Patch 3.08 and other shenanigans

Paladins now have a single target taunt. Woohoo! It does one point of damage, and you can use it every eight seconds. I never used our original taunt spell, because I have real trouble switching targets, and "righteous defence" required you to target the friendly player you wanted to taunt off. Hell, I keep targeting the hunter pet enough as it is. Fortunately, my AOE covers a lot of this problem, and makes up for a lot of missing hit rating on most fights.

The main order of the day is Hybrid specs. I have been trying out a few ideas in pvp lately, In an attempt to improve my heal game, and I am currently running with a Holy defence spec (something like 41/30/0) I have holy shock for spam and good mana for holy light. My healer gear set is almost as useful as my tank set now, but I definitely need to practise in pve scenarios… Paladins are still only single target healers with a few group gimmicks, but I’m definitely up for some healing. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to stare at boss crotch any more. It also looks like February will include a few guild 10mans, and Healers are traditionally in short supply. It has also taken me a few weeks to tune my raid addon panels to show me everything I need, and I am fairly confident with it now.

Wintergrasp has also been on the agenda, partly out of fascination for a BG that is recruiting only from our server. There’s no Magtheridon premade here, and that is a balance bonus already. You see a lot of the same faces again and again, and different flavours of the same whining and complaining every time. I am desperate to work out a useful defensive strategy, as defence is where the alliance really falls down. You can’t defend something by letting everybody do their own thing - that is for certain. I think the answer lies in mass AOE, a team of mages by the central doors would take out the rush team and vehicles that horde always manage to convene. They win by moving in one big pack, and I think AOE on their unit would solve it.
The average player is always looking to reduce any fight in a battleground to single combat, as that is what the game is set up for, and focus fire does get most things killed faster, however, I think that more indiscriminate fallout damage is how Wintergrasp can be won. The vehicles do still die quickly, even after their recent patch buff, and if some one is huddled against a door, they might take at least two ticks of a consecrate or similar before they skip out of it. The other key thing is getting to the south towers. It’s very unpopular, but they do have a significant effect on the game, and should be taken out or defended as a matter of urgency. At the minute, I am getting stomped on in these territorities, but hey, a few minutes distraction for an Orc DK is one less of them in the fortress. I found two titanium veins whilst away from the fort this week, so I consider it profitable in one sense at least.

In Achievementsville, I am now only 5 elders off the title of Elder. These last few venerable holy men (and cows) are in five Northrend dungeons, having ridden my way to all the others (and soloed UK and The Nexus as far as necessary). I was also only 2k off the 300k healing in any BG achievement “damage control” in a WSG today, and I am gutted to have not got it. Bites at that particular cherry are few and far between in today’s very black and white affairs, you’re typically either in a Zerg team, or you’re waiting for resurrection it seems. Oh well. I have another 2 weeks to get the elders, so here’s to a new title for the spring.