid and the HDI is probably better measurement versus the GDP.

This has nothing to do with WoW except the fact that, if there's anything I've learned is that playing this game sure makes me subpar when it comes to educational performance. It is actually making me contemplate whether I should quit this game all together because my education is by far more important than this game. Hell, it's not only education, but social life. It really pains me when I reflect back upon how much I've sacrificed socially just to play my characters. Maintaining a blog by browsing endless posts on the main forum and all that jazz just adds another layer of stress on top of it.

Really, when playing WoW, you're using up the same entertainment time as when if you were watching TV. Would you watch TV, like, 6 or 8 hours a day? Would you leave a party just so you could go home and watch TV? Anyone who does that just makes me think of a couch potato with a mustard-stained wife-beaters garment and that shower with a rag tied up on the end of a stick.

I could play this game forever. I really could. But, I'm 21 years old. I've spent the last 2-3 years of my life playing this game. I really don't see how I can go on forever. When I put the blog on hold earlier is was cause of many contributing factors, and one of them the very reason I am giving right now.

Two months and four more days is left on my European vacation (fortunate to have a relatively permanent settlement over here). When I get back, I don't know if I'll ever end up re-subscribing.

Edit: I just did it and finished one hour ago. Huzzah!

Shattered Dreams

Doh, I was preparing to go to BlizzCon....but then I evaluated my financial situation. So I'm not going anymore. I'm not that bothered about it. I'll eventually get to play Starcraft II and the second WoW expansion anyway. Beta, all and all, while fun, kinda ruins the experience of "finally" getting the box, installing the game and playing it for the first time. It did so for me for Warcraft 3 at least.

Anyone else planning going though?

Tier 5 Weapons!

Thanks Msmart for giving me this link with class weapons which "look" like they are a part of the set.

Here's the Pally weapon.

Here's it's stats from a raid drop.

Finally Some Info

Stratic Chat Highlights from Kalgan:

- On Enhancement/Ret being mostly solo-trees:

Want Ret to be more than just a leveling spec.

- Regarding Druid and Pally Tanks:

We feel [Crushing Blows] add too random an element for players in endgame content. We expect to deal with this issue at some point in the future (although it may not be immediate).

- Retribution viability:

I'd like to see ret become a bit more raid viable in terms of dps and overall utility. the ret pallies will save them! next patch'! ok, maybe not or maybe... Right. At any rate, something we've noticed in our testing is that ret pallies are in kind of a jam where their dps isn't enough to get the put in a dps group in a raid. ... which makes their dps suffer even more. Hopefully we can get that solved in a way that doesn't cause ret pallies to rule the pvp universe.

- Hybrids vs Pure classes:

we want "pure" classes to perform better in their primary roles, with hybrids coming close, but providing additional group utility to offset their reduced primary role power

Dum-dum-dee-dum

I'm on a vacation right now. Going to be very absent.

Starcraft 2

OMG!

He Popped Enrage

Wow. Tseric got canned.

Basically the objective of the community manager is to pretend to be some form of aid in terms of false pretense of a community service. Their actual duty is to project the image of interactivity with consumers. The position never works in reality due to being wedged between the politics of company management with the obnoxiousness of ungrateful customers.

Imagine being in a job where everything you say is taken out of context regardless of what you say, spun around in masterful ways to twist it in to something completely opposite from the original intention.

Imagine then sustaining that day after day, continuously for years, leaving home for work preparing mentally to encounter an endless cesspool of such despicability of unimaginative behavior.

That he quit was probably for the best for his own personal health.

European CMs Are Great

Good list of Ret concerns and good acknowledgment of respective concerns.

May 19th

Blizzard.com

VOIP There It Is!

I am aware of the irony of having a gigantic post declaring the blog to be back, and then suddenly keep things inactive. I think I picked a really bad time cause in two hours or so I'm going to be on my way for a 48 hour flight marathon over the Atlantic (somehow I am going to be stuck on Arlanda airport for 18 hours, fortunately they have wireless internet there).

In the meanwhile, while not Paladin related - chew on this by Tseric where he drops the hint of built-in VOIP and guild banks (from WoWInsider). Interesting indeed.

Consider this post to be an open thread.

"They want to know if he still got it"

Still here. I got bored not blogging.

Had a really fun arena today in a 5v5. It started out like any battle in Blade's Edge - we usually confront them head-on by charging right at them. Things screwed up though and our guys were dying one by one. After about a minute or two the only two people left were me and our Holy Priest. The opposing team had two warriors. I was at like 30% health and the Priest was at like 15%. The warriors were hovering around 50-60%. I mean, there was no way in hell we'd be able to recover this. We were goners for sure...or so I thought.

Since the Priest was the squishiest target for the warriors and because he was at lowest health they insisted on killing him first. Really insisted. They completely ignored me, probably thought I had my bubble still up (which I don't think I did). Then the priest said to me "toss me a Blessing of Freedom". He wanted it so he could jump up out to the platforms. What he was doing was kiting both warriors with Renew and Power Word: Shield. Fortunately the warriors both (!) missed the jump and fell down to the lower level.

Then one of the guys on Vent said "Rez the shadow priest". So I was like "What? Oh yeah, shi--I can do that!". So I hit the rez button and began to cast it, biting my finger nails hoping not to be interrupted or getting targeted for doing it.

By this time one of the warriors were on their way up to the bridge again. They saw me casting it, and I was going like "OMG!". But for some reason, they ran past me trying to kill the priest on the platform - but both missed the jump AGAIN! They obviously didn't know what the heck I was doing.

I successfully rezzed the shadow priest, then me and the priest healed him up and I buffed him with BoWisdom to give him some mana

After that it's a bit fuzzy, but I believe we just feared one warrior and started to dot the second one up eventually killing them both.

It was truly an epic battle. Wish I would've recorded it or taken screenshots of it (think I got two). If I were the opposing team I'd crap my pants or rip my hair off. Literally. No wonder they're removing the ability to rez in arenas in 2.1. It's pretty friggin funny (and cheezy!).

Speaking of Arena PVP. Pallies who said that Scrolls of Blinding Light sucked should get slapped. It only got nerfed 5% speed between Classic and TBC - fortunately! Those who clamored it served no purpose were wrong back in the day and they're still wrong today. It is one of the best trinkets for Holy Paladins there is. Period. For over a year now it's been on my trinket slot. It is actually to the point where I am amazed it has not been nerfed more extensively. I can toss heals in really, really quick secession. A portable Heroism/Bloodlust. With arena resetting all cooldowns I can use it once every battle. Haha, I remember when the Burning Crusade came out, my first question was - "Did they add another level 70 trinket that's just like 'Scrolls?".

Combine it with Divine Illumination and it's like being a PVP-shotgun healer. It is like being Max Payne in Bullet Time, you know. Kinda same feeling. I can heal so fast that I can keep a clothie up with Mortal Strike, rows of dots who's being focused fired longer than you think. No joke. I find myself activating Scrolls, Divine Illumination and Divine Shield all at the same time to be a pretty bad-ass combo. Invincible tank healer that can throw cheap heals really, really fast. Kek.

In other news, the reitemization of end-game gear is great! Worldofraids.com has an excellent list of item changes on the PTR.

For example look at the Justicar set and compare 'em to the existant Justicar.

Crystalforge tanking set is also available; helm, gloves, legs, chest and shoulders.

If you're one of the Pallies who grabbed the Pendant of the Violet Eye or Ribbons of Sacrifice for fun, consider dusting them off!

Legacy has literally become hunter loot. To redeem yourself, check the blacksmithing weapons.

2.1 is probably going to be the best patch in World of Warcraft history. Not only is the content absolutely massive, but they have done a lot of good moves in fixing end-game. Literally every answer to someone saying something in guild chat is "lol, wait for 2.1 - it'll be fixed". The Illumination nerf, for those who know I was kinda upset about - I'm over it. As long as we can still heal heroics I'm not that bothered about it. Combined with the reitemization changes I think the effect of the nerf won't be as big as initially expected.

Anyways, this Friday I'm off again back to Europe for two months or so. I'll be back in America right before BlizzCon and hopefully will attend (Northrend Expansion or Starcraft 2!). If anyone of you guys show up there I'd be happy to meet with you. Who knows? Maybe Blizz will have some bloggers' corner or something there which I can put all my gear. Just like as in 2004 Prez conventions where bloggers sit in a special room to stroke their own epeens. That'd be pretty cool.

To be honest, one of the things I look forward most to are the class panels. I would really like to ask what really is holding Ret Pallies back when it comes to raiding? Is it a philosophical question due to our heals/bubble/plate or technical question of just improving our overall raid utility? Also, obviously, I would like to ask where our class is heading and maybe what is in store for us in the future, and what we can expect to come for us.

Edit: Progressively fixing errors in text. Wrote this in the wee morning.