I’ve been playing World of Warcraft for a long time.  I’ve spent time raiding, soloing, pvping, and just about everything else you can imagine.

I consider myself to be in semi-retirement now, not being a member of a guild and not raiding on any regular schedule, but even still it takes a lot to make me smile anymore in relation to the game.

I’ve seen it all.  I was there for almost every major event in WoW history; if not in game then in spirit as I read the blogs that chronicle every nuance of every event.

But this morning, something happened that I wasn’t expecting and that I’ve never seen.

I was checking my mail in Shattrath City when there was an announcement — Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain would be performing in the World’s End Tavern (home of such auspicious patrons as Haris Pilton) at the top of the hour.

I looked at the clock — 5:59am.  Perfect.  I hopped on my wyvern and headed down to the tavern to see what the fuss was all about.

And sure enough, the band showed up and performed one song.  It was just me and a lone Draenei Pally in the audience, but I partied like it was 1999, stripped down to my tabard, and did my Britney dance.

Apparently this is not a new phenomenon, but it has escaped my attention until this morning when it hit me by complete surprise.  I /cried when they finished their set, and the Draenei Pally /comforted me.

With as much reading and playing as I do, I don’t know how I’ve always missed the L70ETC concerts, but I’m glad I did.

The surprise was able to bring a smile to my face from a game that rarely does anymore.  It’s always the little things…

(click on the pictures for something that doesn’t resemble a blurry mess)

I have a pretty small readership. I don’t think any of them cares when I write about World of Warcraft.

But I do it anyway because this is as much a journal for me as it is entertainment for them. So without further ado…

I’ve played a Retribution Paladin for a while now and put up with all that that entails.

Among other things, it means I get asked to heal more than I get to seek retribution on my foes.

It means I get kicked out of groups because my DPS isn’t up to par with Warriors and Rogues.

It means I’m mostly ridiculed in the community.

Even after working exceptionally hard and overcoming the gear curve, I was still reviled. Even though my damage was finally better than most of any DPS I could find in a pug, I was still the odd-man out.

That all changed Tuesday when Blizzard released Patch 2.3 – The Gods of Zul’Aman.

Retribution finally got its … well, retribution. Blizzard took a long hard look at Ret Pallies and buffed them up so that they could compete.

What does this mean? A lot of things, but mainly 3% more crit and 30% less threat. That’s all WoW math, but it basically means Ret Pallies can do a lot more damage in a group.

The first day I logged in after the patch, I was amazed to find myself standing atop the pile in my first Arathi Basin match. I did more damage than 39 other people. That’s amazing.

Last night I went into my first instance since the change and helped a pug clear Steamvaults. I demolished the other DPS in the raid. No one came close the damage I did.

All while maintaining my ability to heal and bless my fellow combatants.

Did they overpower the Ret Pally? Is it fair that a class that can already heal or tank also be outdamaging Rogues and Warriors?

Only time will tell. I expect there will be some nerfs in their future. No amount of nerfs, however, is likely to return the Ret Pally back to the hated spec he was before.

For now, life is good. I am playing a class and spec that is at the top of the heap. In an everchanging game of balance and tweaks, I know well that I must enjoy it while it lasts for nothing good lasts forever.

So the Horseman’s Helm has a hidden ‘use’ function that let’s out a maniacal laugh that I can do every 30 seconds. I’ve bound it to my bubble so that when I bubble, I let out a maddening cackle. Hilarious.

Blizzard is the best video game company ever.

It’s Halloween in Azeroth and there’s no in-game holiday that I love more than Hallow’s End. Most major holidays are observed in World of Warcraft, but this one is by far the best.

Why, you ask?

Well among other things are the tasty Hallow’s End Pumpkin Treat that you can get by doing a few quests to help the orc orphans collect some candy.

These beauties give you a 20 minute costume for the festivities — it’s random, but always loads of fun.

Then there’s the innkeepers all set up for your trick-or-treating pleasure. Once per hour you can hit up an innkeeper for either a trick or a treat depending on your luck.

If you get tricked, you’ll probably get turned into a bat or a cat, and sometimes even a frog.

But if you get treated, you get a special bag of goodies ranging from candy to flimsy paper masks of one of the other races of Azeroth.

And new this year is the ability to summon and fight one of the kings of fright — the Headless Horseman.

First you fight his full body. Then his head comes off and you fight that. Then they join together and you fight them again. Fun times for everyone.

Even better are the awesome drops, such as the helm of the horseman shown right.

Though my paladin is an extremely well geared Ret Pally, this helm is an upgrade for her and I plan on squashing the horseman’s head until he lets me have this.

He also drops broom mounts, little pumpkin pets, and even a pumpkin helmet so you can walk around with a gourd on your melon. What’s better than that?

The festivities begin today and last until Nov 1st. That’s a lot of time to kill the horseman, collect candy, and dress up like a female draenei. Let the fun begin!

I’m supposed to be writing a cryptid corner, but I’m fresh out of cryptids.

Well that’s not entirely true. I think we’re never fresh out of cryptids. I’m just out of compelling cryptids that I want to write about right now.

So instead, I’m posting an lolcat because lolcats are always good for a laugh and this one is Warcraft related.

For those that don’t know, /afk means “Away from Keyboard.” In WoW, it’s an easy way to let others know that although you are still logged into the game, you aren’t at the computer.

It’s taken on a life of it’s own though when related to the PVP elements of the game where people go AFK and just let others earn them a bunch of honor.

This led Blizz to make it such that if you go AFK while in a battleground, you immediately exit the battleground.

So then that led to creative uses of things such as the Logitech G15 Keyboard to make the game think you aren’t AFK when you really are.

And now there’s going to be a new feature in which people can ‘report’ people as AFK in a battleground, causing them to get no honor if enough people agree that said person is AFK.

Sounds like a good way to grief someone to me, but we’ll see how it goes.

The topic of going AFK and letting others do the dirty work is a long standing problem with WoW that the developers may never fully tackle.

EDIT: Lest you think that I think WoW invented AFK, I only say this picture is related to Warcraft because that’s Warcraft on the screen in the background.  It’s a warlock to be exact. /shudder