I’m still here (I think)
Obviously, I’ve not been as prolific as I’ve been in the past. I thought I’d resurface.
Since the dissolution of my guild, I’ve not been on Zingiber as much. Which means I’ve not gone further on any raids, nor tested recent patches on a level 70 healpriest, nor… Most painfully, I’ve not been doublechecking the scripts. And given how popular those lessons have been, I don’t want to take you down a bad road.
I haven’t abandoned WoW, though. My hunter is 62, and I admit I’ve been lax. I haven’t run a single instance with other players, though I’ve demonstrated to my satisfaction that if I can solo – well, me and my pet – anything where the mobs are almost gray. On the other hand, I’ve been lax at practicing kiting. Chain trapping good, kiting… suck. Part of that is for the same reason I’m not so good at PVP – the fast-twitch mouse movements are a failing. I spin too far or not far enough. Ah well, since I think it’s a mandatory thing for the hunter to know, I’ll practice some more. I also need to do a bunch of macro work on Urtica – and I’ll share once I like what I’ve got.
On another front, I’m raising a new character which will expand my learning some more. It’s a paladin. My daughter and I were mutually lamenting how we aren’t together when playing – she plays a healadin as a main, I play a healpriest, and it’s rare that we’re both wanted at the same time for the same run. Our other alts are otherwise committed and disparate enough that they don’t work and play well with each other (though eventually my hunter and her rogue will reach 70. BTW, in her opinion shadowstep and cloak of shadows make rogues overpowered. She loves it.) ANYWAY… She decided she really wanted a tank as an alt. So did I. There were some other wants, and it all came together as:
She is going to level a warrior (human) prot from the start. We’ll duo, and my paladin will be her paired healer right up to level 68. At that point my priest will heal for her tank, after which her healadin will cover for me while I suss out being a tankadin. I’m aware I’ll be a worthless tank at first as I learn, but hey – she’s willing, and in the long run it’ll work to our fun. As I learn new lessons I’ll pass them on.
Adding to the slowdown is: unsettled things in my real life work (Not about staying employed, but opportunities and advancements that are supposed to happen and will cause changes but keep being delayed…); plus my other hobby of watching politics and economics which are both getting busy… I could do with more time, but suspect I’d just fill it with more stuff.
I’ll post more as I go, but in the meantime,
Have fun.
Priestly Endeavors - a gaming blog 
Speaking as someone who has leveled a Warrior to 64 and a Paladin to 53 I would suggest not going Prot on her Warrior and going Prot on your Paladin. Warriors can tank pre TBC very effectively with Fury or Arms since Defensive Stance, Taunt and Sunder Armor are all you really need and going Fury or Arms will mean duoing will be faster since you will kill faster. Also main healing as a Prot Paladin should be a problem either as long as you use the right tools, though going Holy would help. When duoing though you can AOE certain quests using the Paladin and single DPS the others with the Warrior, sounds amazingly efficient to me.
Either way you go though it sounds like fun. As an FYI my Paladin was Prot from 30-51 when he switched to Ret and got an Ice Barbed Spear, my Warrior was Fury from 10-mid 50s, then finished to 60 Prot since the guild was short on tanks at the time. At that time I went to Arms for PvP fun till I started Outlands and went back to Fury. BTW being a Priest main myself I like reading your posts about your alts since it shows what else you have experience with. Nothing is worse then someone who thinks they know everything about playing every class but hasn’t ever played them. Also I find it helpful as a healer to understand the mechanics of other classes (I can’t tell you how many times Feign Death has freaked me out) and the best way to understand them is to play them.
Glad to see your’re still alive! Looking forward to posts about your Paladin, I hope you and your daughter have a great time leveling together!
Runnin’ with yer daughter sounds like fun – wishes ya both the best with it. Agrees with Bernard that full prot is overkill – I had no problems tanking even the early Hellfire and Coilfang dungeons with only half me points in prot, and putting most points into dps will make leveling up easier. Maybe aim to have 5/5 deflection and 5/5 anticipation around 40th season and everything else offensive – that’d be me 2 coppers.
Oh, I agree Prot Warrior is something of overkill. Thing is, both of us are rather experienced players and have done it ‘the easy way’ up to at least 50. Remember her main is a 70 pally – and if I tell you she did about half her leveling as holy you’ll understand. While I had a warrior to 55 once upon a time, the alt warrior I have now is ‘only’ 39.
No, we’re doing this as a bit of a personal challenge. In fact I almost (almost) decided to do One More Priest — as holy — just to complete the full challenge. But, well, I want a tank up there, and I’ve already got two priests. And I know that working WITH someone is a lot more fun than individual grinding.
To a certain extent, we’re “taking the hard way” as a personal challenge. Both in full awareness that we can flip easily to the ‘faster’ spec if we have to.
In short – solely for fun.
Thanks for the good wishes, though.
I’ve leveled Dwarfvader as Prot Warrior to level 49. I ran with a pally from 16 to 49. We started doing instances in our guild at Scarlet Monastery, so some of the xp came from instancing.
The combo of warrior/pally is very nice, especially when things hit the fan or a hard pull is in order. The most important thing, though, it the last part of your comment. Solely for fun. If you aren’t concerned with leveling, then it doesn’t matter how long it takes to kill mobs. Time spent with your daughter is the payoff, not a level.
Gratz on that!
Dax
On the subject of your Daughter playing WoW, My 5 year old loves watching me play WoW, so we created a cute little gnome warlock (she likes having a bad little friend that gets to play with fire) who is now level 5 (just like her). She can navigate the low lvl zones fairly well, but just cant understand why a cute little puppy dog (wolf) would run up and try to eat her. I think her lock is some kind of animal loving pacifist.
Just wondering when I should get a second account and level a character with her.
Doug – wholly up to you. When you think she can manage all the issues, then it’s time. My daughter is 15, so I’m in a bit of a different situation.
I’m man enough to admit that 5 year olds playing WoW, even a little bit, blows my mind. Although I suppose it shouldn’t. After all, having bad little friends that can play with fire is pretty much why I play the game…
…and welcome back Kirk!
You guys should level up as Fury and Retribution respectively until at least level 62, then you can switch specs to level in instances through the last levels (instance leveling is fast and fun, if you can gather decent groups).