Tuesday maintenance day...

Lets go with Q&A today, shall we?

Grace, you were wrong about the Stinker, lots of pets, thingy....

Yes, I am wrong. You need 50. I'm up to 28. This could take a while.

Why paladins? And prot at that?

I like melee combat. Even more so while wearing plate. And the hockey playing defenseman in me likes taking damage so others don't. Yes, it's kinda "masochistic - savior complex - isthatallyagot" but for anyone who knows me IRL, it's my personality. That being said, I'm also enjoying my hunter and rogue lately.

Why fishing?

Well, I started fishing heavily when stressed out. The guild I was in at the time would be shouting "level" at me, and I had plenty of RL stuff going on to make the frustration level in my life just hit the roof. It was nice to just sit back, chill at a fishing hole, and yank deviates out of the water. The gold I got for them made me feel like I accomplished something, however silly. And some of the funniest interactions I've had with Alliance happened while standing around fishing. The concept of people watching is come to life while fishing somewhere with high traffic, like The Barrens. I've beaten a rogue to death with a fishing pole when he ganked a lowbie right next to me (you did what? really? right here? Oh thats just not right...), I've called gankers off Allied fishermen when they were polite and /wave or /greet me or ask politely if they could fish in my pond. And the random quest runners, gleefully jumping swimming and romping about as I placidly sit there fishing does provide amusement. And once in a while I'd go stomp Alliance who were hitting The Crossroads, when I needed a bit of fun. It's a silly profession, but highly rewarding for the cooking, meditation, and gold rewards.

Why Horde?

Well, I ,for one, like the underdog. Being from Buffalo, NY (wide right! Wide right????! You have GOT to be wrong!), folks from there tend to feel the universe is stacked against them. I seem to go through life uphill, both ways sometimes, despite some really cool things I've accomplished. I'm self made, a female geek, and not fond of the "popular" trappings that tend to be media promoted. I could care less if I'm pretty, but you'd better tell me I am when I'm covered in sweat and mud and wearing armor for one of my many sports. I find enjoyment in being the unexpected. All that being said, if I'm gonna play a fantasy game, I don't want to be a human. Besides, the human women's hips are HUUUUGE. And Gnomes and Dwarves just aren't cute to me. Drenai and Night Elves are a bit better, but when I flipped to the Horde side, the avatars just felt like more fun. And I sincerely think that the default being Alliance has more to do with why more people playing Alliance when they first start than anything else. They really ought to make that boot screen random for character gen.
And all the sexy people I know play Horde. For the Horde! Baby....

And Tanking?

I tried healing first as a pally. And a priest. After the 47th time I got yelled at for "not healing fast enough" I was done with it. D.O.N.E. Heal yourself Sparky, I'd rather watch you die. Badly. Soo at the time the only other real viable option for a pally was tanking. Ret was a joke for DPS. And they still feel kinda Rodney Dangerfield (I got no respect), and I don't see that ending anytime soon. But tanking let me focus on controlling the aggro flow, taking damage, and just orchestrating the feel of the fight. Can't control all of it, but learning when to let the damage be passed around a bit and when to take it all onmyself was good stuff. I am grateful to the folks who helped me, taught me, yelled at me constructively, taught me about gear and generally helped me learn to be decent at it. My current guild got a decent tank when I transferred over, and I'm getting vastly better on every run. Tanks really do take a lot of gear management, button pushing strategy, and knowledge of what damage your group can take. A good tank can make a crappy group get through an instance. A bad tank, and no one is going anywhere. This is of course doubly influenced by your healers and the speed of your DPS folks and whether they pull aggro. But it starts on the tank..

Hmm, time to check if the servers are up :-)