Complimntary Happy Hour at the hotel my work rented for me in Midland, do I really need to say more?

:D

17% of 2.4 downloaded.  We'll see if I can get online tonight.  Course, it's almost nine and I'm about ready to crash.........  Nine crown'n'cokes....  All free.....  So nice..... 

 Alright, in case you forgot, here’s where we left off last time: 

Head:              [Helm of Natural Purity] Quest: Stealing Back the Mushrooms 

Neck:              [Pendant of Battle-Lust] BF: The Maker (There are quest Neckpieces that easily replace this) 

Shoulder:         [Truth Bearer Shoulderguards] UB: Swamplord Musel’ek 

Back:              [Bogstrok Scale Cloak] UB: Rokmar the Crackler 

Chest:              [Unscarred Breastplate] UB: QuagmirranOR

Chest:              [Light-Touched Breastplate] Ramps: Watchkeeper Gargolmar 

Before you start, yes, I KNOW my titles aren't uniform.  I'm doing it on purpose.  Call it a quirk of mine.

 This will be my most involved post I believe and it is going to take many updates to get there.  I am going to try and catalog the gear progression that a Tankadin should strive for from level 58 to 70.  Eventually I may expand this list to encompass 0-70 leveling a Tankadin (which I did on Thunderlord), but for now I am creating this soley so that I have a plan of exactly how I'm going to level, when I will or will not instance, and how to get my reputation the fastest with Sporregar, Cenarion, Scyer/Aldor, Lower City, and KoT. If you are going to level RET, PLEASE SKIP TO THE END so you know what your goals are.  The rest is leveling 58-70 as a Prot Paladin, and how to make it easier. Level 58:   The Tankadin arrives in Outland.  Does he AH phenomenal gear, or quest it up?  I say no.  Let's save our $$$ to be able to buy our Flying mount at 70.  This is a pivitol item for being able to gear up (Mech/Bot/etc, Netherwing quests) so we want to ensure we spend as little at the AH during our time in Outland as possible.

Volume III

I really hope I don’t do too many of these.  Time consuming, but at least I’m getting my ideas down so I can reuse them again in 49 levels (w00.  21 last night, and that’s without even starting Darkshore/Redridge.)

As I said in Volume II, I would like to compare the viability of going ‘Scryer’ or going ‘Aldor’.

I want everyone to know that I went Scryer on Thunderlord.  This was my first toon past 60 due to being awol from w0w for so long.  I just picked on, but I found that it really complimented me on how I saw Narcomon gearing up.   If you have tricks/ideas on quickly grinding Aldor rep please let me know.

Lets first take a glance at the Aldor rep reward that would concern a Tankadin:

I am going to copy/paste this directly from Grov's Book on the Manual page, but I am also going to add some of my own notes for personal upkeep of the direction I'd like to take in my progression to 70.  I know I am only a measily level 20 now on Gorrgy, but if I can plot my gear progression correctly I should be able to begin my heroics the day I turn 70.  Thus the reason for copying (not plagurizing) Grov's list here.  Eventually I intend to create a quest/level progession list for gathering this gear to have the nearest chance of uncrittable/uncrushable on day 1 for level 70.

 You'll notice here that Grov indicates the need for heavy Stamina for 5mans, the reason for this is the lack of back-up healers.  You traditionally have one healer, and only one.  He can see your life draining away and decide to cast a large heal, or he can see you get smacked three times and DIE from his (or her....) light heal barely making a scratch.  Whether it is regular 5mans, or Heroics.  Get used to this.  Seriously.   Palatanks get so little respec in PUGS because most DPS'ers don't truly understand our mechanics.  Notice I jumped there from Healers.  The reason is Redoubt I can throw up my Seal of Light and be keeping my own health regen up nearly as quickly as the healer can.   The healer can then take the time to learn how much our life does or does not fluctuate.  Pre-Heroics/Raids Critt/Crush change isn't a problem.  Work on your stamina and armor value.  Once you get over 9-10k Armor, the 5mans will go much smoother through to your uncrit/uncrush.  Moving along from Stamina to Spell Damage. 

I have decided to start collecting some of my ideas and leveling information as I strive to re-achieve level 70 on a Tankadin.  At the behest of my RL brother (Ness/Carno) I have re-rolled Alliance on our old server Gorggy after all my RL friends /wowquit for AoC just a few weeks after I finally achieved 70 on Thunderlord.  In the process, I believe I'll use this blog to keep a few notes and tips to myself so that I'll remember them all when I gain level 70 again.  Hopefully prior to WotLK.

My first observation is how badly dissed the Scryers have always been for a newly level 70 Palatank.  I understank that the Vindicator's Hauberk is unavailable, but it is MUCH easier to cram Scryer rep through farming the Demon Hunter Trainee's than trying to slaughter demons.  Not only that, but the def/dodge buff, the near-felsteel gloves, and the availability of +Dodge enchantments are nearly completely ignored for one chest-piece that for most serious players is replaced just as soon as the player can get his first 200 badges (15 for Libram, 30 for this piece, 65 for that, then finally 100 for the Stoic Chestpiece which is nearly T4!!).  So for such a small advantage over the Scryers, most people advise you to roll Aldor.  Yet the shoulder-glyph is used for MUCH longer (and is better) than the Vindicator's Hauberk.  It makes little sense to me.