http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/ en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:15:03 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.tankspot.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/ http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/2595-been-while.html Sun, 19 Jul 2009 03:41:44 GMT I almost forgot I even posted stuff here and had to read my own again. Fun past memories. After a move, a marriage, a computer problem, and work getting crazy busy, I finally get back to getting some game time in. I am now a little behind and getting all caught up with who is doing what. I did get all the updates on the progression from my friends in the guild so not totally lost. I got to run in Ulduar again and do a little OTing and remember how much I love tanking. The damage increase for prot is very nice. The duel spec makes things convenient. I get some dps upgrades and some new tanking stuff. Not a bad run to get back into things. Looking forward to getting back in the rhythm and seeing what we can do as a guild again. I am still wondering about our 25 mans since we have had issues with those in the past but the current member base seems strong. Tank heavy of course but after running a 25 man naxx for the fun of it and doing side line dps and picking up adds that get missed I realized numbers don't always mean quality. I ended up having to tank the end of it since I tank kept getting caught in the wrong place. So I still have a place in the guild after all. ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/2595-been-while.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/1464-back-wow-again.html Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:54:50 GMT So I have made my return to playing after a long break and many real life changes. I am now going to move to a new place this weekend but at least I am getting some playing time again and talking to old friends again.

Obviously being gone for so long there were some people that stepped up to tank during my absence and with a few warrior tanks getting better gear and taking the reins, then a druid tank alt stepping up to help out, and my original tankadin partner still going. I was not expecting to jump right back in the driver seat, but it appears there are some good loyal people in this world.

I sign up for one of our raids on our guild calendar raid scheduler as an off tank when the MT slot was open, I figured I don't want to stir things up and take my time since WoTLK is just around the corner. I am surprised to see that the raid leader, who was a warrior tank had moved me to the MT spot and brought his healer instead. Wow that was nice. Okay next raid I sign up as OT again and the druid fills in the MT slot. We get ready to start and he tells me to MT and he will go cat when no OT is needed. Once again building my confidence in my guildies up. Next raid is our Mag/Gruul run where the pally tank that has been a prot pally since probably before he was even 60 and BC was not even mentioned, tells me he is glad to have me back and tanking again and gives me the MT spot for this raid too. I ended up telling him to tank Gruul and I pull second on the aggro chart as we have done in the past.

Just another example of how I like my guild and good people can remember when you do good. Glad to be back and playing meat shield once again. ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/1464-back-wow-again.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/335-return-za-again.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:48:16 GMT I put together a group for what I thought would give us the best chance at completing the timed event, we were all together on time, actually a little early. We made our way in, got buffed, consumables, and started hitting the gong. Clearing went smooth, we worked our way to the last pull that gave us the most trouble, sheeped the 2 trolls and tanked the bears and riders, no problem. A quick check, mana, and we pulled the bear boss with 8 mins left. Started good, then came the transition. He resisted my taunt, okay no problem, switch to battle stance and hit mocking blow. WHAT??? Resisted??? Was that even possible. So back to defensive and hit taunt again as soon as I can and get him, but not before leaving some wounds on our druid tank that would end his life. So jump down the stairs those that could and reset the boss. Res a few, rebuff, and get it started again. we get him down but unfortunately with 1.5 mins over the 20 min mark. Could have easily been that much time spend on the reset and rebuff. Fine, failed at that again, but got the boss down.

Gauntlet to the eagle boss, a little rough with some of the aoers down, but we do it. Repeat the res and prepare process and go at the Eagle boss. This time maybe a little too spread out and we lose some healers. Damn another wipe. Go at him again and we beat him with no problems. Once again the same old pally chest. Only piece of loot I can recall seeing on this guy.

So, we have done Jan'alai before with problems and decide to go to the lynx boss. New territory, and we make our way carefully not knowing what to expect. Find the entrance, clear the room, and go over strat. Take him on, and first try we get him down with no deaths and near perfect. I get myself a pair of dps plate boots that the ret pally didn't want, and we move on.

Beat the scouts down and get to the last of the first four bosses for us. We wipe a few times and finally get him to the 30% mark where there are just to many hatchlings to hanlde. We then come up with what we think is a good plan. We have the ret pally let the hatcher break a good amount of eggs on one side while the druid tank is taking care of himself on the other, then while the ret pally is picking up the hatchlings with consecrate, we have a mage aoe them down and seems to get a lot our of the way. Eventually they switch sides with the druid to start clearing more on his side and it seems like we are on pace for the breaking of the eggs and the 30%. Then we have a teleport to the center of the room and the hatchlings start going wild on the healers. It ends bad, since we are well into the enrage phase now. Not going to happen. Call it at this point with some red armor in the raid now and starting to get late. Some progress and a new boss dead, but still need some improvement. ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/335-return-za-again.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/271-void-reaver-kindly-donates-some-loot.html Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:39:25 GMT Here we are again. Start at Gruul's Lair and clear the instance in around 1 hour, maybe a little more after 1 wipe on Gruul due to a nasty error on a shatter that wiped a few healers. Gruul's down second attempt, 2 of the same shoulders drop for druid warrior and priest. I get out /ro when my damn computer locks up. When I finally go off line, all the loot has been distributed and no shoulders for me again.

Oh well, he is dead and lets move on to Tempest Keep, we all vote yes and continue on. Once inside, trash goes exceptionally well, I get myself a new tanking ring from trash, and for once get the pulls perfect on the big birds. We move into Void Reavers room and have a little trouble on the first pull based on an immune banish for some reason. No problems on the rest and buff up for the boss.

We have moved to the new plan of 1 prot pally, 1 prot warrior, and 1 feral druid. We filled the raid with no extra prot warriors this time. This puts a little more pressure on the tanks since there are only 3, but all are well geared and prove to supply high threat. 1st attempt we start great, then a healer gets to far away and draws a arcane orb that kills the healer and a few melee. The tank rotation seemed to work good though. 2nd attempt, everyone gets drilled to stay close as you can for melee range and ranged to spread out and watch for orbs. We get the kill with 1.5 minutes to spare. We now have some tier 5 shoulders in the guild, even though none were for warriors, but I guess I have more shots at that to come.

So once again with help from people here at Tankspot, and a good performance when everyone pays attention and listens, with few deaths and time to spare we have a guild first kill again since the few months when we first killed Gruul. So now time to keep on with what we can do and we are going to try Mag this week as well. Thanks again everyone. ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/271-void-reaver-kindly-donates-some-loot.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/238-za-huh-baffled.html Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:30:59 GMT So in my travels through the caves called home to Gruul, and the near kills on the arcane mech called Void Reaver, I have learned a lot of things and gotten myself the best gear I can for my progression. We have made easy work of Kara for some time now, dropping all the evils in that castle and claiming lots of loot for my fellow adventurers. So why then does this tribal instance called Zul'Aman give me so much trouble.

Long ago when we first made our way into this jungle, we made quick work of the bear troll standing in our way, not long after we took out the eagle boss. We then had a long break from this far away place, got more loot from Kara, started clearing Gruul pretty regularly, and made some great attempts at Tempest Keep and even adventured in a ways to Serpentshire Caverns. This would lead me to believe that once I returned to ZA, we should be making some vast improvements and see new places in the instance.

Long time gone, and back again. We just miss the timed event which I thought we would have, but people got sloppy and rushed on the last pull of four. Just a couple minutes over even with our error. Okay, that is fine, lets move on then. Gauntlet up to the Eagle boss no problem. On to the Eagle boss. It actually look us a couple attempts. Could we just be rusty? We move onwards, and have a little problem with the bird packs and the lookout hitting the drums calling reinforcements. At this point in time it is getting late and some people have to drop. Call it then and put it off for some other time.

This makes me wonder, does gear really make that much of a difference here? I am starting to think the player is going to make more of an impact than the gear. Yes you have to be well geared, but if you increase you health by 2000 and your armor by 2000, you are not going to be able to do much more than before if your dps does not do what they are suppose to even if they have 400 more attack power or healers have 200 more mana and 200 more plus healing.

For now, I guess I will just keep doing what I am doing and hope we either get a better balanced group to go, or that the raid learns and plays better together to see if we can get further in there. ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/238-za-huh-baffled.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/197-guild-progression-gear-stump.html Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:00:22 GMT So my guild has been progressing well. We are not taking down Gruul's fairly well, back streak last week due to missing raiders, but for the most part we have been downing him regularly for the past 6 attempts or so. We try to encourage attendance and keep everyone's hope up for new loot and chance at gear even if they are upgrading from old blues or even some greens.

Then comes my problem. I have attended every Kara raid I can, run heroics when I am not raiding or farming for mats, and have gathered many badges in my time. I have gotten everything I wanted from Kara for a tanking perspective, and have purchased all the badge gear that I want for my tanking gear as well. Where is the problem? Well, now we are working on new content, and trying to get further in ZA and SSC and TK. There is nothing I can get unless we start killing some of these bosses we are attempting.

I go to every ZA run we have, since we are only running one group right now to make sure we have a well enough geared group for it. We can take down the first 2 bosses, not fast enough to get the timed quest, which i am hoping for soon, but until we can do that, or get lucky enough for the boots to drop off of the bear, I am stuck just helping everyone get gear and badges. I have a nice streak going right now on Gruul's for the person with the most first loser rolls, having come up just short of winning my shoulders for the 4th time now being the next highest roll to win them.

I am thankful that the people getting them can really use them, but at some point don't I have to feel that I have earned a right to them? Is that greedy, or am I jealous that a druid can show up one time and get the shoulders that I have attended many times with all the wipes of learning the instance, or do I have a valid point. By no means am I going to leave my guild or think any ill thoughts, cause we could use some better geared players for some of the other 25 man instances. Just wondering if it is time we put more thought into a points system or some other means of winning loot. ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/197-guild-progression-gear-stump.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/189-back-vr-again.html Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:58:36 GMT So we made our second trip to Tempest Keep, and started out great. Clearing the groups with no deaths unlike our first trip here. I bad pull on my part, we get 2 of the big phoenix kill 1 before as many as possible run out. We get that out of the way and start clearing up to VR. Once inside the VR's room, we find it a little more difficult than last time before the last patch. Not sure if something changed via patch or we just had a different group. Takes us 3 groups to get in the rhythm.

Room cleared, we get set for the boss. People are starting to get a better understanding of the arcane orbs, but still wacking a few here and there. The first 2 tanks doing great, then it usually jumps around past the third tank and gets a few non-tanks usually before going back to a tank. Do we really need 3 good tanks, or what are we doing wrong. We got him down to almost 3% before the enrage timer went off and wiped the room with us.

So we made some vast improvement, and still missing our top tree healer, and some of our better dps, we can definately do this with the right group. This has been a bad week of raiding for us. This is the first week since I have been doing Kara, that I have not been there on one of my characters. Always tomorrow I guess. We will have to see. Time to restock the goods, and work on getting extra for others so my guildmates are all ready. ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/189-back-vr-again.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/154-other-door.html Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:40:49 GMT So I went over my exciting trip to Serpentshrine Caverns the other day, now for my first trip to Tempest Keep the Eye. I actually ran this first a week or so ago.

We had the same issue here. We ran Gruul's Lair with a full raid leaving people behind. Went through the cave, and wiped it clear off all opposition and took all the loot with us. The big boss laying at our feet as we prepare to move on to Tempest Keep, then the fun starts. People have to leave of course. So we end up with about 21 or 22 people. To top it off, my wifes computer crashed shortly after we start clearing trash inside TK and we can not get it to work. She has a new computer now after all the diagnosis and switching parts.

Once inside we make our way pretty good through the mobs, get a few epics from them, have a little hickup at the pheonix when we pull two of them. Make it through all of that finally, clear our way down the hall to Void Reaver. Once in his room, we clear all the remaining mobs in there and start our attempts.

It goes poorly at first. I go over some of the strats with another officer going over other parts. We try to explain the arcane orbs, and people have tons of trouble avoiding them. I am sure positioning has some to do with that now and it will be corrected for next run, but none the less, the complaint is they are not slow moving, and the majority of the people are just not moving out of it in time. Officer chat is going wild. It comes up, how is one of our Mages not taking any damage? I suggest maybe she is moving out of the way of the arcane orb, that would be the simple solution. I am not sure if people are not looking for the orbs, not reacting quick enough, or just don't move unless it is their name that comes up on the boss mod saying they are targeted, so they are taking damage from the orb hitting next to them that was targeted at someone else.

Well, we make a good handful of approaches at him, none working any better than the other really. So we learn how it works, now we can go back to the boards and refine. Which I posted on proper positioning to maximize range and healing. We will see how that goes soon I hope.

It seems after we make our first attempts at a new instance it takes us a while to get back to that place again. Next on the schedule, Magtheridon. Time to read up on this one again and be prepared for the raid. ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/154-other-door.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/135-new-doors-open.html Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:23:06 GMT So, we made out first trip to Tempest Keep the Eye two weeks ago, and our first trip to Serpentshrine Cavern last night. We worked on all the appropriate resists, read all the strats, well some of us read them anyways. Get the groups together, kind of. Head off to the instances for a learning experience.

To start things, we can get 41 people to show up for Gruul's Lair looking for invites from every class and spec. Raid to a new 25 man instance? Hmm, wait around 30 hour past start time while we get 22 people to show and try it anyways. Part of being a casual guild, or part of being an instance that is new compared to an instance that gets cleared every week? Little of both maybe, but I am leaning towards the second choice (easy loot).

So we are off to the instance in the center of cavern through a giant tube in the middle of a lake. I call out strats and what each mob does or can possibly do on the first few pulls to Hydross. Not much trouble, few die on the first pull till we get the hang of the beast tamers and bats. Get to Hydross. I go over strat and what we should be doing. I take my invisilbe pot, walk up infront of him, call out I am popping out, and do that, start taking damage, taking damage, taking damage, die. :confused: Well no one got in range to be able to heal. So I say we can refine it, kill some mobs on the right side, I can go in then, and everyone can move closer and be in position. I am voted down, for the start on the poison side by range pulling. We did not get very far anyways with what seemed like slow dps, not getting the adds down fast enough and not enough dps on the boss. We did learn the transitioning a little better after a few attempts. Now I just need to convince them to use the invisible or even intercept pull to start the fight to avoid 4 adds right off the bat. We saw the fight and now we know more about it, so not all together a loss.

Same story different instance in the Eye for a later time. Well not exactly the same, but you will find out. ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/135-new-doors-open.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/122-wow-gear-vs-rl.html Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:20:52 GMT To start off, I just wanted to take a look at how to not approach a possible conflict with a real life co-worker involving gear in an online game. This is a true story, but the names of the parties involved are hidden to protect their identity.

So, we are trying to get ready for our first venture into the depths of SSC. My guild was helping collect some of the primals that I was farming for the frost resistant gear. Everything was going smooth, I had one whole piece built before the guild even got involved. Then a good friends of mine put out on the forums and usually in G chat, that we were taking contributions for primals to complete the set for the guild MT and so on. People were contributing, and I even ended up getting extra frost resist pieces as well.

Then the drama begins. There was another warrior, fairly new to the guild, but a co-worker with one of the officers for my guild, and also there are a few other co-workers here that have been playing together for a long time. Anyways, he gets the idea to ask my friend who is collecting the primals and crafting the gear, if he could try to get contributions from the guild so the warrior could get a craftable gun. My friend thinks this is a little wierd in kinder works, so he mentions it to the officer/co-worker of the warrior. Here is where it gets real messy. The officer tells him, "we are collecting the mats for these pieces so the we can properly equip of the guilds main tanks and be able to run this raid." The reply is, "I don't know what you are talking about, you must think I am dumb, I never asked that." Officer, "well I guess you are dumb, cause I know you asked it, and getting mats for gear that is required for the guild to run a raid, is nothing comparable to a warrior that is to lazy to farm his own mats for a gun." Then "&*%$%#$%&" "*#%^&%^&" "*#%^&^&*&^" or something along those lines.

It ended in a /gquit which then followed shortly after with tells to me trying to explain why he left and he didn't want to say anything he would regret worse then. Ohh it is not over yet, next day at work... dun dun dun

The stuff hits the fan, and the boss had to get involved. I am not sure what happened to either of them at work, but all this over a question asked about a gun on a game. I take my self seriously in this game, and I get more involved than is probably healthy, but never have I had a fight with a real life friend over an item made of pixels.

Play to your fullest potential, but don't forget what is real in life and what is to have fun. Always remember that loot can drop again, and mats can be farmed or bought with little time and effort, but real peoples feelings can be hurt or worse. Your actions in game can effect your real life, whether it is disappointment's from losing a roll, or having a fight with a co-worker. ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/122-wow-gear-vs-rl.html http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/112-meetings-grettings.html Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:14:33 GMT So, I have been here for a short period of time, maybe a few months now. I read a lot at first, got caught up on old posts and blogs and just got a feeling for how some of the people think around here. I started learning a lot about little things I was missing from my warrior tanking bag of thoughts. So I read on, and pretty soon it was becoming a routine to log on in the morning at work and see what is new. Now I check all the time.

About myself. I am a healadin converted to warrior tank after small guild I was in needed a good offtank. Once I got the taste for tanking, I never turned back. I have been in my current guild for a year and a half or so and loving it. I got promoted to an officer and been running raids for the most part with the aid of the guild leader. Met so many great people and I fit right in. I play with my wife who sits 3 feet next to me so I can help her if she needs it or anything. There are a good number of couples in our guild, and to the contrary of Ciders post on it, it works great for us. We have couples night, and get 4 couples in a Kara raid sometimes. I play a prot warrior, my wife a balance druid, and we play a lot of heroics with another couple that has a priest and mage. Great makeup for any heroic just about.

My warrior, he is an ugly guy, wish I would have put a little more effort into him when I created him. I had been leveling my pally, so he was created just to help my wife level up... so I thought. I have been converted to the EH style, and so far it is working okay. I used a lot of avoidance and def stam gems before. I don't get to go on all the super high end game instances that some of you do, but we do what we can. We have been farming Kara for a little while now, we have Gruul down pretty good for a few weeks, and working on Void Reaver and Hydross for our entry into the bigger 25 man instances.

I just wanted to kinda introduce myself around here since I have posted some, shouted a few times, but for the most part, you are all new to me. Mostly my own demise, being somewhat quiet in a new place. I plan on adding a lot more to this over time, and get a few of my ideas out here for everyone to read. If you get a chance to say hello please do. I am very polite for the most part, and greatly appreciate all the excellent advice and information I have learned here.

Good luck to all of you and rock on! ]]> Mordigen http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/mordigen/112-meetings-grettings.html