AV (not what you're thinking :P)

Recently, I started joining battlegrounds as a way to get rid of boredom ( dailies have become quite boring... I needed the gold though :| ). One of my favorites ( due to the fact that Alliance are always winning :D ) is Alterac Valley (AV). I usually just rush Relief Hut (RH) and setup a defense from there. If lucky, only one or two Hordes will be there trying to defend the hut. Since right now I am wearing pve gear, I usually am the one who tries to hold Drek while the others just dps him down.

Hordes usually hate it when we rush RH. To avoid this, they usually do a turtle then just defend RH. When this happens, I bathe in Horde blood >:). I can usually take a couple of melee players (with LoH) without healers. However, spellcasters are quite a pain. I usually just turn them to a chicken then runaway (unless they turn me to a sheep first <.<).

Death by stampede?

Finally we faced Magtheridon. A creature so powerful that 5 channelers were required in order to banish it. While we were busy discussing about what to do when engaging Magtheridon, someone from the raid accidentally disturbed one of the channelers holding him. As a result, all 5 channelers started attacking us and the gates suddenly closed. All hell broke loose as everyone started dashing towards the closed gates... One by one the raid members fell, bodies piling up by the gate. After the dust had settled, what remained were corpses lined up, an eerily familiar scene resulted from the image that I saw that night...

How to leave a raid (with style)

We were raiding Karazhan when we encountered a lot of anomalies, i.e. enemies suddenly respawning, not getting damaged and having a very large aggro range. After millions of wipeouts, we decided to regroup. Everyone started leaving the raid group when a certain hunter told us that "this" is the best way to do it. See picture below :P

All-around fighter part 3 (Murmur)

Shadow Labyrinth is a place occupied almost entirely by orcs and demons. Together with 4 others, Mayotta the crazy warlock, Yujin the tanking cat, Edencelestia the tiny, threat-grabbing mage, and last but not the least, Quago the uber healer, we sieged this place to try and destroy Murmur, the essence of sound.

There we stood before Murmur, a hulking elemental wielding a gigantic sword. Discussions took place on what each of us were to do and not to do during the encounter. Everyone is supposed to be inside the raised, inner ring in which Murmur is standing in order to avoid being hit by his spell Thundering Storm and everytime he is about to cast Sonic Boom everyone should run outside the ring to avoid getting hit. After all the planning, weapons were sharpened and buffed, we were ready.

Our first few attempts were disastrous, plans were not executed accordingly and Murmur totally owned us. Our dpsers always die early on, getting hit by sonic boom or Resonance, probably my fault for not going back to Murmur early enough after each sonic boom :|.

Anyway, we brought Murmur down to around 6% when again the dpsers got owned. Only two of us were left fighting, Quago the healer and me the tank. We continued fighting on amid the yells of our teammates to use Divine Intervention :P. A minute went buy, 2, 3 minutes, we were still alive and Murmur is getting some ass kicking. At around 2% of Murmur's health, Quago has gone out of mana. I was now relying on my survivability and praying that I wont get hit with sonic boom. Then it happened, I was busy looking at Quago's mana pool that I didn't notice Murmur casting sonic boom. It was too late to run now, so I did what every good paladin would do in situations like this. I bubbled (Divine shield). At around 1% health of Murmur's health, Quago went down, leaving me alone with the enraged Murmur.

Murmur started casting sonic boom, I ran outside the ring then went back inside. I stopped out of melee range then fired my hammer of wraths (my only long ranged attack which is usable when enemies are below 20% health). The spell critted which caught Murmur offguard, sending him back to the dark abyss from which he came. The battle was over and all that remained was a gigantic sword plunged on the ground where Murmur once stood.

All-around fighter part 2 (Prince)

We were raiding Karazhan and were now attempting to bring down the Master of Karazhan, Prince Malchezaar (widely known as the Prince). At first, the fight went on flawlessly, Infernal drops were far away and I was generating a decent amount of threat to hold the Prince as the other raid members tried to burn down him down. But as luck would have it (thanks to murphy's law <_<), Infernals rained down on the other raid members and near the place where I was holding off the Prince. The group scattered about trying to stay alive as the Infernal were slowly eating away their health. As I was trying to maneuver away from the Infernals, I lost the Prince's threat and he then made his way to our poor healers and ranged dps. He killed most of the raid members before I got his attention back. I was taking a lot of hits from him since I wasn't able to raise my shield most of the time while trying to stay away from the Infernals. My health waned as Prince continued to bash me with his fists and since the healers were busy trying to stay alive. Only two of us remained then, the other was a healer, a fellow paladin.

When the Prince's life was around 1%, I had to use my Divine Shield to avoid death (healer was still dodging Infernals). Upon seeing that I was immune to most of his attacks, the Prince turned around and his attention now focused on the healer. I quickly healed myself back to good health before canceling my Divine Shield. Unfortunately, I was too late, my fellow paladin didn't make it...

So there we were, standing on the rooftops of Karazhan, the Prince (around 1% health) and the great paladin (yours truly), the two of us alone, trying to duel it out. It was a sudden-death match, winner takes all. I made the first move, grabbed my shield and threw it as hard as I can to the diabolic Prince. I tried to pop my wings but could not do it, forbearance holding it back. I then opened my libram and searched for the page containing the Exorcism spell. I chanted the words and boom the Prince screamed, life draining away. However, this didn't stop him from charging towards me. Without wasting any second, I did another chant, calling upon the powerful holy magic, I then threw my charged weapon at the Prince, further cutting down his life.

With the Prince now on melee range, we engaged in "hand-to-hand" combat (me using sword and shield). I raised my shield everytime I had the chance, blocking his attacks and him receiving reflected damage. The fight dragged for about 30 seconds, both of us nearing death, my life held by the holy power of ardent defender. Swing, hit, block, cast a seal, release a seal, the fight went on until the last of the Prince's life was taken away by an exorcism spell. The Prince then crumpled down to the floor as I stood there gazing triumphantly at his lifeless body.

All-around fighter part 1 (Introduction)

"The paladins are the virtuous defenders of the weak and tireless enemies of the undead. Mixing elements of the warrior and the priests of the Holy Light, the paladin is a tough melee fighter." -wowwiki

Being a hybrid class however, also makes us the least preferred choice in pugs (pickup groups) especially as a retribution build. Why settle for hybrid when you can have pure dps classes? A nice argument... But then again, have you considered survivability? I have been part of great battles and have found out that there's always a chance that an encounter can go catastrophically wrong and cause heart-breaking wipes. In most of these situations, I found that the last classes standing are always paladins.

Plate armor, defensive spells, healing spells, healing seals and judgements, these are just a few of the advantages that we paladins have in terms of survivability.

I survived an encounter

Helm, check. Armor, check. Gloves, check. Boots, check. Weapon, check.

All dressed up and good to go. Checking myself from head to toe. All buffed up and natural. I'm feeling beautiful.

There we were again, standing inside Gruul's lair for another attempt to bring down the highly feared gronn overlord. Twenty (20) eager guild members were present in the raid. Armed with knowledge and experience from the past encounters, we marched forward.

Today, I am a damage dealer. With my great two-handed mace, I engaged Gruul, hammering his two large feet. I have successfully maneuvered myself away from other players in each ground slam that Gruul did. I smiled with satisfaction, I have avoided death in the first few minutes of the fight.

As the fight dragged on, Gruul grew to a total of 13 and with one powerful swing, he totally obliterated the powerful warrior who was occupying his attention. Luckily there were 2 backup warriors ready to take over for this kind of situation. However, with about 1% health remaining, Gruul easily disposed off the two backup warriors. With death in mind, I continued to swing my mace, throwing a few hammer of wraths everytime I got the chance. Gruul didn't make it that long, with spells and bullets hitting him from every direction, he fell to the ground headfirst, screaming in pain.

The guild erupted to a series of cheers and shouts. Drinks were tossed around as the sexy fighters danced away the victory. We have defeated Gruul once again. And this time we did it with just 20 people and in only 1 try. The best part of it is that, I survived the encounter...

Next stop, Magtheridon.