Retribution Indeed

vCoag on the beta realms has posted about a bug in the Paladin Retribution tree. And now he's off having fun with it.

Watch and be amazed as a Pally downs Onyxia, solo and less than 60 seconds.

Beta Key Pick-Ups

Amanda Dean has a great write-up on a little informal contest happening on the WoW forums for a beta key.

"Varanis of Silvermoon (NSFW) said in the Wrath forums that he's willing to pony up his beta key to the best WoW pick-up line." And let me tell you, some of them are fantastic.

• Vikhammer of Uther: "Hey baby, shouldn't your body be purple? Because it's totally epic."
• Ohmehgahd of Alexstrasza: "I lost my lips, can I borrow yours?"
• Whoru of Durotan: "Your gear may be epic, but your body is without a doubt Legendary!"
• Foxtehhammer of Kael'thas: "Nice pants, baby. What's the drop rate?"
• Tyranar of Hyjal: "Hey baby, thats my heart you just rolled on, and it's BoP."
• Resarcio of Scilla: "I know theres a bad case of Thunder Clap going around, but don't worry...I spec'd Protection."

Won't my wife be surprised when I ask her what the drop rate of her pants is?

And There was Much Rejoicing

Why don't people like to play hunters in Arenas? Probably because they get sick of looking at a character stunned into oblivion and dead seconds later.

Koraa answers their prayers for Master's Call.

Aquaman fulfills the traditional role of hunter in Arenas

Well, That's One Way to Drive Down the Prices on Herbs

Potion Sickness

Love it or hate it, if it makes it out of beta, it should be interesting. It will definitely make raiding tougher (unless they re-tune things to make potions less necessary).

I Wants Me One of Those

Mania has tamed herself a Devilsaur. I want one, too.

I guess of all the features in Wrath, I'm looking forward to the new hunter stuff the most, especially exotic pets. Just call me a huntard.

All Over You Like White on a Polar Bear in a Snow Storm

MMO-Champion has got the latest on the WotLK beta build, and it includes some lovin' druids have been asking for for ages. Unfortunately, these changes come from the new profession Inscription, but short help is better than none, Chewie.

According to the information, druids will be able to add glyphs to alter their forms appearances. So far, the only one that has surfaced in beta is the Glyph of the White Bear. While there is much joy among beta druids over this, there also seems to be some trepidation in that in changing their forms, they may have to give up some other glyph which may be more useful on a gameplay level.

Some of the other information released showed us some new blacksmith loving, the flying mount for death knights, and other various and a sundry updates.

Cruise over to MMO-Champion for the full story.

Something Old, Something New...

At least I've already got the something blue (or actually,rather a lot of them).

Over the weekend, I grew curious about something as I leveled my pally. I've leveled a pally before, but that was when I didn't know as much about the game, so I did it badly. Now that I'm a little more wise about the rules, I'm paying attention to the little esoterica such as my defense, block, parry, dodge, etc. In other words, I'm watching my mitigation, something near and dear to every tank's heart.

I've noticed while playing that I tend to avoid most of the damage coming my way by either blocking it, parrying it, or dodging it. Needless to say, this really helps on the old repair bills. But what I'm curious about, is how good is my mitigation now and how do I tell if something is an upgrade?

After a little searching, I came across TankPoints. It's an older addon that hasn't been updated in over a year. Regardless, it doesn't seem to care (no error messages so far) and seems to work just fine. I'll keep playing with it and will let you know how it goes.

On the other side, WoWInsider posted a review of an addon called GoGoMount. It sounds about perfect for my needs, and probably for yours as well. What it does is macro all your possible mount solutions to one button and chooses the appropriate one for the occasion. That includes travel forms for druids and shamans as well. I'll test it out later, but if it works as anticipated, I should be able to free up some buttons on all my guys/girls.

Update: Chris suggested Ratingbuster. I'm going to give it a try next because while TankPoints gives some good info, it's a little on the esoteric side because you've got to decipher what it's trying to tell you (and I'm afraid that the info might be out of date).

Update 2: Upon checking, I already use RatingBuster. It is an awesome addon that I have enjoyed for a while and it actually works well with TP.

Oggie Hits a Homerun

I don't know if you've been keeping up with all the beta information for Wrath, but I've been watching the beta forums for new information and what the players think about the changes.

In particular, I've been spying on the Paladin forums, seeing as my latest favorite is a Pally. Oggie (Gorda on beta) has come up with a great post listing the pro's and con's of the new talents relevant to protection specced Paladins. That's 'tankadins' to everyone else.

Trade the New Barrens?

Last night, I was standing in Orgrimmar dealing with some profession/leveling stuff, and someone started something in Trade chat that caught like wildfire. Now this may have happened before on other servers or the one I play on, but this was the first I had heard of it.

I'm not quite certain what to call it, per se, so let's just be descriptive, shall we?

"Anal" linking.

The person would first say "anal" in chat and then provide a link to either an item or ability.

Examples: anal [Fishing], anal [Prospecting], anal [Ring of Conquest], anal [Rod of Terror], ... You get the idea.

Most people found it amusing, so obviously it kept going. I didn't mind it myself and thought it pretty funny, if juvenile (it's OK to be juvenile sometimes, regardless of what people tell you). Some protested heavily. At any rate, I left Org to pursue the next level. An hour later, I come back and it's still going on.

I mean, it's not Chuck Norris, but still, things may be getting out of hand. Trade isn't used as much for trade as it is inane stuff and insulting each others mothers.

So I ask, is Trade the new Barrens chat?

Wrath Talents Updated

I know you are as excited about Wrath of the Lich King as I. I've been snapping up every bit of news that came out of the alpha and now the beta testing.

The latest tidbit that Blizzard has released are the new talent trees.


I'm looking forward to playing with these later. More to the point, I'm really looking forward to Wrath.

It's What I Do

These days, while waiting with baited breath for the coming of Wrath, I can be found leveling my Pally. I'm enjoying the protection-spec grindage, especially in light (no pun intended) of the last character I worked on. A rogue.

I don't know what it is, but I just get bored to tears leveling rogues. This newest attempt is the highest I've ever gotten a rogue (39), but it's not that much past my last attempt (36). I don't know what it is about rogue that bores me. My first character ever was a druid, and a feral one at that. I played feral before it was viable or even cool. After getting her to max level, you'd think playing a rogue would be lots of fun, too. Alas, I just find other things to do, excuses really, to avoid playing my rogue.

I loved leveling my hunter. Great characters for building wealth quickly on a new server. I liked leveling my shadow priest. Lots of fun, especially in a group. I love my warlock; I can unleash my own inner tormentor when she rolls along (killing every single innocent level 1 rabbit that crosses her path). As I said previously, I love my Pally. Tons of fun to solo because you generally want to pull the world. But the rogue ... I just don't know.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what I can do to level my rogue and avoid mind-numbing depression?

A Little Gift from My Uncle

An old buddy of mine, SaysUncle, recently posted this to his blog.

It made me laugh.

Welcome to Camp Taurajo!

You can always find me here, at lovely scenic Camp Taurajo, just south of Barrens chat.

This blog will be mostly dedicated to World of Warcraft information, though there will be items of interest from other games and related genres from time-to-time.

I'll be sending out the invites, so join up and we'll PUG the crap out of this thing.

-Madman

Camp Taurajo, just a little south of Barrens chat