Murphy's law, absent mindedness, and shopping. . .

This weekend was a pretty even mix of good and bad for me. I played in a charity tournament for hockey on saturday. I ended up actually playing goalie for two teams because one team's goalie didn't show. Having not played goalie in six months, it was pretty rough. Also, in a stunning display of Murphy's Law (Anything that can happen, will, usually at the worst possible time), I took a puck right off the top of my knee. Normally, I would have thigh boards on my goalie pads, but these pads hadn't been used since I had them modded, and I thought "I never get hit there anyways". Yeah, I was wrong. There's still some bruising, the swelling is down, I skipped my game skating out on sunday just to be safe, but it doesnt feel like anything is structurally damaged. From playing so many games, I ended up getting pretty dehydrated, drank about 64 oz of gatorade and felt generally crappy for the remainder of saturday. However, sitting around resting means time with Wow!

I got a LOT done this weekend from a Wow perspective. From the alt standpoint, I hit level 61 with my mage, the gloves and robe dropped in Blood furnace (which I was pugging), I lost the roll on the robe (which was the one I really wanted, oh well). We had a level 70 druid tank who was pretty lowsy with aggro management. I might be way off base here, but I would think Enrage, Berserk, then spam mangle would generate plenty of aggro and you should be able to keep any number of mobs. I'm not exactly a druid tanking expert, thats just my impression. I died a bunch of times from random mobs peeling off. Oh well, I got XP and some loot.

My druid didn't do any instancing this weekend, I quested a bunch, moved into Zangarmarsh and have almost cleared it. I'm into 64, ready to head to terrokar, but I want to do everything in Zangarmarsh I can (I want to work Cenarion rep for the LW patterns. I love socketable gear for leveling, since I have a high level JC, it ends up better than the intro WotLK gear normally). I will probably try to Pug a couple of the instances there for some gear and XP.

My paladin had both good and bad this weekend. Remember how I said I hate jousting? I still do. I can't beat the Champion to become a champion with Argent Tournament. With the rewards soon to be released for that (BoA chest!!), I really would like to get that knocked out, but I really dislike the jousting and just can't seem to get the hang of it. I did read a guide somewhere that said if you have a buddy DPS the Champion while you break shields, you can burn him down quick. I will hopefully try that method, yes I know it's technically cheating, oh well, he won't get off his stupid horse and fight me man to elf anways.

On the good side, I finally got 40 emblems and was presented with a real tough decision. I've ALWAYS loved the BoA gear. I have a Druid I want to get to 80, and a shammy that I've started leveling. I love Hybrid classes, and I envision my shammy being a dual wielding orcish maelstrom of destruction. I've always been impressed with shammies I've seen at upper levels. I want one. However, on going to turn in my badges, I saw myself staring squarely at the Belt of Living Iron (not sure if thats the exact name, can't access wowhead at work). Extra stam, has a socket, plenty of defense (I also hit revered with Argent Crusade, so I can get the head enchat with them to give me a little more latitude while staying at the magic 540). I ended up buying the shoulders, but it was a REALLY tough decision. I figured, I KNOW I will get a ton of use from the shoulders, I had nowhere near enough stones to get the PvP ones (I have 104, you need like 200 I think), and I can always run more heroics (either prot or ret) to get more emblems. Since I hit revered with Argent Crusade, they don't have anything else I want, so I will probably switch my tabard to Ebon Blade or Wyrmrest Accord. EB gives my some nice ret boots, WA gives me access to a breastplate which is a small upgrade (I'm still wearing the quest one from UP). Another wrinkle is that when motivated, I get 750 rep a day with EB just through dailies, so I'll get the boots eventually anyways. Decisions, decisions.

By the way, good to see most of the fights turn out as I expected (read Bonnar lost, oh well). Brock went all "BROCK SMASH!!!" on Mir, I just wasn't confident he'd be able to assert himself that dominantly on Mir. Oh well. Now I get to wait around for the next Demian Maia fight. My dream match, Demian Maia vs Karo "the Heat" Parisyan. I have always rooted for Parisyan. I started in Judo when I was 17, it really changed my life, so I always root for any Judo players. However, I have come to respect the technical aspects of pure brazillian jujitsu (not from people like Matt Serra who although they have a black belt, never use it in their fights). Demian Maia is the best jujitsu technician I have ever seen in mixed martial arts. OK, enough gushing about a fight that will probably never happen. . .