Choosing the Right Stats for a Paladin?

Caeden & Iltria are level 61 now & working their way through Hellfire Peninsula. They have gone as far as Falcon Watch. One of the big dilemmas I am facing now is what type of gear to choose for Caeden. As a protection paladin, the tanking stats of stamina and agility are important. However, he also needs to do melee damage, so strength is key. On the other hand, mana is his life blood. All his spells and special abilities are keyed to mana, so intellect is important too. That's 4 primary stats to be worried about, which is the most I've had to deal with in any of the classes I've played so far! Add to these stats the fact the plus damage/healing/hit/defense gear is also very good for a protection paladin, you can see how choosing the right combination of gear gets very confusing! So far, I have been trying to balance the stats, with stamina being my highest stat so far. I hope I'm handling this the right way.

The Blood Elves Turn 60!!!

Well Caeden & Iltria hit level 60 tonight! The leveling improvements implemented in the last patch are amazing! The blood elves dinged level 60 after finishing up with the Winterspring quests and are all set for Hellfire Peninsula. Here they are after exiting the dark portal =)

The Blood Elves Ding Level 55!!!

Caeden & Iltria hit level 55 over the weekend and things seem to be going smoothly. Half-way through their 50's and they haven't even seen the Plaguelands! So I'm very happy with their progress and am fairly confident that they will be at least level 59 when they finish up with the zones in Azeroth. If patch 2.3 goes live tomorrow, it should be no problem at all. I like to start the Outlands with my characters no lower than level 59. It can be done at level 58, but that messes up the quest progression in the Outlands. Level 60 is optimal, but level 59 is just fine to start working in Hellfire Peninsula.

On a different note, Annariel finally made her last piece of Primal Mooncloth armor! Man that took a long time. There is about a 4 day cool-down on making Primal Mooncloth. If you specialize in Mooncloth tailoring, you can make 2 at a time. Given that it takes 14 primal mooncloth to make the Robe, you can see why it takes so long! Annariel now has a full set of Primal Mooncloth. She is my first character to have a full set of purple armor. She is also my first character to reach 375 with a trade profession. She will probably be my last...lol. It is just too expensive to level a profession to 375! Here's a pic of Annariel in her new robe =)

I hate the Blasted Lands!!!

Caeden & Iltria finished up with the quests in the Blasted Lands over the weekend. I have to say, the Blasted Lands is probably my least favorite zone in the game. When you enter the zone in your late 40’s to early 50’s, you have 5 main quests you can do. They are the quests you can get from the Blood Elves near the entrance to the zone. The npc’s ask you to collect various parts from the animals that inhabit the area. All told, you need 14 vulture gizzards, 11 basilisk brains, 6 blasted boar lungs, 6 scorpid pincers & 5 snikerfang jowls. Multiply those numbers by 2 and you begin to see my loathing of this zone. To make things worse, the drop rate has to be 1 in 4 or worse. So, in order for Caeden & Iltria to complete all the quests, I needed to kill about 336 mobs!!! That’s a horrible grind =( It was even a bit worse this time through, because all the animals seemed to be highly resistant to fire, making Iltria’s fire spec pretty much useless. Not to mention the huge dragon boss that flies around the zone!!! Teremus the Devourer…he’s so big, you can’t miss him, yet he has this amazing ability to sneak up on you from out of nowhere and kill you in a couple of shots!!! Anyway, I’m glad that zone is over & I hope with the new experience change coming in patch 2.3, I will never have to see the Blasted Lands again, except when going through the Dark Portal to the Outlands =)