100th post, yey!

We all know that faction rewards can make a difference for a newly 70 (or in this case 80) and can really improve your gear until you get replacements from raiding.

Here are some of them. Remember, we’re still in Beta and things can change!

Kirin Tor

Kirin Tor is a sect of wizards, stationed in Dalaran, that study and record all of humanity’s magic and artifacts. They are also charged with the protection of the city, but once failed to prevent Archimonde from destroying the city, under rule of Prince Arthas, who was summoned by defected Kirin Tor member Kel’Thuzad. The remaining members of the Kirin Tor were determined to salvage the ruins and rid the city of the remaining undead and reclaim their once magnificent city. The members of Kirin Tor are now cautious about who is let into their organization in fear of more defections.

• Fireproven Gauntlets - requires Exalted

Knights of the Ebon Blade

The Knights of the Ebon Blade is an organization of renegade death knights whose primary role is to guide new death knights. These newly released death knights, freed from the grasp of the Lich King, have regrouped against him under command of Highlord Darion Mograine. Their base is located at Ebon Hold, which is located in the Eastern Plaguelands.

• Toxin-Tempered Sabatons - requires Honored

The Kalu’ak

The tuskarr are a tough but peaceful people who derive their livelihood from fishing and whaling. Their settlements have recently come under fierce attack and welcome any allies who would come to their aid.

• Ivory-Reinforced Chestguard - requires Honored
• Mastercraft Kalu’ak Fishing Pole - (lol) requires Exalted

The Sons of Hodir

The frost giants of the Storm Peaks are a war-like race that makes their home in Dun Nifelem.

• Lesser Inscription of the Pinnacle - requires Honored
• Greater Inscription of the Pinnacle - requires Exalted

The Wyrmrest Accord

The Wyrmrest Accord is an alliance of the remaining four Dragonflights — Red, Bronze, Green, and even Black — against the Blue Dragonflight’s crusade. The Red Dragonflight being the most active of the four, with a large number of red dragons guarding Wyrmrest Temple itself. The faction is led by Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, their home base being in the icy plain of Dragonblight.

• Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions - requires Honored
• Breastplate of the Solemn Council - requires Revered
• Sabatons of Draconic Vigor - requires Revered
• Gavel of the Brewing Storm - requires Revered

Frenzyheart Tribe

Frenzyheart Tribe are a primitive race of wolverine people, or wolvar, and a faction that inhabit the Sholazar Basin opposite of their enemies, the Oracles.

• Giant-Sized Gauntlets - requires Revered

Argent Crusade

The Argent Crusade is an organization created from the union of the Argent Dawn and the Knights of the Silver Hand. The initial Crusade was formed shortly after the Battle for Light’s Hope Chapel, as played out during the death knight quest [55] The Light of Dawn, in which Tirion Fordring — leader of the reformed Silver Hand — reclaimed (and evidently purified) the Ashbringer during a confrontation with the Lich King.

• Special Issue Legplates - requires Honored
• Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector - requires Revered

Conclusions

I have to say I’m kinda disapointed here. The head and shoulders enchants look awesome and one must have them asap. But in regards of gear, I’m really unsure. Most of the items there have Hit Rating and Expertise which at this point are at the back of the needed stats wagon.

Anyway, I’m excited to see what live will bring!

Check these out:

Socket One-Handed Weapon, Titanium Belt Buckle (Titanium Belt Buckle), Socket Gloves, Socket Bracer

Tempered Titansteel Helm (Tempered Titansteel Helm), Tempered Titansteel Treads (Tempered Titansteel Treads)

Titansteel Bonecrusher (Titansteel Bonecrusher), Titansteel Guardian (Titansteel Guardian)

Now, let’s back up a little.

What was the raid utility of having Blacksmithing before WotLK?

Zero.

What was the financial gain of having Blacksmithing before WotLK?

Almost zero.

What will be the utility of having Blacksmithing after WotLK?

Close to OVERNINETHOUSAND!

Well, probably not. But what I see here are some serious buffs.

Those two Titansteel weapons? Probably the best tanking weapons for Protection Paladins (mid level).

Capacity to add extra sockets to items? Hell yeah gimme more!

Ok, all seems good, now let’s discuss some issues here.

Notice that all those items are BoE. For now. So, one does not need to be a BS to have them. Which is cool, but I doubt they will stay BoE for live.

Regarding the extra sockets, it seems that, again, you don’t have to be a BS to use them. For now. Also, the ability could only work for non-socketed items. It doesn’t say if you can add more than 1 socket, doesn’t say the color of the sockets so things are really uncertain in this field. Looking forward to some near future clarifications.

Taking all these into consideration, it might be good to actually have Blacksmithing.

I have Enchanting/Jewelcrafting. I HAD 375 BS before I dropped it for Enchanting. But I don’t regret it. Because of this. And of this. And because I made a lot of gold from it. And I will certainly not drop it because of this.

Dropping Jewelcrafting is out of the question. It is the single most profitable profession currently in game. And it also gives acces to some good BoP gems.

So where does that leave us? There is only 1 answer:

Blizzard, please give us a third profession!

Ghostcrawler (Blizzard Poster) made a very interesting post yesterday on the WotLK Beta forums:

Protection — We want more tanks in the game. Main tanks. We think it’s fun to have a diversity of players and see how different spells, abilities and class mechanics get used to solve problems. A Protadin with the right skill and gear should be able to tank any fight in the game. Previously, we tried to push Prot into the offtank and AE tank roles. While your abilities are still really well suited for AE in particular, overall our philosophy has changed and we want you to be able to do anything the other tanks do. Note that this means other tanks will get better at AE tanking though. Prot represents a special challenge when not tanking because you can both heal and do dps and some players want to do either. Or both. One final comment, that you have already seen, is we want you to gear like a warrior: collect Strength and Stam and use tanking weapons instead of caster weapons.

And he saw that it was good!

I think the message is very clear now: we must separate from the old thinking of stacking Spell Damage (or Power as it’s called now) and go towards the new and improved stats. This will raise numerous problems as not many will actually document themselvs about these changes, but it’s up to us, those who know, to educate.

A very interesting debate is going on over that the Maintankadin forums and focuses on the weapon of choice in WotLK: should we stick to caster weapons or switch to true tanking weapons? The Spreadsheet says that caster weapons are still better. However, one needs to remember that we’re still in Beta and many changes will take place until the live version so who knows what will happen.

Personally, my plan as of now is to gear for Strength and Stamina but to stick to a caster weapon until waters are a bit more clear.

Only one thing is certain: there will be fun times ahead for Protection Paladins.

Timbal’s Focusing Crystal

I will only say this once, but I’ll do it as loudly as I can.

STOP ROLLING ON TIMBAL’S FOCUSING CRYSTAL. IT’S USELESS FOR YOU!

Now that I’m more calm, let’s focus.

Reasons why Timbal’s Focusing Crystal is not good for Protection Paladins

• While it does indeed proc with Consecration, it has an internal cooldown of 15 seconds. That’s HUGE!
• The proc rate is only 10%;
• The proc is SHADOW damage. That means it’s not affected by Righteous Fury;
• It lacks Stamina;

OK, what does that teach us? That this trinket is highly unreliable because of the high internal cooldown, that your TPS will not see a good improvement because of the subpar damage and that you should not use it.

Get Darkmoon Card: Vengeance. Now!

After bitching about it in Twitter yesterday, this morning I wake up to find a Beta invitation in my email. Yeah, Blizzard sure has a fine sense of irony.

So now I’m downloading the client and I’m estimating that in about 10+ hours I’ll be able to finally play.

I already copied Tepisor to the PvE realm (only option I had). Nothing else to do now then wait.

If anyone would like me to test/try something for them, please say your mind. I know that I got late into the Beta, but hey! doesn’t hurt to ask, right?