Tanking Adventures: Cata Edition.

VoA Version 2.0.

I went in with my guild and 1 shot the new Argaloth on 25 man. We tried last week but ran out of time on TB starting. This boss really is a face roll, the only real chance to not kill him is slow DPS. When we had our kill I was to pull the boss. Even in guild runs you have those who need to newb it up...lol Our "lockstar" face pulled the boss which in turn got me yelled at for not having him in a proper position. He was in fact killed so we DPS'd him with 24 and still had a good 20 seconds before the enrage timer.

Now time for me to brag a second. My DPS is on the low side in raids right now compared to 5 mans. Well, yes I know there is the Vengeance thing but tanks I'm tanking against seem to have me riding the treat line with them so I either have to auto attack or stop attacking all together. I guess I will take a low DPS number to get a kill no doubt. Not really sure why, I've never been the "big" threat guy like some of my other tanks but so far in Cata its been like this. I'm proud of that. Here is the bottom line thou, as long as the DPS doesn't catch me or my Co-Tank it really is no issue.

Blackwing Decent

We had a few who had to leave after killing Argaloth. We broke into a 10 man group and picked Blackwing Decent for a run at the bosses. We had no real raid leader in our group so it was done by committee.

We took a run at Magmaw 1st. OH MY is that trash annoying. How can a mob switch targets, stun you for 5 seconds and do 95% of your health as damage? I felt useless as a tank. After a few wipes on said trash (one at 1%) we killed it. What an amazing feeling to have no trash to pull the boss...lol

Our group set up for Magmaw wasn't great. No hunter or mage and we couldn't decide which way to do the boss. We did get hime to 65% or so but after three wipes we took a shot at Toxitron and his crew.
By compassion that trash is cake!

We watched the vid, had a bit of discussion and started the pulls. We did manage to get the fights rotation and got them down to 40% and wiped. After a few more hours it got no better so we called and are putting said we'd give it a shot later in the week. About 20 mins later invites were out and a whisper was sent, we were going on Thursday for another shot.

The Bastion of Twlight

Again no raid lead and no one with a clue other than "tankspot" and another Youtube vid that we all watched. According to the "experts" we had the bad set up. Our opponent? More Whelps and the Slate Drake.

My impressions of the fight? The debuff the boss puts on you is FAST, DPS really has to allow you to get time on the drake that gets MC'd and only real problem with this fight how fast the raid wide damage goes out.

Our strategy? We pulled the Boss - Slate Drake and Whelps. After the first minute of doing that the fight is cake. Raid damage is non existent and all it takes is a tank swap.

We gave the twin drakes a go for 3 or 4 attempts and our best was 50%. Its pretty fun, lots of movement and totally doable. Again the raid damage is pretty harsh and I think Blizz has said "tanks learn how to use cooldowns and Heals learn how to manage mana" with this 1st tier of raiding.
All in all it was a fun week, raiding is slightly ramped up compared to what we seen in Wrath.

The Dread of the Transfer

An ode to the gamble of moving your toon...

I’m using my Blog to vent about something I truly enjoy doing, playing WoW. Why has it been so rough? Please read on.

Today was a horrible day in my WoW life. My confidence is shaken a bit and not having to much fun. Oh…and I haven’t even started raiding yet. Really, I haven’t raided yet.

As much looking around as you do and as much research as you put into moving guilds, you don’t know what’s coming to you get there.

As Wrath was coming to a close, my guild I was in Jinx was going in a different direction or so I thought. Icecrown’s talent was drying up a bit as the number 3 guild left for the alliance. I like Jinx a lot, good raiders but it felt like a job with them. You logged on to raid and jumped on vent and after the raids were over everyone logged off and vent was silent. It was odd for a group that got along like they did, communication was almost non existent.

I did some research, no other guilds on Icecrown were looking for tanks. I wanted to tank and Jinx didn’t have a solid spot for me. I didn’t get demoted but they were unsure of the 10/25 thing. I chose Hyjal for a home. PST server, big Horde population, decent raiding population and PVE. For months everywhere I looked was a guild named Macabre of Hyjal looking for players. They stated they were unique in that there was no drama and the offered multi 10 man teams. I seen many, many recruitment posts looking for people. I gave them my time and here is what happened.

I applied to Macabre, talked to two officers and was accepted. Both were looking for a tank and I told them when I xfered over I’d talk with them more and seeing as they weren’t raiding there was no big hurry to pick the team. I xfered a few toons to Hyjal. Why a few? Well Cata was rolling around and I wanted a few farmers as well as my main on the same server. So I spent my RL money to do this. Yes I’ll say it again, I spent money with the understanding I was getting into a “drama free and different type guild”.

About five days after I arrived, there was also about six others who xfered over to Macabre of Hyjal. Not with me but just coming for the “uniqueness of Macabre” that we were all told existed.

I logged on one day and the guild I spent money for fell apart. But not in a way that normal guilds fall apart. See the “hard core” teams, ya know the ones who still raided after 4.0 to get their “Light of Dawn” title didn’t feel comfortable being in Macabre any longer. The took the 50 “best” players and made a new guild called . The biggest excuse for the mass exodus was that the ’leet players were no longer having fun playing with people they didn’t know.

Can I understand that? Sure. I want to know those I play with but the kicker is the new people that just xfered weren’t offered those spots. You see, all the recruiting that Macabre did for the individual teams wasn’t known. Everyone was just recruiting and no one really had control of it. So yes the guild did grow fast.

As the guild split over the next few days, I found out that the lady they left Macabre with “casual” and didn’t really want the lead but stayed for the better of the guild. The forums light up with bickering back and forth. As the Dread people had access to Macabres’ web but not the other way around.

Those that left made it know to those of us left behind there was plenty of talent to start new teams for raiding, that the comments that were made were childish and that we now had a casual atmosphere and they could go play with like minded people.

I get all that, I do. The problem lies with those of us who were caught in transition. I know of 3 tanks who came to tank for this guild. Two have xfered off server due to lack of core tanking spots right now in game.

I’m kind of stuck at this point. I’m in a good guild with decent talent. Very friendly but again. Its not progression, its very “friendly” and I’m the new tank looking in to get a spot. I have been told I have a tank spot, I’m tanking heroics and I’m going to do Ret as an off spec in Cata.

Here is where the rough day part comes in, where my confidence has taken a hit. I guess this is over a few days really. I’m new so when I ask to run a heroic I usually get asked if I want to DPS *my dps set is SOOOOO bad* or no response when I ask. I’ve had a few REALLY horrible pugs lately too. We did the 1st boss in SKF today for 18 minutes and never got him below 50%. I DPS’d ToT today and pulled an amazing 3800DPS on the final boss *never downed him* cause I wasn’t the worst dps in there. The healer just kept saying over and over in G chat how bad that run was, how horrible the DPS did and how it hurt his ego that he even healed such a place. I was in another run (tanking) where we wiped 3 times and one of the DPS was tired of beating his head against wall and was not really into wiping and rage left. I’ve had another DPS from my current guild tell me he isn’t going to glyph fear for CC as he is tired of CC’n already.

The kicker to all this was was in trade recruiting for two tanks. Yes I said two tanks. Must have ilvl blah and loads of experience. This is the second team from I have seen looking for a tank.

The whole xfer to Hyjal has just been bad for me so far. I’m in a “friendly” guild that has a glut of “OS” tanks, at the start of an expansion where many guilds aren’t yet looking for tanks, and if they are, they are start up guild who are RL friends looking to be server 3rd as raiders and have no clue on what it takes to raid at a decent level after coming out of wrath of the free epic xpac that just past.

I’m not the greatest tank in the world. Maybe about top 1000 quality, I’ve done that. I’m not the most dedicated person. I have a RL with a family and things that take priority over WoW. I’m good at what I do, I make sure I fix my errors, know fights, set a good pace and let what is supposed to beat on me, beat on me. Why can’t I find a guild that I can fit into, be happy and get bosses down?

I don’t want to be with people like the guild I’m pissed that they didn’t give me the opportunity to go there thou. They talked about ‘leet and good they were and yet I was better geared than any of the tanks when I arrived and if I hadn’t halted my raiding when I did for school I’d have been more progressed than any of the teams they had. Sure a few were 12/12 HM but it was post 4.0 or very close to that when gearing became the nerf of HMLK in 10 man. Nor do I want to be told “grow up” when I say I think its shitty I spent real money to come tank for a guild that blows up because the tag you have isn’t as prestigious as the one you think will be.
 
I'm stuck right now.

Merry Christmas

I just wanted  to take a minute to wish everyone a very merry christmas. I hope you have an enjoyable holiday and get to spend wonderful time with your loved ones.

I know in general we have bad times come to mind of the year that is about to pass but take a minute and reflect on the good times you had this year. It will do you good. Thinking of the good is a great way to have a better day.

If all else fails watch this:

So you want to tank...

I found this link on the official forums. Not always a great place but its very informative at times if you can get away from the QQ and Trolls.

I would love to thank Sceilence from Yesera for a wonderful post. Its a tad bit of a long read but really hits the mark. Please take a moment to read thru this its really well writting and hits the mark HARD!

I have played this game since launch, and I have played this character since Blackwing Lair was endgame content. I have never been in a server-leading progression guild, but I have led raiding guilds working their own progression, usually a tier behind the curve or so. In Wrath, I had all three plate-wearing classes at the level cap, specced and geared for tanking. I am a self-admitted idiot at DPS or healing; for some reason, my brain just won’t function properly in those roles. But so far as it goes, I’m pretty well versed in tanking in this game.


I have recently noticed a number of instances, in-game and in the forums, where 1) people are asking for advice on tanking because they’re new to it, 2) DPS or healers are complaining about tanks because they are being bossy or dictatorial, and 3) tanks are complaining about DPS for…being DPS. Several of these questions and comments have been addressed from the perspective of mechanics, but only rarely do the responses really touch on the theoretical foundation of tanking, or what I have come to call the Tao of Tanking. This post is intended to address this gap.

I am not a Theorycrafter. I leave that kind of thing to much more dedicated and talented individuals. I would recommend Elitist Jerks and Tankspot for guidelines on mechanics-related specifics, should you have questions on exactly how to maximize your threat or what the best tanking build is for your class. I am also not God’s Gift to Tanking, and frankly, I would question anyone who tried to tell you they were. From my perspective, tanking is a mindset, much like political affiliation; nobody is ever actually right (no pun intended), but people can certainly be wrong.

The purpose of this post is to put into writing some of the philosophy behind tanking. I expect that it will be exceedingly droll for people who have been tanking for quite a while, because they’ve probably got this figured out. It could, however, provide some insight for people new to tanking, or to DPS/healers who would like to understand why tanks act the way we do.
 
On Leadership
The tank’s role in 5-man content is, in my opinion, the most critical role in the group. Now, I understand (and agree with) the argument that without a healer, there is no victory, and without DPS, there is no victory. No tank is going to solo a level-capped instance or Heroic. However, the complexity for any given role in a group is largely determined by the amount of responsibility the player has to take for other people in order for the group to succeed.

The DPS player has only to:

Do any CC they’re asked to do

Do damage to the appropriate target

Stay out of the fire

The DPS player does not have to take responsibility for any other member of the group (though really exceptional players will find a way to do this - these players are truly treasured gems that should always be appreciated).

The healer, on the other hand, has to:

Do any CC they’re asked to do

Stay out of the fire

Make sure that nobody’s hit points get to zero before the pull is ended
The healer takes responsibility for other people by healing them when they take unnecessary damage (taking cleave hits, standing in fire, pulling threat from the tank…I could go on and on here); in this way the healer is taking up some of the slack created by poorly performing DPS (or tanks).

By comparison, the tank has to:

Assign CC targets based on mob type/group composition

Make sure everyone in the party is ready for the pull (particularly, the healer has mana)

Pull the group, often in some elaborate fashion that creates separation between the CCed mobs and the active mobs

Establish and maintain threat on all active mobs

Position the mobs to reduce splash damage to alleviate healer’s workload

Apply appropriate defensive debuffs to alleviate healer’s workload

Pick up broken CC before it WTFPWNs someone

Pop defensive cooldowns at the most appropriate time, usually to lower the healer’s blood pressure

Direct the other party members through those “oops” moments (i.e., the infamous hunter “Where’s My Pet?” scenario)

If you buy into this model, generally speaking, a DPS player takes responsibility for him/herself, the healer takes responsibility for the party’s health, and the tank takes responsibility for everything else.

And even if you don’t buy into this model, chances are, your tank does. This is why the tank starts looking through the combat log after a wipe – they want to figure out what happened, so they can appropriately address any apparent issues and avoid another wipe. This is also why the tank asks the one question healers hate to hear after a wipe: “So, uh…what happened?” The inevitable response is: “Uh, you ran out of hit points?”

Of course I ran out of hit points. But why? Were you busy healing one of the DPS because he was standing in fire? Was there some debuff that needed to be cleansed but wasn’t? Did you run out of mana because you were spamming flash heal? Where other members of the party may be willing to dismiss the causes of a wipe or a bad pull, the tank refuses to do so, because all tanks know this one fundamental truth: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results”. Loosely translated, this means that the tank doesn’t want to repeat that horrible experience again, and is looking for input on avoiding doing so. So give your response some thought before pointing out the obvious.
 
On Threat, Crowd Control, and DPS  
One thing everyone needs to understand, and this goes for the tanks, the healers, the DPS, everyone, is that trash is no longer a speed bump between you and the boss mob’s loot table. This is no longer the WoW that has been played for the last two years. The Wrath model for the game was discarded by Blizzard, and AOE grinding instances is a thing of the past. Yeah, at some point tanks will have the gear to survive pulling the entire group without CC, and healers will have the gear to heal through such pulls, but even under those circumstances it will be more efficient to single target than AOE DPS, because Blizzard doesn’t want AOE DPS to actually do anything anymore.


I think what really needs to happen in the game is a paradigm shift. Everyone needs to step away from the view that being a good DPS player is represented in the numbers posted by Recount, and embrace that a good DPS player is someone who avoids taking unnecessary damage, does a good job with CC (both performing and not breaking it), does respectable damage, and has the ability to think outside the box. Honestly, this is the level of expectation placed on tanks and healers, so why have we allowed DPS to be gauged solely on their damage output?

I have a mage and a ret paladin that I group with regularly. The pally has been playing since launch, and the mage just started in Wrath (3.1 or so). For nearly two years I have heard them arguing constantly about overall damage done according to Recount. With this expansion, they are having a hard time beating my damage output when it comes to overall instance damage done according to Recount. This has caused absolutely no end of argument and frustration for them, which in turn frustrates me, because I just don’t care about overall damage done for an instance. Show me your l33t skills by not dying to your own stupidity, by be a benefit to the party rather than a hindrance, and by doing some decent measure of DPS. DPS players that do this are like liquid gold.

The fixation players have on damage meters is probably one of the single largest causes for the ineptitude encountered in random groups. DPS players want to prove their worth in the group. As established previously, it’s not hard to prove the tank’s worth, or the healer’s worth. DPS have to work at it. Enter, the DPS meter. Now we have PROOF of how important we are to the group! We have numbers to back it up!

Yes. And sadly, Recount provides me with some equally interesting numbers. For example, I can see that I’m still at the top of the chart in interrupts, because I’m the only one doing it. I can see that the healer is spending entirely too much mana healing your stupid ass. And if you keep playing like an idiot, I’m going to start seeing you climb the charts in total number of deaths as well.
 
I tank with the understanding that many DPS characters can pull agro off of me whenever they really want to. This is less of a concern at this point in an expansion, where the gear differential is not significant. As that gear difference becomes more pronounced and as DPS players in Tier 18 epics start showing up in your random daily heroic run…you may notice some threat issues. Do not be discouraged by your lack of ability to maintain threat in this situation, for Blizzard has granted you a tool for dealing with such inanity: the repair bill. It really is OK to let the DPS die, as long as you save the healer from a similar fate.
 
On the Successful Group
The successful healer understands that communicating with your tank is important. You need to be willing to speak up if you need a minute to drink. Again, without heals, the tank is not going very far. Complements should always be extended to a good healer, and patience should always be extended to a new healer, for this one thing is true: healing sucks. Just as being a good tank is a thankless job, being a good healer is even more thankless.


The successful DPS player understands that they can be replaced instantly, or that the tank’s queue time is pretty much immediate. While DPS wait in a queue for over 40 minutes, a tank waits less than a minute most of the time. So if you’re unwilling to play by the tank’s carefully laid plan, don’t be shocked when you’re booted from the group. It’s no problem for me to replace a DPS who is breaking CC, or AOEing all over my sheeped and repented mobs.

The successful tank understands that the game is social in nature. Goading your DPS by linking your top-of-the-meters-in-overall-damage-done performance is not only insulting to the DPS players, it shows your own ignorance of the game’s mechanics: congratulations, you’re the top of the meters in a useless stat. It’s like being top of the meters in mana regeneration. You’ve also alienated the rest of the party, and while you may not care (yay, anonymity), you’re also not going to improve anyone’s performance by doing that kind of thing.

The successful group will accept that there may be some deaths, and that you may actually have a repair bill after a heroic run (contrary to most of Wrath). Every expansion since Vanilla has increased the amount of gold available in the game, and Cataclysm is no exception. Commenting on your repair bill after a wipe shows only one thing: you are a lazy tag-along who wants to get carried to your gear.

The successful group will understand that being respectful of one another is preferable to a more egomaniacal approach, and that teamwork is required in order to avoid a wipe-fest. The successful group will understand that the tank’s goals are the same as everyone else’s goals: to finish the instance.

Can I CC that?

Wrath did alot of damage to players. They now know how to AoE like no other but when it comes to know what a classes skill set it has set us back as a whole.

What do you say to a mage that tells you he can't CC a beast...
When a tank BoP's you becuase you were kiting a mob and he says it was to many taunts on him so learn to play your class....

What is CC?
Crowd Control (abbreviated CC) refers to spells and abilities which limit an opponent's ability to fight. CC abilities are used to reduce the number of mobs that the group fight at once. Due to the fact that most groups cannot tank more than a certain number of elite mobs at a time, crowd control is often essential to prevent a group from being overwhelmed. For a guide on how to effectively use CC in instances, see the Instance grouping guide for a crowd controller. (source)



Druids -

•      Hibernate- works on Beasts and Dragonkin.
•      Cyclone - 6 seconds only but unable to attack or be healed while banished.
•      Roots- Snare effect works great on melee mobs.

DK - (No major source of stable CC) excellent kiters.

•       Chains of Ice - 95% reduction speed.
•       Death Grip - pulls mob to DK.

Hunters-

•      Traps- used with launcher or placed at feet and distracting shot.

•      Wyvern Sting (surv hunter only)- sleep target for 12 seconds.
•      Kite- Probably still best class in game to kite a target. Use of traps, wing clip and aspect makes hunters excellent for all your kiting needs. Hunters can also slow by use of Concusive shot as well.

Paladin -

•      Turn evil - fear on Undead only.
•      Repentance - sap like for Undead, Dragonkin, Humanoid, Demon and Giant.
•      Hammer of Justice - short term long CD 6 second stun.

Shaman -

•      Hex - solid sheep like frog. Lasts 30 seconds and works on humans and beasts.

Rogue-

•      Sap- used before combat, Human, Dragonkin, Beast and Demon.
•      Blind - disorients target for 10 seconds.
•      Various other slows and intrupts.

Mage -

•      Polymorph - Humans and Beasts only. Turns target into sheep (turtle, cat or w/e) for 50seconds.  Breaks with damage.
•      Frost Nova - snare that locks mobs in place for 8 seconds.

    
Priest -

•     Mind Control - Humans only.
•     Shackle Undead - only works on undead and breaks on damage.
•     Pysic Scream and Horror - Fear and if talented will make the target tremble in fear and drop weapon.

Warrior - (no major source of stable CC)   

•      Intimidating Shout - 8 Second fear on up to 5 targets
•      Hamstring and Piercing Howl - stun and slow targets.

Warlock -

•      Seduction - Only with succubus out and last 15 seconds on humans
•      Banish - Demon or Elemental will be immune to attacking for 30 seconds.
•      Fear Kite - by placing curses on a mob will cause the mob to ping pong back and forth.
•      Enslave Demon - Controls Demon for up to 5 minutes.

So far in Cataclysm we have a ton of Elementals and Dragonkin -

• Paladins Holy Wrath (glyphed) will stun them.
• Dragonkin - Root, Trap, Sap, Fear, Stun, Repent and Hibernate
• Elementals - Banish, Root, Trap and Fear. (source and source)

Archaeology in Cata

What is this and what does it do for me?

Its a secondary profession, a time sink and a way to get some cool rewards. The other aspect it brings into the game Lore *GASP* why did they do this? To add another thing for people to do with their toons. To see the rewards check out this link.

How do you do this?

See your trainer in for your faction in any major city. For Stormwind it is Harrison Jones and for Orgimmar it is Belloc Brightblade. Now if you intend to go forward with this WoW give you a bit of info if you click on your profession tab. Pull up your map and it will add little shovel icons to show you were to go. Next put your dig icon on your hot bar to make putting out your scope faster.

Head off to your dig site, you view this by the little icon of a shovel on your map. As you enter the zone you will see on your map an area oranged out for you approximate location. Now when you get there know a few things; you can dig 3 times in this area, no one else has this dig location and it can be anywhere in the world (according your skill and toons level).

Are you ready to dig? Click on the shovel icon it looks like this and was the one I suggest to be put on the hot bar.

Now the only thing left to do is read where you need to be. After the scope is placed you will get a direction and a color light. The bigger end of the scope is which way you need to go and the color will tell you approx. how far you need to go. Red indicates you are the furthest, yellow is closer and green means you are within yards. If you are in the area you need to be a clickable treasure will appear.

You will need up to 27 to finish the artifact you are working on. Once you get enough of the items, click on solve and you will get the item you were looking for as well as some lore to read about the artifact.

As of launch in cataclysm, this is not a extra raid buff for you or PVP buff type job. Right now its just a ton of fun. According to the video below there may be something later on in game but as of now it might lead to an epic or boa weapon. For leveling purposes I got XP, at level 81 I was receiving almost 9k per dig.

Please enjoy the video below for further details.

Revised leveling zones in Cataclysm

I'm lost in a zone I know?

Been lost since the shatter? I have, here is my story.

The DK that I have been tanking with only has one profession, for the crit buff and the fact I don't have a skinner I picked it up with the DK. The first few parts of skinning are easy. I logged for the day and started again when I logged the next day I decided to head to Tarren Mill, the area I needed to continue to level. Much to my surprise the level has changed, the whole zone has changed. Well, DUH...the whole world has changed.

I took myself to google to see where I needed to be and ran into a great blog and excellent map of the revised leveling places. I also seen that most of the dungeons have had level revisions. With the below map and a bit of time I was gaining skinning points again.



leveling flow

(Source )

This is a wonderful map for those who want to level a new Goblin or Worgen. I guess out of naivety I didn't know ALL the leveling zones had been changed. All the WoW I play and I didn't look further into this makes me feel very newbish.

New level requirements for 5 man dungeons:


In order by minimum level to enter.
The Deadmines – Level Range: 15-21 (10)
Ragefire Chasm – Level Range: 15-21 (10)
Wailing Caverns – Level Range: 15-25 (10)
Shadowfang Keep – Level Range: 16-26 (11)
Stormwind Stockade – Level Range: 20-30 (15)
Blackfathom Deeps – Level Range: 20-30 (15)
Gnomeregan – Level Range: 24-34 (19)
The Scarlet Monastery – Graveyard – Level Range: 26-36 (21)
The Scarlet Monastery – Library – Level Range: 29-39 (21)
The Scarlet Monastery – Armory – Level Range: 32-42 (21)
The Scarlet Monastery – Cathedral – Level Range: 35-45 (21)
Razorfen Kraul – Level Range: 30-40 (25)
Maraudon – Purple Crystals – Level Range: 30-40 (25)
Maraudon – Orange Crystals – Level Range: 32-42 (25)
Maraudon – Pristine Waters – Level Range: 34-44 (25)
Uldaman – Level Range: 35-45 (30)
Dire Maul – East – Level Range: 36-46 (31)
Scholomance – Level Range: 38-48 (33)
Dire Maul – West – Level Range: 39-49 (34)
Razorfen Downs – Level Range: 40-50 (35)
Dire Maul – North – Level Range: 42-52 (37)
Stratholme – Main Gate – Level Range: 42-52 (37)
Zul’farrak – Level Range: 44-54 (39)
Stratholme – Service Entrance – Level Range: 46-56 (41)
Blackrock Depths – Prison – Level Range: 47-57 (42)
The Sunken Temple – Level Range: 50-60 (45)
Blackrock Depths – Upper City – Level Range: 51-61 (46)
Lower Blackrock Spire – Level Range: 55-65 (48)
Upper Blackrock Spire – Level Range: 55-65 (48)
(Source)  and (source)  

Enjoy the leveling and the new areas Blizz has put in.

How to Tank in Cataclysm ~

Important questions -
Times, they are a changing. Go look in the mirror and ask yourself, do I really want to tank? Seriously, go ask or at least turn your monitor off and look into it. Now, let me ask, are you ready for the coming changes? This might sound crass but looking at the beta vids, hearing Blizz talk and the fact the changes we have now in 4.0.3a tanking will be different.

Oh, I have a bit of a gift for you all, more on that later.

Back to the future -

*This is something we must all make the adjustment with but if you have only tanked in cataclysm please re-read this.

I am not going to sugar coat it this should be a guide to point us that way. Wrath was easy on us all, if we make adjustments, play smarter and play with in our toons limits it will make the runs easier for all involved.

Back to the basics -

Mark your adds - Allow the DPS to see what you need dead first. Tell them to target your target with cute little icon over the NPC's head.

Use CC - You have it, use it. This will help your group as well. All accounts Cata is going to be harder on us all, healers will have less mana to play with and less damage makes their life easier.

Pull smarter - Learn to LOS, let your group know you are doing it. Use the body pull as well. If CC goes off and you throw shield or holy wrath you could break CC and we don't want to do that. It’s why we used CC. This body pull thing... learn how to do it, its a controlled face pull.

Give instruction - Tell the DK, Hunter, Mage you need them to kite. Let the lock know you need seduce and make sure no one is to far bomb the group.

Take suggestions - Regardless of our queue times, we are not the royalty of the group that we think. Yes, Cata DPS will not be able to do a heroic without you but it doesn't mean you need to be an asshat. You are there to take damage and reduce damage to others, let them know you know what you are doing and if someone says "hey I seen it work this way" do not rage quite or tell the group, kick me or GTFO. Your heroic wrath gear will not say what a big shot you are any longer.

Improvement -

Know your toon - Put a bit of time into learning your toons. What do I mean by this? Know cool downs, heals and damage reduction. Be liberal on your Cool downs and use stuns. Is this a caster group? Have Resistance aura up instead of Devo. You have hands for a reason, know when to put a hand on someone in your group.

Know your enemy - Sure there will be an adjustment period, a time when no one in the group can find their behind with both hands. But have an idea of what you are facing. Expect on pull a burst of damage. Know when a special ability is coming and let the group know. In other words, things will be dangerous never underestimate your opponent.

Assist the group - This goes back to healer’s mana and you soaking damage, oh and using tools. If there is a dot on you; cleanse it. If the healer has one on him, cleanse it. LoH, Salv and BoP all work wonders at helping the group. Let them know you know how to tank. I believe that a well-placed hand or LoH's sends the message, you are the go to guy/girl in this place.

Don't be "that tank" - Know what classes have what CC, what buffs and by all means allow the healer to have mana. Don't ask a mage to sheep undead, it won't work. You will look like a fool!

Use buffs - This is no longer Wrath; you cannot zone in and pull. At least initially, use some consumables. Pots, food and buffs will help you along. There was a time when a tank was not in any way shape or form part of DPS that has changed. Do what you can to speed the run by taking a second to use your toons potential.

TL;DR - Use common sense as the tank; mark your adds, use your tools and don't be a tool. But I suggest you read this, its not really that long.

There is a great post on MMO champion along these lines. Good read and well, its MMO Champ so you know the responses you get but the OP gave a more detailed all role break down.
 
My Gift -
 
Some might know this, lots don't but here is my gift to you as a reader...Clear your quest log out, everything, clear it out. Go grab 25 dailies and do them until December 7th. You should by now have your hearth set to your home city. As Wrath goes live, spend the first 10 to 15 minutes turning in your 25 dailies and you now have 1/3 to 1/2 of a level and some extra gold...FREE! Hearth to your home city and start your journey to level 85!!!

Tanking adventures

Yes there is more...

Hello, back with a new tank and more adventures and I love it, or we will see. I rolled a Belf Warrior. 1st impressions? Not bad really, I love the torrent silence and rage thing. Kinda OP as a warrior. Since the last time I played a warrior (to lvl 36) they have fixed rage up alot. I'm not always rage starved.

I hit level 15, bought an AH shield and que'd up to start my journey as a warrior tank. I'm spec'd as Arms currently til I can dual spec and this allows me a bit of versatility, in my mind anyway.

I que'd and was almost immediately thrown into Deadmines. The first boss was already dead, the 'lock was dead (this was a common thing I would find out) and the pally healer was spec'd ret and had a grey shield and str gear...OH JOY!

Aside from the 'lock that wanted to pull everything (which I didn't mind, I don't want to stress over Deadmines and a bored wow player waiting for cata come out) but the grey geared healer fixed the 'lock from pulling to much as he let the lock die A L O T! and the rogue made sure he knew that he didn't like the 'lock pulling stuff.  Deadmines went by fast and I leveled fast. Oh and I got the shield which the healer rolled against me on.

WC and RFC-

Got into my next group fast as well. I joined an almost finished Deadmines group again, downed the bosses and had the group say "great job tanking, do you wanna run more?" Well, all that flattery how can I resist.

RFC up first, Fast and kinda fun. I really like the idea of having quests at the start of the instance. The only really bad thing is having to go back to the front of the instance to turn them in.

WC is SO long! We lost a few of out other group and had a Tauren pally join. Oh my are they big and clunky. War stop is cool and at level 18 they are almost warriors. He knew his way around and we didn't get lost in there. I did fall over that jump you need to make twice, I feel like an asshat but I do it with every toon.

We killed every boss in WC which is SOOOO long if I haven't said it before, the healer, a Troll Druid compliment me on my tanking. This really makes me wonder how bad tanks out there really are. I guess my experiences as a tank help me, as a warrior thou, I'm not great. Hell, maybe not even good.

Over all, I leveled from 15 to 20 in about 2 hours. I was rocking my Tabard of Silvermoon and gaining rep which is cool and I got my mount after I left WC, which btw is REALLY long.

Guides

I have been waiting for a bit more info to come in but I have put together a guide of links for gear, enchants, consumables, and more.

I will update this more and more as time goes by. Please take a minute and check it out and if you can find any further info please let me know.

Guides

A World Shattered!

A new land, a new tank and a long awaited look at the world-

Well I logged on today on my banker just to see how things were and I was amazed. I seen pictures of Org but I had no idea it was that different. Its a cross between the Argent Daily area and old Org. The graphics are very nice, so vibrant. I am impressed and on that topic my impressions:

I will say the no portal thing is a PITA but I will wait til Cata starts before I really judge. We only have a few more weeks left in Dal so after that you won't really need the portals.

Guards are BAD to the bone now. 116k HP's per guard and a few are higher, I seen a NELF get smacked and 2 shotted on the way into Org. That was pretty funny.

A new tank is in the works!

Meet Vasey:

I rolled a Belf Warrior just to see how it was and I must admit, its kinda fun. Much more so than I thought. I really like the new flight paths added and the torrent rage you get is OP. I can't wait to see how tanking goes.

Tanking-

I did get down to business and tank on Chasey. I had the talent reset and did my build up. I like the Divine Plea giving 3 holy power. For the first times since 4.0x launched I had a bit of mana concern. Not an issue at all but I sat to drink.  Aggro was no issue at all. I didn't notice any extra damage with the "nerf" to the mastery reduction. I have been running lots of heroics due to the fact I don't have my JP capped yet.

With the reset in points I'll be making my off set Ret for the first time in a LONG time.

On the move-

I am looking so forward to cataclysm. On a sad note, I moved my hunter to a new realm. I enjoy the hunter and it was sitting idle so he left the only server he had ever know to move to Hyjal and others will follow. With my change in schedule I have a more PST time zone life right now. I have found a really enjoyable guild with fun people. Lets hope it works out.

Happy Holidays to everyone.

WoW is 6 years old and Quotes to live by.

WOW is 6, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! and on this anniversary we get an offical blog with a ton of feed back:
World of Warcraft’s 6th Anniversary!

by Blizzard Entertainment // Nov 17, 2010 3:00:00 AM UTC 766
World of Warcraft turns six on November 23rd, 2010! It’s been a truly incredible six years, and we’d like to thank you all for joining us on this momentous occasion. To celebrate, players that log into the game between the dates of November 30th and December 14th will receive a feat of strength added to their Achievements. We look forward to another great year ahead and many more to come!


http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/1136962#blog

Now some reading material that is useful:

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Mark Twain

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Theodore Roosevelt

Random Thoughts

4.0.3 is out!

I logged on today for the first time in about a week. I've been sick and my guild has decided to stop raiding til Cata.

The pre cata event has started and its much better than the pre wrath event, at lease IMO. No everyone is getting turned into a zombie and infecting the city. That was PITA towards the end. Now Blizz is just kind of forcing us to fight this invasion by removing mail boxes, bankers, vendors...etc. I can see as the gear is gobbled up (see what I did there, turkey day is coming soon lol) no one will do this invasion event any longer. I guess we will see.

Here is a loot list and more description on the bosses.

Tanking it
I logged on to Chasey and decided to try this out, beside I want to hit JP cap pre cata if I can. I started with the very pretty Crown Princess Theradras, she is beautiful isn't she folks? I had a DPS/Threat set on and still have about 52k and roughly 99% unhittable in this set up. I died! I used every cooldown I had and I still died, so this says a few things, I can't solo this boss and the healer was pretty bad. Why do I say such a thing?

I jumped on Khasey, my newly crowned DK80 and I tanked her with out issue. Yes I know the fight but that really means nothing on this boss, I have 32k buffed HP and I lived...LOL

I did however get [Reins of the Blue Drake]I have always wanted that mount.

Vengeance is bad
I'm not really in love with this mechanic. If you aren't getting hit you aren't generating threat like you need to in a raid environment. I' a pretty decent tank...I THINK... but we were doing HLDW and having a taunt immune boss, you need to use every trick in the book to get threat back and if you aren't getting hit you don't have damage output to grab it back. I went for a ton of the fight w/o aggro on her and until she hit me we had DPS jumping ahead of me alot of the fight. I've seen a few other instances of Vengeance not really allowing you to get a good aggro lead. I can see a few misses by the boss on you at the start of a fight cause you to struggle to hold aggro for a while.

Pally threat is OP
We did Hsauerfang last week and my GL and DK tank was tanking this with me. It was really tough to tank for the simple fact I was generating soooooo much threat I had to stop attacking completely. No attacks at all. He outgears me and is really a good tank too. As far as DK's go I haven't seen many better. We wiped once due to the aggro I drew. Yes I said sorry and tried harder to not attack.

A good guide
I found a really good guide on the instance from Cata and a few great tips to level fast. I thought I'd share this with you all.
Here it is! With a few tips to boot, I got this site/info from Maintankadin.com but I really can't find the thread any longer, I'd link it but I can't find it so sorry. I'm not stealing info only sharing :D

No-lifer tips:
• Crank Up the AC – Warm, stuffy environments accelerate mental fatigue.
• Cold Water – Splash some on your face and the pulse area of your wrists. Drinking an ice-cold glass of water can also help to wake you up.
• Chew Sugar-Free Peppermint Gum – It won’t rot your teeth and it will generate just enough physical activity to keep you awake. Strong peppermint flavors seem to work best.
• Turn On All the Lights – Darkness promotes sleepiness. Turn on every light in the room.
• Pull Down on Your Earlobes – This may sound strange, but pulling down on your earlobes can help you stay awake and alert when you’re feeling drowsy. Just try it.
• Nutritious Low Carb Snacks – Low carb fruits such as raspberries, apples, oranges, and grapefruits are great energy boosters. Heaping scoops of spicy salsa on a few small crackers is another goodie. Stay away from meats, breads and dairy products.
• Read up on all dungeon tactics.

If I don't post before, everyone have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you Vets!

On the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, in the eleventh hour, the armistice was signed halting fighting in WWI. The great war was finally over, the treaty of "the war to end all wars" had been signed.

Today we honor U.S. service men and women who have severed, fought and protected our homeland and freedom. Please take a few minutes to say THANK YOU! Being a vet myself I have a bit of an understanding of the sacrifice that is made on a day to day basis.

"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with lots of pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."

Woodrow Wilson, 1911

Game ease or better players?

For those of us who care!

With 4.0.1 hitting I have noticed something. We are M U C H further along than in combat ratings, threat generation, build advice and gems/enchant guide already out. Take a look at the following:

Combat rating started on Sep 19th. That's almost overwhelming.
Digrens gems/enchanting guide started on Oct 5th.
Prot pallys field manual started on Oct 14th.
Thecks MATLAB and if you are ever in the mood for huge pounding headache (I say that with the most respect possible) there is always Theck and his complete and constantly updated guide on all things threat from talent, gems, and even food buffs.

I was not around for the release of The Burning Crusade but I was playing when Wrath hit. I do not remember the amount of info being ready before Wrath, yes there was info but I don't think to this extent. We had little mystery about how Wrath was going to be. No the raids were not on par with TBC but boss mechanics were know, videos were out and due to the extensive amount of skill it took to raid Sunwell and even BT in TBC Wrath seemed like cake. Not because it was easier but because we were ready, more well read, had more info and it was like going for the Major Leagues to AAA ball in a metaphorical sense.

I can see coming up the huge adjustment the average player. I do not use casual player because a casual player can be competent and with the boredom of the even most hard core player in Wrath, many of the really good raiders are done and now just waiting. So, I instead put average there. The guy or lady who is naturally good enough get into a decent guild but not a superstar and is the kind of player who doesn't put out the DPS they could, the kind that says "why do I need to read to play a game" kind of player.

For those of us who care, Cataclysm is going to be difficult at the start when we have another adjustment but it seems classes are more balanced in abilities if not slightly OP at this point. For those of us who care, we already have read what we are going to expect, even if not on Beta. For those of us who care 4.0.3 and beyond will not be a mystery, we will know our class and that is because others spend precious time to give us access to this info. For those of us who care the game is easier due to better players knowing game mechanics before hand. You don't need to be "PRO" to care about wanting to be a success at anything you do including a hobby or a game.

For those of us who care is it game ease or better players? I choose both and send out a big thank you to those guys like Theck, Digren, Towelliee, Whitetooth, Jere, Emptyrepublic, Rhida, anyone who puts time in to make a blog, run a forum or ask questions and many many many others. Thank you for making the game easier and all of us who care....better players.

The new community site

I really like the look of the new site and some of its functions. Late to the game? maybe but still very cool. I don't really know how the 2 are going to coincide with each other. By this I mean the wow forums/armory and the new battlenet viewer and forums. The good thing is it takes some of the anonymity of the Internet away by putting your other toons and name there. But will it be used?
Here is Chasey's :

It has some cool functions like Character Audit if you go advanced it will lay out your gems, enchants and a more broad showing of gear (advanced pictured). It also lets you flip thru your toons really fast. A bit of a note thou, not all features are working and if you haven't logged to that toon it will black them out and not show features. The only thing I don't like and I look on to change it but haven't seen anything is the pose. My human toon is covered by the shield.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/

Random thoughts

Play style~
Most have settled in nicely. The stupid questions are gone from trade. Gems/mats have come down in price. We are now holding for Dec 7th and the release of Cata.

What a wild ride Wrath has been. From a reused intro raid that was more than doable in TBC gear to a filler raid that had no trash and made you stand in the same room. Don't get me wrong, Wrath was not all bad, it had great points and some not so great.

Wrath Babies- its a term I've heard used a bit now and then. Its defined in the Urban Dictionary as:

A World of Warcraft player who began playing the game during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion (13-Nov-2008 to 07-Dec-2010). This type of player is characterized by a lack of experience in difficult content and a sense of entitlement to epics without putting forth any actual time or effort. Most likely to quit shortly after the launch of Cataclysm. The following behavior may also qualify someone as a wrath baby: - Leaves a group after one wipe. - Has never used crowd control and probably doesn't even have it on their action bars. - Complains about the GearScore of group members, unless his own GearScore happens to be lower. - Checks GearScore and/or achievement before inviting people into a PUG, especially for simple runs. - Cannot find an instance portal even when given directions. - Thinks that Sunwell Plateau should be easymode at level 80. - Favorite class is Death Knight. - Uses AoE during every pull. - Starts running heroics immediately after reaching max level.

Or:

In World of Warcraft, refers to a player that plays with the Wrath of the Lich King attitude - AoE everything, what is threat, what is Crowd Control, and expects epics to be handed to them on a silver platter for free.

That is so spot on. There is a serious rope Blizz wants to walk with players have the correct gear to run the current content without farming the old stuff to gear others but I think Wrath may have taken "FREE EPIX" to a new level. Lets hope Cata fixes that.

I think I'm cursed~

No not the  add-on site. I took a break from raiding with starting school and my schedule being way to hectic to devote the time. My guild and its leaders have done a awesome job keeping raiding, bringing in decent people and holding the guild together. BRAVO to the officers and members of Jinx and best of all they let me stay and do my thing. I appreciate that.

Now to the curse...
I have been back for a few weeks I think. Showing every time I can. I still have class on Thursday nite so thats a no go. The raids I've been to have been wipe fests, working on just cleaning up content and learning your class. They have been tolerant but the deaths keep adding up. Well on my two days I didn't make it we downed HLDW and HPP...I have spent so many hours with those fights and I don't show and what happens...they go get them. Good for us and them but booo for me and not being there when it mattered.

Briefly~

Khasey, My DK hit 80. Gear is going to be an issue. I refuse to put out alot of money in gear this close to patch and alas....I am not on a server that has a huge crafter base. My plan is to get her geared enough that she won't be two shot in Cata and easy the leveling so I can have a crafter. So maybe a week or two of heroics will put me nicely in what I need. Oh....do any of you realize how crazy it is to be a tank in a heroic and have at mage have more HP's than you? It doesn't make you feel warm and fuzzy.

The Gem market has come back down to its regular level and hit around the 100g mark. Gems were nice money makers there for a bit.

I will say thou, undercutters are brutal lately. Brief observation thou...
How not to rune the market... Lets say you have a red gem on the AH and its listed at the market price. Then some brilliant donkey comes by and lists his red gem for 20g cheaper trying to make a quick sell which is what the WoW AH usually is. If that gem doesn't sell right away the next guy trying to make quick gold will under cut him.I seen this on my server and literlly it killed the market for red gems overnite. I listed my gems for 139g (I was the cheapest by 5s) went for a drink, came back and there 2 listed for 20g cheaper. I have watched the trend and it really has never recovered from that point. Yes it did float up a bit but 100g to 120g has been average since that point on.

Tanking Adventures DK edition

News Flash; Cata is coming soon...
I'm being silly.
I know everyone knows this but I wanted to have a DK to level 80 before it hit. Being kind of bored, na, very bored I decided to level my 75 DK. Much to my surprise mining is so good at giving XP I did a whole level mining.

I was going to say in my Tanking Adventures that with Cata coming and everyone getting used to the new class mechanics that there is almost a calm before the storm attitude. Doing my daily dungeon to get my JP has been smooth, fast and fun. I have had no issues, until yesterday...

I que'd as DPS, I was mining and just wanted to get my points, have no stress and grab some XP. No such luck, almost 15 minutes and I had my fill. I que'd as tank, switched specs and my que pooped. I shook my head and wondered out loud to myself, what is wrong with me and gave a giggle.

I zone into HoS, I wasn't at full healt so I sat to eat and the lock pulls. Yep, but he did stun the mobs so I guess he did us all a favor by at least stunning them so I could grab aggro. Right before those fully died, the warrior charges and grabs the next mob, pulling the two Golums behind. I managed to grab them all, not happy and rethinking to myself "why didn't I wait for the DPS que again.  The healer needed mana at this point and BTW no buffs were handed out. We get set and again, MR. Lock pulls the next 3 pack at that same time, in party chat Mr. Warrior says, we are all here for the same thing to get XP so lets move this along faster. I grabbed what I could due to the fact that this pull if not done with bit of caution you can get two 3 pulls and a two giants. I back up and at that point after send the lock a tell "if you want to tank, please que as such next time" I get a party chat response of, "YOU ARE A CONTROL FREAK, LETS MOVE ALONG" and proceeds to pull the next 3 pack. Then the warrior pulls the next giant. I gather all these guys and say, PLEASE do not pull, if you pull from now on you will be tanking.

We are not even past the 1st hallway and I want to leave. At that point the 3 pat that comes around the stairs gets the mage who has failed to move up. I gather the caster and lay D&D down. The melee come towards the healer, I get them and have it under control.

I get "Tank, could you please try harder on aggro" from the Mr. Lock and at that time the Warrior says, "I'm going to tank" then switches specs.

I feel relieved and a bit butt hurt but it will pass. Off goes the warrior, half health and at the AoE pack and grabs the 2 golums too. Mobs go everywhere then die. He charges into the next AoE pack and the mage dies. This is going to be brutal. After we kill the stone boss and head down the hall the Warrior take a right, pulls all 3 packs. Its not pretty and I switch presence and pop a few CD's the tank is dead, the lock is dead and so is the mage. Healer is at almost dead and I'm at full health but its too much. We wipe!

I couldn't contain myself, I say in party...."that was a well planned pull and a HUGE time saver", Yes yes I know I shouldn't have. The tank responds with "if you were tanking we still be standing there". "Yes", I say, "but we'd be alive and the mobs wouldn't".

The gauntlet was brutal and the mage died. At the end I get a tell from the healer "you did a much better job tanking than this guy". I say "TY".

Mind you in all this I don't pull slow. I'm a tad cautious on the DK cause I'm not totally comfortable. But in no way am I slow.

We finish w/o anymore wipes, before we drop group the lock says to the warrior thank you for stepping up and doing such a good job. I just laughed.

I am very close to hitting level so I que once more, in comes Mr. Rezsickshammy. Not his name but he still has the debuff and its fresh an new. I ask about it he says, "don't worry about it, just tank". The healer sends me a tell saying, "what and asshat this guys is". He did an incredible 310 DPS, oh wait...he hit 810 DPS with blood lust. He did manage to pull every boss with wolf's regardless of the healer having mana or not.

I have since rethought the feeling the class and being on cruze mode...LOL

Isn't pugging wonderful?

A Hallowed time

I'm not a huge Achievement person. Sure if they come my way I'm ok with it but very rarely do I go looking for one. Recently I've been so bored I've been doing the holiday events. I opted out of brewfest but did get Flamekeeper at the end of this summer.

For some reason thou, my favorite event is Halloween. Maybe because my pally came into her own at the end of TBC and that was the event or maybe because the boss has such an awesome voice track. The first year I let everyone else in my small guild get the mount when we did it. I wasn't always interested in mounts. I really like the mount and this year I've been doing it every day for the mount. I did get one on my hunter who I never play any longer.

Since I have been doing the boss every day I figured for the extra gold I'd go out and do the meta... well I've been doing this for three years now. THREE YEARS! and this morning I got-

Here was the hold up [Hallowed Helm], yes this cardboard helm that everyone of my toons had, one of my alts had four of them. I was so frustrated by the RNG bug. I've had run ins with RNG before but this is a once a year thing. Beside for THREE years I've been running this boss and oh my I didn't have this drop on the only toon I cared about it for. This morning I logged on and bingo:

Happenings~

With the holiday thing going on and my uncertainty with my current guild (more on that later) I haven't been playing much as a tank or anything other than trick o treating. I did run a ton w/an alt to get BOA gear at its inflated price and in my last post you can see some of the things I went thru so I kinda backed off on doing randoms and just did my HH daily. In other words my main was my main for a bit. I played her alot lately.

I bought a few mounts [Red Drake] and [Cenarion War Hippogryph] from the vendors. Yes not the smartest thing before the release of Cata but I have 310% speed so all the mounts fly the same and I can ride some mounts I've always wanted to at nice speeds.

Tanking~

I raided! Yep, sure did. I made the time to get in there with my guild. I had been on late and had lots of little tells to come raid again. I haven't been for RL bit me in the behind. School was killing me and family stuff had me busy. We spent a night wiping on Heroic Prof Puteface. Not a fight I've ever really enjoyed on normal. We made great progress and wanted to hold over, but I'm sure like most guilds in the world, we have issues with people showing up.

Today we went in and ripped the first few bosses apart, I got to kite on Rotface and do the orb duty on the princes. I was almost a tank again. But I do want to say being away from the raids for as long as I have I felt rust! big time rust. Aggro wasn't bad but other tanks were pulling from me just due to muscle memory. I also had a real fun experience on Heroic Marrowgar, I was out front in aggro and we did our lil L-L-R movement and my bar wasn't locked....LOL I was missing AS, judgement and CS was now in a different spot. Bone storm was a scramble for me to get the bar set up and locked before I had to move to much. That was fun!!!

A quick note, I figured out how to do the mouse over linds from wowhead.....but it takes me forever to create them. Look for these very special hoverover links in the future.

Tanking Adventureless?

I took the night off...

Yes, I didn't even log on to bank, check mail, nothing. Is that odd? Maybe, kinda, not really. It is however something I had to do and with the release of 4.0.1 I was working hard at getting the rotating and its proc'y nature down. Threat wasn't really a factor any longer.

I noticed the other day they "stealth" buffed prots threat, without buffing prot. They gave us a little buff by adding [Holy Wrath] which increases its damage by 30% and [Crusader Strike] which buffed us 30% base weapon damage. The other two trees got a buff and help the prot tree big time.

Back to the night off.
I wanted to just get away from the game for a bit. I don't need a break, heck I could have used one of those months ago. I'm not raiding right now. Dealing with school and some RL things have put a stop to that for the moment and beside I LOATH ICC. To me it is OLD and not fun in the least. To tank it is boring at best. Yes there is a few fun fights but all in all I'm pretty much done in there.

By choice thou, I'm grinding. Yep, grinding for a piece of over inflated JP BOA gear [Stained Shadowcraft Tunic] . Am I saving time grinding for BOA...not really. I am, however learning the rotation for prot. I guess I'm killing two birds with one stone. I really want to level a druid, I don't know if its going to be troll or tauren but I'm going to level one as a tank.

Tanking Adventures?

None really, I mean I'm trying to gather info and get the hang of and muscle coordination for the pally rotation. Others are seeing what their toon can do. For the most part every run is an adventure. I will say this, unlike the 969 etc....when you don't have a cool down ready and don't get a proc if someone happens to pull or a mob gets aggro'd, taunt is all you have and well, with the smart dps out there they usually keep DPS'n after a taunt.

Taiten~ This is the toon I'm grinding the with for the BoA. Not bad geared, very heroic capable but this toon offers a bit of a challenge due to the Battlegroup she is on. We have a few very very good realms and a few not so good. Oh, there is the other class in this too, Mal'Ganis, they are on their own level of Pugdom hate. I picked this to get a feel of threat. See they have some of the worlds best players, you see those players and know almost instantly. There is also the other side of Mal'Ganis...This is where the hate comes from. All the hate you see. The undguilded/alt guilded/or "were on Mal'Ganis you must kiss our behind" player.

I had two runs recently, one in DTK and one in Gun'drak. Both with Mages from, you guessed it... Mal'Ganis. Here is the odd thing, I entered the group midfight. This is always telling of th run, two things happen here, you get "oh great a tank" which means the other was really bad or had to bolt or "crickets" and this usually means....the tank is in trouble.

DTK- entered 1st hallway before 1st boss where all the undead are. I pulled an abom and the ghouls. I guess it wasn't enough cause..Mr.Mal'ganis mage, pulls the rest and iceblocks. I had holy wrath up and didn't drop conc so I'm praying that I could keep aggro on these two sets coming from behind me. I had to pop both cool downs and I see in party..."now this tank knows what he is doing" from the healer. Good sign? Heal me instead of worrying about my skill and I won't have to pop CD's, I think to my self. Healer is getting mana, that doesn't stop Mr. Mal'ganis mage, he grabs the boss. Taunt tattle tells me, Mr DK from another realm is going to be the hero and DG's the boss to him.

OMG, now wonder the other tank left.

I did get aggro and we put Trollgore down really fast. Mr Mage's dps...a solid 2.3k on a single target.

Now the room after is the spider that flee to the caves at low health. I like to grab them all and pull them to the hall way so you have more dps time. No....the boomkin decieds he is going to pull different raid ID's and hurricane, pulling the caster trolls that are webbed and mr. DK is DG ever chance he gets.

This is going to be fun. Not, really.

On to next boss and down w/o issue, but Mal'ganis mage blinks past, grabs the next room and ice blocks again.

OMG why is it the last tank left?

On to King Dread, Mage starts pulling adds and DK grabs dread. I got aggro, and adds. Then down goes the boss. I type in party after Dread dies.

"you pull it, you tank it"

The healer gets me! Up the stairs and the knock back boom, dk and mal'ganis mage decied this is their time to shine.

Four pack pulled, pat, pulled. Healer and me...we are mounted!

Down goes the mage but they managed to kill the rest. Mal'ganis mage "tank do you think you could do your job"?

I state, guys lets not make this hard...

Did they listen? No AT ALL. They decide to pull the last hallway, my only worry was keeping the healer alive. We managed. Get to last boss and bamb...Army of the dead...AWESOME, I don't even need to tank.

Boss dies and I get, stop sucking at tanking, l2hold theat.

"thank you Mr. Mage, can you do more that 2.3k DPS even w/the new patch" I say.

I woner why the last tank left?

Gun'drak-
Shammy healer, Mage (Mal'ganis), Lock, Warrior.
Zone after 1st boss is dead. Say hell, grab a 3 pack and the pat on the bones, turn mobs and burn them down. Things are going ok, get to second boss and he goes down.

I wonder, why did the other tank leave.

Jump down in water, the mage goes 1st, almost dies from fish. This is where the fun starts. "Why the "&(*@" did you let me almost die, tank"?

I ignore.

He goes in pulls the next set of mobs and the set fighting on the floor. I got both under control..and think.

OMG I bet this is why the other tank left.

The healer and Mage are in the same guild from Mal'Ganis. The mage is in AoE heaven and says, "look at that DPS", pulls Morabi and off we go.

Right before he jumps down, he says, "try not to let me die in the water this time Baddie" As we get to the platform he is pulling. I'm pretty much past the point of trying. I won't win.

Keep the healer alive is my only worry.

He pulls the rest of the instance when he wants. We get to the top right before the boss and I take a second to catch my breath. I'm fuming mad at this guy. Very rude, arrogant and well, not good. He starts in w/the "gogogo".

I reply, you have pulled everything else, why stop now?

Off he goes, but as he pulled I pulled and we both pulled the different groups. He dies...fast. Even his pocket healer couldn't keep him alive.

We managed to kill the rest w/out the best mage in the worlds dps, which BTW was about 3.5k, not bad but not world beating.

I try to be cordial in runs. I understand people make mistakes in pulls and threat. Its ok, really. I also know, Heroics are a joke, but we are there together right? Then why be an ass hat?

So I was...

Before the mage can get a rez, I pulled the boss. Yep, I know I was going to hear it but I didn't care at this point. I wanted to be finished. Incomes the whispers...

"you are the worst tank ever" "I'm the best dps you got" "L2play" etc...
I lived, boss went down and I got my JP's.

I have very little tolerance for players like this from Mal'Ganis. I've seen it too much. I've been ninja'd and booted from runs from this server. I've seen them berate others for low gear score and in general they are a horrible lot of people. Not all but in general.

Chasey~
I jumped on my main for a bit, to say hi and do a few things. They were looking to run a random, I had them invite me. This was mains w/very heavy DPS.

I know I would have to work to keep aggro. We got FoS and DPS was on average 5k per pack...with 7k on the bosses. They didn't go easy on me and I didn't lose aggro. The work I've been doing on my rotation is going smoothly. It was a fun run.