I've been pretty much absent lately. I wanted to make one last post to thank the great folks in the tanking community. It's definitely the cream of the crop in my opinion. You've influenced me and made me a better tank for sure.
My problem was fairly quickly to 80. I had a plan for gear and spec. I got the gear. I pwned the heroics with my friends and some great pug buddies. Then I hit a wall.
My play style and time do not allow me to raid. I really want to, because raiding gives you opportunities to become a better tank as well as improve your gear. To date, I have still only seen 2 wings of Nax on 10 man, as well as a handful of forays into 10 man OS and Vault, and one Vault 25 man.
I was already feeling left behind before patch 3.1, but with the arrival of Ulduar, I'm even further behind the curve. I'm also seeing much more elitist BS on the servers like requiring ridiculous gear and achievement standards for Nax runs, when several people going already sport some Ulduar gear amidst their 25 man loot.
I don't blame Blizzard. I think they're doing good stuff and providing some diverse opportunities in game, but atm I cannot raid, and heroics hold little for me, and dailies bore me; consequently, Billy has been semi-abandoned. I'm leveling a priest as well as a DK in my horde guild.
(As a side not, the guild I have my horde toons in was found due to The Instance podcast. If you're not familiar with it and you enjoy WoW, you REALLY need to check them out. Scott and Randy are fantastic guys who are very talented and entertaining. Find them at theinstance.net.)
Back to the matter at hand. Now that Billy is not progressing, I lack any inspiration for the blog. It's kind of funny, because looking back, a lot of my posts weren't really progressive tank oriented anyway.
I may be back at some point, but who knows. The game has been somewhat depressing for me, and that in itself is ridiculous. Why do something with your discretionary time that you don't enjoy, right?
So forgive me while I pursue other avenues in the game in hopes of finding the excitement and enjoyment that I felt in great measure from 3.0 until fairly recently. I'll keep checking on your blogs and such, but mine is dead for now.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Soy NOOB, y Tú?
Patch 3.1 LIVE!!!....kinda
For once I considered myself lucky to have been required to work late. It gave me the chance to avoid the patch day drama.
I'm not one to qq about the inability to log in....um, yeah I am, but I try not to. This choice was much easier when playing wasn't an option anyway.
I could qq about the instance servers being down most of the night, but it took me at least that long to respec/dual spec, and I still screwed it up.
I also hadn't saved, so all my alts sent their money over to Billy. I specced deep wounds tanking and what I'm now coining fubar fury. See, I listened to the BRK podcast a while back that talked about a confirmation button or some such to finalize your spec. I thought it was in place for this patch and I was a little careless with the clicking.
Anyhoo, I got me some dual specs, but don't actually have a second 2h weapon, couldn't afford glyphs, etc.
Very shortsighted on my part, but I'm still excited to figure out the changes and how they will effect me.
DUAL TANKING SPECS
I'm not gonna hash this out in it's own dedicated post, because Darraxus beat me to it and probably did it better than I would have.
Suffice it to say that with a small friends and family guild with 3 decently geared tanks, I'll get a lot more mileage out of a dps spec as my secondary spec. I'll also get a lot more time with my guildies as we can swap roles and keep things fresh.
PS, I'd post my fury spec, but I'm just too embarrassed, lol.
For once I considered myself lucky to have been required to work late. It gave me the chance to avoid the patch day drama.
I'm not one to qq about the inability to log in....um, yeah I am, but I try not to. This choice was much easier when playing wasn't an option anyway.
I could qq about the instance servers being down most of the night, but it took me at least that long to respec/dual spec, and I still screwed it up.
I also hadn't saved, so all my alts sent their money over to Billy. I specced deep wounds tanking and what I'm now coining fubar fury. See, I listened to the BRK podcast a while back that talked about a confirmation button or some such to finalize your spec. I thought it was in place for this patch and I was a little careless with the clicking.
Anyhoo, I got me some dual specs, but don't actually have a second 2h weapon, couldn't afford glyphs, etc.
Very shortsighted on my part, but I'm still excited to figure out the changes and how they will effect me.
DUAL TANKING SPECS
I'm not gonna hash this out in it's own dedicated post, because Darraxus beat me to it and probably did it better than I would have.
Suffice it to say that with a small friends and family guild with 3 decently geared tanks, I'll get a lot more mileage out of a dps spec as my secondary spec. I'll also get a lot more time with my guildies as we can swap roles and keep things fresh.
PS, I'd post my fury spec, but I'm just too embarrassed, lol.
Monday, April 13, 2009
I may be immature, but you’re a huntard.
At times I am brash and react to situations while under the effects of strong emotion. The result oft provides me with great amusement, however, frequently under self scrutiny my hot-tempered moments prove to be a source of regret.
I had an experience last night that had me quite agitated. I responded maliciously. I somewhat feel sorry for doing so, but a laugh continues to slip from my mouth whenever I recall my vindictive act.
SIDENOTE:
I have seen a recent return in the number of huntards present in game. Delirious with chasing the top spot on Recount, they fail to notice the negative shadow their stupidity casts over their group and the instance.
My observations and consequent opinions: I tire of tanking pets. We already have a tank. I do not need an OT, bring a dps pet. Also, turn growl off!
If you really need to pull, at least use misdirect.
No, you do not get to roll need on the leather item dropped by boss X. Why!? Because it is an immediate and appropriate upgrade for our druid/rogue.
Consider for a moment that you are not the only skinner.
The previously mentioned tidbits are important. If a hunter exhibits these faults singularly or even two or three of them, I may be forgiving….if they can adjust after constructive criticism.
…however, DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME!!!
HUNTARD: EXHIBIT A
My friend, a DK, was tanking. He is a skinner. He politely asked the hunter in our group to alternate skinning mobs. Said hunter continued to skin as soon as possible. My friend repeated his request, to which the huntard respons, “Only if you only take every third one.”
On top of this he was pulling aggro and running toward the healer, ignoring the kill order, etc.
By this point I’m begging my friend to boot the huntard from the group, but he’s a nice DK and puts up with the jerk. Then after the huntard skinned the next group without sharing, and my friend’s request was repeated a third time, the huntard says, “Let’s roll for them.”
Now if I had lead, I would have kicked the self-serving piece of trash as soon as the boss hit phase 2 so he would be ghetto hearthed before the loot dropped.
…and I wouldn’t have felt bad about it.
HUNTARD: EXHIBIT B
Last night I must have been grouped with the identical twin of the huntard I just identified. He did all of the annoying things that huntards do to distinguish themselves from their enjoyable and useful cousins – hunters. For a time, I gritted my teeth and put up with it. It was around 2 AM and had taken a long time to get a group together – so I was barely tolerating the jerk.
We got to the second boss fight in Utgarde Keep, and I type out my strategy. The hunter puts his mark on the warrior, even though I had raid marked the caster with a skull to reinforce my explained strategy that we burn him first. The huntard then proceeds to argue semantics.
Huntard: it’s not random aggro it’s just a random charge
Me: whatever, it’s not based on the threat of individual players, so it is random aggro
Huntard: not really if it was random aggro he would stay on that player not just charge him and leave
Me: that doesn’t change the fact that I would appreciate everyone staying close to me so I don’t have to chase the boss
Huntard: whatever dude, just pull
Me: ppl still have abilities on cd
Huntard: let them die, pull already
Me: /sit actually the a-hole arguing with the tank is gonna be the first to die…especially since the healer is the tank’s good friend
This shut him up for a little while, but he argued some more throughout trash and continued to speed skin everything so the others skinners had a hard time getting leather.
So we drop the final boss, and the hunter goes running off toward the short-cut out after we loot. I see him leaving and get a terrific idea. I chase after him to make sure he’s in range, and as soon as he jumps off the ledge toward the pool below, I pop path of frost.
He splats, dies, cusses me out. I turn off path of frost so nobody else dies, hearth out, log off, and laugh myself to sleep.
After typing this out I realize that although it was an extremely immature move on my part, I no longer feel any regret, only amusement. I may be a jerk but if nothing else I am a self-amused jerk.
I had an experience last night that had me quite agitated. I responded maliciously. I somewhat feel sorry for doing so, but a laugh continues to slip from my mouth whenever I recall my vindictive act.
SIDENOTE:
I have seen a recent return in the number of huntards present in game. Delirious with chasing the top spot on Recount, they fail to notice the negative shadow their stupidity casts over their group and the instance.
My observations and consequent opinions: I tire of tanking pets. We already have a tank. I do not need an OT, bring a dps pet. Also, turn growl off!
If you really need to pull, at least use misdirect.
No, you do not get to roll need on the leather item dropped by boss X. Why!? Because it is an immediate and appropriate upgrade for our druid/rogue.
Consider for a moment that you are not the only skinner.
The previously mentioned tidbits are important. If a hunter exhibits these faults singularly or even two or three of them, I may be forgiving….if they can adjust after constructive criticism.
…however, DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME!!!
HUNTARD: EXHIBIT A
My friend, a DK, was tanking. He is a skinner. He politely asked the hunter in our group to alternate skinning mobs. Said hunter continued to skin as soon as possible. My friend repeated his request, to which the huntard respons, “Only if you only take every third one.”
On top of this he was pulling aggro and running toward the healer, ignoring the kill order, etc.
By this point I’m begging my friend to boot the huntard from the group, but he’s a nice DK and puts up with the jerk. Then after the huntard skinned the next group without sharing, and my friend’s request was repeated a third time, the huntard says, “Let’s roll for them.”
Now if I had lead, I would have kicked the self-serving piece of trash as soon as the boss hit phase 2 so he would be ghetto hearthed before the loot dropped.
…and I wouldn’t have felt bad about it.
HUNTARD: EXHIBIT B
Last night I must have been grouped with the identical twin of the huntard I just identified. He did all of the annoying things that huntards do to distinguish themselves from their enjoyable and useful cousins – hunters. For a time, I gritted my teeth and put up with it. It was around 2 AM and had taken a long time to get a group together – so I was barely tolerating the jerk.
We got to the second boss fight in Utgarde Keep, and I type out my strategy. The hunter puts his mark on the warrior, even though I had raid marked the caster with a skull to reinforce my explained strategy that we burn him first. The huntard then proceeds to argue semantics.
Huntard: it’s not random aggro it’s just a random charge
Me: whatever, it’s not based on the threat of individual players, so it is random aggro
Huntard: not really if it was random aggro he would stay on that player not just charge him and leave
Me: that doesn’t change the fact that I would appreciate everyone staying close to me so I don’t have to chase the boss
Huntard: whatever dude, just pull
Me: ppl still have abilities on cd
Huntard: let them die, pull already
Me: /sit actually the a-hole arguing with the tank is gonna be the first to die…especially since the healer is the tank’s good friend
This shut him up for a little while, but he argued some more throughout trash and continued to speed skin everything so the others skinners had a hard time getting leather.
So we drop the final boss, and the hunter goes running off toward the short-cut out after we loot. I see him leaving and get a terrific idea. I chase after him to make sure he’s in range, and as soon as he jumps off the ledge toward the pool below, I pop path of frost.
He splats, dies, cusses me out. I turn off path of frost so nobody else dies, hearth out, log off, and laugh myself to sleep.
After typing this out I realize that although it was an extremely immature move on my part, I no longer feel any regret, only amusement. I may be a jerk but if nothing else I am a self-amused jerk.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
I've Had An Epiphany
I took a few days off of playing WoW this week in an attempt to improve the balance between the different areas of my life. The third night had me jonesin' big time.
I logged onto Billy and was chatting with some friends. They were doing regular Halls of Lightning to go for the tanking trinket off of Loken. It was going badly, and a dps dropped group. I got an invite to come dps.
I've been saving dps gear just in case I decide to dual spec come 3.1. I threw it on and suffered through rage starvation and control issues. I was doing around 1000 dps, which I'm not completely unhappy with, although, I do prefer the +/- 1600 I do while tanking.
It was a rough go, and the tank went afk after the second boss. The pally healer asked if I thought I could take a group by myself, so I slapped on my tank gear and charged in. We destroyed them, and although the tank was back, I stayed in my tanking gear and we screamed through the rest of the instance.
When we got to Loken, there was talk of how to avoid his abilities. I kind of took charge and told everyone to soak the damage. We had mark of the wild because of the druid. We one shot him without much difficulty.
Then people had to go to bed, so I started working on my level 72 DK. Another friend hopped on his 68 DK and put us in a group for UK. He asked if I wanted to tank, and I said no. I tank on my warrior. My DK is for DPS.
He tanked, and since it was his first time to tank anything it was a bit rough. After a third wipe on the pull before the first boss, I threw on some tanking gear and took over. We finished up there and headed to Nexus.
I tried to get someone else to take over as tank, but nobody had gear or desire...so I tanked that too. It was a little rough. My spec is not in any shape or form a tanking spec. The DK abilities are still foreign to me. I kept finding myself using Billy's keybinds when things got stressful, and this was not helpful in the least. We wiped at least a half-dozen times.
But at the end of the night, I found myself feeling very satisfied with the night. I had a lot of fun!
Part of that was the fact that we were all around the appropriate level and had to perform decently to succeed. Part of that was the stress, attention required, and activity of tanking. I wasn't good at it with my DK, but it has become my niche in the game.
Then last night found me on Billy again. We did three or four heroics. It started a bit rough, because I was somewhat out of practice. But each instance was a little smoother.
One pull in particular was ugly. It was Halls of Stone right after the first batch of elementals. There are three groups of caster types that have short paths they follow. I didn't set up the pull well, and we ended up with all three groups spread out and hammering my healer and my dps. I ran around like a maniac trying to pick them up. It was poor performance on my part that we ever found ourselves in that situation, but I feel that I did a decent job on recovery. The heals were epic too, and without a great healer, we would have died for sure, but I think we only lost one dps and killed all the mobs.
I wish I could say that my healer never got hit again, but that would be a lie. I wish I could say that I was on top of my game, but I wasn't. I wish I could say that I wasn't extremely frustrated with myself more than once, but that's not true.
What I can say is that I HAD A FREAKING BLAST!!! There's just something about Tanking that has gotten into my blood! I love what it demands of me. I love being the main barrier between the mobs and my group. I love feeling like the Hero.
One of my favorite in game ego-boosts is when the dps all dies, but I keep wailing on the boss. Eventually the healer drops, but I use my cool downs and rotations effectively. Right before I'm going to die, my shield slam crit drops the boss. The group all starts cheering for me and my epic last stand against a mighty foe.
Kind of silly, I know, but I love it. I also love when nobody dies and the boss goes down in record time. I love bad pulls that I can recover. I love life saving taunts and intervenes.
I LOVE TANKING!
That is all.
I logged onto Billy and was chatting with some friends. They were doing regular Halls of Lightning to go for the tanking trinket off of Loken. It was going badly, and a dps dropped group. I got an invite to come dps.
I've been saving dps gear just in case I decide to dual spec come 3.1. I threw it on and suffered through rage starvation and control issues. I was doing around 1000 dps, which I'm not completely unhappy with, although, I do prefer the +/- 1600 I do while tanking.
It was a rough go, and the tank went afk after the second boss. The pally healer asked if I thought I could take a group by myself, so I slapped on my tank gear and charged in. We destroyed them, and although the tank was back, I stayed in my tanking gear and we screamed through the rest of the instance.
When we got to Loken, there was talk of how to avoid his abilities. I kind of took charge and told everyone to soak the damage. We had mark of the wild because of the druid. We one shot him without much difficulty.
Then people had to go to bed, so I started working on my level 72 DK. Another friend hopped on his 68 DK and put us in a group for UK. He asked if I wanted to tank, and I said no. I tank on my warrior. My DK is for DPS.
He tanked, and since it was his first time to tank anything it was a bit rough. After a third wipe on the pull before the first boss, I threw on some tanking gear and took over. We finished up there and headed to Nexus.
I tried to get someone else to take over as tank, but nobody had gear or desire...so I tanked that too. It was a little rough. My spec is not in any shape or form a tanking spec. The DK abilities are still foreign to me. I kept finding myself using Billy's keybinds when things got stressful, and this was not helpful in the least. We wiped at least a half-dozen times.
But at the end of the night, I found myself feeling very satisfied with the night. I had a lot of fun!
Part of that was the fact that we were all around the appropriate level and had to perform decently to succeed. Part of that was the stress, attention required, and activity of tanking. I wasn't good at it with my DK, but it has become my niche in the game.
Then last night found me on Billy again. We did three or four heroics. It started a bit rough, because I was somewhat out of practice. But each instance was a little smoother.
One pull in particular was ugly. It was Halls of Stone right after the first batch of elementals. There are three groups of caster types that have short paths they follow. I didn't set up the pull well, and we ended up with all three groups spread out and hammering my healer and my dps. I ran around like a maniac trying to pick them up. It was poor performance on my part that we ever found ourselves in that situation, but I feel that I did a decent job on recovery. The heals were epic too, and without a great healer, we would have died for sure, but I think we only lost one dps and killed all the mobs.
I wish I could say that my healer never got hit again, but that would be a lie. I wish I could say that I was on top of my game, but I wasn't. I wish I could say that I wasn't extremely frustrated with myself more than once, but that's not true.
What I can say is that I HAD A FREAKING BLAST!!! There's just something about Tanking that has gotten into my blood! I love what it demands of me. I love being the main barrier between the mobs and my group. I love feeling like the Hero.
One of my favorite in game ego-boosts is when the dps all dies, but I keep wailing on the boss. Eventually the healer drops, but I use my cool downs and rotations effectively. Right before I'm going to die, my shield slam crit drops the boss. The group all starts cheering for me and my epic last stand against a mighty foe.
Kind of silly, I know, but I love it. I also love when nobody dies and the boss goes down in record time. I love bad pulls that I can recover. I love life saving taunts and intervenes.
I LOVE TANKING!
That is all.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
5 Reasons I Fail at Tanking - AKA: WTB Skillz
Also, I can't count, sorry.
I’m pretty hard on myself. If my group wipes, I usually blame myself – sometimes rightly so, other times not so much…but I can’t seem to help it. While this is a character flaw that I am not so fond of, it does present me with that acute sting of remorse that spurs me to take a closer look at what I’m not doing so well.
I’m taking this moment to address 5 reasons that I’m not a great tank. These are not the only 5 and may not even be the top 5 issues with my performance. I think writing them down will help me review and plan for improvement as well as invite you to take a moment to do a self evaluation to identify your own.
PS – If you’re scoffing at this because you’re a great tank, go ahead and put that as number one on your list. No matter how good you are, there is room for improvement. If you cease to find something you could do better, you’re either in denial or it may be time to hang up the shield for the benefit of those behind you.
AWARENESS
I could have sworn that Ciderhelm had a video about the three types of awareness up at Tankspot.com, but I couldn’t find it tonight to link it. If someone else did it, and I’m just crediting Cider for your hard work, I apologize. Let me know so I can give credit where it’s due.
It was a great video. I’ve long wished I had better situational awareness. I cringe when my healer’s voice over vent informs me that a mob is pounding his pretty little face. He shouldn’t have to tell me that. That mob shouldn’t have gotten there in the first place.
I admit that I am improving in this area since switching to keybinds, but there is still much left to be desired.
The video also talks about encounter awareness – being the knowledge of who is in your group/raid as well as an understanding of their abilities and how they can be used in the encounter to come out on top. I am extremely weak in this regard. Shammies can do that thingy, and mages make tables. Yeah…I don’t belong at the helm of a raid anytime soon.
MOBILE! AGILE! HOSTILE!
Check out Veneratio’s post about movement here.
Keybinding freed me up to mouse turn. That is something I can do well now, and I love it. When the dragonkin in Heroic Violet Hold “blinks” behind me thinking he’s all sneaky rogue-like, I almost immediately smash his face with my shield now. It’s gratifying, that…smashing faces is good times!
Now when movement is required while keeping some semblance of a threat rotation going, Billy fails. I have not yet figured out how to strafe and whack away at the cooldowns. I can’t figure out how you awesome tanks use w,a,s,d to move while also utilizing your keybinds. +25 agility to fingers ftw! WTB that enchant plz.
I’m thinking about picking up a new mouse with more buttons to bind strafe left and right to it so I can have all movement possible available to my right hand, so my left hand can dish out punishment in rage fueled outbursts.
I’m doing my group no favors when I turn my back on a mob instead of strafing and get myself pwned and cause a wipe.
EXPERIENCE
OK – this one gets the numero uno. First place. Grand Prize.
Why? Because everything else on this list improves at least a little with more experience. I have no Vanilla WoW or TBC raid encounters under my belt. Those epic battles I read about where the most precise execution was required to succeed…I can only read about.
Last weekend I did Kara for the first time. We five manned most of it, and three of the five were low 70’s. I remember thinking many times, “Holy Crap! This must have been a bear at 70!” I didn’t have many thoughts as to how I would have had to approach it at the appropriate gear and level, but I’m pretty sure that if I was wiping time after time as a 70, the ideas would have started flowing, and I would have obsessed until we got the kills.
One can learn a lot from failure. My first time in OS, I was tanking the adds on Sarth. His health was low and there were tons of adds popping up. I was losing control and panicked. I popped challenging shout, and to my horror, Sarth turned and sprayed the raid with fire. I recovered quickly and ran to where the MT was standing to protect the raid. I stopped attacking so the MT could pick him back up quickly. I charged back into the adds, and we avoided the wipe and got the kill.
Two valuable things I learned from that encounter: Lesson number one...don't taunt the boss off the MT and into the rest of the raid. Lesson number two...if you are the MT, and someone pulls the boss off of you, don't just stand there spamming shield slam and heroic strike - taunt him back!
I hunger for those opportunities. I feel that they mostly come from raids. So many of the heroic 5-man encounters can be muscled through without much consideration of the boss’s abilities. Not so in raids. Two left feet in Heigan? Wipe. You can’t ignore the dance. That’s not even a very good example, but I hope it makes the point.
To date, as far as raids, all I have under my belt are 10-man OS without drakes twice, VOA 10 and 25 twice (and I hardly count this one due to ease), and 2 wings of Naxx 10-man. That’s it.
QUICK AND COOL
I lose my cool. I get really pissed at the Failknight death-gripping mobs off me and stressing my healer. When someone face pulls a group when I have no rage, or we get a pat when my aoe abilities are unavailable, I sometimes freeze. I just stand there autoattacking like a gibbering buffoon while my group gets splattered. Not very flattering as a tank, I assure you.
A huge part of this is situational awareness. I’m trying to always move my camera to spot pats and additional groups, which is extremely helpful. Speed pulling can actually help as well, because it forces me to look and plan ahead. A quick, controlled instance run is great because it is a proactive run. I know that when the mobs are low on HP, I have enough threat built that nobody is going to pull them unless they “taunt,” therefore, I am free to jump into the next group and build very solid aggro before the group can catch up.
THEORYCRAFTER I AM NOT
…not in the least. Math makes my brain revolt, generates large amounts of painful heat, and emits smoke from my ears. My eyes cross, and I drool on my keyboard. It’s ugly. I tried posting something on Elitist Jerks one time, and a hand reached out of the screen, mashed my delete key repeatedly, and gave me a fat lip. It hurt.
That’s why I started reading blogs. If it weren’t for Veneratio first and foremost (his being the first warrior blog I found), Yakra, Ciderhelm, Kadomi, etc. I would be worse than lost. So thank you professionals, I bow to your greatness.
I do have a cursory understanding of stats. I’m smart enough to avoid raid bosses when crittable. I planned in advance my gear acquisition so I was uncrittable almost immediately after my 80th Ding. I try to have enough of each stat but struggle very much with the ideas of min-maxing and establishing different gear sets. I wish I understood it better, but atm theorycrafting and I have a relationship very similar to Homer Simpson’s relationship with his brain. “Now brain, I don’t like you, and you don’t like me, but lets just try to get along.”
THE COWARD AND THE CLOCK
I frequently qq about not being able to raid, but if I’m being honest with you and myself I have to confess that I have turned down opportunities. I have excuses at the time that seem decent. Sometimes I legitimately do not have the time or am unimpressed with the group. Farming repair bills blows by anybody’s standard. But there have been the times where I was afraid.
This might tie for Number One. I am working on finding a balance with my time to open up raiding opportunities. I am confronting my fears and performance anxiety, because if I don’t, I will never get better. I will never get the experience I need to improve. I will never see content. I will lose out on great opportunities to hang out with like-minded peeps.
CONCLUSION
So there's my 5 (+1...it's like leaving a drake up on Sarth. If you read all six you get bonus loot. RTU [Billywallace's Love Sack])
I have good nights and bad. I want to have more good nights. I want to be a better tank.
I continue to put forth my best effort to become more aware of my situation, personal and group abilities, encounters, etc.
I need to figure out how to move better while fighting simultaneously.
I need to keep my cool and react quickly to the unexpected. No more will I drop my hands in exasperation, but will mash something on my keyboard. Usually doing something is better than doing nothing. And if it was worse than doing nothing, I will learn from it and not do it again. But at least I will be establishing the habit of reacting quickly rather than freezing.
I will man up and schedule time to raid, so that I can be building the experience I need to develop my skills as a tank.
I will spend a little more time looking into the more technical aspects of my role (including the math stuff *cringe*) and make a plan for in-game implementation of what I learn.
Summary: I will do what it takes to be a better tank!
I’m pretty hard on myself. If my group wipes, I usually blame myself – sometimes rightly so, other times not so much…but I can’t seem to help it. While this is a character flaw that I am not so fond of, it does present me with that acute sting of remorse that spurs me to take a closer look at what I’m not doing so well.I’m taking this moment to address 5 reasons that I’m not a great tank. These are not the only 5 and may not even be the top 5 issues with my performance. I think writing them down will help me review and plan for improvement as well as invite you to take a moment to do a self evaluation to identify your own.
PS – If you’re scoffing at this because you’re a great tank, go ahead and put that as number one on your list. No matter how good you are, there is room for improvement. If you cease to find something you could do better, you’re either in denial or it may be time to hang up the shield for the benefit of those behind you.
AWARENESS
I could have sworn that Ciderhelm had a video about the three types of awareness up at Tankspot.com, but I couldn’t find it tonight to link it. If someone else did it, and I’m just crediting Cider for your hard work, I apologize. Let me know so I can give credit where it’s due.
It was a great video. I’ve long wished I had better situational awareness. I cringe when my healer’s voice over vent informs me that a mob is pounding his pretty little face. He shouldn’t have to tell me that. That mob shouldn’t have gotten there in the first place.
I admit that I am improving in this area since switching to keybinds, but there is still much left to be desired.
The video also talks about encounter awareness – being the knowledge of who is in your group/raid as well as an understanding of their abilities and how they can be used in the encounter to come out on top. I am extremely weak in this regard. Shammies can do that thingy, and mages make tables. Yeah…I don’t belong at the helm of a raid anytime soon.
MOBILE! AGILE! HOSTILE!
Check out Veneratio’s post about movement here.
Keybinding freed me up to mouse turn. That is something I can do well now, and I love it. When the dragonkin in Heroic Violet Hold “blinks” behind me thinking he’s all sneaky rogue-like, I almost immediately smash his face with my shield now. It’s gratifying, that…smashing faces is good times!
Now when movement is required while keeping some semblance of a threat rotation going, Billy fails. I have not yet figured out how to strafe and whack away at the cooldowns. I can’t figure out how you awesome tanks use w,a,s,d to move while also utilizing your keybinds. +25 agility to fingers ftw! WTB that enchant plz.
I’m thinking about picking up a new mouse with more buttons to bind strafe left and right to it so I can have all movement possible available to my right hand, so my left hand can dish out punishment in rage fueled outbursts.
I’m doing my group no favors when I turn my back on a mob instead of strafing and get myself pwned and cause a wipe.
EXPERIENCE
OK – this one gets the numero uno. First place. Grand Prize.
Why? Because everything else on this list improves at least a little with more experience. I have no Vanilla WoW or TBC raid encounters under my belt. Those epic battles I read about where the most precise execution was required to succeed…I can only read about.
Last weekend I did Kara for the first time. We five manned most of it, and three of the five were low 70’s. I remember thinking many times, “Holy Crap! This must have been a bear at 70!” I didn’t have many thoughts as to how I would have had to approach it at the appropriate gear and level, but I’m pretty sure that if I was wiping time after time as a 70, the ideas would have started flowing, and I would have obsessed until we got the kills.
One can learn a lot from failure. My first time in OS, I was tanking the adds on Sarth. His health was low and there were tons of adds popping up. I was losing control and panicked. I popped challenging shout, and to my horror, Sarth turned and sprayed the raid with fire. I recovered quickly and ran to where the MT was standing to protect the raid. I stopped attacking so the MT could pick him back up quickly. I charged back into the adds, and we avoided the wipe and got the kill.
Two valuable things I learned from that encounter: Lesson number one...don't taunt the boss off the MT and into the rest of the raid. Lesson number two...if you are the MT, and someone pulls the boss off of you, don't just stand there spamming shield slam and heroic strike - taunt him back!
I hunger for those opportunities. I feel that they mostly come from raids. So many of the heroic 5-man encounters can be muscled through without much consideration of the boss’s abilities. Not so in raids. Two left feet in Heigan? Wipe. You can’t ignore the dance. That’s not even a very good example, but I hope it makes the point.
To date, as far as raids, all I have under my belt are 10-man OS without drakes twice, VOA 10 and 25 twice (and I hardly count this one due to ease), and 2 wings of Naxx 10-man. That’s it.
QUICK AND COOL
I lose my cool. I get really pissed at the Failknight death-gripping mobs off me and stressing my healer. When someone face pulls a group when I have no rage, or we get a pat when my aoe abilities are unavailable, I sometimes freeze. I just stand there autoattacking like a gibbering buffoon while my group gets splattered. Not very flattering as a tank, I assure you.
A huge part of this is situational awareness. I’m trying to always move my camera to spot pats and additional groups, which is extremely helpful. Speed pulling can actually help as well, because it forces me to look and plan ahead. A quick, controlled instance run is great because it is a proactive run. I know that when the mobs are low on HP, I have enough threat built that nobody is going to pull them unless they “taunt,” therefore, I am free to jump into the next group and build very solid aggro before the group can catch up.
THEORYCRAFTER I AM NOT
…not in the least. Math makes my brain revolt, generates large amounts of painful heat, and emits smoke from my ears. My eyes cross, and I drool on my keyboard. It’s ugly. I tried posting something on Elitist Jerks one time, and a hand reached out of the screen, mashed my delete key repeatedly, and gave me a fat lip. It hurt.
That’s why I started reading blogs. If it weren’t for Veneratio first and foremost (his being the first warrior blog I found), Yakra, Ciderhelm, Kadomi, etc. I would be worse than lost. So thank you professionals, I bow to your greatness.
I do have a cursory understanding of stats. I’m smart enough to avoid raid bosses when crittable. I planned in advance my gear acquisition so I was uncrittable almost immediately after my 80th Ding. I try to have enough of each stat but struggle very much with the ideas of min-maxing and establishing different gear sets. I wish I understood it better, but atm theorycrafting and I have a relationship very similar to Homer Simpson’s relationship with his brain. “Now brain, I don’t like you, and you don’t like me, but lets just try to get along.”
THE COWARD AND THE CLOCK
I frequently qq about not being able to raid, but if I’m being honest with you and myself I have to confess that I have turned down opportunities. I have excuses at the time that seem decent. Sometimes I legitimately do not have the time or am unimpressed with the group. Farming repair bills blows by anybody’s standard. But there have been the times where I was afraid.
This might tie for Number One. I am working on finding a balance with my time to open up raiding opportunities. I am confronting my fears and performance anxiety, because if I don’t, I will never get better. I will never get the experience I need to improve. I will never see content. I will lose out on great opportunities to hang out with like-minded peeps.
CONCLUSION
So there's my 5 (+1...it's like leaving a drake up on Sarth. If you read all six you get bonus loot. RTU [Billywallace's Love Sack])
I have good nights and bad. I want to have more good nights. I want to be a better tank.
I continue to put forth my best effort to become more aware of my situation, personal and group abilities, encounters, etc.
I need to figure out how to move better while fighting simultaneously.
I need to keep my cool and react quickly to the unexpected. No more will I drop my hands in exasperation, but will mash something on my keyboard. Usually doing something is better than doing nothing. And if it was worse than doing nothing, I will learn from it and not do it again. But at least I will be establishing the habit of reacting quickly rather than freezing.
I will man up and schedule time to raid, so that I can be building the experience I need to develop my skills as a tank.
I will spend a little more time looking into the more technical aspects of my role (including the math stuff *cringe*) and make a plan for in-game implementation of what I learn.
Summary: I will do what it takes to be a better tank!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Mad props for the OT!
EGOS ASIDE...There is a certain pride with being the Main Tank of a guild or even a pugged raid - rightly so. The Main Tank is an esteemed position of leadership, solidarity, strength, and skill.
It takes a certain mentality to tank in any capacity, let alone stand tall as THE tank. The one who stands face to face with a mighty dragon, ensuring that the beast's destructive breath does not harm his friends. The one that trades blows with enormous hard hitting foes without balking at the onslaught.
It is a job that takes a steady mind, quick reflexes, and confidence. Often that confidence spills over into the egotistical.
Back in TBC days, the MT of a raiding guild leading the server's progression into Black Temple stood out like a sore thumb while proudly carrying one of the more distinctive shields that I've seen. If I were in a situation that allowed me to raid back in BC and were lucky enough to have gear earned from tanking the biggest baddest meanest bosses at the time, I think I would probably feel pretty good about myself, and the confidence necessary to be a good tank might become something more.
Please note that I am not inferring that all MT's are egomaniacs. I am saying that the role of OT deserves much more respect that it gets.
Been here before?
Consider the following. You're tanking a boss who is hitting you quickly. Your rage bar is full. You're mashing out your top tps "rotation" while wondering if you're keeping Heroic Strike up enough and cursing Blizzard for not improving it's mechanics yet. You're watching your hp and your DBM warnings and using your CD's accordingly. The healers are focused on you and things are fairly cozy.
vs.
The MT pulls the boss and turns him from the group. Most of the dps focuses on the boss and starts to burn. Suddenly a couple of mobs pop up and bee-line for the healers. You charge in and engage. A few dps assigned to help on adds start to burn. Pretty simple so far.
Then another group pops up. Charge is still on CD, and you ate up most of your rage on establishing aggro with the first group. You run toward the new mobs to keep them off the squishies. Meanwhile, the crit happy mage pulled on of the original mobs (said mob has enough hp that the mage isn't going to finish him off in time), so you taunt him back and pick up the new adds.
You throw down a TC and Shockwave and wait for sufficient rage to build to use another ability. Omen is telling you that the dps is on the brink of pulling off you again. All this while another group of adds shows up (at least charge is off CD), the boss triggers a hard hitting ability and the healers forget about you for a sec, or your charge pulls you out of range. You're taking a beating and having to think more about balancing mitigation/OS cool downs vs. tps abilities.
You're moving to avoid gooey stuff on the ground, while looking for the next wave of mobs, while trying to get closer to your healer, while keeping up threat on the group of mobs you're kiting.
Oh yeah...and you're watching the boss and the MT, because you guessed it, the MT's down and you better taunt quick-like, or the boss is gonna one-shot his way through the raid for the wipe.
Meh, make him the OT...
This is why it drives me nuts that the "MT" role is almost always attributed to the guy or gal who's gonna go mano a mano with the boss, and this person is by default the tank with the most HP or experience in raids. In reality, the "OT" role often requires more skill, more situational awareness, quicker reflexes, tighter management of CD's, etc. It is a hectic and often stressful job.
Many a blog or forum entry scoffs at talents or glyphs that save or produce rage. I often hear, "Rage starvation is a non-issue." This is frequently true as the traditional MT, but when you're not getting beat on constantly, it's easy to burn through the rage bar. Trying to tank without enough rage to use your abilities is frustrating to say the least.
Obviously the decision as to who will tank what is very situational. You may need the guy with the largest health pool or experience on the boss. You may find also, and I believe more often than not, that your raid would be better served by having the leet tank on the busier, tougher job.
Case in point...
Think I'm off my rocker? Is your ego bruised? Maybe I am, and good if it was.
I was talking with a buddy of mine that has tanked everything in game to date. We were talking about this subject. He agreed with me.
I personally have only off tanked Sarth. The whelps and fire elementals can get crazy thick in a hurry. I was relating to my friend how frantic this encounter is for me. He laughed and said that's why he prefers to MT Sarth. He says, "It's so easy. You just watch your cool downs and strafe to avoid lava walls." I can't personally validate or refute that statement, but OT is busy busy on Sarth.
I don't have any major revelations to post with this entry. I'm not telling anyone to necessarily do anything different. I am saying to at the very least give your OT a pat on the back for doing a tough and often thankless job. And if they're struggling, "reward" them with a shot at the boss while the more experienced meat shield cleans up the trash.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
All I Needed To Know I Learned By Rolling A Death Knight
Aeglys, my DK just dinged 70. I've learned a lot from playing him and leveling his professions. Here are a few points I've picked up along the way.
IT TAKES A LOT OF WORK TO LOOK THIS GOOD!
Melee DPS is much more engaged than the pew pew from range that I experienced with my mage. To be courteous to the tank (as well as increase my own dps) it is important to not attack the boss/mobs from the front.
I really try to help my tank out because I understand the nuances of that role. I probably give the tank a little more time than he needs to have solid aggro, but the ability to go all out without worrying about aggro is nice. And I always try to stay to the back or side to avoid parry gibbing my tank.
But dang! Some tanks just can't stop moving! Some mechanics make constant movement or frequent changes necessary, but some tanks just never stop moving around, making it hard to stay where I should be.
This experience brought with it the realization that I could do a much better job (while tanking with Billy) positioning mobs so my melee dps can do their job better.
SUPPORT THE LEADER AND CULTIVATE COMPETENCE
In many (most) cases, I am the group leader when tanking. This is rarely the case when I'm on my DK, and I've found it hard in some instances to not try to take charge. Usually the tank is capable but may just have a different style or approach...sometimes they aren't. I try to take advantage of this situation to explain my main is a tank and offer some advice. I always do this in /w to avoid embarrassing the tank. More often than not, they express gratitude and step up and get us through. I feel good that I helped someone do a tough job a little better.
MARKY MARK THAT FUNKY BUNCH!
As a blood spec DK, I do primarily single target dps. Wrath has brought to the game a heavy aoe mentality. Rarely are mobs marked. I rarely mark when I tank, however, on Aeglys I can pull aggro off the tank on a single target. I try to attack the target of my tank, but he may be hopping (tabbing) through the mobs to get solid aoe threat built. I can't hop with him, as my abilities rely on establishing diseases to unleash my big hitting combos.
Marking a kill order does not signify a weak tank! I've been made fun of a few times when I marked with Billy. If it bothers you, kiss off. Marking targets makes everyone's job easier. Just because there's a kill order doesn't mean that you can't aoe, but it does mean that single target dps can do their job without frantically trying to find the target the tank is focusing on.
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKING...
My mom always said that if you're angry or irritated with someone, try to put yourself in their shoes. You just might find you understand where they're coming from.
I haven't been upset with dk's per se, but I now have much more respect for DK tanks. It's so foreign to me that I don't get it very well and therefore don't do it very well. Yeah, I could put the time into researching DK tanking like I have with my warrior, but I'd really like a change of pace. I can get tired of the responsibility of tanking and look forward to having an alt that can just dps.
So thanks tanks! Druids, Pallies, DK's, Warriors, Mages (lol, I threw that one in because of a steamvaults run that I did on my Mage back in the BC days. I was with a priest and three druids. I grabbed all the little leper gnomes before the robot boss and aoe'd like mad while my 4 group mates spam healed me. It was good times.) I will no longer scoff at your concerns in tanking forums regarding class mechanics. I will no longer think that warriors are the only ones that matter. They're still the best, or coolest, in my opinion, but you guys are all right too. And you have my respect.
DEATH GRIP: PORTENT OF DOOM!
OK, not always...BUT you can really gauge a DK by his or her use of death grip. The DK that pulls mobs off the tank is fail and should be deleted. The DK that pulls a range/caster to the tank is full of win!
I find that the brief experiences I've had tanking on my DK were made much more difficult by the other DK's in the group. I think it spawns an unhealthy competitive attitude. I'm not looked at as the tank, so much as another DK, and suddenly there's an undeniable need for these failknights to want to put as much turf between their name and mine on recount - with complete disregard to consequences.
Because of this, one of the DK's in my group will deathgrip my primary target, and I've already called for deaths in these instances via a /w to my healer. I ask them to stop, but if they ignore me, then I ask the healer to let them die. Is it bad that as a tank, I relish in the opportunity to assassinate one of my group members? Or is it simply not intervening on another retarded suicide attempt?
Well, this wall of text is enough to make China jealous, so I will stop now. I decided to not talk about professions, because it wouldn't be interesting. But JC/BS combo is a bear!
I have enjoyed rolling my DK. It's been a great experience full of learning and fun shenanigans due to being OP. Group quests mean you'll use your ghoul and maybe a health pot! :) If you have resisted the DK, give it a try. The opening quest line is EPIC! And just because there's so many bad DK's out there should not be a reason for you to miss out on great fun.
IT TAKES A LOT OF WORK TO LOOK THIS GOOD!
Melee DPS is much more engaged than the pew pew from range that I experienced with my mage. To be courteous to the tank (as well as increase my own dps) it is important to not attack the boss/mobs from the front.
I really try to help my tank out because I understand the nuances of that role. I probably give the tank a little more time than he needs to have solid aggro, but the ability to go all out without worrying about aggro is nice. And I always try to stay to the back or side to avoid parry gibbing my tank.
But dang! Some tanks just can't stop moving! Some mechanics make constant movement or frequent changes necessary, but some tanks just never stop moving around, making it hard to stay where I should be.
This experience brought with it the realization that I could do a much better job (while tanking with Billy) positioning mobs so my melee dps can do their job better.
SUPPORT THE LEADER AND CULTIVATE COMPETENCE
In many (most) cases, I am the group leader when tanking. This is rarely the case when I'm on my DK, and I've found it hard in some instances to not try to take charge. Usually the tank is capable but may just have a different style or approach...sometimes they aren't. I try to take advantage of this situation to explain my main is a tank and offer some advice. I always do this in /w to avoid embarrassing the tank. More often than not, they express gratitude and step up and get us through. I feel good that I helped someone do a tough job a little better.
MARKY MARK THAT FUNKY BUNCH!
As a blood spec DK, I do primarily single target dps. Wrath has brought to the game a heavy aoe mentality. Rarely are mobs marked. I rarely mark when I tank, however, on Aeglys I can pull aggro off the tank on a single target. I try to attack the target of my tank, but he may be hopping (tabbing) through the mobs to get solid aoe threat built. I can't hop with him, as my abilities rely on establishing diseases to unleash my big hitting combos.
Marking a kill order does not signify a weak tank! I've been made fun of a few times when I marked with Billy. If it bothers you, kiss off. Marking targets makes everyone's job easier. Just because there's a kill order doesn't mean that you can't aoe, but it does mean that single target dps can do their job without frantically trying to find the target the tank is focusing on.
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKING...
My mom always said that if you're angry or irritated with someone, try to put yourself in their shoes. You just might find you understand where they're coming from.
I haven't been upset with dk's per se, but I now have much more respect for DK tanks. It's so foreign to me that I don't get it very well and therefore don't do it very well. Yeah, I could put the time into researching DK tanking like I have with my warrior, but I'd really like a change of pace. I can get tired of the responsibility of tanking and look forward to having an alt that can just dps.
So thanks tanks! Druids, Pallies, DK's, Warriors, Mages (lol, I threw that one in because of a steamvaults run that I did on my Mage back in the BC days. I was with a priest and three druids. I grabbed all the little leper gnomes before the robot boss and aoe'd like mad while my 4 group mates spam healed me. It was good times.) I will no longer scoff at your concerns in tanking forums regarding class mechanics. I will no longer think that warriors are the only ones that matter. They're still the best, or coolest, in my opinion, but you guys are all right too. And you have my respect.
DEATH GRIP: PORTENT OF DOOM!
OK, not always...BUT you can really gauge a DK by his or her use of death grip. The DK that pulls mobs off the tank is fail and should be deleted. The DK that pulls a range/caster to the tank is full of win!
I find that the brief experiences I've had tanking on my DK were made much more difficult by the other DK's in the group. I think it spawns an unhealthy competitive attitude. I'm not looked at as the tank, so much as another DK, and suddenly there's an undeniable need for these failknights to want to put as much turf between their name and mine on recount - with complete disregard to consequences.
Because of this, one of the DK's in my group will deathgrip my primary target, and I've already called for deaths in these instances via a /w to my healer. I ask them to stop, but if they ignore me, then I ask the healer to let them die. Is it bad that as a tank, I relish in the opportunity to assassinate one of my group members? Or is it simply not intervening on another retarded suicide attempt?
Well, this wall of text is enough to make China jealous, so I will stop now. I decided to not talk about professions, because it wouldn't be interesting. But JC/BS combo is a bear!
I have enjoyed rolling my DK. It's been a great experience full of learning and fun shenanigans due to being OP. Group quests mean you'll use your ghoul and maybe a health pot! :) If you have resisted the DK, give it a try. The opening quest line is EPIC! And just because there's so many bad DK's out there should not be a reason for you to miss out on great fun.
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