Not your typical Ulduar Raid

So last night we went back into Ulduar 10.

It is always a tough time for me because I have to pick and choose who comes along on the raid based on who signed up, gear, etc and many times I disappoint people because I did not pick them.

So last night from my core, I was going to be missing my boomkin and co-tank. So we were down the druid buff and a second tank, which limited our options come whatever bosses we decided to tackle.

Then at the last minute, the holy priest had to drop.

Fortunately, I had many other guild members to choose from. I brought in another Arms Warrior instead of my cotank, a Warlock instead of my boomkin, and a shadow/holy priest for our priest.

We were down the druid buff, but besides that it looked to be a good solid group with 1 tank. I was hoping I could tank it all.

We did pretty good with the trash leading up to Leviathan, only loosing two vehicles. We wiped on our fisrt attempt as people were learning the fight. The second time we got him down.

He dropped Flamewatch Armguards which I ended up snagging up.
He also dropped Energy Siphon which we passed on to one of our paladin healers still sporting a i200 trinket.

So on to our next boss. We decided to do XT-002 Deconstructor. We decided on the heartburn strategy with me tanking all the big robots, our priest in his secondary speck, etc. We wiped a few times and finally got a strategy figured out. We finally decided that the warlock would Sead of Corruption the Pummler adds while I tanked them and the boss.

Our final attempt we kept everyone alive through all three heartburn phases. Then the pummlers came and I could not target them quick enough to taunt them on to me. Bam, our melee dps went down with 2% on the boss to go and like 30 seconds on the enrage. We kept at it, I hit my bubble wall to take a strain off the healers and at 1 second left to enrage, Eternity Matters had its first XT-002 Deconstructor kill.


For our efforts, our paladin healers each got an item.
Armbands of the Construct and Helm of Veiled Energies

Overall a good run for us. It helped that the boss had been slightly nerfed, doing less damage and a longer enrage timer. Makes me hopeful we can eventually start doing this on 25 with our pugs that are friends.

All that is Therigwin.... Updates

So what has been happening to this pally?

Well in real life, I am battling a stomach bug. We are now on day 2 of missing work. So those praying friends out their, say a prayer for me so I can get back into the swing of things without loosing my lunch.

As far as in game, this is what Therigwin has been up too....

His secondary speck is Retribution. I can say that I am loving the speck I came up with, it is working great in 5 mans and soloing. I still need some better gear for this speck, but it will come in due time.

I have been having a blast with the Argent Tournament quests. I am one day behind everyone else, so in 2 days I will have Champion, so tomorrow! I can't wait, because that two hander sword, Claymore of the Prophet is awesome!!! (Though I have a good weapon in Demise)

Speaking of weapons, I finally got a better tanking sword, Broken Promise, off the four horseman. This is the first time we have seen it drop. I am very thankful to my cotank Enok for outright just passing to me even though we have the same weapon.

Now for the fun. Ulduar. Everyone is doing it.... Including Eternity Matters. What a very nicely done instance. We downed the first boss, which is a nice vehicle fight. It took some bit getting used to. I started with a battering ram type vechicle and ended up using the motorcycle. I love the motorcycle.... I must get one for a normal mount.... ;-)

Anyway, here is the pic of our kill.


Ok, what else have I been doing? MODS!!!!

That is right, getting my mods to work.

So a quick run down of mods I have replaced -
Itemrack is GONE!!!! I replaced it with Outfitter. Outfitter supports dual speck switching and is a very nice mod. Originally the author had pulled it in protest, but realized he was just hurting the players. I found Outfitter did everything I had Itemrack doing.

Pallypower is GONE!!!!! What? That is the paladin buffing mod of awesomeness.... Well, I discovered ZOMGBuffs. This mod supports paladin buffs, druid buffs, etc... It is incredible. A couple of bugs here and there that require reloading the UI, but for the most part it rocks!

CowTip is GONE!!!!! Yup, this awesome mod I replaced. Even though I had updated it a couple of times, it would still give an error on some things. So I replaced it with TipTop, which is similiar, has less features, but does not error out on me.

Last, I picked up a new mod. DualSpeccer. It is a broker plugin that allows you to click it to switch specks without going into the talent screen.

All other mods are working fine in my UI, so this is one happy paladin.

Tonight - Eye of Eternity 10 Man... I pray we finally get this dragon down.

Who is Therigwin?

Who is the character Therigwin?

Therigwin has an interesting past. Lets start outside of the World of Warcraft and journey back to my childhood days.
I was in Jr High and this game from Sierra Online came out. I had been a big player of their Kings Quests and Space Quest series. So then they released Heroes Quest (later renamed to Quest for Glory do to someone else owning the rights to "Heroes Quest"). That is when the name Therigwin was born. It was a time that I had a big infatuation with King Arthur stories. I admired how Guinevere was such a strong character, putting up with Arthur and the tragedy of the Love Triangle. So I wanted to make a masculine version of the name. I also wanted something similar to my real name as well, Thomas. So I wanted to have it start with a Th and I wanted the gwin sound in it. Thgwin didn't look good, so I added eri in it and bam, Therigwin the name was formed.

This name is unique just to me, you do a google search on the name, and all you will find is info on me. No one else has this name in the entire world. Something I am proud about.

From Quest to Glory, Therigwin moved into Dungeons and Dragons. He was my Cleric/Fighter mix character. Then he moved into a game that I made myself for roleplaying and eventually graduated to every single rpg game I ever played to finally to World of Warcraft.

The name has taken many a character, but always has had one purpose. Protect the weak, spread the light and love of the creator.

Therigwin's World of Warcraft backstory was slightly flushed about by my wife's character Daraia and her writings. Check them out -
The Pally and the Rogue
The Company

As to who is the man behind Therigwin, let me tell you.

I am in my 30s, married to a wonderful wife. We have 4 special needs boys. Ages 4, 6, 8, 10. They all have one form of Autism or Asbergers. While challenging to raise these four boys, they truly are God's Blessing to us.

I work for a Finicial Company that sells Annunities, Life Insurance, etc in their IT department supporting 4000+ employees computer needs.

I have a degree in Youth Pscyolgy and Bible and was originally going to be a Youth Minster. God called me to other things.

I love Paladins (if you read my blog you can see that). I love what they stand for. I try to be one in real life. Protecting the weak. Preaching against wrongs.

Finally and most important, I am a Child of God, Born Again, Believer in Jesus. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. It is through Jesus that I have true life and can carry on in this life. It is because of Him, that I have a drive to serve, protect, and love everyone.

God Bless

Therigwin

Patch 3.1 Paladin Specks - Ret and MODS!!!

Ok, now for my Ret Speck I figured out....

Therigwin's Smash Ur Face Speck

On another note, Wow Interface has done it again with their mod survival page.

Check it out!

Patch 3.1 Paladin Specks

Ok here is the promised post from yesterday, just in time for our patch today.

This first one is what I am recommending to our well geared paladins healers in my guild.
This includes Glyphes.

So Paladins in my guild that are at 213 gear level, please read and let me know.
I call it the Holy Crit Master it also provides more mana regen through lay on hands.

This next speck is for those Paladin healers that are just hitting 80.
This is our Handy Healadin Speck. This does not get the Ret Crit but insteads focusing on using Hands and healing better. Good for 5 Mans and again, starting 80 gear.

Ok, now to my new tanking speck and Glyphs. I am going with a modified Crusader Build. This focuses on Threat and Dps. Honorshammer is going with a Survival Tank Speck that dips into Holy. Read about his here.
So here is my tanking Build - Therigwin's Crusader

Ok, for Ret, my second speck, I am not sure what I am going to be doing. I need to still figure that out. Once I do, I will post it up.

Crazy Blogging Update Day

So in my quest to better myself, I asked for feed back on MainTankadin Forums and ended up redesigning the tables charts to be easier read.

So please enjoy the updated version.

Tomorrow, I will be covering the specks that I will be using for MT Prot, PVE DPS, and the healing speck I am recommending to my Paladin healers in my guild.

Patch 3.1 Complete Paladin Talents Review Part 5

Woot Part 5. Not sure how much I will get done here, but lets dig into the Ret Tree.

Here are links to the previous parts -
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Tier 1 Ret Talents

Deflection Ranks 1 to 5
Increases your Parry chance by 1% (2%, 3%, 4%, 5%)
Comments - Ahh, a tanking talent in Ret. This is so that all tanks take points in Ret. This is CORE for Tanking. Could help with some survival in pvp, but beyond that, nope.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Benediction
Ranks 1 to 5
Reduces the mana cost of all instant cast spells by 2% (4%, 6%, 8%, 10%).
Comments - Since all damaging spells are instant cast, this is a must have for DPS, since they have very little way to get mana back. Used to be good for tanks and still can be if you don't take the other mana returning abilities. Good for soloing healers as well and holy shockers!

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 2 Ret Talents

Improved Judgements
Ranks 1 to 2
Decreases the cooldown of your Judgement spells by 1 (2) sec.
Comments - 1 Point is CORE for tanks. This allows the 9 6 9 rotation. 2 points for DPS since it is good to have it available whenever you can get it, since they cannot keep up a 969. For Healers, can be handy for soloing, but beyond that nope.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Heart of the Crusader Ranks 1 to 3
In addition to the normal effect, your Judgement spells will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against that target by an additional 1% (2%, 3%).
Comments - This is a nice talent for tanks, but not core. Doesn't help healing, but it is core for DPS. Giving a group wide benefit of a 3% crit to the target is very nice.

PVE Healing

PVP Healing

PVE Main Tanking

PVE Off Tanking

PVE DPS

PVP DPS

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Improved Blessing of Might
Ranks 1 to 2
Increases the attack power bonus of your Blessing of Might by 12% (25%).
Comments - Now that all the paladins have kings, the debate is who brings improved BoM? The answer is whoever has spare points. So this is a rank of 1 for everyone but DPS, 2 ranks for them, since, this is their tree.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 3 Ret Talents

Vindication Ranks 1 to 2
Gives the Paladin's damaging attacks a chance to reduce the target's attributes by 10% (20%) for 15 sec.
Comments - Healers, nope, they don't want this. Tanks on the other hand, this can be useful along with DPS. But it is not core by any means.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Conviction Ranks 1 to 5
Increases your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks by 1%.
Comments - This is CORE for DPS. This could also be considered CORE for healing, cause remember, Crit gives back mana and gives bigger heals. For tanks, it will help with threat. Rank it!

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Seal of Command Rank 1
Gives the Paladin a chance to deal 0.5535 to 0.5535 additional Holy damage. Only one Seal can be active on the Paladin at any one time. Lasts 30 min.

Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy, instantly causing 0.65 to 0.65 Holy damage. This attack will always be a critical strike if the target is stunned or incapacitated.
Comments - A new Seal that only can be gotten by Ret. Is it handy? Could be, but Seal of Blood/Matyr is the preferred dps seal. The nice thing is this is good in pvp for unloading dps when their target is stunned. So not sure really how to rank this one....

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Pursuit of Justice Ranks 1 to 2
Reduces the duration of all Disarm effects by 25% (50%) and increases movement and mounted movement speed by 8% (16%). This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
Comments - This can be handy for any paladin that is finding they need to run faster, from dps to tanks, I see some healers take it as well. It is also nice for tanks not to be disarmed as well. So lets rank it.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 4 Ret Talents

Eye for an Eye Ranks 1 to 2
All criticals against you cause 10% (20%) of the damage taken to the attacker as well. The damage caused by Eye for an Eye will not exceed 50% of the Paladin's total health.
Comments - This is a pvp talent. Here is why. Bosses should not crit a tank if they are properly defensed. DPS and healers should not be getting hit in pve. That leaves PVP. CORE for DPS PVP and good for Healer PVP if they have some points to spend.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Sanctity of Battle Ranks 1 to 3
Increases your chance to critically hit with all spells and attacks by 1% (2%, 3%) and increases the damage caused by Exorcism and Crusader Strike by 5% (10%, 15%).
Comments - This is where some healing experts need to help me out. Does it increase the crit of heals? Do heals hit? If so, healers want this one. I think it does, so I will put this as a good one for all classes. Ranking it.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Crusade Ranks 1 to 3
Increases all damage caused by 1% (2%, 3%) and all damage caused against Humanoids, Demons, Undead and Elementals by an additional 1% (2%, 3%).
Comments - No healing, CORE for DPS, good for the Crusader Tank speck that gets it name from it.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 5 Ret Talents

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization Ranks 1 to 3
Increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 2% (4%, 6%).
Comments - Since only DPS paladins use two handers and this ups their dps, it is core for them. All others, move along....

PVE Healing

PVP Healing

PVE Main Tanking

PVE Off Tanking

PVE DPS

PVP DPS

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Sanctified Retribution Ranks 1
Increases the damage caused by Retribution Aura by 50% and all damage caused by friendly targets affected by any of your Auras is increased by 3%.
Comments - CORE for DPS. If you are a tank or healer that made it down this far and have a spare point, pick it up as well.

PVE Healing	PVP Healing	PVE Main Tanking	PVE Off Tanking	PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 6 Ret Talents
Ok, at this point, you are a dps paladin if you are this far down the tree. So lets up our damage!!!

Vengence Ranks 1 to 3
Gives you a 1% (2%, 3%) bonus to Physical and Holy damage you deal for 30 sec after dealing a critical strike from a weapon swing, spell, or ability. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
Comments - Does it up DPS for both PVP and PVE? Yes, Yes it does. But more for PVE. PVP, the fights should be long over by the time this procs. Rank it!

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Divine Purpose Ranks 1 to 2
Reduces your chance to be hit by spells and ranged attacks by 2% (4%) and gives your Hand of Freedom spell a 50% (100%) chance to remove any Stun effects on the target.
Comments - This is a pvp talent. Remember in pve, you should not be getting hit and getting stunned for that matter.

PVE DPS

PVP DPS

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 7 Ret Talents

The Art of War Ranks 1 to 2
Increases the damage of your Judgement, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm abilities by 5% (10%) and when these abilities critically hit the cast time of your next Flash of Light is reduced by 0.75 sec (is an instant cast).
Comments - Ok, it increases damage, so that is good and has a weird goofy bit for Flash of Light... Like any Ret Paladins use Flash of Light in combat LOL..... Still because of the increase damage, it is a good one to pick up.

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Repentance Rank 1
Puts the enemy target in a state of meditation, incapacitating them for up to 1 min. Any damage caused will awaken the target. Usable against Demons, Dragonkin, Giants, Humanoids and Undead.
Comments - A Form of Crowd Control, can be useful in low level PVE, good for PVP. Also combined with Seal of Command for some crit damage. This is still core for both since it is a pre req.

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Jusgements of the Wise Ranks 1 to 3
Your Judgement spells have a 33% (66%, 100%) chance to grant the Replenishment effect to up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 0.25% of their maximum mana per second for 15 sec, and to immediately grant you 25% of your base mana.
Comments - This is Core. This is how Ret paladins can have such small mana pools.

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 8 Ret Talents

FanaticsmRanks 1 to 3
Increases the critical strike chance of all Judgements capable of a critical hit by 6% (12%, 18%) and reduces threat caused by all actions by 10% (20%, 30%) except when under the effects of Righteous Fury.
Comments - This is core. It increases damage!

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Sanctified Wrath Ranks 1 to 2
Increases the critical strike chance of Hammer of Wrath by 25% (50%), reduces the cooldown of Avenging Wrath by 30 (60) secs and while affected by Avenging Wrath 25% (50%) of all damage caused bypasses damage reduction effects.
Comments - CORE. It makes the finisher, finish harder, give you wings more frequently. Kill Angel, Kill...

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 9 Ret Talents

Swift Retribution Ranks 1 to 3
Your auras also increase casting, ranged and melee attack speeds by 1% (2%, 3%).
Comments - This is a definite boost for Raiding. Can also help with pvp.

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Crusader Strike Rank 1
An instant strike that causes 110% weapon damage. 6 sec cooldown.
Comments - Another button to hit to cause more damage every six seconds. Ya, this is a CORE talent for Ret.

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Sheath of Light
Ranks 1 to 3
Increases your spell power by an amount equal to 10% (20% , 30%) of your attack power and your critical healing spells heal the target for 20% (40%, 60%) of the healed amount over 12 seconds.
Comments - Again a strange talent, ups dps and gives healing. The way it ups dps is each paladin spell does holy spell damage, based on spell power and attack power. This also makes Judging Light really good for Ret paladins, allowing them to help keep the raid healed while dpsing.

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 10 Ret Talents

Righteous Vengeance Ranks 1 to 3
When your Judgement, Crusader Strike and Divine Storm spells deal a critical strike, your target will take 10% (20%, 30%) additional damage over 8 sec.
Comments - Adds a DOT to the target. More PVE, but still handy for PVP.

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

Tier 11 Ret Talents

Divine Storm Rank 1
An instant weapon attack that causes 110% of weapon damage to up to 4 enemies within 0 yards. The Divine Storm heals up to 3 party or raid members totaling 25% of the damage caused.
Comments - Top Ret Talent. Another button to push that does damage to multiple targets and heals your party too! Must for PVE, ok for PVP to help unload damage.

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

PVE DPS	PVP DPS

So there you have it all three trees reviewed. Now how do the core builds look for each?

Healing PVE - With some optional picks to get to the bottom of the tree.
Healing PVP
Main Tank PVE - With Divine Gaurdian
Main Tank PVE - With Divinity
Off Tank PVE - This has most of the optional talents removed, but can still have things switched around.
DPS PVE - Again, with some recommended ones in that are not CORE, cause the only way to get to the bottom of the tree.
DPS PVP - Again with some recommened and not CORE to get to the lower part of the tree. Just swap them out for what you want.

So there is my review.

Again, let me know what you think and if I agree I will update it!

Thanks and GO PALADINS!!!!