Planning for the Trip: Leveling & Specs

Took care of the rough profession planning yesterday, so now it's on to the more difficult job: getting the team from here to Icecrown with as few casualties as possible. I'll admit that I've only planned this out a bit in advance; with the size of our group, I've got some time to flesh out the rest of the plan.

I'll be leading the way into Northrend like I mentioned yesterday. "A real leader leads from the front," or some such nonsense. I think the guy that said that never had to pay plate repair bills. Regardless, I'll be blazing the trail and I'll be doing it protection-style. Any other spec would just feel awkward, plus the new tricks I picked up from the trainers should make this a bit smoother of a trip than previous adventures. I've had the chance to practice for a few weeks with everything, so I'm excited. I get to go see new places, meet new unhappy people/things with sharp pointy teeth, and Shockwave the daylights out of them.

After I've gone in and cleared a bit of a path, it'll be Solannis' turn, our resident healadin. Now here's where we've got a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, Sol's been a healer for ages. It's what he's geared to do and it's what he knows best. On the other hand, he says he wants to try tanking. Personally I have no issues with this; I'm always one to welcome another tank to the fold and it would be nice to have his insight on paladin tanking for some pally vs. warrior tank discussion. The only issue I see is that his gear isn't exactly great for tanking. It should suffice for some early dungeon work, but it could definitely use some help. Guess I'll have to smith some more tanking plate while I train.

Third on the list is actually going to take some work on my part. Along with all of the news of Northrend, we've also heard about a group of the Lich King's death knights that have defected and are looking for a little payback against the big man himself. Assuming that this is the case, I'll be recruiting one of these death knights for the team. I'm sure some of the people on the team might take some objection to this, but honestly - we have a paladin who was originally trained to steal power from a Naaru and a warlock who's out of his damn mind. As long as people do their job and don't reflect poorly on the team's image now, I don't really care what your past looks like. I want someone who can give me another tanking perspective besides Sol's and my own, so we're getting one. Man, I'm gonna have to make a lot of plate...

Once the three of us have gotten settled in Northrend, then I'll have to figure out where we go from there. Do I push the warlock or the hunter so we've got a damage specialist available? Do I make Mr. Boomkin go bear so we've got all of the tanking bases covered? Do I let the shaman keep having fun zapping things or do I tell him to strap his healing gear back on? Or do I head back to Orgrimmar and tell the mage and priest to get off their asses and do some work?

Planning for the Trip: Professions

There's only eight days (seven if you're already in line for the zeppelin) before most of the adventurers in Azeroth, including myself and the rest of my team, head over to Northrend to see what Arthas has been up to while we were off playing with the Burning Legion over in Outland. There's also some stories about mad dragons, giants, and undead the likes of which are worse than anything we've ever seen before. Because, you know, regular zombies and abominations of nature just weren't cutting it any more. Considering what the scouts have told us and what my own research has shown, we're gonna need a plan before we go in there.

I'll be the first one to go ashore and start exploring. The group we regularly work with will need a tank for their initial work, and I think it's written somewhere that the leader is supposed to go into the dangerous places first to show his men there's nothing to fear (gonna punch the scribe that started that nonsense...). Regardless, this works out with the plans I've got in place for the team's tradeskill work. I'm the blacksmith and only miner left on the team, so I'll be able to start smithing some plate armor for myself and Solannis, our resident paladin. From what I've read, there's a few pieces of equipment from the new trainers that should compliment my current tanking gear quite nicely. There's also some caster-type plate for Sol, so that should help him.

Once I'm a fair way into my smithing work, then Sol can pick it up from there with his jewelcrafting. I wish I didn't have to split the effort, but I think the smithing work will pay off more for us while we make our way to Icecrown than cutting some slightly shinier gems to put in whatever random pieces of equipment the questgivers decide to pawn off on us for their errands. I might also get some help with materials from some friends of the team, since our little group has kind of become the local one-stop shop for most crafting work.

After those two skills are out of the way, that just leaves inscription (either need someone to send Sol herbs or to yell at the hunter/druid to get to work herbing), engineering (hunter and lock are on their own for this one for a while), leatherworking (I'll work with the shaman on this one eventually), and alchemy (need to drag Mr. Boomkin's butt through Outland first). There's also enchanting, but right now the only enchanter we've got is a mage who hasn't managed to learn how to ride a slow mount yet, so I'll have to call in some favors for that stuff.

I suppose that will suffice for a plan for profession work. Now to just figure out how exactly to get everyone from here to Icecrown in one piece. That's gonna be a bit more work.