Well it has been a while since I posted anything about my toons and/or WoW. It’s impossible to blog from work without using the Wordpress iPhone app. I am creating all of my posts, emailing them to myself, then a copy+paste into the Wordpress app and voila.

So besides having extra steps in my blogging, I am still working the overnight shift. At least until December when I have a chance to get off of this shift. So most of my WoW time is in the morning before bed (Alterac Valley BGs with Kami) and working on my alts in the evening if nothing else is going on.

I don’t raid anymore so I guess my gear doesn’t matter. More to the point I am honing my skills in the BGs. Honestly, I could care less about raiding right now. I know from TBC how much time a week is spent raiding and what it can do to a relationship. But I do have something to say about gear.

I know I am not the best geared for the BGs or even the best PvPer. I am saddened by the complete lack of people trying in the Vengeance Battlegroup. I am wearing a few Epic pieces from TBC that are still high on the MaxDPS gear list. Except for my Insignia of the Horde, nothing else is PvP oriented.

Every BG, I really mean every BG. I am in the top 50% for damage done. This is a sad fact, I do less then 200k damage normally with spike about 250k depending on how aggressive I want to be. I have only had one other Paladin do more damage than me, Saijin from Jubei’Thos. Saijiin was doing on average over 700k in every BG we were in together.

Was the difference in damage because of skill? You can’t measure that. Skill is an unknown variable in the equation. When it came down to the gear, there was a major difference. Saijiin is wearing Season 5 and Season 6 gear; gemmed, enchanted and threaded. Saijin’s gear is a big improvement over mine. Does that mean I am any less capable of contributing to an AV win? No, it means I now have a set of gear to strive for, aka a goal.

I hate when people say they don’t play the game to get gear. That is total BS. If you don’t play for gear then at level cap you should have the same stuff equipped that you had at level 1. Maybe you aren’t playing for gear, maybe you are playing to better your character. Well learning a good spell rotation can only take you so far. You have to upgrade your gear to reach your full potential.

For example, with the exception of the gear mentioned earlier I am wearing all quest reward pieces. My DPS is now about 500 according to Recount. I know I can get that higher, it takes practice to raise it up even 10 points. So some of my DPS increase will come from upgrading my gear.

So what is the moral of the story: Gear isn’t the cure to make you the best player on your realm, it’s an avenue to take to there. Only if you learn from your mistakes and continue striving for perfection will you achieve greatness.

So the facts are this: I love playing Horde characters, I have tinkered with playing Alliance characters and a very good friend of mine loves to play Alliance characters.

I want to play with my friend but I don’t want to start all over. I was thinking of making a DK on the Ally side and moving a bunch of my money over to the DK. I will lose very few friends that still talk to me since I don’t raid anymore. I can always retrain my professions it will just take time and that isn’t an issue.

I was just thinking that I have some goals for my Paladin and since I don’t really enjoy playing my Mage then why bother playing him. I am going to work on my Paladin during my weekend and retire the Mage. I will just remember all the fun times I had being a raiding Frosty.

So here is the deal. When I get home from work I am going to make a DK on Rexxar (US), the name is secret so no one takes it. He will be Herbalism and Inscription. His spec is yet to be determined, but I will probably do 0/0/51 as a start. I am going to spend tonight reading the talents and trying to maximize where I can.

Even during my break away from WoW while we moved and I started my crazy work schedule I have still been reading some WoW blogs. One of my favorites is the Greedy Goblin. I have to admit that it’s a sad day when Gevlon doesn’t post something to make me smile.

So, I have been some thinking about how I would classify in his eyes. I don’t raid, do 5-mans or farm for countless hours. I am still leveling my primary toon to 80. I am taking my time and enjoying the story line on my way up. Besides that I am only playing on the nights when I am not at work to maintain my sleep cycles during a short weekend.

I figured out of the course of 1 week (168 hours) I only get to spend time with the love of my life for about 54 hours. That equates to roughly 5 hours a day with having one full day off together. So less than one third of my week is all about quality time. Watching TV, cooking dinner and just relaxing on the couch.

Does that make me a M&S? I have no idea, but when I do get to log into WoW I do my quests and collect herbs/ore I find along the way. I don’t sell the gear, I look it up on MaxDPS to see if the new items are better then what I am currently wearing. Why would I do that if I’m not raiding? Well it comes down to effeciency, the more DPS I do the faster I can kill a quantity of mobs to complete the quest. Therefore, I can complete more quests this week in the same play time then I could last week.

I maxed my Herbalism and I am working on my Mining now. I toggle between the two as I fly around on my 60% mount. I don’t have enough to pay for the Artisan Riding skill yet so I am working within my means. I did pay for Dual Specs, this was a no brainer.. If I need to kill an elite for a quest I put on my old T4-T5 tanking gear and solo tank it. My DPS is much lower but my HP can’t be beat.

I do vendor trash all of my grey, most of my white items and unusable greens and blues.

So what are my goals? Well let us review them..

Save enough money for 300 riding.
Save 200gp for Armored Red Wind Rider
Max Mining
Max Herbalism
Reach level 80 100% solo.

These are all realistic, attainable and measureable. I currently have 2.9kgp in my bank. As stated before my Herbalism is maxed and I am under 25 points from maxing my mining.

I am selling my ore from my bank toon and saving up all of my herbs. I have a level 70 mage that is doing Inscription and Tailoring. So all of the things he can use are being sent to him. So when my current list is done he can be ready to complete his goals.