Growing Pains

Addons and UI's and Keybinds, OH MY!

Last week I messed around with my UI. I like the look and feel of it for the most part. I'll post a screen shot when I get home. Pitbull caused me issues with huge raid frames. I also didn't like the poor choices for visibility of elite vs. regular mobs. So it's deactivated.

I also switched to keybinds. At first I had almost everything bound, but it was just too overwhelming. Now I have the core abilities bound, with an "OS bar" just below my toon with trinkets, shield wall, pots, etc. It's been rough. I'm tired of passing up invites to raid and run heroics. I'm having a hard time being as mobile as I was before and I thought increased mobility was one of the major reasons to keybind.

I do like the benefit of situational awareness. I like being able to use my keys to keep up my rotation while easily spinning the camera to look for adds, etc.

I've been running Stratholme a bit to adjust and develop the muscle memory as well as hope for the mount to drop, but before binding, I could do that run in about 12 min, now I'm closer to 20 with occasional near death moments when a lot of mobs are pulled on accident.

Overall, I'm extremely frustrated and ready to scrap it. I guess I'm looking for advice on how long to expect the adjustment to take, and if I'm doing something wrong.

These are my binds:
F1 = Thunderclap
F2 = Shock wave
F3 = concussive blow
F4 = Cleave
F5 = Heroic throw
1 = Shield slam
2 = Revenge
3 = Devastate
4 = Heroic strike
5 = Shield block
Q = charge
E = taunt
Movement is W and S for forward/back and A and D for strafing left and right.

I cannot comprehend how many of you use shift and alt modifiers. It's just way to much to do with one hand, and I want to limit how much my hand is off the mouse.

Let me know what you think along with any advice. Praise would help to, but only if it's sincere, lol.

I'll make another post soon with a screen shot of my UI with a list of my addons with links.

Damn you, Ciderhelm!!!

If you're not aware of Ciderhelm, his site Tankspot.com, and the community found there, and you are a tank in World of Warcraft, you must be living under a rock. That said, check it out!

The Project Marmot videos are great. They cover raid boss strategy as well as certain Heroic Achievement walkthroughs. The video and sound quality is superb.

I had watched the one about Utgarde Pinnacle, and although I don't feel ready for Heroic UP, I did feel prepared for regular. I had my guild buddies with me, an 80 Enh Shammy and 80 Holy Priest. We pugged a 78 rogue and a 79 shaman. It was a cake-walk up until the gauntlet and Skadi fight. Then we wiped repeatedly. I was really frustrated.

There were several contributing factors to our failure. One was the rogue who said he could pull 2500 dps. At 77, that seemed high, but he seemed pretty sure of himself. Recount had him in the 580 range most of the instance. The pugged Shammy was putting out around 890. My buddy shaman started over 1150, but was having to backup heal, so he dropped to around 950. I think I ended up around 1200.

Another problem was how fast the harpoons would despawn after dropping. We couldn't even pick up the stupid things. When we did get them, Skadi would wipe us with his whirlwind. It was brutal.

The majority of the blame for our wipeage I attribute to my lack of skill. My gear is getting pretty decent for just starting heroics, but I lack the reflexes and experience. The gauntlet was brutal to try to get aggro and hold it, especially when getting netted, and the casters staying back drilling my healer. At least I have a few awesome friends in my guild that like to learn instances, class particulars, mechanics, etc. So I'm sure this weekend will find us back in UP seeking redemption.

This brings me to the title of the post. Damn Cider for making it look so freaking easy! I say that facetiously. He's good, really good. He's also been doing it a lot longer than I have, and while I doubt I will ever be as good as him, I have to hope I will get decent with more experience. I mean, I didn't even really start tanking until WOTLK came out, so I'm still a noob.

While I singled out Cider in the title, I have to say (and you'll probably see me write this a lot) that there is an incredible tanking community! It has been so easy to find information about how to be better, get better gear, get feedback, etc. I see a lot of links to each other's blogs and references to podcasts. I love how tight-knit this group is.

So thank you all, and I hope one day, Billy can exhibit a shadow of your skill and knowledge!