22 through 24, experiences thus far, and abilities!

(Sorry for the lack of screenshots in this one. I'll get some for the next, I promise!)

Heyo! Sorry for the delay in our broadcast folk, one woman team and real life can really throw a spanner in the works. Anywho, lets get down to business shall we?

At this point, I'm begining to have a few mana troubles. Mana just isnt regenning as quick as it used to, and I'm spending it at an enormous rate in comparison to just 6 or 7 levels ago. New abilities such as Hand of Reckoning, Consecration and Exorcism are a real tug on mana, on top of the occasional need to heal.

Luckily there's a lot I can do about it! Ever heard of AoE grinding? Paladins can do it too, and its a really efficient way to get stuff done.

Slap on my shield, and my weapon, go round up a bunch of mobs (ones that dont cast spells, poison you, or shoot you with a gun/bow are preferable), and consecrate their asses into the ground. I can kill one mob in 7~ seconds, or I can kill 5-7 mobs in 20 seconds! This is mana intensive but it is efficient also.

Something else I can do about my mana consumption is get more intellect. Intellect is something you're going to love at higher levels. For now, all it does is give us 15 mana for every point as well as giving us a little extra spell crit.

It isnt easy (read: impossible outside of random BoEs) to find intellect on mail or even leather at this level, so I'll be trying to get it on my weapon, cloaks, rings.. that type of stuff. I'm not going to be afraid of it if it has spirit on it either, spirit scales okay at this level and serves to regen my mana a little whilst soloing. At the worst, if I must use cloth, I'll try to get cloth bracers, belts, boots or a helm with a decent amount of intellect on it. Armor is important though, so I'll be trying to avoid that.

Something else I can do to sort out my mana, while I'm in a healing role in a group, is get up close and personal and melee for Judgement of Wisdom procs. Each successful roll of the random number generator 3000 sees me restoring a percentage of my mana. Very important not to forget about healing though, which I've embarrasingly almost forgot to do once or twice.

Its important to remember that Paladins are NOT Priests. Despite being technically "defensive", there are many reasons for a Holy Paladin to play offensively in a PvE environment, especially at end game. Some of the best holy paladins I know (including myself, hurr) regen most of their mana through offensive purposes, rather than wasting cooldowns or mana pots.

Oh dear I've completely derailed off of the topic. Anyway, where was I?

Right. Something else I've been experiencing is that mobs are begining to hit a lot harder, which is resulting in me needing to toss the occasional heal now and then, especially whilst AoE grinding or even just attacking 2 or 3 mobs. Luckily, not skimping out on the armor or shield is keeping the damage low and managable, to a degree no one else could manage at this level save for a warrior, and.. they can't heal themselves.

And, outside of gameplay, something else I've come to understand is the following equation:


X = Any level below 70
Y = IQ of the average player
Z = 2 if the player is a DPS, 1 if they're a healer or tank.

(X=Y)/Z

People are -IDIOTS- at this level. Absolute BLITHERING IDIOTS. Practically everyone is a ninja, loot whore, jealous, butt hurt asshole. I was in a Deadmines group piecing together the parts required for my Verigan's Fist (I'll be making a post on that quest chain when I get to the end of it but so far its been rather unpleasant due to the playerbase), where I'd gotten lucky on a number of green BoE drops, for healing and tanking. I made sure no one else wanted the item in question before rolling. Anyway, we get to Van Cleef, kill him, and Cape of the Brotherhood drops! Ensuring the DPS warrior in our group didnt need the cape in question, I quite happy rolled need. A new tanking cloak, yay!

Or not.

Bubblebum rolls 54 on Cape of the Brotherhood
Butthurtpriesthealer rolls 76 on Cape of the Brotherhood.
Butthurtpriesthealer wins Cape of the Brotherhood.

Naturally, I remained calm. I'd assumed it may have been an error, I mean.. why would a PRIEST want agility? The 2 stamina.. meh? But no. "Ooh, it looks pretty. But.." The bitch disenchanted it -on the spot- because she claimed I won "75% of the instance drops". Thats just pot luck, and I made absolutely certain NO ONE else required the items I won.

So, a quick slash-ignore followed by a Hearth, followed by a good luck salute in party chat wishing them well on the last boss, and I was back in the Wetlands. I'm told their DPS warrior left the group, leaving the priest, a warlock and a rogue without a tank. I'm hoping they wiped though that isnt likely.

I've yet to find a Shadowfang Keep run for my Blacksmith Hammer though I've got the Kor Gem thing, so almost there.

Anyway, some of the items I've obtained, both within that DM run and without include...

Defender Cloak of the Bear (World BoE drop, from Deadmines) Using for DPS/Tanking
Defender Bracers of the Bear (World BoE drop, from AH) Using for DPS/Tanking
Impaling Harpoon (From Captain Greenskin, of Deadmines. Using for DPS
Fortified Boots of the Eagle (World BoE drop, from AH) Using for Tanking/Healing
Ring of Silver Might (Crafted by Jewelcrafters, Bought on the AH) Using for Tanking/DPS
Ring of Twilight Shadows (Crafted by Jewelcrafters, Bought on the AH) Using for Tanking/Healing
Polar Gauntlets (from Quest: Underground Assault) Using for DPS
Thief's Blade (from Mr. Smite of Deadmines) Using for Tanking
Rhahk'Zor's Hammer (From Rhak'Zor of Deadmines) Using for Tanking-if-the-healer-is-bored.

See Bubblebum's armory for what she's currently equipped in (Most likely the gear she uses for soloing).

ABILITIES!

Yes, its ability time. The following are abilities learned from the Paladin trainer at levels 22 and 24. And without further delay..

Concentration Aura - This aura is used mostly for PvP purposes, though sometimes used while you're tanking an add in a PvE encounter. It reduces the delay in casting recieved every time a mob whacks you whilst your casting abilities. Situationally awesome.. useless most of the time. Very important PvP ability though.

Seal of Justice - Not to be seen as an alternative to Seal of Righteousness, this is more a situational little tool for when you want to interrupt a caster, or even stop them in their tracks if their kiting you and you're still in melee range. Switch to this when you're up against a caster or healer, player or otherwise, and it'll stun them sporadically for a brief period of time. Unreliable but its all you've got to stop casts unless you're a Blood Elf other than Hammer of Justice. Also useful against melee if they hit particularly hard and you'd rather reduce that damage a bit without attempting to outright kill them.

And finally

Turn Evil - This is a handy little ability in PvP, as well as situationally being useful whilst soloing. Up against a warlock? Rather they'd not have the use of their demon for a bit? Fear it. Useful against Death Knights too, Death Knights which we'll cover much later.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave criticism, comments, and views in a comment. Twitter feed still down I'm afraid, its behaving oddly.

New post in the works

New post in the works. Sorry for the delay folks! Guild drama, real life stuffs.. y'know.

Expect it up some time this evening. 22 AND 24!

A brief notice

Been fairly busy recently with things on my main. I happen to be the Paladin Class Leader in my guild on The Sha'tar, as well as the fact that I've had some other things to catch up on, also. I will however be doing my best to update ASAP, at the -verrry- latest tomorrow evening.

I do appologize for the small delay in feed.

For now, feel free to check out the Zalgradis video I linked about 10 posts back, and leave your comments, suggestions and thoughts on anything related to that video, this blog, paladins, or whatever here. :)

Item of the Moment - Cookie's Tenderizer

Our second installment of IotM covers a weapon surely thought to be some sort of epic, powerful mace by the eyes of a Draenei, seeing as they've never seen such a blunt, heavy instrument. With 2 handles, it offers the ability to mix it up and around in combat, and the handle you're not using also acts as a rather "sharper" baton.

To anyone else, it's a rolling pin. Cookie's Tenderizer to be precise (It seems Murloc's have the same idea as Draenei regarding rolling pins, eh?)

I call it "Pinny"!

While there are better weapons with more appropriate icons (this things icon is a SPOOL OF THREAD) available from the Deadmines, this is nice and slow (speed isnt important at all for holy paladins yet, but I like big numbers), has 6 strength, and looks hilarious.

Level 23 at the moment, I've been slacking on purpose for the level 22 post as I want to shove a bit more "experiences" into it. I'll slap up a post for both 22 and 24 when I ding. Until then, feel free to leave your comments and opinions about Bubblebum, Holy Paladins, or what you'd like to see on this blog. (dont worry if you think I'll miss it, there's a nice handy column on the right of this post that shows all recent comments, so even if you posted in the very first post of this blog, I'd see it.)

Level 20+21 Greetinks vrom Stormvind!

Item Update: Caretaker's Cape from Illiyana Moonblaze, Silverwing Sentinel Quartermaster.
Level Update: 22
---

Yaaay, Brewfest!

Woo, last few levels have been a blast. I've learned some awesome abilities, which I'll outline later in the post, I've had some laughs, I've had some laughs directed at me by fucking morons, and I've had some not-so-laughs.

But where to start? Aaaah yes. I finished all my quests in Bloodmyst like a good little Paladin and earned my Tabard of the Hand! Every Tom, Dick and Harry (and the female equivelants of those names) showed up to kiss my big dark blue ass for saving theirs. Velen too! Velen predicts that there's a big future for me in Outland. No, duh, right?


I'd also dinged level 20 not shortly before this event, and gained access to my level 20 (they give these things out too early) mount! Will make things much quicker and easier though I worry about others my level having the same perk. Will it have much effect on PvP if everyone has the option to just mount up quickly and ride away to safety?

Speaking of which, it is about that time. Contested territory opens up at level 20, and I'm considering which route to go. Any thoughts? Was thinking Ashenvale, Duskwood never sees any PvP action. Hillsbrad might be fun too but then again it'll probably have more level 80s than people my actual level.

Anyway, after dinging 20, I decided to look for yet another Deadmines group. My second attempt went -horribly-, though luckily I wasn't summoned this time before it all went awry. I'd pulled 3 other people together for a grand total of 4 people, but then I DCed, which ended up passing leadership to one of the others. When I'd reconnected I unfortunately found a level 55 in the party, filling our 5th spot. Rather than kick up a fuss and start QQing, I humbly said "Thanks anyway, but I'd rather not be boosted. Appriciate it though and I hope you lot have fun!" or something to that effect, which would be where I left to continue my adventures.

Or not. Y'see, 12 year olds (and I'm only assuming they were that old because its the recommended minimum age) tend to have something called "puberty" about to kick in, and its when all that testosterone or feramone begins to flow around the body, creating what I like to call "Potential nerd rage". Like flies to dung, these idiots had to just start harassing me. Despite my best efforts, believing they may have misunderstood, I did my best to just reiterate what I meant, spelling it out in plain, good old english, politely and to the point, to which I only recieved various variations of "fuk uuuuu fuk uuuu mihahahaha" and "fuk offffffffffffffffffffffffffff". Beacons of Hope and Wisdom in an otherwise bleak, dreary and depressing world.
Wasn't all bad though. Vigilant and ever-ready, Bubblebum proceeded to form her own goddamned group and do it right this time, engaging in civilized, intellectual conversation with the people she invited to make sure they wern't fucking spacktards. And they wern't. They were awesome. To their credit, they were epics, each one of them earning a place in my friendslist. Except the warlock which hearthed to Stormwind and logged off before we began, she can go die, but the rest of you..

(I also dinged level 21 here, woop!)

Anyway, after Deadmines, I'd decided to travel to Stormwind, for some much needed recuperation and a chance to get this blog sorted. And.. bloody hell, I've seen some odd stuff already in the hub of the server. How about this.. someone boxing 10 shamans at ONCE. AT ONCE. I was lucky enough to grab her attention, and she'd agreed to pose up for some screenshots, which you can see below.

Ten synchronized, lovely, bouncing Draenei females dancing in tandem. What more could one ask for?

And.. thats when I decided to alt tab and stop slacking and get to work on this post. Since there really were no other experiences past this point other than the process of actually alt tabbing, I'll begin briefing our new level 20 abilities, which are no less fun to write about!

Sense Undead - Exxxcept this one. This one is bland. And rubbish. Very situational use... even less if you've got herbalism or mining.

Consecration - This is more like it. Our first proper AoE, this lays down a field of Holy Ground in a radius surrounding the Paladin that harms all enemies that dare to stand in it! Excellent for tanking purposes too. It -is- mana intensive though, so use carefully.

Exorcism - Can you say "Pewpew"? This thing -stinnngs-. Massive burst, moderate mana cost. Let down slightly by its cooldown but we can do a little something about that later on down in the Holy tree. For now, this puppy is much needed. Paired with Hand of Reckoning on a pull, you can do massive damage in a very short space of time, potentially before the enemy has even reached you.

Flash of Light - Your bread and butter heal. Low mana cost, fast cast time, and a moderate healing amount, this will serve you well up to 80, and beyond.

Thats it for abilities at level 20. Now let's check out some phat loots I've earned!

Cookie's Tenderizer from Cookie, in the Deadmines. (My first rare item!)
Simple Pearl Ring from the Auction House. It was cheap!
Signet Ring of the Hand from Quest: The Unwritten Prophecy
Goblin Mail Leggings BoE drop, from The Deadmines.
Corin's Handguards from Quest: Clearing the Way
Jessera's Fungus Lined Hauberk from Quest: Ysera's Tears
Wheel of Lost Hope from Quest: Ending the Bloodcurse (Awesome looking item, if only for the comical value)
Silk-threaded Trousers BoE drop, from The Deadmines.
And finally.. last but not least (should be first really, they look awesome..)
Flying Tiger Goggles from my very own Engineering!

That's it for now. Stay tuned for moar Bubblebum action!

dude GTFO u talk like u just discovered the internet

Level Update: Level 20! Expect a post up before the end of the day.
Item Update: Silvermoon Armor of the Sun, drop from Fenissa the Assassin (again).
Aboriginal Boots of the Eagle, BoE world drop. Two nice new drops for my healing gear! Loving the Silvermoon armor. Its very rare you find suitable healadin loot with the right armor class at this level.


So, my first DM group couldn't have been better than a bunch of pigs swilling around in their own shit. I throw myself up on LFG, and state that I'm willing to perform any role, healing, tanking or DPS. I get invited as a tank, and of COURSE, when I'm summoned, only then do I realize they've already cleared up to Sneed. Bah.

Then I make my demands very very clear on the group. I say that if they would like me to tank, they're going to have to give me room to do so. It might not be "Naxx Pre-TBC" as one of the smart arses put it, but wiping is -still- a possibility, and I DO remember wiping in DM due to shitty pulls, specifically in the smelting room with all the goblins.

I do pretty well, even when the party completely refused to listen to my demands. I found myself taking a couple of seconds between each pull to reprimand our cheeky warlock who seemed to think he could tank.

A couple of pulls go on like this, then I suddenly find myself groupless. "A mistake?", I think to myself? No. I check my chatlog.. and..

"ok kicking bubble cuz shes 2 slow".

Wut? Too slow? It'd have gone fine if you'd have done your job as group leader to warn the warlock, and indeed the rest of the group, to just play sanely and reasonably. Funnily enough, the joke was on them, as their very respectable shaman healer left afterwards, in protest, and offered to attempt to 2 man the entire instance with me. I was fuming however, and felt the need to log off for a moment to QQ on my blog.

Anyway, I whisper the guy to just make my opinion very clear in a polite a manner as possible. Chatlog below.

A shame. I'd have liked to have been able to say something about how great the run was. Even starting at Sneed wasnt that big a deal for me, though it's just common courtesy to tell the person you're inviting where in the instance you'll be starting from, surely?

Anyway, Antopus (What kind of guy names his Priest "Antopus"?). I've no idea who you are, no idea who you think you are (actually I have an inkling), and no idea where you come from but seriously... lulz.

Its not all bad though. I did manage to win a nice sword from trash. Militant Shortsword of the Monkey. Not ideal stats but it hits quite a bit harder than my previous sword so meh.

Gonna be a pain in the arse getting back to Bloodmyst though. My hearth is still set in Azuremyst. D'oh!

GOALDS and my Professions

Level Update: DING! Level 19!
Item Update: Jessera's Fungus Lined Bracers from Quest: Mac'Aree Mushroom Menagerie

Currently standing at 8 gold 7 silver, at level 18. All self generated, through AH manipulation and copper sales. :D

Profession skill levels are currently

Engineering: 109,
Mining: 96

Level 18

Having fun! My friend, also known as "Bobella", granted onto me the use of a new hat. Don't worry, it has no stats, no armor.. nothing. Purely cosmetic. Its the Battered Jungle Hat!

Pimpin'...

Anyway, the last few levels have been bags of fun. I've downed my first rare mob (solo'd of course), I've slain tons of Britney Elves, and I've even turned into one. Woooy.

I do say Bubblebum makes a most attractive Blood Elf male...

...don't you think?

As for this "rare", it was none other than Fenissa the Assassin. Yes, I know! Yeah I haven't heard of her either. She was a toughy, Had close to 800 health, hit like a mofo, poisons.. etc. Was no match for the righteous fury of big-buttocksed-goat in chainmail however, and I eventually got her down with next to no mana left whatsoever. She dropped a rather nice robe that I'll be using as part of my healing set, the Silvermoon Robes of the Sun!


Then I decided to get on with it. I'd found a dead Draenei in the ship, there in the background, and the bastards have robbed him of his precious amulet! So of course, I slew many of them. Many of them. Sometimes many at once! I admit I came close to dying once or twice, these guys are volatile, and aggro like hell. Was chain pulling them totally by accident. The Draenei racial Heal over Time though, is -amazing- at this level. For returning his amulet to his now widowed wife, she rewarded me with some new boots, Lightweight Mesh Boots!

Anyway, enough of that. Upon dinging 18, I was rewarded by my Paladin trainer a new Hand, the Hand of Freedom!

Hand of Freedom - This ability is very very important for PvP. Well timed, this makes you unkitable, and more importantly, makes it so you can run the hell away when you feel it necessary. Limited use in levelling and instancing however.

Thats it for me for now folks. Keep your intarwebs tuned to this webstation for moar hot steaming Paladin action coming right up! Same Bat time, same Bat channel. (I should stop trying to be funny.)

Bubblebum struts her stuff...

Level 16, Abilities

Level Update: 17
Item Update: Bandit Cloak of the Whale. 3 more armor than my last cloak, Surveyor's Mantle. I suppose the spirit isnt terrible either seeing how often I'm out of the 5SR, but spirit is by no means a great stat for a paladin. Of any spec.

Well, that was fast. Not much in the way of new experiences since the last time so I'll just be covering our new abilities. Luckily, there's quite a lot to talk about.

Retribution Aura - This is awesome. Pure, sweet, bitter sweet revenge. Every time an enemy attacks you in melee, they harm themselves. Thats -any- attack in melee, even if you're not targetting them. This is one of our AoE tools, and will be our default aura from now on due to the added damage on even single targets.

Righteous Fury - Pretty useless for levelling purposes. Its worth keeping up though since it stays up forever unless you die or it is -dispelled-. Dispelling is the keyword, in PvP, if the enemy wants to dispell your lovely Seal or your Blessings, they'll have to dispell this first. DO NOT USE THIS IN INSTANCES, unless you're tanking. While you might choose to use this as I do at level 80, in raids, on fights like Ignis where badly handled adds can one shot a clothie, you do not want to pull aggro off of tanks in PuGs. Just use your taunt if you want to tank an add from a clothie. Speaking of which..

Hand of Reckoning - This is -awesome-. A nice chunk of damage while soloing. You can only use it once per pull assuming you're soloing, because it'll only do damage to something that -isnt- targetting you. This ability takes 50% of your attack power and throws it like a rock of holy goodness at the enemy. Finally, something else to push! This is also your second taunt, more for single target use than our last one.

---

Other than abilities, items I've obtained in the last few levels include Peacekeeper's Buckler from Quest: WANTED: Deathclaw (Finally, a decent shield!), and Segmented Girdle from Quest: Culling the Flutterers.

Oh, and talents! I've decided to throw two points into Unyielding Faith after maxing out Seals of the Pure, first tier in the same (Holy) tree. Other options included some more intellect at 2% a talent point, or 4% additional effectiveness of my heals. I'll be maxing out Healing Light before continuing down the Holy tree. Additional intellect, while nice, isnt really necessary yet.

Level 14 Abilities, and Experiences thus far.

Level Update: 15
Item Update: Fist of Argus from Quest: Blood Watch (/2 WTB any shield, will trade for orphan)


Bloodmyst has been good to me for the most part. Save for my first world death, I've gotten some really nice items, the latest of those being my Crystal Studded Legguards and my Protective Field Gloves! All the gear I currently have kinda matches and I look kinda cool.

Currently my gearing strategy is to just gear like any warrior or Retribution Paladin. Strength, stamina, attack power, that type of stuff. Since I don't have Holy Shock yet, which scales solely with Spell Power, and the only abilities I do have scale stronger with Attack Power than Spell Power, the only spell power gear I pick up will probably be for healing in instances, until Holy Shock at least. With Exorcism and Consecration on the horizon, which also follow the same Attack Power > Spell Power idea, warrior gear really just is the best at the moment.

I wouldnt mind picking up a great shield and one hander though. Even with my gearing strategy, I'm still going to be acting defensively in battlegrounds and PvP in general, throwing heals to allies and whatnot. If I get any Gorilla (Strength and Intellect gear) or Eagle (Stamina and Intellect gear), I'm going to be quite happy but for now, "of the Bear" (Strength and Stamina) gear is lovely.

Anyway, the abilities we learned from our trainer is as follows...

Blessing of Wisdom - Our second blessing. This can and SHOULD be cast on you whenever you're doing any kind of healing or extensive mana usage. For questing and general solo work I prefer Blessing of Might but eventually I'm going to begin having some mana problems, which is where Blessing of Wisdom will come in handy.

Righteous Defense - Often an underrated ability, Righteous Defense is very useful for Holy Paladins. While situational at best, this allows you to pull mobs off of an underarmored and squishy clothie. Should a healer really be pulling mobs off of a clothie DPSer? Ideally no, thats the tanks job, but if you've got a crap tank, which is common in most PuGs, then you might as well put that mail (and later, plate, and later, mixed mail and plate) of yours to good use. I've prevented many a wipe, in 10/25 man raids and instances alike with a well timed taunt, and so should you.

Thats it as far as abilities for this level is concerned. Experiences thus far include...

...a little of this...
...quite a great deal more of this...
...a little of this...
...and this, unfortunately...

Thanks for reading! I'll be posting about the first Paladin quest soon, I've been slacking a bit on it but I'll get it churned out eventually. Definitely before the -second- Paladin quest. Otherwise that wouldn't make much sense. :P

Inventory Space - PITA

Inventory space at lower levels is a PAIN IN THE ARSE. With mining, engineering, all the various little bits of crap that stack to 20 but I can only ever get one of, and sell for decent prices on the AH (Shadowgem, Malachite, etc.) constantly means I'm vendoring shite. It is IRRITATING. Which is why I've decided to betray one of my many no-nos and accept assistance from a higher level to grant me the use of bags. Very high level ones. I figure bag space isnt going to ruin the levelling experience a whole lot, and if it does have any impact on it, it'll be a positive one.

Soo.. Bobella, of previous fame, has joyously accepted the quest to see to it that I've got some bags to carry all my phat loots in. Hurrah!

Item Update:
Elekk Rider's Mail, from A Favorite Treat
2 Stone Sledgehammer from Alien Predators

Level Update: 13

Level 12; Judgement of Wisdom

A new ability! Yaaay!

Judgement of Wisdom functions exactly like Judgement of Light, only instead of granting us our health back on a successful attack, it gives us mana. It'll be our favorite judgement in time to come, but for now, Light is stronger.

Also, on some offtopic information, I've currently started my first Paladin quest. It's called Jol, or rather, the first part of the chain is. Heading to Exodar now to begin it. When I've finished, expect a post about it right here on Shockadoodledoo!

EDIT: Item update, Kessel's Sturdy Riding Handle, from the quest, Declaration of Power

Bloodmyst Isle

Finally, my quests have taken me to the best teen-level zone ever. Bloodmyst Isle. Why the best? Well, I love the lore, I love the quests, the quest rewards.. really. Its awesome.

WoWWiki:

Bloodmyst Isle (aka Silvergale Isle) is the second of the two major isles of the Azuremyst Isles. North of the main island, Azuremyst Isle, Bloodmyst is often the next step in the journey for ambitious young draenei.

And indeed so, it is the next step in the journey for OUR amibitous young draenei. Currently equipped in nothing more than some greys, whites and 2 crappy greens (I'm using a one hander and I've got no shield. I stupidly sold my Stillpine Defender due to a lack of bagspace and carrying a Two-Hander at the time.)

My first journey into Bloodmyst sent me RIGHT BACK to Azuremyst, on the back of this great big ugly thing to the left. Something about a Blood Elf invasion and warning the leaders of the Draenei, Bears-in-thongs and Alliance. But EPIC MOUNT AT LEVEL 12 WOOOOOOOOOOY.

One of the best reasons to roll a Draenei Paladin is so you DONT have to ride one of these things at level 20 or level 40. Instead, we get to ride one of these, or one of these. For level 12 though, this big ugly thing will do. Unfortunately, I only get to ride it for 15 minutes.








Anyway, upon returning to Bloodmyst Isle triumphantly on the back of someone elses epic mount, I took a moment to look at this guy. That is one badass eyepatch. Though it begs the question.. how happy can he be without a shirt, and with one eye? Or does it? I dunno.



Anyway, some of the items available in Azuremyst Isle that I'll be trying to snatch up include a lot of mail "Warrior" items. This is okay though, at this level we have very little use for spell power or even intellect. The stamina on this gear will hold us in good stead, and the strength is nothing to groan about.

Currently, with our current talent build, we're doing more damage than a Retribution Paladin (if you can call 3 talent points a specialization). We have 3/5 Seals of the Pure, they have 3% parry or 6% reduced mana cost on everything but Holy Light. So for the moment, we're levelling about as fast as we can.

Warsong Gulch

Level Update: 12

Yep, so, I decided to take a trip to ye' ol' Warsong Gulch, knowing that no longer shall I be two shot by twinks with more time and money than sense and life. (Not including their massive healthpools).

And we lost. Boo. Even still it was fun, though I'm very very squishy at the moment (Level 11, one green item (Priest's Mace of Power (+2 Attack Power)) EDIT: Nevermind that, forgot I had Ravager Chitin Tunic from an earlier quest Make that -two- greens. The Horde had a lot of people above level 15, even a shaman who had no problem 3 shotting me (Haaaate Flame Shock. Does a lot of damage at this level.). I proved to be a thorn in their side though, healing our flag carrier, their burst targets, myself when I could get it off before being reduced to gore/ash/shreded goat. Oh, and I dinged to 12 inside of it, yay!

A shame our most frequent flag carrier hadn't the grey matter to realise I couldn't heal her if she constantly avoided my line of sight while being chased by said shaman. Bah.

Engineering proved rather useful here. Rough Copper Bomb managed to slow down their flag carrier on a couple of occasions, and interrupted some clutch heals and casts.

Final score: 1-0 to the Whore'd

Was fun, and I'll be looking to do a lot more for my Caretaker's Cape and my Lorekeeper's Ring.

Possibly Protector's Sword and Band, we'll see how long it takes for me to get sick of Warsong Gulch.

Gallery:

Quest: Beasts of the Apocalypse!

Level Update: 11

Beasts of the Apocalypse! is a quest in Stillpine Hold, Azuremyst Isle. The Leatherworking trainer recognizes me as "The Chosen One", a defender of the Stillpine, yet not of their blood. So he sends me off to kill Ravagers and loot their hides, which ironically, fell from the Exodar. Essentially, I'm cleaning up my own mess. Oh well, best not tell him that.

So he sends me off to kill these "Ravagers", and I go, with the promise of a powerful crafted item spuring me on. So I eventually meet these Ravegers, just as the quest text told me they'd be, for once. Directly east of the Hold, past the road. And boy.. my first "slight" challenge. These things pack a punch alone. Two of them is just enough to handle. Any more and I'd be toast. They have a nasty bleed that did a lot of damage outside of combat due to not being able to self-heal from Judgement of Light to take the edge off. I had to cast Holy Light once or twice after every couple of kills.

Luckily, use of my Rough Dynamite enabled me to kill the buggers before they became too much to handle as a pair, and eventually I looted all the hides I need.

Upon returning to the quest giver, he delightedly informs me that the armor he has crafted me is "AMAZING", and that he'll give it to me for "free"! Free my ass. Those ravagers were mean.

My reward: Ravager Chitin Tunic. Gee, thanks. Powerful indeed.

Al'akir - First thoughts.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much. This is a PvP realm, one of the firsts. And, as everyone knows, some PvPers can tend to be a bunch of elitist, e-peen stroking pricks. That isnt what I experienced thus far on Al'akir. Everyone who I met has been nice, pleasant, and welcoming, but none moreso than my new best buddy, Bobella. (That isnt her actual name.)

Bobella is a level 80 huntard who I found hovering about on one of those bike things that engineers can make. Being my friendly self, I /waved at her and continued on my way, as I do with all people I witness in secluded places (Azuremyst Isle is barren). A couple of minutes later, she whispers me, and tells me she were AFK. For the next 5 minutes I try to convince her I really -dont- want a ride on her bike. Then for the next.. ooh.. 40 minutes or so, we spend a great amount of time talking about things like RP, PvP, PvE, Zalgradis (<3), and ganking.

She tried to force me to take gold, offered her hand in aid if I should ever find my poor little Draenei under the tooth and claw of a mean Undead Rogue, and was all very nice and pleasant to me.

Anyway, other than my new best friend, everyone else here is -awesome-. Everyone I've met/walked past who can buff, for example, has buffed me. I've had different strengths of Blessing of Might, Mark of the Wild, Arcane Intellect, and Power Word: Fortitude cast upon my slender frame, to which I can only say "Thanks" (Except you, Mr. "I'm too important to buff you" Mage. You know who you are.)

This is allll going to change when I hit Ganklethorn Vale, but for now, I'm enjoying the friendly laid back nature of the Alliance here.

EDIT: Oh, and as previously requested, almost-naked Bubblebum.

Item of the Hour/Day/Week/Month/Moment!

Yes, its time for our first installment of IotH/D/W/M/M! (I'm still working on the name). Its that time of day/week/month that we decide to look at an item for its aesthetical value, or statistical value, and worship it for as long as it takes you to read this post.

And the very first item is.. not an epic. Not a rare. It isnt even uncommon. Its a Battle Tested Blade.

Neither a very hard hitting sword, nor particularly fast or slow, this sword is the focus today because it is one of the coolest looking items available in the game for ordinary characters levelling from 1-10. A picture of the sword in my smooth, sexy little Draenei hands can be found to the right. And I am up far too early, for those of you who'll look to the bottom right.

While there are other nice items available for the aspiring Draenei in Azuremyst, nothing beats the apperance of this sword. In my opinion anyway.

Let me know if YOU find a better looking item in Azuremyst, from quests.

Gnome Punting.

There is a sport we in the Horde like to call "Gnome Punting". It is a very simple game. There are no rules, no scores to keep check of, no times, hardly any competitiveness. You simply punt gnomes. Such as this one.Now, unfortunately for me, I am currently on my Alliance character. Alliance being allied with.. Gnomes. Gross.

HOWEVER. Unfortunately for this GNOME.. he's a traitor, and we've caught him red handed. What follows next is both gorey, and not for the faint hearted.


Of course, the rest of my emote got cut off because I tend to TL;DR with emotes. Still, the job was done. No more Traitor Gnome.

Explody-time!

Time for some explosives. My current favorite toy is the Rough Dynamite which is the least powerful dynamite you can buy. So what? It's my only form of AoE at the moment, my second form of "instant attack", and its DYNAMITE GODDAMNIT.

A well timed Judgement + Dynamite Combo does enough damage to make your enemy laugh slightly less (only slightly) at your pathetic, pitiful damage output at the moment.

And using Dynamite makes you look like this:Badass.

Zalgradis

I went all totally fangirl when I realized Zalgradis was on this server, I admit it. I actually forgot. I knew I liked Al'akir for some reason but it never occured to me -why-.

Then I see this as soon as I enter the Exodar...
Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Level 10 Abilities, and Experiences thus far.

Wooooy. Level 10! And as promised, this is where the action starts. This is the main event. This is level 1, past the training levels. This is where it starts! See that? That wasn't the star-

Anyway, where to start? Ah yes.

Abilities (scroll down to the end of these for the next part of this post, experiences thus far.)

Including the abilities we've learned at level 10, assuming we've been good little paladins, we have the following abilities.

Holy Light: This is our only heal. Or, yours, if you didn't roll a Draenei. I did, so this is a rarely used ability, I favor my Gift of the Naaru. Holy Light is our only heal for the moment, costs a lot too. Use sparingly.

Lay on Hands: Well.. okay. This is technically our second heal, but it has a 20 minute cooldown, and Holy Light heals for enough. Only ever use this if you need an instant heal NOW, and can't afford to wait for Holy Light. Will give us mana at higher levels but that doesnt concern us for now.

Purify: Situational, really. Use it when you've got a poison or disease that you want to be rid of. Low mana cost, can be cast on allies too, if you find yourself grouped with someone. I've not had the privilage of finding a likeminded fellow or fellette to accompany me though.

Seal of Righteousness: Always, always, always, ALWAYS keep this up. It procs off of every single melee swing you do for a minor amount of damage, and is responsible for you being able to use Judgement of Light, which we'll discuss later. Moderate mana cost but lasts for 30 minutes. No excuse to allow this to fall off.

Devotion Aura: Our only aura for the moment. Gives us a little bit of physical damage mitigation. Will do for now, keep it up. Doesn't cost any mana, and doesn't need to be recast at all once its up, unless you deactivate it.

Divine Protection: (For anyone who THINKS they know what this ability does, go jump off the highest cliff you can find and cast it. Now continue to read) This is NOT OUR DIVINE SHIELD. This is NOT BUBBLE. This is Shield Wall for Paladins, except it doesn't require the use of a shield. Cast this when you're in trouble, and being swarmed by adds. Pop it to escape, or to buy yourself time to heal yourself so you can unleash your righteous auto-attack-fury down onto those whom would seek death upon you.

Hammer of Justice: Arguably the most overpowered, ridiculously nerf-worthy ability in the Paladins arsenal in PvP at 80, this ability serves as little more than a spell interrupt at this level. Cast it to stop a mob from healing, or casting an offensive ability. Very low mana cost, but make sure you need to use it when you do, as it has a 1 minute cooldown and you don't want this to be off-cooldown at a clutch time.

Hand of Protection: This is more like it. Full physical and bleed damage mitigation, and it DOES protect you from fall damage. The downside? Hefty cooldown, and you can't do any physical or ranged damage through it yourself. Anything the enemy can do to you and can't through this shield, you can't do it back to them.

Blessing of Might: Our favored (and only, at the moment) Blessing, that increases all forms of damage we do, currently. 10 minute duration, low mana cost. Keep it up as much as possible. Remember to do so too, as the duration is annoyingly one of those things you need to remember, but its also long enough for you to be able to forget about remembering it. Rage.

And finally...

Judgement of Light: One of your many offensive abilities available at this level (Read: This is your ONLY offensive ability available at this level), Judgement has a 10 second cooldown, and its damage is modified by your current seal. Our only seal at this time is Seal of Righteousness, so.. yeah. Spam this ability. Or.. well.. every 10 seconds. Does moderate damage, low mana cost.

Thats it for now. And now for..

Experiences thus far.

I'll be making this brief because, well.. everyone has access to these experiences. They arn't paladin specific, they dont require very much effort or time invested (Roll a level 1 alt. Spend 30 minutes on it. Profit.) and they're kinda bland and boring so far.

But, so far I've quested with a bear in a thong...


...who later turned us into some sort of Shadow Panthers...


...then I freed more bears-in-thongs...


...and a short while after that, I did this horrible, haenous crime...


Why a crime? Let me tell you something about Holy Paladins and Boomkins. We -love- them. They are big, furry, crit-gifting mutated freaks that we love unconditionally. UNCONDITIONALLY DAMN IT.

Oh, and then I met this lovely lass.

Female Dwarves are for the fucking win.

That concludes my post for now. Leave comments and suggestions for things you'd like me to post about and I'll do my best to serve you like some sort of slave monkey. (Except I enjoy this. :D)

EDIT: Duh. Talents. First 5 points going into Seals of the Pure.

Professions

Chiming in from Azure Watch now. Level 6. I'll go through all our various abilities at level 10 when I get to level 10, but for now, lets review some choices we can make for our Paladin at this level.

Professions.

Throughout Azure Watch are profession trainers. I haven't checked for them all, but the ones I wanted were here. Mining and Engineering.

Why Mining and Engineering? Well, Engineering is a good choice for PvP, certainly while levelling. Stun grenades, dynamite, gocklez zhat do infact do zomethink, and various other tasty bits of blowy up goodness, and mining? Well, would be inefficient to be an engineer without mining, and, mining = GOALDS. MUCH GOALDS.

*ahem* and.. stamina of course.

Alternate choices for the budding Holy Paladin include:

Jewelcrafting - Very nice trinkets, especially at max level. Handy to make gems instead of buying them once you get into Outland and beyond. You'll want mining if you take this.

Enchanting - A good choice for holy paladins, especially ones who intend to run a lot of instances. Good money spinner and gives good stats while levelling up. Pair with tailoring or a gathering profession for maximum gold.

Alchemy - Health and Mana pots are good, especially during PvP. Nothing annoys the enemy more than when they get you to 10% and suddenly your HP rockets due to popping a potion. Pair this with our other outs, such as Lay on Hands, Divine Shield, blah blah blah, and you'll certainly piss a few people off. Gives nice passive stat bonuses through flasks and elixirs too. Pair with Herbalism

Herbalism - Gives a very nice Heal Over Time effect
as you level it up. Also makes a good money spinner.

Damn it Jim...

...I'm 3 Priests, not a doctor!

Yeah, I'm terrible at jokes. Oh well. At least this gave me a good opportunity to show off my UI, which is basically just vanilla SpartanUI affair.

Addons

Thought I'd throw up the majority of the addons I'll be using for the levelling experience. None of these addons really speed up the levelling process in my experience.

AdvancedTradeSkillWindow
ArkInventory
Atlasloot
Auctionator
Bartender
Cartographer
Crap Away!
DataStore*
EnhTooltip
Gatherer
Gryphonheart Items**
Historian
Informant
JIM's Cooldown Pulse
Minimap Buttom Frame
Omen3
OmniCC
Pallypower
Peggle
Power Auras Classic
Prat
PrivateParty***
RatingBuster
Recount
ScrollingCombatText
Sexymap
SkillLevel
SpartanUI
TitanPanel
Xperl
Zoom!!!
DeadlyBossMods

*No idea what this is. I figure its important for some other addon so I'm enabling it for now. Feel free to let me know, though I'll probably check Curse.

**Gryphonheart Items is actually an RP addon, but its VERY handy for copying stuff like books and letters that ordinarily take up bag space so you can save them for personal usage later.

***PrivateParty is an addon generally used in RP, so you can RP in /s without anyone else seeing your messages. Very useful for avoiding being harassed on RP servers, but it also has a nice little function that allows it to stretch one message across two or more "sends", effectively removing the limit on letter counts in a message. Awesome TL;DR addon.

EDIT: Crap. Posted it halfway through typing it up. Expect this to be updated very very shortly. :P Accidental post ftw.
EDIT2: Finished.

Bubblebum

So, for those of you wondering on the aesthetics of my latest Paladin..

Shockadoodledoo!

Welcome! This blog was created to document the levelling experiences of a Holy Paladin on Al'akir, EU, on the World of Warcraft.

Why? Well, many have the misconception that levelling as a Holy Paladin can be boring, or slow. I am here to trash those misconceptions and show you that, with a little effort, time, and even a little gold when it comes to purchasing some glyphs now and again (all gained through questing and professions), levelling a Holy Paladin without the aid of a main character, or any friends, is entirely possible.

I will be rolling on Al'akir because, well.. I am a PvPer, I enjoy PvP. Additionally, it is a full server, so it gives me the best opportunities to organize groups, and that type of thing, while also guarenting mucho PvP and.. probably me getting my ass handed to me by a couple of bored Undead Rogues.

My character, who I have geniusly named "Bubblebum", is currently a level 1 Draenei Paladin. I will be documenting everything past level 10, as anyone can experience level 1-10 and its pretty much the same from class to class. I'll also be documenting new abilities, any notable gear I get, and so on, to really try and share the experience with you, so you can get where I'm coming from.

I will also be keeping count of my /played, however I do want people to bear in mind this isnt a "Levelling as fast as you can" excersise. I want to have fun, and I want to show YOU, that having fun is very possible. I'll also NOT be using Questhelper, which although I do love, would somewhat ruin the purpose of said levelling experience.

The format for this blog will be rather loose. I may post once a level from time to time, I may post every 10 levels. Nonetheless, expect to read every single development in my levelling experience!

My main is Sariella, on The Sha'tar EU, an RP server.