Northrend

Yesterday afternoon I rolled out of bed and was suprised when I found my copy of Wrath of the Lich King on the doormat!. So I installed the game and a few patches installed. However I wasn't able to upgrade my account which I wasn't suprised about. So i logged in, did some final bag clearing and parked myself in wetlands ready for later.

At about 9, I was on the wow-europe website when I saw the option to upgrade your account was active. So i upgrade and logged in at 10:30pm thinking I'd have to wait till midnight but no, wrath was live! So I hopped on the boat to Howling Fjord.

So my first impressions. Quest structure is a lot more fluid and rarely find myself going back and forth unecessarily and drop rates for quest items are good. There are quite a few fun quests aswell which I'll let you find out for yourself. It was also quite refreshing to see new mob models instead of the same ones painted differently like in BC.

So I played untill 6am and managed to get 80% to 71. Slept untill 11 and got straight back into it. Dinged 71 after an hour or two. Failed to get a screenshot of this accomplishment due to the fact that I still haven't got the hang on the function key on my laptop :P. I'm actually really enjoying questing which makes a change from levelling in BC although I do have some gripes, despite the extensive beta testing there is still a TON of buggy quests and I'v given up talking to the GM's - nothing will be done untill the first patch. Right - back to Northrend!

Epiphany

It suddenly dawned on me today what is wrong with my blog and why I’ve been contemplating quitting it. The main problems with mine are. I was not involved in any beta testing so therefore missed out on all the interesting topics there. A large portion of my old guild quit and made a new guild which basically reversed a year old guild merger. However I now feel we are better off and are heading into Wrath a lot better than we previously were. This however has meant a cut to raiding recently so I haven’t been able to post any interesting raid stories. So with Wrath only a few days away (and my order being delivered as we speak according to the GAME website). I am going to strive to revitalise this blog in the same way Vincent Vega brings back to life an overdosing Mia in Pulp Fiction – with a shot of adrenaline directly to the heart. Wrath of the Lich King will be my adrenaline and my blog will be my heart.

A Sad Day

The blogging community has just lost a great assest. Galoheart at Ardent Defender has hung up his weapon and shield. I checked his blog nearly every day to see if anything new had been posted as he always provided interesting opinions. It was through reading his blog that I was inspired enough to begin writing my own. I wish Galoheart all the best of luck in his future conquests and hope he may return one day in the future.

A Good Week

This week has been one of those weeks which has reaffirmed my love for Wow, a really all round fun and successful one. Went to Karazhan on Tuesday for the achievement. Nerf is an understament! We ran the entire thing in 3hours with a few new comers. Most bosses went down in 1-2minutes with no wipes. Finally got Mantle of Abrahmis which I have been after for ages, all my armour is now epic apart from my trinkets. Been having a lot of fun with the Hallowed Ends achievements, managed to complete all of them and made a fair amount of gold from the pumpkins in the inn. Hopefully the rumours that the 20 mask achievement is being removed from the requirements for the title "The Hallowed" and I will have my first title.

Apologies

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I got a bit bored of Wow and I've been busy getting settled at University. Well with the new patch I am very and from what I have heard on the server most paladins are. Soloing is now a joy rather than a chore. The changes have made downtime almost no-existent unless you over do it. Things are looking bright for paladins finally so I have high expectations for Wrath.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while

I'm finding it hard to play wow at the moment it feels kind of pointless. With the expansion out sometime soon I think it's a waste of time to go raiding etc. I should be saving up gold but pally tanks solo slow and I am undecided on whether to level an alt. I'm going to university soon so I am not sure how long it will be untill I post again.

Goals

With Wrath of the Lich King getting closer I have decided to set myself with a few goals to try and accomplish before the new expansion arrives.
1) Get enough cash for epic flying mount. ( I no its bad i still don't have one).
2) Save up around 5000g so have a nice amount of money at the start of WOTLK.
3) Max out my engineering skill.
4) Get all the badge gear i want before the expansion.
5) Go to Zul'Aman, Gruul's Lair, Magatheridon's Lair at least once.

Depending on when the actual release date of WOTLK is I think that I can do these unless the expansion comes out next week.

Also last night after running Karazhan had 60 badges which was enough for Sabatons of the Righteous Defender which has nearly completed my set of epic gear. I just need a new shoulder piece now.

Tanking Karazhan

Last night there was a scheduled run to Karazhan, a continuation from Thursday. I logged on at start time to find out that Thursday’s run never happened so it was to be a fresh run - more badges and loot so I was happy. We had a new tank with us so I was surprised to find myself as the main tank. In all the run’s to Karazhan I was always an off tank so this was an exciting moment. I tanked all the way to Nightbane with no problems. Then the new tank swapped out for the second half and I was the off tank. We did every boss up to Netherspite by which time it was too late for most people. I also got some ‘epic lootz’ Gilded Thorium Cloak, Wrynn Dynasty Greaves, Panzar'Thar Breastplate. My first time properly tanking in a raid was really enjoyable and I was fairly confident I would be ok but I actually surprised myself with how capable my character actually was. So with these new additions to my gear I don’t think it will be long before I am tanking all of Karazhan.

Finally some loot

On my first trip to Kara a few months ago I got Vambraces of Courage and Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden on my first run. However since then I have not been so lucky. After countless runs I have ended up with more offspec Holy gear than Tanking gear itself. However tonight I went along to the scheduled run. I only tend to go to Kara if my friends Rob and Sharon are running it as they manage a raid extremely well and they know the instance back to front. Tonight however the scheduled 'run' was more of a walk as we started the instance at 8pm game time only to find out that maintenance was unusually scheduled for 12am game time. So with those time constraints meant that tonight was not going to be the full run it was meant to be. However after downing Nightbane he dropped Shield of Impenetrable Darkness

which I am very happy about it and a few more weeks in Kara and i should be ready for Zul'Aman.

The Story Begins

After reading many blog's I have finally decided to start a blog about my experiences playing World of Warcraft as a Protection Paladin. My main inspiration for this is mainly from reading Galoheart's blog www.ardentdefender.blogspot.com.

I started playing my Paladin a very long time ago before Burning Crusade came out. It took me a long time to settle and level one character. After seeing my friend's level 40 Paladin I decided that was the class for me. I leveled from 1-70 with the Retribution spec as enjoyed playing dps but not taking much damage. This was back when Retribution couldn't hold it's own as a dps class. This lead to me becoming fed up with my Paladin as I was constantly overlooked for other dps classes. I cancelled my subscription for around 4-5months when I was bored one day and decided to reactivate it. I logged on and was amazed to see that I was still in my guild (The White Eagles) and some of my friends were still there. I explained why I had left and they suggested changing spec to either Holy or Protection. I decided on Protection spec as the guild was short on Paladin Tanks.

After searching the internet I found a rough guide of what items were recommended before going to Karazhan. Now this was very difficult for me because I had chosen quest rewards for my old Retribution spec whilst leveling to 70 so I had no tank gear. Lot's of sites recommended certain quest rewards which were completely unavailable to me. This meant that becoming uncrittable, the first goal for any Tank was extremely difficult. But after hard work and grinding Engineering for Tankatronic Goggles I was finally ready for Karazhan. I am currently raiding Kara weekly and saving up Badge of Justice for some new gear. This is the start of my story; you've joined at a good time things are just getting interesting.