Starting the AoE Grind

I've been referring to this post on the basics on how to AoE grind. I've actually tried it as soon as I ding'ed 35, but without reckoning at that level, my health was quite insufficient against more than 3 mobs, so I forgot about that for a while. After instancing and thinking, "Okay. drinking after every pull is ghei. Time to manage mana," I suddenly remembered my seal of light and seal of wisdom, so there I was, in my 3-man RFD (see previous post), juggling between Judgements, SoL, SoW, consecration, holy shield, and trying darn hard to hold threat with the goal of finishing the fight with full mana. If I consetrated enough, I could tank with no downtime, but I've learned that in order to achieve that, I had to pay with occasionally straying mobs. Having a warrior dual wielding fiery weapons didn't help at all. I'll try more of that later in a non-twink group.

In order to practice management of mana and health, I began trying to quest while AoE grinding in STV. So I would except a quest, get to the area, and immediately run around to collect mobs. I'm listing all the steps I go through while AoE grinding:

1. Prop SoL.


2. If mobs are spaced out, run around and hope they won't lose aggro while you collect 'em. 3+ preferred.


3. Judge SoL on one, prop it back up.


4. Consecration. I find that I can't do this more than once and going out of the fight with satisfying amount of mana.


5. I usually holy shield once or twice; low amount of mana required, good if you're taking extra damage or like to see the yellows flying up. I know I do. I take screenies just because of yellows sometimes. Oh hell yea, baby.


6. Wait... wait... till SoL runs out. If mana is running low, I judge SoL and prop SoW up.


7. Repeat.

Killing was painfully, painfully slow, and I was actually thinking of getting a book to read, but y'know, surviving is 1/3 of the challenge (oh we will survive). The other 2/3 is ending the fight with full mana and health. First few times I had 'FAILZ' on my mind, as I was in a constant near death, or survived with full health but low mana, or vice versa. As lately I've been getting better and better, and unless I get really lazy and just want to kill things fast, I end up with zero to no grinding time. Except rounding up all those mobs together. Right now I can survive on up to 8, guts too small to try more.

I told my guildie how much I enjoyed AoE grinding, and he said that his pally survived a fight with King Bangalash and 2 adds with 75% mana. So I thought that maybe I could do it, and decided to do it. And oh hey, I survived with almost full health and certainly full mana, with healings from SoL only. I would've never dreamt of doing this with my rogue or druid (latter due to laaaag). But then again, I was always a crap dpser anyways (or if they can, maybe I'm just a crap leatherwearer in general). Took me around 2 minutes to kill King B, but in the end I was a happy pally who has shed that lie down and die motto.

I want a prettier UI. Funny how I can take so much, but then immediately hit bubble when ganked by 2 casters.

Edit: I don't know why Shor's pic on the left looks awfully pixelated and stretched out, but eh, too lazy to correct. You can marvel at her matching set anyhow.