Anyway, to celebrate, Direct2Drive has several games for a cool 5 bucks.  Several of the games being offered are VERY good games.  Check out the list and see if there is something you have not had the chance to pick up.  I purchased Bioshock (I know shameful I am just now getting to this game…) and Chronicles of Riddick.  Click the link in the left column of this site to head over to Direct2Drive and check it out.  On the right side of Direct2Drive’s site is a link to their 5 dollar games.  Enjoy!

There has been some buzz and many already knew the name of Everquest 1′s next expansion but some of the details were announced at FanFaire 2009 last night.  SOE released the following deatails about Everquest: Underfoot:

1. 12-15 new zones with bonus zones and content released through April 2010
2. Achievement tracking – “You wont go lookin’ on-line to see what you need…it will be in game
3. Twice the weapons than any other expansion
4. New customizable targeting

I always love hearing about new expansion of the games I play.  Usually I like the new progression paths and new zones but the new achievement tracking sounds like a great new feature for EQ1.  I hope they just don’t utilize it for Underfoot and work some older content into it as well.

One of the big answers given (by lack of mentioning it) is that the level cap will NOT be increased.  There is a lot of debate over this – but personally I am happy for it since I am still trying to catch up as it is!

Atlantica Online: Fighting a group of archers

The Story

The story of the game surrounds some adapted Atlantian lore.  Atlantians had control of a powerful substance called Oriharukon.  Their greed from hording this substance ultimately leads to their demise but in a path the covers a world similar to Earth as we know it.  You are a descendant of Atlantis and destined to save humankind from falling to the same fate as ancient Atlantis.

The story is fed to you slowly through pretty linear quests.  The game overall feels pretty linear at lower levels which works well for telling a decent story.

The Quests

The quests in Atlantica Online have been all standard fair.  One nice touch is how well the tutorial type quests are woven into the game.  You get introduced to a piece of the game at a time and get items, experience, and money for completing them.  For example, you will get a quest to buy something from a Market (Auction house type deal).  After buying the item you return to the NPC and get some experience, potions, or items.

Atlantica Online: An NPC Start Quest Involving the Games Market

Besides the tutorial-type quests you pretty much will be doing “fetch this” and “kill this” quests.  Interestingly the combat system and auto-move features kind of make these seem less tedious.

Your Character, Mercenaries, and “Classes”

The game has some standard but limited options for creating a character.  ndoors seems to be listening to complaints about limitations on character customization and has added new hair styles in the last patch.  Classes in Atlantica Online are simply based on a weapon.  A swordsman will use a sword and shield and has certain class traits and special abilities associated with him.  Just starting out these are the classes or weapons you can pick for your main character:

Swordsman: Strong defense and attack but can only attack one enemy.
Spear:Strong attack that can hit two enemies in a column.
Axe: Great physical strength and can hit 3 enemies in a row.
Gun: Long range attack that can hit 3 enemies in a column.
Bow: Powerful ranged attack for one enemy.
Cannon: Ranged attack that hits 3 enemies in a row.
Staff: Support with heals and defense spells.

Now remember that the game is turn based and that just the basic function of the weapons make them unique.  Think of it like chess.  The pieces in chess are unique just in how they attack and move.  Atlantica Online adds to this with special abilities and spells that you can level up along the way.

The other unique feature and design element in Atlantica Online is that it is party based.  From the very beginning of the game you will hire mercenaries that basically stay with you as long as you like.  You have full control over these mercenaries and they are no less powerful than your main character.  This adds another dimension to building your forces and it is pretty fun.  It is kind of like creating a full group in WoW and being able to effectively play and manage all the characters.

As if this all wasn’t enough each weapon has specialty classes that have certain requirements.  I have not leveled high enough to qualify for any of these yet so I haven’t had a chance to test this out.  It looks like you have to hit a certain level with a weapon then you can upgrade that character to specialty class if you have the right items.  I have not found if you get these items in normal drops or if you have to use real cash to get them.  It would be disappointing if this was the sticking point to get money out of our pockets.

The Combat

This is what the game is built around.  It seems everything in the game is built to keep you in the combat system as much as possible…and that is a good thing.  If you have ever played a Japanese RPG you should be somewhat familar with the combat style.  You get more time to think about your next move than games like WoW or EQ2, but the game will not wait forever for you.  There is a timer for each side (enemy and player) and all your commands must be selected before it runs out.

Winning in combat for this game will consist of making sure your formation is sound for the enemy you are fighting, utilizing the strengths of your party, and using your special abilities effectively.  A fight can quickly go wrong if you get any of these elements wrong.  Gear definitely plays a role in winning combat and maybe even more so than some other games you may be playing.  Remember you don’t just have one character to equip, you have an entire party to deck out!  The max party size seems to be 9 but at my level I only have 5.

Atlantica Online: My mercenary swordsman whacks a pesky archer!

Combat is very satisfying and the creatures are different enough that you don’t feel like you are playing the same game with a different name.  I have not found any rats anywhere yet!  The game does repeat models in an area but you move from place to place a lot so things seem to stay pretty fresh.  Mix in the occasional challenging boss fight and you won’t get bored with the combat anytime soon.

Stamina and the Community

The game recently added stamina into the mix.  Every time you start or end up in a battle one stamina is deducted from your balance.  If you are out of stamina you can not fight or possibly complete other actions.  There seems to be some complaints about the system because it can limit your play time but others love it.

The positive remarks about the stamina system is that it rewards planning and adds another strategic element to the game.  If you are limited in what you can do you will think hard about what you want to get accomplished with your stamina.  At level 16 I have yet to run out of stamina and according to players in-game it really doesn’t become an issue until the higher levels.  Even though I have not run out personally I have felt the effects of the stamina system though.

One way to get stamina back is to give gifts.  I have received several items and numerous donations of money.  Just running around doing my thing and a little gift box pops up on the lower right section of the screen.  I think I got my first gift after being in game for 10 minutes.  This player was also kind enough to spend a good 30 minutes discussing the game…which they proclaimed was one of their all-time favorites.

Travel and Movement

The default key bindings and character movement are standard and easy to jump into.  The game defaults to a WASD movement scheme with the addition of point-and-click to move.  A handy feature worth noting is the auto-move button.  When you have a quest active you can click auto-move in the upper left part of the screen and the game will run your character to the quest objective automatically.  It almost feels like cheating but it works really well with this game.  As I mentioned before, everything seems geared towards keeping you in combat as much as possible.  I have heard some high level players say that you can not use it as much at higher levels because of hostile monsters and dangerous dungeons.

The game also features teleporting but you have to have a license for it.  I am pretty sure teleport licenses are one of the things sold in the real money store.  Not sure if they drop or are obtainable in the free part of the game or not.  One thing that is certainly real money only are mounts.  There are quite a few mounts available and besides adding to your movement speed they give you combat bonuses as well.

Conclusions

The game is free-2-play with a real money item mall.  I looked at the items you can buy and they are mostly convenience items with the exception of mounts.  I see anyone that plays the game for extended amount of time will desire a mount.  The dollar amount comes to just under 10$ to snag a mount that you can keep.  If you are having fun with the rest of the game and if you can control yourself – the real money section of the game seems fair so far.

Atlantica Online has got my attention for now.  I meant to just check it out and did not expect to stick around long.  We all know I have enough games to play right now!  Unfortunately the game has me wanting to see more and it will get a chunk of my time.  It looks like sleep is losing a place at my time-table once again…

My main character is a Paladin, so I love the idea of dual spec.  This is not a whine post geared around self interest!  Classes like Druids and Paladins get a lot of love this patch and while Rogues may be getting some love in their combat tree it simply just is not as exciting.  The dual spec feature coming in the 3.1 patch is not the problem though – it just makes the problem more apparent.  Even as a Paladin I think that the severity of the different trees goes too far in WoW.  Some classes, like Druids and Paladins, effectively get three characters in one.  The versatility is undeniable.  This is a valid play style but it doesn’t seem balanced that someone that can heal and tank can spec to compete with a pure DPS class in damage.

Edit/Note: After reading quite a bit I want to stress that, to me, the root of the problem is that the Specialization trees are too severe!  A hybrid should never beat a pure class in any specific role but their advantage comes with being able to do multiple things at once!  It should not be “respec to be good at X role” but more like “at any time I can fulfill my primary roll AND add some of this”.  Either way, this is not an easy problem to fix and has been around a good while before WoW!

I may be missing something here so please point it out if I am.  Maybe my inexperience with Rogues and Mages just is shining through here.  Now, for the overall health of the game – I definitely agree that it is very beneficial to make it easier for the tank and healer roles to be filled.  If you are ever sitting on your thumbs waiting for a group to fill out it is for those roles.  I just hope that the classes with less flexibility are rewarded by being the absolute best in their roles.  With that in mind, the next time you see a Rogue or Mage – be sure to give them a hug and tell them all will be well.

With my genuine and selfless concern for some of the more singular classes of WoW out of the way, there are a lot of other changes that are kind of exciting in the 3.1 patch.  Among several class changes there are several additions that are handy for just about everyone:

• All Ground Mounts may now swim without dismounting the rider. Flying Mounts still may NOT, and will dismount the rider upon entering water.
  • This is a small but nice change.  After playing EQ2 I found that having to recast my mount because they stepped in one foot of water was annoying.  This change goes one step above EQ2 though by allowing you to actually stay on some mounts in the water.  In EQ2 you would be dismounted but automatically remounted when you left the water.
• Ulduar is now available for limited testing. Please visit the Public Test Realms for more details. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11572
  • After all the whining from the fast burning guilds that have consumed all the Wrath of the Lich King has to offer – this will be a nice addition for sure.  I probably wont see the content for quite some time though!
• A new Gear Manager feature has been added. Players will now be able to save gear sets for easy gear switching.
  • Very cool!  I hate getting and organizing several sets of gear…but with dual spec and this hand in hand it will definitely be more effective and easy to manage!  I don’t know of another game that has done this effectively so I am looking forward to see how Blizzard manages it.
• New high-resolution player textures for Northrend armor sets have been added. Players can enable this feature by setting Player Textures to High in the Effects Panel of the Video Options.
  • I really hope there are more and more engine/graphic updates coming for WoW.  This is a good step in the right direction to keep the game fresh and competitive.
• Players can now return items purchased with an alternate currency back to the original vendor within 2 hours of the purchase time for the original cost of the item. Stack-able items (such as Frozen Orbs and gems) and charged items that can be purchased with an alternate currency are not eligible.
• Confirmation boxes have been added to purchases over 150 gold.
  • Both of these changes are pretty basic and are situations I have not personally ran into.  I can see why someone that has been burned would welcome it though!
• The achievement Brew of the Year has been removed from the Brewmaster meta-achievement. The achievement Brew of the Month has been added in its place.
  • I was talking about this with a friend at work.  I am hoping this makes it possible to get the achievement mount with less than a 2 year commitment.
• Noblegarden has been redesigned into a week-long holiday with new items, quests, and more. Various achievements have been added, including the meta-achievement Noble Gardener, which is now required for the meta-achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been.
• Copied Test Realm characters will no longer be copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.
  • Yeah, I am still leveling to 80 and haven’t got neck deep into achievements yet but both of these make a lot of sense.
• Players will now be able to queue for battlegrounds from any location. Leaving a battleground will return you to the location from which you entered.
  • FINALLY!  Being a fan of Warhammer Online this change could not come soon enough.  Since my return to WoW I have wanted to run some more battlegrounds but didn’t want to deal with having to run back to a city to queue up.  I am sure Blizzard took a freebie from Mythic on this one…good for them!

Some of the WoW UI addons I use

Addon Manager

The foundation of any addon package is some sort of addon manager.  While you can technically do fine without one, you will save yourself a lot of trouble by using one.  For WoW I know of two major addon managers that are used today.  The first is WoW Matrix which is found at their website at wowmatrix.com.  This seems to be the most popular addon manager for WoW and has the usual features: easy install, automatic updates, and addon browsing.  The other addon manager that works well with WoW is the Curse Client.  You can find it on the Curse.com gaming site.  Overall the two manager tools are very similar but there are a couple of differences.  Namely the Curse Client supports multiple games and is the one I personally use to keep and manage addons for both WoW and Warhammer Online.  The Curse Client can also run as a program in your system tray to keep you addons up to date with minimal fuss.  It is fairly light weight taking up about 20MB of memory.  If you only play WoW though, the WoW Matrix may be the better choice because it seems to recognize and support more WoW addons than the Curse Client.

Bag Mod

After the addon manager the first thing I typically look for is a bag mod.  I absolutely hate searching through 92 bags to find a potion or something else I need in a pinch.  Sure you can put items in your hotbars but I have enough stuff there as it is.  The solution I go for is a handy all-in-one bag mod.  TBag does this and much more.  This may be one of my favorite mods for WoW or any game for that matter.  First it consolidates all your bags into one window.  So when you hit your bag hotkey you see everything.  The second thing that I love about this mod is that it sorts your items automatically.  I groups up quest items, consumables, and loot so you quickly know where to look for something.  TBag also marks new items to make them stand out even more in your bags.  Add in bank memory and several other features and you have a more than complete bag mod.

Action Bars

This is a category that is both frustrating and critical to enjoy WoW.  The default hotbars are inflexible and simply not very useful.  There are a ton of hotbar managers out there and most are pretty similar and work pretty well.  For ease of use I am currently using Dominoes.  This is sort of a category that whatever you get used to is probably what you will stick with, but Dominoes seems to work well with me.  It puts a button on your mini-map and left clicking this button will allow you to enter a configure mode.  In this mode you can move, size, and configure all your action, class, and specialty bars.  It is easy to hide bars you are not using which is a must.  I hate installing an action bar mod and spending a ton of time just figuring out how to make it not look like a total mess.  The OCD side of me likes my UI to be as symmetrical, minimalistic, and tidy as possible!

The other feature I love about Dominoes is the super quick and easy key binding mode that you can enter by Shift-Left Clicking the Dominoes button on you mini-map.  While in this mode you can simply mouse over an action you want to hotkey and press the button you want to bind it to.  Very handy for getting those critical abilities on a hotkey you can hit easily.

Information Bar

Having a good information bar will put whatever you use the most in one little tidy space.  Like the other mods and addons I mention, there are a few options here but Fubar seems to be a very popular choice.  There are many modules available for Fubar that can display information such as money, experience, durability, threat, dps, guild information, and even who you spoke to last.  The bar is simple to configure and you can add, remove, and sort modules as you see fit.

Quest Help

Quest help almost seems like cheating at times but I absolutely love these mods.  The two big ones are Quest Helper and Cartographer.  I currently use Quest Helper and love it.  Basically what both of these addons do is take a look at your quest log and based on user input mark stuff on your map.  Quest Helper draws lines for a suggested quest path based on what quest objectives are closer.  It also shows the next few steps that you will do to complete the quests you have in your log.  Have you ever traveled across a the zone to complete a quest to find out that the next quest you want to do was right by where you just left?  Well Quest Helper will help if not completely fix that.

The downside is that it is not 100% smart on exactly what you need to do.  You may run to the spot that Quest Helper directed you to and find out that you needed to hop on a ship to do a bombing run.  Considering you won’t have to spend a ton of time figuring out where to go I find myself spending more time actually reading the quests.  Some purist may call such mods cheating and think that these mods make things a bit too easy.  I can see this point of view but if you get stuck on a quest and look it up on a website anyway…why not stay in-game with a mod like this?

I currently use Quest Helper but may switch to Cartographer.  It seems to have similar features and maybe a few things that Quest Helper doesn’t do like instance maps and zone information.

NOTE: These mods may have a small performance hit on some systems!

Quest Items

Have I mentioned I hat searching through my bags?  Another addon that helps mitigate this ghoulish chore is QBar. This mod attempts to automatically put all those “clicky” quest items in a separate hotbar that you can move around.  For example, if you have to throw some dynamite to blow up a tank it will automatically be placed on the QBar hotbar.  It is pretty good at finding quest items but it is not fail-proof.  Rarely I have to actually look in my bag to find an item I need to click for a quest.

So there you have it, 5 essential addons plus one addon manager.  There are many more addons out there, but these are should be useable and enjoyed by any class and most play styles.  If you just reloaded WoW or an update made your UI unusable, this list should get you started.  One final comment on UI mods and addons for WoW.  There are some quite large compilation and complete UI mods for WoW.  I recommend thinking twice about using any of them though.  I have found you have far less headaches and get a much more usable UI if you add in the bits and pieces that you like for each category.  These compilation and complete UI mods tend to have way too many unused UI mods that break any time Blizzard blinks.  If you have Curse Client or WoW matrix it is super easy to keep your individual mod pieces up to date anyway!

My WoW Paladin, Jukor, stands outside The Nexus instance

It seems you can’t walk 10 feet these days without bumping into someone that plays World of Warcraft.  If they don’t play then someone they know plays or they at least know about the game.  It is probably one of gaming industry’s most successful and landmark releases to date.  Personally, the game was a blast for me when it first released then it lost its charm and I was pulled into Everquest 2.  Overall I have played Everquest 2 more than WoW but I still think WoW is an amazing game and I can see myself playing it more in the future…especially with all of Wrath of the Lich King to see.  My recent heightened interest in WoW has got me thinking though.  What makes this game so successful and why did I move to something else when more and more people were getting into WoW?

There are probably about a million factors that contribute to the answers of both of those questions, but there are a few variables that contribute more than the others.  For example, the major reason I moved away from WoW was what Blizzard did to the Paladin before The Burning Crusade.  Up to level 59 I was a tank and did well in that role.  It fit what I thought  Paladin should be.  Then at 60 and especially at raids, they turned me into a “cleanse” and “heal” bot.  Paladins couldn’t tank and didn’t even do enough damage to be on the front lines!  I lived with it for a while but it eventually wore me out and I gave EQ2 a try.  The familiarity of the EQ lore (I played Eq1 for 6+ years) and how the EQ2 Paladin played pulled me away from WoW and back into EQ2.

A second contributing factor that led to my first departure from WoW was the sense of community or lack of.  Groups were too short and fast to make friends.  I didn’t get to know folks as much as I did in EQ1 or EQ2.  There just wasn’t much of a social aspect to it for me.  I had a few real-life friends playing but our play times were so different we hardly got to group up.  So, with some of these “flaws” or detractions from the game, why do so many others find it attractive and why am I playing again?  I think it is said often but I will repeat my top two reasons: WoW has an undeniably “cool” factor to it and it simply runs well on modest equipment.

WoW and EQ2 both came out about the same time.  They began as very different games on many fronts and obviously WoW’s approach won on the numbers game.  EQ2 went for a more realistic look and WoW and a more stylized cartoony look.  Now, pushing preferences aside, I honestly just kind of wish more people would copy Blizzard’s approach on this.  I am tired of companies releasing games that hardly no one can run.  WoW is not super technical in its presentation but it still is very pretty.  It has tons of variety and over the top presentation in many spots.  Most folks can even turn on the eye candy and keep great frame rates in crowded areas.  Now, many may not like the cartoony style, but I have to believe that you can achieve similar results and not as cartoony of a style.  EQ2 as a comparison can also be a very pretty game.  I actually enjoy its style as well but 4 years after release I still can’t seem to max it out and maintain great frame rates.  I don’t have the newest top of the line hardware but it is a tad above the middle of the pack.

The last success factor that I want to mention is the “cool” factor WoW has going for it.  This along with how well it runs on my machine are pulling me back pretty hard.  There just is such great variety in the armor and weapons in the game.  It is fun as sort of a WoW newbie to run around and see all the cool stuff folks have these days.  You see some of the same items in WoW but people definitely have more options than in many other games.  High level folks look high level and you can easily tell a “fresh level 80″ from one that has been around a bit.

The cool factor doesn’t stop at the weapons and armor though.  Quests have some great variation and stories to them.  Specifically I am talking about the Wrath of the Lich King quests.  You get to fly around on several occasions and drop bombs from an airship on others.  The whole Death Knight starting quest line is worth playing through even if you don’t plan on playing the Death Knight much afterward.  Other great moments have been just exploring the zones.  I did my first Nexus group today and what a fun looking zone!  It has an icy them with lots of particle effects that are expertly used.  One thing that struck me is the artistic eye for cool in The Nexus.  With all the blues the zone uses, there was some very well placed use of red in the zone that caused a subtle but effective contrast.  Blizzard basically managed to make a cold-themed dungeon that didn’t feel like everyone other gold dungeon we have done before.

Considering that Blizzard has changed Paladins quite a bit – I think you may see me playing more WoW these days.  I am not jumping ship from EQ2 because I am in a great guild and very much enjoying the raids of that game right now.  I will however be spending more time in Wrath of the Lich King  as well.  With how successful WoW is, I can’t understand why more developers don’t copy some better aspects of WoW.  Namely, make the game run on modest hardware and scale up and make sure you have plenty of “oh-snap” moments that make the game experience memorable.

Zone Domination makes it so when one side caps all the BOs and keeps and holds them for a set time the zone gets locked.  This might not seem like such a big deal, but on Monolith Order has been steamrolling Destro for a good long time lately.  So before the patch, Destros would just run to their little hidey holes and not fight.  This strategy kept Order from locking zones simply because we could not get enough Victory Points from skirmishing or scenarios.  No Destros means no scenario points and no skirmish points.  Without these points we couldn’t lock zones.  It was basically Order trying to oRvR, but with nothing to fight.

Then comes the patch and Zone Domination!  We have been to Inevitable City twice in 3 days since the patch.  This is not the best part, though.  There are actually Destro to fight now, because they come out to try to take BOs and keeps to keep us from domination.  Order has to coordinate with large groups to keep all the BOs protected and the keeps.  One good warband of destro can roll around a zone and ninja BOs to keep us from dominating.  The fun is trying to keep every BO and keep covered.  I love the tactics involved and the fighting that we get to do once again!

Class balancing as far as I can tell from my witch hunter glasses amounts to longer lives for the healers and no more chain disorienting.  It used to be that I could sneak into the back of a group and snipe the healer in a few secs, but no more.  Yeah, some healers still go down like a cheap date, but alot of them can actually stay up long enough for their buddies to take me out now.

The other big part of the patch was with crafting.  An almost complete reworking of the crafting system.  It looks like they have streamlined much of the items and skills.  I don’t know much about this yet, though.  I have been too busy sacking IC

Also included in this were some new mounts, guild mounts, some crafting benefits for higher level guilds and some other stuff.  All in all I think it is a great patch.  Most people on the forums are saying that if you quit some time in the past, now is a good time to renew the account and check out the yummy goodness that is patch 1.2

Official Patch notes are here.

And here are some screenshots of me wandering around in IC.  You get to destroy the statues in IC!  How cool is that!

I am excited to have a second writer providing more guides and other content to the site.  I plan to grow this team to cover interests in other games or sections of the industry.  For now, the team size will be two though.  We have been playing games together for quite a while so there likely will be some pieces we work together on as well.  The guides are by far the most popular articles on the site so we will put some focus on updating and creating new ones for everyone out there.

Keep your eyes out for new content and changes to D.O.G over the next month!

The first thing I did when I dinged 70 was switch my spec to protection.  Paladins are tanks in my mind and that is just it – if I want to heal or DPS I just would not think of a pally.  I was retribution to make leveling faster but it seemed to really limit my group options.  Groups were mostly looking for tanks or healers during the time I play, so my desire to tank seems to fit the demand.  After respecing I hit the AH and for about 300 gold got Jukor just about an entire new set of armor.

Now the most exciting thing to me about dinging 70 and this new armor is that I don’t look like such a clown.  My previous armor had decent stats (maybe…) but looked painted on my character…and honestly it just looked dumb.  Before 70 I searched frantically in the AH for something that looked better, even willing to sacrifice some stats – but had no luck until hit that magic 70 mark.

As a side bonus the new armor just about doubled my AC and added 2k hit points.  I am pretty sure this stuff came from Wrath of the Lich king, so the upgrades from what I had were pretty significant.

With my goal of hitting 70 accomplished I have started my 10 day trial of Wrath of the Lich King and the client is currently downloading.  I had enough fun leveling from 66-70 that I may just end up buying the expansion before very long.  I have done a lot of talking with folks both in-game and out and it seems paladins are sort of “back on the map” as far as WoW is concerned.  They can tank very well with the right gear and with protection spec.  It seems they can also DPS and Heal very well with their repsective specs…kind of makes me worry that the paladin community may get hit with the nerf bat again though.

The release of WoW was timed very well for me.  I was leading a guild in EQ1 and had just started a new family.  EQ1 is a demanding game and even more so if you are running a guild.  I handed my guild over to good hands (…I am proud to say they are still doing well!) and for the most part, quit EQ1.  This is when WoW came out.  The game was fresh, clean, all new and did not have the incredible time sink that EQ1 had.  It did have enough pull that if I had the time I could play for long periods and not be bored.

Fast forward one year and I have a level maxed (Pre-TBC) paladin that was a blast to play until now.  For 59 levels I was a good group tank and our group had a great time of it.  That ended when it came to raiding though, and paladins were just not set up for damage or tanking, so we were pushed to do heals, cleanse, and buff bots.  Now I don’t mind healing, if that is what I made my character for, but to me, the paladin is a front-line fighter or tank type.  If they wanted us to heal just name them clerics.  Frustration with this and the general close-minded immature community drove me to quit WoW…but I never stayed too far away.  I watched the game progress through TBC and monitored it intently from the sideline.  I even would log in an play for a bit from time to time and without even trying my paladin is level 67.

NOTE:The trial will let you gain experience up to 1 point before 71.  If you make a death knight they will not be playable after the trial but will be saved for when you pay for and activate WotLK.  Any items gained will be yours to keep and you will be transported to a safe place if your character is in WotLK zones when the trial expires.

Wrath of the Lich King 10 day trial

Now Wrath of the Lich King is here and I have been spending more time on the sideline and reading more and more about the game.  My buddy that still plays tells me that paladins are quite different now and that they are viable tanks or even DPS.  My account has TBC but not WotLK yet and I wasn’t ready to jump in and buy it quite yet.  Then I was bouncing around and found the Blizzard is now offering a 10 day trial of WotLK for active accounts.  Hey, cool!  This is my chance to give this well received expansion a quick run!  With my paladin only being 67, I decided to level him to 70 before I activate my trial.  It has been a bit more fun with the goal and reward in mind…I really am looking forward to seeing this expansion.

NOTE:After some friends from EQ2 saw me playing WoW on XFIRE we decided to make some new characters on Stormrage as well.  If you want to join us look for me on XFIRE as “ManInACan”.

That being said, I have mostly soloed so far.  Groups are very intimidating.  I feel horribly underpowered and with all the changes out there, I am not sure if my retribution spec contributes to a group well or not.  I have thought about just giving-in and switching to a holy spec so I can group more, but I am resisting just on principle…”PALADINS ARE TANKS WITH SECONDARY HEALS!!!”…is what I keep shouting in my head.  Maybe I will switch to holy and just advertise “cleric lfg” in the chat channels…will that satisfy my principle laden stubbornness?