Am I doomed to mediocrity?
Posted 05-14-2008 at 08:44 AM by Timetheos
I stopped playing WoW for a few months, to catch up with RL. Early in this break, 2.4 was released. Before that, I was sufficiently geared for t5 tanking. Right now, approaching my return to the game in a couple of weeks, I'm in the same situation. Meanwhile, on my server, a dozen of the t5 guilds have become t6 guilds. With the new gear in 2.4, coupled with the time I had off, I'm afraid that my gearing is below the mark for any hopes at joining a serious guild.
This is very important to me; not just because I enjoy raiding and would like to see some progression, but because I feel that it would be a heavy disadvantage to be unguilded at the launch of the expansion. With a fresh start for everyone, my main worry is probably that I really don't know what will happen. There might be a heavy influx of new blood, or returning blood.
Anyway, the guild I have my eye on at the moment is working through BT right now. I feel that I would offer a lot as a dedicated offtank (dedicated gear sets, resistances.. and I was banking a little on Nightfall/haste until last night lol), and gearing which, since it isn't as heavy in EH as I would require to effectively tank any serious bosses, favors the lower, more consistent damage offtanking encounters tends to bring.
Of course, if I don't find any progression raiding within the next couple of months, I'll fall much farther behind in my gearing. Obviously this doesn't create as endless a vicious cycle as it would without an expansion so closely looming, but a cycle it will nonetheless create.
What I seek in this game is progression raiding. Seeing new content, learning it, and beating it; I can't think of anything in the game that could make me more content. The only real hurdle in my way right now is my gear.
This is very important to me; not just because I enjoy raiding and would like to see some progression, but because I feel that it would be a heavy disadvantage to be unguilded at the launch of the expansion. With a fresh start for everyone, my main worry is probably that I really don't know what will happen. There might be a heavy influx of new blood, or returning blood.
Anyway, the guild I have my eye on at the moment is working through BT right now. I feel that I would offer a lot as a dedicated offtank (dedicated gear sets, resistances.. and I was banking a little on Nightfall/haste until last night lol), and gearing which, since it isn't as heavy in EH as I would require to effectively tank any serious bosses, favors the lower, more consistent damage offtanking encounters tends to bring.
Of course, if I don't find any progression raiding within the next couple of months, I'll fall much farther behind in my gearing. Obviously this doesn't create as endless a vicious cycle as it would without an expansion so closely looming, but a cycle it will nonetheless create.
What I seek in this game is progression raiding. Seeing new content, learning it, and beating it; I can't think of anything in the game that could make me more content. The only real hurdle in my way right now is my gear.
Total Comments 4
Comments
 | You should be able to catch up if you farm badges like crazy and do arena/pvp. The new badge gear gives you: chest, pants, ring. The old badge gear also has some good items still: neck, threat set pieces. There are also a few pieces from 5-mans you could use too. I think www.tankingtips.com has a guide for gearing for BT without entering karazhan. I don't think it includes 2.4 items but if you post a comment on the site then you can probably get him to update it. Editing because I forgot to say why I mentioned arena/pvp - you can use some pieces for tanking if you really don't have anything, but also because most guilds expect you to have a good dps set and arena gives you some very nice pieces for it, as does pvp grinding. www.maxdps.com has lists of warrior equip, its not 100% accurate, but gives you a nice idea. For resist sets you will need 100 badges for fire, and tons of mats (including at least 6 hearts of darkness - but many guilds will give you them if you have all the other mats) for shadow. I found the best place to farm motes of shadow is Manaforge Ultris in Netherstorm. Good luck! |
Posted 05-14-2008 at 10:49 AM by Thist  |
| | Try to run heroics with some of the people in the guild you want to join -- impress them with your tanking skills. Then you'll likely be able to do some ZA or bagtheridon farms with the guild, which will spread your name around (and also get you some badges!). |
| Posted 05-14-2008 at 02:21 PM by sibyll |
| |  I think you are in a terrible position and I sympathize with you. All the tanks that are app'ing to our guild have heroic badge gear - often 4-5 pieces of it. I'm looking at folks with nothing but kara runs and probably 4/6- 5-6 SSC gear coming in with gear thats ready for MH. You have to really look hard to prove to yourself that your own gear is significantly better. What I dont know about them is if they are any good :-) I agree with the tip - get a reputation as a great 5 man tank. Get as many ZA and Kara runs as you can. But getting into a MH/BT guild depends on 2 factors, their openings and your gear. Most of the 5/6SSC 4/5TK guilds in MH/BT dont want to go back to the old instances to farm, and I dont think you can realistically gear up a new tank while doing MH /BT, esp a warrior tank. (but thats just my 2 cents- not trying to be a downer). |
| Posted 05-15-2008 at 07:28 AM by loquatious |
| |  Interesting. I don't have all the answers and I'm not a great blogger but go back and read a couple of my blogs from the past week. I have zero T5 gear. I've been raiding for 6 months as a resto druid while my warrior sat idle. I get in a couple of ZA runs, a heroic here and there and acquired a few badge items (but none of the 2.4 badge items yet) I have successfully tanked the first 3 bosses in Hyjal. I tanked our guild's first Kazrogal week before last. Cold, off the bench in weak gear. I have nothing from any T5 instance. I'm in 2/5 T4 with badge legs and neck. The rest is from Kara and good ol Thunderfury. Toss in the season 2 arena shield. Point is, and this is important because before we pulled Kaz the other night I was told my gear was inadequate....it can be done. But..I understand...its one thing when the guild you're in is desperate and needs to throw something at the boss. Its another when you're looking for a guild. Keep trying and looking for opportunities. Tanks are not like DPS classes that can be fairly interchangeable. There needs to be an opening somewhere. |
| Posted 05-15-2008 at 08:44 AM by Horacio |
Recent Blog Entries by Timetheos
- S&B vs. Anubite HoTs. And Skeram. (10-23-2008)
- Musings on resistance gearing and magic EH (09-18-2008)
- Am I doomed to mediocrity? (05-14-2008)
- Nightfall nerfed (05-13-2008)
- Tanking stats scaling with level (05-13-2008)
