Farewell.

Well, the time came for me to say goodbye, and farewell.
I am having a lot of stuff in real life that made me make a decision to stop playing this game, and stop blogging about it.

i will keep this short, thanks for all the readers and fellow bloggers that i had fun with, talking and blogging together.

My advice to anyone that wants a good paladin blogs, to keep watching:
1- A touch of arcane
2- Bossy Pally

i know i will keep my eyes on those 2, they know how to play a paladin and they know how to blog about it, much better than me.

for ret paladins, Forbearance is what you need to check every day, Jong is a wonderful person, funny and skilled at playing a facerolling class :P

if you are interested in the best blog i have ever seen and read, This gnome 's blog is what you need to read, although its not a healing blog (sometimes it is) its one of the most enjoyable blogs you'd ever see.

Farewell my friends, i know i will miss you all, i will keep watching those blogs, but sadly i would not have the time to blog about paladins now a days, unless someone takes me for some guest posting somewhere, which i doubt.

Thanks for all the fish, and farewell.

Holy light builds VS Flash light builds.

Inspired by Ophelie of The Bossy Pally i am going to post the long time due HOL VS FOL+SS builds.


I've been a FOL+SS fan from the start of this expansion, thats how i rolled in TBC, my first Heroic dungon, and thats how i started doing TOC 10.
Untill i got into the guild that i am currently in, Lets Go Burgling.

I've done a couple of TOC 25 man pugs before, i saw the need of HOL spam in some fights, but the first time i stepped into TOGC 10 or 25, i knew that FOL+SS spec won't work, thankfully, i had my stand by Holy build spec and gear, so i equiped them.

qouting from Ophelie, because she can spell better than me:

So, um, what are these Builds you speak of?

As the names imply, a Holy Light build revolves around using Holy Light (HL, big heal) as your primary spell and a Flash of Light revolves around using Flash of Light (FoL, little heal) as your primary spell. The Holy Light build is what you’ll see most often in PvE, with Int Gems in every socket save one to activate the meta gem. The key is to this build is to have enough mana to pump out a lot of strong, toe-curling, in yo’ face heals for the whole fight. You’ll still use the Flash of Light spell, but your gear is tuned towards using Holy Light as much as you need to. The Flash of Light build is one you’ll see occasionally, but not as often. Spell Power gems all over with some haste and mp5 gems to get every ounce of Spell Power socket bonuses. The point is to make Flash of Light a powerful, nearly instacast spell. It also gives Sacred Shield some extra oomph, although never having seen an FoL pally in action, I couldn’t tell you exactly how much oomph that is.

Are there talent builds that are connected to each type?

Not exactly. There are two common specs for PvE as a paladin, the “crit spec” (holy/ret to get Conviction and sometimes Sanctity of Battle) and the “bubble spec” (holy/prot to get Divine Sacrifice). The crit spec has advantages for both types of play, maximum mana return due to crit (always good) and extra output for a FoL spec. Bubble spec, however, gives you the glorious Divine Sacrifice and delightful reduction on the hand of protection CD. Utility is important as a paladin, if you’re not making yourself useful, you fall into the paladin cliché who does nothing but spam 1-2 spells the entire time. Whats the fun in that?

Many holy paladins actually have both specs and swap between them depending on the fight. If you don’t have an offspec you frequently use, this is a great option.

Glyphs, on the other hand, change depending on whether you want to go FoL or HL:

Holy Light Glyphs
1- Glyph of Holy Light
2- Glyph of Seal of Wisdom
3- Glyph of Divinity, Glyph of Flash of Light, Glyph of Beacon of Light or Glyph of Holy Shock (all depending on your style and raid environment)

Flash of Light Glyphs
1- Glyph of Flash of Light
2- Glyph of Seal of Light
3- Personal Choice

After reading all about ICC instance, and the ''Chill of the throne'' debuff that everyone will be having, i am advicing EVERY Paladin to go HOL spam, tanks will have less dodge, and thats less avoidance, not to mention that bosses hit harder, you'll have to consider your mana though, if you are below 31k unbuffed, you'll have some troubles with getting mana back, even with Divine Plea.
Gem int, and keep some haste and most importantly, crit.
forget about the MP5 that Blizz is fooling us with, its not worth it.
feel free to check my armory, Almaster of Arthas, i am usually using holy light build with crit from Ret tree.

Feel free to throw a comment, if you need more explination.

Shared Topic: Best Change to the Game

The new shared Topic i picked for my readers today, is this one from Bloz Azeroth

Many things have changed and improved within the game between Vanilla, BC & Wrath. Which change that Blizzard released, made a fundamental difference to your gaming experience?

A possible expansion to this topic would be what really irritates you that they still haven't gotten around to fixing?

Best Change to the game?
Dual spec, hands down.

nothing effected players in all aspects of the game like dual spec, all hybards were reqired to respec mostly every day, sometimes twice a day, it was a major loss in gold, and the reason people used to farm so much.

Is dual spec the only good change to the game? no way, is it perfect? hell no.
I have 3 holy specs (1 PVP, 1 holy bubble spec holy/prot, 1 holy crit spec holy/ret)
1 tanking spec, and when i need to farm rep or something, i have a ret spec.

a shout out for Blizz, Gimmme 5 dual specs. kkthnxbai.

I would like to mention all the changes that i liked in this game, changes from Vanilla to TBC to WOTLK.

First change everyone noticed in this game, going from 40 man raids to 25 man raids, this was so sweet, that when i heared about it i started doing my victory dance and shouting Fuck yeah!
carrying many bads, starting the fights with 40 man and ending with only 20 that knows how to play, and just the thought of 40 people talking in vent. bad.
waiting for 40 people to log online for a raid. bad.

2nd change that i really liked, professions being actually helpful for people, on my warrior in vanilla wow, i had enchanting and blacksmithing, enchanting for d/eing items only, with a skill of 25 (back then, at skill of 25, you can disenchant everything from greens to epics) and blacksmithing, just because of my thoughts of the warrior being able to craft plate items.
in TBC, i changed enchanting to mining, since they fixed enchanting to actually increase your skill to be able to disenchant items, blacksmithing was really helpful.
the 2h and 1h weapons you could craft was awesome, and you can upgrade then while you progress, that was a really cool idea from blizz.

3rd change i liked? BOA items, with the 20% xp from killing monsters and completing quests, its awesome, the reason i didn't have many alts back in TBC and vanilla was because i hate doing 1 million quests in 1 area, i like to change areas every now and then.

4th change, Haste, for both melee and casters, the haste stat is wonderfull, and i am pretty sure everyone loved it.

the things that should have changed, chinese farmers, wait, i am not racist, i just dont like to see a lvl 80 BE going underground or flying and getting my mining nod, i just hate it.
and when you make a ticket or e-mail Blizz about it, they'll tell you that they are invistegating about it, and ofcourse, the next day you will find the same BE getting your nods! damn them farmers!


Now, the best changes that i liked for a paladin, from Vanilla to TBC to WoTlK.

1- Sacred shield, plus the effect of SS with FOL, the hot, its really HOT!
2- Beacon of light we really needed it, especially in WOTLK where you will need 2 tanks for a boss, or 2 tanks for 2 bosses, heal one to heal the other = win!
3- Blessing of kings not being in talent, i loved it!

I'd really love to see MP5 really working for Holy paladins, and would love to see Ret paladins with skills other than Jong.

that would be the end of my post today, i know i've been slacking with the posts recently, but as Gnomergaddon said in his post, Palading blogs are boring, they only have 2 healing spells!

The voices in my head

Are telling me to post!

so i am going to talk about something that has been bothering me the most.
My helm!

Right now, i am using Valorous Aegis Headpiece, for the people who are too lazy to check the link, its T8 helm.
Conqueror's Aegis Headpiece is an upgrade, however, its not that big upgrade, i can easily get it, i have like 200 badges.
I've been running Ony 10 and 25 for a chance of getting Judgement Cover from 10 man or Judgement Crown from 25 and today i will get enough emblems to get Heaume of the Restless Watch.

I'm really disappointed with my choices, the only major upgrades that i'd take is Heaume of the Restless Watch and Judgement Crown.


thinking i will be getting Heaume of the Restless Watch, my guild is at Anubarak TOTGC 25, and i am the less geared holy paladin in the guild, now don't get me wrong, i am trying to upgrade what is needed to upgrade, but still i dont upgrade something that is not a major upgrade, i am not cheap i have around 30k gold on all of my chars, but i just don't like to take a piece of gear if its not a major upgrade for me, i just dont.

Almaster and out!

Faction Champs Secrets Uncovered

A new day at work means to search websites and blogs that i am following for something new or interesting.

Today, I've found something both new and interesting on The Bossy Pally blog a post about Faction Champions fight in TOC and how it works.

Althought Oph wasn't the one making that project, Maintankadin did.

Please have a look on both Oph's post and Joanadark's post.

Announcement: World of Warcraft Raid for the Cure!

Read the full article at big bear buff blog.

Paladin T10 / Season 8

Just saw those pictures on MMO-Champion.

the pics are huge, so clicky for full version.

Paladin T10.



I actually think its cool, IF IT CAME WITH PANTS AND NOT A GOD DAMN KILT.


Season 8.





Finally some big shoulder animation, i am loving it!

Soon, i will post about the new set bonus and item bonus.

A Questionnaire?

I had comments on my last post from Ophelie from The Bossy Pally and the Giant Spoon, so i decided to check out her blog.
Something caught my eyes very quickly, A Questionnaire? (my first thought was WTH does that even mean? :P)

This post called ''My first meme-that-is-not-a-meme!''
and i wanted to get in!
So here how it goes.

• What is the name, class, and spec of your primary healer?

Almaster, Paladin, Holy.

• What is your primary group healing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

Mostly raiding, daily heroic and such, wanted to PVP but i was never a big fan of it.

• What is your favorite healing spell for your class and why?

FOL, or flash of light, i love the numbers it heals, plus the HOT from FOL and SS.

• What healing spell do you use least for your class and why?

Divine Favor. Why? Because i crit half of the time already!

no seriously, i rarely use it, i don't know why, i have it keybinded already, but rarely find the chance to use it for a critical setuation.

• What do you feel is the biggest strength of your healing class and why?

Burst healing, the ability to keep tanks alive during all the fight, and finishing with more than half of your mana bar remaining. also waering plate with a shield is awesome.

• What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your healing class and why?

the lack of raid healing spells, and being not able to move casting holy light, some setuations you are casting the big holy light cast, the tank is low on health, and the boss thinks that it would be awesome to throw a big fire under your feet, so its either you stay there and take damage from that fire and you might die, or move and cast holy light again just as the tank dies.

• In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best healing assignment for you?

Healing tanks, DUH!

beacon of light and SS are very powerful tools, you can heal both of the OT and the MT with no stress at all.

• What healing class do you enjoy healing with most and why?

I'd say resto druid or disc priest, i tried resto druid before, but my gear and skill was lacking so i didn't have much fun.

• What healing class do you enjoy healing with least and why?

Shamans, i had a 70 shaman back when i was playing horde, a TROLL shaman! but all i did was Chain heal, Chain heal, chain heal, chain heal.

i remember one time i was watching House, and chain pressing 1 untill i heared the raid leader calling my name saying that the boss died and i didnt have to chain heal anymore.

• What is your worst habit as a healer?

I like challenges, sometimes in heroics, i leave the tank or the dps health to go too low and then start healing them, just to get the thrill of doing something rather than just using FOL every 5 secs.

• What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while healing?

I'd say for all healers its - I really hate when people say “so and so needs heals!” over vent.

i agree with Oph and Jes here.

• Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other healers for PvE healing?

As i said, the lack of raid heals might cause a problem for some pallys, although i enjoy it.

beacon the tank, cast FOL on the raid = full healed raid and tank.

• What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a healer?

As long as my target or anyone that i am assigned for healing is still alive, i am FUCKING PRO!

last time i went to TOC 25 man, someone thought it would be funny to die from Icehowl's charge, and the boss went enraged, i remembered one spell that i didn't use since the time me and Headstab were doing arena in last season, so i used it.

Hand of sacrifise, its awesome with a bubble, mitigates a lot of damage, also i use hand of freedom a little bit too much, since i made a macro when i use it, i yell the phrase from Braveheart movie.

''They might take our lifes, but what they'll never take, OUR BLESSING OF
FREEDOM!''

:D

• What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your healing class?

I don't believe there is any misconceptions people have about holy paladins, we are very OP'ed :P

• What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new healers of your class to learn?

Timing thier heals, big or small heals needs some timing, but i learned fast, as i learned healing when i was doing Illidan lol.

i was port before i switched to healing, i had SSC/Tk gear and was healing Illidan fight hehe.

• If someone were to try to evaluate your performance as a healer via recount, what sort of patterns would they see (i.e. lots of overhealing, low healing output, etc)?

Well, it depends on the fight, so i don't see this as a valid question for paladins, in TOTGC with major damage for tanks, i usually be the first on healing meters, in lest say TOC 25 faction champion fight, i am usually the last in healing, with 184 dispells lol.

but anyhow, if you for example check my healing for 1 fight, it will depend on the fight itself, otherwise check my overall preformace, and you'll be happy of what you'll see :D

i'll make sure to post a screenshot of my recount sometimes soon.

• Haste or Crit and why?

both, i'd say, crit was the major mana regen for paladins, but not anymore, it still get us mana back, but not that much, also too much haste can get a paladin OOM fast.

so a mix of them both will be good.

• What healing class do you feel you understand least?

Shamans, hands down.

I've failed on my troll shammy before, but i can see Shamans in my guild owning the healing meters.

i need to understand them more.

• What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in healing?

I don't have that many macros, addons, i have many, check out my post about my addons.

• Do you strive primarily for balance between your healing stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why?

Right now, i am stacking Int, i didn't want to at the start, as i said before SP is gets your SS OP'ed but sadly with nerfs hitting us, i decided to go for Int, be a good pally is better than QQing all the time :P

Now is the hard part, i need to tag another healing class blog.

Armaggedon isn't a new blogger, and he isn't even a healer, but then came Squidly! his alt shammy that from reading his blog, i see he is enjoying playing him a lot.

A Touch of Arcane, also not a new blogger, but one of my favorites, he really knows what he is talking about!

The original post by Jess from Miss Medicina

Jes Miss Medicina's Circle of healing

Ophelie's POV

Nerfed to the ground

I knew this day would come, the nerf hammer just hit us!

• We interrupt our regular programming to bring you a square kick in the balls:

1. Sacred Shield can now only occur every 30 sec. (Up from 6 sec)
2. Lay on Hands can no longer be cast on yourself.
3. Infusion of Light now also reduces the cooldown on the effect of Sacred Shield by 12/24 sec.
4. Aura Mastery now lasts 6 sec. (Down from 10 sec)

4 Nerfs in 1 patch notes, OUCH!

Sacred Shield can now only occur every 30 sec. (Up from 6 sec)

Sacared Shield nerf is critical to paladins that focused on SP more than Int stacking, like i used to do, since the absorb effect stacks with SP.

to avoid this, i started mindlessly stacking Int like other pallys, and guess what?

i fucking hate it.

Lay on Hands can no longer be cast on yourself.

This sucks too, its one of our most used to survive during PVP or even PVE with a shit load of damage happening to both of you and the tank, its also a major spell to regenerate mana, i use it most of the time on myself to get mana back, its awesome, and they broke it! damn Blizz

Infusion of Light now also reduces the cooldown on the effect of Sacred Shield
by 12/24 sec.

Oh yeah? i want it back to 6 secs kkthnxbai.

Aura Mastery now lasts 6 sec. (Down from 10 sec)

This is a big nerf, i used to use Aura Mastery at hodir for the frozen blows, If i used it on the first one,the cooldown would finish right after Hodir uses his frozen blows for the 3rd time, thats half of the healing for 2 frozen blows and maximum healing at the 2nd, its not that big nerf, but still its a nerf.

Well, maybe my LVL 63 hunter will get some lvling and loving now.

No i am not quiting because of some nerfs that hit us, i just dont want to QQ anymore :P

Talisman of Resurgence

First of all, I tend to use a very simple calculation to turn a given mana PPM into Mp5. Any mana return happening every minute is included, and Divine Plea is exactly like this. 60/5 = 12. So simply divide the mana PPM by 12 and you'll have it on an exact Mp5 value.Secondly, Paladins need to clearly include their stat buffs (or spell it out if they aren't).
We have Divine Intellect (2%/4%/6%/8%/10% talents, all five traditionally used) along with Kings (10%), making up a full 20% buff to any and all Intellect we have. So if we multiply it by 1.2 we instantly figure out the actual total Intellect an item gives to Paladins and this would always be calculated first and be kept in mind.
For example, a 20 Intellect gem "is" actually a 24 Intellect gem.These easy numbers will make it more natural for you to know what you're actually getting and also not to do the same mistakes again.
Therefore, this trinket's passive Intellect is worth in an average boss fight:

153.6 Intellect
2304 mana
68.736 Mp5
0.93% Crit (Illumination regen for this not included above)
30.72 Spellpower128 Intellect on this trinket ammounts to 153.6 Intellect which is 2304 mana (1 Int = 15 mana). Divine Plea restores 25% (*0.25) or 1/4 (/4) of that every minute, so 2304 / 4 / 12 = 48 Mp5. 1% Crit takes "around" 166 Intellect each, meaning "around" 0.93 Crit. You could also add how much average mana return you expect from your crits for that ammount, however it involves more intricate calculations involving for example how much Crit you're already stacking.Replenishment is essentially 1% of your mana pool as Mp5 and it should be up nearly always, however you may want to calculate it as 90% due to change of targets, movement and other oddities in fights. 2304 * 0.009 = 20.736 Mp5As for Spellpower, 153.6 Intellect gives, with Holy Guidance (4%/8%/12%/16%/20% talents), 30.72.
You can use the trinket's effect when casting Divine Plea every other minute (just like you would with Avenging Wrath) so as to be able to heal for more during the duration even as you keep regening a good chunk of mana.I might also add that the debate over the usefulness of Spellpower for Paladins as of 3.2.2 is essentially about how much you prefer and are able to successfully keep using FoL as your main heal, maxing out its performance.
At a higher gear level, buffing FoL rather than simply your Intellect is actually a very good alternative to the spending of HL's hefty mana cost and its overhealing (even if it all gets transferred to the beaconed target now, it also mostly overheals him too).
We actually have been offered very good new tools to do this, like the HoT from SS. It should also be noted both of these spells have high coefficients with SP, namely 100% for FoL and 75% on SS.

How to raid ANYTHING. By Mortigan the lock.

Found this post while i was surfin' the interwebz, found it extremely funny.

Mortigan the lock said:

I find it terribly hard to remember all the nuances of each boss fight. Sorry, but I'm just not hard-core enough to memorize who casts what, and I really don't care if Pixie McNixie in the bottom of some hole is planning to fear me, sheep me, or chop me in half with a big heavy axe. Why? Because overall things are pretty much the same from one boss to the next, so I figured I could come up with a single set of rules on how to raid ANYTHING. I've appropriately named these rules "A Single Set Of Rules On How To Raid ANYTHING."

Getting Ready:
Many people go to YouTube and watch Tankspot videos to familiarize themselves with the fights. This is a waste of time, because all you really need are my simple rules. Not 100% sure? Here are some additional reasons for skipping the videos:1. Those people in the videos are ELITE WIZARDS and your raid team is not going to do anywhere near as well as them. It's like watching an Olympic gold medalist do the ski jump and then trying it yourself. Forget about it.2. There are less steps to preparing your taxes than there are to fights like Freya. Watching Tankspot explain it on YouTube will only give you a headache. Your guild is going to wipe on it anyway, so no need to give yourself a migraine. Skip the video and use my rules below!

Let's Raid!
Ok, so here is my Single Set Of Rules On How To Raid ANYTHING:
1. DO NOT stand in anything that wasn't there before the fight started, if it visually looks dangerous. This includes fire, black steaming circles of nastiness, green slimy stuff, purple ooze, etc. If you are not sure, stand in it for a second and see if your health goes down. If it does, MOVE.
2. DEFINITELY DO stand in anything that wasn't there before the fight started, if it visually looks beneficial. This includes pleasant rays of fairy moonlight, air with lightning bug / glittery things in it, shiny sparkly spots on the floor, or anything else that a 3 year old girl might want to color. If you are not sure, stand in it for a second. If nothing bad happens, definitely keep standing it it because it MUST be doing something good.
3. Do the following based on your function:

Tank: Attack the boss with everything you got. Keep doing this and don't stop until your healer drags you away screaming at you, "STOP! STOP! HE'S DEAD ALREADY!"
Heal: Keep healing until everyone is either dead and blaming you, or the boss is dead. In the latter case, it is your job to drag the tank away from the bloody corpse.
DPS: Do the same as the tank, but wait a fraction of a second before doing so. This way, if you get aggro, you can blame the Tank. Otherwise, he will blame you. That fraction of a second makes all the difference on who gets blamed for the wipe. Use it wisely. Now this next part is important: If adds arrive, you need to make a visual check of how dangerous they look. If they look like they can be ignored, stay on the boss. If they look really nasty, switch to the add. Simple! Or you can always fall back on the "watch what everyone else is doing and copy them" strategy, but I'm training you to be a trailblazer, so get in there and blaze that trail!
Off Tank: You're on the adds. Someday, if you ever become cool enough or geared enough, the guild might let you be a REAL tank. But probably not anytime soon. So stick to adds. And if you run like a madman all over the map with a trail of adds behind you, creating a hellish conga-line of death, all the DPSers are going to HATE YOU. So keep your butt in one spot, take your beating, and suck it up.
4. DO NOT stand in a Boss' AOE. The crap raining down on your head should be an obvious sign that it's time to pack up and move.
5. Should a boss fight require you to operate some sort of vehicle, land mount, or drake, randomly mash buttons as fast as the cool-downs allow. Generally, Button 1 is the biggie one to mash, so mash it more than the others. No one's really going to notice if you did well or not, so just mash, mash, mash! You're a pro!
6. If you get aggro, run TOWARD your teammates, not away from them. It's the surest way to get rid of that unwanted boss who's taken serious notice of you. Ideally, run toward (and right through) a mage. Mages are a big, big help with getting rid of aggro. If you're cool enough to be a warlock like me, you can even strategically position yourself right next to a mage throughout the fight, and Soulshatter as needed. Be sure to turn toward the mage when Soulshattering, so that you can watch the look on his face when the boss 1-shots him. If you're a mage, disregard everything I've just said, and take one for the team.
7. The laws of the universe that govern comic books, video games, and science fiction in general require that twins ALWAYS have some sort of symbiotic relationship, and a special power will CERTAINLY exist between them. Therefore, any time there are twin bosses (or even twin adds if they're extremely dangerous looking), they MUST be killed simultaneously. Very bad things happen when one twin witnesses the death of the other. Heed my warning, and kill any and all twins at the same time. Further, they cannot be allowed to touch each other or send each other any kind of glowing orb, ray beam, soothing rainbow, etc. You don't want the wonder-twins activating ANYTHING. So keep them apart, kill them apart, and do it at the same time.

If you follow these simple rules, you're sure to be a success at your next raid. I advise you to print this out and keep it handy. Review it during the boring buff periods before raiding, or when the tank if off in Dalaran begging for another healer. And be sure to stop back by and let me know how it went! Happy raiding!Your buddy,
Mortigan the Lock .


Almaster approves.

Waiting for ICC

DISCLAIMER:
This post was on A Touch of Arcane, i liked it and copied it because god knowss that is what exactly i am feeling.

I don't know about you but I'm seriously waiting for Icecrown Citadel. Not that I've finished
all the content, I've yet to see Yog Sarron die, but that requires several evenings on Udluar and most people don't spend that amount of time on this raid anymore. Too much "free loot" on ToC (normal) or Onyxia or Lolaron to motivate much people about Ulduar.

I still think Ulduar is the best raid from WotLK up to now, despite it being too big, it should have been split in two raids as it was done all along BC. I still have some friends motivated by Ulduar hard modes and we're trying them from time to time, usually one or two nights a week when we are lucky enough to make our suicidal squad (Auriaya with all cats is a crazy fun mess of a fight to heal). If I find ToC hard mode mostly a "gear check", Ulduar hard modes are, at least for some of them, very entertaining.

The first news from the next raid Blizzard is giving us are starting to appear, and the first boss was tested on the PTR these last days (report on Mmo Champion). It doesn't seem super hard, as least on paper, I hope the normal/hard mode gap will be lower then ToC, and my wish is for hard modes to contain more abilities, more strategy than just be a gear check put over a normal difficulty boss.

I guess we'll all see that in IC, hopefully not too long from now, but even more hopefully nicely tested and balanced.


Post part 2
Paladin T10:
I guess i have to post something about it, but i don't see the need to.
since there is only the set pieces bonus that is out there, and i find them good enough.

Going to make a full topic about it when i get more info

Paladins and the stacking of Intellect.

I've been posting of how good stacking intellect is for Paladins.
and I think i have something else to say this time.

I have 21979 unbuffed mana, and i never get out of it, also, i've topped the healing meters twice yesterday with 2 druids, 2 priests and another holy paladin in both 25 OS 3 drake (old school way, no zerg) and TOTC 25 man, and guess what? my mana never dropped below 75%.

Yeah!

So I'll say this, Intellect is no more the first stat I would be searching for.
I have 2363 unbuffed spell power, 33.05 crit.

Whats helping me get all that mana i'm using back?

Insightful Earthsiege Diamond and Tears of the Vanquished.
and i fucking love it.

I also tried to have some Royal Dreadstone in my gear, and i'm also loving it.

So for now, i'm going to keep stacking on items that returns mana, and i'm going to try it, for the next couple of boss.

Don't get me wrong, i love having infinite number of mana, but i see its not important when i never drop below 50% of mana, divine plea is wonderful, i usually pop my wings when i use it and i dont lost much of my healing.

i just wish i've got a WWS of last night's healing to show you, sadly i forgot all about it.

Almaster and out!.

Better late than never?

I've seen many guilds say that, but i second that statement.

I'll give you as example, something i always dreamed of doing, since the start of WOTLK raiding.



I wanted to be a Twilight Vanquisher.

and i'm finally



As getting something i always wanted, i should feel good, and i am not.
It felt like Obama wining the Nobel prize.



Damn that kayne west.

So in my opinion, its never better be late than never.


yeah i've said it.




and i don't care what wonder woman has to say about it!

I just hope that in the next patch of ICC, i can do some of the things i want to do.

So Blizz,



Almaster and out!

Will the real Lich King please stand up?

New news about ICC came out, you can find them all on MMO-Champion : Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Throne.

As i said like 100 times on this blog, I've been playing this game since vanilla wow, and to be honest, I've never seen so much media news about it.

Wherever i surf in this Interwebz, i find a new news about ICC or Cata, every where i go, i find a picture of Arthas, or a rumor about the destiny of Garrosh, Thrall or Craine blood hoof (the leader of Thunder-bluff).

And to be honest.... its getting me sick and bored.

I just hope Arthas wouldn't be an easy boss to kill, I've played on a server named after him, because i loved his story in World of Warcraft.

If Blizz made him as easy as TOTGC Anubarak (in 10 man), i will be disappointed.

Shared Topic:WoW Where You'd Least Expect It..

This week, the Shared topic of Blog Azeroth is : Wow Where You'd Least Expect It.

In our Middle eastern culture, once a month (sometimes more) we go to a local cafe, where you can smoke Sheesha (AKA:Hookah).

I've been going around once a week, since i turned 20 and started working, at 20 i also just started playing WOW and was still a low lvl troll warrior who knows nothing about this game, my English was a little poor, so i didn't know how to play and i didn't know how to talk to people in-game.

So i had my laptop on, smoking some Hookah, and tanking in WC, needing all the green loot that was dropping, just because i didn't know what greed is



when suddenly a guy came to me and started talking to me about how i should greed everything that is not mail, since warriors only wear mail till lvl 40, then they wear plate.
i listened to him talking about his shaman, and for my surprise he was in the same server i was in, we started lvling together and we became friends.

of course when we both hit 60, he was lucky and got into a guild that was running MC, and i slowed down a bit trying to gear myself before i applied to a guild that was raiding.

Till now we occasionally talk with each others. :D

The future of paladins

Dear Paladins everywhere.

I really love playing a paladin, I've been playing one for over 2 years now, and I'm loving every second of it, Paladins are like my heroes.



I always ask my self, whats the meaning of being a paladin, being so infused with light, killing all sorts of evil everywhere.



Sadly, there are some people playing paladins just like me, who make us look really bad



and i keep thinking that we are having some bad reputation from all of them nerd raging.



To all the people who changed spec to ret back in late TBC days, and suck at it till now.


You are not.

I don't think it really is that awesome, however people who has been playing a holy paladin since the start of this game, and still doing so.




Signed: a nerd raged Holy paladin.



This rant has been brought to you by:holy paladin who got his ass given to him by a ret paladins face-rolling in arena.

the story of this post is:
I played a game of arena with my buddy headstab, a 2 ret pally team came to me, and got me down in 0.5 seconds.

sorry for posting while still under nerd rage >_<

This just in!

Blizzard has already released new details about the upcoming five-player dungeon in the Icecrown Citadel. It will supposedly be the biggest one in a "long time", they are also mentioning epic quest lines and 232 ilvl loot from the Heroic mode.

Icecrown Citadel will feature a massive five-player dungeon sprawling across three wings of the citadel's foundation. While the Lich King's attention is focused on the Argent Crusade and the Knights of the Ebon Blade ripping through the front gates, players will be tested as they assist Jaina Proudmoore (Alliance) and Sylvanas Windrunner (Horde) in infiltrating the citadel through an alternate entrance.

An epic quest line will present adventurers with the task of weakening Icecrown Citadel's forces, requiring that players defeat the challenges in each dungeon wing before venturing into the next one. Normal and Heroic versions of the dungeon will be accessible to players, although each wing will be considered a separate instance; therefore, on Heroic difficulty, each wing will have its own separate lockout timer. All-new rewards -- including item level 219 (normal) and level 232 (Heroic) loot -- will be offered to those who destroy some of the Lich King's most formidable allies.

The Forge of Souls

Serving as the first wing in this expansive dungeon, the Forge of Souls will quickly put players to the test of carving through the Scourge stronghold into deeper, more treacherous locations. Jaina will command Alliance forces, and Sylvanas will direct Horde forces. The goal is to ruin the twisted engines known as soul grinders found in this portion of the citadel, and then players can advance -- that is, if the Horde and Alliance forces can overcome the foes who confront them.

Bosses

* Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls: An instrument of reckoning, Bronjahm watches over the engines in the Forge of Souls. He must be killed if the soul grinders are to be destroyed.

* The Devourer of Souls: As the chief operator of the engines found in this wing, the Devourer stands guard over the souls stolen by the Lich King.

Pit of Saron

Accessible only to those who have laid waste to the Forge of Souls' unholy operations, the Pit of Saron will bring Horde and Alliance forces deeper into the Lich King's domain. Players who venture here will immediately be confronted by the lord of this lair, Scourgelord Tyrannus. But defeating him will not be as easy as it seems. Before they can present a threat to Tyrannus, the adventurers, instructed by their leaders, will need to free enslaved allies who have been trapped by the Scourge. Until that happens, Tyrannus will leave all adversaries to his minions, workers of the citadel's mines. Perhaps the challenges here will lend clues as to the whereabouts of the Lich King's private chambers outside of the Frozen Throne, deep within the Halls of Reflection.

Bosses

* Forgemaster Garfrost: A master of Scourge weaponry, the forgemaster hauls stocks of saronite ore and other precious materials to the cold forges where the mechanisms of death are born. With a host of rime weapons and exotic alloys at his disposal, it could get cold in here.

* Krick and Ick: Zombies serve as mindless muscle in the Pit of Saron's mines, stockpiling metals for Forgemaster Garfrost, and Krick -- a devious leper gnome -- supervises the operations from atop Ick, Krick's ghastly means of transportation.

* Scourgelord Tyrannus: Tyrannus is a terrible force who will no doubt demonstrate his powers to those brave enough to enter the Pit of Saron. The scourgelord must die if players hope to make their way into the third and final wing of this dungeon.


Halls of Reflection

With Jaina and Sylvanas leading the way, adventurers who make it as far as these frigid halls will quickly recognize the weapon that lies ahead: Frostmourne, the corruptive, legendary device of the Lich King himself. The Lich King's private chambers are within reach, although they may be the death of anyone who ventures there.

Bosses

* Falric and Marwyn: Captains for Arthas Menethil in life, Scourge commanders for the Lich King in death, Falric and Marwyn will be summoned to the Halls of Reflection for one purpose: destroying all intruders.

* The Lich King: Sylvanas, thirsty for vengeance against the corrupted prince who sentenced her to an existence as an undead monstrosity, and Jaina, eager to find a flicker of Arthas's soul locked somewhere within the Lich King, have brought their hand-picked allies to this final confrontation. Arthas's true power may only now be discovered. Is there any hope in this mission, or does only death await.

Source

what i think?
Fight with lich king - take 1:
At 1 % - bubble and HS.

New UI + introducing, Teh Evilcandy!

I promised to post my new UI, so here it is!





here it is if you cant see the full sized picture, i uploaded it on image shack, click on it for the full screen




I'll have to remove the 2 chat boxes to where they're supposed to be =)


What I am using is Spartan UI with bartender, Bagnon2, ForteXorcist, Prat, Pally power, quick mark, recount and SexyMap.


post part 2: Introducing the Evilcandwe!

Evilcandwe is my DK alt.
You might ask me, how did i get that name?
Well, lets see, i am not that creative when it comes to getting names for my characters, back at horde i had: Almaster, Elmaster and Zemaster.
When i switched to Alliance, i now have: Almaster, Zemaster (my hunter) Stuusx (my newly made priest, i named him after a priest (Stuus) that was guilded with us, i have a lot of respect to that person, he used to top damage meters at almost every fight :P and i always said that he is my elder brother that i never had) and Evilcandwe.
Candwe was my best friend on the horde side, a resto druid that knows how to play her class at PVE, in PVP, she sucks :P
back to the story, i wanted to lvl a DK and stand with her in Dlaran, as Candwe and her Evil self, but it didnt work out since Candwe server x-fered about 2 months ago.



using the same UI, adding Facesmasher, since i fail at the DK rotation, facesmasher tells me what to use and when to use it :P

FAQs and need some help!

Hello everyone,

1- I'm going to start a FAQ post every start of the month, so if you have any questions related to me/Holy Paladins/Ret Paladins/Protection Paladins that you'd like me to answer for it, please send me an e-mail at Halqato@gmail.com.
2- I'm looking for someone to help me out with this blog, Paladin preferably or any healing class, I'd consider any DPS class that has the will and the energy to keep posting in this blog.
if you are interested, please send me an e-mail, my e-mail is mentioned above.
3- I'd love to get my blog on other bloggers blog roll, If you add me to your blog roll, I'll add you to mine!.

Cheers,

I used to be, for the horde!

when I started the game, I knew I wanted to be on the Horde side. Being an avid Warcraft fan, I always enjoyed everything about the faction and was a huge Thrall fan. Going on my third year of playing the game, I found myself playing less and less till finally I stopped playing all together. Was it that I hit a plateau in my enthusiasm for the game or was it simply I’ve run my course? Probably both to be honest.
Being on a PVP server for 3 years will bring disdain towards the other faction like no other. I hated gnomes and I squirmed in BRD just hearing the dwarfs laughing in the bar. Nonetheless, I decided I was going to level a character to 80 and see things from the other side. Funny enough, as of now, its been the most enjoyable time I’ve had playing the game.

To really appreciate the game, you have to see it from both sides and to really appreciate the work Blizzard has done, experience it.

always believed that sentiment that the Horde was where the Adults played and the Alliance was simply filled with children. I always expressed that I could never join the faction due to it and at my own remission, I don’t know why I believed that.



I met up with a group of nobles, if i may say, the guild of Lux Legis, from their Guild leader/Co-leaders, to the newest recruit, they were all kind and welcoming, i've never felt any kind of a stranger that never played this faction before.


now, I'm... For the Alliance!



Now the Alliance is no change from the horde, shapes and names had changed, but nothing else, I have this feeling that i am going to reroll again...
I already started a Death knight over Arygos, which is a server a lot of my horde friends transferred into, but every day i see my paladin after the logging screen, i stop thinking of rerolling, and log into Arthas, with my pride of being Alliance, better yet, a paladin of the Alliance... duh! who wants to be a Blood Elf? =P

Your guide to healing TOTC: Anub'arak

In 10 man, this is a very easy fight when you compare it with 25 man version or any of the heroic versions.
there are simple things to avoid/do, do them right, and you will have no problems downing this boss from try one.

PS: if you are pugging this, the first 3-4 bosses will show you if you are having any nubcakes in your raid, get rid of them before this boss, or if you prefer carrying people then that's your problem :P

for this fight you need at least 1 ranged DPS, 2 tanks, 3 or 2 healers (i did it as 2 healers and got it just fine, although i was on my toes half of the time)

Phase one:
1- 1 ranged DPS to shoot permafrost orbs.
2- 1 tank for Nerubian Burrower, those adds have an expose armor debuff, the tank needs to make sure that he is tanking them on permafrost.
Don't DPS the Nerubian Burrowers at this time, and wait till phase 2, since most of your dps will have nothing to do in that phase.
Phase Two:
Anub'arak will burrow approximately every 90 seconds, starting phase 2. He will pursue a random target with spikes throughout the phase and when he reaches them he will cast Impale. The spikes will gradually speed up until they hit the target, or hit a patch of permafrost. Standing on the permafrost (or being on the other side of permafrost from the spikes) will enable you to avoid the impale, but the permafrost will despawn. After a few seconds, he will select another target.

Swarm Scarabs will spawn rapidly, scarabs have little hp, seem to ignore most threat but stack the same stacking nature damage debuff on their targets, should be range kited and killed, or killed by melee not being chased by them. It is also possible to drag them across permafrost to gain more distance. After about one minute Anub'arak will surface and begin phase one again. He keeps threat from phase one.

Phase Three: It is advisable to kill off any adds currently active before pushing Anub'arak over 30%. He will not submerge or summon any more adds at this point. Anub'arak needs to die very quickly after hitting 30% as you will not last long under the effects of leeching swarm. It is not ideal to top off raid members as they will then be taking full damage from the leeching swarm, healing Anub'arak and prolonging the phase. Instead you will want to keep people at ~5,000 HP, so that they do not get gibbed by penetrating cold while also minimizing the amount Anub'arak heals.

Anub'arak does not have any other tricks and will die upon reaching 0% HP.

congratulations, you can now lewt your pixels.

Shared Topic: Fail.

I've been wanting to post something about this for a long time now, you see, even if you are the best player that have been playing WOW ever, you will still have your fail moments.

Shared Topic: Fail




One of my fail moments when me and my guild went to Naxx 10 to get the Undying title, i was the raid leader and made sure we don't have anyone who have a connection problem/old comp/ retardness to prevent us from earning the title.

3 wings went smooth, until we got into Grobbulus room, got him to 15% before our Elemental shammy disconnected.
I've been guilded with this shammy for over 2 years now, he never disconnects, but because our luck is awesome! he did.

I was 1 man healing the instance, so i went back to Evee (the shammy) and kept healing him since he d/c ed in a poison cloud, i had to walk back and forth to heal the tank and melee and in the same time heal the shammy, until he disappeared, and then went back and healed the raid.
on vent, i was going crazy, cursing at him and asking him to get back in right now or i am going to go to his house kill his family in front of him, then kill him.
he logged back in after we killed the boss, i flamed him all the way until we reached kel'thuzad, everything was going smooth for a 1 healer 10 man group, until...




i got in a void zone and died.

All of my guildies never fail to make me remember that day, every time i try to do something and someone helping me fails, i get reminded of it.
it was fun though, so close to get it, and i failed :(

I R excited!

Hello dear readers!

I'm really excited today, although it has been a long day at work.
Why? you might ask?

1- I just read Ferrro's post about Paladin Schmaladin blog is hiring, and i apped for it.
I know that i deserve to post on such a successful blog, I've been a holy Paladin for a long time now, I've been playing a druid, a rogue, a DK, a Warlock, and a hunter. so i am familiar with most aspects of the game.
I mentioned before that i got my strategy form for the first strategies i posted from ferraro, i really liked the way it was done.
To be honest, although F is offering money for people posting for her, i am not interested at all in it, i have the will to be posting on a paladin blog, and help others, for free! and since this blog is not attracting much readers (sorry), i am a very active, i love to post alot, on my guild website, i think i am the only one posting paladin stuff in the paladin forums, also i am the only one posting raid strats or strats for officers and guild leaders.
I'm also always checking whats new with WOW, i check wowhead, mmo-champion, blog azeroth and much more helpful websites at least 4-5 times a day.
so i hope i get accepted :D

2- i just read gnomeaggedon's post about Azeroth united.
i registered and hope i can help with the community!

3- i got this achievement


25 more mounts for my 100 mounts achievement.

2 years of trying to get this mount, and finally!


4- I made a new UI, i know all of you will love it, i will be posting another topic about it tomorrow hopefully!
yay!

Your guide to healing TOTC: The Val'kyr twins

To begin with, split the raid in half (as well as you can for having 25 people) and start opposite the large entry doors. Those tanking/attacking/healing the white Val'kyr (Fjola Lightbane) should have dark auras, and those tanking/attacking/healing the black Val'kyr (Eydis Darkbane) should have light auras. At the beginning, like most fights, the only one who should need healing is the tank you are assigned to (though there are no penalties for scooting near the middle and being able to hit both tanks). Make sure each tank has their focus in between the portals of the right or left side.

The only time the fight becomes healing intensive is during the "bullet hell time" and that is only if you and your raid members are not careful to avoid balls of light/dark, as you only absorb those of your own type and those of the wrong type cause damage. As a healer, you should avoid all balls as they are much more beneficial to the DPS than you, and they will need them for the shield portion of the fight.

Otherwise, your only other job is to watch for Vortexes and change your color if it is appropriate. Blizzard has generously provided a warning for you, all you have to do is read it. If you are "dark" and light is being channeled, you need to click a light portal, and vice-versa. There is no healing through this. If someone is wrong, they are dead.

Since you're a healer, you don't have to worry about shields other than to know that once a shield is up, the DPS needs to burn it down so they can interrupt the heal. If you have the spare time and can pop up some damage on it, it wouldn't hurt. As was mentioned before, this fight is very undemanding of healers so long as everyone avoids the wrong color orbs.

Your guide to healing TOTC: the faction champions

I would kid myself if I thought this was a truly proper healing guide, but this is not a "proper" fight. There are no aggro tables, so you will, most likely, be being focused by one of your enemies at one point or another. You need to be mobile, adaptive, and have a fast reaction time. It's time to start loving PvP, because that is what this fight is; one extremely long arena fight. I personally find this to be the most enjoyable and exciting fight so far!

What I can provide are tips on what to do when facing these champions.

Communication is key.

First of all, make sure you start facing the right way. The champions do NOT enter from the double doors. They jump directly down from the stands where their faction leader is located. If you are Alliance, then you will be facing Horde Champions, and if you are Horde, then you will be facing Alliance Champions.

Communication is key.

Be prepared to break out of your intended role. When CC is needed, don't be afraid to add a couple Cyclones to the mix. Pop Nature's Grasp when someone is on you. This is a perfectly acceptable use of your role. Be careful with your Cyclone, though. Cycloning someone that your raid is about to unload on can be disastrous. So, no pressure, right?

Communication is key.

Be aware of your surroundings. You have to know what's going on. When there's a warrior near you, you have to run away. You have to know who is focusing you and who is being focused. This requires a large amount of focus for the important things. There is a lot to keep track of. If you waste your time thinking about your Recount meters or what have you, you or somebody else will die.

Communication is key.

Okay, why do I keep repeating that? Because IT IS IMPORTANT. You cannot win in this fight if you do not report that which is pertinent, and nothing else. People will get focused down and will need Rebirths. CC will break, and even if it doesn't it's on PvP lengths and will be less effective each time you chain it. You have to communicate. You just have to.

If you keep this all in mind, you should kill them. Not the first time, but soon. And if you do kill them on the first pull, I salute you.

For a list of all Champions, go to this post from MMO Champion. Note that, in the case of the Champions of the same class, the one listed first is a healing spec, and the one listed second is the DPS spec. The exception is the Druids; the first is Moonkin and the second is Resto.

Good luck!

Your guide to healing TOTC: Lord Jaraxxus

This fight may seem complicated due to the randomness of it. However, with a bit of coordination and communication, it's very controllable and doable.

To begin, my raid arranged itself in a circle around the middle, using the points of the star as markers. The areas directly in front of the instance door and directly in front of the boss entrance were left open. After that, two ranged each sat on points of a star to minimize spreading damage, like the chain lightning ability or the fire drops. Every person who became affected by Legion Flame then had an area to run straight backwards to drop their fire (Legion Flame does a DoT and causes you to drop patches of fire where you are standing that do heavy damage once every second for six seconds). We kept the spread of healers even, and monitored people for Incinerate Flesh.

Incinerate Flesh is a little bit of a weird mechanic in that your target will not noticeably be taking damage. The debuff absorbs 60k healing and decreases attack speed by 50%, and persists either until 60k healing is absorbed or fifteen seconds pass. If you don't heal enough, then the person will gain a raid-wide DoT for 3K+ every second for five seconds. And while this may not seem too bad, there is a lot of incidental damage going out, and this is so completely avoidable as to have no excuse for the person not to gain heals.

During the encounter, Jaraxxus will summon an infernal volcano. You should have one or two OT's responsible for managing these brutes. They have an AoE just for standing near them, so ranged should nuke them down and you should get out of their way. Try to recover quickly from any charges they get off and heal any people affected.

Jaraxxus will also summon Mistresses of Pain during the encounter. When he opens the Nether Portal, he'll gain Nether Power, a 20-stack buff that needs to be dispelled and purged and spell-stolen as quickly as possible, and at this time you need to watch the tank as he'll be taking more damage. The Mistresses of Pain need to be controlled as well as possible and kept away from melee. Ranged should power her down, as they can keep clear of her armor-ignoring attacks. The reason she is so hard to control, however, is the Spinning Pain Spike. This causes her to leap upon a player (kind of like the snobolds in the first part of the Beasts) and, well, hurt them. These people need to be called out quickly, as she'll pick them up and slam them into the ground for a percentage of their maximum health.

It certainly sounds like a chaotic fight, and it certainly can be. However, with a little bit of coordination, the chaotic, random side of the encounter is diminished greatly, and a win is much easier to obtain.

Good Luck!

Your guide to healing TOTC: The Beasts of Northrend

1- Gormok the Impaler



an easy fight, not even worth to say something about it, beacon the tank, heal the melee when they gt stunned, heal the person with the snobold on his head, stay away from his stun because it silence you for 8 sec, and stay away from fire.

WIN!


2- Acidmaw and Dreadscale



This fight is like a tease to all who can remove poison. There's two poison types, a burning and a paralyzing, and the only thing that can remove the paralyzing is someone running past who is afflicted with burning to "burn" it off, or they'll be stuck in place, unable to move or act and taking ticking damage for quite a while. Since you can still move some while afflicted with the paralyzing poison, my guild had everyone afflicted run into the center.
Keep relatively spread out to avoid too many people being affected by the poison at once, and the rest of the fight is a snap.
nothing special here, heal heal heal, I'm usually out of mana at the time this ends, i usually beacon the tank with acidmaw and heal the tank tanking dreadscale.

3- Icehowl



This fight is pretty unique, yet still intensely simple. This is another fight you want to stay spread out for, since his breath attack can freeze whole sections of raiders in place. You can't control the direction, it's just something that happens. It doesn't hit too hard, so you should be fine. Keep people topped off from Whirl, and when he knocks everyone to the side of the ring and stuns them, look at the boss model. See where he is facing, and when your stun wears off, run away from that area. You'll have a speed boost, so for no reason should you not be able to get out of the way. If you don't, you die, simple as that. When he charges into the wall, he becomes stunned, so use this time wisely to top everyone off. Other than that, just keep people up from incidental damage and you should win this one easy. Also, watch out for Frothing Rage, though your hunters should smash that off right quick. If not, just heal, heal, heal the main tank!


Congrats, you are now illegible for some phat lewtz

apology

I apologize for posting all those guides pretty fast, the problem is i have been lazy enough not to post any of them, and i already made the TOC guides so i needed to post those lol.

promise wont do it again!

Your Guide to Healing Ulduar: Yogg

Like Mimiron this is another “Phase” fight so I will separate it accordingly. Like Mimiron, to me this is another “Communication” fight. People have to talk on vent. They have to ask for buffs to be cleansed and they have to let you know when they are getting squeezed. If you have people that do not communicate on vent this fight will be exponentially harder.

Phase 1

For phase one you need to focus on two things:

#1 – Staying in range of the tanks and keeping Beacon and Sacred Shield up on one of them. This first phase you and the tanks will be running around like crazy WHILE having to avoid the clouds. They take spike damage when the adds blow up so you will have to really be watching. Without the MCing that used to be in this phase, the only really challening thing is to:

#2 – Avoid the clouds. We found that triggering 1-2 of them in the beginning actually helped us get through this phase. Any more and you will wipe. The first 2-3 spawn far enough apart that a few extra adds are not hard to deal with. The best way for me to heal was to run around on my own and stay in range of the tanks. The strats vary greatly for this fight.

Phase 2

#1 – Cleanse your face off. Especially if you are the only paladin in the group. There are two things that cause more frustration than anything: Apathy and Black Plague. These cause movement impairing affects and for a movement heavy fight you’ve got to be johnny on the spot with cleanses. There were a few attempts I spent 75% of the time cleansing. Your melee’s abilities at keeping the Corrupter tentacles down will help lower the number of cleanses needed.

#2 – Being squeezed. At some point you will get grabbed by a Constrictor tentacle. You can bubble out of the first one but then the next couple you will have to be DPS’d out of. The positive: You can keep healing as normal while it has you grabbed.

#3 – Sanity. Some fights, I never have to worry about my sanity. Some fights, I am at <20>

#4 – Brain link. Not a huge problem usually unless it gets thrown on one of the people going into Yogg’s brain and they come out and are like 1000 feet away from you and they are taking mega damage/losing sanity. Just run towards the person and heal them.

Phase 2 is more in the hands of the dps than yours. Just keep people alive and cleansed and you’ve done your job.

Phase 3

Get ready for the wildest boss fight that you won’t get to see (unless you are one of those people that have figured out how to turn your character and still be able to see behind him etc. i’m not that cool)

#1 – Face away from Yogg. None of your heals are LoS so just turn around and face away from the boss and pray the tanks are quick at picking up the adds. Heal your ass off. That’s really it in this part. You don’t have to move just heal and keep beacon up on the tank. Use all your cooldowns etc. This phase is NOTHING like phase 4 of mimiron. It is a stand there, FACE AWAY FROM THE BOSS and heal. The tanks do take big hits, and the adds will one shot everyone in raid except a tank when they first come out. So just heal, heal, heal with Holy light and every cooldown you have.

Do that and your done!

Your Guide to Healing Ulduar: General Vezax

I was reading around about the hard mode for Vezax this week and I stumbled across a couple of hidden posts that reccomended Holy Paladins to heal this fight in their Holy gear but spec’d prot. I did some casual Theorycrafting and realized that for this fight only 4 of my Holy tree talents really helped me heal this fight more effectively and there were about 7 Prot tree talents that improved healing for this fight. I tried this tactic last night, and for the first time at the end of this fight I actually had mana left over (even with a brand new healer).

Lets look at the specific talents that make the Prot tree worth using.

#1 – Touched by the Light . first and foremost this is the talent you are spec’ing for. You don’t really need anything beyond. Since I spend about 95% of the fight casting FoL on the MT I was amazed at how much this improved healing. I went from criting for about 6k even to hitting him for 7.5k a crit. And with Sacred Shield up my crit rating was around 85% for FoL. The additional spell power also makes it nice as several other talents in the prot tree increase stamina.

#2 – Divine Guardian – 1 minute Sacred Shields are amazing. So much so that if I felt FoL was worth using in any other fight I would totally spec into this for raid. Not just longer shields though it also will stay up a bit longer since it absorb’s a bit more damage. The combo of these two talents alone changes the dynamic of this fight. Instead of consistently needing green pools to keep my mana up I was much less dependent on them. To the point that I used them twice and only did the 6th stack method and I still had about 6k mana left when Vezax died.

The rest of the talents in my opinion don’t matter. In the prot tree just pick anything that increases healing/crit/stamina and your golden. Then you can either spec into the Holy tree (remember Illumination doesn’t work so don’t waste the talents) to increase your amount healed or you can go into the Ret tree to get some more crit. I found that my crit rating was exactly the same in prot as it is in holy.

Tried and true it made healing this fight about 60% easier. Not EZ-mode, but considerably easier. Factor this into the strategies listed below.

Another very difficult fight to heal through. Where Mimiron was all about avoiding damage and moving cleanly, Vezax is about healer communication. We read all the strats on this one and we only found one that really works well.

Abilities that effect healing -

1. Aura of Despair – No mana regen whatsover… No Divine Plea, no Blessing of Wisdom procs, no Illumination crits, mana pots, innervate etc…. for a paladin you truly will not be gaining any mana back on your own at all. Sucks to be a healer on this fight.

2. Shadow Crash – There are 3 examples of this in the trash pulls right before Vezax (the big faceless ones). A huge arcing shadow bolt starts from the boss and targets one raid member and arcs to the place where they are standing. If you don’t move it hits for around 7k and knocks you out of range. Since this fight is all about maximizing heals for mana, then you or other raid members being hit by this is not good. Just strafe left or right, or run towards the boss. Because of the nature of the arc, understand that the closer you are the faster it will get to you. DO NOT STAND IN THE BLACK MARKS LEFT BY THIS.

3. Mark of the Faceless – A life leech debuff that leaches 5k hit points from raid members within 15-20 yards. It does not do damage to the person who has it. Also, for every tick that it hits for 5k, Vezax is healed for 100k health. So 10 ticks of this debuff will heal for 1 Million health. This ability is maddenly frustrating because you will watch your least experieinced raid members heal the boss for a ton in seconds…

4. Surge of Darkness – This is where our strat differed from everything else we read. We did not have the tank kite the boss until towards the end of the fight to help us conserve mana. We had a DK stand there and rotate cooldowns and never move the boss unless to get in range of a downed saraonite vapor. When he surge’s he will be taking extra damage and will require close concentration by healers.

5. Saronite Vapors – your mana regen method. When one of these green gasses dies, it leaves a large pool on the ground that you gain 1 stack of a debuff for every second you stay in it. It is shadow damage, BUT DO NOT USE SHADOW AURA. (I will explain*) As you take damage from the debuff you will gain mana. You can take 6 stacks (wait for the stack to actually say “6″) without much in healing. But the key is to get to that 7th stack without dieing (you will need a heal at the 5th and 6th stack). Taking 7 stacks will give you plenty of mana back. There are only 8 of these so using them in a timely and orderly fashion is key. This takes a higher level of healer communication than most guilds are used to.

*Shadow aura seems to give you a greater chance of FULLY RESISTING the tick of the debuff. If you FULLY RESIST it, you will not get the mana from it. You want to make sure you get the mana.

Primary Objectives

If you have a good group of people that can avoid shadow crashes and can manage to not hit people with Mark of the Faceless, then congrats! Your job is way easier, you ONLY HAVE TO HEAL THE TANK (and maybe yourself depending on how you do the green stuff)

1. Heal the tank – if you don’t kite him, he will need extra heals during surge. If you do kite him, then pay attention to distance. We stopped kiting cause the tank would always get hit on the run and then we’d be running to catch up and heal and by the time we would start casting something BAM, he’s dead.

2. Use Sacred Shield and Flash of Light – with this combo i was criting almost 75% of the time on FoL, which fully raid buffed was hitting for almost 6.5k a heal. This along with other heals was plenty to keep him alive. I used Holy Light about 20 times in the fight during Surge’s and when I had my Divine Illumination on. I got in the habit of popping Divine Illumination, then casting my wings (Avenging Wrath) and then hitting the tank with Sacred Shield. That way the costs of those abilities were lower. I think in a 9 minute fight if I used it during the first surge I could use it 3 times.

3. Regen Mana on a Healer Rotation – with three healers we would have two healers on tank at start of fight with the third healer doing nothing. Not healing ANYBODY. When one of the two healers would get close to 60% mana, we would call out “Need green goo soon”. A dps would find an appropriately placed vapor and then tell us he was downing it. The lower mana healer would then go and refill. The off healer that was sitting doing nothing, now steps in and main heals the tank. Once a healer got full mana, then a dps would down another green goo. We frowned heavily upon casters using up our mana*, and tried to have only the minimum of 4 ranged during the fight (which is only 1 dps beyond the healers)

*The reason we don’t want more than one person in a green thing is two-fold. If a close by raid member gets Mark’d or Crash’d then the healer would have to adjust, run away or who know what totally negating their ability to regen mana. Its better to just any caster dps fend for themselves and keep your big dps in the melee.

4. Decide on 6 or 7 stacks – hotly debated by our guildies, but getting 7 stacks is the best way to regen mana. It is also though the riskiest. At the 6th stack you take 6,400 damage which at that point will be a total of 12,600 damage up to that point. Totally easy, and it won’t kill you (unless you get crash’d or someone ticks your health with a mark). Now here is where it gets tricky… the 7th stack will do 12,800 damage, so without a heal you will probably die. That will be a cumulative total of 25,400 damage if you don’t get a single heal. If you heal on the 5th, 6th and 7th stack, you will be fine. The way I started doing this with ease, was to jump into the goo and beacon the tank and then just spam FoL myself after the 5th stack. It might seem like a waste, but that 7th stack will give you 6,400 mana. It is SO worth the time saved of jumping out after 6 stacks and then repeating, but IT IS VERY RISKY.

5. Don’t save cooldowns – no really, be liberal with them here, use Aura mastery whenever its up, pop your auto-crit every time its up, pop trinkets every time they are up, bubble yourself and put hand of sacrifice on the tank during surge. Anything that potentially saves you mana, is worth using. I also got used to “queuing” heals. If you don’t have a ton of haste, it is easy to start casting a heal, and then staring at the tank to see if he gets hit, if he doesn’t, then move real quick and recast. By doing this you won’t overheal as much, but if your haste is too high, you will have a hard time stopping before the heal gets off.

6. Don’t use Judgements or Holy Shock (unless in emergency) - While I love holy shock and constantly scream at fellow pally healers when I see them spamming 75 FoL’s in ignis, during this fight it is best to not use. It is horribly mana efficent, and my FoL crits were very close in total amount healed, and you save 350 mana. I had to literally take this off my bar so I would stop twitch casting it. And the extra haste from Judgements if you read #5 and try to do that will actually hurt you more than help.

Your Guide to Healing Ulduar: Mimiron

Let me just start out by saying this so far has been the most difficult fight for me to heal. I thought Hodir was bad, but Mimiron is a whole new level of healing pain. With that said, killing him was probably the most rewarding experince thus far for me in Ulduar. The first time we downed him was after 3 days/50 wipes. Because of the complexity of this fight I am going to separate everything into phases.

>> Phase One <<

Abilities that affect healing -

1. Plasma Blast – Healing the MT through this without him using a cooldown is possible, but seems to come down to luck. Use anything and everything you have at your dispolsal. I was popping Fire Aura with Aura mastery on one of his blasts and Hand of Sacrifice and Divine Shield on another, especially if your tank is out of cooldowns. If you want to be consistently successful on Phase One, you have to be using cooldowns. (FYI – for this fight we used 2 tanks that took turns using cooldowns. So far it seems in Ulduar, “When in doubt, add another tank.”)

2. Napalm Shell – Random raid member gets shot

3, Landmines – Although avoidable, depending on the number of melee you have the odds are someone will run over a few.

Primary Objectives (Phase One)

- Keep MT up through the Plasma Blast

- Stay spread out so Napalm doesn’t hit more than one person (Mimiron is another type of “avoidance” fight, like Hodir a lot of damage can be avoided by the dps/heals)

- Keep your mana high by using Divine Plea AFTER a plasma blast, but save big cooldowns for phase

>> Phase Two <<

Abilities that effect healing -

1. Heat Wave – the hardest thing to heal through. It is raid-wide fire damage considerable to Frozen Blows on Hodir. It hurts a lot and is mana intensive to heal through and there is no way to avoid it. Bubbleing/Aura Mastery will help if you have it. Paladin OT’s or DPS with Divine Sacrifice are very nice to have here.

2. Rocket Strike and Laser Barrage – both life ending abilities. You get hit by either you die. You will not get past this boss if you have raid members that can’t see the rockets coming.

3. Rapid Burst – this is his basic attack that he will do the entire fight except during Laser Barrage. It shoots out in a cone effect so the closer to him you are and spread out around him the less damage everyone will take. Set up right there really should only be 1 person getting hit by this at a time.

Primary Objectives (Phase Two)

- Heat Wave healing – beacon yourself and Sacred Shield someone. Use your bubble during one of the waves and then Aura Mastery during another. At the first Heat Wave is when I also pop Divine Illumination (your 50% mana CD)

- Don’t go OOM – When he starts to spool up Laser Barrage pop Divine Plea once you are caught up on heals and then click it off if its not done yet when he is done. If someone gets hit by barrage you won’t be able to heal them anyway. This phase is hugely mana intensive and your group needs to kill him fast but you need to conserve mana for the next phases as well. If you keep going OOM during these phases, don’t worry you will get better. After 40 wipes our healers were reaching phase 3 with full mana.

>> Phase Three <<

Abilities that affect healing -

1. Bomb Bots. Bomb bots, bomb bots, bomb bots. Having trouble on this part of the fight? Its the bomb bots. Once we got into a good rhythm of snaring and killing them this phase is a total breeze. These drop out of the head while it is flying around and target somebody and blow up for crazy damage.

2. Plasma Ball – whoever is tanking the head (usually a ranged dps) will take about 8k damage every 2-3 seconds from this ability.

3. All other adds – the tanks will be taking mild damage from the various adds. Nothing too major.

Primary Objectives (Phase Three)

- Stay away from Bomb bots

- Keep the head tank at max health as much as you can.

- Use Divine Plea during this phase to regen as much mana as you can. With 3 healers no one should be getting terribly hard. I usually beacon the MT and then just holy shock/FoL the head tank the whole fight.

>> Phase 4 <<

So bring it all together then. Mimiron keeps several different abilities from each phase. The healing intensive ones are the Plasma ball from the head and then the main attack from phase 2 (hand pulse). Everything else is pretty avoidable and is what makes this fight so tough (land mines, missiles, laser barrage, shock blast – your raid members health is in THEIR OWN hands more than yours…) As a healer if you have made it this far than the tough part for you is over and now just pray the DPS is smart enough to stay alive…

Your Guide to Healing Ulduar: Hodir

Positioning: 7 ► Healing Intensity: 6 ► MT/OT Damage: 3 ► Raid Damage: 6

Difficulty: Medium

1. Frozen Blows – raid wide damage…like OMG damage. This is really a pain to heal through because during this, all his other abilities are still going on and do EVEN MORE damage. Put on Frost Aura and if you have it pop Aura Mastery when he starts this attack – it will up your resistance to 260. I have to believe this attack is why some guilds make everyone have “some” resist.

2. Frost Nova (Cleanse-able) – the frost novas shoot out of Hodir and then AOE an area. The nova’s don’t do huge damage, but they root people.

3. Avalanche’s – you will see it snowing in random areas. Get out of the snow. Yell at people to get out of the snow so you don’t have to heal them.

4. Flash Freeze – if someone gets caught in it they will need mild heals.

5. Biting cold – Keristraza type aura. Keep moving and jumping. During Frozen Blows you might think “I will just stand still and take the damage.” Don’t do that. The damage of Biting cold is worse when Hodir is doing Frozen Blows. (If you see a fire on the ground, stand next to it. It is another “helper” and it stops Biting Cold from happening to you.

6. Starlight – one of the “helpers” casts a spotlight in random areas. Standing in the light gives you 100% haste to casting. With all buffs up, my Holy Lights were taking .8 seconds to cast. If you can safely stand in one and heal during Frozen Blows, it helps a ton.

RECAP:

- Avoid damage: this is one of the only encounters your primary goal is to stay out of damage. The tank (in frost resist gear) never gets hit terribly hard. This fight is about keeping moving and NOT TAKING DAMAGE.

- Heal the tank

- Use Aura Mastery during Frozen Blows. BELIEVE ME IT HELPS. If you have more than one pally, have both of them put Frost Resist Aura on and alternate casts of mastery. If you have a pally off tank who is DPSing during this fight, have him bubble and use his raid wide damage decrease. Anything that can decrease raid damage here is a plus.

- Bubble during a Frozen Blow to catch up: Normally I would use Aura Mastery in the first Frozen Blows and then bubble in the second one if i needed to. While bubbled, stand in a spotlight and cast like crazy.

- Cleanse the frost nova’s: it always seemed that at least one person would be frost nova’d while in the “snow” of an upcoming avalanche. Cleansing them helped them get out of that before it kills.

- Keeping Beacon and Sacred Shield always up on the MT. Get a timer or something to help you remember to refresh these. I use Grid and a couple addons to pull this off.

Would you change factions?

A shared topic on Blog Azeroth caught my eyes, since i was a former Horde warrior, and now a paladin of the Alliance, its kinda concerns me.
Not really.



See, I am not a RP player, nor that i am very interested in WoW lore.
yes i am little interested, i won't lie, but not that much.

For me, I already gave away my horde warrior, with reputations and gear from T0.5 to T6 (including T1, T2, T3, T4, T5). so do i really want to switch again to horde? no.
do i miss my friends on the horde side? hell yes, but most of them were kind enough to make alliance characters (mostly DKs) and i invited them to the guild i am in, we talk a lot, i help them lvl faster. nothing more.

In my opinion, the whole thing will NOT work, i really doubt that the employees in blizz will be smart enough to figure out a way to change reputations, mounts, or any other aspect of the game.

I was thinking a bit of how many people will be faction changing if it DID work, some people with high population servers might, i had the chance to log on magtheradon (or whoever its spelled like) on the EU servers, the server who used to have the first guilds to clear everything in TBC (now called Ensedia).
they had like 100 horde for each alliance, my friend had a mage on that server, in wintergrasp he had like 15 of the buff increasing HP for more than 200% and damage taken by something like that too, there was like 10 people in WG raid while horde had at least 4 or 5.
without talking too much about that, i felt like he was Onyxia with all the dots he had on him, and a raid of horde were trying to kill him, he only was aoeing to wipe them all, it was fun to watch.

So yeah, people on that server might think of faction changing, and i wont blame them.

I keep thinking about it, do i really want to change factions, no.
Will i consider it if i was in a another situation? maybe, but most likely i would have stopped playing this game if i wasn't in this perfect guild with those awesome people. i actually played this paladin so i can play with them, and i am very happy, i cant say that i will be going to any other guild, although we stopped raiding, if the guild disbanded, i will be cancelling my account, the only reason that kept me going is this guild, and this server that i am in, if anything in it changed, i will automatically cancel my account.

To do list

i keep saying that I will get back to playing my alts (including my very neglected 80 DK) just as soon as I have finished the game on my main. So the current things on the to do list that I am working on:

• Loremaster – I am trying to finish off outlands and vanilla wow and stuck with some very annoying zones where am one or two quests short – then it is off to Eastern Kingdoms/Kalimdor for the rest of the grind
• Exalted Oracles – I went with the puppy men first and have just started opening eggs with Oracles – mainly I am after the mount, but also wanting the Mercenary achievement from hitting exalted (then back to the Wolvar because oracles are creepy)
• PVP – for the Of the Alliance title.
  
• PVP mounts – nuff said.
  
• My mount count is 66/100 – a quick reckoning of those I am still working towards leaves me a way short unless I manage to farm several rare drops. But I remain confident that Blizz will work on adding more mounts for me by the time I get there.
• Exalted Kurenai - for the mounts, duh!
  

Phew, that is a lot to be occupied with on a very small amount of game time every week.