Having had a chance to play 2.3 last night on my guild Karazhan night I wanted to throw up a quick first impressions comment from a Paladin Tanks perspective.

I know most of the changes have nothing to do with a Paladin and even those that do are mainly focused on the Retribution Paladin tree.  However, some things did effect my tankadin directly and other not so directly that I wanted to comment on.

First, direct effects:
-    OMG the new Badge loot is amazing!  I have been saving for it since I first heard about it.  As soon as I logged on I went and cashed in my badges for the new chest and then headed to KZ.
-    The new +10% stamina talent deep in the Protection tree addresses the lack of Paladin tank health compared to warriors,  This combined with the new chest piece and buffs for KZ gave me just a hair under 18,000 health.  Finally I am no longer the red headed step child in the health department when compared to Warrior tanks.

Next up, some of the very nice yet subtle changes:
-    Heroic badge availability.  This has improved drastically.  Most of the KZ bosses drop 2 badges each, providing 10 for a complete run.  Secondly the new heroic instance daily quest provides a bonus 2 badges for clearing the instance of the day.  Overall it makes all the new loot very accessible.
-    Wizard and mana oil now lasts an hour!  HURRAY!
-    Mages create food through a summoned item, instead of having to create for everyone.  Better yet, it provides both mana and health, no more double stacks of items
-    Daily battle ground quest makes sure that players visit all the battles at least occasionally, instead of just AV.

At least one negative change:
-    The drop of the reputation required to enter heroic instances.  While many players cheered, I see this as a really bad thing.  I saw way to many players attempting to complete the new daily heroic quest just because they could now get into the instance.  For some reason WAY to many players equate the fact that they can get into someplace with a belief that they should be there and can be useful there.

I will be back tonight to play around with the levelling changes on several of my alts to see what effect the changes have had.  Over all though, everyone seems to be extremely happy with the patch.  Character wise, Mages all get ice block, Shaman damage went up slightly, retribution Paladins improved, Hunters became a little more playable in arenas, and much more. For small guilds looking to raid there is the new 10 man raid.  For players that can’t raid but want better gear the new badge loot is there. For those not at level 70, you can now get there faster.  And many more changes.

Maybe I’m still giddy after hitting what I consider decent health for a tank (finally), but other than my one minor complaint over heroic access, I love the patch.  It improved many little things, cleaned up others, corrected some, and over all enhanced the play experience.

Great Job Blizzard!!

Over the last few weeks, I have finally gotten my Paladin to level 70 and started seriously worrying about tanking heroics and Kara. Once I made the decision that I wanted to tank Karazhan I had to come up with a list of gear that I would need. So I’m in the process of gearing and have come across a few ideas that I thought I would pass on. I have gone through gearing up phases before and have always done things in much the same way, but was surprised when I talked to many guild mates that they were not as organized, so thought I would share.

These are the simple steps I follow:

1. Determine goals and deadlines
2. Determine items needed
3. Determine Enchants and Gems needed
4. Make a List and keep track
5. Set priorities and steps
6. Collect Items

Determine Goals and Deadlines – This involves figuring out what exactly I want to do and by when. For my paladin I knew that I needed to get to at least 11,000 health unbuffed, 13,000 armor, 490 defense and 102.5% avoidance. These stats would allow me to take enough hits in Kara, be uncrittable and uncrushable by the bosses there.

Determine Items Needed – This is the harder part and basically involves taking with other players, guildmates and searching the WoW Armory for possible upgrades. The hard part here is keeping your eyes on what you really need and what you can get. There is no use focusing on that great epic that you have no way to get. Focus on what you can achieve at your level.

Determine Enchants and Gems Needed – The same as with items above, but now focus on the addons to them.

Make a List and Keep Track – I find it much easier to keep motivated and moving forward if I have a list. I turned my lists into an spreadsheet so that I could record what I had found and when as a way to keep motivated.

Set Priorities and Steps – There may be 3 great weapons that would help you or 4 possible pieces of armor for your chest. If so, list them in priority order. If the 3rd priority drops before the 1st, grab it, it will still be an improvement and keep you moving forward.

Collect the items – Now that you know what you need and where to get it, go out and collect it. Change it up all the time though. For example, if you need 4 items from the Mechanar, don’t just grind there until you find them all, you will go insane. Bounce around through the instances to keep things fresh.

There you have it, my tips on gearing up. Hope this helps some other players out there. If you have a better idea or another way to gear up I would be happy to hear your thoughts, write me your comments below.

Well, its been a week since BlizzCon ended, and the buzz still hasn’t calmed down.  Check out just about every WoW forum out there and the buzz is still going.  Speculation abounds about the Deathknight class, when the expansion will be out, will it improve or ruin the game, and much more.

The things I am most excited about a week later though are the way you get a Deathknight, having a whole bunch more instances to play through and new zones to explore.

It’s easy to see why people are stoked about the Deathknight and it’s what I am most excited about.  Another character to play around with, but you don’t have to level as much!  A juggernaut in plate that can tank with a 2 handed weapon and do huge damage!  What’s not to love.

I really like the plan that Blizzard has put in place for the class.  We all have level 70 characters already. Most of us have several.  Making us go through the first 60 levels again isn’t all that appealing.  The plan to have a level 80 quest that allows you to then create an additional character (the Deathknight) at about level 60 is so cool!  You get a ready working character that you can level quickly through the Outlands and then head for Northrend.

By forcing you to get to max level, Blizzard ensured that you play through all the content at least once.  Once you have there is really no reason to make you go right back to the beginning.

Bravo Blizzard!!!

Seeing the instance chart for the new expansion, I love it.  There will be just as many instances in Northrend as there was in the Outlands.  That’s amazing for instance lovers.  In outlands there are enough that you can level from 60-70 all the way in instances if you want. I like that a lot.  Having a Protection based paladin I am never without a group, so will be able to move through the instances very quickly and look forward to exploring them over and over again.

For outdoor exploring I always use my hunter or shadow priest.  Both can level insanely fast through quests and kill MOBs amazingly fast.  With so many zones to explore, I can’t wait to dig through and explore them all.  It will probably take both characters leveling to see everything, if not more, since it took both going through the Burning Crusade to see everything there.

Blizzard has done it again, and is teasing us and leading us on.  I can’t wait for the expansion.  How about you?  How long will the lines be this time?

BlizzCon Day one ended several hours ago after a hugely entertaining costume contest. What was the first day like? I’m not even sure I can describe it.

While it was huge and crazy at times, it was also a bit more laid back than I thought it would be. Lineups at everything were monstrous, taking more than 2 hours to shop at the store, or get hands on with Starcraft II or the upcoming expansion for WoW.

You caught that did you? Yes Blizzard made it official that the next expansion for WoW will be out soon, and will be called Wrath of the Lich King. They also have many computers setup so that you can play the first zone at BlizzCon. When it was announced everyone went crazy and you will see tons of coverage on it over the next few days as we get the articles together.

I think the thing that shocked me the most was that it attracted a much more “normal” crowd than I would have expected. It put to shame the myth that all gamers live in their parents basements. I’m sure that I saw at least 3 or 4 people with suntans… J/K there were a lot more than that.

Seriously though, there were players of every age, race, and social status here, all on even ground, all discussing a game they love. At one guild live meeting you could see players ranging from 14 – 60, from every walk of life, talking about WoW and interacting. Where else do you see these kinds of social barriers crossed. It was very interesting to see.

Well, off to day 2 for more panels, exploring and the concert tonight. Check back soon for more info.

Last night we all made it into Anaheim in one piece, and for a change so did our luggage. John, Jeff, Dave and I all met at the hotel, located right across the road from Disney, to chat over diner and a few cold ones. Afterwards we collectively headed over to the convention center to pick up our passes and do some exploring.

While there were lineups they didn’t seem all that bad, and most people said they had about an hour wait. Others were all of 2 minutes, as the badges are at desks in alphabetical order, so if you have a common last name, your took much longer, uncommon first letter of a last name and you had no lineup.

Anyway, we got our passes and our gift bags and started digging through them like a kid and Christmas. They included:
- The all important murloc suit, although we were disappointed its an in game item and not a real suit… booo, what are we going to do for the costume contest.
- A starter box of the WoW CCG
- Drink Coasters
- A Character Sheet magnetic picture frame
- A World of Warcraft Shirt
- Hand sanitizer! In case this is the first time out of the basement since last Blizzcon.
- A bunch of random small buttons, magnets, etc

It’s now Friday morning and almost time to gear up and head out to the event. Check back to the site later tonight for updates on events that occurred today.

Well, ok, we are all off in the morning, not right now…

But I feel sorta’ like a kid at christmas, saying “is he here yet?” looking for that shiny new toy under the tree.
Where to? Sunny California where we will all hide inside like the computer geeks that we are to attend BlizzCon!
After all who needs sun when you have Blizzard computer games?

We just got our schedules today and Dave “Xerin” and myself “Messiah” will be covering several choice panels and events at BlizzCon including Class Discussions, Dungeons and Raid, UI and Mods, Professions, Lore, Quests and More!! If that wasn’t enough Jeff “Ethec” and John “Boomjack” are also invading and will be covering the opening, tournaments, pvp, and more!

Besides all the official WoW coverage, we have plans to sneak a peak at Starcraft 2 and anything else we can check out.  Xerin even has his distraction set, “Hey was that a Succubus that just went by?” to ensure he can squeeze in at a trial spot.

So make sure you check back on the site often for all the updates! As well as the wow.tentonhammer.com site, check out tentonhammers main site www.tentonhammer.com for video, audio and more!

Last week I looked at some pet peeves in the World of Warcraft. I focused mainly on my concerns with other players in the game. This week, I’d like to continue to topic but switch it’s focus to my little complaints about the game itself. However, let me start out by saying that the game itself is near perfect (otherwise so many of us would not be playing it still), there are several little things that bug me though.

So, onto the list in no particular order…

1. Not having instances available at all levels as you make your way form 1-70. Instances are my favorite thing in WoW and while 60-70 is awesome for them, there are several spots on the way to 60 where you can go several levels without hitting an instance. I would like to see more.
2. The lack of enforced social play. As I have harped on many times in the past, WoW is essentially a solo game until you hit max level. I would really like to see this change (although I know it won’t).
3. Crafting holds no challenge and very little reward. This has improved a little in the Burning Crusade in that there is slightly more reward, but in general professions are very weak in WoW compared to most MMO’s.
4. Class Balance, while in general classes are fairly well balance, I feel several hybrid classes are over powered in that they can move from one thing to another too easily (IE: without spec changes). I like solid character definitions.
5. The LFG system, while better still doesn’t work. With so many players on a server you should be able to get a group for anything you want within 5-10 minutes. Most days it takes up to an hour to get a group together.
6. The lack of guild banks. This one thankfully will be fixed shortly!
7. Getting around in Azeroth. While travel has been made easier than it initially was upon release, getting from place to place in Azeroth can still be a pain. I’d like a few more flight points and some more mass transit!
8. Class trainers and AH in the Outlands. Yeah, I understand why Blizzard did’t put them there (Azeroth would become a wasteland), but it still annoys me when I have to travel back to check auctions all the time.
9. The lack of any form of guild recognition. There is nothing in the game to recognize any of the leading guilds, first kills on servers, etc. I would love to see a guild reputation system similar to EQ2’s put into place.
10. A flight cancellation method. How often has it happened to you that you just give up looking for a group and start flying somewhere to grind or quest when you get an invite, or you leave a city and realize you forgot something. There should be someway to interrupt multi-flightpoint flights and stop at the next one. Surely I’m not the only one that this annoys.

The Messiah has had his say, now its your turn…

What are your pet peeves in WoW?

This week I decided to follow up on a recent forum topic that asked the question “What are your pet peeves in WoW”. While I answered with a few things in the thread, I really think it needed a bit more of an answer, so wrote this up here. I focused completely on what bugs me about other players in WoW though. So here it goes, in no particular order.

• People that disappear in the middle of groups without letting anyone know, then come back with some lame reason (went to get a drink, food, etc). Some reasons are legitimate and required, but others can wait.
• People that leave groups waiting for things they should have done already or can wait. For example forming a group, then disappearing to do something like make diner, walk the dog, etc. If your going to have to do these things, DON’T JOIN A GROUP!
• People that boss the group around, and think everyone is a moron. Ask if everyone knows a fight, if they do, great. If they don’t, then explain. If tactics differ from one person to the other then decide which is going to be used.
• People that constantly annoy guild mates for run throughs of low level instances, gold for mounts, quest help from players of farm higher levels and more. Basically looking for someone to play the game for them rather than play it themselves like we all did. It’s one thing asking if anyone in the guild wants to go on an instance run that’s there level, it’s something entirely different to look for a level 70 to take them through the deadmines.
• High level players killing low level players repeatedly on PvP servers. What’s the point other than to cause grief?
• Twinks! I hate twinks in battlegrounds. To be successful in the level 19 group, you almost have to spend more on your character than in the level 70 group! That’s just wrong. It give new players no chance to actually enjoin the battlegrounds.
• Players that bug you for water, buffs, ports, summons, etc. Many mages avoid major towns like the plague just because of this. No player should have to avoid aspects of the game just because of other players harassing them.
• Close minded players that don’t accept anything out of the normal. Meaning, that they will not take a pally tank, or a shadow priest, or a shaman healer. All these things are viable, yet many players will never give them a try.
• Players pulling agro from the tank on purpose. If you can’t control your agro, learn to. Get KTM, it helps a ton and lets you maximize damage while never pulling agro.
• Players yelling for you to heal in a battle group when you’re a ret pally or shadow priest. You may as well as the rogue to heal, it’s not what they are there for either.

If your interested you can also find a number of complaints other players had in the forum thread here: WoW pet peeves.

I recently had an idea with one of my alts.  I wondered, how much money could I get from quests if I left as many as I could until I was level 70.  Grinding for the gold for your epic flying mount sucks, we all know that.  It takes time and effort.  But what would happen if we made the most of the experience to gold conversion that happens on quests when you are max level?

I decided to try this with one of my alts that had been sitting at level 60.  I leveled her from 60 all the way to 70 in just the first 4 zones of the Burning Crusade.  I did this by doing every quest available in Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terokkar Forest and Nagrand.  I did several instance runs, as they are my favorite part of the game.  I also did a little grinding, but not that much.  I wasn’t even done in Nagrand and I hit level 70.  That was this Thursday night.

The wife is away this weekend so I got a chance to play quite a bit (probably 12-16 hours) and made the most of it.  This weekend I quested in the Blade’s Edge Mountains and Netherstorm and earned just a hair under 2,000 gold in less than 16 hours played!  I am still only less than 1/2 way done the quests in Netherstorm and have all of Shadowmoon Valley left to go.  By the time my auctions end tomorrow, it will be over 2k gold earned.

Now, I did have some serious luck with drops and earned about 800 gold on the auction house with likely another 400 coming.  But that’s still 1200 base gold from quests and selling drops and useless quest rewards.  That’s nothing to sneeze at.

Once you are at max level, the quests in Blade’s Edge each earn you between 10 and 15 gold a piece, and the starting ones in Netherstorm are earning 12 to 25 gold each.  Also because you are already level 70, they are a breeze to complete!

I won’t have time to complete the quests in the zones until next weekend or maybe the week after, but once I do I will pass on the total result.  My guess between gold rewards, items vendored and auctions is between 4,000 and 5,000 gold.

For those with the patience to do every quest in the early BC zones, this may be the ideal way to get your mount money.  All you need to do is make sure you have rested experience all the time and do all the base quests in the first 4 zones.  What could be easier!

I know I’m doing this on my other alts as I get them to level 70!  The results so far have been better than any other character I have played.

I had a few very interesting groups this past week and it made me once again think of several key grouping ideas and how they are not always correct.

The two main grouping ideas are as follows: Pick Up Groups (PUGs) Suck, and you must have the holy trinity for a good group (Protection Warrior, Mage and Holy Priest).  While many people swear by these two things (myself included at times), they are not the end all – be all of group construction.

This past week for some reason I lucked out and had both of them proven wrong, over and over again.  I ran many instances while leveling two alts this past week and every time I got a group, they turned out amazing, despite early concerns.

Some of the groups were:
-    Paladin (Prot), Paladin (Ret) , Shaman, Hunter, Warrior (Dps)
-    Paladin (Prot), Paladin (Holy), Warlock, Druid (Caster Dps), Shaman
-    Hunter, Hunter, Druid (Feral), Druid (Rest), Rogue
-    Hunter, Paladin (Holy), Druid (Feral), Priest (Shadow), Rogue

Looking at these groups, we never had a Mage, Protection Warrior or Holy Priest at all.  Many of the groups complained right off the bat, but then said, ok, we will try.

Then, somehow, we started rolling, and rolling, and rolling.  Before any of us knew what was happening, the instances were done.  Strangely, we also had no arguments, no people dropping, no normal PUGness.

At the end of the groups we all discussed how things went, and were all very surprised that we made it through as easily as we did.  We had all started chatting in the instances as they were going so well, and many of us are now on each others friends lists.  In fact, I have grouped again with at least 3 of them already.

In most of the groups at least one person stated, “Hey, this whole warrior, mage, priest concept is WAY over rated”.  Clearing stating that the holy trinity is not all its cracked up to be, at least in normal instances.  I have seen some strange groups work in Heroics as well, but it is slightly harder.

Anyway, this whole week proved one of two things to me…

1)    Either players have now really started learning their classes and are capable of dealing with adversity and making it through.

OR

2)    The universe somehow aligned to give me a perfect week of WoW and this coming week will be pure hell to make up for it.