Ding! x2

I finally got around to hitting 85 on my priest and rogue this weekend. The priest was pretty easy, all it took was the daily fishing and cooking quests to put her over the top. The rogue to a bit more, as I still had about 65% left to go. With SotA as the weekend battleground, I managed to get some easy victories. It seems that if the horde doesn't get to the relic, they just give up. One time I managed to make it all the way to the relic chamber and click on the relic without getting attacked by a single opposing player!

I actually don't mind playing my rogue in PvP mode, mainly because I have some control in when I'm going to be in combat. I must admit to much guilty pleasure in killing off Horde rogues while they have their attention on attacking another player! I compared the XP and honor/valor gained by doing PvP versus PvE random runs, and I gain more doing random dungeons than battlegrounds after the first battleground win. I out of the six dungeon runs, I only saw Stonecore and Vortex Pinnacle.

One Vortex run, the tank was completely new to tanking, allegedly, and made for an interesting run. No one got mad or rage quit, and we slowly made our way through. I was able to vanish on most of the wipes and save myself a little repair bill. We had 3 CCer's, but he didn't seem to notice. Several times he attacked either my sapped target or the mage's sheeped one. The hunter didn't even bother after his first frozen target was hit by the tank. The healer was nearly OOM after every big pull, and an inspection of the tank showed little to no tank gear - it was almost all DPS gear.

We discussed his gearing choices and resources he could get info via friendly chat, and it wasn't a show stopper unlike my first run of Vortex. After the first few pulls, the tank said that it wouldn't work with this healer and to kick him (the tank). This was followed immediately by recriminations by the healer, after which they both dropped group. Whe the other DPS and I were waiting for a new tank and healer, I checked the armory on the healer. Now I know what the tank saw. I don't play a holy paladin, but I don't think you can do very well as a healer with a combination of PvP DPS gear and PvE tank gear. It might work in pre-Cata runs, but not past level 80. I think he had one piece of INT gear and less mana than the paladin tank.

My last run of the night turned into a non-run. I zoned into the Stonecore. While still waiting on the other DPS to zone in, I noticed that the tank was the same "new" tank from one of my Vortex runs earlier in the day. I say allegedly "new" to tanking, because there was just something "off" about this guy. I don't know if he was honestly just learning, real young, or just trolling. Earlier I could only inspect about half of his gear in the UI. I also noticed that I couldn't seem to use Tricks of the Trade on him during my previous run. I had no issues with any other tanks, only him. I still could only inspect about half his stuff before the UI stopped popping up info, and again only on him. I don't know if there's an add-on that can block your stats from other players, but it just seemed weird to me. We were still sitting at the entrance five minutes later waiting for the last DPS to zone in, and the tank wanted the group to kick him, which they couldn't do because to the timer.

I finally got fed up with the antics and dropped group. I spent the deserter debuff doing archaeology, and filled the last two XP bars that way. The "noob" tank joined the PvP healer on my ignore list, and I logged out of my latest level 85 character.

10x85:
Hunter 85
Deathknight 85
Rogue 85
Priest 85
Warlock 80
Mage 79
Druid 76
Warrior 55
Paladin 58
Shaman 0