"How can you be a protection warrior at level one?" I hear you all asking. It's a matter of heart. Of drive. Of the mentality of a protection warrior.
Leveling from 1-70 while protection specced was a pain, but it allowed me to practice my tanking skills on the way to 70. I tanked everything from VC to Gnomer to BRD, on up through all of the Burning Crusade instances as I leveled through them. And now I find myself the warrior tank in my small guild of friends who is the best geared, and is one of the go-to guys when we do our ZA attempts.
Being prot at heart has its advantages.
Leveling from 1-70 while protection specced was a pain, but it allowed me to practice my tanking skills on the way to 70. I tanked everything from VC to Gnomer to BRD, on up through all of the Burning Crusade instances as I leveled through them. And now I find myself the warrior tank in my small guild of friends who is the best geared, and is one of the go-to guys when we do our ZA attempts.
Being prot at heart has its advantages.
The Chain and the Pain
Posted 01-14-2009 at 10:18 AM by Thireas
I got my Chained Military Gorget before the start of invites for our guild's Naxx raid on Monday. The last four emblems I needed came from Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, an instance that I had never run before, much less tanked - even on normal. For most of the fights, I had very little idea what was going on for the first few seconds, but it was fairly easy to catch on.
The first two bosses went smoothly, though for some reason I was unable to attack the first one for the first few seconds of the fight. Once she moved off of her starting spot, however, I was able to hit her and get aggro again.
I don't have much to say about the second event; It was easy. But awesome. I really enjoyed that whole fight.
The gauntlet was a pain. It being my first time through, I had very little idea of what was going on, and moved too slowly. The second time, we moved more quickly, but still wiped before we had really even started the boss himself.
The third time we used an interesting strategy; Our rogue ran in, started the event, and then ran back out to reset it. We then ran to the end of the gauntlet, and did everything there. We got to the boss, but again I was confused as to what exactly was going on, and we all got Whirlwinded to death. Fourth time's the charm, I guess, and we finally got him down.
I feel as though warrior tanks are fairly weak in this event, simply because we have instant-cast AoE threat abilities that have a cooldown. So, if they're all down, then somebody besides the tank is taking aggro, and I'm losing rage, which means I can't use said AoE threat abilities even when they're back up. It's bad news. I'm sure there's a trick to it, and I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually, but for now it's quite the pain.
We wiped once on the last boss, with him at around 13k health. If one of our DPS hadn't died to the green-circle-like entities of AoE, we would have gotten him. We did get him the second time, though at the last 2% or so, I died to the same AoE (oops. i r nub). But the rogue evasion tanked him for the last bit, and the group finished him off. I got my achievements, completed quests, and got my last emblem.
No Red Sword of Courage, though. Oh well.
As for Naxx, I didn't get in. The guild was continuing on their raid ID from the previous Thursday, and already had two tanks. Not an issue. I did some quests, got up to revered with Argent Crusade for my Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector.
Next on the docket, I think, is to do a few days of Jewelcrafting dailies to get the tokens for a Dragon's Eye, and the pattern for the 41 stam jewelcrafter's gem. That, and do some more heroics, hopefully grabbing some new trinkets and a belt in the process.
The first two bosses went smoothly, though for some reason I was unable to attack the first one for the first few seconds of the fight. Once she moved off of her starting spot, however, I was able to hit her and get aggro again.
I don't have much to say about the second event; It was easy. But awesome. I really enjoyed that whole fight.
The gauntlet was a pain. It being my first time through, I had very little idea of what was going on, and moved too slowly. The second time, we moved more quickly, but still wiped before we had really even started the boss himself.
The third time we used an interesting strategy; Our rogue ran in, started the event, and then ran back out to reset it. We then ran to the end of the gauntlet, and did everything there. We got to the boss, but again I was confused as to what exactly was going on, and we all got Whirlwinded to death. Fourth time's the charm, I guess, and we finally got him down.
I feel as though warrior tanks are fairly weak in this event, simply because we have instant-cast AoE threat abilities that have a cooldown. So, if they're all down, then somebody besides the tank is taking aggro, and I'm losing rage, which means I can't use said AoE threat abilities even when they're back up. It's bad news. I'm sure there's a trick to it, and I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually, but for now it's quite the pain.
We wiped once on the last boss, with him at around 13k health. If one of our DPS hadn't died to the green-circle-like entities of AoE, we would have gotten him. We did get him the second time, though at the last 2% or so, I died to the same AoE (oops. i r nub). But the rogue evasion tanked him for the last bit, and the group finished him off. I got my achievements, completed quests, and got my last emblem.
No Red Sword of Courage, though. Oh well.
As for Naxx, I didn't get in. The guild was continuing on their raid ID from the previous Thursday, and already had two tanks. Not an issue. I did some quests, got up to revered with Argent Crusade for my Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector.
Next on the docket, I think, is to do a few days of Jewelcrafting dailies to get the tokens for a Dragon's Eye, and the pattern for the 41 stam jewelcrafter's gem. That, and do some more heroics, hopefully grabbing some new trinkets and a belt in the process.
Total Comments 4
Comments
-
Thanks for the description of UP Heroic. We had a run at it last night...none of us had been in there before so it was quite the experience. A number of factors conspired to end the run early...but we did get to wipe on the gauntlet (had no idea what we were doing). The lag was so bad that it was sometimes hard to tell whether we were doing thing wrong or not. I went in with my mage in a later group on regular UP and went through quickly with no deaths. Soooooo....tonight we try the heroic again...nice to know the strategy that worked for you on the gauntlet. Will give a shot.Posted 01-14-2009 at 01:16 PM by csmgt 
- Yeah, Skadi The Ruthless is the hardest boss in there and the way that the rogue in your group did is the most fool-proof way to down that boss, just make sure that people are using the harpoons when they need to and make sure you taunt the boss when he whirlwinds or kiss most dps'ers/healers good bye.
Posted 01-14-2009 at 08:51 PM by Ferim - I've had nothing but trouble in UP due to mistakes by the DPS, such as breaking LoS or failure to focus fire. The real trick in regards to our AE cd's is knowing when the next set of mobs is going to spawn on Skadi and always keep moving. The first few seconds of the battle and his WW are a little chaotic, especially if your dps considers Whirlwind an opportunity to /hug the boss.
"WAT WIRLWIDN DOSE?"Posted 01-15-2009 at 02:08 AM by Duckfooted - The main thing I've found to simplify the Skadi fight is to be very aware of spawns. As a warrior, since Tclap is on a cooldown, you want to time your Warbringer charges and Tclapping appropriately. Charging the ranged mob on each spawn pair should put you in a great position for initial Tclapping.
Spell Reflect and Heroic Throw are also awesome abilities for those pesky casters.
There's also a taunt trick that works on Skadi, if he's targeting someone else to whirlwind, taunting him from range is a great way of making sure he hits absolutely nothing.
Oh, and the poisoned harpoon is a $%^&. My healer's a druid, I have it easy. My s/o's a priest and Wrath poison usage makes her glue her palm to her face (healing is still possible, just faceroll over the CoH keys... j/k).Posted 01-15-2009 at 09:57 PM by Finelle
