Sigh.
Life’s a pain in the arse sometimes. You toddle along, thinking everything’s going grand, then all of a sudden the rug gets pulled from under your feet and you have to pick yourself back up again and get on with it.
A week ago Thunder were fine. We were making progress in 10 man on Lich King and 25 man was very slowly, but steadily progressing.
Then 2 players left, which was a huge blow. Then another one. And another 2. Then another one, and another one after that, followed by another one.
In the last 24 hours another 3 players have left, including our Mage class master, Rosey.
At this point in time, the prospects for Thunder progression in 10 man is looking dim. 25 man progression is a complete no no. And even getting a 25 man together is looking dicey. If we do it’ll be a farm of the first 4 bosses every week followed by wipes and more wipes on night 2. It’s very frustrating, especially as all bar 1 person left Thunder for another guild, Haribo.
In hindsight I don’t blame any of them. They wanted to progress in 10 and 25 man, and that, for them, just wasn’t happening with any great speed in Thunder. I can understand their situation, because I was hoping we were going to be killing the Lich King in 10 man very very soon, which would open Heroic mode up for a play about with.
More frustrating because Wednesday night’s 10 man run saw me spend the last frost emblems I’ll need to for major upgrades. My average item level is now well above the item level of gear in 10 man normal (average of 256 vs 251 gear in 10 man ICC). My Gearscore (bleh, I know ppl hate it, but I find it useful) is about 16 short of 5,800, which is pretty damn high. And I’ve started regularly hitting 8,500 DPS against the likes of Festergut, who is used these days as a DPS check.
As for the Retribution in the title?
The druid was boring in the end. Too slow in the DPS department at low levels, and shifting form constantly was a drag.
So I’ve rolled up a Retribution Paladin! 
I’ve logged, so far, 33 hours on her in just under 3 weeks, and she’s already sitting at level 37!
There are several things about the Paladin class that make this such an enjoyable experience so far:
Survivability: LOL! How about taking on +5/+6 mobs and not even breaking a sweat? Groups of 5/6 mobs simultaneously, and all above your level? Easy!
Downtime: Eh? What’s that? Paladins have spells and abilities that not only cause damage, but replenish health and mana. Coming out of a fight, if I have less than 95% health then it’s a bad thing. Very frequently I’m back at 100% health & mana before I finish looting the body.
Travel: You also get the journeyman riding skill for free as part of your training, with a free mount, plus talents that increase your on foot and mounted speed by up to 15%. Again, less downtime and more time crushing skulls!
So I’m having an obscenely fun time with her. I’ll get her to 80, as the intention was always, and will be to have her as raid backup should I need to play a tank or melée DPS. We’ve been in need of both recently, and with the recent departures from the guild we have a spot (or two) for one. Hopefully I’ll be able to get her to 80 within the next 6 weeks or so, and it won’t take me long to get her ICC ready after that.
The reason for the quick levelling has everything to do as well with the Heirloom gear I’ve decked her out in:
Polished Breastplate of Valour
Altogether that gets me a bonus 20% experience, which soon stacks up and the levels fly by!
So having a ton of fun on the Pally, and a return to melée after playing a Regen Scrapper in City of Heroes. \o/
