I raid on US-Khaz'goroth as a mage and a protection warrior. Bouncing between Sunwell Plateau and Serpentshrine Cavern and all the zones in-between, I'm one confused raider.
Breaking In
Hello all,
Long time no update. Since the onset of WotLK, changes and new decisions have swept us all along relentlessly. New classes, new zones, new reps to grind, new raids to clear. In this holiday season, I finally have a chance to catch my breath.
I've bitten the bullet and made the switch from mage to warrior. Lots to say about the overall experience, but I shan't, because others have done it and done a better job before me. Instead, I'll talk about what's been going on in my guild. Change is in the air: we have new officers, a new policy of recruiting more raiders than needed and a new semi-DKP loot system. This came about from being burnt by raiding with just 30 people in SWP and having raiders drop out, and not being able to fill the numbers every night. While some of the new people are nice, guild chat sometimes turns into a frat-house galore. It hasn't been pleasant, but things are slowly looking up.
With the soaring interest in tanking this expansion brings, we now have 5 raiding tanks and the effect is I'm now more on rotations than ever. So I've engaged myself in running heroics and clearing achievements.
Do I regret switching mains? A little. Tank spots in any raids are limited in number, and I have been spoilt by the fact that as a former dpser, I could almost get into every raid in TBC. I've also begun to level up my mage and found that I miss the neat and perfect executions that a mage's playstyle brings. But that all goes away when I spend 30 minutes looking for people to do group quests/dungeons with, or try to grind an achievement in old-world content. If you want things done right, do it yourself is my motto. Besides, I can't describe how much I adore the independence and resilience of a tank.
We remain a semi-casual raiding guild, and I was one of the mid-group of people in the guild who hit 80 (1 week from release). 1 more week was spent gearing up before hitting Naxx. Subsequently, I lagged behind the other tanks in terms of gear and experience. On my first 10 and 25-man runs, quite a number of people expected me to get everything right, and hit achievements, which of course wasn't happening.
Easy content is all nice and dandy, but it also makes for intolerant behavior. There is, of course, no excuse for dying to Heigan week after week, but bagging people for hours over incompetence in the first week? Give me a break.
Anyway, I think I’ve found my feet in the recent runs, and had the privilege of main-tanking all the 10 man content. For official heroic raids, I’m designated as off-tank together with a feral druid and a DK. We run a very tight and strict tanking rotation. The MT never changes, and our guild MT is a prot war who has been with the guild since the MC days, and have earned his spot over the years. He’s never missed a single raid, so there was never a need to get another MT.
So far? I've been spend most of my time in 25-man Naxx as a dpsing prot-war. I know I can gripe all I want, but as long as the officers have no confidence in me, nothing is going to happen. This week, I had my break. Official raids have been called off, but some of us decided to organize 25-mans. Without guild leadership around, we managed to take down Sarth + 1 add, and last night, went into Heroic Naxx with a couple of new 80s, a new MT (myself) and a new OT (a fellow prot war from 10-mans).
I made mistakes. Didn’t know to shield wall at webwrap after Maexxna’s enrage, although I warned my OT beforehand to pick her up should I die. I underestimated Anub’Rekhan’s Locust Swarm duration in heroic mode. Luckily, healers kept me alive. And tonight, we’re going to clear Sapphiron and Kel’Thuzad.
Does this mean things are going to change? Does this mean I’d be able to MT in official raids? Not likely. But nobody rolls a tank to output mediocre dps or OT forever. This is something I haven’t been able to get across to many of my guildies who ask “why can’t you be happy OTing?” And as I’ve discovered, the role of an OT in fights like Sartharion actually involves more work than the MT’s. But there will always be that niggling doubt that makes me wonder “Am I good enough?”
Naxx is nothing like SWP pre 3.02, and I admire my guild’s MT for his tenacity to shoulder the responsibility of taking the guild through difficult content. All I ask is for a chance to MT, to know that I’m good enough. I’m not amazing, I’m not a tank’s Second Coming. With more experience and practice I may, but for now, at least I know I can do it.
I've had my chance, and damn, it was satisfying. I can say now I did it. After tonight, I’m going back to dpsing and hopefully get a chance to OT more in 25-man raids.
Long time no update. Since the onset of WotLK, changes and new decisions have swept us all along relentlessly. New classes, new zones, new reps to grind, new raids to clear. In this holiday season, I finally have a chance to catch my breath.
I've bitten the bullet and made the switch from mage to warrior. Lots to say about the overall experience, but I shan't, because others have done it and done a better job before me. Instead, I'll talk about what's been going on in my guild. Change is in the air: we have new officers, a new policy of recruiting more raiders than needed and a new semi-DKP loot system. This came about from being burnt by raiding with just 30 people in SWP and having raiders drop out, and not being able to fill the numbers every night. While some of the new people are nice, guild chat sometimes turns into a frat-house galore. It hasn't been pleasant, but things are slowly looking up.
With the soaring interest in tanking this expansion brings, we now have 5 raiding tanks and the effect is I'm now more on rotations than ever. So I've engaged myself in running heroics and clearing achievements.
Do I regret switching mains? A little. Tank spots in any raids are limited in number, and I have been spoilt by the fact that as a former dpser, I could almost get into every raid in TBC. I've also begun to level up my mage and found that I miss the neat and perfect executions that a mage's playstyle brings. But that all goes away when I spend 30 minutes looking for people to do group quests/dungeons with, or try to grind an achievement in old-world content. If you want things done right, do it yourself is my motto. Besides, I can't describe how much I adore the independence and resilience of a tank.
We remain a semi-casual raiding guild, and I was one of the mid-group of people in the guild who hit 80 (1 week from release). 1 more week was spent gearing up before hitting Naxx. Subsequently, I lagged behind the other tanks in terms of gear and experience. On my first 10 and 25-man runs, quite a number of people expected me to get everything right, and hit achievements, which of course wasn't happening.
Easy content is all nice and dandy, but it also makes for intolerant behavior. There is, of course, no excuse for dying to Heigan week after week, but bagging people for hours over incompetence in the first week? Give me a break.
Anyway, I think I’ve found my feet in the recent runs, and had the privilege of main-tanking all the 10 man content. For official heroic raids, I’m designated as off-tank together with a feral druid and a DK. We run a very tight and strict tanking rotation. The MT never changes, and our guild MT is a prot war who has been with the guild since the MC days, and have earned his spot over the years. He’s never missed a single raid, so there was never a need to get another MT.
So far? I've been spend most of my time in 25-man Naxx as a dpsing prot-war. I know I can gripe all I want, but as long as the officers have no confidence in me, nothing is going to happen. This week, I had my break. Official raids have been called off, but some of us decided to organize 25-mans. Without guild leadership around, we managed to take down Sarth + 1 add, and last night, went into Heroic Naxx with a couple of new 80s, a new MT (myself) and a new OT (a fellow prot war from 10-mans).
I made mistakes. Didn’t know to shield wall at webwrap after Maexxna’s enrage, although I warned my OT beforehand to pick her up should I die. I underestimated Anub’Rekhan’s Locust Swarm duration in heroic mode. Luckily, healers kept me alive. And tonight, we’re going to clear Sapphiron and Kel’Thuzad.
Does this mean things are going to change? Does this mean I’d be able to MT in official raids? Not likely. But nobody rolls a tank to output mediocre dps or OT forever. This is something I haven’t been able to get across to many of my guildies who ask “why can’t you be happy OTing?” And as I’ve discovered, the role of an OT in fights like Sartharion actually involves more work than the MT’s. But there will always be that niggling doubt that makes me wonder “Am I good enough?”
Naxx is nothing like SWP pre 3.02, and I admire my guild’s MT for his tenacity to shoulder the responsibility of taking the guild through difficult content. All I ask is for a chance to MT, to know that I’m good enough. I’m not amazing, I’m not a tank’s Second Coming. With more experience and practice I may, but for now, at least I know I can do it.
I've had my chance, and damn, it was satisfying. I can say now I did it. After tonight, I’m going back to dpsing and hopefully get a chance to OT more in 25-man raids.
Total Comments 0
