Post-cataclysmic journal from an AV-loving warrior

My goblin warrior Shoosa recently entered Northrend. I've done AV all weekend, now revered with my very own Frostwolf Howler. Between AVs, I've skilled up cooking.

Complains from the Lunch Lady

Cooking is much tougher to level to 300 now that a lot of the cooking recipes are simply unavailable. In particular, it's no longer possible to skill up using only fish.

I don't get it, Blizz: You give us Pilgrim which is like free cooking skill, but you make it way much harder to level the old-fashioned way? Design philosphy, please?

Mohaha, eat spell reflect, palatards!

I hate pally stuns with a vengeance. Okay, it's probably balanced to stand stunned for 6 seconds at level 85 with a lot of health and resilience, but at anything lower than that, 6 seconds is waaay too long. Before, when spell ranks existed, it lasted shorter at lower levels, and you bought ranks as you gained levels which increased the stun duration.

However, as a prot-warrior, I have an answer to that. With the glyph, Spell reflection has a 5 sec duration and 6 sec cooldown. If I play my move smart, I make sure to silence or stun the paladin for the last vulnerable second, and I'm - almost - unstunnable. In addition, it's hilarious fun to see the pally eating his own stun.

The exception is a smart pally that will burn my spell reflection on some other spell, but that's not necessarily a bit problem. I don't mind loosing to smart paladins. I mind loosing to everyone else, and I'm sure that not every paladin player I've met so far have been smart.

Oh, and it's also fun (though much harder) to stun Frost Mages with their own deep freeze.

Tough, huh?

After I realized what I could do, every game I've just charged straight for our mine. I can charge/intercept and just run through all the mobs there, pulling more than 20 without any risk of dying and no usage of cooldowns.

How? Rend one, Thunderclap to spread it around (with the talent), spam spell reflect and throw a shockwave once I've collected some 10+, and Victory Rush shines up like a christmas tree all the time.

I also took down a rogue who 3 levels higher than me while having more than 5 mobs on me. In fact, they helped me a lot. They granted me a ton of rage through a talent, and broke Blind and Gouge on me instantly.

However, there are tougher around...

No matter how tough I like to think I am, Prot Pallies are tougher in one-on-one fights. Possibly Blood DKs too, haven't met too many of those. Enough pallies around, though. With Word of Glory every 9 sec, it's hard to keep up with their self-healing ... so far.

At least I'll get something in a few levels... Shattering Throw. Say bye bye, bubble-boy.

Perhaps surprisingly, Resto druids are also tougher in one-vs-one. I just can't bring them down. Only instant heals, which I can dispel one of every 6 seconds, and they can slowly take me down with Insect Swarm and Moonfire. Emphasis on slowly, I ran away after a 2 min fight with a druid, and I still had half my health left. She, however, had full health and almost full mana.

Looking forward to the next AV weekend

Which is some 2 months from now. I really enjoy AV, and it almost never comes up with random BG. And I'm not a fan of queing just for that and waiting around forever.

For some weird reason, though, Isle of Conquest comes up a ton during prime time with the random, though. How come only IoC and not AV? No idea.

I have one design issue with AV, though. It yields *way* more honor and rep to those that fight north, and very little to those that choose to stay south and defend and retake towers/GYs.

A very simple change would be to grant the same "honorable defender" buff in AV as you get in AB. Wouldn't solve anything, but it would make slightly more people defend south. Right now, I understand why so many choose to rush north; it's just way better rewards, both on a win and a loose. Even if it was a critical defense that granted the victory.