I started playing WoW as soon as it came out, having been a huge fan of Warcraft II while I was in elementary school. It wasn’t the first game I’d gotten wrapped up in, nor the first MMORPG. Before picking up WoW I’d spent a lot of time in Star Wars Galaxies, Earth and Beyond, and Planetside. Star Wars Galaxies, in particular, had eaten up a lot of time and money, and by the time I quit I was one of the top players on a very old server. Keep in mind, I was in 7th-8th grade at this time, when I should have been learning how to knuckle down and do work. All of these games, as most of them do, had served as means of escape from what was a very rough home life and a difficult time adjusting at school. My parents had already voiced concern about the amount of time I spent on games, but at that time they were fighting so loudly and so frequently that I didn’t think they were in any position to advise me on anything related to healthy habits.

As I got more immersed in World of Warcraft my home life continued to deteriorate, pushing me further into the game. My sister, who had traditionally helped me cope, had gotten her license and a car. These allowed her to physically escape our problems at home, while my best alternative was to bury myself in the game. It didn’t help that I had transferred to a private school that was 45 minutes from my house, meaning I was even more isolated by my lack of a car. Without even realizing it I fell into the same habit that a lot of people have been describing here: Marathon gaming sessions were the norm, I frequently missed entire nights of sleep and went straight to school without ever hitting the sheets, and I fiercely resented attempts to involve me in anything that took away from game time. My parents noticed this and moved the computer out of my room to a family space, hoping to make it harder for me to shut myself away with the game for hours at a time. This only led to more fights and confrontations about the amount of time I spent on the game. Often I would wait for my parents to go to sleep before sneaking back out to play for an extra hour or two. I was caught a few times, and these always resulted in tremendous screaming fights.

By this time I was well established in the game. I had a level 60 mage in full netherwind back when that was extremely rare, as well as an alt warrior who I’d geared out for PvP by using him on raids once we got the encounters down. At this point, I didn’t think about how strange it was that I’d levelled a warrior all the way up simply so he could take the drops from raids that I really had no reason to go on anymore with my mage. My guild appointed me class leader for mages, adding even more incentive to fritter away hours of my time, and attend redundant raids. Eventually, these two characters combined weren’t enough, and I created a rogue on a PvP server where some old Star Wars Galaxies friends had started playing. After we’d leveled together for a while, they started to lose interest, but I didn’t. I powered my rogue to 60 and started PvPing on him in the time between raids on my original server, eventually getting to high warlord without ever joining a guild. That caught the attention of some raiding guilds, netting me a spot on one of the big ones and further burdening my schedule.

Around this time my family situation finally reached the breaking point, but I continued to play relentlessly even after we were forced to move out of the house. I set up in the basement of a family member’s house where we were staying and played even harder than before, taking all of my 60s on endless Naxxramas runs as soon as it came out to try and be one of the first guilds to get to Kel’Thuzad. I didn’t care that I’d originally bought the game for PvP and didn’t even much ENJOY raiding. The game allowed me to shut out the world completely, so I stopped even pretending to do work at school, and I drifted further away from the friends I’d managed to retain.

The last summer before going to university (which I thankfully managed to get into), I played nonstop. Besides the 40 hours I put in at Panera Bread, I was glued to the screen. My diet consisted mainly of Coca-Cola and the baked goods they let me take home after my shift ended. It was pathetic.

I’m not sure how I shook the addiction. It happened gradually, as I slowly realized that I’d done everything I could do in the game. My options were limited to starting over with a new class, but that just gave me a slightly different perspective on the same old stuff. The duties I had with my guild meant that I already had a pretty good understanding of how it felt to play each class through PvP and endgame anyway. I’ll admit that I was in the 12:00 AM lineup for Burning Crusade, but that expansion is what finally did it for me. After a few weeks playing through Outland, I couldn’t stomach the prospect of grinding all of my meticulously geared characters up another ten long levels and starting the end-game process all over again in a slightly different environment. Playing through Blizzard’s attempt to keep me hooked ripped the wig off the WoW experience for me: you’re doing the same things over and over, but the rewards are slightly different each time and it feels good getting them and being told you’re doing well. But really, all the fancy new abilities and armor didn’t alter the game much at all, they just sucked away a whole lot of time before you could get to them.

My story has a happy ending: I gave my account to the SWG friends who came back for the expansion, they did something stupid with it and I am now permanently banned, no questions asked. It does give me a twinge to think of all the time and effort I poured into those characters being wasted, but I suppose wasting time is all they were good for in the first place. However vague the object, we all like to enjoy the fruits of our labor, especially when gratification is so tantalizingly meted out. After leaving WoW I managed to get my act together and transfer schools, and hindsight has helped me to see how bad my problem was. I’ll never get back the years of high school and middle school I spent in front of the computer instead of out doing the stupid things kids remember for the rest of their lives, but at least I know my weakness and can be on guard.

WoW is the perfect escape: It rewards us frequently, but not so frequently that we lose interest. It allows us to feel accomplished, adventurous, exotic and important far, far more easily than we can achieve that feeling in real life. WoW is predictable, reliable and controllable in a way that real life can never be. But everyone has to face up to certain facts about life eventually, especially those of us who have a tendency to drift off into dangerous escapes.

Notice Exorcism is not in it.. Your gonna want to use your instant cast with flash of light not Exorcism unless Exorcism will get them to where Hammer of Wrath is usable. You will also want to start the macro right b4 an encounter because the first cast is Sacred Shield you want that up at all times before you start taking damage! This macro will do pretty well. I have noticed it does not work as well as me.. But It will definatly show you what is needed in pvp encounters..
I have been toying with the different suggested Ret pvp specs online that people have been talking about and have spawned my own for my game play. The pvp spec I use is 7(holy)8(Protection)(56 Ret) Mind you this my toon is fully pvp geared with a little over 1200 ressillence. No enchants or gems with res on it.. You cannot stack res chants/gems and be competitve.. Most of your encounters in arena they are gonna have atleast decent gear so your crits are difficult to land.

* More Macros can be found here
http://www.wowwiki.com/Useful_macros_for_paladins
Just because they are posted dont mean you cant tweek them a tad and make them better…

Until you get to the 1100 mark of ressillence you will need to spec down in the prot tree to pick up Improved Righteous Fury, Toughness 5/5. It will help your survivabilty alot! I cant stress enough Once you dont need those as much you should up your dmg talents asap. It can be the difference in getting that tree down during a stun and winning a arena match. The only classes your gonna have trouble with is a holy pally and a Frost Mage (But they must be pro and know there class and be able to perform)

** Most important:
Bubble,Lay on Hands and Pvp trink usage….

Bubble only if your below 20% and DO NOT continue to fight during your bubble unless your opp is below 20% hp, HEAL YOUR SELF completly for round 2. If your dotted up and feared thats also a good time to pop your bubble but you cant waste time you should do it before the dots take there toll on your hp.. You must also get back to the target and do a better job of staying behind #1 and dps-n#2.
**Use your pvp trink for fears primarly and if nobody can fear you stuns. If someone has you stunned and you pop your pvp trink be spamming Hammer of Justice on them right after you come out of stun! ALWAYS stay behind the attacked! most classes have zero attacks for targets behind them! So why take damage when you don’t have to.. Another words DON’T BE A NOOB!
*Lay on Hands
Honestly I never use this on my self in arena, always my partners in crime if my 2 min cd isnt still ticking.. The only time i use it on myself is if I have already popped my bubble and my 2 min cd from that is over and im less than half health or im taking on 2 at a time and im at 50% hp

* One last thing….
Your specs will change with your gear… Once you grab some decent pvp gear you can consentrait more on your damage instead of survivabilty. You have to give to get right? And if your a Blood Elf Pally your OP! Hammer of Justice followed by Arcane Torrent once Hammer times out is 5 Seconds a caster has to take it like a man. Thats not even counting SOJ/JOJ and a rogue thought they could stun. BAH! Takes some practice, but keep poking you learn, the more times you get owned the more you learn… Oh and the Specs others have discussed are good ones as well, they just aren’t my playing style.. I like to do the damage not heal threw it…

I hope my knowledge of PVP Ret has been helpfull. I still learn new little tricks everyday for certian classes. But a ret pally spells are so situational once you get good at making instant decisions you will be unstopable! And also represent the most OP class in WOTLK atm!

Whats the point of beeing the fastest hunter that got max lvl if U play lame, because rogue would be better class for U…just an example. So consider many option and choose wisely, because U’ll loose a lot of your time plaing.