http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/jere/ en Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:30:32 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.tankspot.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/jere/ http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/jere/1588-good-start.html Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:59:22 GMT So yesterday I hit the coveted "80". It felt good to finally reach that goal. I actually wasn't rushing towards it. I spent quite a bit of time leveling mining, blacksmithing, fishing, cooking, and first aid. I also went back and did the quests in the other starter zone just for fun. I even started trying to do some rep quests, dailies, and instances.

Not long after I hit 80, I got some whispers asking me to tank some heroics. I said "sure, why not, but be forewarned I am still crittable". They seemed ok with that. We got the group going: Resto Druid, frost/arcane mage, shadow priest, blood deathknight and none of us had any clue where we wanted to go. So we randomly picked. Stratholme it was!

Looking back, it really wasn't that much harder in heroic than it was in normal. Trash hit harder and so did the bosses, but nothing really surprising really. If we had been less sheepish, we could have easily met the timer, but we wasted time being a bit hesitant to push forward without being fully ready. In the end I got a nice reward for my time: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43085

After that successful venture, we felt pretty good so we picked another one randomly: Azjul Nerub.

This one was a bit harder, especially the event at the first boss. The trash there ate us alive. We were a bit slow on DPS (other waves started up as we were finishing the previous), but we eventually made it. It took us about 3 tries, but we got the event down and then took down the boss. The 2nd boss seemed to be pretty cake. We didn't notice anything different in terms of abilities and just downed it.

The final boss was a bit tough. The venom spitters were pretty nasty and I didn't realize that the pounding attack could be avoided, so I just popped shield wall, trinkets, etc right before each one. He definitely hit like a truck with that attack. Now that I know it can be avoided, it will be easier in the future. At the end I was rewarded with a http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37241 and a frozen orb which netted me a http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41392

By the end of the night I had hit 542 DEF (before enchants/gems) and over 22k unbuffed health. I still have quite a ways to go, but it was a good first night. ]]> jere http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/jere/1588-good-start.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/jere/1361-leveling-beta-prot.html Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:29:51 GMT Well, I am one of those crazy paladins that has been protection spec'd since the day I was able to put in talent points. I started way back in the day when a point in Improved Blessing of Salvation made the duration go from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, and another point boosted you to a whopping 15 minutes (but I stopped at 10 since the other blessings were still all 5 minutes anyways). I have always leveled as protection and I think that Wrath will be no exception.

I have been playing in the Beta, leveling as protection. For reference, I started with a mix of T4, T5, and T6 gear. Everything from [Barbed Choker of Discipline] to [Tide-stomper's Greaves]. As such I really didn't expect to get any upgrades really, but did run across a couple of items early on that I liked.

From a quest in Upguard Keep, I got a [Woven Steel Necklace], which while not a big upgrade, it was still pretty nice. Later on I ended up getting a nice AP trinket to replace my spell dmg one: [First Mate's Pocketwatch]. The haste "use" doesn't really mean much to me, but the equip was a decent upgrade. The quest for it was pretty solo-able in my gear / spec. You had to kill a 70 elite and then his pet 71 elite, but neither posed any problem.

The big one for me though was when I hit level 74. Not only did I get access to Dalaran, but I got access to a quest in Zul'Drak that netted me my first tanking weapon (I was using a spell power one): [Hammer of Quiet Mourning]. This was a great upgrade for me. While my consecration, judgement, and seal damage did go down some, it greatly increased my Hammer of the Righteous damage, which came out as a net increase. Plus it was the first time I was able to actually equip and use a tanking weapon where it didn't feel like a threat or damage burden since the old days of Seal of Fury. Kind of nostalgic for me.

The quest for it was a bit more challenging. I had to kill a 75 elite with a TON of HPs that would eventually enrage. Mind you, I am level 74 currently. I popped all my cooldowns, a potions, and even a bandage. In the end, it died with me standing there, 440 HP and no cooldowns left. It was a great feeling and, for me, a pretty epic battle. I felt like I had earned that weapon.

I can't wait till I get to level 75 and get Shield of Righteousness. So far it has been fun. Out of the two starting zones (I did both fully), I really like Howling Fjord the best. It seemed nicer and less desolate. Both have some good quests though. I am currently playing around in Dragon Blight now, but haven't had much time lately to fully test it out. ]]> jere http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/jere/1361-leveling-beta-prot.html