The blog is Soulstoned !

I have been lost for a month. I had a conjuction of Family issues, Piles of Work at the Office, and end of semester Exams. I just didn't have the time to post.

I raid 2 days a week, friday and sunday nights, most times 7 hours. This month I raided only 2 days. My Guild has been having a hard time with our second 10 man group, and our main 10 man group seems to be stuck on progression. So the few time I had to play, was spent dealing with those problems with the other Officers.

Small guilds have not very forgiving rosters, I'm the main tank on my 10 man group, and we have an always changing off tank, for a complex amount or reasons. My 10 man group got stuck on the sames fights  while those changing off tanks filled my place as main tank.

Time has for as long as I can remember, been my worst enemy. I just don't enough time. Stubborn from Sheep the Diamond, used the term "Part Core Gamer" (He might get copyrights on this...), to describe how he approaches WoW, and its very close to how I approach WoW too.

Getting the best of the time I have, and using it effectively, to cover School, Work, Guild Manahing, Raid Leading, PvPing and last but probably the most important thing, Finding a Girlfriend (I broked up recently, and it lasted 4 years so I'm on a weird place right now). Thats why I haven't post, and a lot of interesting stuff is happening right now.

As of now most things keeping me  from posting, seemed to have gone away. I was about to come back, but an oportunity for a Trip to Korea appeared, its not vacations tough, I'm visiting the Hyundai Construction Equipment factory, but hey a trip to Korea its a trip to Korea, right ?, so I'll be delaying my return.

I end my post with some interesting Paladin information covered by other and more experienced bloggers. And with the promise of returning next week for good.

The Paladin tier 12, was one of the topics I intended to cover, yet I like Bubbles covered already.

I have been working on a Protection Paladin simple Guide, but Rhidach, from Righteous Defense does it masterfully, and has some insight on Nefarian.

Paladin Master Ophelie from The Bossy Pally and the Giant Spoon, talks about Holy Mastery.

Guild Happenings: Lost in Translation

As an Officer, you are in many ways a Guide for your Guildies. Specially if your in a "casual" and friendly Guild, and particulary if you accept some leveling players. I try my best to help my Guildies in the things they need, and I really feel it is my responsability as and Officer to look for those leveling players in particular. As a result, a lot of my Guildies often recur to me when in doubt.

Once upon a time I had a Guildie who had just started playing, so naturaly, he asked a lot of questions. One day he had a quest wich send him to Tarren Mill, and He didn't know where Tarren Mill was, and so he asked me, but for you to understand or rather enjoy what happened, let me give you some background information.

I'm Mexican, and I play in a Latin Server, most of my Guildies only speak Spanish, and play with the Spanish Game Client, I don't. Most of the translations are quite literal. wich end up being lame, and the voice acting is spanish it's just meh. I mean Scourgelord Tyranus "Power Overwhelming" was nice, but in Spanish Señor de la Plaga Tyrannus "Poder Abrumador" was just plain bad. That's why sometimes when I'm asked about something, I just don't know what they are referring to, and somethings are translated quite different. The conversation happened in Spanish, but in order for you to undestand it, i'm going to translate it, as best as I can. My Guildie has the Client in Spanish, and I in English, but for things to make sense, lets say it was au contraire. For the Conversation imagine I have the Client in Spanish and my Guildie in English (I think I'm being redundant here). Hoping it stands true, to what it was in Spanish.

Troubled Guildie: Excuse me Visita (Me), do you know where Tarren Mill is?
Me: Mmm my bad I don't know what is Tarren Mill, you see I have the Game in Spanish. How is it in Spanish, or link me the quest in Guild Chat.
12 Seconds Later
Troubled Guildie: Podrias decirme donde esta Tarren Mill?
20 Seconds later (I just couldn't stop laughing)
Me: I needed the name of the place in Spanish, but give a few secs I'll look for it.
Troubled Guildie: Oh.... my bad
15 Seconds Later
Me: It's on Hillsbrad Foothills, Just pass Silverpine and keep following the Road, Tarren Mill is near a River, a bit to the North, almost in the Middle of the map.
Troubled Guildie: Ok ty, Visita.

To date I start laughing everytime I remember what happened, but that is one of the little satisfactions you get when helping new players, and everyone one of us was new at some point. I have had a lot of different Guildies, but that guildie won my friendship in that moment. If you take leveling players on your Guild, and they are really new, help them, it's not always easy, but you might end feeling the excitement you felt when you were new to the game, just by hanging with them.

This how the Conversation really happened:

Guildie: Oye visita podrias decirme donde esta Molino Tarren?
Yo: Molino Tarren?, puedes decirmelo en Ingles o linkear la quest en el Guild Chat; es que tengo el juego en Ingles
12 Segundos Después
Guildie: Where is Molino Tarren?
20 Segundos Después (No podía dejar de reirme)
Yo: No, me refiero al nombre del lugar, no que me hicieras la pregunta en Inglés. Dame un momento y checo el nombre
Guildie: Aaaaaaa, disculpa XD
15 Segundos Después
Yo: Esta en Trabalomas, debes de cruzar todo el Bosque de los Argenteos por el camino que sale al Sur, y seguir en el. Molino Tarren esta casi a la mitad el mapa, un poco hacia el norte, y cerca de un río.
Guildie: Ok gracias Visita.

Paladin Tales

I was lost within the heroic flow of real life, but somehow manage to be on time for my raid on sunday.

After a wipe with Maloriak, Half the raid somehow reentered the Raid about the same time, and where heading towards the elevator. The elevator was up everybody was running for it, as we were about to get it, it went down. I was the last one of the group and as the elevator began its slow descent, people stopped at the edge and sighed, not me.

I kept on running and jumped, time stood still while as I flew high , until someone started laughing on vent, and even made a "Splut" sound when I was about to land. It took 2 seconds to realize that raider what had happened.

He was waiting for my HP bar to reach 0, when he made the "Splut" sound, only to be replace by the soft and marvelous sound of my Divine Shield as it affected reality creating a space made of light wich negates all damage.

As he went silent, I just said "Pallys are Sexy".....

Notes:

1. There were no druids or engineers with parachutes at that time, and our priest entered before the event happened. One of our mages has the "necesity" of buff everyone with slow fall, hoping for someone to jump and die in boiling magma as once happened to him, thats why everyone stops or made a cancelaura macro.

2. Master Katie Teidrich had illustrated something similar in Dead Fall
3. I had a lot of thing going in the past weeks but im not going anywhere

Dips on the Guild

I've been having some rough times with my Guild, wich at one point, got me thinking some really crazy ideas, as I wondered some of my most basic stand points, but one of them really caught my interest. Before I share it with you, i'm happy to say, my Guild has settle down and we are once again, advancing.

Who owns a Guild?

Is it the GM, the Officers, the Founding Members, the Active Members ?. Imho a Guild is made by the players inside it, and can only be as good as those players made it. Decisions for the Guild should be share with everyone, since it involves everyone, and there should be room for discussion and improvement; thats mostly how I see it. However, drama is something that's just around the corner, and it may happend at any time, and to anyone.

When really big "Guild Drama" happens, in cases where is not a small amount of people argument, and Guild taking sides, I mean cases where everybody is involve, and a lot of different opinions and decisions are being made, or demanded. Where it gets to the point of people leaving, treathing to leave, or asking for some big lead changes.

I have been in some of these cases, and in one of them the GM, just kicked everyone not sharing his point of the Guild, and those who did share it, remained. In others the GM, some Officers, and some Guildies, left the Guild. I even know of one where everyone left.

What to do in those situations, is an individual decision. Each player, enjoy's different things and aspects of the game, and has different schedules, even more important each player, is different and unique, like snow flakes XD. That's why online gaming is not rated by the ESRB, online gaming is like a box of chocolates...

In Cataclysm, Guilds gained more weight. Guild Perks and Achievements award life quality improvers, and some strong raid helpers. Guild matter more, and whats even more important, in order to get those thing, everyone must help to get them. Sure they can be achieved by few dedicated players, yet it still remains a group effort, and those rewards are earned by everyone not just the GM and Officers.

Here's my point. If you are in a Guild with say 30 active accounts, 1 or 2 raid groups, fairly active and helping members, and drama appears. If things come to worst, who gets to call Dips on the Guild?

Since the Guild reached lvl X, and its made of all the members effort, should it be a vote democracy on those hard decisions?, should it be the Officers who contribute and work hard for the Guild?, Is it the GMs right, to kick everyone out, just because he can?.

In Wotlk you just changed the Guild Tag, and if needed everyone could leave and make a new Guild, but in Cata, is the perks, the Gold spent, the TIME spent. Its everyones hard work. I know a GM or Officer can kick everyone out, they rank permit it so,but what I mean is, Is it still just they Call?.

Maybe im just refering more to the Etiquette in game, for Guilds right now. I mean, if a GM kicks everyone or those who want changes in a guild enterily out of spite, its obviously bad etiquette. So how much the guild belongs to everyone?. We have PUG etiquette, wich changes should be made on Guild etiquette, now that what everyone does count more substantially.

Guild hard times in Cata

I'm really sorry for not posting last week, but Real Life issues must be worked fast.

I'm an Officer in a small Guild, yet on Wrath we did good on progression. We had some problems at the end of Wrath with people leaving due to various reasons, yet as Cataclysm approached, we had some new people and some lost raiders returned. We were ready for Cata, or so we tought.

As we leveled up trough the new content, we had some troubles since, theres was only 1 healer and tank, leveling as a healer and tank. Wich limired the amount of people who could run in Guild dungeon groups. I made Protection my raiding spec, and leave my loved Retribution in Hold, as we needed more tanks.

We were gearing faster, with two tanks leading dungeons, but most of our healers, didn't want to heal, "until they got 346 gear", this only made reading slower. We managed to get some healers to step up, and even tough not everyone had 346; I had like 332 Ilvl, we marched into Baradin Hold, and got ourselves a Kill. At the time we were one of the first Guilds, in the server to down the boss.

And so we went to visit Bastion. Halfus had the Slate, Nether, and Storm, we tryed it but failed miserably, and so we went to BWD. Magmaw HP was slowly going down, but the people were doing better each try we did. We had a Awesome start in our raiding, as we had intented before cataclysm started, but "No king rules forever".

For the next weeks we had a "Series of unfortuned events", the other tank was moving to another city so he miss the nex raid, somehow we managed to bring magmaw down, with 4 healers, 1 tank, 5 dps XD. On the second raid day, more people were missing.

For like 2 more weeks raiders were Intermittent, we somehow managed to down Halfus and the Conclave of Wind, wich encouraged the Guild. But the raids didn't feel right.

Our main tank finally moved, but it would take 3 weeks for the telephone company to get him Internet, and was really bussy on his new job. Our GM also moved and was in the same condition, and the PC of an Officer hit the bucket. Leaving the Guild on 2 Officers, a Lock and me.

We were like 16 people ready to raid, but most of them were DPS. I started pushing 2 more tanks to gear fast, we had our guild alchemist farming truegold, for crafted epics. But we could not make and solid raid group, we had different raiders everynight and got stuck on progression. One week we managed to bring magmaw and Halfus, and made some attempts to the Twin Dragons and the Omnotron. But the raids felt heavy and plain. There was always someone not happy about something on a raid. On halfus I got whispers, complaining that the other Tank (Those 2 other tanks I had been helping to gear up) failed. The same thing happened with some healers. I replied, to those whispers, that it was the first time they were doing the fight, and they were our tanks and healers, and that only by raiding will they learn the encounter.

When our main tank finally ot back, we managed to get the Omnotron and the Twin Dragons down. The raid went a really much easier, and people were missing less raid days. Yet impunctality and Loot, were a problem.

We ran EPGP, in Wrath and we had few issues. Most of our raiders passed gear when the person behing them on priority needed more that piece of gear. But as we were getting ready for Cataclysm we made a major guild gathering on Vent, and talk about making a change for the loot system. We (Officers) wanted to give the Gear wich goes on the Hands (Shields, Wands, Off Hands, Weapons, etc) and Trinkets with Loot Council, decided by the Raid Leaders, since it makes a bif differences in performance, in order to make our raid groups more balanced, and everyone agreed.

With all the issues that presented and the people missing, we had apart form those I already explained, 2 more raiders missing, one due to family problems, and the other one because of school, both were healers. And we have 2 more raiders leaving the Guild.

We weren't running the EPGP, because we didn't wanted to hurt so bad those players missing for real life issues, and thats one of the things that has define us as a Guild. But it was about time, the Raid group seemed more solid, and with EPGP the impuctuality will be resolved. We annouced that we were going to start running the EPGP the next raid, and that was when things went south.

Real Server Downtime

I'm sorry for not posting something earlier, real life crit me in the face really hard this week.
If you are out there, and read this, the post will be delivered on sunday, yep sunday morning post.
Theres no such thing as Bubble Hearthing from real live Y_Y.

Can I shake your Hand?

As you probably now Pallys are the most awesome and sexy class, yet I've been finding Pallys who don't use all of their abilities, in particular their "Hand" spells.

Pallys on any spec, have all of the "Hand" spells, and they are there not just to take space on the actions bars, but to be cast at the right time. We are natural friends to everyone, and everybody wants to shake our Hands. You see we were desing for glory.

Knowing when and how to use your "Hand's" makes a big difference, and is on the distinctive traits of a Sexy Pally. Allow me then to share some of my knowledge (As little as it may be).

 Hand of Protection makes the target Immune to Physical Attacks. This spells is one of our most iconic spells and serves as a multi utility tool. "Save the Day" spell. When to use it?

• Some party or raid member manages to be the object of "love" of a loose Add. Works awesome on squishy classes, clothes preferable (Mages have their own shield they are not on top of our priority list, nevertheless don't forget them), our Leafy friends the Druids need protection too, good old Shammys, and help those plate weares too if they are being hit hard, but make the squishier classes your prioritys, specially healers. Be careful on using this on other Pallys, as they will get Forbearance and you'll render them unable to cast the more potent  Divine Shield.
• Some party or raid member is building a deadly amount of treath. Hand of Protection temporary makes the target disapear from the aggro table, but remeber that once the spell fades, they will return to the aggro table. As long as the Hand lasts the target won't be attacked by physical attackers, that won't be the case with casters. Those seconds not gaining aggro should be enough for your tank to out aggro the protected target.
• Prevent Abilities. For an example, when you get the storm drake on the Halfus encounter, one loose Shadow Nova hurts the raid pretty bad and theres always a Shadow Nova at the end of his Furious Roar, in order to interrupt them you can cast the hand on yourself or another raid member (make sure to let them know, and that they can interrupt), you will not be affected by the roar,  giving you the chance to interrupt the nova. Divine Shield does the trick too, but in case you have it on Cd or you are affected by Forbearance, enable other raider, so he can interrupt the Nova. Doing this makes raiders happy.
• Emergency on Arena. If one of your companions ends up being beaten by Melees, act fast. Sometimes its better to cast the Hand before damage occurs; be ready to use it.
• Removing some Physical Debuffs. The spell can remove some nasty physical debuffs, like Harmstring, or the Boiling Blood debuff that Deathbringer Saurfang delivered.
• Bubble Taunt. When you have a boss with 2% health, and 2 secs on the enrage timer, Bubble Up, Taunt, and buy your raid or party some precious little seconds of DPS. You can do this with Divine Shield also, thats true, but if you get someone else from your raid do the Bubble Taunt also (That someone needs to have a taunt, or taun like ability), you can buy even more extra seconds. This is called Double Bubble Taunt, sexy name.

Its me being hit by an angry mob of Pally Haters, see how useful Shields are...

Hand of Salvation this spell reduces the amount of treath. "Somebody is doing it wrong" spell. When to use it?

• Be it that you got a "low treath tank", "big treath dps" or "I can't control mah poweh" raiders, use salvation. Protections Pallys are the only tanks, who can "control" other raiders aggro, you might cover your lead on treath or help and off tank with a particular raider. 
• Holy Palllys not always use Salvation, and its a shame, you have an advantage point by being at range instead of melee and might reach faster, or just reach that far away squishy mage building some nasty aggro, whereas a protection Pally in order to reach him, need to move with the boss following him. 
• If you are a ret Pally, and start off with some cooldowns, you might want to use Salvation in conjuction with those to avoid taking the lead on aggro, and don't forget to help with the treath of raiders if needed. 
• If you Glyph it, instead of reducing some treath over time, completely stops the target from gaining more treath, as long as the spell lasts. It makes the spell instead of a "band aid" a "OMG someone else hit him harder" thing, supposedly the tank.

Hand of freedom makes its target immune to imparing effects, and also removes them. "Who's gonna stop me now" spell. When to use it?

• When a raid or party member is slowed, or glued  by some evil witchcraft and a "Hope Breaking" ability is going to hit them, if they don't move from where they are. For instance the encounter with Asaad in the Vortex Pinnacle. The static cling grounds the target and you need to avoid the supremacy of the storm by positiong yourslef in the "Safe Triangle of Energy", but not much can be done if you are stuck to the ground. Release those poor people.
• When you or a partner in Arena or Bg, are snared by some wrong doers. If you are running away you need to do it fast, and that mage's slow isn't helping, or if you need to deliver some melee punishment, that harmstring might not be making it easier, Free yourself. Don't forget to use it on other players, those extra swings your buddy was landing do make the difference.
• When you want to avoid and ability. On both PvP and PvE, some abilities will snare or inmobilize you, but if you know they are coming, act first, and laugh about their futile intentions. Hunter traps, frostbolts, Static clings, etc.

Hand of Sacrifice you redirect 30% of the incoming damage of your target to yourself. "Take me Instead " spell. When to use it?

• Gargantuan amount of damage is incoming to your tank or other raid/party member. This spell works almost as a Tanking cooldown, but to do so, when you cast the hand on the target, you'll need to cast Divine Shield, Hand of Protection or even a Glyphed Divine Protection, just make sure you use the correct damage reduction ability (Hand of Protection only stops Physical damage), or you might end killing yourslef, or just complicating the situation. Hand of Sacrifice is a really powerful spell and not all Pallys seem to use it, when my guild was doing Festergut 25, we had one tank dying when the Gastric Bloat was on 8, we had 6 pallys on our raid, so we make a chain wit orr Hand of Sacrifice, and made it until the other tank taunt it. It doesn't matter what spec you play, use this spell. If your tank gets chewed by magmaw; if someone is locked with Acquiring Target when magmatron is up; if somebody is about to get hit by a Meteor and somehow finds himself alone on th valiona and theralion encounter; Use it on any mechanic that involves a nasty amount of damage, you can and should make that ability less painful. Show your Pally golden Hearth.
• Works awesome in Bgs or Arenas. You do more damage when you and your teammates are alive, than by yourself; specially if you need a burst kill, those extra hits will get the job done. On Bgs, share the pain with your other companions, when defending a nod, each second you last holding the nod is good. When attacking the enemy army leader, help the guy whos tanking, he and the healers will like appreciate it.
• Breaks Cc. Be that you are on PvE or PvP, you can get yourself out of Cc, with the damage you transfer, kind of like Ozruk shields, wich break his paralysis and let you continue doing your job, or just flee the shatter. On PvP is awesome, if you hear the woosh of a rogue or can't find your opponets, you know they are invisible, or stealthed, land your hand on a buddy, so you may break the Cc that may be about to land; or do so if you feel somekind of Cc is incoming,you need to keep healing or hitting something, don't let an unworthy Cc stop you XD.

Hand of Reckoning this is our Taunt, single taun. "Get over Here" spell. When to use it?

• You see a Mob running towards your squishy friends, use it. You are a plate wearer and you are sexy, mobs respect enemys who wear plate and are sexy, and you'll last longer than your more squishy friends; have the mob until the tanks pick that Mob, the Mob dies or you die, but don't let it get to your healers, if you are a Healer tough, don't do this. Always take good care of your healers, they will take care of you. Don't forget you can also help other squishy dps, they are not as sexy as us, but helping is the way of the Pally.
• This is the Taunt, in the Bubble Taunt maneuever. wich is explained in the Hand of Protection part above, but if the damage the target of the taunt does, is not physical, you'll be better by doing the Bubble Taunt with Divine Shield.
• If a Boss its about to die and you hit the enrage timer, taunt him off even tough you cannot bubble, ask for other taunts, you might just earn some precious seconds for a kill by making the boss run. If you are a Holy Pally, taunt him as fast as you can, you won't be healing much at that point, and you'll need the dps to burn him down, so take the bullet, be a hero (we rock).
• If the Tank made a horrible pull and you are ret, taunt one add, away of the pull and when he's on you, repentance him, make that bad pull more manageable, everybody will be glad you did. Make sure the add you picked can be affected by repentance, otherwise you are making the pull harder

General Rule

Players may only have 1 Hand per Pally at any time, so casting Hand of Protection, followed by Hand of freedom, will cancel the Hand of Protection. Be careful with those casts, you don't want to override a Hand that's doing what is needed, yet you can make use of these restriction. Hand of Protection won't let you cast Physical Abilities, and you might end up locking a DPS from doing their job, true, you can remove buffs by right clicking on them, but lots of players have custum UIs, and a /cancelaura command in the middle of an encounter gets trick; so cast another hand on them, to let them keep doing their job, help them all the way. Be sure to remind a Hand Protected player. that spells can be cast during the shield, so they can keep doing DPS or Healing.


Those are our hands, and using them, may turn you into a hero, or just a good Pally, it's up to you to save the day. Be warned tough that you might turn into the object of adoration of other players, even complete strangers may ask if they can shake your Hand. But fear not my Pally friend, wiser Pallys (/salute, Ophelie did far a better job, than mine with just one spell Y_Y, but since dungeons and raids seem to be more demanding, I tought a quick reminder of our "Hands" was needed) have had this burden for a long time.

Raid Leading: Tales from the Hearth

I don't think I'm a really good raid leader, more like "He's Ok..", but I do listen to all of my raiders and ask a lot of feedback, in and out of raid; and I like smart playing.

I tend to stay cool while im leading at least during the encounters, but sometimes I got carried away so let me share a "mistake" I made. We were on the LK encounter, and had been wiping for an entire weekend and just extended the lockdown. We were almost at phase 3 on our last try, so that was our goal that friday, 3 Phase.

We started slow but near our 5 wipe we had rythim, I explained what to do if phase 3 arrived, everybody had seen the fight and read about it, but we always do small changes to what some guides say. Everybody was quiet at vent, I was tanking the adds, cleasing in case the Holy Paladin in charge of that chore, missed one of the Plagues. I was the one calling for the timers, even tough everybody was really fast at moving from defiles,I always called for one when there were 5 secs for the ability. I was really focused on the fight, I called for our Disc Priest CDs like Pain Supression if I knew we tanks had screwed something, I was the only voice at Vent, and seemed like my voice was really leading those 9 raiders.

On our 10 or 11 try, everything was good. Adds where down at the beginning of the transition, we had no casualties to those ghost (I had always troubled picking those things), on valkyries our Lock got pick up 2 times and he was using his Demonic Circle: Teleport, and phase 3 seemed on the horizon. At some point I tought we had reached the mark for 3 Phase, and we were supose to run to the borders fast because of the transition and we were saving Blood Lust for those last ghosts, to make a cleaner 3 Phase. Then it happened, I was certain the transition arrived and started yelling, and I mean screaming at full voice on Vent: "THIRD PHASE TRANSITION, THIRD PHASE TRANSITION, RUN TO THE EDGES ALL ON ME".

I always call for things with some advanced because my raiders dont always follow me at the order, but when I yelled: "THIRD PHASE TRANSITION....", they didn't even got time to lag, they were on the edge in the formation we had agreed, only to notice arthas was still following me..........................................................

"NOT YET, DPS HIM SOME MORE ALMOST THERE", I was still screaming but my raiders were performing at their best, they ran back to get some more DPS going but harm was done, a valkyrie got one of our healers and one raider was trap between a defile and the edge, he took the bullet (or he panicked) and fell (jump, maybe trip),  a soul reaper incoming, while I kept yelling "A LITTLE MORE DPS" and then it happened, o yes sir, transition for 3 Phase came.

We lost a healer and one dps to that transition, what was left of the raid regroup on the edge. "BLOODLUST WHEN 2 GHOST ARE OUT", I started popping my cooldowns and somehow we made it to the 3 Phase, and our last Healer got Inside the sword, we wiped.

There was like 15 seconds of silence on vent, I dunno if they were just so flaggerblasted or just containing some anger that could not speak, I was sweating really cold, and found the valor needed to push the vent key, "My bad on that transition, nice try guys"......................... 5 long seconds of silence and then, all Hell broke loose. I can't actually recall what I was being yelled, but I could tell they were not angry, they were actually laughing, we had reach the goal and missed the oportunity, but hey it was a fine ride.

I still get to be reminded of my awesome yell "3 PHASE TRANSITION, 3 PHASE TRANSITION......", but I enjoy raid leading and am proud to say we downed him the next Raid Day.  To you all raid leaders out there, YELL till your hearths content, if you enjoy and encounter, this imho is one the rare small pleasures of raiding.

10 reasons why you should be friends with a Pally

Paladins are a rare sight. I know we are everywhere, but not everyone is a Paladin, not a real Pally.

We rare real Pallys tend to be awesome, and incredible sexy IRL, well maybe not all, but we have a tendency to be sexy.

I will be making a future post about Paladins and Paladins (See the difference?), but today, I'll just give you
10 reasons why should be friends with a Pally



1. We are just plain Good Looking, don't mind what kind of Race you play. Search your feelings you know its true.

2. We are cool to hang out with, and look specially good on "Boss Kill" photos.

3. Famous Pallys on the last Boss on expansions, and its common knowledge we all Pallys are buddys.

 

4. Pallys are know for they camaderie, with whom they call friends

5. Paladins will always watch your back

6. We trust our friends no matter how dire the battle

7. Pallys stand to the challenge XD

8. They are trust worthy and won't chiken out

9. Pallys are always a force to be reckon

10. Pallys always help

What im trying to say is, chill out with your friends, have fun when you log on. Be it, that you choose to Raid, PvP, run de AH or just quest, do so with your friends. You may be traumatize by some LFD PUGs, but don't let it keep you from doing or trying things with your friends, even better try to get a new one. If you do find a new friend, or just enjoy some time with those you have, then you know why not all Pallys are Pallys.

How I Became a Pally

I have talked about a lot of things,but not about Paladins. Let me tell you how I got to play the most AWESOME class in the game, yep AWESOME, one more time AWESOME.

I started playing WoW like 4 years ago, I got called by a cousin, who had a great game. I went to his house, he was waiting on his room. He was standing, pointing towards the chair in front of the computer, and on the screen the "Create a Character Panel".

I spend a lot of time looking at the races, not because I didn't know them, I had played WCII and III. I really liked the Blood Elf campaing, and loved the way the taurens were introduced to the horde so I was trying to figure out wich to create, but whenever I have to choose a name for a character I tend to overthink it, and end up with something simple. My cousin got a little anxious so went for some chips.

When he came back herealized I was going Horde and said: "O my bad, I forgot to tell you I'm Alliance, and everybody else is, so be an Ally, that way I can help you", some of our friends had already being taken into WoW, when he told me that, my hearth just /sighed.

I created a Blood Elf Paladin, and a Tauren Warrior, just to see the introductions, I was Horde I knew it, but I did't had a clue at the game and was the first MMO I had seen, so I created an Alliance as a way of knowing the game with my friends.

I looked at all the Alliance races, but none of them seem so attractive (I wanted a Tauren Y_Y), my cousin who at that time was really anxious, told me to create a Hunter, his Guild was lacking Hunters, and he said they were really easy to start with since they get a pet at Lvl 10; I wanted a Warriror or Paladin, my most Primal Male Instincts were only going to be satisfied on the front line, Killing things with my bare fist, maybe a Big Nasty Hammer, but my cousin insisted in creating a Hunter, at least until I figure out the game.

I had been hearth brokened twice, just before my first WoW experiencie, but I wanted to try the game, and I tought he was right, the whole idea was to get a Feeling for the game. I created "Hinata", yes "Hinata", a Night Elf Hunter, and went into WoW.

I must have made all the Newbie things possible, starting with "Hinata", I know better know. My cousin leave me to play the introduction quest so I could marvel myself at the gamet, he just explained me, how to move my character. I must say, I miss being that into the game, the feeling I had when I was a really new to the game was awesome. I started questing and soon found myself at Lvl 10, I called my cousin and ask for explination about getting my pet. At that time I had the same bow from the start, and a Staff, cause it fit my Nelf Character, the model was important. Good Times.

He explained and I spent 30 minutes deciding between a Cat or a Bird, the Bird won after one of those killed me. They most be really powerfull if they killed me, right?. I got "Chocobird", and keep on questing, I didn't really like how things went; I sent Chocobird in, he'll get the Monster attention, and I shot them dead. I needed Melee action, as I quested, I cant remeber if it was dropped or a quest reward, I got myself a Fishing Pole, a Hard Hitting Fishing Pole. I was in Auberdine (Broken Auberdine Now) of that much Im certain, that fishing pole had more DPS than all the other things I had at my Bag. I equiped it and start wacking some Bears along the coast, of course Chocobird was helping, and they were dying really slow, but I knew something important then, Melee was my thing.

At that time my cousin checked how was the "Youngling" doing, he watched with a mixture of laugther and horror, how I was killing those bears. He just said: "Ok lets make you a Warriror". He sent me home with the game to Install on my PC, but there was a question in the air, could my old PC handle the game?. This is like Murphy Law, when you dont spec a thing of your old PC, it might surprise you, but when you really need it..

It could not handle the game. I had to wait 2 weeks for a Video Memory compatible with my old PC, to arrive. I installed it. I still wanted to test the Paladin, but all my friends had told me Paladins sucked, and I couldn't understand why. I mean Arthas was a Paladin, and Illidan got Spanked, nevertheless I followed their advise.

I can't complain aboutmy Warrior he was good, he was "Fury", a rogue in plate as some would said back on BC, but once I was 55, with some dungeons and Duels won under my belt; I had experience, I had dreams, I had ambition, and I tested the Pally. I never needed to look at the "Create a Character" screen again with doubts, I know who I am. To this day I have created and leveled 4 level cap Paladins, 2 - 70s, 2 - 80s, and one of those 80s got to 85 on Cata.

The first one, was a Female Human Paladin "Abbie", I was still playing alliance with my friends and family, but as I reached the level cap, I was not happy being Alliance, and I followed my hearth to become Horde. I didn't want to miss the Paladin class quest the Belfs had, so "Kokoro" a Male Belf was born.

Some of my closer friends started playing some time later on another server and I moved with them. I created another Pally "Yola", Male Belf also. Time passed and I real life attacked, I left WoW sometime. I left at the end of BC.

I read all about Wrath and really wanted to get into it, but kept having some issues. Finally things were starting to look better, and one of my friends who had left some time after I did, had restarted playing and called to check the expansion. I went to his house and found him rading Ulduar. I had read all about it, I had seen videos, but being there is different. That same day, I returned home, downloaded Wrath, and found myself creating another Paladin, it was Alliance, my friend had another friends account and his linked. I took that account and he help me power level my Pally, but things were very clear, once I was 80,
I'll become Horde.

The time came and "Visita" got to 80, I waited for other friends who were on the same lane with me, and as soon as they were 80, we went Horde. Home is were the Hearth lays, and I was Home again.

Mind Control

Mind Control is an extremly fun and useful ability, it may not be the best way to CC a pull, but I don't understand why so many players don't even bother using it, or fail to see how powerful it is. Allow me to demonstrate.

The last pulls on vortex pinacle, can get tricky or messy, but if you have a Priest dont hesitate and MC the healers, they literally top your tanks and players with one heal, making those weird pulls into a succes.

So priest out there have fun MCing, and learn what to MC.

Flying High

A raider got a call during our Conclave of the Wind encounter, the call got longer than we spected, and people began to loose focus and started getting stressed up. So it occur to me that we all got mamuths, and I had a spare portable Hole on my bag, I cant remember why I had one but meh, things might happend for a reason. So I said, "4 Laps Race, all abilities available, The winner takes it all". I tought some people were sleeping but as I position myself in the mark, I found myself nervous at the tought of losing my bag to not so bored and rather greedy Raiders.

We didnt finish the race, at the 4 lap the missing raider came, and we race to start the Encounter.
Have you find a way to cope with AFKing when needed?

We killed the conclave that night, and on a side note, when you kill them, you get a mouse option to jump in a vortex to get yourself to Al akir, so when we were about to take the "kill" screenshot, halve the raid got flushed to Al akir, and regroup was needed to get the screenshot.

Recruiting

Recruiting, it needs to be done, and need to be done right. On my humble opinion, recruiting is basic in making your Guild what you intend it to be.

Guilds tend to vary in their enviroment, some are really friendly and familiar; others inmature and disrespectful; some are really small with no more than 3-4 people online at the same time; some are really populated but dont really do much together; others are pretty casuals or engaging in pro like manner to some aspect of the game. But each Guild has a "Feeling", and is made, on how the people inside it interact with each other. Create the everiment yoy want, and look for people that tend to have some of the traits most of your Guildies share, or that get in that "Feeling".

Guilds are made of Guildies, thats a fact. So here are the things I think you should to keep in mind when recruiting.

-Know what you are looking for. Raiders, PvPers, PvRaiders, More People; but also the Social Skills, Attitude, Respect, Mindset.

-Check the Availability in time, You may find and awesome prospect, but he plays on hours, none of your Guildies are on, or he doesnt have enough time for what you are looking for.

-Look a bit on the Background, If its a Raider, Raiding expirience; a PvPer, Ratings. Guild History may be a fast way to know what kind of attitude he has, but be really respectful and casual, dont go picking on people, just get to know a bit of them.

Dont recruit more Raiders, if you cant get them to raid. Yes you can surely have a bench, or rotational spots, but having people sit with nothing to do may cause drama, and its not fair for those people to get them with hopes and promises. Dont get me wrong, having a bench or rotational raid spots is a fine way of raiding, but when you offer raid spots to a recruit and end benching them, that aint right. So be upfront when you recruit; being honest about your guild state will get people willing to take the shot at your guild.

Same goes for PvPers, dont get those if you dont run BGs or arenas teams, unless you wish to involve in PvP.

And so it Begins

All things Pally are awesome, thats a fact.

Im an Officer from a small Guild, and let me tell you, it aint easy. I was one of the founding members of the Guild, and when we created it we knew what kind of guild we would like to create. Before that happened, let me tell you some of my Guild Expiriences.

I have been in different Guilds trying to find the right mix of things, but I always felt something was lacking. I became Officer in some of those Guilds trying to improve them, to make them as I tought they should be; but most of them already got their own feeling and "rythim", so I was left with only one thing to do. Start a Guild, but not any Guild, a Guild that will fulfill the things I wanted, and more if it could.

I was ready, or so I tought, to be the change I wanted to see. I talked with my good friend Kât, who had similar feelings and the same mindset on what a Guild should have. We began defining the guild we wanted to make. The aproach was something between Friendly, and serious, and that could do both PvP and PvE. On PvE we had no doubts on what we wanted, "I rather wipe with friends, than loot with Assholes", we wanted friendly and enjoyable raids, so our raiders needed to have a similar mindset, but at the same time do good raiding.

On PvP we were more easy going, I love BGs and get really into Arenas, and from time to time get a lot of Guildies into it, but on wrath Arenas were more "important", since they gave the PvP rewards and ratings. So we figure we would encourage BGs with Guildies, and promote and help Guild Arena Teams.

We knew what we wanted and our Identity, we just needed to name it. We created a really big list of "Names" we liked, we had a rare combination of names, some stupid, some serious and pretencious, other were funny or just random, I illustrated better with some of the options: Epic Failing, Not in the Face, Stands in Fire, Simple Math, Bees Knees, From Accounting, Sweet Surrender, Everyday Heros, Beep Beep Im a Jeep, Battlecry. Riders of Lohan, Sexier than You, Just a Flesh Wound, and some other weird names. But then we find one that had personality, one that had the right amount of Humor, Stupidity and Epicness we felt, "Is Awesome". It was , "Someone" <Is Awesome>, when we look at that, it just clicked. Was it the best or the most original name, dunno, XD, I guessed we just felt it.

And so we had the Guild, in Idea; we needed people, and we needed the right people. Kât talked to his brother, and he didnt need to hear it twice. I had a Newbie friend, who was lvl 40 or something, who had just started playing wow, but he was a fast learner and liked the challenge. We needed 10 Signatures, but I figure, I could get enough people in Orgrimmar to sing the chart as a favor, if I explained how mind blowing my Guild would be. We were ready but, 3 days before we created it, another Friend, who was an Officer at the Guild we were, had a fight with the GM and /gquit, he knew what I was going to do, and joined the Torture  "Adventure".

We created Is Awesome 3 days later, Yuzî. Mukthar, Kât. Alâstor and Me; I managed to get the signatures we needed, but not spamming on trade channel, I wasnt the right way to start things, so, I stationed myself next to the Orgrimmar Ah, and on /say, explained what I wanted to created and how awesome it would be. I got some nasty responses on /say, /tell and on /trade; but found some supporers on /whisper, who kindly signed my chart. To those brave and kind souls, I /salute you. Thats how "Is Awesome" was born. I'll be writing a lot about my Guild, or my take on Guild related issues, and I tought some background on my Guild might help.