So Why Bother?

So why am I blogging? I guess I'm blogging to talk about being a Blood-specced Death Knight and the Guildmaster of a 10-man guild. Within the limits of my knowledge of both.

I'm certainly not a "master" of the Death Knight class. Almost everything I've learned about the class has come from experienced players of my aquaintance and the theory monkeys over at Elitist Jerks. I've reached a level of gear and skill I'm comfortable with, but I can't pretend to know the ins and outs of it yet the way I do with Paladins and Tanking. I'm not even at a stage where I feel confident enough to comfortably guestimate useful stats beyond the normal Strength > AP > ArP > Crit > Haste priority.

Neither is my guild likely to be pulling a world (or even server) first out of it's arse any time soon. The core of my guild is some of the most skilled players I've been privileged to know in my time in WoW, but our dogged adhesion to 10-man content means we'll be continually pipped at the post by 25-man guilds who overgear the content and manage most 10-man hard modes and achievements by brute force.

What I know about Blood DPS is this:

*Big Numbers are cool. 11-12k crits make me happy and were something I never saw when Ulu went Ret.
*I can actually get excited about the presence of Armor Penetration on gear.
*Having a big two-hander is really really nice.
*Despite my fears, I don't feel like a budget Ret Paladin. The flavor is quite different.
*Death Knight Tier has been uniformly cool-looking since launch. The same cannot be said of Paladin Tier. (Alliance Tier 9 doesn't count for either class!)

What I know about managing a 10-man guild is this:

*It's easy for a core of exceptional players to shine.
*It's easy (and dangerous) to come to rely on that core. RL can and will sabotage every best-laid plan.
*There's a low effort-to-reward ratio. 10-man heroics will brutalise you in 10-man gear and offer loot comparable with 25-man normal modes.
*It can be demoralising to see people in 25-man gear steamrollering content that's kicking your arse.
*The victories are sweeter when you see 10 people lock in and perform an encounter flawlessly.

I dunno, does it sound worth it?