Tanking Fears

So I'm starting to frustrate my healer. I can see it a little more each day. He's ready to do things that for whatever reason, I don't think I'm ready for. Higher end heroics, VoA, lower end raids, just to name a few.

I'm not sure exactly why I'm so scared of these. I just don't think my gear is really ready for those encounters yet. I have a hard enough time with some of the simpler heroics. Managing heroic Gundrak is still a lot of work for me.

I am 1 point below defense cap for 80 raids. That puts me at 539. It's not gaining or holding threat that bothers me. I've proven that. My dodge and parry percents are pretty good as well but it's my health or the lack there of that worries me. Unbuffed, I range in at a little over 25,000. Trying to get my defense to cap has caused me to have to pass on some of the higher stamina items.

I know I need to farm normal HoL and hope for the defense trinket to drop again. That is easier said then done when no one wants to run normal instances...there are no emblems or epic loot to be had there, so they don't want to bother. Which I can totally understand when you're already running around in epic items, looking for emblems and deciding that normal instances are below you. But sadly, I need that trinket.

I've encouraged Eto to do the daily heroic with his friends and the guild, to go to Ony, to pug VoA..he's a healer, it's not going to take long for him to get snatched up. I can't exactly dps in tank gear and then roll on tank drops. From my experience, most pugs don't want you rolling that way. But frustrated he still is and frustrated I'm becoming.

Honestly, I'm willing to try anything once. I'm willing to try the heroics I avoid. The only exception being I want to do it with people that I know...not pug an instance and make a idiot of myself because I'm not ready. Know what I mean? Surely, I'm not the only one that doesn't want to spend forever apologizing to random strangers for causing them costly wipes, lockouts and headaches to realize you're just not ready for it.

Think it's just something I have to get over or go back to being DPS.

Tanking chaos and guild complaints

Where to start? It was a pretty..eventful...weekend.

Tanked my first raid. Yes..you heard right..though I really just off-tanked. We did OS10 Friday night with the guild. Apparently, they decided I was geared well enough to off tank. Surprisingly, it went very smooth. Except, I was getting and holding aggro a little too well. I was pulling adds off the warrior tank and I'm just not geared well enough to take that much direct damage. So, once I backed off a little it was smooth sailing. I got my T7 glove drop. That was a pretty good upgrade for me. Yay!

Have I mentioned that I hate pugs lately? So this is how it goes....
ME: LFM 3 DPS for h-gundrak, pst
Stupid Mage in whisper: I'll go
-Stupid Mage joins group-
Eto: Yay! Full group
ME: Flying that way
Stupid Mage in party: uh, who's tanking
ME: That would be me
Stupid Mage: Are you in tank gear?
ME: Yes
Stupid Mage: 25,000 health?
ME: Would you prefer to tank?
Stupid Mage: I thought tanks were suppose to have a lot of health.
ME: Your call dude, you're welcome to find another group.
-Stupid Mage leaves group-
-Not so stupid mage joins the group-
It's just Heroic Gundrak...not like I'm trying to tank Ulduar. *sigh*

We finish gundrak without any major problems. It did wipe twice. Once because I attempted to tank the snake boss in the room at the bottom of the stairs, snakes wrapped me and thus causing a wipe. Moved the DPS and healer to the top of the stairs..snake boss went down with no problems. Second wipe was on the last boss. I don't think Eto was expecting me to take as much damage as I did when he went Rhino form. But second try, popped Unbreakable Armor when he transformed and all was well.

Watched, or semi-watched, Eto heal the new Ony encounter with the guild Saturday night. I watched the first attempt, they wiped, then decided to walk away for a bit. Yeah, I was jealous. Think that was magnified after the run when I saw what Eto got off the run. Oh well. Never said I wasn't human. Well..Bloodelf..but we can be jealous too. =(

Got pulled into a Flame Leviathan run last night. I did walk away from it with Ironsoul. =D

The guild is a little odd. They aren't geared or ready in any way for Ulduar but the GM insists on skipping all the early 80 raids in hopes of getting them directly into some of the higher end content. The hidden reason for this...because he's already done everything up to and including most of the ToC10 stuff. So instead of building his guild up and showing them how to work together, which they seriously need, he'd rather skip right to the content he can use.

Sadly, most of the DPS from his so called "old friends" is well below where it should be for their level. I'm not just talking about them being under geared. I'm talking about them needing help understanding the concept of raiding. For the most part, they are pretty well geared, with emblem items and a few drops. But they aren't exactly well spec'd or using the proper rotations to get the max damage they could be doing.

Example...a destro lock, in combination T7 and T8 gear, nice weapons and trinkets, is pulling about 2000 dps. *shudder* I almost shed a tear when I saw this. Not to mention the weeping I did when I saw the Demo lock, in horrible gear, walk into the instance with her Voidwalker out. I inspect her and she hasn't talented into her Felguard. *gawk*

Those are just a few of the things I've seen going on with the DPS I've had in my 5 mans. We have decent mage damage output..but they haven't learned to control it. The raid leaders have to actually tell them when they can start dpsing. Otherwise, we have mages shooting fireballs before the tank even gets to the target.

I find myself more and more annoyed with this guild as of late. They all want to throw advise around and have the attitude that I seriously just started playing yesterday, but they can't play their own toons. Honestly, I accept your advise and thank you for it, but I'm not a noob. Really I know what that is used for and I know how to gear my toons.

I've never been the kind of person to need to stroke my own ego or prove my point. But sadly, right now, I'm ready to faction transfer my lock to the server just to prove girls can play and in this case, better then most of the guys in the guild.

Guild Personalities

GMs and those who have raided long enough will get this. The rest of you can just take my word for it. You raid with these people. You work with these people. These people are closer than your family. You should worry.

The GM- He/She’s sacrificed his health, friends, relationships and probably a couple of jobs to drag you through new content. When the guild isn’t performing, these decisions are in question. Prone to shooting sprees, forum flame wars, and the rapid advancement/gearing of whatever toon the guild “needs”. If you can keep your mouth shut and bide your time, he/she might lose it and quit before you get gkicked. Still, you do like the guy/girl. Or did. Before he/she went crazy. See drunks, below.

The GM's Significant Other - Okay, so he was going to have to quit but he tricked his SO into playing. She loves it. She's terrible. You'll effectively 24 man every boss. Count on 4 constructs in the raid, every attempt. She plays a Belf.

The Raid Leader - When you stand in the flames, he dies a little bit inside.

The Heir Apparent - When the GM goes psycho, ninjas the bank, and gdisbands, you're the guy the guild is gonna look to to to fix the mess. You see it coming. You can't decide if ritual suicide or being the new gm would be more painful.

The Positive Officer - “That was great. Just great. You know, only 5% of guilds have even made it to Supremus, and getting him down to 67% on the second attempt is hawt.” See Stoners, below.

The Negative Officer - “Jesus Christ why are there corpses under all these goddamn volcanoes? It’s Supremus for %@*@s’s sake. GET OUT OF THE DAMN FLAME!” See Drunks, below.

The Healing Officer - Has this job because, as the newest officer who plays a healer, he’s stuck with it.

The Hunter Class Lead - Will tell you that it does actually require skill and preparation to play a hunter well in the end game. Lies frequently.

Metermaid - He's got meters running. Always. Asks for meter postage whenever he's in the top 5, which is rare, as his focus on the meters is preventing him from seeing the volcano he's pathing towards. Pulls aggro. Has yet to realize that 0 health returns 0 dps. If he's healing, you might as well just put him on raid, he's gonna heal them anyway.

Stratman - Has read every strategy on the entire Internet for every boss. Unable to think critically. Knows where his talk key is. Hated by the officers. Likely to play a hunter or mage. If this is also Chick With Accent, below, guild will probably collapse.

The Gay Guy - Affects the gay accent for effect. Upgrade decisions tend to involve lengthy discussions about gear appearance. Learned to use the dressing room function before the ‘v’ key.

The Stay At Home Mom - She’s around children all day and craves adult conversation. Babbles incessantly in vent, forgetting that adult conversation doesn’t usually begin with, “So I was talking to (insert name of four-year-old child) and he says…” Well liked, but frequently muted.

Mr. Mikeless - Has a microphone. Hears the conversation and directions. Once wiped the raid because he started talking and most folks alt-tabbed to see who the hell was speaking. May be your best player.

The Kid - So, you messed up on this guy’s interview and nobody noticed that he was 12. But, he can play. And if he gets a little bit excited when boobies are getting talked about? Hey, he’s young.

The Backbone - Plays a tank. Doesn't have much to say. Made an error once in SSC, or so you heard. Will disconnect when Gorefiend is at 30% and keep aggro while offline for the rest of the fight. Has never said anything negative to the healers. Ever. GL with your progression without one of these. Hates the prima donnas.

The Other kid - Remember that accountant you interviewed for the fury warrior position? And how you wondered how he’d make time to raid during tax season? He couldn’t. His eleven year old daughter took over about that time. She’s been raiding since. Mages, that’s an eleven year-old girl owning you night after night.

The Hunter Who Doesn't Do His Homework - Always good for insightful commentary and clever observation just after a wipe. "Holy Crap Man! I was just standing and shooting and this damn VOLCANO popped on me! When did they put in those volcanoes?"

The Prophet - Kept insisting that you were going to need a melee group for BT, despite the fact hat melee was dreadful for SSC/BT. Badgered the management until they broke. Plays a rogue. Shreds. Loved by the Most Devout.

The Most Devout - This is the guy who gets to play an off-spec in a big-boy raid. He's the fury warrior, the boomkin, or the enhance shammy. He cannot believe that some fate is letting him have this much fun that he's afraid it will all come crashing down. Prays devoutly to his favorite deity that the guild won't collapse because he'll never have THIS much fun again. Ever.

The Drunks - The core of your guild. As raid progresses, their voices in vent are getting just ever so slightly slurre

Level 80 Annoyances

Well...she's 80...I should be happy right? Wrong. Honestly, I find myself wishing she were still questing for xp and levels.

Why?

Things were easier then.
- No Rep grind.
- No gear headaches
- No wondering what to do next
- Various other personal RL reasons

Tanked my first heroic last night. It went pretty smooth actually. We did wipe twice but that was because were trying for an achievement and it didn't go so well. Granted it was a pretty easy heroic for my first try. DTK is pretty simple on heroic. Eto did an awesome job keeping my butt alive.

Happily I was defense capped for heroics. I had to make a few minor changes to my armor to get that number but it was all things I was able to do myself with JCing and enchanting.

Now to just figure out how to get more stamina without loosing the defense. *sigh* I have decided defense caps for tanks is like trying to maintain hit caps for a lock...both suck!

10 Raid Commandments

I. Do not die. Even if you can Ankh, Soulstone or any other means of resurecting yourself. Using your death as an aggro wipe is an abomination.

II. Do not cause your raidmates to die. In this way, do not allow the healers or wearers-of-cloth to become squished by Lesser Nasties should the Tank ignore them. Your weapon shall be your weapon, but CC shall be your shield in a time of trouble.

III. Do not overtax your healers by taking undue raid damage. In this spirit, do not stand in front of the Big Nasty, nor should you stand in any nastiness the Big Nasty has strewn on the floor.

IV. Focus your Fire by assisting and following the kill order. ALWAYS.

V. Use your trinkets and cooldowns wisely. When in doubt, early and often unless otherwise instructed by your Raid Leader.

VI. If the strategy calls for you to interrupt spell-casting by the Big Nasty, do so. The loss of dps is insignificant compared to violating the First, Second, or Third commandments.

VII. If you have a buff to share with melee, use it. This includes debuffs to the Big Nasty and anything that mitigates damage on the Tank. Though he/she is sometimes crazy and stands in front of the Big Nasty and probably smells a little funny, he/she is your melee brethren.

VIII. Do not show up to raids unprepared. Read the strategies, bring consumables, and have your items enchanted. Listen to your raid leader and class leader. Bring an offering of gold for repairs and pay willingly.

IX. Know what items and statistics will improve you and in what ratios. Do not stand around a dead Big Nasty and debate if his loot is good for you. This too is a violation of the Eighth commandment.

X. Do not covet your neighbor’s Recount. Do not violate the above commandments in an attempt to increase your dps at cost to the raid. This is a violation of the spirit of the law, which is teamwork.

Ding, Dong...Guess who hit 80!!

Well, apparently my post yesterday..that we'd hit 80 by the end of the week...was a lie. We dinged 80 last night, both Eto and I, in a normal HoS run. It was late, granted we gave up some RL stuff in exchange, not so worth it...but we are now 80.



I didn't have time to adorn Kaly with the few 80 epic items she has in the bank, since it was after 1:00 AM by the time we got out of the instance but I'm sure that will be the first thing I will do tonight.

So what excites me about my first ever Horde 80?

1. Dailies for REAL gold..not half gold and XP.
- Having no economic support from various other 80s. I'm finding it hard to remember what it's like to be a new 80 with nothing. Yeah I know, newbies do it all the time. But I do have 80s and a lot of gold...it's just it's all Alliance side on a totally different server. So dailies it is, with added vigor. Since doing dailies on my Alliance toons was more a chore then a necessity, I'm actually doing dailies now for a purpose.

2. Heroics!
- Another thing I was sick of on my Alliance toons. It seemed that running heroics was another "grind". What did I need from them? Nothing really...it was just something to do. My toons Alliance side already had raid gear from higher end content. They had shards, enchanting mats, exalted with all the factions...what was the purpose? But not with my DK...she has so much to gain and I get to see the instances from the prospected of the Tank. Which by the way I LOVE!

3. Farming
- Actually...I like the idea of being able to farm eternals and enchanting mats and anything else I can without a gathering profession. *sigh* I know it was my idea to make my DK a JC/Enchanter..but no gathering professions is aggravating. But anything and everything I can farm...equals gold...equals epic flying! Another annoyance of no financial support from my other toons. Otherwise, Kaly would have epic flying already. I know I could have been farming before 80 but trying not to get too far ahead of Eto in XP...we both avoiding doing too much without the other.

4. Raiding
- I am kinda leery of this. Not sure how ready I am, mentally, to be tanking any raid. But I am a little excited about the concept of it.

5. Achievements/Pets!!
- I can actually work on these now!!

6. Hunter
- I'm not sure how much time I will devote to my baby hunter but I can and hopefully will start leveling her again. It's just the grind of leveling that I hate. Even with the added excitement of the new lore and seeing new things...I'm finding myself getting easily bored with her. It doesn't say much that I have been trying to level a hunter (mainly the same one) for the past 2 years. Though this one is suppose to be my Horde farming toon. She has mining and skinning as her professions. We'll see how this goes.

So..another 80..another day...another list of things to do.....another lonely, once greatly loved, Alliance toon left untouched on Shadow Council..

Will I ever find the time or the balance to spread the love between so many toons?

My favorite 80 ability? Army of the Dead!!

Laugh a little today...

Cross posting these from Eto's Blog...I even laughed at these two!

http://www.darklegacycomics.com/152.html

http://www.darklegacycomics.com/164.html

The Home Stretch

The DK hit 79 last night and is almost half way through the level. I suspect we'll hit 80 before the end of the week.

We ran HoL and UP with the guild and had a pretty easy time. Tanking the instances wasn't too bad. We were heavy in the melee department with myself, a 77 prot pally, an 80 feral druid, 80 shadow priest and then Eto healing. HoL went pretty smoothly, only a couple of mess ups on my part. Simply because I was use to dpsing and wasn't' familiar with what mobs needed to die first but we all made it through without any wipes. The awesome tanky trinket did drop..yay!..but I lost the roll to the warrior...boo. Oh well, she's in more need of it right now then I am anyway. And her main and only spec, is prot so I'll get it next time.

Our first ever wipe came in UP on the last boss. Apparently, Bane, is a very bad thing when you are melee heavy. But after reminding everyone not to touch him when he casts Bane, it went pretty smoothly.

Kaly now has her sexy new silver-plated battlechest from UP as well as some new crafted legs (daunting legplates) and gloves (daunting handguards). I was also able to pick up the Ebon Blade rep tank boots last night. I know, I know, Toxin-Tempered Sabatons, have block and "silly DK you don't have a shield!" I'm just waiting to get this. My guild already thinks I'm just a dumb girl and has no idea what I'm doing. I didn't pick them up for the block but they have nice defense for a starting tank, even if I can't wield a board.

Seems I find myself defending my every move with the guild and most other people I come up against. I swear I'm not crazy, I have done my research and I do know what I need. I need defense, stamina, dodge/parry and expertise. Those are the stats that will benefit me. And if it just so happens that a piece of armor has block on it too...oh well. I can use the other stats from it until I find something more suited for me. So, I'll just kick ass, and watch them eat their words when they realize.."hey, maybe she does know how to tank".

We did find out that Eto and I pretty much have our raid spots guaranteed to us when we hit 80. I'm not really sure how I feel about this. They want me to tank and want Eto to MT heal. That's great but honestly, the guild isn't ready for the content the guild leader is notorious for jumping too.

A little history..
The GM of the guild I'm in now, was a member of Last Call Alliance side awhile back. He's been a friend of Eto's for awhile and played with him on Brozebeard before Eto moved to playing Alliance. So, the GM, is use to running upper end content, isn't very patient and wants things done NOW. Fast forward to the new Horde guild. These players, really don't' know much about their classes, are running really low dps and just need practice in instances and raids. For the most part, the few I've ran with, haven't done much group content.

I topped our DPS meter in both instances last night and that was against an 80 kitty druid and an 80 shadow priest. Granted they are good people but if he wants them to raid, we're going to have to start off slow with things like Naxx.

*sigh*

Trinkets and Trash and ....murlocs!? and Blog issues

Made it back into BRD on the DK for the Brewfest boss again last night. Still no Kodo but I did snag the awesome tank trinket: Brawler's Souvenir. It doesn't have the defense on it I need but the dodge is very nice. Now it's just a debate between my crafted Monarch Crab and the Bitter Balebrew Charm. hehe That is a crap-ton of stamina. Though I know, I know, it's not really the ideal tanking trinket, but it will be nice till I can find a better defense trinket to replace it. After all, when all else fails...stack a ton of stamina right? =) Yeah, not the prefect idea either. *sigh*

On another note, I got Grunty last night!! I am pretty sure the entire server heard me squee on this one. He was the entire reason we ordered Blizzcon this year. Or at least the original reason. Closer to the date, I realized we might actually get to hear news of the next expansion. So, still very glad I got to see Blizzcon. Hope to be there in person, with the boyfriend, next year.

So it seems replying to posts on my blog isn't working so well. Apparently, the layout is preventing anyone from being able to scroll down and enter the validation text? Will try to work on that because I do want to hear any advice or comments people have!

Well, good news, it's Friday! Which hopefully means I'll have time to work in some beneficial WoW time this weekend around the other obligations. *crossing my fingers*

Death Knight Tank Gear

I've been thinking, since my DK is another level closer to 80...what am I going to do for tanking gear. Of course, as I've been leveling there hasn't been many options. I've taken every tank option the quests and instances have offered. But normally, tanks get shafted. Most of the gear offered is plate healing gear or dps gear. Guess Blizzard doesn't' think tanks actually level as tanks.

Oh well. So, what gear can I get. I've searched high and low, every website I could find and done my research. I know as a Death Knight, I need Defense, Stamina, Parry and Dodge. Block does nothing for since I obviously don't have a shield. With those stats in mind, and trying to remember I need the magic 540 defense cap, I've found the following.

I think, most of this should easily get me tanking heroics for some better gear.

INSTANCE/QUEST GEAR:

Head: Heroic Gundrak
Ground Tremor Helm
OR
Head: Quest Icecrown
The Crusader's Resolution

Wrist: Heroic Culling of Strat
Bindings of Dark Will

Chest: Quest (Junk in my Trunk) for Utgarde Pinnacle
Silver-Plated Battlechest

Shoulders: Quest in Halls of Stone
Pauldrons of Reconnaissance

REP GEAR:
Wyrmrest Accord:
Breastplate of the Solemn Council - Revered (Chest)
Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions - Honored (Back)
Sabatons of Draconic Vigor - Revered (Feet)

Argent Crusade:
Special Issue Legplates - Honored (Legs)

Knights of the Ebonblade:
Toxin-Tempered Sabatons - Honored (Feet)

CRAFTED:
Wrist: Tempered Saronite Bracers
Gloves: Daunting Handguards
Waist: Tempered Saronite Belt
Legs: Daunting Legplates