who me, nah… it was some other tank

Did you ever did something in a Raid/instance that you’re not particularly proud of? Did you ever left someone on the ropes, because the thought of watching him twist and turn in agony, felt good?

Well, I kinda may have probably did that last night. I’ll explain….

Leeroy ?

First of, I’ve meet a great night elf hunter, Tox****, he´s good. he’s not only willing to listen but also shares is thoughts in a very clear way. Hell he even call’s out trap resists in instance runs.

I’m out-&-about last night, getting my last quests done in Stranglehorn Vale, you know favors for the goblins and such, when Tox**** whispers me and asks me if I what to tank Zul’Farak. I’m Fury talented, but I have good gear, my tanking is decent, and I did clear Maraudon and Scarlet monastery with him before while tanking. So I’m thinking that I’m up to the challenge, right?

I answer back with a big thumbs up and get an invite almost instant. We’re only missing a healer, not to bad right?

(of course, I’m like, jumping in my chair, because he actually recognize me as a tank, and instead of looking for a group, it came to me….I’m thrilled really)

The group starts talking and we’re really interested in Gahz’rilla. So we need the mallet to summon him. By now we’ve signed a druid (a balance one) to heal (interesting). The group set’s out to Southshore, to help out the Party leader (the rogue) get the mallet so we can take down “Gahz”, talk about team effort, right!!

The group is now composed of:

• warrior 46
• Rogue 46
• Druid 47
• Hunter 42
• Mage 50

I’m thinking we’ve got a good group..everyone is talkative enough in Party chat, we’re all getting out of our ways to help one member get a quest item. that’s really nice…by the time I get to Southshore (all the way from booty bay) I check the map to realize that they didn’t wait up for me, in fact, they almost got to the Altar to craft the mallet …oh well, less pain for me I guess….

In party chat, I ask if they need help, the answer: No, it’s ok. Wait for us in there, so we can all ride down together.

ONE hour later….I’m still sitting by the Flight amster (I ran out of rabbits to kill) and the guys finally return after getting three more quests done down there. (they actually completed 3 of the mage’s quests in the area, you know, since they already in there right!?!)

I remain calm and didn’t, I repeat, DIDN’T say anything….but I wanted to !!!

They get to Theramore (mage portal???), and say that they will summon me to instance. Ok, I answer, while I lit a cigarette, and pour some chocolate milk in a glass. After a few minutes, there it his, a summon to ZF.

/greet

Ask if anyone needs stamina/mana food (yes, I do it). we’re all okay, and ready to go. we jump inside the instance, now the troubles start.

The mage (who shall remain anonymous) has a trigger finger issue! a severe one. so Severe he single-handedly made us wipe. three times.

After the first wipe, I asked to have a little time to build threat on the target mob, and to get at least a solid Aggro base, since the level difference from the mage makes it harder for me to hold it. A General “Yes!” sends me to the next group and we sheep and sap, moon and cross, leaving skull for me to build on…all is good all is fine none steals aggro! I move to Cross (sap) and get a solid start too, no problems there. I know the sheeped mob already has a base aggro from the mage , but my taunt is up, so I sunder the sheep and taunt the target, get working on it, and all is fine. That was the only good pull we had…

Right around the corner, the next group, was Aoe pulled by the mage’s Blizzard, I was thinking to myself….what, the….***curses to himself***, run and try to get me some attention. we barely made it.

Next pull, I manage to get to the mob first, but everyone had already started to Dps, before I landed the first hit. so much for that attempt. it was just a single mob, so not to bad. I mean, we lived.

Next pull, we sheep/sap again…no worries I get skull, draw him back and the mage starts exploding everywhere…needless to say, we wiped, again…

we go back..

same pull….

SAME FREAKING EXPLOSIONS……

I just sit down and die!

He get’s all berserk at me, saying, I’m not holding aggro……oh, if was next to me, I’d be eating trough a straw about now!!!! (yes eating **curses again**)

I say, something like, when I get to “tank” the mob, we do fine, when you start spamming needless spells, and do crazy actions, we wipe…but hey, if you wanna go for the mob first, go ahead, Tank away, just remember you have 2000 less Hp then me, even less armor, no avoidance, no shield….but hey, it’s your boat, rock it has you please…

I get a whisper from Tox**** saying, that he couldn’t believe the way the mage has acting, and saying sorry for having invited me.

“no worries mate, it’s a good trip, at least I now know who not to group with right…^^”

Call if fate or whatever, On our 4th wipe of the evening…we’re running back to where we died, and some mobs already started re-spawning, just after we kill one mob, My Internet decided to commit suicide, and left me hanging…

I try to get back, but it keeps saying that I can’t login! I figure I have to restart the router (like it or not) and the whole operation takes about 15  minutes to reboot..

I call it quits, and leave them all hanging…

I know I did a very bad thing…but the respect they showed me had it coming, I moved out of my way to help, and get stranded for over an hour, I try to do my job in the instance and can’t because some mage’tard doesn’t help, I get a massive (I know it’s level 46, but I’m not rolling in gold you know!!) repair bill.

I feel sorry for Tox**** tough.

Fireball this….

Has promised. A quick introduction to tanking, group analysis and situation awareness.

There you are, proud leader of a recently created group, all ready to tackle the next challenge in your wow-life, and guide your fellow adventurers into a pit of darkness and evil. (well, that painted a dark picture in the corner of your mind, didn’t it?)

Honestly, there’s little to be scared of, even for the first time runner, baby-raider, casual pugger, or random invite with a little bit of preparation, or even the simple understanding of what is your class and what is your job in-game will increase your chance of success (it WILL help to read-up on encounters, even if just to know what’s coming). That said, let’s move on with the show.

How you face any instance depends, first and foremost, of the group you have. What classes are the other four members? Do you have Crowd-control (CC) available? Can CC be used without crippling the group? What sort of Tank do you have? What type of healer is available? Is Damage-per-second (Dps) enough? There’s about a million more questions like these a group leader could ask himself, even before the run starts. Asking them and providing a positive answer, in my opinion,  are synonyms of a solid leadership (Auz?).

Let’s look at a fictional, although typical, situation while pugging. Our group is composed of:

• Frost Mage
• BM Hunter
• Fury Warrior
• Enhancement Shaman
• Holy Priest

I will try to give the tank point of view and leadership.

Let’s assume, that all members are level 38 and that all understand their class and their role inside the group. They have tons of Dps, two solid crowd controllers, a panic mode healer, a solid healer, and a decent tank.

On your basic pull, there shouldn’t be any worries at all! let the warrior go for the mob and get a solid aggro base before unleashing hell, it won’t cause any problems.

But if everything was perfect there would be no need for this post (^^).

Line of sight pull

Casters are usually the most troublesome, why? well, because they just sit there and burn your little tush without even a shred of remorse. The way to tilt the tables to your side is the Line-of-Sight (LoS) mechanic. If you are out of the line of sight of said mob, it will run towards you, until is sees you, to restart casting.

On the above picture you can see our group (crosses), taking on a 3-man pull (circles). Melee and range is purple, casters are orange and Tank is red. We are going to turn a simple fight into an easier one.

The warrior shoots the caster mob and gets initial aggro from all three. he immediately runs into a the “shelter” position away from the group (marked with the dash arrow). Because the caster mob can’t see the tank it will run towards him to restart casting. we’re bringing melee down first so has soon has the mage see’s the caster mob, he will sheep it!

Apply a solid aggro base on both melee mobs and move in for the Kill,caster is now your only target and will fall very fast to the hands of your merciless Dps.

You can even, with this group, apply more crowd control (or protection from runaways) by having the hunter set a trap in the passage way to other mobs. This will freeze a runaway mob, or crowd control a second one on the way to the tank.

Kill order is a import notion to acquire. Here we have CC’d mobs, the Sheep’d mob is a healer and not a damage dealer, If no CC has present this would be your first target.

Avoid working in crowded areas, if possible, always pull into a previously cleared room, you do not what to have another 3 mobs (or more) running around hitting everyone. Keep the situation under control and if needed “drag” the mobs into other places (example the caster got sheep’d close to you)

NEVER turn you back to the enemy! Attacks from behind can’t be dodged, blocked or parried!!

ALWAYS try to keep your tanked mobs with their backs turned to your group! Attacks from behind can’t be dodged, blocked or parried!!

Check on your companions mana, take a break or carry on laying down the law. Knowing when to take a short snack brake is a good thing (also a good time to ask how things are going)

-Dranzig

Scarlet run Part.2

picture: Wowhead.com

I did two runs already on Scarlet Monastery. On the first one, a Dps heavy group (2 hunters, Resto druid, pally tank. and me) did ok, but we only went to Library and Graveyard.

Plan was, we would clear those two (easier) wing of the monastery, get a feel for the group and then, move on to armory and Cathedral if we had time and if the group has holding well in the instance.

After the Library run, we had a drop from one of the hunters (had to leave), went to summoning stone and started scouting LFG for a replacement, but in about an half-hour there was nothing to be found! Everyone was either just getting ready to “park” the character on Inn’s across Azeroth or doing other Runs (PvP, Gnomereggan, ….)

With a bit of discontent on my part (I was really excited) we call it quits for the day, and moved on. I still went to finish some quests in Arathi Highlands, got some Raptor meat and Raptor Eggs and then also logged out!

The next day, I went to Stormwind (seasonal herbs), to get some consumables ready (anticipating a possible run trough Sm again) made some Healing potions, some Mana potions, got Agility and protection Elixirs, roasted the raptor meat and made some omelets from the Eggs. I was as ready as possible, logged to LFG and went out questing!

A couple minutes into questing I get into a group with 2 priests (one shadow and one holy) a retribution Paladin and a rogue. They asked If I could tank Sm Library for them.

/p [Dranzig]: Sure, it won’t be a problem!

All set, buffed and with a full stomach we all blaze trough Library, and even Doan, wasn’t a problem. Everyone did their thing, a couple of panic moments, with some body pull’s, but nothing a quick (almost always cooled) taunt couldn’t handle.

I focused on multi-mob tanking as best I could, trying to get enough starting threat on the Skull Mob, then switching targets to Cross, apply one sunder and cleave it. Trick here is get both cross (main cleave hit) and Skull (collateral damage/second hit) and then switch back to skull and keep pounding. Positioning is everything!

A problem young tanks may encounter on Library, is the frequent encounters with caster mobs (healers or fire mages), even more since, they are almost always “linked” to groups of mobs and the safe pull, can turn into a wipe, even for the most prepared. (I’ll post little how-to soon)

We did very well on Library and decided to go to Armory. At this point we lost the Rogue (oh, man, it’s yesterday all over again!). we grabbed a hunter, summoned, and went into the Armory. Without the rogue (for sap) we had bigger pulls (hunter couldn’t trap very well, and with mutual accord, we decided that either we would lose dps, and mind control one mob, or I would try to hold all mobs). Nothing to serious happened, most groups where a breeze, with the healer mobs marked as Skull, and a Shield Bash or Chastise always ready for the interrupt.

Funny enough, both priests were really paying attention, and on dual healers they would wait for the Bash before the Chastise, and if bash was on cooldown (used recently) they would immediately chastise. Go priests!!!

Finally we got to Herod, I charged him and started to get a good threat base while everyone got positioned (for the summoned mobs at the Kill), paladin stayed at melee with me while the hunter and priests stood at the stairs – half way down-. when the mobs spawned, everyone came to center, and the paladin consecrated, the hunter did multi-shot and freezing trap (amazing) and a priest holy nova them to nothing!

we check loot, and voilá, I had a treat waiting for me in the form of a berserker Helm (wanted list, yay!!!).

Now it was already a bit late and we decided we wouldn’t tackle on cathedral, but we arranged to meet again the next day to try it out! let’s see if we can get more phat loot, from Mograine and Whitemane (squichie friends).

here’s a little “rub my ego” screenshoot!

Ego rubbing

Scarlet Run part.1

It’s finally time to get some parts of my gear upgraded, and I could use a bit of group drama (^^). I’m almost sure a tank can land a Scarlet monastery run fairly easy, so (although not talented for it) I can help out tanking if it’s needed!

I’m currently at level 37, I think I can handle myself inside without too much concern, and the “wanted” gear list isn’t too hard to get.

Gear updates:

• Deadman’s hand (from Arcanist Doan)
• Aegis of the scarlet commander (from Scarlet Commander Mograine)
• Gauntlets of divinity (from Scarlet Commander Mograine, if there’s Enhan. Shaman is in group I wont roll for these)
• Herod’s Shoulder (from Herod)
• Raging berserker’s Helm (from Herod)
• Ravager (from Herod)

Zone Drops

• Scarlet Leggings
• Scarlet Chestpiece
• Scarlet Boots
• Scarlet Gauntlets (In replace for the Gauntlets of divinity)
• Scarlet Belt
• Scarlet Wristguards

Getting the Scarlet Set would be a good tanking (??) set, and a solid way to grind to 40 (maybe more with some enchanting done)

Strength: +44, Agility: +12, Stamina: + 57

and the set bonuses:

+10 Armor, defense rating +2, +5 Shadow resistance, +15 Attack power versus Undead and +10 Hit rating.

It could use a bit more Agility to spike up the Critical chance, armor and Attack power. Even with Shield equipped I only get 8 more strength and 7 more stamina.

I favor the boss drops over the Zone drops, it would be easy to find almost equal (or better) upgrades on Auction house to sub for the Scarlet set. The set bonuses aren’t really that awe inspiring (except for the Hit rating, but 6 pieces, c´mon!)

All in all, since I’m aiming for a good time group fun, drops aren’t really that important, If I land a couple upgrades It’s nice, but If not, then that’s ok too.

Pvp for you and for me!

I’ve been trying to avoid Wrath post for several reasons. I’m not in Beta (/sob), I don’t like to post other bloggers information or just the fact that everyone is doing a wonderful job already doing it.

So here’s a little Pvp for you!

This weekend was the start of the Spirit of competition (along with the Olympics) event. The call to arms for all servers, to ….compete…. in battlegrounds for some unique loot. I don’t know about other battlegoups, but Vindication EXPLODED with Pvp, seriously.

Friday evening I logged in around 22h (read:23h server time), just to do some turn-ins in Stormwind, and check my AH for Raid consumables. I had a couple of hours free time on my hands, and since I enjoy Pvp, I went to check the Bg’s (apparently like the entire world of warcraft), normally this is just wasted time for me, because at that “god-forsaken” hour, there’s no one in battlegrounds, I can sit in queue for hours….

WHAT……You’re queued for Arathi Basin 176!!!!!!!!

/Faint

A couple minutes queued, landed on Arathi Basin, scored honor like crazy (since there’s so much action). You see, I love squichable opponents, I absolutely adore them. If I see a priest/mage/warlock I just go ballistic and will, literally, not stop until their under my feet! Of course meeting a unaware priest and a Pvp conscious one are two very different things (I just love the “Charge-Berserker stance-Berserker Rage” dance, see the resist psychic scream, and look at them run!).

But priest (or any class) are not usually alone (not if they’re smart, at least) so it’s normally a 1v2 or 1v3 fight, at least until someone from our side decides (or is able) to help out!

I assaulted Lumber mill, and got saped at the very last second before the base cap! My immediate thought, was: “Sh**! Rogues!!!” I get out of sap (waiting for another one) but managed to bloodrage and demo shout him out of stealth, switch to protection and disarm, switch to berserker and start pounding is little blood-elf head to the ground, when….. kidney-shot! BLAST!!!

ok,ok… he’s a 3%, trinket out and finish it! kidney-shoted! WHAT!!!! Another rogue is having a go at me, turn and hamstring, intercept, the almost out of range but not quite, first target. 1%, my eyes are already turning to the slowed second rogue.

Wait, what…15%….55%…I scan to the flag, and a priest is there happily healing my rogue!

Now, I´m really really pis**d, I got myself regrowth-ed by someone … oh ya, here squishie, squishie!!!!, I keep on the rogues, demo-shouting again, building up rage, waiting for the intercept cooldown. No one seems to notice my druid friend healing me, so it’s warrior heaven.

Target:priest!

/cast Intercept

/smash

The Berserker-rage prevented me from getting feared, the rogues are now both at my back doing their thing, the druid is keeping me alive long enough for me to have the priest worried about himself and not the rogues, so I activate retaliation and hope the rogues get themselves killed without me needing to help out!

One of them, keeps hitting me, the other, runs to the druid to end my strife for life, I finally get the priest (pummel at the last flash heal), and now turn to a 10% health rogue (thank you very much Mr.rogue), heroic strike lucky critical, dead rogue, target, intercept, protection, disarm, berserker, hamstring and a little cat help, we get the last rogue.

Move to the Flag! I know they are coming again, we took too much time. And so they did! They left us like a piece of crumble pie! The druid ran for it (to get distance to heal me I think, but he was very low on mana) I died, ressed, and here we go again…..

The true Ace up my sleeve on the previous fight, was of course both the druid and the Retaliation Buff, that thing is amazing! 30min shared cooldown, isn’t! (heard that could change).

In normal Pve, I dont use that much of an array of abilities, so Pvp is a real Finger exercise for me. I mean, how can a murlock need the use of berserker rage, Retaliation or even pummel? If I don’t kill it now, I’ll kill it on the next swing.

I know that for instances and raids I’m supost (and usually are) to be at the top of my game, regardless of level, spec, ability or finger crampes!

Well, anyway, we won Arathi. I scored me 3 mark, and (more important) I had fun! lot’s of it!

oh, and that priest, I bet he still has my boot size engraved in his face ^^