http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/ en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:12:01 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.tankspot.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/ http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/2804-agonizing-over-faction-change.html Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:40:45 GMT *Orcs* are hot in plate. The title of my blog and also the secondary reason for making an orc warrior in the first place! Sure, they may be the ultimate warrior race but damn do they look good in heavy armor.

My warrior saw an early retirement that I regret. As much fun as swapping to my balance turned kitty druid to level from 70 was, it just doesn't match playing my warrior.

So some friends of mine came back to WoW with Cataclysm's announcement, and I would love to play with them again... Problem being, they are all alliance. I enjoy playing my druid - but not enough to continue with her as a main. I need my warrior.

Yay for faction change! I guess...
Gnome and Draenei were immediately counted out. I just don't like the way they look. Honestly, what else matters? With Cataclysm coming, there is the looming possibility of racials being overhauled... So I could care less about them. Human, Dwarf and Night Elf all looked pretty cool, but I can't decide. I think I can further round it down to Dwarf vs. Night Elf.

Oh yeah, speaking of Cataclysm, I was looking forward to a Goblin warrior SO much... But they probably won't be open to race changes for a while. I mean, I could go try Alliance for a while, kill the 60 day cooldown and eventually come back?

BRB, leveling a warrior of almost every race. ]]> Corisa http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/2804-agonizing-over-faction-change.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/2170-gearing-your-secondary-spec.html Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:05:39 GMT So I'm going to have a DPS spec as my secondary. It just seems like the most intelligent and progression-minded option. Regardless of whether the guild wants to call me a main tank, there are encounters the Death Knight or Paladin tanks are definitely better suited for.

(Edit: My friend tore me up for not including druids in that last sentence! No disrespect to the bear tanks intended! Our guild just has no active feral tanks at the moment. :p )

That is all besides the point though, when I'm out pugging to gear the last few slots of my secondary spec I run into an immense amount of resistance from plate DPS. Most of this comes in the form of "You're a tank, you can't roll on that."

I get it - for the past couple of years, we have all held a defined role in a group and did instances with the intent of improving our gear in that role. How hard is it to grasp that this system is changing?

So what if I'm tanking for the group to get my alt-spec gear? Would the same ret paladin crying about the tank rolling on a DPS ring be crying if he lost it to a mediocre arms warrior? Actually, I don't think he would... if I was gearing as my DPS spec he'd instead be somewhere else crying about how there aren't enough tanks on our server. ]]> Corisa http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/2170-gearing-your-secondary-spec.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/2116-deciding-if-sky-really-falling.html Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:59:03 GMT And if it has fallen far enough to leave my guild.

So what do you do when it feels like your guild leadership is making a string of poor and perhaps questionable decisions? My slowly changing work schedule was something I was willing to work around, but in the past few weeks, I haven't found much to agree with my leaders on.

My big one? Guild alliances are trash. Since I started playing this game, I have been a member of one successful alliance... Well, partially successful. The more ambitious guild leader just ended up absorbing our guild and most of the quality players quit. I guess it comes down to why you're playing the game:

If I wanted to raid with these people we are allied with, I would have likely approached them for membership when I was searching for a guild.

Quick background: When this alliance was proposed, we did a trial Naxx 25. Fine. I prefer the 10-man scene, but I'll make an exception for the benefit of my friends. It was miserable, probably the worst three nights of raiding in the past year. There were little outbursts in guild chat, and some general rage over how we were being treated. Through the "proper channels," our gripes were taken to the other guild, assumed to be sugar coated, and the alliance survived. While this may not bother some people, I'm pretty frustrated over it.

I know that I and others have offered to help with recruiting in any way needed... Offers that no officer has taken advantage of. So we take in very few players and still lack the (motivated) player base to sustain our own heroic raids. Applications have all but disappeared (perhaps out of desperation?), and I fear quality control will die with them.

The other big one? Progression. Wait, back up there, I'm not one of those divas who would leave because we aren't going fast enough. I'm casual, no question about it - but confused by a lack of purpose. They have abandoned Malygos, there hasn't been an attempt posted in four weeks, despite my half-kidding forum jabs about how the officers are afraid of him. Naxx raids are generally abandoned after a few wings are cleared, and everyone is rushing to our "allies" for Naxx 25 raids. Last time I checked, the purpose of progression is not to jump ahead, load up with iLvl 213 and then go back to over gear the encounter we couldn't handle. Two-ish total nights of attempts, especially when we were finally reaching phase 3 in good time before falling apart is discouraging.

I could continue to nitpick, but everything seems to travel full circle to those key complaints. Everyone who is unhappy in their guild probably entertains thoughts that they manage it better though. I guess it's just how these things go. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be able to make a decision. I just feel like if they aren't willing to take the chance on 10-mans without being loaded up with Valorous, then maybe I don't want to take the chance with them venturing into Ulduar? ]]> Corisa http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/2116-deciding-if-sky-really-falling.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/2007-vehicles-good-idea.html Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:32:19 GMT Really a simple question, as there seems to be a lot of noise on both sides of this issue. Is it a good idea for a full raid vehicle encounter to start Ulduar? I'm definitely opposed, so I'll try to minimize the QQ as much as possible... bear with me!

The last post I made to my blog was about how Malygos was going to nuke my raid in phase 3. I don't want to say I told you so, but after some practice and nailing the positioning and spark management, we were able to reach phase 3 in good time... and that's where all of our best attempts stop.

Why? Well, first of all Aces High is miserable practice. It just isn't a good substitute for the actual encounter with healing others or interacting with both your raid and Malygos. Secondly, (disregarding the daily) it is essentially requiring your raid to learn a character class in the middle of an encounter. Energy? Combo points? Heals on the drakes, wtf "finishing moves?" This ties in with my gripe about Aces High, why should you need to find an obscure daily quest to practice for a raid encounter? We should not have to hound our guildies to get to Coldarra to learn the drake for phase 3 Malygos... If we need to mount up to end the encounter, it should be more natural and you should need to ride a drake earlier in a somewhat trivial circumstance.

Malygos has made me very much opposed to vehicles in vital raid content. However, I thought the hover discs were cool - you ride it and navigate in three dimensions while still controlling the class you mastered. Not everyone is required to pick one up and the leaders can pick and choose who is going up to fight. I just wish the raid was still working directly with the boss while you sent melee to handle the floaters and then return to the actual engagement.

That's the basis for my opinion, so back to the point: Now we get another full vehicle encounter - and I'm not going to try to hide my opposition to this concept. Sure, we will eventually master the drakes and kill Malygos - but is this going to be a problem again when 3.1 hits? Should I be hounding people to copy to the PTR to get their practice in? It's like a hidden attunement: Master the gimmick to proceed... Unfortunately Malygos is calling my guild out as one unfit to handle gimmicks. :p

If I could chat with the developers, a few questions about the Ulduar vehicles come to mind:
1. Why is a full vehicle event the opener to Ulduar and not held off until later or even optional with some incentives?
2. If the goal is to recapture the wonderful RTS days, why all siege weapons? I still had grunts and raiders alongside my demolishers. Does the whole raid really need to be in vehicles?
3. Will the gauntlet be sufficient practice for the boss encounter in terms of proper use of the vehicle's abilities and raid interaction versus the boss?
4. Will the different vehicle types have clearly defined/straight forward roles?

I'm doing my best to reserve judgement until I try it, but it's rough. I hope I'm wrong and it's a ton of fun, but there is a line between challenging and frustrating... I hope they are very careful to not cross it. ]]> Corisa http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/2007-vehicles-good-idea.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/1925-malygos-going-nuke-my-raid.html Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:45:49 GMT So we're going to make our first Malygos attempt this week. We were going to do it last week, but we want our very best for the first time and too many people were having schedule conflicts. I'm not worried about my tanking, and for good measure I'll be particularly cheery and confident in the Naxx raid the night before Maly. I'm not worried about the healers - they're competent and always focused. I'm not worried about the DPS, as we are taking our most solid people. The raid leader is knowledgeable and prepares well, and when it's serious business time you won't hear a peep over vent.

So what the hell am I worried about? Phase three.

Although a very cool idea, and a great feature (I guess), this is something I fear will be a regular addition to raid encounters to "spice them up." NO! Bad Blizzard! Stop it! Let my raiders use the abilities their characters have hotkeyed that they know and love. This wrench you are throwing into the works is not cool by me.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Aces High daily in Coldarra until I found out that it was Malygos practice. It was one of the only dailies I actually did every day, now it's like a coin toss as to whether I am able to finish it cleanly... I see that stupid parachute far more often than I ever did before. The worst part? After I posted on our guild forum that Aces High was Malygos practice and it was pretty much using the exact drake we were going to control in the encounter, my performance got even worse.

I was chatting with my raid leader earlier, and even he said that he finding Aces High to be unusually difficult. So here is my "oh crap" and "WTF" moment so I stay cool within the guild in the events leading up to Maly.

Did anyone else notice personal or guild-wide failings on Aces High leading up to Malygos as some weird first time jitters? ...Or is Malygos really about to nuke my raid all night? Slash cry. ]]> Corisa http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/1925-malygos-going-nuke-my-raid.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/1895-pugs-me-forced-perception-change.html Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:39:43 GMT I run heroics for my guild pretty much whenever they ask me to come along, but I have become bloodthirsty when it comes to tanking. On non-raid nights when everyone is busy, I need to quench my thirst so I dial up the LFG for a heroic or two. I can only think of one heroic drop that I would still like to have and I don't need the emblems anymore. I just need to go out and get hit hard by something, or perhaps less hard by many somethings... Whatever. Incoming damage, now please.

When I created my warrior, I abandoned years of Alliance play and my old server. I rebuilt from scratch and fell in love with the game again. Leveling alone on a new server, you end up pugging everything. Where I previously despised the idea, I had to change my mindset in order to network and meet anyone. There are naturally the good people and those who you want to strangle, but that's life. Anyhow, where I previously played strictly among my guild of friends, pugging was viewed as evil. We leveled together, raided together, geared each other's alts, and ended up in shells until real life obligations slowly pulled the guild apart.

Wrath of the Lich King was my target when creating my tank, and I was 70 only long enough for half a Karazhan clear before it was time to board the zeppelin to Northrend. I guess I was in the early waves having dinged 80 in under a week; but without a home and with no high-end 70 raid gear to carry me, I was facing a long gearing process yet again. The twist this time around was clearly my lack of an established guild or network. Last resort: The pick up groups. Not only did I live, but I learned a lot from others and geared myself almost exclusively this way until landing in my wonderful guild by mid-December.

Fast forward to this week: I still play with these grab-bag parties almost every evening I can. Rogues that dish out less DPS than I do, DPS who perhaps "skip" the kill targets, new healadins that struggle on Keristrasza, people who still "stand in the fire," I welcome them all. After a really senseless wipe in the Violet Hold, a friend I dragged along asked me, "Seriously, why do you still pug?" I guess I still PuG because I finally had to experience the other side of things, because I remember being the "undergeared" tank in a H CoT:Strat run with a pair of TBC raiders still rocking their T6 and Sunwell gear. The "scrub" DPS who tax my healer's mana by stretching out fights will always remain poorly geared if they are kicked to the curb. Who am I to judge? Finding a guild where you are comfortable isn't always easy - what if this struggling player is a reroll like I was?

It's always satisfying for me when people in my party finally get that drop they have been grinding pick up groups for, and I hope I will continue to enjoy tanking in these groups. The noob wipes will always be frustrating, but keeping my composure goes a long way... Even when I know exactly who is being "carried." Not everyone is choosing to be "carried," and often times their frustration over their lighter contribution is palpable.

So at the end of the day, my armor and shield has been battered, my lust for blood is sated, and hopefully someone got something out of the experience... And that is why I still choose to PuG. ]]> Corisa http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/1895-pugs-me-forced-perception-change.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/1869-one-month-naxxramas.html Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:59:15 GMT ...Our progression miles from the bleeding edge.

This is my first post of anything on TankSpot! I've been a long time fan of the community here, and even when I spent my time standing at the back of the raid healing, this was my source for any information involving our tanks. I'm still a bit too shy and unsure of myself to contribute in the forums, but I love blogging - and my warcraft ramblings aren't really appropriate for my personal blog.

I tank for a tiny guild. We don't even have the manpower to run our own ten man raid yet and generally borrow two of our friends every week, a healer and a mage... Our doors are open to them in terms of membership, but we aren't about actively recruiting away from other guilds. Back to the point: I frequently hear people discuss how Naxx is a joke. This is mindlessly frustrating when your developing guild is stepping into the dread citadel for the first time... And overcoming that stigma is casual progression in and of itself.

Week one consisted of myself and my co-tank pugging. It felt like we were the only people totally ready to go; and in terms of the suggested minimum stats, we were barely ready to handle Patchwerk. As with most pugs, it turned into a pissing contest between the two who knew the instance best and all too many wipes. Maexxna beat us into submission, and we ventured to the Abomination wing with our tail between our legs and called the raid after downing Patchwerk. For all the frustration, that night probably set the groundwork for our later success. As the guild's only tanks, we finally had an opportunity to get a feel for working with each other.

The first guild runs are usually shaky. Just because the tanks have meshed doesn't force the DPS and healers into working as a team. We cleared the Arachnid, Military and Construct quarters in remarkably erratic fashion before getting spanked in the Plague Quarter by Heigan. I also had my current "most embarrassing tanking moment" when I lagged out in the first phase. As I pulled and positioned Heigan to start the dance, WoW crashed. Because my co-tank had switched into her healing gear, my system error crashed our raid as well. So we called it there for the night, but I guess you can't build confidence by sitting outside the instance thinking about the encounters.

Armed with some of that confidence we continued. However, week three was like the breaking point with some WWS support to document the futility. All of our growing pains were now clearly on display. It took all of three full nights of raiding to clear the four wings. Having identified our problem wings as Plague and Construct, we decided to dive headfirst into Plague. Things were off to a smashing start as we one-shot our way through it... Even Patchwerk crumbled before us, then came the brick wall: four Grobbulus wipes. You guys all know that raids get long only when ghost runs pile up, and pile up they did. The second night brought four more consecutive Grobbulus wipes, and an extremely sloppy clear of the Military quarter. After pounding our heads against the wall taking six attempts to kill the Four Horsemen (Can anyone beat a 21 second wipe?) we finally pulled our heads from our fourth point of contact and killed Grob. Night three consisted of embarrassing difficulty with Arachnid and trying to force people into avoiding homicide at Thaddius. The fourth night and nine botched attempts on Sapphiron was where the hellish week would end. The guild master was talking about dumping Sapph off of the raid schedule, and I was ready to jump all over an officer for blaming our failures on some players still carrying gear under iLvl 200. It was a week of wild inconsistency, but it could have been precisely the adversity we needed.

So now we come to this past week, what I would consider our fourth week of growth as a raiding unit. Everything finally clicked - and it's a beautiful feeling. In less than two hours, we had downed Arachnid and Military with only a small coordination slip up on Maexxna. On the second night we focused, took our time and handled Construct and Plague with ease. As we decided to go up into Frostwyrm Lair, I'm positive that there were doubts... But Sapphiron was beaten mercilessly in a single attempt. We had only one raider who had seen Kel'Thuzad before we stepped into that final room, we stepped out three attempts later having crushed the master of the necropolis. Two nights, one full clear. We felt so good that we even tossed in a Sartharion kill afterwards for good measure.

I thought about our growth over the past month while driving home from class this morning, and while progression for us may not be the race for server firsts, we made some immense strides. I'm pretty proud of how far we've come, and I think we have a lot to look forward to. Our first Malygos attempts will happen in the next week or two... Likely dependent on how we handle Naxx this week after manhandling the place in our first full clear. Instead of being bothered by others calling Naxx a joke, we got to experience the raid thinking that maybe it was. Developing and maturing as a raid is one thing, consistency is another. I think that we finally pulled together, and our ability to maintain this level of performance will ultimately dictate if we're going to have continued success when encounters get even more difficult in Ulduar and beyond. ]]> Corisa http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/corisa/1869-one-month-naxxramas.html