TankSpot - Blogs - Protcore! by Thireas

Naxx DPS

Thireas — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:12:22 GMT

I DPS'd Naxx last night. I was asked if I wanted to tank it, but I'm still pretty sure I'd get crushed if I did (the whole no parry/block thing kind of spooks me, being an ex-prot-warrior). I'd like to at least break 30k HP unbuffed before I try tanking Naxx. With the Shroud of Darkness from yesterday's VH, as well as my T7 shoulders from last night, I'm at about 29.1k.

I really think I helped more as DPS in Naxx than I would have as a tank. I did about 2700 DPS overall, and was only barely beaten out by our guild's top hunter. I'd post the WWS, but it's not up yet (we should have one up soon, but we might not... I don't know if we care that much about an alts Naxx).

So, a question to those bears out there who have tanked Naxx: What are the minimums for a bear?

Here's what I have:

HP: 29.1k
Dodge: about 32%
Armor: about 25k
Expertise: 0
Hit Rating: 205
Crit: about 30%

Defending the Bear

Thireas — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:37:32 GMT

"LF tank for H VH"

That's what I saw in the LFG channel while out farming herbs. "Sweet," I thought to myself, "I still need my Shroud of Darkness. I might as well give them a shout."

I do, and am invited to the group. Seconds later, I'm kicked from the group with no more than a "u cant tank" (and a comment that I was the only one not in plate). Huh... what the hell, right? I whisper the party leader, asking what's up, and get re-invited to the group with no real explanation. At this point, I have the feeling that either they honestly don't know that druids can tank as a bear, or they think my HP's too low. Being in flight form, I have around 21k.

The latter suspicion is confirmed when said party leader asks how much I have in bear form. I respond appropriately (27k), and am allowed to stay this time. But one of our DPS disconnects. While we're standing around in the instance, waiting to get another DPS, they ask about my lack of defense gear, whether I can hold aggro, etc. I explain appropriately, linking Survival of the Fittest (in retrospect I should have also pointed out that my gear is essentially DPS gear, so threat isn't a huge deal). I joke about "scaring off" that DPS, and another DPS leaves. The healer, who has expressed some worry, says that he's sure I scared that one off.

Over the several minutes that this process takes, I consider telling them they can find a tank they have confidence in, but I never say it. As we get the replacement DPS, and get buffed up, I start to feel like the pressure's on. The reputation of the bear tank, at least with these people, rests squarely on my shoulders. If I screw up, they will never trust a bear again. If I do well, they will be convinced that a druid can, in fact, be an effective tank.

It goes very well, I get my Shroud of Darkness, and we go on our merry ways. The honor of the bear has been defended.

About an hour later, I even ran another instance with the healer (an awesome pally healer by the name of Blist). We wrecked the place.

Not So Protcore

Thireas — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:15:13 GMT

I have returned to tanking.

I've jumped the prot-ship and landed in feralville. I started my druid, Phai, mainly for feral DPS, which has been my primarly role. However, with dual specs, I decided I'd make her a tank as well. I've found that I enjoy tanking as a druid more than I enjoy tanking as a warrior. For some reason or another, I can't figure out warrior tanking in Wrath of the Lich King. I've found myself wishing for the old days of BC when people still used CC and kill orders were standard.

But we must evolve, I suppose.

I had started creating a tank set for my druid, but hadn't tanked anything beyond a normal level 80 instance (which was cake, by the way) when a guild Ulduar run fell through due to lack of raiders. It has been happening more and more lately. (I'm chalking it up to summer. I don't blame people for wanting to do things other than raid when it's still sunny out at 8:30 - raid time - and warm and nice and all).

But to get back on track, we decided on some Heroics. I healed a couple on my main - my resto shaman - then got in on a Heroic Nexus run with my druid. The guild master, on his Death Knight (dual'd DPS and tanky), as well as one of the raid leaders on his main (a dual Ret/Prot pally) inquired as to why I wasn't tanking this. They knew I was getting a tank set together, and had recently had my shaman make the Polar pieces.

I told them that I didn't think my tank set was up to snuff, to which they replied that I'd never know unless we tried, and we're all dual specced anyway, so we can just switch to one of them tanking if it goes poorly.

It did not go poorly. It went very well, in fact. Nexus is one of the easier heroics, so I don't know how I'd hold up in UP, or HoL, or OK, but I was apparently fairly easy to heal. This suprised me, considering I had only 26.5k health, 24.5k armor, and 32% dodge. Threat wasn't an issue unless the ridiculously geared ret pally had a string of crits or I screwed up the pull. It helped that I know how the place should go, since I've healed it so many times.

Since then, I've tanked HVH a couple times and HUK once. I failed at kiting Xevoss (or whatever his name is), which was no fun, but I'll learn.

Gear Troubles
Gearing a feral druid for DPS and tanking has been interesting. And by interesting, I mean slightly frustrating.

The Polar pieces are a no-brainer for a starting tank, as are the Valor Medal of the First War, Essence of Gossamer (HAN), and Keystone Great-Ring (HDTK). Unfortunately, I have yet to get those last two pieces.

Otherwise, it seems that I really just want my DPS pieces with a few different enchants and gems. But who wants to wait for the same drops from Heroic Gundrak twice? Or the same drops from anywhere, really. Rep items and crafted items aren't that bad, but again, I don't really want to have to craft things twice.

P.S.
Flight Form is ridiculously good.

Loading Screen Tips

Thireas — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:12:33 GMT

I'm not sure anybody noticed, but there's a new loading screen tip that is relevant to tanking:

Quote:

Dealing damage, healing, or casting spells can generate Threat against a creature. Most creatures will attack the player with the highest Threat against them.

I wonder if this will help people understand Threat vs. Aggro, or just threat in general. At the very least, it should help the terminology situation. A lot of people use Threat and Aggro interchangeably, and this tip might help change things.

At least, if anybody besides me pays attention to loading screen tips.

The Problem With Charge

Thireas — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:39:11 GMT

A Disclaimer:
I've been playing a healer almost exclusively as of late. It seems every time I go into an instance with my warrior, something goes terribly wrong and we end up failing. Unless it's a guild run. Then we're fine (even if we don't get the timed event in CoS).

This post actually has to do with both healers, and my failed timer in CoS. It's inspired by my having played a healer, and also by the particular pull that caused a group I was tanking for to wipe and thus fail to get the epic mount in CoS to drop. It's all about Charge.

Charge is a great ability. It's free rage, it stuns the mob exactly where they are, so you can be tanking them exactly where you want them. If the mob is immune, it's slightly more problematic, but each stun-immune mob type seems to consistently cause the same reaction. Either you end up facing the mob from the opposite side of the location where you used Charge, or you end up in the same position, but not facing the mob. Like I said, this is consistent with each mob type. On bosses, who are generally stun immune, you will likely end up facing the mob. On trash, I've found that you end up with your back to it.

So, what's the problem, and what does it have to do with healers? Specifically, this bit:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charge

8-25 yd range

If your healer's more than 5 yards behind you, it's very possible you'll be charging out of the range of healing spells. If you're already at close to max range for those healing spells, and then you charge, your healer's going to have some running to do. And if you die, it's not going to be your healer's fault. It's yours.

What Can You Do?
First of all, you can pull. Use your ranged attacks to pull mobs to you instead of charging to them.

Otherwise, you can simply pay attention. Take a look at the minimap before you pull. Take a look at the toons that are on your screen. It only takes a second, and it can save you a corpse run. If you need a little help, there are mods that are great for range finding:

Grid - A favorite of healers, sure, but it can be useful for tanks, because it fades out characters that are out of range.
MiniMapRange - My guild used to use this on Gruul, so people could tell if they were out of range for Shatter. Now, you can use it to tell if your healer is in range.

Epic'd At 70 = Undergeared at 80

Thireas — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:21:20 GMT

I know what you're all thinking. The title is an obvious statement. Of course if you're wearing level 70 gear at level 80, it's going to be underpowered. But that's not really what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is that as you level a character that was fully in epics, tanking end-game instances (or healing or DPSing), you're going to feel some attachment to particular pieces of gear. Your view of any new piece of gear for any given slot is going to be biased, whether it's toward the purples, or toward that cool-looking helm.

So, you're going to hang on to some pieces that could have easily been replaced by level 74 or 75, simply because you're used to them. They're not as good as the new pieces, but you keep them because they seem like it to you.

Missed Naxx

Thireas — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:14:46 GMT

I showed up for Naxx, ready and rearin' to go. However, we had four tanks online looking to go in. So, we do our traditional /roll for a spot, and no luck for me.

But wait, we might have enough people online for a second raid! And it would be me and Garthin tanking side-by-side! Score! (He's the best-geared tank in the guild, one of our current raid leaders, and a friend of mine).

So, we put together a second group, and realize that we have exactly four people for that group. Not going to happen. So, it's altsville for me.

And I'm not complaining. I love my shaman, Iaria. Shaman healing is easy and fun, and even soloing with the resto shaman isn't that bad.

I did Halls of Lightning, farmed Borean Leather, and did some leatherworking. She's at 432 LW, which means she can make the epic leg armors.

And you thought this would have nothing to do with tanking.

The Chain and the Pain

Thireas — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:18:59 GMT

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.

I'm Back

Thireas — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:45:25 GMT

I'm back to my warrior. I'm back to tanking. And after a little gear, a slight change in spec, and an epiphany in terms of tanking trash, I'm good at it again.

The Gear
I got my Titansteel Shield Wall just as I hit 80. It was my only on-level epic for a while, and throughout the time when I was mostly just playing my shaman. Then I got my T7 Gloves from Obsidian Sanctuary (where I was a less-than-awesome off tank). After that, I blew a bunch of gold getting Tempered Titansteel Helm crafted. Still, I wasn't doing very well tanking.

It all seemed to turn around when I got my Armor Plated Combat Shotgun, though. Coincidence? Probably.

On the subject of the gun, I'd like to thank my guild. They were completely awesome, and very very helpful in the acquisition of this item. I had been farming Eternal Water, and had just finished my stack of 15 for the gun. I then got into farming Eternal Air, got about 5 of them, and announced in guild chat "Woo... only 10 more Eternal Air to go". After I answered their questions as to why I needed it, my chat window was filled with green text offering me Crystalline Air, and also a bunch of Eternals (two from one guildie - who goes by Wilyn sometimes, but is better known as Zigystardust - and two from another - Oltanya). Thanks all!

The Spec
I modified my spec just a little, but it's made a huge difference. I had never taken it before, but I now have five points in Cruelty, removing three from Puncture (which reduces the cost of Sunder Armor and Devastate), and two from Safeguard (which reduces the damage taken by the target of your Intervene).

Wow. In my debut with this spec - Heroic Nexus - I broke 1000 DPS for the first time ever (as a tank). I don't know how I ever tanked without Cruelty. It's crazy good.

The Epiphany
I'll just come out and say it. When tanking trash, Thunder Clap must go off every cooldown. Without fail. It is to tanking trash what Shield Block was to tanking bosses pre-WotLK.

It has a six-second cooldown, so that's approximately four abilities you can use between TClaps, depending on latency. So, usually, Shield Slam, Revenge... then depending on Sword & Board procs, and cooldowns of things like Concussion Blow and Shockwave, you can use one of those, or just Devastate. In any case, when you get that little flash of light on Thunder Clap, make sure you hit it. Seriously. It makes a world of difference.

The Plan
So, what now? Well, I might be going into Naxx tonight, depending on slots and rolls and such. That should get me the Emblems I need for the Chained Military Gorget, replacing an under level blue necklace. I was hoping to get to revered with the Argent Crusade before tonight, but I don't think that will happen (all I need is one heroic's worth of rep, so it's possible, but not likely). If I do get to run one, then I'm hoping for Azjol'Nerub, for a shot at the belt, as I'm still wearing Girdle of the Fearless. AN will also give me a shot at Essence of Gossamer, which would be a hot replacement for Commendation of Kael'thas.

So, that's where I am. I lost faith in the warrior tank for a while, mostly due to some bad runs, but I'm back, and I'm ready for action.

And now that I know the best way to tank trash, I can let my guild's pallies do it.

Alas, Poor Macros...

Thireas — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:24:21 GMT

As we all know, nobody stance-dances anymore. It's gone out of style. Out of vogue. It's sooooo last year. While this makes life easier, it also reduces the number of macros that I use, which makes me a little sad, as I love macros.

There are two macros that I currently use, I'm going to be adding one more, and I should be adding two more at some point. That's a total of five, where I had much more than that pre-3.0.

The macros I still use from my previous post (linked above) are the panic button macro - which uses Last Stand, Shield Wall, and my trinkets - and a new macro:

Code:

/cast Heroic Throw
/cast Shoot

When I got Heroic Throw at level 80, I happily replaced Shoot on my action bar, went out to test it out, and realized there was a lengthy cooldown to deal with. But I was out of spaces on my action bar. The above macro combined the two spaces. If Heroic Throw is off of cooldown, then I use Heroic Throw. Otherwise, I shoot my gun. Easy as pie.

The other macro that I will be adding soon is a variation on the previous Healthstone/Healing Potion macro. Since you can only have one Healthstone at a time, though, I think it will go something like this:

Code:

/use Fel Healthstone
/use Runic Healing Potion

On CSS Polymorphism (not about WoW at all)

Thireas — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:19:20 GMT

As the title says, this isn't about WoW or tanking at all. I'm a web developer by trade, and I've been running into this issue with Cascading Style Sheets and how CSS rules are overridden. I don't really have a place I can tell people about things I find out about web development and design and the various technologies associated with it, but I have this 'blog. I know some of you deal with CSS and such on a regular basis, and this might be useful for somebody out there.

So, to start out, here's some HTML structure. It's fairly standard structure, though greatly simplified. I won't include any CSS at this point, I just want to show what kind of HTML I'm working with.

Code:



  Testing CSS

So, we have a container element with some divs in it. Some have a class that sets them apart from the others, so they can be styled differently. Let's see what we can do about that style.

Code:

#container div {
  border: solid black 1px;
}

.test {
  border: solid red 1px;
}

This says that all divs within the container div should have a solid, black, 1 pixel border, and all elements with the .test class should have the same border, but red. Simple, and straight-forward, right? Not quite. Since the first rule matches all the divs with the .test class, and includes the ID of an element, it won't be overridden by the less-specific second rule.

It's odd, but true. Give it a try sometime.

EDIT: I may have just secured my nomination for 'biggest geek'. What with posting about the oddities of CSS on my WoW tanking blog.

EDIT2: Changed my description and the CSS to the right class names.

ZA Cleared! ... twice

Thireas — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:55:40 GMT

Last night, I was in on my first-ever ZA clear. It was fairly easy, and we got three out of four chests, even with two wipes on eagle. It was my first time seeing Zul'jin, and it was a little crazy, especially the Dragonhawk phase. I get the feeling our DPS decided to ignore the threat wipe on that last phase change, as big ZJ was kind of just rampaging all over the place. We still downed him in one shot (just like all the other bosses, save for Eagle). I wasn't really surprised at how easy the whole thing was at this point; I had heard all the rumors of it being like Kara these days.

I think I'm still getting used to tanking post-patch. I'm not sure how much I like it. I appreciate the lack of crushing blows, but I don't feel like I'm in control anymore. It feels more chaotic. More like what I'm doing doesn't matter. Interesting.

In terms of gear, there wasn't anything that dropped for me, but I ended up with a Mojo, so that was pretty cool.

So, '... twice'. Yes. I PuGged ZA tonight, with some people who seemed fairly overgeared. The main tank (a pally) whispered me and said he could basically solo tank the place.

And he did.

I felt completely useless for most of the instance. Of course, it didn't help that I was lagging throughout most of it. I was assigned to tank the troll form of Nalorakk, so I pulled, and immediately lost aggro. The pally tank taunted him, and I never got aggro again. He tanked throughout the whole thing. I'd taunt off of him at the transition, and he'd just taunt back. I fail. On Dragonhawk, I was assigned to the adds. I thought I did a decent job, but we wiped to the fire bombs. The second time through, I felt like I was losing aggro on the hawks too much, but I couldn't really tell for sure.

Overall, the pally tanked damn near everything. All the adds, all the trash. Everything. I mean, he was much better geared than me, but still. I would have liked to tank something. Although... I guess I blew my chance.

I get the feeling that the raid, and the other people in the raid thought I was a bad tank. And I know I'm not, but it still sucks. I mean, it's not like I have a reputation outside my guild (I used to, I think, but not so much anymore), but I don't want a bad rep with anybody.

In the end, I got Chestguard of the Warlord and a Void Crystal. Also, The Essence Focuser for my shaman once she hits 70.

So, I got some gear, and my ZA clear. But I feel like I don't know what I'm doing with tanking anymore, and I seem to have made a bad impression on some pretty well-geared people.

I'm not sure that's such a good trade.

Grats to the Mageroyal Syndicate

Thireas — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:30:54 GMT

My guild cleared ZA last night, for the first time. I haven't had any word as to how long it took, or any loot that dropped, but we now have the screen shots in our ZA Mortuary thread on our forums.

Yeah, I was off having real-life fun at a concert. It kinda sucks that I wasn't there for the kills, but hey... I got to see one of my favorite bands for only $5.00 :cool:

I can only hope that this doesn't kill all the enthusiasm for ZA, as I'd like another shot at Malacrass and a first shot at Zul'jin.

P.S. If you like rockelectronica, check out Woven

"Rotation"

Thireas — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:50:18 GMT

I haven't tanked much since the patch. I'm just getting that out there. About the only thing I've tanked is the Headless Horseman, which, as we all know, is a cinch. But it still gives some insight on tanking rotation. I'm going to assume you have Sword and Board. It's a no-brainer, and if you don't have it, you should get it. Honestly, not much has changed, and a lot of people will find this to be a pretty useless post, but without further ado, here's the GCD rotation.

1. If Shield Slam is available, then Shield Slam.
2. If Revenge is available, then Revenge
3. Devastate otherwise.

I think, however, that it is better represented by the following flowchart:

So, your tanking rotation is not a rotation in terms of SS-Rev-Dev-Dev. It's more based on reacting to procs, and watching cooldowns. If Sword and Board procs, then the "rotation" starts over at Shield Slam, but if Revenge is on cooldown, you go right to Devastate. You might get a Sword and Board proc off of Devastate, in which case you should Shield Slam again, etc. Every GCD, you have to go through the above chart, for maximum efficiency.

The best way to do this is to watch your scrolling combat text. If you set it up right, it will show you reactive abilities, auras, and more as they are applied and fade. So, when Sword and Board procs, it will be shown in green above your head, and you can Shield Slam on the next GCD.

In terms of non-GCD abilities, the rules that applied to Heroic Strike previously are still valid. Use it as a rage dump. Now, these days I seem to have more rage than I did pre-patch, so this means I find myself hitting Heroic Strike a lot more. One huge exception exists: Glyph of Revenge. I picked this one up for free due to a bunch of guildies leveling inscription, and it has been pretty awesome. After you use Revenge, you hit Heroic Strike for free. This increases threat in low-rage situations quite a bit.

As for the other non-GCD ability that is in general use, I'd say pop Shield Block whenever it's up. It'll increase threat while giving a little boost to survivability, and there's really no reason not to pop it when it comes up. "But Thireas, how is that different from pre-patch?" I hear you asking. The difference is that popping Shield Block is no longer necessary to your survival in boss fights. No longer will you get crushed if you miss a cooldown. So, it goes from an absolutely-must-have-omg-you-nub-why-didn't-you-have-SB-up ability to a sweet-I-have-more-threat ability. Lastly, it lights up Revenge, which procs Glyph of Revenge, which (again) allows a free Heroic Strike, increasing threat even more.

So, those are my thoughts on tanking "rotation". What do you think?

EDIT: Realized that Glyph of Revenge just works when you use Revenge... it's not a proc (according to WoWHead, anyway).

WoW and Boredom

Thireas — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:46:02 GMT

I've been kind of bored with WoW lately. I wasn't leveling my shaman, and I wasn't doing anything with my warrior except for raiding once a week (at most... ZA didn't go off last week). I've even become bored with Brewfest already. Then two things happened.

First, I respecced my shaman. I went Resto, and started healing instances. So easy, and yet so fun. As long as the tank is the only one taking damage, all I have to do is throw the occasional Healing Wave and keep Earth Shield up. If others are taking damage, then Chain Heal helps out, as does Lesser Healing Wave and Healing Stream Totem. It might just be the fact that I'm doing regular instances again, and thus they're not a pain in the ass, but instancing has become fun again. I've run Ramparts a few times, and Blood Furnace at least twice. Got some Enhance gear as well as some Resto gear. Had some really good groups. It was great.

Second, a couple friends of mine thought it would be fun to start some level 19 twinks. I already have a twink rogue, but I decided to reroll warlock and try something different. We all have level 70 characters, so we'll be running each other through Deadmines, and probably Wailing Caverns, getting some gear. Once we get to 18 or so, and have gear and enchants, then we'll get together and pwn some nubs. Or something. We have a warrior, a priest, and a warlock. Should be a good time, I think.

And a bonus: I tanked regular mana tombs for a friend of mine who needed some quests. It was him (a pally), and four 70's. Three of us were in the same room, and it was a great time. I think I need to LAN party WoW more often.