User:CapJack  

Loveable protection paladin, who should have just stuck to Holy - Dilbrt

Have you ever been to see billy? - The creepy captain from Airplane

Game History

I started MMOs in FFXI. I played a Black Mage up to level 60 as well as a smattering of other jobs. I started getting bored with this as it would require too many hours to play and the economy was very tough for me to get into. My buddies turned me on to World of Warcraft and I fell in love with the Paladin class. I've never been a hardcore gamer, only playing when I could take the time out of my school, work, friends, and girlfriend taking the rest of my time.

Early WoW Career

I really wanted to play Paladin but my friends all wanted to play Horde, so I ended up making a druid. I go tthe druid up to about the 30s when a couple of my friends wanted to try Alliance. I jumped at the opportunity and started leveling my Paladin. They eventually lost interest in Alliance and went back to Horde, but I just kept leveling my Paladin even while they weren't on and I got him to 60. I tanked through some of the early instances and started leveling some alts. Eventually, I got bored and quit the game for a while until BC came out.

Burning Crusade

As soon as Burning Crusade came out I started leveling a Female BE Paladin (because I was sick of looking at a guy's ass), now being able to play my favorite class with my friends. In about 3 month's time (15 game days) I got my Paladin to 70 and I've been gearing her up ever since. I first worked on my protection set and got it to be uncrittable and eventually uncrushable, working on my healing set while I could as well.

I've always been in a guild with my friends, but I temporarily joined a raiding guild to see what it was like. The guild was very loosely organized, and within just a few weeks of being there, my experience as a Paladin and my research of the boss fights in kara allowed me to essentially be the Paladin class leader, and kind of the raid leader, without actually being the guild leader. This went on for a couple weeks and we progressed to the Curator relatively quickly. Trying this for only a couple weeks it became clear to me that I could not manage this schedule as well as the rest of my life. Needing to focus on school, I quit WoW again to work on that. The guild apparently disbanded when I left as I was their Main Tank and has since joined other guilds and are probably through Sunwell now.

After my 2nd quit

I started back up again a few months later and rejoined my friends. Since then I've tried out all 3 specs and have kept shifting between them as one piques my interest one week, and another on another week. I have gear sets for pre-kara for each spec, and have recently been doing pvp as both ret and holy for fun. Though recently I've only been doing Arena every so often as my enthusiasm for end-game content has waned, having done every instance in the game and holding no aspirations for being able to raid any time in the future. Since then I've been leveling up some other chars and have recently been leveling my druid again. He's now 52 and I plan on taking him up to 70.

Forum Activity

Newb

I first started getting on the forums around the mid-40s for my Paladin. I had some time to spare at work and I wanted to read more about the class. Finding the class forums on WoW to be too convoluted, I thought I would try out the forums here. I had posted on the FFXI allakhazam site, so why not do it for the WoW. My very first post for WoW was kind of cocky and saying how awesome I was by deviating slightly from the norm in terms of leveling. (My famous 11 points in ret to 31 points in holy method). I wasn't too cocky in my post, just explaining what I did and how it worked with me, and I was met by Cathela with limited enthusiasm and saying how ret damage will plateau around the mid-50s (which of course Cath was right). I met some people back then that are still on here now, most notably Maulgak. I quit posting on the forums around the same time I first quit WoW.

Triumphant Comeback

I came back after I started leveling my BE Paladin. I got her up pretty high by the time I started posting again. By then I had gained a lot more insights into the Paladin class from leveling it up twice and from my previous forum experiences. More boredom at work meant I had more time to read up on the different aspects of the class and the game in reason. I was sad to see that Cathela wasn't around on the forums any more, and reading over the old FAQ, I noticed that it wasn't even updated for BC content. So I decided that if no one else would do it, I would write the new FAQ.

I first asked the forum's permission to write a new guide. I thought that would be the best way to go, since while I was known, I wasn't known too well and I was considered pretty new to a lot of the newer people who joined after I quit the first time. Once people were enthusiastic of me doing it (everyone except Bodh who was skeptical about my lack of raiding experience), I decided to start writing it out. It took me a couple weeks to compile all the data that I wanted to include into it, and once it was all said and done it was met with pretty high critical acclaim I felt.

Philosophy and Scandal

I have always tried to post in here with giving the most concise information without trying to hurt anyone's feelings. Kinda radical, I know, but I really don't like stirring up conflict if I can avoid it. At the time there was a lot of hatred flowing around towards Retribution Paladins (well hatred is a strong word, but they were very much looked down upon, and some hurtful statements were being thrown to Retribution practitioners. Mostly in jest and it was pretty mild, but it was still pretty evident, and I felt it wasn't helpful) and I decided to post a long thread stating how much I didn't like this going on and kinda pleading with the board to try to give advice without the stinging comments attached to it, or sometimes only the stinging comments included with no advice.

This was met with both support and dismay. Some of the older forum members thought that I was calling them out and basically judging them, trying to turn the forums into something of my own creation and trying to modify their behaviour. This wasn't my original intent, but I could see their point. Of course I got support from the Retribution Paladins who had been discriminated against as well as some other people. I do kinda regret posting it in some ways, and don't regret it in the other. I still feel that it needed to be said, but I think I could have worded it better. Anyway, after this post and feeling the feedback and the trend of the community I decided to lay low a bit. Still giving advice occasionally, but I didn't want to stir anything more up, and I think it has gotten a bit better since then. It may be in large part due to Blizzard making Retribution more viable in raids and in PvP, but I like to think that the letter had a small part to do with it.

Current Activity

I have kinda gone back to how I felt when I first started posting. I try to help out when I can, but I don't try to stir anything up anymore or do anything grand in the forums. My job has made me more busy making it harder for me to find time to post on here, as that was the majority of the time that I would post. All in all I've really enjoyed how things have been going on these forums, and while it's not a really big deal in the grand scheme of things, it's pretty big deal to me. I've really enjoyed the company of my fellow forum members and just the overall sense of community from that.