TankSpot - Blogs - Krazen

Raiding with non-raiders: The Beginning

Krazen — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:14:03 GMT

Hello all, I've decided to start a new series of blogs about how I've been taking a group of non-raiders that have interest in endgame and getting them "in the game". With any luck, it'll help you in getting the friends/family players motivated. :)

My description of a non-raider:
A player who plays extremely casual. By this, I mean someone who logs in on an off-regular basis and has no real goals besides leveling a toon. They may occasionally pug a Vault or a heroic, but they typically turtle into a comfort zone group of just friends.

When I went to a guild with mainly friends in it, I knew that I wanted to lead raids for them, because these are all my friends that ARE interested in the content, but have a hard time understanding coordination, understanding raid structure, and understanding that WoW gold is, in fact, fake money.

Here's what I did for these three issues, before we talked about going in somewhere.

Issue #1: Coordination
Our first big raid night consisted of a raid group for Vault and Sartharion. Easy raids, yes. The dps looked something like this.

Top 5 spots: 1700 - 1900
Bottom 5: 1400 and down.

This isn't remarkable on bosses with an enrage timer such as Sarth or Archavon, but it worked. We mixed and matched for a run to Noth, solely because, in my opinion, Heigan is the best fight to test coordination on. Here's how it went after we made it to Heigan.

Run 1 = Melee wiped before the Safety Dance minus myself. Ranged wiped during the first Safety Dance except one healer. One tank, one healer left. We considered endurance beating Heigan, but that would trash my desire to buff coordination.

Run 2 = Same result, but this time a fury warrior survived until the SD, and a hunter survived the first SD.

We continued this trend for 2 more wipes, and then I halted the raid and had an open forum discussion on how we can alter things. People had some great ideas, and we decided to save it for this week. Since then, they've been much better about jumping in on heroics and have had less issues.

I'll be discussing Raid Structure issues later on, as work is pulling me away. If you guys have any suggestions or would like me to elaborate any further, I would happily do so!

Thanks for reading, and all the best,
Krazen

I'm back! :D

Krazen — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:12:37 GMT

Hey TS'ers! :D

With school and greenhouse work, my spring has started off with a good ol' fashioned bang!

That being said, I'm excited to get back to WoW and TS, as I've missed chatting with you guys and bugging you about tanking. :P

I hope you've all been well!

All the best,
Krazen

Raid Leader/Tank Mistreating at it's finest

Krazen — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:26:51 GMT

So, I decided to try to stick it out with the guild and posted a message of why raiding is on hold. The following is the message I posted to the guild.

"After much thought and work, I've decided that anything beyond Sartharion and Archavon is permanently on hold.

My reasoning is simple:

1.) If your name isn't Xombi or Gloedin, you haven't viewed Noth the Plaguebringer. (Exempt: Hetath, Gloedina, Vene) I posted this video for a purpose; that purpose is not being met, therefore there will be no Noth until I am convinced that tools are being used the way they need to be used.

2.) With the exception of a few, we don't have a core ready to go. We need to better organize Heroic runs. If that means people respeccing to assist with heroics, then so be it. I will gladly tank any and all heroic runs needed to. At this juncture, I'd like to see anyone not named Kassad, Neroon, and Venefictus in more heroics. Heroic gear = better gear = much simpler progression.

3.) Tight wallets. Look people, it's gold on a video game. It's easy to make. If you aren't buying consumables and enchanting gear, then we have an issue of raid attitude that I discussed in the raid requirements post. Xombi has been more than willing to drop all of his enchanting mats on doing enchants for Redux. If you don't have appropriate enchants, you haven't asked. Also, while crafted gear may be expensive, spending gold is a required evil. I'm not going to listen to excuses about why you don't have gear that you can easily purchase. Do dailies. Farm. Farming old world Strat, solely on the "Baron run", will bank you roughly 100g a run.

We will continue Sarth and Archavon solely because of the relative ease we've experienced doing them thus far.

That's all I have to say on the subject at this point. If you're going to take the time to flame this post, I would expect to see you had taken the time to sign the other posts that involve you taking time for the progression of Redux.

Let's do this right, K"

Today, I was accused of being elitist and my toons were gremoved.

Unfair? Maybe I'm just butthurt. But, you guys be the judge. Am I overreacting?

All the best, K

What to do, what to say?

Krazen — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:50:29 GMT

Hello again, friends.

I'm in a pickle. Here's what the situation boils down to.

I'm in a guild of friends. I've been playing with them for a couple years; they've been playing together even longer. About 3 - 4 months prior to LK, they all either left WoW or went to WAR, swearing WoW off altogether. I also left WoW for a little while, solely for personal reasons.

Anyway, when LK was getting within a couple of weeks, I decided to buckle down and start playing again. I came back to the game, leveled my two toons, started hitting raids.

A few weeks ago, a swarm of them came back. They all convinced me to take over raid leadership and I was the main man when it came to getting them who they needed rep for, etc.

Well, a good portion of them hit 80. We've raided the "easier" of the two raids (Sarth + 0 and Archavon) and had relative success. However, here's where my problems lie:

1.) Some of them won't spend the gold for the appropriate enchants.

2.) Most of them won't look outside of their own narrow minds to find a proper spec.

3.) They constantly ramble and babble on vent when I am attempting to explain something.

4.) I have the common sense to know that, unless an inner discipline miracle occurs on their behalf, anything beyond what we are currently doing will be next to impossible. They ignore my strat/vid postings on our guild website, they refuse to give me proper rank in the guild (while I am leading all raids and doing all the work required, I am still at the second to lowest rank causing me to get little to no respect in said raids).

That being said, here's what I want to know...

Is it time for me to take my sword and shield and move on, or should I keep busting ass to try and whip them into shape?

Thanks for any and all input, and all the best, K

Officially MAIN tank and raid leader - Week 1

Krazen — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:16:41 GMT

Well guys, it's been a long road. I went from being an everyday healer only on my priest to being a leveling warrior, to being a regular instance tank, to being a heroic tank, to being a pugger 10 man tank, and now...I'm the main man!

My friends, who all recently returned to the game, have leaned my way to ask on tips leveling/gearing because I've been in the bowels of LK and back. (And yes, while it is frigid, it does smell a bit odd...) In the past week or so, we've been talking endgame, and last night I decided that I'd do the easiest thing first and take them to Archavon.

I led the raid, we downed Archavon, woohoo gear upgrades for some fresh 80's.

We then decided that we'd go give Sarth a shot. I went in there with what I've learned from all of YOU and led the raid to the best of my knowledge. While we did have problems on the egg boss at first, we got to Sarth and then decided to call it a night. However, before we did that, we DID get Sarth to 8%. So, you've got a guild of fresh casual 80's and myself, charging forward into the LK endgame. Here we go again, TS. More blogs from Mr. K about all the glories of tanking from a healing perspective. :D

And again, as always, thank you much to all of you for your support, your assistance, and thank you to the admins of the site for putting together great videos. I've reposted Sarth to my guilds' website, and everyone is quite impressed and learning as I did.

Thanks again, and all the best,
K :cool:

Officially altrolling a tank - Week 6

Krazen — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:59:15 GMT

Well, I must admit...things have been going great. I'm about halfway to my Champion of the Frozen Wastes title, I picked up my badges neck, heroic AN belt and FINALLY got my trink from HoL. (Thank goodness for running leveling guildies. :D)

Feel free to check my armory if you'd like to see where I have progressed from hitting 80...I'm very happy with it! :)

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...low&n=Salzbury

So, now the question begs...should I go after tanking/offtanking spots in 25s, or should I stick to gearing myself further in 10s and heroics? As we speak, I'm afk for a lunch break, then I'll be going to H VH to attempt to get my legs and I've planned a 10man sarth for my guild this weekend. So, with any luck, that's gloves and pants covered. However, I will also be doing heroic Gun'Drak just in case.

Thanks for keeping up with me, and I hope I'm doing as well as you guys have prepped me for! Thanks again!

All the best, K

Krazen (Salzbury) vs. Naxxramas

Krazen — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:46:03 GMT

So, the time came for my raiding guild to hit up Naxx. Beings we have suddenly been getting more of an abundance of healers, I was able to take my warrior. We did a full clear, and here's how it went.

Started in Arachnid: One shot all bosses, survived through Faerlina's frenzy, and got the killing blow on Maexxna with a Shield Slam. ;)

Plague: One shot all bosses, survived the Safety Dance, and realized that Loatheb is a joke no matter what class you play.

Military: One shot again, and because we got bored, the DK and I played "Who can get aggro faster" with Zeliek and Blameaux, once we got past Rivendare and whats-his-face.

Plague: One shot, took hatefuls on Patchwerk without a problem, Grobbulus and I went for a stroll around the room, and Thaddius' charges only killed people in raid after he died. Usually, on my priest, I die pretty quick after he goes down. My guild likes to chase each other around and see who can survive. Well, thanks to Last Stand and Enraged Regen, I walked out a survivor. ;)

Sapphiron - Had a little trouble establishing initial aggro when spinning her, but solely because I was trying to spin her without mashing any of my threat builders. Second time, she fell like a pile o bones. :P

Kel'Thuzad - By this time, it was nearly 3am, so we called it. We'll be downing KT and then going to Malygos on Sunday.

Loot for Salz: The Skull of Ruin, T7 Chest, Chained Military Gorget (Badges reward, after this run I had enough to get it), and the Cloak of Armed Strife.

So, all in all, I had a fantastic run with some great healing and deeps from the people in my raiding guild, and I took quite an experience out of it. That's all for this installation...once we do Maly and KT, you'll hear from me again!

All the best, K

Krazen (Salzbury) vs. Sartharion

Krazen — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:42:03 GMT

Well, the time finally came, and I joined a very well put together pug for Sarth. No drakes up, obviously.

I accepted the role of OT for the drakes, jumping portals and doing all of that fun nonsense. All three drakes dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Sartharion decided to hand our DK tank his ass in the last 10%, so guess who picked him up and DIDN'T get hit by the waves AND kept all of the lava spawns on him? That's right, this guy.

Loot: Caster ring, Priest/Pally/Lock T7, Satchel, 22s bag

Salzbury's loot: 22s bag. Yay!

That's all for today. Tomorrow, I have a date with Heroic UP to get my sword, as well as a date with Heroic Azjol. Take care, and as always, thanks for reading!

All the best,
K

Officially altrolling a tank - Week 4.5!

Krazen — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:23:14 GMT

The quest to 540 defense - Done. 551!
Titansteel set - Done.

25k unbuffed hp currently.

**EDIT: So, before I entered any heroics whatsoever, I get a pst to go to Naxx. I decide that I might as well, even though I wasn't gear comfortable. Here's the results of the little bit of Naxx I tanked before the group stopped at Saph.

The Four Horseman - I was on Rivendare with a priest in greens stacked on me. Thank God for Enraged Regen, Shield Block, and Shield Wall. After they pulled me in, we one shot the horseman.

Patchwerk - I thought I was crazy for trying it, but I went in as the MT to avoid the hatefuls. Patchwerk made it to his enrage (only 3 people over 1500kdps, 1 over 2k) but luckily he only had 20k HP left and they managed to get him down. I survived until "Patchwerk enrages." One shot.

Grobbulus - I had to kite him around the entire room three times because of the lack dps, but we one shot him. Then, a pally with the emblems shield rolled on Skull of Ruin, whereas I would've had the biggest need for it AND I tanked the fight even though he was considered the MT. Sad.

Gluth - Easy fight, regardless of class. One shot and I won my T7 shoulders! :D

Thaddius - Wiped the first time because half of the raid didn't understand the polarity shift. Second time, Thaddius went down. He forgot to drop my trinket though. ><

And that was all we did. So, I tanked one of the harder wings of Naxx as my first tanking experience outside of normal instances. It was a good run. Yay! Thanks for the crazy support guys.

All the best, K

Officially altrolling a tank - Week 4

Krazen — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:47:51 GMT

Well, to start this off right...

DING 80.

What a week it has been. I managed to craft two of my titansteel pieces, picked up the Eternally Folded Blade, and probably tanked through 10 - 15 instances in the 77+ range, and getting the "good tanking bro" messages all around. I must say, it's been a good week.

Thank you TS'ers for all of the help! :D

In other news, it now boils down to the grind of getting my defense capped up, my last piece of titansteel made, and starting to peek my head into the heroics. With my healer only occupying 1 - 2 raid nights a week, this should be another good week. I'm aiming to get the Red Sword of Courage and my Essence of Gossamer, among other things. Any pointers on where to head, gear specifically, would be greatly appreciated, as always.

As always, thanks for following me through this process, and thanks for all the support! I'll probably have an additional blog or two throughout the week, as I've got some extended time off this week.

All the best, K

Officially altrolling a tank - Week 3

Krazen — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 03:58:13 GMT

Well, it's been a pretty good week this week. After last week, I actually laid off playing my warrior for a couple days, until I logged on here and saw all of the incredible support I had from you folks on TS. Thank you, again.

So, I've taken my warrior from 73 to 76 (well, I'll ding 76 in a couple hours) and only ran one instance this week. Why? Well, I was more focused on leveling and studying tactics for my warrior. Azjol-Nerub was the winner for me this week, and barring a few problems with crowd control. Besides learning how to control multiple mobs at once (sans Thunderclap, Cleave, Shockwave, and Challenging Shout when it's stupidlong cd is up) I've pretty much got the tanking concept locked down. I have solely this website to thank, along with one of my buddies in guild on WoW. Again, thank you so much guys. All of the responses to my posts and blogs have been very beneficial.

So, I'm off to hit 80 by the middle/end of next week. Work is picking up (I'm a greenhouse worker) and my time is shortening, otherwise I'd knock it out faster. My first goals are gearing; my smithing is near the highest point and I've converted my first TS bar tonight. So, here we go. The game is on!

Thanks again everyone, and more next week.

All the best,
Krazen

Officially altFAILING a tank - Week 2

Krazen — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:21:39 GMT

Ok guys, so here we are at week 2 of my dip into the tanking world, and I must admit, this week almost broke me on the warrior.

I did a VH run, at 73 mind you, as the tank. The group had a mage, pally healer, DK, and a huntard. I did my job perfectly, sans a few of the randomly emerging Blood Elves that disrupt the portal getting away from me to which I was chewed out by the mage, and then the first boss hit. It was the Etheral, and I knew to kite him around the room to keep him away from the orbs. The healer was doing a great job, the dps was great, but we just couldn't do it. I held aggro the best I could, but in the end, I just couldn't tank it.

Yes, I've been told that this happens to all tanks that are still learning and to not let it get to me. However, the constant spamming in trade chat about how bad I was really just made me want to go back to healing for awhile. Am I being emo? Probably so. I just didn't want to be mocked when I prefaced the run with the fact that I am still new to tanking. :mad:

However, I have continued to work on my warrior in my spare time, and I fully intend to level him out and keep trying. It was just a frustrating week as a tank. I suspect there will be many more to come.

Anyways, have a great week, everyone! See ya'll on the forums.

- Kraz

Officially altrolling a tank - Week 1

Krazen — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:26:23 GMT

Well, I have to say, it's been kinda crazy.

Going from not having a rotation, watching the entire party for health drops, and being verbally abused by tard paladins (no offense pallies, but every single whiny tank I've ran with has been a paladin) who want their health no lower than 99% at all times...it's been a challenge. I leveled my warrior almost immediately after hitting 80 on my priest, because at the time, I was in a guild with friends and we were waiting for everyone to filter on from the holidays. My warrior, leveled as arms from 27 - 70 between healing Naxx, Sarth, and Malygos pugs, I started having quite a good time.

Then came TankSpot. We were trying to figure out the fastest and most efficient way to do one of the Naxx bosses, and one of the guys mentioned a video on WoWWiki, which just so happened to be a Ciderhelm video.

I must admit, I was impressed by it.

So, afterwards, I started looking up videos, and eventually, joined this website to see how other tanks do it. I'm not very complicated; if I see a method that works, I will try it to see if it works for me. If it doesn't, I move on and keep trying. Once I understand the ins and outs of my warrior, that's when I'll experiment. ;)

Now that the background is out of the way...

Salzbury, my warrior, has been rather happy with the prot spec. With Shield Slam and Revenge crits (thank you again to everyone who responded to my post about Leveling specs) capping 2.3k on a pretty regular basis, it was almost as fast, if not faster, than leveling arms and it was much better on the survivability overall.

As for instances, I tanked 4 different Nexus runs and 3 UK runs. I lost aggro on my first couple runs, because I hadn't figured out the best rotation yet, but once I posted and asked more questions, it was golden. I'm having a lot of fun with tanking.

So, big thank yous to everyone on here that has been a big help; all of the responders to my posts, Tatt for calling me a sloppy drunk, and Cider/Lore for the videos and podcasts. You guys are great!

All the best,
Krazen