My Protection Paladin: Can you please give me some pants?
Ok not much too report on my Paladin, however I forgot to steer people who have stumbled upon my page looking for news about Protection Paladins some information.
I would like to point you to Psynister’s notebook. A fountain of information awaits for you on Protection Paladins, and a lot of other classes to. This guy is a serious altoholic (just like me.) Don’t believe me, just check out his Class guides.
If you are interested in Ret Paladins check out Sawyer’s Retribution Paladin guide. I’ve healed Sawyer on my Holy Priest, Holiterra (Holi used to be in her guild too) while she tanked instances and she’s a great Protection Paladin. Seriously, you want these type of people (Psynister and Sawyer) in your Dungeon Finder groups. If I remember correctly, Sawyer even tanked one instance as Ret? Hmm, if that wasn’t her it was my Restoration Druid’s, Pouncealot’s guildmate, Richoshist. I know he’s done that in Heroics when I’ve been healing on Pouncie.
Edited to add…
Check out Sawyer’s Protection Paladin guide too. Please note this is that some of the talents mentioned are focused towards end game, but it’s still excellent information.
My Protection Paladin update
Who knows, eventually, I might start writing my own experiences as a Protection Paladin too, especially at the lower levels. I don’t seem to see to many of those guides floating around. Regarding stats… my main focus is Strength and Stamina. I tend to enchant my items while leveling, so I made sure to do that with my Paladin. My enchants are strength and stamina, baby!
Currently my Protection Paladin is level 42. Her professions are Enchanting and Engineering. Since I’m Horde my Paladin is a Blood elf. She gets +5 points more for Enchanting, so now she’s maxed out Enchanting @ 310, until she hits 55. /sad panda Engineering is currently at 220. I imagine I’ll max that out before next week.
Another unguilded toon
My Paladin is unguilded and like my Druid Pouncealot, I think she’ll stay that way until she hits 80. I’m seriously thinking about starting another guild for my played ‘unguilded toons’.
Newsflash, not everyone that is unguilded is that way because they cannot get along with people or they got kicked out of their guild. That’s definitely isn’t my case. 
Some of us actually enjoy rolling solo. I do have buddies I regularly chat with on my unguilded toons. Although I could put my played toons in my bank alts guild (it has five bank tabs) I do believe I’ll start another guild for my ‘played toons’. I’m thinking the guild leader will be my Hunter. She’s one toon I know will remain unguilded (not go to a ‘real guild’) for life.
Change in Blog writing
Instead of just writing about WoW, you’ll see me starting to write more about other games, and you’ll catch the occasional glimpse into my personal life too. I did a little of that last week when I posted a picture of our adorable Guinea pigs, although I somehow finished writing about WoW. /shrugs
This isn’t the only website where I write. I have a few personal blogs and a few business websites too. This is the only one hosted on a free server(WordPress.) Who knows… eventually, I might live up to my threat and move it to the hosted server too. I’ve been sitting on the domain name I would use for months. 
Ok, I’m a packrat in the real world and the digital world too. Thankfully I’m a neat packrat. This past weekend I threw away a lot of items that I really didn’t need.
I was holding onto them because of my packratish (is that a word) nature and the memories I had associated with them. However I realized, that even though I do cherish those memories, and in some cases do think about them a lot. I don’t need something physical to trigger that memory.
Regarding being a packrat… I earned it honestly from my dad however I’m neat and he’s a sloppy packrat. You should hear the rants my mother has about his packrat qualities but that’s another story. As I was tossing items with reckless abandon I stumbled upon my…
Diablo II box, and it still had the CD key!
I tend to keep my gaming boxes (oh hush not one word from you!) so I was all sorts of pleased when I stumbled upon this yesterday. As soon as Blizzard comes back online for Tuesday maintenance I’ll be adding that CD key onto my list of games on Battlenet.
I purchased Diablo II in the 1990’s and although I’m not sure of the exact year I had a blast playing the game. I had digitally purchased the game last year, but I deleted the game and forgot to save the CD key /facepalm. The graphics might be outdated, but I still enjoy playing the game.
I know I’m not the only one that enjoys playing old games. What old game do you still enjoy playing?
I really haven’t played WoW too much lately, I do make a point to hop on Holiterra and Pouncealot to do my daily transmute and crank out the Jewelcrafting daily but…. Well the real world is crazy (in a good way) and so most of my energy has been focused on making sure nothing comes unraveled.
This past weekend we received snow in Maryland and my daughter and I have had a blast playing around in the snow. Snow angels were made… Sliding down the hill located on our property was a lot of fun too. We live on 4.5 acres a little over three of those acres are woods, complete with a stream and the local wildlife (deer, the occasional elusive fox and raccoon even pop by to say hello.)
Random Dungeon Finder
When I’ve played WoW I’ve been playing around with yet another alt. This time I made a Paladin something I said I would never do until… they made it a little more complicated, but here I am leveling a Protection Paladin. She’s fun, and honestly not as challenging as my Warrior. My Paladin has similar abilities as my Protection Warrior but it doesn’t seem to be as complex as the Warrior. For the record… I still love Warriors more.
Even though I haven’t had a lot of WoW time I did get the chance to knock out quite a few instances this weekend (at odd hours.) I tanked several instances but there were a few when I didn’t want to tank so I signed up as DPS. I met some great people in the Dungeon Finder. Including a fabulous Restoration Druid. He healed Scarlet Monastery: Library while I was tanking. That was nice group. Our group joked throughout the instance and even queued for two more times before we had to go our separate ways. My daughter was going to be awake soon. It was 5:30 AM when I logged off.
Speaking of the Druid… he dropped by my server (Bronzebeard) afterwards so we could chat a bit more before we each logged to take care of real world obligations. I now have an open invite to come to his server if I ever get the urge to roll another Horde toon somewhere else. Who knows, I might take him up on that. He has an 80 Paladin so we swapped tips (he on Paladins and I on trees.)
I did end up in some fail groups too, The fail PUGs were interesting and I’ll have to write about those along with the successful ones in a later post. Did I leave the fail PUG’s? Oh heck no, I stayed around for the fun. WoWGrrl and I are alike when it comes to this. We actually are amused by the fail PUGs (or puggers.) It sure gives me plenty to chuckle about as I watch the drama unravel before my virtual eyes. /grins
I really love music so naturally there’s a song playing in my head at the moment. It just so happens to be Careless Whisper. No, not the original by Wham. I’m talking about the cover by Seether. Careless Whisper by Wham is song that I’ve always enjoyed so naturally when I heard Seether ( a great group in my opinion) performing it a while ago, I had to hunt it down on iTunes, enjoy!
Seether: Careless Whisper
Wham: Careless Whisper
Careless Whisper lyrics
I Feel So Unsure
As i take your hand
And lead you to the dance floor
As the music dies
Something in your eyes
Calls to mind a silver screen
And all its sad goodbyes
[Chorus]
I’m never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm
Though it’s easy to pretend
I know you’re not a fool
I should have known better than to cheat a friend
And waste a chance that i’ve been given
So i’m never gonna dance again
The way i danced with you
Time can never mend
The careless whisper of a good friend
To the heart and mind
Ignorance is kind
There’s no comfort in the truth
Pain is all you’ll find
[Chorus]
Tonight the music seems so loud
I wish that we could lose this crowd
Maybe it’s better this way
We’d hurt each other with the things we want to say
We could have been so good together
We could have lived this dance forever
But now who’s gonna dance with me
Please stay
[Chorus]
Now that you’ve gone
Now that you’ve gone
Now that you’ve gone
Was what i did so wrong
So wrong that you had to leave me alone
Guinea pigs cuddling… Awww!
It’s no secret that I love animals, and it seems that I have transferred my love and respect for them onto my six-year old daughter. She’s as gaga about them just like her mommy.
This past Christmas holiday I decided to bring two more furbabies into our home. I would like to introduce you too our two Guinea pigs; Daisy (black) and Angel (white). They are the two newest members of our household.
I’m pro-rescue and with the exception of the pigges all the animals I’ve gotten over the past ten years have been rescued from animal shelters. I’ve got them from animal shelters. The shelters took my furbabies out of abused homes and I welcomed them with open arms into our household. The guinea pigs well… they came from a pet store. /gasp
According to the store I purchased them from these were unwanted pets. They weren’t even on the ’showroom floor’. Funny thing is, I remember seeing both of these piglets when I was in the store about a week before picking up some fish food. Yes they both had been returned by people who had originally purchased them. They were eventually taken out of their display case, and relocated to an office. The little black one squeaked a lot, and the white was considered unwanted because of her eye color and her rough textured fur. I didn’t pay a dime for them.
At this pet store they will keep them indefinitely even if no one wants them, or so they claim. How the unwanted ones are treated, I have no clue. I just looked at them and felt they needed someone who was willing to give them attention. I’m happy to report that Daisy is still as talkative as ever, and Angel is our quiet little sweetheart. They both make happy ‘wheeking‘ noises when they see myself or my daughter and enjoy being held and played with.
Edited to correct my mistake…
My daughter named Daizy. She said, “Mommy her name isn’t spelled like the flower. Her name is spelled D-a- i- z- y!”(How could I forget that after she lectured me? /grins) So ‘Daizy’ it is.
At times I think people purchase small animals believing they don’t need as much attention as the bigger pets, and that is completely untrue. They can, at times, demand even more attention than the bigger furbabies. I personally think if you agree to bring a pet into your home you should read up on them as much as possible before opening your door to them. I had guinea pigs as a child, read even more about them after I was gifted with one by my Sunday School teacher. She was my favorite Sunday school teacher and gifted me with pets over the years. I grew up in a household that had a lot of pets, and I feel she knew that I would take care of them. She had been to our home many times, and we visited her often too. I still remember her goose named *Jake*. He was an old goose, feisty, and worse than a watchdog when it came to guarding his territory. /grins
I’ve listed a website for those who might be thinking about purchasing a guinea pig. It’s an excellent resource about Guinea pig care and I urge you to read it before making your decisions. I did the same thing. I poured over this website and many others for weeks before deciding to welcome the guinea pigs into our home. Initially I was going to go with a local animal shelter but it didn’t work out that way.
Volunteering
In the real world, I do a lot of volunteer work. I honestly think more people need to do it too. Yes I volunteer at a local animal shelter, and I help out people too. At times it’s hard to juggle everything; work, single mom trying to spend as much time with my daughter as I possibly can, volunteering, squeezing in my gym workouts, and oh yeah… gaming too! However I manage.
I regularly volunteer at homeless shelters since I feel it’s nice to interact with those who might have fallen on rough times. I always treat those I serve with respect. It’s amazing to see that many are just like you or me, and landed in those positions because of job loss, depression, rough spots and had no one to turn too, etc. At times, some of us take the things we do have for granted. I’ve seen some look down on those who are homeless and automatically assume they landed there because of laziness. That really pisses me off, that’s not always the case. My parents did a lot of volunteering when I was a child, they still do so I was exposed to helping others at an early age. For myself, it feels great assisting others.
WoW Ramble…
Ok so I’m going off topic here, it’s ok that happens to me now and again. Not too long ago Blizzard got some flack from people ‘outraged’ /rolls eyes that Blizz offered to donate 50% of the money for those who choose to purchase the Pandaran Monk in-game pet.
I for one was extremely happy. The Make a Wish Foundation is an amazing organization that grants children with life-threating medical conditions a wish. Some people through their blog posts or on the various WoW insider article accused Blizzard of doing this only to get money, true Blizzard is a company and they are in business to make money but… there are actual people that make up this company too. You know, just like there are people behind the avatars we play? I don’t believe Blizzard is that heartless.
Little Pouncie visiting Ahab
Did you know this isn’t the first time that Blizzard has worked with the Make a Wish Foundation? Ever heard of Ahab Wheathoof? All my toons have visited Ahab Wheathoof (yes even my Alliance toons too.) He’s a level 62 Tauren questgiver found in Mulgore. He gives the level 7 quest, Kyle’s Gone Missing. Ahab is actually the voice of Ezra Chatterton.
Ezra was one of the children from the Make A Wish foundation program. Jeffrey Kaplan aka Tigole created Ahab for Ezra. How cool is that? You can read the complete OC register article titled Blizzard makes WOW Wish virtual reality.
Blizzard even gifted Ezra with the first Phoenix mount, and ‘epiced out’ his toon too. Sadly, Ezra lost his battle with cancer on Oct. 20, 2008. His father Micah Chatteron wrote a tribute to his son. I included some of it below…
My son, Ezra Phoenix Chatterton, Ephoenix the Hunter, Squirlanator the Mage, is gone. All we have left in this world are memories of him. Please remember that he was a good person, smart and clever but also very kind, that he loved to play World of Warcraft, that he loved rice pudding and fettucine alfredo, and that he went through so much pain and still found ways to smile all the way to the end. Please remember too the kindness of Blizzard, and the overwhelming love of the WoW community. Without these gifts, Ezra would still have found a way to be happy and optimistic, just not as easily.
I wasn’t playing the game when Ezra was alive but my toons still pop by and pick up his quest if their Horde, and salute from a distance if their Alliance. I cannot even imagine losing my daughter. You want to know something… It’s the little touches like this that makes me enjoy WoW even more. I hope when Catyclsym is released that Blizzard keeps Ahab. It would be nice to see Ezra still in-game.
Ok so I veered off my cute post about Guinea pigs and I ended up writing about volunteering, and World of Warcraft, I’ll try to do better next time, ok?
Edited to include…
The Secret Life of Guinea Pigs, so adorable!
I enjoy PvP and make a habit to pay attention to other classes abilities in battlegrounds. It’s always nice being able to counter whatever they dish out. I guess PvP is the closest I’ll come to “FPS’ in World of Warcraft so you’ll see my playing Battlegrounds a lot. The past few weeks I’ve been checking out more Enhancement Shaman videos and so I decided to include one of my favorites above.
My Enhancement Shaman hasn’t been doing as much PvP in the 19s and 29s bracket. Shocking I know, and the reason is simple. Horde has really sucked. Well, I guess that is a little harsh… In most of the BG’s I’ve been part of Alliance had a lot of high level toons whereas Horde didn’t. There were a few instances where we still managed to eek out a win, but for the most part that wasn’t about to happen. The level difference didn’t help, additionally, it seemed that people had no clue how to play Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basin which made it frustrating.
As with my other toons my Shaman entered BG’s from the time she could, level ten and will continue to do so until end-game.
Although I was happy with the way my Enhancement Shaman performed against players at my level or a few levels higher, I imagine I won’t get a good idea how well she really is, or what she needs to improve upon until she enters BG’s that are a little more balanced.
My Restoration Druid, on the other hand, met a great mix of Horde PvP fans while she was leveling. We would congratulate those who would hit the bracket in the Battlegrounds and tell them we would see them once we made it there too. We won a fair amount of Battlegrounds. It was always nice going up against and equally skilled Alliance team to see which one came out on top. We won some we lost some too.
On my Restoration Druid, one of my favorite opponents was an Elemental Shaman. She targeted me from the time I stepped foot into the Battlegrounds at 20. She was 27 at the time. She continued to be an annoyance and was always five levels ahead of me until Pouncealot reached her 40’s. When I hit 49 bracket, I finally caught up to her (leveling wise) and had an epic 1:1 battle with her. The fight lasted a long time, we both were out of mana, and were using our weapons to damage each other. I won that round, and was happy.
Time to seek out some 1:1 outside of Orgrimmar.
Healing Gnomeregan as an Enhancement Shaman
Since creating my Enhancment Shaman I’ve wondered if I could heal lowbie instances with her. I’ve played numerous healers within World of Warcraft. I really enjoy healing.
I had a good idea that she could based on the damage she’s seen other healers healing in the instances she’s been part of, but outside of healing when AOE damage got a little crazy my Enhancement Shaman never stepped into the healing role. That is until this morning
My Enhancement Shaman has a healing set. She’s level 28 at the moment, what she lacks in mana regen she makes up with a fair amount of intellect. Currently she has almost 3000 intellect, which isn’t bad at all.
Today, I really wanted to try out ‘Enhancement healing’ with my Shaman but she queued up as DPS. Once the group was ready she was whisked off too..
Gnomeregan! /shudders
Let me just say I’m not too fond of this instance. Anyway we all get inside, Pally tank, Shaman healer, Hunter, Mage, and myself…you’re resident Enhancement Shaman, ready to drop some totems and prepared to get up close so I can rip your face off.
After a few pulls tanks drops group, not sure if they…
- Got discharged (has happened to me a few times)
- Had other obligations
- Realized how much they hated Gnomer, and had much better things to do
All I know is our tank was gone. The group was doing very well, friendly, so it’s highly unlikely they dropped the group because of the group. No problem, the Elemental Shaman said they would tank. He asked me to heal. How did he know I could heal? Earlier he had DC’d my Shaman quickly put on her healing gear and was healing the tank until he made it back to us. Once he rejoined our group I swapped back into my Enhancement/DPS gear.
One of the benefits of having three 80’s on Bronzebeard is I have a lot of extra goodies to hand out to my lowbie toons. Between the Bind On Account gear, a tailor made clothing, and some leather armor too. My Shaman definitely had gear for her Healing set. Oh even at the lowbie levels I enchant my stuff, so everything that could be was enchanted. Heck at this level, my Enhancement Shaman’s healing set usually has more intellect than the ‘regular healer’.
Healing is something I’m extremely comfortable with, having a few priests that have healed instances/battlegrounds from level 10 – endgame. I also have a Druid that has taken on that role too, and now my lowbie Shaman. Sure each class heals differently, but the goal is the same keep everyone, especially the tank nice and healthy.
Since a healer was needed she swapped gear and quickly put on her healing attire (which had less intellect than what she has now). My Shaman learned very quickly if she could heal instances as an Enhancement Shaman. She can! The other Shaman pulled large packs of mobs, I healed him, no problem. The shaman didn’t start with the big pulls right off the bat. He got a feel for how much my wee Shaman could handle, once he saw I could heal him, and the other two when stray mobs came to take a chump out of us he kicked it up a notch in the amount of mobs he pulled. It was a lot of fun. Occasionally the mage and the hunter would pick up aggro. It’s not hard to do in there, lots of stray mobs wondering around. Thankfully my Shaman was able to keep everyone alive, no deaths.
Guess who’s going to be queueing as DPS and Heals from now on? I was chatting with my Bronzebeard pal, Teddee, about this earlier this morning. After the instance I told him that my question was answered. My Enhancement Shaman could indeed heal the lowbie instances without changing her spec. My hesitation for queuing as such was simple. I didn’t want to be one of those people who queue for something they obviously couldn’t handle. Although I had a good idea heals wouldn’t be an issue as an Enhancement Shaman, it was nice to have a first hand account healing when my group was taking a lot of damage. The lower levels are a lot more forgiving and some classes can switch roles without too much of an issue.
Once my Enhancement Shaman hits level 40 she will pick up Restoration as her Dual spec and I’ll definitely be using that spec to heal some instances.
I’ve been pugging long before Dungeon Finder became popular. It was a lot harder to find groups before this new tool, especially at the lower levels. After my runs I always make a point to thank those who’ve made the run enjoyable. There are so many negative stories about the failed pugs out there. They exist and it can be helpful to call out the extremely horrible people that cause all this grief however, I think it’s important to recognize the good players too. Thank you, you’re appreciated!
I would like to personally thank Agressive (Elemental Shaman), Boomdead (Arcane Mage) and Swaggr (Beast Mastery Hunter) who participated in this crazy adventure with my Shaman. We met through the Dungeon Finder. We were able to four man this instance without any issues. Thanks for making Gnomergedan extremely successful and a lot of fun!
When it comes to my professions, within the World of Warcraft, at times I’m all over the place. At times I don’t level them until I’m close to 80. Additionally, when starting toons on a new server they rarely keep the same professions they initially chose.
But that’s all about to change…
This past weekend I decided to create another toon. It’s a Shaman. The problem is, I already had ten toons on the Bronzebeard server. One of them would have to go. /gasp I let one of my bankers go. My Shaman stepped into the #10 slot.
I’ve always liked Shamans, played around with them for a little bit Alliance side, but well… the Draenei Shammies didn’t do it for me. This past weekend I created an Orc Shaman. No surprise there, I love their lore, and my favorite toon to play within WoW are female orcs. Not to mention my favorite in-game Bronzbeard buddy (Teddee) has a Shaman. That’s the toon he usually raids with and his Shaman occasionally joins my toons on in-game adventures. He’s amazing with his Shaman… amazing. I sort of blame him for making me want to create one. Hey, it’s better to blame him, than to simply admit I’m an altoholic, right? Perhaps my Orc Shaman will be half as good as his when she grows up.
Priest working her magic with Alchemy
What are my Shamans professions? My Shaman is a enchanter and a skinner. Unlike some of my other toons, I definitely won’t be changing her profession once she hits 80. I mean why should she? I already have three 80’s on the Bronzebeard server. Their professions are maxed out and they do well with their professions; Jewelcrafting, Skinning, Tailoring, Alchemy, Mining and Herbalism. My toons defintiely don’t have to worry about WoW gold since they average about 1k WOW gold when I play, and that’s from only doing one professions about 15 minutes per day. They could make a heck of a lot more if they worked the Auction House more, but they really don’t want to spend that much time in the Auction House.
Fast forward to the present..
My Shaman’s currently level 18 and has maxed out Leatherworking and Enchanting for her level. They are both at 150, she cannot move past that point until she reaches level 20. My bank toons have already been snapping up high end Leatherworking and Enchanting patterns for her. My Shaman will have plenty of highly sought after enchants and crafted gear to make, equip and sell as she progresses. My bankers even snapped up some level 245 epic mail and leatherworking patterns for my Shammie.
This time around, I’ll be leveling while I level this toon. How about you, do you level your professions along with your toon, or do you wait until much later?
Pouncealot the Shy meets Artorius the Amiable
In the real world I love to explore, I’m the most comfortable being outside exploring nature then being cooped up inside my home. In fact, during the warmer months you can see me working on my MacBook Pro outside. So it comes as no surprise that I enjoy doing the same thing in-game.
In a recent post Kaozz of Etc.MMO, talked about this subject, and at the end she asked her readers how do they take a break?
Kaozz’s post got me thinking about my first true experience with a truly massive world. Being a FPS gamer, I didn’t think anything could stray me from that until I encountered Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls. Let me just say that game is amazing. What’s not to like? I had freewill!I could do whatever I freaking liked within the game! WOW! My characters took advantage of that. I was blown away at the vast in-game real estate my toons had to explore, and they explored a lot. They rarely quested but advanced in levels through exploration.
Shortly after it was released, I read about World of Warcraft. However, I avoided it since I really didn’t have the time to devote to the MMORPG. It surely looked like a lot of fun though. Last year, I had a little more time on my hands and decided to check it out and I guess you could say the rest is history.
There have been two occasions when I took long breaks from the game, but for now I will come back since I still enjoy World of Warcraft. If I’m not doing PvP, or healing an instance, I’m happiest exploring. Recently, I’ve been doing this a lot on Pouncealot (my Tauren Druid.)
Pouncealot is my newest 80, and since she spent a majority of time leveling through Battlegrounds she hasn’t had a chance to explore a lot of the content like some of my other toons but… she’s making up for it now.
Yesterday after Pouncie PUG healed three extremely fast heroics (with some amazing players I might add) she switched to her Feral Spec and off to Winterspring she went. I enjoy exploring with in-game friends, and I do a lot of exploration on my own too.
In the first photo you see that Pouncie stumbled upon Artorius the Amiable. Artorius isn’t all that friendly and reveals his true form if you are a certain class. He’s a demon known as Artorius the Doombringer and is part of a Hunters quest to obtain Rhok’delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers and Lok’delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers. Poor Pouncie has no idea of his real identity. A demon disguised in Tauren form.
Pouncie was quite taken with his comment, “How wonderful to see another person in this remote region of the world. Come walk with me. Let our bodies keep each other warm.”
Since Pouncie was smitten by the cocky bull (Poor Pouncie has no idea he says this to everyone that stops to chat with him.) She decided to take him up on his offer. Pouncie hopped off her Kodo and walked with him, and did the /flirt /shy emote too.
Before they went their separate ways, they walked together for a while, exploring Winterspring together.
Toad the Wet Sprocket: Walk on the Ocean
I love music, played the piano for well over twenty years. There’s usually a song playing in my head. What was I thinking about as Pouncie and Artorius were exploring Winterspring? Walk on the Ocean by Toad the Wet Sprocket.
Feral Druid: Rounding up Brittle Revenants in Dun Niffelem
Earlier today I decided to drop my Moonkin spec and pick up Feral again. I’ve really missed it; however, when Pouncealot hit 40, I immediately Dual Specced, and picked up Balance Druid as my secondary spec. I used that spec for questing, and occasionally Battlegrounds until 80. Nope, I’m not dropping my Resto spec. Pouncie loves tree healing too much to give that up.
Although I have four Druids, Balance was the spec I never checked out until I created Pouncealot. I wanted to see what the spec would be like and so shortly after hitting 40 I headed to the Thunder Bluff trainer and picked up Balance. Balance is an excellent spec but Pouncealot much prefers having Feral as her secondary spec. In combat mode, she likes killing things up close.
Pouncealot’s Feral Druid tanking spec is 0/60/11. After I get comfortable with the Feral rotation again, I might change it around a bit, however for now I’m going with one of the recommended specs.
Reuniting with my Feral spec felt great, I have to admit my rotations weren’t as smooth as they used to be, but it felt great rounding up a ton of mobs and batting them down with my Huge furry paws. My newest buddy, Teddee, Resto/Balance Druid joined me during some of my testing and off to Sholozar we went. Looking for bigger and better mobs we finished in Icecrown. I rounded up mobs, and he healed Pouncie in tree form. A few times mobs got to him, but I quickly picked them up and brought their attention back to me.
About an hour ago, Pouncie briefly popped back online. She headed over to Dun Niffelem and rounded up numerous Brittle Revenants to ‘tank’. Pouncie tested out her rotation, and had fun swatting them down. My health hardly dipped at all. You want to know something? Pouncalot’s rotation doesn’t feel as awkward now, and she’s really looking forward to tanking sometime in the future.
I’ve read a few people talking about Druid tanking, in a negative light, and how it’s not that great within Wrath of the Lich King. I have to admit that has always left me puzzled since I’ve teamed with some amazing Feral Tanks in Heroics and raids too. On the Zul’jin server one of my best buddies was a Feral tank. He’s since left the game. Anyway, just because ‘you’ haven’t run with any good feral Druids in your heroics,/raids doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Trust me, they do.
Pouncealot still has a lot of tanking practice to do. Although I’ve tanked a lot, it’s only been at the lower levels. When she thrust her furry butt into dungeons, naturally she’ll start with the easier ones first.
Pouncealot, the Tree Druid, with her Teldrassil Sproutling
Aww… look at the two trees aren’t they adorable? A few months ago I mentioned the Teldrassil Sproutling was a must have vanity pet for my Tauren Druid.
Did one of my bank alts purchase this amazing vanity pet for Pounce? Why no, it was a gift from one of Pouncealot’s new guild members. In the real world (and the virtual world too) there are some people you hit it off with instantly. I would have to say that about this guildmate.
Unlike some of the other guildies that Pouncealot had met before joining, More Chaos Pouncie didn’t meet this guildie until after she joined the guild. She joined earlier this week. Since that time we’ve had a lot of in-game adventures.
Exploring Teldrassil on our Horde toons
What have we done? Pouncie decided that she wanted to explore the Alliance cities and so she asked her guildmate were they up for it. Sure, was the immediate reply. My guildy hopped on his Shaman, Pouncie hopped on their Travelers Tundra Mammoth and off they went to explore Teldrassil. It’s my goal to explore everyone inch of WoW before Cataclysm changes some of the virtual terrain forever so it’s nice to include an in-game buddy on some of my adventures.
Tauren Druids stealthed on top of Iron Forge
Afterwards Pouncie asked, “Do you want to hop onto your Druid and stealth into Iron Forge? “Sure!” They hopped on their Druid, Pouncie hopped on their Mechano hog, and we were off to explore the Dwarf capital city.
Before going inside Iron Forge we explored the airstrip that sits on top of Iron Forge. It’s the first time I’ve been there with any of my toons. We eventually dropped down (literally) into Iron Forge. In the above picture you might be able to spot our two stealthed Druids, high above, observing the Iron Forge activities outside (way down below.)
Let me just say that Pouncealot had planned on giving this guildmate something even before she received the Sproutling, but Pouncie was undecided on what to give a person who has virtually everything in-game; Traveling tundra mammoths, I think I saw them on aViolet Proto Drake, Mechano hogs, 22 slot bags, and the list goes on…
Hmm, what could my toons give? My toons went for the practical approach. What did they gift them with? Well let’s just say Holiterra, my PVP Disc, PvE Holy Priest was put to work. She whipped up Pouncalot’s newest buddy the items listed below.
Yesterday when I logged online, I got a happy thanks from them. I laughed and told them for a person who had virtually everything (goldwise) in-game I decided to go for the practical approach.
Just like the real world, in the virtual world there are some people you connect with instantly. This new guildmate falls into that catergory. They moved a few of their toons to the Horde side a little while ago. they’re what I would call a hard core raider, being in the top raiding guild on their old server but without the attitude you see with some of them. Yeah they already know that I could care less about raiding with my toons. As with my other raiding buddies, I’m happy they are enjoying raiding and it’s nice that that my raiding buddies still hang out with me in-game. There’s no separation. As for myself, These days, I really don’t have much interest in raiding. It’s nice they don’t hold that against me. I wouldn’t hang around them if they did. /grins
Anyway, since Pouncie joined the guild earlier this week we’ve done at least one thing together whenever we are both online. We chat a lot too, which is unusual for myself and I have to admit I truly miss that. It’s something I’ve had while playing on the Zul’jin server with my toons, so it’s nice to find someone that not only likes to chat with me in-game but enjoys doing things with me too.
Moving to a brand-new server can be difficult, most times people already have their friends and at times they forget to include the newbies in their regular in-game activities. Stop for a moment, and think how it was like when you were new.
Since, I’m not one to sit on the sidelines waiting for things to happen I do go out of my way to get to know people too, even if I’m a newbie on the guild/server. It’s nice to see others willing to step out of their comfort zone and get to know the ‘newer guildies/new to server’ people too. Many thanks to those of you who fall within that category. Trust me, it’s appreciated.
