Paladin tanking: A first look!

I tanked an instance for the first time since switching to Protection spec and it was... incredible! The last time I tanked an instance was Zul'farrak, and back then I was Retribution. Granted, I had some things to help me generate threat that I don't have now (Sanctity Aura and actually Vengeance helped too... haha) but the better Righteous Fury was really helpful.

Paladins are just... wow. I think I had the hunter trap twice, and only in Blood Furnace (we did Ramparts followed by Blood Furnace since Ramparts only lasted about 40 minutes). The only time I did have her trap was on some of those nasty felguard annihilator pulls at the end since I couldn't really tank them.

My pally is still a bit undergeared (a bit? I just replaced Triune Amulet with a BoE green that dropped in the instance last night) so I think I may have given our healer a run for her money sometimes, aoe tanking everything... it was great though. In both instances we only had 1 wipe (accidentally got two groups somehow) and only a couple of deaths. The only frustrating thing is if I went OOM during a pull, it became very difficult to get threat back, and of course Reckoning was no help at all with Seal/Judgment of Wisdom because I wasn't being hit anymore T_T Gotta learn to carry mana potions!

Looking forward to getting more tanking gear so I feel like a bit less of a mana hog on the healer... and definitely looking forward to tanking more instances. Maybe this is one character I can feel comfortable tanking with pugs in the group! I didn't even have to use salvation last night either so that was a huge help. People pulled aggro sometimes but it was usually in a big group where I have having some trouble targetting... I'll get used to it!

Warrior tanking

One of the things I really strive to do in WoW is play multiple classes and play them well. I don't want to be "that guy" who had one of each class but couldn't play their way out of a cardboard box with any of them.

So maybe not surprisingly, I've spent a lot of times on the forums and on elitist jerks learning about various classes. So far my greatest weakness is warrior tanking - I think I do really well in other situations (dps as various specs and classes is very easy for me, and tanking on my paladin is easy - I haven't tried to tank on my druid when it wasn't Black Morass so I can't really speak for my druid tanking skills XD, and healing is also something that comes pretty naturally to me).

I think part of my problem is I tend to group with people nowadays who outgear me. I am wearing mostly greens and blues when it comes to tanking (and the two worst trinkets IN THE WORLD). But I also hate to use that as an excuse, so I'm thinking that my next project will be to respec Shaeldre to protection and give some 5-mans a shot. Just need to pick my group members carefully (or make them be careful >:)) so I don't frustrate myself right back to Fury spec again.

I don't think Protection will ever be Shaeldre's main spec, but I still want to be in a position where I feel confident that I can handle tanking a 5-man instance so I can take pressure off my sister (the guild's main tank) and not feel like 1/3 of a warrior noob ;)

Shiawase, Blood Elf Paladin

Shiawase is my first horde character to reach 40 and my first to hit 60. (Previously I'd also had a tauren druid that I leveled up to 29, but I found myself wanting something different.) That also makes her my 7th character to hit 60 overall (after a hunter, mage, two priests, a warrior, and a druid).

At the time of writing this, Shiawase is currently level 61 and Protection spec. I'm pretty sure I'm going to stay Protection at 70 - Paladin tanking is a blast and, to me at least, much less stressful than warrior tanking.

I was Retribution with Shiawase up until level 50 - then Crusader Strike felt more like a mana hog and a Bad Thing rather than something good. I'm sure it's great if you really know how to use it, but I just felt my mana going down the drain and my downtime skyrocketing, and I was having a hard time resisting the temptation to use it - I mean, I spent a damn talent point on it after all. So I went to Protection and since then have been having a lot of fun (except for one of those scarlet camps in the Plaguelands... damn casters and healers).

Looking forward to tanking my first Outland instance soon! I always heard about how boring leveling a paladin was, but I haven't been bored since level 35. The worst part for me was about 30-34, and my gear was horribly outdated back then. I haven't found that is a trend though, because I also leveled another paladin to 35 in the past (Asuka, a holy paladin on Mannoroth). I leveled her as Holy and had fun the whole way, but also have kept fairly updated gear - at least a good weapon.

Ceres, Draenei Priest

My plan at first with Ceres was to level her to 70 and heal in raids on Mannoroth - her name back then was Voice. I leveled her with a friend of mine, Tendertotems (a Draenei shaman) but as I got higher level (between leveling her and Shaeldre on Bronzebeard) I was hearing more and more discontent amongst my guildies at level 70. I slowed down leveling and around when she was level 65 or so, my guild disbanded.

Rather than find a new home on Mannoroth, I decided to go ahead and transfer her to Bronzebeard. I'm not really 100% sure why I decided to go through with this since I already had a priest there, but it has allowed me to have one shadow priest and one holy priest on the same realm, which is kind of fun.

Last night, patch 2.4 came out. I did a run of Magister's Terrace where I got 2 DPS upgrades (sigh :P) but I also went around and bought the 5-pc blue pvp set from the reputation vendors. I'm looking forward to giving PvP a shot with some resilience.

I think I prefer Ceres as a 5-man healer, but my druid as a raid healer. I haven't completely decided yet, though. Ceres has been in Karazhan and various heroic instances and 5-mans at this point - probably more heroics than my druid. I really enjoy the ability to fade to discourage enemies, rather than just.. Barkskin and hope for the best. As far as PvP healing goes though, both characters are a total blast.

I'm really interested in going back to a PvP build (heavy disc) and trying out arena again. Last time I did 3v3 with her, it was with 2 hunters, I wasn't disc, and it was just impossible to stay alive... hoping for better next time, especially now that I have resilience! Sitting at about 171 resilience now.

Alaphrei, Night Elf Druid

Alaphrei was my fifth character to 60 and my second to 70. I have explored pretty much every spec with her - started leveling restoration (back when feral... really sucked - I basically solo'd as restoration but wearing feral gear, in feral forms).

Around 35 or so, the feral tree was reworked so I went to feral. I still ended up healing most instances, but I love healing so I didn't mind it too much. My most challenging instance to heal was Uldaman - I was level 48 but most of the group was 40, and this is back when the last boss was level 46. It was very tough going because our DPS was all missing / glancing blows / etc and frustrating, and after a few 1-2% wipes, our paladin got on his 60 hunter and got him. (Which was funny - it wasn't that much easier because he was forced into melee pretty often... but we got the boss!) I stayed feral until the Scourge Invasion (a server-wide event before Naxx came out) where I went resto to level while healing some AoEing mage friends. I gained a couple of levels like that and then went back to feral to hit 60. I was a mix of feral or restoration at 60, but went with a healing build for MC, ZG, AQ-20 and Onyxia (which I did a few times, but nothing really beyond that - this was mostly just alt/weekend runs).

2.0 came out and introduced a happily not-sucking Balance tree, so I decided to try that out and stayed that way after Burning Crusade came out, up to level 70. Nowadays I carry multiple sets of gear with me (my restoration gear is the best, followed by my balance gear, then bear gear, then cat gear - and of course I have some extra PvP or high stam pieces that I carry with me too) - most of it is in the bank at any given moment, though.

Alaphrei was transferred over to Bronzebeard around level 64 or so, and now at 70 she has become my primary raiding character since my warrior, as a not-tank and as melee dps, isn't really needed that much. Yes, I'm a lifebloom-stacking tree and proud of it ;) Alaphrei is also my only character to really explore arena, but my team was only just beginning to start to learn how to get past 1500 rating when my two team members quit the game. Arena is definitely fun though and I'm looking forward to giving it a try again in the future.

Shaeldre, Human Warrior

Shaeldre was my fourth level 60, my first to 70, and also my first character on Bronzebeard. I made her to be a part of Daughters of the Alliance, an all-female World of Warcraft guild. We formed up via the wow_ladies livejournal community (after Daughters of the Horde had already been formed earlier). First I'd actually created the warrior Aridae, but around level 25 I realized just wasn't into how she looked so I rerolled Shaeldre. (Aridae is now my bank alt.)

After leveling four characters to 60 I finally knew how to level and gain money - Shaeldre was my first character to completely afford her level 40 mount by herself (my priest, Cerelinde, was about 5g short, but very close) and she also was able to keep herself kitted out in superior quality items through 60 and buy her epic mount as soon as she hit level 60.

She's usually Fury spec, though I dip into Protection every now and then. I prefer DPS to tanking though - at least most of the time! Tanking for people who are way geared over me is just frustrating, but I can enjoy it from time to time. It's a bit too stressful for me though :)

Anyway, Shaeldre was my only character on Bronzebeard for a long time - I transferred my mage, Alazais, to join her before Burning Crusade, and then afterward transferred my remaining Mannoroth characters (except for my hunter), as well as my priest from Stormrage. I'm now an officer in Daughters of the Alliance and act as a raid leader for our raids - so far we've just done Karazhan and started Gruul's Lair, but it's really fun to raid with such a laid back group.

Shaeldre has somewhat taken to the back burner since my guild is overall in need of healers and I'm not much of a fan of tanking. I'm hoping to revive her a bit in Wrath of the Lich King though ;)

Cerelinde, Night Elf Priest

Cerelinde (once known as Voice, on the Stormrage server) was my third character to hit 60 and my first character (at least first that I actually played with any regularity) on a PvE server.

She leveled as shadow but spent the majority of her time in instances healing. At level 60 I joined a raiding guild. I cleared Molten Core, Zul'Gurub, Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, and Blackwing Lair with them. Due to big time real life issues, I stopped playing her shortly after our first clear of Blackwing Lair, but I missed her a lot, and eventually transferred her to Bronzebeard so I could level her to 70, months after Burning Crusade came out.

But Cerelinde wasn't only a raider - she also was the only character I did any extensive PvP with. Due to raiding on two characters (this one and my hunter, Ceres, on Mannoroth) as well as college and a boyfriend, I never really was able to attain a balance between these things and PvP to get my rank very high - I peaked at Knight-Captain. Regardless, I did regular Warsong Gulch matches with my team - Janson, Krysania, Yodamor, Verithas, Maix - they were only some of my team members and even though I'm now having fun with Cerelinde at 70 on a different server, I still miss you guys :) Even though I didn't play with them for months prior, leaving them was one reason I didn't transfer for so long.

On her way to 70, I mixed up shadow and holy leveling. I was doing instances with my boyfriend for a while, so stuck to Holy for maybe 5 levels, but he "officially" quit WoW (again) and I went shadow and zoomed to 70.

At 70, Cerelinde is my shadow priest, and one of my favorite characters to play in an instance. Even with pretty crap gear I can still dominate the damage meters and feel that I bring plenty of utility - healing in a pinch, shackles, and of course VE and VT. She has more or less left her PvP days behind - I prefer to heal in PvP so my resto druid and my holy priest (neither of whom I've written about just yet) are my preferred PvP characters. I still sport my "Knight Captain" rank proudly though!

Alazais, Human Mage

Alazais was my second character to level 60 - just barely. She was my first real "primary alt" though. Back when I started to level her, it was the days when you were stupid if you went to almost any instance without a mage. People just didn't know, back then, how to get around a need for aoe - and of course they had all these other snazzy perks like food and water vending.

So, I made a mage! I felt super powerful until level 50 or so. I'd planned to aoe grind my way to 60 via Dire Maul or Maraudon but both places were nerfed before I reached there, so while I quickly hit 52 or so, I slowly gained levels to 60 after that. She ended up hitting 60 while farming Timbermaw rep with a guildie hunter.

She collected dust... often. I just wasn't that into her and she felt very wimpy and pointless compared to my hunter, especially once I became a kiting and feign-death trapping pro (yeah, back then we had to feign death in order to retrap during combat, and walk uphill both ways yadda yadda). But my boyfriend after raiding for a while decided to go on a quest to collect the rest of his Wildheart set, and since my hunter didn't need anything from those instances anymore, I started going on my mage. I ended up with a very nice pre-raiding set and eventually even went to Molten Core with her.

After a while though I was realizing that she just wasn't that useful to me on Mannoroth, so I transferred her to Bronzebeard, renamed her to Alazais (she was named Alanis on Mannoroth... a reference to a young mage girl in Suikoden, NOT the popular singer) and there she has stayed.

Alazais was my third character to level 70. She's sitting at 375 tailoring and enchanting and has a pretty respectable damage set - not much +hit but I don't really intend to raid with her very much, if at all. She's an incredibly fun character for heroics though, and I'm glad that I did eventually put the effort into her and not just leave her sitting at level 50, weak and lonely ;)