Kara Woes

[Dansodai]

O_O

[Sidousai]

If you're new to tanking, and have never done any pre-BC endgame content either, then you likely don't know about Shield Block.

Spam Shield Block, it's good for you. Shield Blocking doesn't just prevent the seemingly trivial X amount of block value in damage, it also stops crushing blows. There are various posts in this forum about how to stop critical attacks and prevent crushing blows, but in a nutshell you need...

at least 490 defense (makes you uncritable)
Keep Shield Block up on all cooldown (makes you uncrushable)
Thunderclap to help preserving Shield Block charges
Demo shout to get rid of a boss's attack bonus.

Curator is the first real heavy hitter you'll run into in Kara, and a crushing blow can easily take out 80% ish of your health with the amount of armor you're packing.

Good luck

Sidousai
Last Stand!
Shield Wall!

[adrenalize]

Can I ask, were you trying to tank the adds? if so, the n it's an excercise in futilty because they have no aggro table.

Curator is more then the first heavy hitter in Kara, Its also the first fight you need to start thinking outside of the normal tank and spank box. You need 2 people on Kara, and the second person should have the highest amount of health possible, the reason for this is he will do a hateful strike occasionaly(or hurtful, i cant remember) which will hit the person with the highest health for 6-8k.

Other things, Your entire raid apart from the tank should be getting the adds down as uickly as possible, Haveing more then one up at the time is a bad idea because they have a chaining attack which can hit a certain amount of people for 3k arcane damage, So everyone in the raid also needs to spread out to stop that from happening.

In all honesty, Curator Starts ramping up the difficulty of the bosses in Kara, Everything is a walkover before it, and after it the fights get progrsessivly harder

[Clifford]

Roles
Either yourself or the druid should be capable of tanking the Curator. We normally use a warlock as the bolt-soaker (2nd on agro list, hp etc). If that fails then you should MT and let the druid OT to become the bolt-soaker. I know that some people don't use a bolt-soaker but I find it helps the healers when they need to prioritise their heals.
If you MT
You should follow the usual sequence:
Shield Slam -> Revenge -> Sunder/Devastate
Keep the following up:
Shield Block, Thunderclap, Demoralising Shout, Heroic Strike (if excess rage)


In my experience there are a couple of nice tests/blocks in Karazhan, the Curator being one of them.
Moroes: General crowd control and dps test.
Curator: Dps test.
Aran: Coordination test.

Once you master those three bosses you will clear Kara relatively easily.

[Soulonn]

If you truly have all the pre-kara suggested gear, I'd think your health would be closer to 13k unbuffed. I've still got a few upgrades I could get outside of kara and I'm about to break 13k unbuffed when I get home tonight and turn in my lunacy deck. If there's one thing this forum has taught me it's that for new-to-your-guild content, maximum effective health is where it's at. That being said, I'm just an OT with 13k hps and virtually no dps or threat so what do I know?

[maddfez]

Hopefully by shield bash, you mean shield slam. Shield bash is not a high threat move and really shouldn't be part of your rotation.

Tank wise, you should be fine for the fight, but go heavy on the consumables if needed to make life easier on the healers. Some stone shield / iron skin potions and even a flask can help if you are having troubles staying alive. That being said, if you're not getting crushed he's not too bad.

The biggest key to the fight is getting the adds down. Killing them fast is not really a function of gear, just targeting speed. Everyone should have a macro that reads:
/target astral flare
/cast fireball (or whatever dps spell you use)

Also, if you're melee heavy, stick the whole raid on top of each other (hunters off to the side)...it keeps them from having to run around.

Good luck!

[Dansodai]

I do mean Shield Slam. Sorry. Haha.

I let loose the word bash too often for some reason.

And, 13k unbuffed? Really? Do you mean with every slot filled with a +12 stam gem? Because if so, I really can't waste 40+ gold a gem on gear that will be easily replaced.

Thank you all for your feedback! This is honestly helping me along wonderful.

[Lavache]

easily replaced is relative. i thought my shatari bracers and timewardens legs would be easily replaced... but those are the only 2 drops in kara ive never seen. the gold spend putting +12 in them was worth every cent.

[klor]

Might I also ask...were you taking alot of chain lightning damage? If so, it may be that you're not spread out far enough. All DPS should be at max range...including melee dps (max hit box range on the other side of curator) to lower the damage everyone takes. In our guild, the most important thing we expressed on curator was this.

Once you get into your assigned spot...DO NOT MOVE. We had people running around like chickens with their heads cut off and was chain lightning everyone else to death. It may be hard at first if you bring quite a few of melee dps and your ranged dps is not geared up well enough to handle the adds alone... but it got to the point for us that the mages/hunters/locks could handle the adds so we told the Spriest and rogue/druid to stay on curator at all times to even further lessen the damage taken from chain lightnings. This increased everyone's life span...especially mine since i was not taking constant lightning damage.

Maybe that will help and its something to look into. Good luck on Curator...sad to say, it took us about 3 weeks of wiping 2 nights a week to finally down him. After the first time though, like almost all the bosses in Karazhan...he is simple the next time! Also, to support the person above me....It took me 10-15 curator drops before I saw him drop the leggings and I have still yet to see Shade's ring, Illhoof's cloak, Battlescar boots, and Prince's helmet. "Upgraded easily" is not a term to use lightly when it comes to tanking gear in Karazhan because its just not true. It may be easy to down the boss, but the drop rate will catch you everytime. As the MT/OT you should definately put forth all effort possible into your gear. (THough I'm not one to talk...I still have +9 gems scattered in my gear, but thats because I am pondering replacing them with +hit/stam gems to make up for my lack. I find myself missing on Gruul quite a bit now )

[Finelle]

We've been dropping Curator since... June? and I've never won a pair of Wrynn leggings. The only pair to drop was won by a fill in.

Vambraces of Courage are good, but are also the lowest drop rate on the Huntsman's loot table.

Regemming gear might be expensive, but it adds up.

If you post an armory of your tanking setup, it would help people in giving you more focused gear advice. As for what you should be doing, it's already been covered.

PS: Leave 10 rage in your bar for his first hit after Evocate. I kept eating Crushes after WHEEHAPPY5KSHIELDSLAMCRIT time when we were learning Curator. Helps to have your gf healing you and reminding you in real time to keep Shield Block up

[Clifford]

I know I am slightly off-topic here but it is related to several of the posts regarding easy upgrades. It still amazes me today how random loot drops are. For example:
- [item]King's Defender[/item] drops every second week on average
- [item]Wrynn Dynasty Greaves[/item] drops every 2-3 weeks.

However, I have never seen [item]Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch[/item] or [item]Barbed Choker of Discipline[/item]. I have only seen [item]Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable[/item] once but lost the roll. Considering that these two bosses have died the most often (when we were still learning) it is quite annoying that they refuse to drop.

I have tired of running Kara and decided to get the [item]Necklace of the Juggernaut[/item] for 25 badges.

As previously stated ... there are no easy upgrades

[Arrowson]

I do mean Shield Slam. Sorry. Haha.

I let loose the word bash too often for some reason.

And, 13k unbuffed? Really? Do you mean with every slot filled with a +12 stam gem? Because if so, I really can't waste 40+ gold a gem on gear that will be easily replaced.

Thank you all for your feedback! This is honestly helping me along wonderful.

Jus bite the bullet and fill up on all blue gems, you only have to do it once after that you'll only need the gems 2 or 3 at a time.

[Dansodai]

Ahh, I suppose I can, really. I'll stop being stubborn.

I've been experimenting with different rotations as of late and I'm taking a great deal less damage than I previously did.

I'm currently running heroic mech for rep and the sun eater.

thanks all for your feedback.

[Khatia]

Someone wise once told me that if your MainTank isn't completely obsessed with having the best tanking gear and stats for wherever they are in the game, than they probably shouldn't be your MainTank. Obviously resources, time etc plays into this, but you're right one when you say:

Ahh, I suppose I can, really.