Recently in Medros Category

I figured that since there is so much yummy goodness in the beta, I would start a small series of top 5s, just to give you short roundups from my beta testing experiences. The first one I want to tackle, of course, it the top 5 Paladin spells I have learned so far in the beta.

Divine Storm - An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to 4 enemies within 8 yards.  The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totaling 20% of the damage caused.
This spell right now is #2 in my rotation on the beta, right after Crusader Strike. While the DPS of this ability can be sweet, especially when it procs, the soloing bonus of that 20% can be amazing to see. I now almost always pull 2 - 3 mobs in order to maximize the benefits.

Judgement of the Wise - Your Judgement spells have a 100% chance to grant the Replenishment effect to up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 0.25% of their maximum mana per second, and to immediately grant you 20% of your maximum mana.
This is commonly known among the paladins I talk to as a mana battery. Every 10 seconds, as long as I have a Seal up, I can replenish, at level 75, about 1500 mana using Judgement of Wisdom. With Global Cooldown and the other spells in my rotation, it is rare that I am not at least 85% mana as long as I do not forget to judge. In fact, I more often find myself low on health than low on mana. I am considering testing this with Judgement of Light, just to get a small heal in here and there.

Repentance - Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min.  Any damage caused will awaken the target.  Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.
This ability is what I usually use for the 4th mob I pull. If I know my Divine Storm won't hit everyone, being limited to 3 an all, I will usually repentance one of the enemies, and pull the other 3 far enough away. Often by the time the 1 minute is up, I am done with his friends and ready to take him on. Long overdue improvement to this spell.

Art of War - Increases the critical strike damage of your Judgement, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm abilities by 20% and when these abilities critically hit your next Flash of Light spell becomes instant cast.
This ability was already pretty sweet with the recent improvements to the Flash of Light component. I have not yet tried the Flash of Light side, due to repeated crashes from the beta client, but I will be deliberately watching for the buff and seeing if it is as useful as I suspect.

Divine Plea - You gain 25% of your total mana over 10 sec, but the amount healed by your spells is reduced by 50%.
This is one of the many in a new class of spell I call a MoT(Mana over Time) spells that have crept into the game in the Wrath of the Lich King. This is one of those 'Oh crap, I have no mana' spells, since judgements cost mana, and while it feels like the regen of mana takes forever, in no time you have at least enough for Holy Shield or a last hoorah spell to try to eek out victory.


While these are merely the best I found, there was at least another 5 I could find in the changed spells list of the Wrath beta. Yes, most of these are Retribution, but that's what I play. If you are Holy or Protection specced and want to give me your top 5, let me know in the comments and I will be happy to post them as a guest entry on this blog, or even link to your own. Keep reading for the next in the list of Top 5s from the beta and live game!

I have a lot to do. I am collecting herbs for my guild, as well as for myself. I am debating furiously with myself about inscription and my lowbie hunter, Traluun, and trying to still get in time for job hunting, writing, beta testing, and have a small semblance of a social life. So it is with this in mind that I ask you, my readers, what do you think my priorities should be.

The reason this came up is that in conjunction with the recent beta build 8905, Blizzard's reps have posted feedback requests for all of the currently open dungeons in the beta, from Utgarde Keep to Naxxramas in both 10 and 25 man versions, and I realized that even with Med not even at 74 yet, I have not hit a single instance. Not even a one. I got my starter Death Knight through the old Starting Experience and into Inscription/Herbalism professions, worked a fair bit on Med's blacksmithing, and a bit on Arita's Northrend herbalism and alchemy, but I haven't *done* much in the beta.

Sure, I have moved and been doing renovations, and I haven't had the unregulated time I would like to be working on the beta and live realms. I also find it really hard to go from Medros, level 73 ret Paladin with awesome abilities and the capability to take down the mobs with ease, to Medros, level 70 Paladin, or even Telaan, Level 70 Paladin, or even still Traluun, level 45 Hunter. It's a bit of a shock, you know? A big change in the game and the world.

So, as my readers, I come to you, playtime in hand, and ask for your advice. Do you want more Wrath prep info as I push through the live realms to gather needed materials for the Inscription profession coming in 3.0.2, or should I spend more time on the beta realms, digging through the lore, the stories, and the experiences to give you all a better insight into what awaits us in the wonderful continent of Northrend, from gorlocs and proto drakes to dragon aspects and scarlet lackies? Sound off in the comments!

As I have been looking over my guild's Zul'Aman stat requirements, I have become frustrated that only one of my characters can go there. Arita, with 3 pieces of Tier 4 and more gear form high end places than any other character, and who was originally a secondary alt back in the day, is the only character I have that can meet the requirements. What follows is a list of the gear I want for Medros, though in no specific order. After the slot is the current piece in that slot.

Head - The Horseman's Helm

• Amani Mask of Death  -  G'eras  -  75 Badges

Shoulder - Warchief's Mantle

• Ragesteel Shoulders  -  Blacksmith
• Pauldrons of Gruesome Fate  -  G'eras  -  60 Badges

Wrist - Sha'tari Wrought Armguards

• Eternium Rage-shackles  -  G'eras  -  35 Badges

Waist - Rubium War-Girdle

• Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable  -  Moroes  -  Karazhan
• Deathforge Girdle  -  Talon King Ikiss  -  Sethekk Halls
• Chain of Unleashed Rage  -  G'eras  -  60 Badges

Ring - Ring of Ghoulish Delight | Violet Signet

• Eye of the Stalker  -  The Black Stalker  -  Underbog (Heroic)

Legs - Legguards of the Shattered Hand

• Doomplate Legguards  -  Exarch Maladaar  -  Auchenai Crypts (Heroic)
• Ornate Leggings of the Venerated  -  Blackheart the Inciter  -  Shadow Labyrinth
• Wrynn Dynasty Greaves  -  The Curator  -  Karazhan
• Bloodlord Legplates  -  The Maker  -  The Blood Furnace (Heroic)
• Vanquisher's Legplates  -  Pathaleon the Calculator  -  The Mechanar (Heroic)
• Bloodthirster's Wargreaves  -  G'eras  -  75 Badges
• Legplates of Unending Fury  -  SSO Badge Vendor  -  100 Badges

I know, a long list, and I should point out that at halfway through 73 and having worked through Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, and part of Dragonblight, I still have some of the pieces I want to replace, though I have had a hard time adjusting to the stats on gear in Northrend. I still have my helm, belt, my Violet Signet of the items on this list, and my Bulwark of Kings, Royal Cloak of Arathi Kings, Justicar Gauntlets, Skyguard Silver Cross, Darkmoon Card: Crusade, Shattered Sun Pendant of Might, and Vortex Walking Boots.

Really, I have only replaced a few pieces, but I am finding it really hard to find groups on the beta realms, especially when the realms are going up and down so frequently. I also have a hard time deciding on items with procs, which a lot of these have. The pendant, card, and cross all have procs that are huge. The cloak, the chestpiece, the guantlets and the boots are all late game epics, which took a lot of time and effort to get. Time will tell on the rest!

We are currently in the beta phase of the next expansion, as you are all well aware. All of the classes have new talent trees, and some have spectacular abilities that totally kick ass. Some, not so much. I understand that some all players want those OMFG abilities to be seen. Not all will get them. Some may get them eventually. Everyone wants a Divine Storm, a Titan's Grip, a Beast Mastery, a Typhoon to be given to their class. Not everyone can. This is a fact of life that we will just have to struggle to accept and live with.

The way I see it, having a Hunter, 2 Paladins, and a Druid at 70, is that the big skills are being given to those classes and specs within classes that really, really need them. Hunters have long been the mockery of gaming. Ret Paladins too have suffered being the butt of all DPS jokes. Many raiders seem to feel that Moonturkey are carried, not doing real damage or contributing much to a run other than the aura. I play all of this. I see why we are getting the OMFG talents. We need them.

In a most recent Ask the Beta Tester segment on WoW Insider, their rogue columnist said that Rogues aren't getting any must have talents. He admitted that they will still do massive damage in any raid or group. No doubt rests in my mind that without the changes to Paladins in Wrath, Rogues would still be the hands down favorite for any raid or group. As it stands now, I have a small chance I could win out if their was a choice in a raid, especially with buffs to auras which make them raid wide and the talents and improvements to Retribution Aura that I have taken in the Retribution tree.

Changes to spell power will definitely affect Arita, my druid(renamed Aritas due to name change), but I am trying to get Medros to Dalaran in order to see the amazing city of magic. He only just dinged 71 last night, so it will be a bit until he hits the 74 minimum, but I will then spend some time learning the druid abilities to see how they do in solo and group play. I pretty much stuck to the prospective talent tree I posted about, and I will be sure to report here when I begin doing more than mere fedex quests on the Doomkin.

Hunters. Huntards many call us. Too easy to play, too streamlined, too anti group. We are the most insulted group, and the least wanted in groups. In fact, I think that if a raid were to choose between a Hunter and a Doomkin, they would likely choose feather over fur. Not to mention that hunters are almost never allowed to bring out their biggest asset, their pets, in most raid or group encounters. While Beast Mastery will undoubtedly be the most popular hunter spec in Wrath, cause let's be honest, who doesn't want to tame a Devilsaur, but Chimera Shot and Explosive Shot seem to have some promise. I will be looking at my Hunter last in the line of alts I will bring to the beta.

I guess what I am trying to say is, if your class isn't broke, don't expect a fix. Blizzard is giving clothies spell power, which will automatically give you a buff in that all that juicy healing gear that used to drop will now be usable. They are still working on classes from the Death Knight on down, so don't think that just cause we might have a cinematic, that the beta is over, cause it's not. This change. Things will continue to change. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.

I am tired from renovations and a lot of stuff in life, but I have had time to look in at the beta, and I figured I would give you all a few of my favorite sites from the beta. Just click on the thumbnails for larger versions.

So I mentioned here that I have begun in the Wrath of the Lich King beta test, and I have some thoughts and questions here. First, are there any mods for the beta? I am a mod fiend and I am feeling really lost without a single mod. I have my Statusbars mod which tells me in a HUD type display what my health and the mobs health is. I have died a number of times because of this. Second, Gatherer? Is there any way to mark gather nodes? I am finding Cobalt ore hard to find and would love to mark them.

As an aside, it is nice that WoW Head WotLK has comments with coordinates, but how exactly do I figure out those coordinates? How did they get the coordinates? I love the look of the zones in Northrend. I have seen both Borean Tundra and Sholazar Basin, though the later only when I pulled a noobish hop off the ledge without remembering that Divine Protection was changed, and thus dying on the rocks. No more suicide jumps from Aldor Rise. I wanted to thank a kind GM from the beta realms who unstuck me in the world so I could return to my journey on Aritas, who was stuck in a server issues last night. The final tip comes from Galanis on the Northrend beta realm, "Profession Trainer tracking is critical in the newbie towns", a good tip to put into practice when you are just hitting Northrend!

Lastly, below you will find the huge, massive gnome lore found in the Tundra. Spoilers may be found! Enjoy!



[Update: Thanks to Lassirra for the tip about WoW Interface for WotLK!]
[Update: Thanks to MrCynical in IRC for the reminder that Divine Shield still does what Divine Protection used to do, and for longer!]

Here are a few of the random thoughts that have been running through my head lately.

BM can rock, but most likely at 70 - I have respecced Traluun to become Beast Mastery, and begun leveling him again. After doing my normal daily stuff on my 70s, Traluun has gained 3 levels, much improvements in armor, and I am beginning to lean how to play as a Beast Master hunter. While Venara, the Humar like cat he runs with, is a nice pet and does good at what she should, she doesn't currently do what I would have hoped she would in dps and aggro control. I am enjoying learning the different aspects of the Beast Master tree, but I don't think I will never duplicate a BRK video.

Shard, Shard, Shard, Shard, Void. Win! - As a Jewelcrafter(Telaan) who Mines as well as Medros, most of the results of which get prospected to get gems. Due to this, I have found I get a lot of Adamantite Powder, as well as a lot of Khorium Ore and Eternium Ore, which cannot be prospected. At the point I checked last night, I had nearly 600 powder, 300 Khorium Ore, and 500 Eternium Ore. I decided to do something with all this ore and powder, since it will be all useless in a few months.

Being a JC on Telaan, and an Enchanter on Traluun, I made up 33 Braided Eternium Chain and mailed them over to Traluun, who will actually be able to make use of the Large Prismatic Shards that the chain's are guaranteed to  Disenchant into. I was really happy, though, to find that I only got 32 shards, as one of my Disenchants gave me a second Void Crystal. I had always wondered how likely the 'rare chance' to get a void crystal on any one item might be, and as I got the crystal on #20, I would say it works out to about 5%. Those brought me to over 40 crystals total, which should help a lot when Traluun hits 50 in a few days.

Spirit of Competition update - As you may have noticed, there are a lot of Olympians in the game these days. With the start of the 2008 summer Olympics Blizzard launched a new PvP event called Spirit of Competition. There are 2 known rewards at this point in the competition. The basis of both of these rewards involves participation in the Battlegrounds. The first one is the Competitor's Tabard, received by having an honorable kill in a battle ground. The second is the Gold Medallion. I blogged about these before, but I wanted to give you an update on this. So far Traluun, Medros, and Arita have the Tabard. Medros and Arita have the Medallion. I am planning to PvP with Telaan tomorrow, and will be trying with Traluun again now that he is 45, though 2 wins failed to get it a level or two ago.

Stayin' alive, stayin' alive! - I want to preface this with the note that I am not looking for sympathy, just giving info and letting you all decide how to make use of this info. About a week ago I lost my job. Today my web hosting came due, as the last referral I got has been used up over the last several months. I would like to let you know about some of the referral codes you can use if you need a site and decide to use my host, Dreamhost. First, MALYGOS will get you a monthly account with no set up fee. Second, TIRION will get you $50 off a 1 year prepaid hosting account. Lastly KRASUS will give you 2 months of free hosting(or $20 off) for any of the plans other than monthly hosting. While I have had email issues before, the support team has always been great about helping solve them quick.

That's about for the rambling topics for today. Let me know if there is anything else you want to see, hear about, or learn about in future. Thanks a lot, and take care. 

I have four 70s now, and all but one has epic flying, which he will no doubt have by the time Wrath hits until it hits in the next five weeks or so. While yes, there are quests that can be done, I am honestly almost out of quests to do on those four 70s. It is therefore a really nice thing when Blizzard gives me something to spend a bit of my time on other than dailies and other gold building pass times.

Late last night WoW Insider posted that European and Chinese servers had reportedly received a special Olympics based PvP reward set. It seems that when you participate in a Battleground you get a Competitor's Tabard. Yes, that's right, the item is so new and so undiscovered in the many data mines, that I had to link to the WoW Armory for it, instead of WoW Head. If you win the battleground, you have a chance, seems about 50%, to get a Gold Medallion. The medallion summons a really neat Spirit of Competition, which is a little Chinese dragon looking vanity pet.

As soon as I saw this news, I knew I had to have it. Well, on a hop over to my mule to buy the last few Mark of Sargeras I needed to take Telaan to Exalted(yay!), I saw Ciarda, an old and dear friend, who had both the tabard and the pet. I made arrangements to go do some PvP with her group when she had gotten some food, and went back to Medros to wait. I must say, the few minutes I waited were more than worth it!.

I joined her, Silvarius, and a couple of their friends, though I failed to grab screen shots or the names, and we headed to the shortest of winnable BGs, Warsong Gulch. This was a night of firsts. I cannot recall the last time I won back to back Battlegrounds. I also do not recall any time when all four of the BGs were in the 1000+ range of open matches. PvP was smoking! The first win netted me a tabard, a few deaths, and some good times. The second netted me the Medallion, and it almost felt like a blow out, as the other side seemed to almost give up around the final flag cap, barely defending and using poor strategy.

The other side had little chance, with a concerted and well played offense, mixed with defense at just the right times. I can't say that me and my Kara level gear did a whole lot to contribute, but sometimes all you need is a well placed stun, AoE, or Hammer of Wrath. I want to thank Ciarda, Silvarius and their friends for helping make the BGs seem fun again. Now, who wants to help me other three 70s get their own tabards and pets??

You may recall I did a talent overview of the Balance tree when the pre beta talent trees were published after the Worldwide Invitational. Well, now that Beta has arrived, bringing with it both Hunter and Paladin talents, I am here to give you my perspective on the new form of Retribution in the current Beta build. After I give you the highlights from the Ret tree, I will go over a few general changes and improvements to the Paladin class. Here is my prospective talent tree, and my current tree.

Let me first say, I am really excited about staying Ret all the way to 80 and into whatever end game I decide to play in. While both Holy and Protection will be getting some amazing changes, making them more versatile than their base abilities, I honestly believe the Retribution tree is getting the biggest, and best changes. Will it change how people see us? Unlikely, but it will be a start. Now, to the talents:

Heart of the Crusader - Ranks: 3 - In addition to the normal effect, your Judgement spells will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against that target by an additional 1/2/3%. Opinion: As seemingly the only Paladin in the world who uses Seal of the Crusader, I will miss that ability, but I will like the fact this ability might make me that little bit more desirable to raids.

Sanctified Retribution - Ranks: 1 - Damage caused by targets affected by Retribution Aura is increased by 2%. - Opinion: This stacked with the removal of Sanctity Aura will make the Retribution Aura an actually desired aura for (now) the entire Raid. I know I will be changing my macro from Sanctity(yes, another 'rarely used' one that I use all the time) to Retribution.

Sheath of Light - Ranks: 3 - Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 10/20/30% of your attack power and your critical healing spells heal the target for 20/40/60% of the healed amount over 12 seconds. - Opinion: With Blizzard's change from the Burning Crusade widespread stat list, to the more general ones coming in Wrath, this is both expected and welcome. As a Paladin who, while Blizzard has talked about switching Ret itemization to more warrior based, knows that Alliance Paladins still use a lot of spells and go through a lot of mana, I look forward to this talent which will still help me out.

Sanctified Seals - Ranks: 3 - Increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and attacks by 1/2/3% and reduces the chance your Seals will be dispelled by 33/66/100% - Opinion: Another +crit talent is always nice, and while I do not think that in PvE I was in great risk of having my seals dispelled, I will take that as an added buff in case I am ever PvPing.

Sanctified Wrath - Ranks: 2 - Increases the critical strike chance of Hammer of Wrath by 25/50%, reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 30/60 secs and while affected by Avenging Wrath 25/50% of all damage caused bypasses damage reduction effects. - Opinion: So at top rank Hammer of Wrath does about 700, which is not much even on crit, especially when you can usually only cast it once per mob, but I'll take it. The bigger thing for me is the Avenging Wrath buffs. 1 minute chopped off that spell, plus it's already dropped forebearance, and adding the damage bypass... that will make Avenging Wrath a must use spell in any fight.

Swift Retribution - Ranks: 3 - Your Retribution Aura also increases casting, ranged and melee attack speeds by 1/2/3% - Opinion: Yet another buff to Retribution Aura. Anyone noticing a theme here?

The Art of War - Ranks: 3 - Your damaging Crusader Strikes have a 5/10/15% chance to cause your next Judgement spell to cause double damage. - Opinion: Watching for the buff will be important, because this would be one of those 'OMG, go for broke' level of buffs.

Righteous Vengeance - Ranks: 5 - Increases critical damage bonus of all attacks by 3/6/9/12/15%. - Opinion: Retribution Paladins = God Mode, crit style

Divine Storm - Ranks: 1 - An instant weapon attack that causes Holy damage to up to 4 enemies within 8 yards. The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totalling 20% of the damage caused. - Opinion: Great for solo, decent for party. I imagine the animation will be bloody fantastic!

General Abilities:

-The change from Blessings to Hands on some of the 'off blessings' of current game is great, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with.
-Aura's being raid wide will be awesome, and will allow for a more overall coverage of aura's in a multi Paladin group
-Lay on Hands will be nice to see the changes, but I want to know how much mana it will now drain and how much health it will heal.
-Repentance will be nice, though I can honestly say I do not recall ever using it before. I will have to check it out, cause I clearly forgot this ability previously.
-Righteous Fury now doing 90% more threat on holy damage will be awesome for those non Prot who need to off tank in a run.
-Enlightened Judgements is a talent I wish was in Ret, as the improved distance was, I am told, in Ret pre TBC.
-DI and and LoH having lowered cooldowns of 20 minutes will be awesome.
-Holy Wrath being instant cast and does a stun? Finally!


Overall I am really enjoying the look of the Retribution tree in the Wrath Beta, and really enjoying the overall Paladin based improvements. I have concerns about mana pools, because Ret Paladins still need to cast a lot of spells and I am not seeing a lot so far to change that. Still, this is leaps and bounds better than currently in the game, though, of course, anything said here can and very well may change between now and Launch Day of Wrath of the Lich King. 

After my recent time off from game, I have found it harder and harder to play the characters I have. My Paladin isn't hot enough my druid too thin and with racials that suck, and my hunter has just horribly boring speech patterns. I am sad to announce that effective immediately, I will be liquidating all of my current characters across most realms and making Horde versions with the same names. Arita will become a Tauren Druid, Medros a Blood Elf Paladin, and Ameland a Troll Hunter.

I will miss my friends on the Alliance side and invite every one of them to join me in the abandonment of the Alliance to the kids who have made the faction unplayable. The Alliance is filled with noobs who can't play their classes, can't PvP worth a damn, and can't follow the rules no matter how clear they are. Hope many times do you need to ask the same moron to not be talk about raid progression, his latest pnwage, or whatever in Say channel before you just want the chance to force him to stfu at the end of a gun?

On that note, it is almost time for work, 2.4.1 has just downloaded, and the realms are offline for an extended maintenance, so I am going to go get ready for work. Ishnu-dal-dieb.