Warcraft has one overriding source of stress and annoyance, and it isn’t farmers driving the prices of primals through the roof. It is loot. Right now you get 5, 10, or 25 (or 40 if you’re nasty) people together and you go kill between one and twenty boss monsters (along with an avalanche of trash mobs, but who cares about them) and get something like three pieces of loot per boss. Then you’ve got to split those pieces between the people who may or may not be able to use them, and who may get greedy for off-spec items. Right now there is one big system to clear up a lot of the annoyance and confusion. It goes like this: a token drops and is then used to purchase from a vendor the loot that you like. Basically Archimonde drops a Helm of the Forgotten Conqueror, and all the priests, warlocks and paladins roll on it. They then take it to Tydormu who lets them pick between any of the three Lightbringer Helms (if they are paladins). With this, Blizzard has made a single drop work for nine specs of players, cutting down on loot drama. They are pretty certain they’ve created a decent system to make look work.

I’d agree with that. But, an even more comprehensive token system would certainly cut down further on the “Dang, no BP of Many Graces” problems I ran through with my Holy Pally’s many SLabs runs. The only problem is that the token system delays gratification: you don’t get any loot, you get currency that helps you buy things. I’d like to see a system where you’d get “Blue Boots of Tanking” that could be worn (and would actually be decent on their own) but could be “transformed” into more usable items by non-tanks, to continue the example above.

I’d see several ways of transforming loot. First, you could turn them into faction NPCs along with some other resource (IE Sunmotes) and just get the boots you want. This is pretty good, but still somewhat un-interactive. Otherwise you can use them as crafting mats, sort of like the Broken Blade of Heroes from Old World Azeroth. This is pretty cool, and it gets crafters in on it. The only problem is you’d have to have the specialized crafting skill, though there is a way around that. I’ll get to that later. Finally there is an idea I’m borrowing from D&D. Back in the Book of Exalted Deeds there was a system where you’d take the Big Bad Evil Guy’s suit of Demon Armor and perform rites of purification on them and transform them into Hound Archon Armor. Sort of a “This Item Begins a Quest” system where you can wear the boots however long you want them, then do the quest for the off-spec you want to transform them too.

The way I came up with around having specific crafting requirements would involve a third party environmental object. Say you could “Use” an anvil at the same time as your crafter friend, allowing them to craft using soulbound equipment that isn’t bound to the crafter. Sort of a giant “Will not be traded” area that counts as part of both player’s inventories for the purposes of crafting. Hopefully there wouldn’t be a way to dupe items, or we’d all be up to our baldrics in Obsidian Rings of the Zodiac three weeks after introducing the new loot system.

I can think of one problem with the questing idea. First, that the quests would all devolve into “Bring the boots + these three rare drops to the head of the Mithril Order in STV” over and over again. This basically accomplishes what the crafting system does, it just does it solo. I’m pretty sure that we wouldn’t want that, but if the quests could be used sparingly and more interestingly than “Dip this staff in the Moonwell, just like your did with your last seven Evil Staves” then it could be a cool addition.

Finally, I’d imagine that people would resent turning their tanking boots into DPS boots eventually when they wanted to PVP or respec or whatever. This brings the token vendor guy back, I suppose. Personally if I could be assured of having one set of “Tier 9″ gear that I could swap from Ret to Prot to Holy at will providing I have enough Sunmotes (or whatever) would make my bags quite a bit slimmer.

The fact that he thought to video this, or the fake gangsta nicks for his friends.

If you have any hope of reading Walking Dead unspoiled, please skip this post.

*SPOILER*

When I said I wanted Kirkman to kill off a major character or I wouldn’t take him seriously, I didn’t think he’d actually DO it. Jeezus. And Tyreese. I mean he could have killed a more annoying character, like Patricia or something. He still had a lot of story to tell with Tyreese. OK, so it wasn’t a member of the Grimes family, or Andrea. But still, I don’t think I’ll be able to look at the group the same way again. Killing Andrea would break my heart though, that girl is a badass.

That is all. I’m going to go drink to the memory of one bad mother.

*/SPOILER*

Y’all remember the old Molten Bore. I know Tim and Sandy were there. I wish I knew what I was doing back then, but the Paladin class was such a mess that I don’t think that I could have done anything worthwhile without going full on clothadin. Anyhow. Blizzard’s April Fools rules all.

And I have stuff for March, just give me a minute.

And now we are sixty. Sullivan has hit the once-epic milestone and is now technically ready for Outland. However, I’ve still got some Jame circuits to complete in Azeroth, and I’d be insane not to jump on it. The way I see it, the more quests I complete in the Old World the more quests I’ll have left in Outlands and the more gold I’ll get from completing them at 70. Also, padding of a few levels has never hurt quest difficulty, right? I’m of two minds with this character. Do I go for the Epic Flyer for speed and clout, or do I save my cash for more important things. I won’t be able to use the Flyer in Wrath anyway, so why not just hold off until 77 and have cash for leet BoEs?

I think I’ll just see where it ends up. I mean if I end up with enough for an epic flying mount after accomplishing most of my monetary goals, then I think I’ll splurge. If not, who cares? I’ll have seven levels without the use of it anyway. I’ll be back on my Orc War Dog (which I haven’t purchased yet anyway) so it isn’t like I’ll be without 100% land transport.

I’m sorely tempted to jump into Outland though for a little while and do some quests for the insane Oudland gear. That stuff is crazy awesome and would really make running around in Azeroth easier. I just don’t trust myself to go back to the Old World after I knocked out some of the well-designed Outland quests.

I’m enjoying running around in the Plaguelands though. I mean I’m a Paladin, right? Aside from that, I enjoy the epic feel of WPL and EPL. Less so Silithus. I’m really not sure what they were thinking when that came up. I enjoy Winterspring though. I just find the snow covered forest to be very relaxing. I’m looking forward to Wrath of the Lich King as it will probably feature lots of snowy forest land. But yeah, the Plaguelands are probably my favorite zones of old Azeroth. It just feels like I’m working for a big goal and helping to safeguard the peace of the world (for a while, anyway). I’m going to have to switch my original thought of “Leave Azeroth as quickly as possible” to “Complete as much as you can. The money is good, though the quest rewards are somewhat garbage.”

I’m also saving up cash for future Death Knight stuff. I figure I stock up on stuff on Horde an Alliance side so I can have a good head start when I make the guy. Of course, knowing Blizz they’ll have incredible starting questline stuff that will make almost anything obsolete. I should probably just save money.

Wow. That’s just really wooden. I mean I’ve heard of phoning this shit in, but that is ridiculous.

I’m at my wit’s end. I loved my Media Center Extender, but I was sadly running on a less-than-legal evaluation copy of Windows Media Center. So eventually the lack of security patches caught up to me and I had to stop using the thing. Now I’m stuck using Windows Vista DVD Maker to get my Bleach and Top Gear on the TV where they belong. This is a sad state of affairs. I need to come up with a plan to make DIVX watching on the TV less of a PITA.

There are a few options, as far as I see it. I can put XPMC on the Redserver, get an XBOX/XBOX360, or build a HTPC. All three of these options have their ups and downs.

Buying an XBOX is a bit of a poser. Firstly, if I was to pick up a first gen XBOX for media center purposes, I’d be wasting my money. Without a decent library of games, I’d just feel like a fool every time I started it up. Now a 360 is a bit of a more tenable idea. It has almost all of the games I want with the exception of Valkyrie of the Battlefield, Final Fantasy, and Disgaea. It does have Fallout 3 though and that is one of the big ones I want to get to playing. The Elite is pretty expensive though, but it isn’t the most expensive plan.

That honor goes to the HTPC plan. I’d have to build a new PC (fanless, natch) from scratch and get a legit copy of Vista/XPMC to get the thing working properly. I don’t know about you, but HDMI video cards are pretty expensive where I come from. And no, I’m not using Composite. The whole point of this thing is to do it right. It looks like a good Mini-ITX board is nearly $200, with a case and ram equaling that. We’re in the Elite price range without even looking at the video card, or the storage solution we’d need. Of course, We could always go with a NAS, which would confuse the issue even further. But it might look cool in my entertainment center so there is always that.

Then finally there is the upgrade-in-place plan. Where I swap XP for XPMC on the redserver and use the existing extender. That is what looks like the cheapest plan, and it appears that I have almost everything I’d need for the dang thing. The only real problem is that the Redserver is so dang loud that I’d love an excuse to turn the thing off. Also, it is far away from my TV. I’d have to run Ethernet all the way from upstairs where the server is to downstairs where the TV is. I wonder if powerline networking is really good enough for a consistant 10/100 connection.

I think that the clear “winner” is the HTPC plan, it is a dang shame that it is the most expensive of all the plans. Once lack of resources is factored in, then the big winner is XPMC on the redserver. Bah. So many choices.

Here are a few Ret Paladin Links I’ve been using. I need to fill some space here:

• Jame’s Leveling Guide -> Don’t bother going anywhere else. This is the one, the only 1-70 guide you’ll ever need.
• The Retributor’s Path -> Here’s one of the finest set of ret guides on the official WoW forums. This one covers gear, and the other two tactics for specific encounters. Learn it live it love it.
• RETLOL -> Here’s your guide clearinghouse. This place has everything you’ll need to get to the bottom of this Retribution Paladin thing.
• RetPaladin.com -> Kind of our Maintankadin. Has some more esoteric tips (like Seal Twisting) that can raise your Ret play to the next level.

Anyway, have fun playing the redheaded stepchild of WoW. I know I am.

I’ve always had a problem with Holy Paladin equipment. The Sword-and-Board template never really worked for me. I’ve always seen Paladins as wielders of big two handed maces. So I’d enjoy equipping my Shockadin Calicity with a Holy Spec appropriate two hander. The only way I can see it working though, is if we make “Holy Spelldamage” the new Feral Attack Power. We can make it cheaper than Spelldamage as FAP is to regular attack power. Put it on Two Handed Hammers/Swords/Polearms and we won’t have to fight priests (the rare Holy Damage Priest) for them. If the ilevel was cheap enough then enough spelldamage would fit on one item to counterbalance the 1hander + Shield loadout that makes up 99% of Holy Paladins and preserve the image of the paladin with the huge hammer.

The only problem would be making up for the loss of durability that follows from losing the shield. It would have to boost damage a lot to make up for it is all I’m saying. Ah well, it is a beautiful dream.

I’m honestly a bit on the fence about FAP in the first place, as it is a big giant “This is only for Feral Druids” stamp. I’d still love to see Holy paladins swinging a 2-hander, and have no real idea how to do that. I mean you can get almost +45 int from enchants on a 1-hander and shield, you’d have to beat the stats on a 1 handed weapon by a big margin.

For the ret mana issues, I’d have to agree. My Belf Ret paladin has one heck of a drinking problem. Some kind of reverse spiritual attunement wouldn’t be too crazy, though it would kinda turn paladin tanking into Crazy Town if you got mana for all your conc ticks and for being healed. Demon Hunter supplicants would become an endangered species with all the prot paladins hanging out on the BT steps.