The Top of the World

Things have changed for the better since I wrote the bulk of the articles that started this blog. We now have Wrath of the Lich King, and the continent of Northrend, where everything is dealt with on a massive scale, my armour has been better quality right from the word go (I have mainly blues and an epic tank shield, only a month after release), and every action feels like it will have an impact on events. This last feeling is down to "phasing" where parts of the world change for you after the completion of certain quests. Its truly awesome to be swept along by a story, and quest chains don't feel like such a drag any more.

Being a paladin is still a huge draw for me, and I still haven't managed to spend more than a week with an alt or achieve an alt higher than level 29. I have also taken on the challenges of mass PVP in the battlegrounds, and for such activities I have respecced to healer. I am now regularly changing specs to either be a Tank or a PVP Healer, and I have built a wardrobe which has a full outfit for both occasions.
Northrend has assisted me greatly in this. Not only did I keep everything which might have been of use as I went along, so I could study it in leisure at 80, but the Blacksmith craftable gear is wonderfully diverse compared to how it used to be. you can now make a decent starter Tank set, a plate PVE Healer set and a resillience heavy plate healer set. Hurrah! I can now craft myself 200 resillience? excellent. this means I might survive the first ten seconds of a rogue or warlock encounter and therefore live to bubble, cleanse or otherwise find assistance.

On the PVE front, I have had some success tanking in Northrend, and hope to get stuck into Heroics and Naxx as the time allows. I have the gear, and I think that on a good day, I have the fingers and awareness for it too. This aspect of the game i would most like to enjoy with friends and associates from my guild, and as many are still in the late 70s, and have rep grinds and levelling to preoccupy them, I am happy to go heal strangers and fish up Dragonfin in the mean time. I am less keen to tank pugs, as my gear is going to take more damage, and it is harder to analyse what may be going wrong when you're knee deep in mobs or keeping a boss turning.