Friday, February 29, 2008

Agonizing...

Resto or Boomkin


I like playing the Boomkin


I like the Healing of Resto

I do NOT have the time to farm both sets!

But... I would like to see Kara at least

I figure I will go Boomkin for certain pieces of gear and Resto for others to get a balance.

Then I think... sure... why dont you go 30/30/30 too! Moron!!

Arghh!!!

That is all!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The other side!

He's right... I still have a lot to learn with the healing bit.

BUT FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!

When we were doing that damn Fel Reaver I says "We gonna kite it?" He says, "Ya."
I find that damnable thing and just am flying over its head when that bastard SHAMAN decides to jump down while my bird self is 50 yards in the sky.

Added to this is the constant talk from the SHAMAN about how he "tanks like a god!" So I am already thinking this silly bastard is gonna try and tank him.

No... Rdy? No... Hey MA, No hands!!! He just lands and starts wackity wack wack.

Sugars can back me up on this.

BTW, if that bastard WARRIOR woulda turned the first boss away from the group, I wouldna had to heal the entire party through that shit >.<

I, grudgingly, got the respect back after no one dies on that Inciter bastard!

Not to mention... Majeure was a big reason we didn't die any. He does kite very well and his DPS is sick for Frost spec.

Monday, February 25, 2008

I did not write this but it is funny and needs to be read.

I did NOT write this. However, it is just too funny and accurate to not put on the blog.

ENJOY!


If you roam the official forums chances are you've probably read the thread "These are the
People in your Raid" - Even so it's still fun enough to bring up again once or twice ;).

The GM- He’s sacrificed his health, friends, and probably a couple of jobs to drag you through new content. When the guild isn’t performing, these decisions are in question. Prone to shooting sprees, forum flame wars, and the rapid advancement/gearing of whatever toon the guild “needs”. If you can keep your mouth shut, he’ll go emo and quit before you get gkicked. Still, you do like the guy. Or did. Before he went crazy. See drunks, below.

Continue reading "These are the People in your Raid" ...

The list was posted by a level 10 alt named Peri on the official US forums.

The Raid: You raid with these people. You work with these people. These people are closer than your family. You should worry.

The GM He’s sacrificed his health, friends, and probably a couple of jobs to drag you through new content. When the guild isn’t performing, these decisions are in question. Prone to shooting sprees, forum flame wars, and the rapid advancement/gearing of whatever toon the guild “needs”. If you can keep your mouth shut, he’ll go emo and quit before you get gkicked. Still, you do like the guy. Or did. Before he went crazy. See drunks, below.

The GM's Significant Other Okay, so he was going to have to quit but he tricked his SO into playing. She loves it. She's terrible. You'll effectively 24 man every boss. Count on 4 constructs in the raid, every attempt. She plays a Belf.

The Raid Leader When you stand in the flames, he dies a little bit inside.

The Heir Apparent When the GM goes psycho, ninjas the bank, and gdisbands, you're the guy the guild is gonna look to to to fix the mess. You see it coming. You can't decide if ritual suicide or being the new gm would be more painful.

The Positive Officer “That was great. Just great. You know, only 5% of guilds have even made it to Supremus, and getting him down to 67% on the second attempt is hawt.” See Stoners, below.

The Negative Officer “Jesus Christ why are there corpses under all these goddamn volcanoes? It’s Supremus for %@*@s’s sake. GET OUT OF THE GODDAMN FLAME!” See Drunks, below.

The Healing Officer Has this job because, as the newest officer who plays a healer, he’s stuck with it.

The Hunter Class Lead Will tell you that it does actually require skill and preparation to play a hunter well in the end game. Lies frequently.

Metermaid He's got meters running. Always. Asks for meter postage whenever he's in the top 5, which is rare, as his focus on the meters is preventing him from seeing the volcano he's pathing towards. Pulls aggro. Has yet to realize that 0 health returns 0 dps. If he's healing, you might as well just put him on raid, he's gonna heal them anyway.

Stratman Has read every strategy on the entire internet for every boss. Unable to think critically. Knows where his talk key is. Hated by the officers. Likely to play a hunter or mage. If this is also Chick With Accent, below, guild will probably collapse.

The Gay Guy Affects the gay accent for effect. Upgrade decisions tend to involve lengthy discussions about gear appearance. Learned to use the dressing room function before the ‘v’key.

The Stay At Home Mom She’s around children all day and craves adult conversation. Babbles incessantly in vent, forgetting that adult conversation doesn’t usually begin with, “So I was talking to (insert name of four-year-old child) and he says…” Well liked, but frequently muted.

Mr. Mikeless Has a microphone. Hears the conversation and directions. Once wiped the raid because he started talking and most folks alt-tabbed to see who the hell was speaking. May be your best player.

The Kid So, you messed up on this guy’s interview and nobody noticed that he was 12. But, he can play. And if he gets a little bit excited when boobies are getting talked about? Hey, he’s young.

The Backbone Plays a tank. Doesn't have much to say. Made an error once in SSC, or so you heard. Will disconnect when Gorefiend is at 30% and keep aggro while offline for the rest of the fight. Has never said anything negative to the healers. Ever. GL with your progression without one of these. Hates the prima donnas.

The Other kid Remember that accountant you interviewed for the fury warrior position? And how you wondered how he’d make time to raid during tax season? He couldn’t. His eleven year old daughter took over about that time. She’s been raiding since. Mages, that’s an eleven year-old girl owning you night after night.

The Hunter Who Doesn't Do His Homework Always good for insightful commentary and clever observation just after a wipe. "Holy Crap Man! I was just standing and shooting and this damn VOLCANO popped on me! When did they put in those volcanoes?"

The Prophet Kept insisting that you were going to need a melee group for BT, despite the fact hat melee was dreadful for SSC/BT. Badgered the management until they broke. Plays a rogue. Shreds. Loved by the Most Devout.

The Most Devout This is the guy who gets to play an off-spec in a big-boy raid. He's the fury warrior or the enhance shammy. He cannot believe that some fate is letting him have this much fun that he's afraid it will all come crashing down. Prays devoutly to his favorite deity that the guild won't collapse because he'll never have THIS much fun again. Ever.

The Drunks The core of your guild. As raid progresses, their voices in vent are getting just ever so slightly slurred. You don’t notice because you’re trying to sound sober yourself. DPS output seems to scale positively with blood alcohol content.

The Stoners Quietly wiping raids since the beta. They really, really, really hate having to move out of the fire. Two of them are dead under the volcanoes. They live in fear of the negative officer. They have their own channel. Try /join (insertguildname)stoners. You’ll see who’s in there. It’ll explain a lot. Still, if these guys don't show, bosses don't seem to actually die. They’re also having more fun that everyone else combined.

The Prima Donna Requires special attention from management. Constantly whining. Plays some vital role. Might be a main tank, mage tank, or lock tank. The officers really hate this guy and as soon as they can find another tank with 24,000 buffed HP, he’s out. Not a stoner.

The Chick with the Accent Is the accent fake? Nobody knows or cares. Future visits to Australia/Britian/New Zealand/Alabama are now planned by all single raid members.

The Healing Pallie Hates healing and had to go holy to see endgame. If you raid with a boomkin, a feral druid, a fury warrior, or any non-resto shaman, you are not getting a 10 minute blessing. Forget it. He hates you. God help you if he has a raid-viable alt in one of those classes; you're not even getting heals. Also, see Prima Donna.

The Departed Legend You joined after he left. You suspect that he could not actually solo Doomwalker. But you're not totally sure.

The Disgruntled Raider Took an unannounced, extended vacation and now has to share his raid spot with the other 11 extra dps. Very angry about this situation. Doesn't realize that whineing is making things worse. Officers pray for a gquit.

The Warlock Whisperer Directionally challenged. Despite having run Karazhan 1.26 million times, will require a summon to Maiden's room from the entrance. Has a "summon pls" macro. Strangely, is good at moving away from volcanoes. See (you guessed it) Stoners.

The New Guy Begins most sentences with, "That's not how we did it in my old guild on Korgath." Likely to remain guilded for approximately one week. You wonder if he'll be telling his next guild, "In my old guild, we ran TOWARDS the volcanoes.

Note: I read a similar archetype post couple years ago, when I first started raiding. I t altered the way I viewed raiding forever after and I've tended to think of my guildies along these terms since. If anyone still has the original piece, please post it. Below is the only person really remember from that post. I'm pretty sure there's something funny about accents in the original, also.

The Backup He's the guy waiting in the wings for the raid slot. Totally dependable and plays about 200% better than the guy for whom he's filling in. He's got half the gear and puts out 20% more dps. Totally cool, amazingly competent. You love it when the main can't be there.

The Buff-less Wonder Plays a class with group buffs, but "forgets" to bring the necessary reagents. Highly skilled at turning a deaf ear and blind eye to buff assignments. If reminded, will proceed to slowly buff people one by one until someone else is overwhelmed by frustration and does it for them. (Kantor, Scarlet Crusade)

Mr. Pick Me! Pick Me! This guy is online and ready to raid. Always. Need a prot warrior? He's got one. A holy pallie? Check. Problem is, he's really bad. Like bad bad. You keep him in the guild because he's... well, he's always been in the guild. So when your main tank, back up tank, and back up back up tank have vanished Mr. Pick is ready to rock, much to everyone else's horror. (Gaucho, Twisting Nether)

Tootsie Has a female toon. Claims to be female. Receives many of the benefits that the other females do, people are nice to her; she gets suspiciously good loot. Problem is, she's never posted a picture of herself, and she never talks on Vent. Could she really be a girl? Sure. But who's to know? (Jayne, Mug'thol)

The Dumbest Person On The Planet No one's quite sure exactly what's wrong with this guy, perhaps human evolution really has come to a standstill. Will be the cause of 60% of your wipes until he gets a /gkick. Tell him to spread out and he'll glue himself to a squishy healer. Tell him to avoid something and he'll stand in it till dead, then complain that he didn't get any heals. Ask him to CC the yellow star and he'll pick the orange circle then claim bleeding wounds debuff on his target. (Zanadune, Vek'nilash)

The Obvious Explainer This guy has read Wowwiki and probably written some of it. He will stop the raid for 15 minutes before each fight to explain to all the new people (of which there are none) that this guy might produce ground fire once in a while or that the hunter adds might shoot arrows. He'll warn that the boss can hit hard, tell everyone to avoid damage, and remind the healers that they need to keep the tanks alive. It makes you a bit worried that an obviously intelligent person thinks you need spoon feeding. Sadly, you wipe a lot when he's online.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Anyone else find this patch note funny?

Take a look at these PTR Druid changes...

Druids
- Lifebloom healing coefficient has been reduced.
- Many shapeshift form tooltips have been updated to be consistent with each other.
- Natural Perfection: This ability will no longer be triggered by taking critical strikes while sitting. In addition, it is now affected by the Subtlety talent and reduces damage by 2/3/4%, down from 1/3/5%.
- Nurturing Instinct increases your healing spells by up to 50/100% of your Agility, and increases healing done to you by 10/20% of your Attack Power while in Cat form.

Anyone else find Healing plus agility funny? Just me?

I know several women that healed because they have great agility!!!

God Bless em!

Killing the Hunter Moonkin Style

So I read BRK's and was moved to mention that I have had my Dwarf Warrior but handed to me by the BRK...

Last time was in Auchiundon... er I dunno how spell that.

He had gotten his snake trap and I had gotten my spell reflect and I remember being somewhat trounced. I say somewhat cuz I think he was kinda low on health when he killed me but we are talking over a year ago now.

Anyways

I can kill hunters as a Moonkin but right now my armor is crap against what I face in BGs cuz Aerthson is still grinding honor for teh welfare... another thing... welfare my ass... I go through just as many wipes as PvE I assure you.

I am in AB guarding stables. I am a big happy on Defense. If I can get behind a geard warrior... he becomes a wrecking ball.

Really quick... I still hate the same classes... Frost mages and Rogues... as a Druid. WTH?

Back to the stables... Here comes the hunter... runs up and Shadowmelds while I am casting roots. Roots still take effect and I run off behind the shed with the kitty. No pun intended.
Running behind the shed allows me to actually sleep the kitty without that hunter drilling me up to the fletchings.

Pet is asleep... Hunter is somewhere... Rooted? Who knows. I stack LB and Rejuv and go back in Moonking (Natural Shapeshifter ftw) and start drinking.

/sleep pet
find hunter
run from silencing shot
/Cat
/Burst
Here comes the pet
/Nature's grasp
Run around the hut again
Pet is rooted
Silencing shot is up...

It's time

/Cyclone
Wait for it
/Starfire (3500 crit)
/Wrath (920)
/Moonfire (1337 crit)
/Wrath (1900 crit)
/Insect swarm

Run behind building outta LOS

/Cyclone pet
/Moonfire
/Moonfire crit!
/Wrath

Dead hunter.

Hunters are LOS folks. Get a building and make them dance around it. Laugh at their pet when they are MM.

Rogues... I hate them... must heal through their Cooldowns and then you have them. IF you can heal through their Cooldowns.

/sigh

Monday, February 18, 2008

AV weekend is over for me

Whew...



That was a lot of grinding on the druid for me. I got Bracers, Boots and am halfway to Belt. I can soon started getting the S1 stuff that will make my toon look like something other than a hobo.



Herk has enough points to get a piece but needs a few more tokens.



What else you ask? Let's pretend you asked, k?



I farmed 20 Netherweb Silk for Sugars.



We got him a Bringer of Death.



Sugars got her Bracers and made herself some really purple epic shoulders.

Also!!! 305 fishing for Aerthson!! Woot!!

BGs are still the suck. Horde is having issues in my BG group and Ally don't play unless it's a premade >.<

Sederasha (Wife's hunter) is level 42 and moving. Pretty soon we will be helping her in Outland :)

The 3rd toon... just aint gonna happen for a while. I have to get Aerthson his gear and Herk the rest of his.

Anyone else get the massive Honor Point grind in?

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Good God a Magic reference!!

That is a great game there! I had some great fun playing that when it first came out but god what a money sink!

I was not particularly good at it nor was I bad at it. This was before my Uber Defeat WC3. The WC3 defeat was bad all... very very bad. I really need to make a name specifically for how bad my ass was handed back to me by the hands of Noobed.

I destroyed everyone in WC3 in a group of friends I had. I did this mainly by being able to have 4-5 bases going all at the same time. I was deadly with the Zerg in Starcraft. My friends good have 1 base really well defended or 2 bases somewhat, but they were not capable of running 4-6 that all had units.

Then... I started playing against Noobed. I took him for a couple at first and then Noobed introduced me to something called the "Metagame."

For those of you still clueless as to what a Metagame is... You go online or talk with peeps (Online is best these days) and you find the strat and the game winning break downs.

Noobed does this with Sublime like style a la "I can play the Metagame like a MOTHER(#$)$# riot!"

He can read it... or he can figure it out... differences in armor and units and what trumps what. Then with said Strategy and knowing how I will play (This is known as "Let's get into it and see who is faster!") He educates me on why he is now called his Noobed Holiness.

It was bad... one whole Saturday of defeat after defeat with him laughing on the phone at me...

But... back to Magic... the same thing happened. Noobed used to head down to New Orleans and play in tournaments... usually completely smashed and on some kinda painkiller... He grew out of it don't worry!

He would go down there and comeback with prizes >.<

So I am over at his apartment next to his dreaded Circle K and I take my first turn and hand the over to him and he wins.

I shit you not... he won on one turn all of it legal.

I really should take his advice more often but I just can't!

Rogue or Lock?! Jeez.. Did you have to pick THE two I discounted already?!

What about you guys? Rogue or Lock?

Having 2 makes it funner I swear... What for the 3rd tho?!

Having Alts makes the game funner for me.

I got burnt on Herk. Playing him to 70 and then grinding his gear ad nauseum (at least to me it was) was too much. I started playing my Druid cuz he was lv 40 already from like 2 years ago and I knew he would be easy to get to 70.

Now with the new leveling xp, I know I am gonna have a 3rd just cuz I like leveling. I like playing through the game.

The problem is... I am having too much damn fun on Herk and Aerthson!

I paly Aerthson first and usually get him his 2k honor a day. By the time he has 2k honor, I am ready to go on a killing spree with Herk. It helped me a lot to know that no matter what class you play you are gonna get owned.

Also, I am working on getting gold to get the epic flyers. This is really not that hard since I quest while waiting.

Leveling the 3rd

I will not neglect my honor grind while leveling the 3rd toon. Especially since I don't know which one I want to have as a 3rd.

I would like a pure DPS class and have ruled some of the classes out.

Rogue is ruled out... cuz just no
Hunter may or may not be ruled out yet
Shaman is in the running
Mage is in the running
Pally is kinda out cuz I can tank better on Herk and I can heal better on Aerthson
Lock? Nah

Decisions decisions

Hunter, Shaman, Mage are looking like the main 3.

Hunter would level the fastest and is an Orc lv 31
Shaman is Enhance Orc and is lv 29
Mage is Frost and is lv29

HELP MEH! Probably won't decide for quite a while anyways.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The thing about Melvin

Ok, I ran 5v5 with Melvin and crew last night.

He and his group were gracious enough to let me run with Herk and Aerthson so I can get some points. Noobed let me know and they gave me the team invite.

Now, Noobed says I have to do a Melvin post. This may or may not be the post which Noobed is looking for.

I have not played with Melvin much 2x and some chat in Shadowmoon and I do NOT know him well at all.

Observations on Melvin and Noobed

Melvin is all inclusive.

He let us play in his 5v5 without making our gear a requirement. A winning combo? Not at all. But Melvin's logic is that with enough people with gear they can start to put together a style but the gear grind is most important right now.

Noobed is inclusive with fit throwing

Noobed is a difficult guy to read at times. He wants you to play with him and he wants you to play his way. We all do and say dumb stuff and Noobed is there to point it out... again and again... and again! BUT, he knows his stuff. He knew the best way to gear a toon which I didn't realize til after I had geared Herk the opposite way. In the long run, gear does matter and there are several ways to gear a toon and Noobed's system of getting the 3 piece PvP set of Bracers/Belt/Boots first is the better.

Melvin while being inclusive DOES make funny statements in arena!

"That Pally counted as 2 people"

I see where he is coming from since we had no hunter to sting and no mana burn. Killing a decked pally is rough on 3 warr 1 sham and 1 mage... er wait a tic.

We face a team last night that was 3 hunters and 2 locks. That was 5v10 for me, so I can really see the point of Melvin's statement about the pally.

Now, while Melvin is being inclusive, I don't know how many of his statements are just thrown out there for encouragment or cuz it just don't matter. Like when he tells the Prot Spec warrior who is undergeared...

"It's ok to go after the Pally cuz they are healers too."

I thought to myself YIKES!! But, once again, he let my just hit 70 on Sun non epic having Druid onto his team for points and didn't ask that I be good or that I pay him gold.

Did he do so outta the kindness of his heart? Who knows... imo, he is making investements now for payoff later and is ok with the lackluster performance and lack of strategy.

This kind of play style is anathema to Noobed and it is to Noobed's credit that he doesn't freak out more often. Noobed needs stats, strats, and stamina. Stats tell him where he is, Strats telling him where he should get to and the stamina to grind. The thing that upsets him most about Melvin is the differences.

Say Noobed breaks down like this...

Stats 95 -100% He likes to know where he is in gear and what he should be able to do.
Strats 95-100% He likes to know what everyone is capable of doing and how to shut them down or when to run.
Stamina 60-70% He will grind a lot to get his stats but has no sense of comraderie while doing it and you had better be doing the same!

Melvin then breaks down to

Stats 80-90% He likes his gear and like it to be shiny and new.
Strats 20-35% Sorry Melvin, I just haven't seen it out ya.
Stamina 100% Melvin can grind like no one else. It's insane to get 40k Honor is a weekend imo.

Its these differences where the burlap meets the bikini wax area for those two.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Grindage



Gotta have 2 of these.

Time to DIE sketties >.<

Druid is 70

Druid hit 70 over the weekend. He went full Resto/PvP spec.

He is now 8/11/42

He is one of the most aggravating opponents in a BG now. I can incompacitate your butt for 10sec minimum.

Here's the recap of annoyance...

Warrior chasing the flag carrier.

/Cyclone

Full 6 sec (Musta not had trinket)

/Roots

Not sure how long but lasted for at least 8 sec ( I cast this to coincide with the ending of Cyclone... he may have stepped 1')

/Cyclone

3 sec

By this time he is starting to hate me and I can see him coming with red in his eye

/shapeshift Dire Bear
/Feral Charge

God he hates me

/Stunning Blow

He really hates me

/Roots

/Travel Form

I am fairly certain he cancelled his account.

K, so tonight I will be in EOTS getting my button layout down for this new spec. Need to start getting the happy macros as well.

Arms and Fury really needs to change to Arms and Resto.

:)

Friday, February 8, 2008

What I likes...

K, I saw me friend, the esteemnables Ratshag post as to why he likes being a warrior. Knowing that I in no way can come close to mimicking a Ratshag post, I have decided to talk about my Drood.

What I like about the Drood...

It takes a lot to catch me if I don't feel like fighting. Shapeshift breaking everything is great. Cept that damn Fear crap. Also, the sea lion bit... Yes, you can use it in AB... Yes it is funny.

The lates get away...

I got flight form at lv68 and am a healer. I am looking for groups for Bot and Mech. So I goes to Netherstorm and start to do the Arc chain quest so I can get my Arc Key for Druid. While I am getting packages that the BELFs left lying around... this gnome warlock up and ganks away on me.

K, so when I am dotted I can't turn into a bird.

I am NOT going to fight this lock... I /travel and head off...

Only to see his Warrrior buddy drop from the sky and Charge/stun me. I tap natures grasp and continue running... he gets rooted and then I see the lock just a coming at me on his Netherdrake... sigh

I jump off Netherstorm.

wait

wait

/Flight Form and fly off.

Did I mention the Heals and Dmg Boomking can get away with? What about shifting into cat and hitting Cower?

Did I mention the 6500 crit heal?

Druids are great fun.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Instances ( A quick aside)

I leveled Herk as fast as I could with a 2-3 week stop over on Ally side because my wife began playing again and I wanted to play with her. All totaled Herk was leveled to 70 in about 10days played.

Ok, not the fastest by any means. However, not too bad imo.

I did not do instances on Herk. I had 1-2 runthroughs and that was it.

A brief history of Aerthson. Aerthson has been around for 2 ½ years. Aerthson was started as an alt to my Tauren Hunter who would be my main. Unfortunately, I began outlevely Sugars and my wife and my friends and only Noobed kept up. Finally, ended up quitting the Horde toon to go back to my raiding Dwarf Warrior. His total play time to 70 will be at the 12 day mark.

I did a bunch of instances on Aerthson. I should have done them on Herk too. Next time I level a toon, the toon will be doing instances. Instance give really good XP, make contacts, make avoidances and have a good shot at a gear upgrade.

I think the Shaman is the one I am most likely to play next. Why another toon? To catch up with my wife so I can play with her of course.

Also, with the gear reset closing in... I have neither the time nor the inclination to go after Tier gear on this expansion.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Top 10 Warrior Tanking List

10) Charging at the wrong time in the wrong situation

Charging can be done in an instance granting that there are no other mobs around any where near aggro range. Other than that, its a "pull" situation. Warriors... sometimes it's ok to have a gun just based on the stats, but if you are forgetful of stocking up on ammo like I am, go for the thrown weapons.

9) Thunderclap breaks sheep people!

Granted that the mob was already sheeped! Sure you charge into 4 things and want the aggro gen, but pull them back from the sheep and then TC em.

8) Pull back into the other room already!

If you have groups like I do, the group hovers around your ass til you /y at them to back up into the other room. This is just a good practice no matter if the mobs fear, have knockback or like to sheep you with you then sheepwalking into the other mobs. I have seen the latter happen.

7) You are not there to tank 1 and only 1 mob. You tank 3 minimum given the mobs.

I know... you are lv67 and I am just a healer. Don't make me pull my warrior and show you how to tank! It is possible to tank a full 4 with a warrior. No its not as easy as with a Druid Bear or a Pally (I have Consecrate) tankadin. If anyone wants the post where I actually outline how to do this... you have to leave a comment!

6) Marking!

You mark... its your job. Period. Times you don't mark... in a raid and you are not the raid leader and if you are noob to an instance and someone has been there on 2 toons already.

5) Target Marking!

Listen... you sheep Melee with high armor and kill them last. You sheep casters that have a fear effect or kill them first... where do you kill these? in the last F'ing room is where... yanno.. the one that is cleared already! You line of sight (LOS) pull casters and shooters. This means you hit them with a ranged and duck behind a colum or some such to pull them... where?... into the last damn room! Quit causing wipes!

4) Your Skull

3) Pay attention to mana bars!

You are not a one man show! You need healers and healers need mana. Pay careful attention to mana bars after 3 types of pulls... the initial, the oops and the we barely survived. This is a nice gauge of how taxing pulls are on your healers mana bar. Also, its a good inidication of how good your healer is.

2) Sunder

If I don't see Sunder, you aren't tanking properly... PERIOD.

1) Taunt

Taunt is used when aggro is pulled OFF you. It is NOT used to gain aggro.

Friday, February 1, 2008

The Sandwich

So anyone who as been reading the blog knows that I now have both pieces of bread for any wow sandwich I wish.

Herk the warrior (Prot atm)
Aerthson the Druid (Balance atm)

If there is an instance I wanna see or due, I have the bread covered.

I really enjoy doing instance with Aerthson. I am new to healing through instances and it makes the game new and fun for me. With that new enjoyment from the Druid, I went back to tanking on Herk throughout the week and found I liked just as well.

Now I am tanking and healing through 5 mans and there is tons of fun stuff to talk about for me.

First up... the *shudder* effect.

DPS might not be simple but you know what you have to do... kick the sh!t out of something once you know it won't/can't kick the sh!t out of you!

Tanking is slightly tougher in that tanks have to try and grab aggro and maintain it. Tanking can be easy or hard but it does require awareness. I have played 2 hunters now and found that to play DPS of the party is like watching the game from the couch. Sure you can go MAX dps , you may even have to spring into action for a trap or 2 or maybe a silencing shot! But these things happens if a) the tank can't tank the mob, b) has lost aggro (see a), or c) all hell breaks loose (Again see a&b).

What I am saying is there are 3 parts to a party.

Tank
DPS
DPS
DPS
Healer

Sure you can change it up and make it look different but it still has the same motif.

Druid (Feral) Tank or DPS
Druid (Balance) DPS or Healing
Druid (Restoration) Healing or some DPS, no tanking.

Warrior (Arms) Tanking or DPS
Warrior (Fury) DPS or Tanking
Warrior (Prot) Tanking or why the hell are you here?

So you are either 1 of 3 things. A tank, DPS or a healer.

But what about Hybrids?!

Shaman = DPS/Healer/Laughable Tank
Paladin = Tank/Healer/Laughable DPS
Druid= All 3 equally depending on spec (Is this a Blizzard balance issue?)
Warrior = Tank/DPS
Priest = Healer/DPS
Warlock = DPS
Mage= DPS
Rogue= DPS
Hunter=DPS

See the sandwich and your part?

DPS does have specialty branches... CC types, offhealers, offtanks... off this off that. You get the picture.

The *shudder* effect starts to happen when you "know" the role a toon has in an instance personally and you know they don't know... *shudder*

It's like seeing the DPS/Healer not Heal cuz he is busy with DPS. WELL THE FURY WARRIOR AINT CAPABLE Shammy! You have to off heal! I don't wanna hear about your DPS!

It's like seeing a CC/DPS pulling with only to CC 2 mobs and there are 5. ARE YOU THE TANK?!

It's like a black fly in your chardonnay!

It's like seeing a TANK pull too many when he only has a Pally healer!

It's 10k spoons when all you need is a knife!

But the biggest *shudder* for me atm is seeing a tank... on a boss... and not seeing SUNDER on the boss... /smack!

It's like having to constantly keep the TANK less than 1/2 fool cuz the rogue don't know when to back off or drop aggro.

I don't when they got the idea that dodging attacks = tanking... musta played FF too much I s'pose.