Since my battlegroup is currently down, a post! I said that I'd post after our first Citadel run, but I wasn't expecting the huge number of instance problems that have arisen since 3.3 went live. Entering the raid instance took us about thirty minutes, possibly longer. Then after reaching the fourth (and currently final) boss, the server crashed and we were unable to teleport back and actually down it (which is why I didn't bother posting until now). The only response to my ticket was "The issue will be solved as soon as possible.", which wasn't in time for the raids to reset (and therefore totally pointless).
Hopefully we won't have any such problems tonight, so there might be a post later on when we've cleared the first wing of ICC 10. Everything else is generally awesome, though there isn't a huge amount to keep me occupied since I don't need Emblems of Triumph or loot from the new 5-man dungeons.
Wednesday 16 December 2009
Tuesday 8 December 2009
We're going to kill the Lich King!
3.3 is tomorrow, and I have never been so excited about a patch. I think it's because I've done Trial of the Crusader to death on both 10 and 25 man, and even completed 10 man Trial of the Grand Crusader twice (the first time a few weeks ago, and again last night). This is the first time I'll be approaching new raid content knowing that I've done everything possible in the last one, and I'm really happy about that. My guild -still- hasn't downed Yogg-Saron, but hopefully sometime before the release of Cataclysm we'll get around to doing that.
We lost some people to boredom and/or real life recently, so we probably won't be doing much in the way of 25 man content, but we still have a really strong 10 man team, so I'm hoping I'll get to do Icecrown Citadel hard-mode progression raiding, and get one of those awesome frostwyrm mounts.
I have all but three slots with item level 245 gear; some crafted, some bought, some from 25 man ToC, some from 10 man ToGC. My two 232 pieces are shoulders and shield, and I have a 200 trinket (from 5 man ToC normal). 42k health unbuffed, which isn't a huge amount worse than the best tanks on my server.
Raiding Ancients (that's my guild, not sure if I've ever said) are ranked 18th on the server for 10 man content, having cleared ToGC 10 with more than 25 attempts remaining. We missed out on the 45 attempts remaining achievement by 50k last night, which was kind of a disappointment. Then had a load of 1-2% wipes, before finally clearing it. I also got an awesome new sword, less than a week after getting the non-heroic version (and a day after spending gold to enchant it).
Not really much else to say. Very, very excited. Expect posts tomorrow after we've done our first Citadel run.
We lost some people to boredom and/or real life recently, so we probably won't be doing much in the way of 25 man content, but we still have a really strong 10 man team, so I'm hoping I'll get to do Icecrown Citadel hard-mode progression raiding, and get one of those awesome frostwyrm mounts.
I have all but three slots with item level 245 gear; some crafted, some bought, some from 25 man ToC, some from 10 man ToGC. My two 232 pieces are shoulders and shield, and I have a 200 trinket (from 5 man ToC normal). 42k health unbuffed, which isn't a huge amount worse than the best tanks on my server.
Raiding Ancients (that's my guild, not sure if I've ever said) are ranked 18th on the server for 10 man content, having cleared ToGC 10 with more than 25 attempts remaining. We missed out on the 45 attempts remaining achievement by 50k last night, which was kind of a disappointment. Then had a load of 1-2% wipes, before finally clearing it. I also got an awesome new sword, less than a week after getting the non-heroic version (and a day after spending gold to enchant it).
Not really much else to say. Very, very excited. Expect posts tomorrow after we've done our first Citadel run.
Friday 16 October 2009
Not dead, 3.3, Cataclysm
Though you may be forgiven for thinking that I am, due to the lack of posts for quite some time. I am infact Undying. Pretty cool, eh?
I've kind of hit a slump with finding things that are interesting to write about. Not that I was great at finding things to write about in the first place, and not that I was great at writing about them when I could. I have the worst attention span ever, and generally get easily distracted from the initial point I was trying to make.
I've been keeping up-to-date with the 3.3 patch notes via the MMO Champion front page, and I have to admit that I'm very, very excited about Icecrown Citadel. I'm not a particularly large lore buff, don't know much about the Classic or Burning Crusade content (having only experienced the levelling aspect), so for me Wrath of the Lich King IS World of Warcraft. Sure, I experienced Azeroth, and I had a taste of Outland, but most of my time has been spent in Northrend. I'll be kind of sad to see it end, but I'm also pretty stoked about a lot of the changes I've read about in Cataclysm.
Maybe in three years time I'll be one of those foolish people posting about how everything used to be so much better; saying that patch 5.x is the worst yet, Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel were the greatest raid instances ever created, and that the game has been dumbed down for casuals and idiots over the years. I hope not, though.
I, with a large amount of help from Daelona, bought myself a Mekgineer's Chopper. And, in addition to looking totally badass while sat on it, riding it around the desert in Tanaris is one of my favourite things to do when I'm not questing or in a dungeon or raid. I'm not convinced people will be able to truly enjoy the sundered, post-apocalyptic world of Cataclysm without being on a chopper or mechano-hog, to be honest.
I've kind of hit a slump with finding things that are interesting to write about. Not that I was great at finding things to write about in the first place, and not that I was great at writing about them when I could. I have the worst attention span ever, and generally get easily distracted from the initial point I was trying to make.
I've been keeping up-to-date with the 3.3 patch notes via the MMO Champion front page, and I have to admit that I'm very, very excited about Icecrown Citadel. I'm not a particularly large lore buff, don't know much about the Classic or Burning Crusade content (having only experienced the levelling aspect), so for me Wrath of the Lich King IS World of Warcraft. Sure, I experienced Azeroth, and I had a taste of Outland, but most of my time has been spent in Northrend. I'll be kind of sad to see it end, but I'm also pretty stoked about a lot of the changes I've read about in Cataclysm.
Maybe in three years time I'll be one of those foolish people posting about how everything used to be so much better; saying that patch 5.x is the worst yet, Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel were the greatest raid instances ever created, and that the game has been dumbed down for casuals and idiots over the years. I hope not, though.
I, with a large amount of help from Daelona, bought myself a Mekgineer's Chopper. And, in addition to looking totally badass while sat on it, riding it around the desert in Tanaris is one of my favourite things to do when I'm not questing or in a dungeon or raid. I'm not convinced people will be able to truly enjoy the sundered, post-apocalyptic world of Cataclysm without being on a chopper or mechano-hog, to be honest.
Tuesday 25 August 2009
Addons!
I came late to the concept of addons. My first addon - I believe it was MapCoords - was installed when my first character was late 60s. When I made my Paladin, I levelled to 80 simply using that one addon; when I hit 80, I deleted it.
I tanked Naxx clears and other 3.0 raid content for a number of weeks without any addons, then finally installed Deadly Boss Mods. I tanked Naxx clears for several more weeks with just DBM before deciding to completely rebuild my User Interface. A customised UI, depending on just what you want to do with it, can require a large number of addons.
Here is a list of all the addons I have installed:
All Stats
Atlasloot Enhanced
Auctionator
Bartender 4
BlizzMove
Deadly Boss Mods
eCastingBar
Grid
LunarSphere
Message Redirect
MikScrollingBattleText
Omen Threat Meter
PallyPower
Pitbull Unit Frames 3.0
Power Auras Classic
Prat 3.0
Recount
SatrinaBuffFrame
SexyMap
SmartRes
SmoothDurability
Taunt Tattle
The ones in bold are the most important ones.
And, if you're interested, here's what my UI looks like currently:
Click it!
I tanked Naxx clears and other 3.0 raid content for a number of weeks without any addons, then finally installed Deadly Boss Mods. I tanked Naxx clears for several more weeks with just DBM before deciding to completely rebuild my User Interface. A customised UI, depending on just what you want to do with it, can require a large number of addons.
Here is a list of all the addons I have installed:
All Stats
Atlasloot Enhanced
Auctionator
Bartender 4
BlizzMove
Deadly Boss Mods
eCastingBar
Grid
LunarSphere
Message Redirect
MikScrollingBattleText
Omen Threat Meter
PallyPower
Pitbull Unit Frames 3.0
Power Auras Classic
Prat 3.0
Recount
SatrinaBuffFrame
SexyMap
SmartRes
SmoothDurability
Taunt Tattle
The ones in bold are the most important ones.
And, if you're interested, here's what my UI looks like currently:
Click it!There are some things that it's difficult to get a screenshot of, and some things that simply aren't shown because they weren't relevant at the time I took the screenshot. The most important aspects of my UI are visible though.
Alterac Valley
Alterac Valley was the last battleground I needed marks of honor from to buy myself a PvP mount. Knowing that there is a certain PvE element involved, I stayed in Protection spec for the seven battlegrounds necessary to get the marks required.
For those who don't know, Alterac Valley has the distinction of being the only battleground with a highest bracket of 71-80. What this means is that in addition to fighting level 80 opponents, there are also opponents below level 80 to fight. And, with the addition of XP gains in battlegrounds, there seemed to be a LOT of under-80 characters on both sides.
As a Paladin tank with 35k health self-buffed, fighting against under-80 opponents is not fun. At least not when they're alone. They do minimal damage, and I crit with Judgement for about 1.5k, crit with Hammer of the Righteous for just over 4k, crit with Shield of Righteousness for just over 6k, and mid-70 opponents don't have all that much health.
However, fighting teams of under-80 opponents is ridiculous amounts of fun. While one person stands no chance of killing me before I kill them, a group of three, four or five of them do. And, in the midst of a swarm of mid-70 Horde trying to kill me, there was the occasional surprise of a level 80 opponent as well.
I was hacking and slashing with my axe, slamming with my shield, and throwing out holy judgement in all directions. But I wasn't dying until I ended up against a mid-70 mage, rogue, death knight and an 80 Warlock without a healer present (I had killed this same group earlier when I had a 73 druid healing me).
For those who don't know, Alterac Valley has the distinction of being the only battleground with a highest bracket of 71-80. What this means is that in addition to fighting level 80 opponents, there are also opponents below level 80 to fight. And, with the addition of XP gains in battlegrounds, there seemed to be a LOT of under-80 characters on both sides.
As a Paladin tank with 35k health self-buffed, fighting against under-80 opponents is not fun. At least not when they're alone. They do minimal damage, and I crit with Judgement for about 1.5k, crit with Hammer of the Righteous for just over 4k, crit with Shield of Righteousness for just over 6k, and mid-70 opponents don't have all that much health.
However, fighting teams of under-80 opponents is ridiculous amounts of fun. While one person stands no chance of killing me before I kill them, a group of three, four or five of them do. And, in the midst of a swarm of mid-70 Horde trying to kill me, there was the occasional surprise of a level 80 opponent as well.
I was hacking and slashing with my axe, slamming with my shield, and throwing out holy judgement in all directions. But I wasn't dying until I ended up against a mid-70 mage, rogue, death knight and an 80 Warlock without a healer present (I had killed this same group earlier when I had a 73 druid healing me).
I am Ironman
I've spent the last few days doing PvP when I haven't been raiding or doing Tournament dailies, generally focusing on the three vanilla battlegrounds to get the necessary emblems for a PvP mount - I had a black war horse on my first character, a 70 Warrior (pre-Wrath) which I PvPed with exclusively, and decided I wanted one on my Paladin too.
I'd been getting close to Ironman for a while, generally managing to capture two flags without dying. My best attempt was two flags without dying, and no opposition from the Horde to speak of (I assume they were busy being graveyard camped by the rest of my team), but a rogue on the Alliance side decided to be a prick and capture the third flag himself. Admittedly I didn't tell him that I was going for Ironman, and he may not have realised I'd already done two of the flags, but still.
If there is one thing I've learnt from my Ironman attempts, it's that holy shit I can take a beating. Between Lay on Hands healing me back to full, Ardent Defender putting me back on 30% health when I should have died, and the 35k health I have self-buffed, there have been times where I have had two DKs and a rogue trying to kill me, and been able to survive with almost no heals from the Horde base to the bottom of the tunnel in the Alliance base.
I just hit autorun, spam cleanse to get rid of as many DoTs as possible, use Hand of Freedom whenever possible and necessary, and watch my health go down gradually, with the occasional spike upwards when I do have somebody heal me.
So I have 27 Warsong Gulch Marks of Honor, and only need three more. I step into Warsong Gulch in Protection spec, and run for the flag. I grab it, I start running down the long tunnel, and get attacked by a rogue. I kill the rogue, carry on running. I get met at the end of the tunnel by a druid healer, and start making my way across the field to the Alliance base. I get attacked nearing our base by two mages, but they die quickly to a gathering group of Alliance. One capture.
I repeat the process twice, each time getting close to dying but not actually dying. I have no idea how many DoTs I cleansed from myself or how much damage I took, but I finally captured that third flag. I am Ironman.
And, by the way, I wrote this entire post while listening to Ironman. It just seemed appropriate.
I'd been getting close to Ironman for a while, generally managing to capture two flags without dying. My best attempt was two flags without dying, and no opposition from the Horde to speak of (I assume they were busy being graveyard camped by the rest of my team), but a rogue on the Alliance side decided to be a prick and capture the third flag himself. Admittedly I didn't tell him that I was going for Ironman, and he may not have realised I'd already done two of the flags, but still.
If there is one thing I've learnt from my Ironman attempts, it's that holy shit I can take a beating. Between Lay on Hands healing me back to full, Ardent Defender putting me back on 30% health when I should have died, and the 35k health I have self-buffed, there have been times where I have had two DKs and a rogue trying to kill me, and been able to survive with almost no heals from the Horde base to the bottom of the tunnel in the Alliance base.
I just hit autorun, spam cleanse to get rid of as many DoTs as possible, use Hand of Freedom whenever possible and necessary, and watch my health go down gradually, with the occasional spike upwards when I do have somebody heal me.
So I have 27 Warsong Gulch Marks of Honor, and only need three more. I step into Warsong Gulch in Protection spec, and run for the flag. I grab it, I start running down the long tunnel, and get attacked by a rogue. I kill the rogue, carry on running. I get met at the end of the tunnel by a druid healer, and start making my way across the field to the Alliance base. I get attacked nearing our base by two mages, but they die quickly to a gathering group of Alliance. One capture.
I repeat the process twice, each time getting close to dying but not actually dying. I have no idea how many DoTs I cleansed from myself or how much damage I took, but I finally captured that third flag. I am Ironman.
And, by the way, I wrote this entire post while listening to Ironman. It just seemed appropriate.
Argent Tournament
I neglected the Argent Tournament in 3.1 - I did the quests for a few days, then got bored of the same thing over and over again. I wasn't very good at jousting (I am now awesome, obviously) and didn't find it that interesting.
With the addition of the Argent Charger - I WANT WANT WANT this mount - in patch 3.2, I've been doing the Tournament dailies every day. I have five days of Gnomeregan Valiant quests left (including today, haven't logged onto WoW yet) before I'm a Crusader, and should be Exalted with the Silver Covenant sometime in the next couple of days.
I'm still not convinced that these quests are fun, but they aren't as awful as my first impression suggested they were, and they do at least contribute heavily to my income of gold. Plus it will all be worth it when I have myself an Argent Charger.
With the addition of the Argent Charger - I WANT WANT WANT this mount - in patch 3.2, I've been doing the Tournament dailies every day. I have five days of Gnomeregan Valiant quests left (including today, haven't logged onto WoW yet) before I'm a Crusader, and should be Exalted with the Silver Covenant sometime in the next couple of days.
I'm still not convinced that these quests are fun, but they aren't as awful as my first impression suggested they were, and they do at least contribute heavily to my income of gold. Plus it will all be worth it when I have myself an Argent Charger.
Yogg-Saron
This week, after some excellent progress in our first night in Ulduar (eight bosses down), we were in a good position to finally see the last two bosses of the instance. We only had Freya left to quickly down on Sunday night, then we were on to General Vezax.
Who went down in three tries. First attempt got him to 34%. Second attempt wasn't quite as good - a cast wasn't interrupted which took out the healer on me, and I died shortly after. At this point, our Paladin healer had realised he could solo heal me without any mana issues, so we downed General Vezax on the third try with one tank, two healers and seven DPS (four of which were melee).
We went on to Yogg-Saron, which was a disaster. We wiped twice in about ten minutes because people couldn't handle not standing in the clouds (what the fuck? It's not difficult to avoid them), then people said we should call it because people were getting unfocused. I have a different word for it, but whatever. We still had two days before the reset, which meant Yogg-Saron was (in my mind) going down this week.
Last night we went back to Ulduar, and had some more attempts on Yogg-Saron. Phase one generally went smoothly, with only the very occasional additional add spawn (which we could handle). The first few attempts on the second phase were ugly, with the group ending up spread out, DPS not knowing what they should be targetting, and people running in the opposite direction when they got brain linked.
We finally made some progress, getting Yogg-Saron to 49% before wiping. I was confident that, with a few more attempts, we could reach phase three. The next attempt was awful, with the melee DPS only getting 300k damage done on the brain in 12 minutes of the 15 minute enrage timer. Healer had to leave, we called it less than two hours after the first pull of the evening.
This is where I got annoyed. People having to go and calling a raid due to a lack of replacements I can understand. However, people seem generally unwilling to dedicate any more time to working on Yogg-Saron this week, which I don't understand and find frustrating. Apparently spending two nights wiping on a boss is enough. What the hell? We've spent less than one full night's worth of raiding wiping on the boss, it was just spread out across two evenings.
The raid content is only going to get harder - if they're unwilling to dedicate more than a few hours a week to learning difficult content, we're going to make incredibly slow progress and there's no point in me being here.
I can sort of understand wanting to do ToC for the emblems and loot, but they've already downed the Northrend Beasts this week, and Lord Jaraxxus won't (shouldn't) take an entire raid session to kill. Two attempts at most, otherwise something is wrong. Will we then go back to Ulduar and spend more time on Yogg-Saron, or just do nothing?
Who went down in three tries. First attempt got him to 34%. Second attempt wasn't quite as good - a cast wasn't interrupted which took out the healer on me, and I died shortly after. At this point, our Paladin healer had realised he could solo heal me without any mana issues, so we downed General Vezax on the third try with one tank, two healers and seven DPS (four of which were melee).
We went on to Yogg-Saron, which was a disaster. We wiped twice in about ten minutes because people couldn't handle not standing in the clouds (what the fuck? It's not difficult to avoid them), then people said we should call it because people were getting unfocused. I have a different word for it, but whatever. We still had two days before the reset, which meant Yogg-Saron was (in my mind) going down this week.
Last night we went back to Ulduar, and had some more attempts on Yogg-Saron. Phase one generally went smoothly, with only the very occasional additional add spawn (which we could handle). The first few attempts on the second phase were ugly, with the group ending up spread out, DPS not knowing what they should be targetting, and people running in the opposite direction when they got brain linked.
We finally made some progress, getting Yogg-Saron to 49% before wiping. I was confident that, with a few more attempts, we could reach phase three. The next attempt was awful, with the melee DPS only getting 300k damage done on the brain in 12 minutes of the 15 minute enrage timer. Healer had to leave, we called it less than two hours after the first pull of the evening.
This is where I got annoyed. People having to go and calling a raid due to a lack of replacements I can understand. However, people seem generally unwilling to dedicate any more time to working on Yogg-Saron this week, which I don't understand and find frustrating. Apparently spending two nights wiping on a boss is enough. What the hell? We've spent less than one full night's worth of raiding wiping on the boss, it was just spread out across two evenings.
The raid content is only going to get harder - if they're unwilling to dedicate more than a few hours a week to learning difficult content, we're going to make incredibly slow progress and there's no point in me being here.
I can sort of understand wanting to do ToC for the emblems and loot, but they've already downed the Northrend Beasts this week, and Lord Jaraxxus won't (shouldn't) take an entire raid session to kill. Two attempts at most, otherwise something is wrong. Will we then go back to Ulduar and spend more time on Yogg-Saron, or just do nothing?
Trial of the Crusader
I've downed the first two bosses from the new 10 man normal raid, Trial of the Crusader. The Northrend Beasts and Lord Jaraxxus, and neither seemed like a particularly difficult fight. We wiped some on both bosses before downing them, but that's to be expected when learning new content.
The only hard part of the Northrend Beasts is the start of the second phase, where both of the Jormungar are alive. There seemed to be some confusion as to how exactly the debuffs worked, especially as different people are affected depending on whether or not they're static or mobile. After a few attempts we managed to sort these issues, and downed the boss (the third phase is awesome amounts of fun, by the way).
We downed Lord Jaraxxus in four tries. The first attempt we had no idea what to expect - for some reason people decided to start the fight without taking a break to look up anything about the fight - and wiped fast. The second attempt went better. The third attempt should have had the boss down; we had one person up when the boss was on about 10-15k health - a Paladin tank (not me). He died when the boss was on 1k. The next attempt Jaraxxus went down, and I bought myself a new Libram (the +200 strength one).
The only hard part of the Northrend Beasts is the start of the second phase, where both of the Jormungar are alive. There seemed to be some confusion as to how exactly the debuffs worked, especially as different people are affected depending on whether or not they're static or mobile. After a few attempts we managed to sort these issues, and downed the boss (the third phase is awesome amounts of fun, by the way).
We downed Lord Jaraxxus in four tries. The first attempt we had no idea what to expect - for some reason people decided to start the fight without taking a break to look up anything about the fight - and wiped fast. The second attempt went better. The third attempt should have had the boss down; we had one person up when the boss was on about 10-15k health - a Paladin tank (not me). He died when the boss was on 1k. The next attempt Jaraxxus went down, and I bought myself a new Libram (the +200 strength one).
Downfall of the Spellweaver
Malygos went down about a week ago. Finally. It's been the only kill I've needed for the Champion of the Frozen Wastes achievement for quite a few months but I've never been particularly proactive in searching for groups to attempt it. I'd had one or two failed attempts, then the group would fall apart; typical pug mentality.
We put a group together from the guild, pugged a few DPS, and gave it a try. We wiped on the first phase due to a lack of healing, and decided to grab a third healer when one of the DPS quit a few tries later. With three healers we got to the third phase, but didn't manage to down him before the enrage.
A few tries later, I'd finally discovered the secret to DPSing on the drakes. I had always been aware that the rotation was 1... 1... 2 but had never managed to find a speed that didn't leave me out of energy pretty quickly. The secret, I found, was to wait for your Engulf in Flames debuff to tick down to ~5 seconds, then do the rotation again - no energy problems, and eventually a stack that was doing 24k damage a tick (before I died).
I still haven't figured out a way to stay alive on phase three yet (I never seem to get any healing?), but that's ok. I have the achievement and probably won't be doing Malygos again.
We put a group together from the guild, pugged a few DPS, and gave it a try. We wiped on the first phase due to a lack of healing, and decided to grab a third healer when one of the DPS quit a few tries later. With three healers we got to the third phase, but didn't manage to down him before the enrage.
A few tries later, I'd finally discovered the secret to DPSing on the drakes. I had always been aware that the rotation was 1... 1... 2 but had never managed to find a speed that didn't leave me out of energy pretty quickly. The secret, I found, was to wait for your Engulf in Flames debuff to tick down to ~5 seconds, then do the rotation again - no energy problems, and eventually a stack that was doing 24k damage a tick (before I died).
I still haven't figured out a way to stay alive on phase three yet (I never seem to get any healing?), but that's ok. I have the achievement and probably won't be doing Malygos again.
Updates upon updates
I just realised I haven't updated for close to three weeks. I've been busy with raiding and other things, and haven't thought about posting about all the stuff I've been doing. I'll be putting up some posts about some of the things I've been doing, as well as going back and finally adding tags (Blogger calls them labels) to my old posts.
Thursday 6 August 2009
More First Impressions of 3.2
The Paladin changes are overall pretty fantastic.
The change to Exorcism has taken away one ranged pick up ability, and some of the damage/threat output, but from the instances I've tanked so far - several heroics and Naxx 10 - it won't be a big issue. I'm surprised at how quickly I've gotten out of the habit of hitting the key for Exorcism (I replaced it on my action bar with Sacred Shield) when trying to grab adds.
The change to Blessing of Sanctuary is fantastic, but also bugged. No longer having to choose between the additional health of Kings and the mana return/damage reduction of Sanctuary is great in 5 or 10 man groups where I'm the only Paladin.
Between the changes to Shield of Righteousness and Seal of Vengeance, I think Prot Paladin single target DPS is about the same as it was before - possibly a bit higher, I haven't really looked at numbers. I'll have to look at the damage I get tanking Emalon adds to have more of an idea how much difference it has made.
The removal of the duration on Righteous Fury is fantastic, though I noticed that the mana cost hasn't been removed. I was hoping for a 0 mana, toggleable ability similar to auras. Righteous Fury contributes a large chunk of my buffing mana consumption, which becomes a serious problem when being combat ressed during boss encounters (I have just over 5.5k mana, buffing costs me a large percentage of that).
The Ardent Defender change is fantastic. It saved my ass on the Kel'Thuzad fight when we were finishing off Naxx 10 (I swear I was out of that void zone), and seems like it will help a lot on fights like Mimiron and General Vezax where there's the potential to take a large amount of damage quickly that healers may not be prepared for.
The only new content I've seen so far is the 5 man, Trial of the Champion. I ran it on both heroic and normal (losing a roll on the new tank trinket), and was overall very disappointed with it.
Having to use mounts and joust for the first boss(es) is a neat idea, except that I HATE the jousting on WoW with a passion. It seems clumsy and awkward, but that might just be because I'm no good at it, I don't know.
After that it was just general tank and spank trash, no seemingly great challenge. We wiped once on the first boss (on the jousting part), but after that we only had a couple of deaths from people pulling additional groups before the second boss fight. Maybe I'm just too used to Ulduar at this point, though.
I might see if I can DPS some heroics later today to see what the changes are like from the Retribution point of view, then possibly try out the new battleground. Holy Paladins are, from what I saw in Naxx last night, now insane. I think the Paladin we had (who isn't even geared well enough for Ulduar) could have solo healed a large amount of it.
The change to Exorcism has taken away one ranged pick up ability, and some of the damage/threat output, but from the instances I've tanked so far - several heroics and Naxx 10 - it won't be a big issue. I'm surprised at how quickly I've gotten out of the habit of hitting the key for Exorcism (I replaced it on my action bar with Sacred Shield) when trying to grab adds.
The change to Blessing of Sanctuary is fantastic, but also bugged. No longer having to choose between the additional health of Kings and the mana return/damage reduction of Sanctuary is great in 5 or 10 man groups where I'm the only Paladin.
Between the changes to Shield of Righteousness and Seal of Vengeance, I think Prot Paladin single target DPS is about the same as it was before - possibly a bit higher, I haven't really looked at numbers. I'll have to look at the damage I get tanking Emalon adds to have more of an idea how much difference it has made.
The removal of the duration on Righteous Fury is fantastic, though I noticed that the mana cost hasn't been removed. I was hoping for a 0 mana, toggleable ability similar to auras. Righteous Fury contributes a large chunk of my buffing mana consumption, which becomes a serious problem when being combat ressed during boss encounters (I have just over 5.5k mana, buffing costs me a large percentage of that).
The Ardent Defender change is fantastic. It saved my ass on the Kel'Thuzad fight when we were finishing off Naxx 10 (I swear I was out of that void zone), and seems like it will help a lot on fights like Mimiron and General Vezax where there's the potential to take a large amount of damage quickly that healers may not be prepared for.
The only new content I've seen so far is the 5 man, Trial of the Champion. I ran it on both heroic and normal (losing a roll on the new tank trinket), and was overall very disappointed with it.
Having to use mounts and joust for the first boss(es) is a neat idea, except that I HATE the jousting on WoW with a passion. It seems clumsy and awkward, but that might just be because I'm no good at it, I don't know.
After that it was just general tank and spank trash, no seemingly great challenge. We wiped once on the first boss (on the jousting part), but after that we only had a couple of deaths from people pulling additional groups before the second boss fight. Maybe I'm just too used to Ulduar at this point, though.
I might see if I can DPS some heroics later today to see what the changes are like from the Retribution point of view, then possibly try out the new battleground. Holy Paladins are, from what I saw in Naxx last night, now insane. I think the Paladin we had (who isn't even geared well enough for Ulduar) could have solo healed a large amount of it.
Wednesday 5 August 2009
First Impressions of 3.2
Because everyone else is doing it.
It took me ~35 minutes to download the patch, only to have problems with installation because "WoW.exe couldn't be found." I had the bright idea of moving the downloader file for the patch over to my World of Warcraft folder (where the WoW.exe file is located - makes sense, right?) and running it - only to find I had to download the patch again. ~60% later I finally remembered I'd already downloaded the patch into another folder, cancelled the download and copied the files over. Same error.
The fix? Right-click, "Run as Administrator" on WoW.exe then run the patch install again. Fuck you, Vista.
The patch is now installed and I've spent half an hour trying to log into a server that went up nearly an hour late (thanks Blizzard). I'm getting as far as "Retrieving character list" before finally being disconnected.
At this point I haven't even seen 3.2 in action and I hate it already. Will update when I can actually login.
It took me ~35 minutes to download the patch, only to have problems with installation because "WoW.exe couldn't be found." I had the bright idea of moving the downloader file for the patch over to my World of Warcraft folder (where the WoW.exe file is located - makes sense, right?) and running it - only to find I had to download the patch again. ~60% later I finally remembered I'd already downloaded the patch into another folder, cancelled the download and copied the files over. Same error.
The fix? Right-click, "Run as Administrator" on WoW.exe then run the patch install again. Fuck you, Vista.
The patch is now installed and I've spent half an hour trying to log into a server that went up nearly an hour late (thanks Blizzard). I'm getting as far as "Retrieving character list" before finally being disconnected.
At this point I haven't even seen 3.2 in action and I hate it already. Will update when I can actually login.
Tuesday 28 July 2009
Maybe I expect too much
I've been growing increasingly annoyed with the raid groups I've been in recently. Pugs are - in general, and as expected - frustrating. But even what has become my frequent 10 man group has begun to bother me. All highly capable players, but seemingly unable to follow simple instructions in a manner that I find acceptable. I've always been a bit of a perfectionist, I realise that. However, I don't think that the expectations I have of them are overly high.
If I tell them to stack on me (or anybody else), I expect their character to be indistinguishable from that person - not stood within 5-10 yards of them.
If I tell them to stand somewhere, I expect them not only to stand there but to continue to stand there unless they're told they can move, they ABSOLUTELY HAVE to move, or are moved by an enemy.
I expect ranged to actually STAY at range. If they can attack from 30-40 yards away, I expect them to be close to 30 or 40 yards from an enemy unless they're told otherwise.
I expect EVERYBODY (with the possible exception of the other tank) to stay behind me. Not stood with me and certainly not stood in front of me, unless I tell them otherwise.
I know what I want, and I expect to get it. I'm not asking them to be the greatest players in the world ever, just to do simple things in a professional manner.
So, you tell me. Am I asking for too much or is my annoyance justified?
If I tell them to stack on me (or anybody else), I expect their character to be indistinguishable from that person - not stood within 5-10 yards of them.
If I tell them to stand somewhere, I expect them not only to stand there but to continue to stand there unless they're told they can move, they ABSOLUTELY HAVE to move, or are moved by an enemy.
I expect ranged to actually STAY at range. If they can attack from 30-40 yards away, I expect them to be close to 30 or 40 yards from an enemy unless they're told otherwise.
I expect EVERYBODY (with the possible exception of the other tank) to stay behind me. Not stood with me and certainly not stood in front of me, unless I tell them otherwise.
I know what I want, and I expect to get it. I'm not asking them to be the greatest players in the world ever, just to do simple things in a professional manner.
So, you tell me. Am I asking for too much or is my annoyance justified?
Tuesday 21 July 2009
We keep on going with nowhere to go
I haven't updated for a while, so let me catch you up.
My guild - Rebirth - exploded. Guild Leader quit WoW, one officer quit WoW, another officer joined another guild. The majority of the active raiders then quit, and I was left wondering what the hell to do.
I joined a guild with some people from my first guild. They're good people, and competent, but there aren't many of us. I think the most people we've had online that I've seen is six - not enough to put together a raid.
But I have been raiding. Not with my new guild, or at least not with all of them. We've formed a 10 man group of people from a number of guilds, and haven't been doing too badly (we downed Mimiron earlier). When we started a few weeks ago I was the only one who had killed a boss past Kologarn so there were lots of wipes whilst they were learning the bosses.
I've also started PvPing. Nothing hardcore, just the occasional battleground when I get bored and Wintergrasp if I'm doing nothing else when it starts. Retribution PvP - even in crap PvE gear - is surprisingly fun. I used to just do PvP on my first character (a Warrior) and I don't remember it being this enjoyable.
That's about it. Nothing particularly exciting.
My guild - Rebirth - exploded. Guild Leader quit WoW, one officer quit WoW, another officer joined another guild. The majority of the active raiders then quit, and I was left wondering what the hell to do.
I joined a guild with some people from my first guild. They're good people, and competent, but there aren't many of us. I think the most people we've had online that I've seen is six - not enough to put together a raid.
But I have been raiding. Not with my new guild, or at least not with all of them. We've formed a 10 man group of people from a number of guilds, and haven't been doing too badly (we downed Mimiron earlier). When we started a few weeks ago I was the only one who had killed a boss past Kologarn so there were lots of wipes whilst they were learning the bosses.
I've also started PvPing. Nothing hardcore, just the occasional battleground when I get bored and Wintergrasp if I'm doing nothing else when it starts. Retribution PvP - even in crap PvE gear - is surprisingly fun. I used to just do PvP on my first character (a Warrior) and I don't remember it being this enjoyable.
That's about it. Nothing particularly exciting.
Monday 29 June 2009
So upon reading (from some prompting from Kelsey) a post on Latus's blog about Blizzard's planned faction-change service, I went over to the EU forums to look for a similar post. I found it pretty quickly, and despite knowing better took a look at a couple of the responses. It only took me a few posts to find this gem.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Blizzard, you've forgotten the RPG element!
The biggest part of the RPG is roleplaying a character! Slowly, step by step, you are making it possible to completely rewrite the genetics, history and attitude of your character after its creation.
THIS IS RETARDED AND STUPID IN AN RPG ENVIRONMENT. We're supposed to grow our characters and become attached to their strengths as well as their flaws rather than just changing completely whenever we feel we have a flaw.
Blizzard... please revoke this feature immediately. It kills the sense of achievement that the game has fed on for countless of years!
I may sound like a drama queen but...
THIS FEATURE KILLS WOW."
I really have no idea how to go about addressing this post because I can't see at all where they're coming from. Normally, even when I completely disagree with somebody, I can understand the thought process behind it. This just seems to be completely illogical.
Maybe I'll take a stab at it tomorrow, it's just leaving me confused right now though.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Blizzard, you've forgotten the RPG element!
The biggest part of the RPG is roleplaying a character! Slowly, step by step, you are making it possible to completely rewrite the genetics, history and attitude of your character after its creation.
THIS IS RETARDED AND STUPID IN AN RPG ENVIRONMENT. We're supposed to grow our characters and become attached to their strengths as well as their flaws rather than just changing completely whenever we feel we have a flaw.
Blizzard... please revoke this feature immediately. It kills the sense of achievement that the game has fed on for countless of years!
I may sound like a drama queen but...
THIS FEATURE KILLS WOW."
I really have no idea how to go about addressing this post because I can't see at all where they're coming from. Normally, even when I completely disagree with somebody, I can understand the thought process behind it. This just seems to be completely illogical.
Maybe I'll take a stab at it tomorrow, it's just leaving me confused right now though.
Monday 22 June 2009
The Nightfall
Only took four hours and 260 gold worth of wiping, but it was totally worth it. We used a melee heavy group (3 deathknights, 1 warrior, 1 paladin, 1 druid, 1 rogue and 1 hunter) for the zerg tactic - nuking Sartharion down before the second drake joins the fight and makes him immune to attacks.
Tuesday 16 June 2009
General Vezhax
See what I did there? Yeah, I'm cool.
There are about a million words I would use to describe this fight and none of them are what you might call positive. It may have something to do with the fact that Protection Paladins are basically given the finger in this entire encounter.
And, if I'm perfectly honest, I was expecting this to happen sooner. I've heard that pretty much every other tank class would be better suited than Paladins for almost every boss encounter, and was expecting to come across such a situation before the second to last boss of the raid. Yet I have succeeded on all of the bosses thus far, and will likely succeed again.
Being the only tank class that uses mana we're the only ones that are affected by the lack of mana regeneration. I don't gain enough back from Spiritual Attunement (my spec only has a single point in the talent) to cover continual full rotations, so I'm left with gaps where I have wasted GCDs. Add to that the lack of Paladin cooldowns making the encounter exponentially harder due to the absolute necessity for kiting (which, if you fuck it up, means a wipe).
I'm considering switching my Retribution offspec to a second Protection spec just to pick up 5 points in Divinity for the additional healing and the extra point in Spiritual Attunement for additional mana regeneration. Just for one boss. Fuck you Blizzard.
But I'm a pro. I work around my classes inherent disadvantages for the encounter as best I can. The major problem right now is the lack of mana efficient healing - we simply haven't been able to find a way to keep our healers from going out of mana well before the end of the fight. Not that that's anybody's fault, but it's something we're going to have to think about and work on if/when we reach the General this week.
There are about a million words I would use to describe this fight and none of them are what you might call positive. It may have something to do with the fact that Protection Paladins are basically given the finger in this entire encounter.
And, if I'm perfectly honest, I was expecting this to happen sooner. I've heard that pretty much every other tank class would be better suited than Paladins for almost every boss encounter, and was expecting to come across such a situation before the second to last boss of the raid. Yet I have succeeded on all of the bosses thus far, and will likely succeed again.
Being the only tank class that uses mana we're the only ones that are affected by the lack of mana regeneration. I don't gain enough back from Spiritual Attunement (my spec only has a single point in the talent) to cover continual full rotations, so I'm left with gaps where I have wasted GCDs. Add to that the lack of Paladin cooldowns making the encounter exponentially harder due to the absolute necessity for kiting (which, if you fuck it up, means a wipe).
I'm considering switching my Retribution offspec to a second Protection spec just to pick up 5 points in Divinity for the additional healing and the extra point in Spiritual Attunement for additional mana regeneration. Just for one boss. Fuck you Blizzard.
But I'm a pro. I work around my classes inherent disadvantages for the encounter as best I can. The major problem right now is the lack of mana efficient healing - we simply haven't been able to find a way to keep our healers from going out of mana well before the end of the fight. Not that that's anybody's fault, but it's something we're going to have to think about and work on if/when we reach the General this week.
Saturday 13 June 2009
The Tank-DPS Relationship
The last post didn't really cover what I wanted to write about. It does, however, serve as a nice basis to cover what I really wanted to.
The main basis for the post is the following quote:
The main basis for the post is the following quote:
"You have to play a tank to be good at World of Warcraft."
I don't recall who said that to me, and I don't fully agree with it. I don't think you have to have played a tank to be good at WoW, but I think you need to be capable of playing one. The last post lists some of the important points of tanking, and a lot of the good DPS (and healers, though their existance is ignored in this post) will already be doing many of those things.
The main thing as a DPS is to know how your tank does his or her job. If you're raiding regularly with somebody, you should know them pretty well anyway. Pay attention to what they're doing and you'll be fine. Attacking an add that your tank isn't targetting will likely cause you to pull aggro. You also need to know how fast your tank can build threat, which will be important after aggro resetting effects such as the lightning tendrils in the Iron Council encounter.
As an example, I'll take Mimiron phase three:
Multiple adds spawning in different locations around the room. The first add to be picked up will be the closest - it will likely get three GCDs of my time before I move on to pick up the next add. Three GCDs is enough threat to keep that add on me if it's not being attacked. Threat from heals and aoe effects shouldn't beat that before I'm attacking that enemy again.
If my DPS immediately open up on that add, one of them may pull aggro. If I have to move a lot to pick up the second add, it's going to be a while before I'm contributing any substantial amount of threat to that first add, increasing the chances that one of the DPS will pull aggro.
This is where knowing how your tank works comes in. My DPS should know that's what I'm going to do, and shouldn't fully open up on the adds until I've collected them all together.
The main thing as a tank is to know your DPS and their threat output. As a Paladin tank, I tend to pick the person who I think is going to be pulling aggro the most if I'm tanking multiple adds, and set them as focus so I can cast Righteous Defense without switching to target them. If I judged incorrectly, changing the person I have on focus takes about a second.
Learning how your group works is easier if you're regularly raiding with the same people. If you're in an ever changing 10 man raid group, it's a longer process (and requires you to learn how more people play the game). But once you've done the learning, life is easy. So go out there and do it. Ask your tank how he deals with different situations if you like. It will likely make you a better player and in turn make your group better.
The main thing as a DPS is to know how your tank does his or her job. If you're raiding regularly with somebody, you should know them pretty well anyway. Pay attention to what they're doing and you'll be fine. Attacking an add that your tank isn't targetting will likely cause you to pull aggro. You also need to know how fast your tank can build threat, which will be important after aggro resetting effects such as the lightning tendrils in the Iron Council encounter.
As an example, I'll take Mimiron phase three:
Multiple adds spawning in different locations around the room. The first add to be picked up will be the closest - it will likely get three GCDs of my time before I move on to pick up the next add. Three GCDs is enough threat to keep that add on me if it's not being attacked. Threat from heals and aoe effects shouldn't beat that before I'm attacking that enemy again.
If my DPS immediately open up on that add, one of them may pull aggro. If I have to move a lot to pick up the second add, it's going to be a while before I'm contributing any substantial amount of threat to that first add, increasing the chances that one of the DPS will pull aggro.
This is where knowing how your tank works comes in. My DPS should know that's what I'm going to do, and shouldn't fully open up on the adds until I've collected them all together.
The main thing as a tank is to know your DPS and their threat output. As a Paladin tank, I tend to pick the person who I think is going to be pulling aggro the most if I'm tanking multiple adds, and set them as focus so I can cast Righteous Defense without switching to target them. If I judged incorrectly, changing the person I have on focus takes about a second.
Learning how your group works is easier if you're regularly raiding with the same people. If you're in an ever changing 10 man raid group, it's a longer process (and requires you to learn how more people play the game). But once you've done the learning, life is easy. So go out there and do it. Ask your tank how he deals with different situations if you like. It will likely make you a better player and in turn make your group better.
Some Musings on the Art of Tanking
Introduction
Inspired by this post by Latus. I even stole the title.
There are certain aspects of WoW that are required for effective tanking. Things such as general awareness, camera positioning and movement as well as, most importantly, threat management. Those who fill the DPS and healer roles - and who are good at doing so - will have a similar interest in those aspects which are relevant to them; movement is less of an issue for both, and threat mechanics aren't a huge issue for healers.
General Awareness
General Awareness is all about being knowing what's going on at all times. Tanks tend to have more to keep track of than other members of the group. Area effects such as void zones, rockets in Mimiron phases 2 and 4, etc everybody has to watch for. Other than those, healers concentrate on who needs healing, DPS concentrate on what they need to hit, and tanks concentrate on where they are, where the boss is, whether or not the boss is about to use a high-damage special attack, when and where adds are going to spawn, what abilities you have available to pick them up and whether or not other members of the group have aggro.
It's certainly a lot to keep track of, and not everybody can do it. If you can, though, life as a tank shouldn't be too difficult.
Camera Positioning
Camera positioning is important for the majority of fights. Only being able to see a boss's crotch is fine if you don't also have to pick up adds, move to specific zones or avoid things such as landmines. If you do, you need to position your camera in a way that allows you to see as much of the area of the fight as possible - this generally means zooming as far out as possible, and possibly adopting an overhead view.
Movement
Ever heard the saying "There's more than one way to skin a cat"? Well, there's also more than one way to kite a boss, and they aren't all equally effective.
If you have to move quickly and more than a few steps, walking away backwards isn't going to work - you'll get yourself killed by the void zone or shock blast or whatever else it is. If the boss hits hard, turning your back to them for any lengthy amount of time probably isn't a good idea.
As a semi-aside, my ex-girlfriend recently started playing WoW with me. I jump quite a lot when I move. To be honest, I rarely move in a direction without also hitting my spacebar. When she said that I "prance like a girl" I replied that I'm a tank, and I therefore have a jumping habit.
Jumping is good. It allows you to move quickly in one direction, but already be facing in the opposite direction when you land. If you've ever watched somebody tank Heigan, you'll probably notice that they turn away from him, run towards the next safe zone, and jump into it while turning back towards Heigan. This is fine because Heigan hits like a wimp, try doing it while taking ~20k hits kiting a boss like Ignis and you'll probably be dead in a hurry.
So if you can't do that, what can you do? Moving sideways is your best bet - it should allow you to keep facing the boss, but also move quickly out of anything that's going to greatly reduce your lifespan.
Obviously it's up to you, as a tank, to know which method of movement is appropriate to the encounter. As a DPS or healer, there's a lot less importance on how you move, only that you do it in time.
Threat Management
Healers, you aren't welcome here. Not that I don't love you guys, it's just that this really has no relevance for you. The only time healers pull aggro is when they get too close to enemies that haven't already been pulled, or cast heals when enemies haven't been hit at all by the tank.
Threat forms the basis of the tank-DPS relationship. Tanks have to know how to put out high levels of threat (while doing everything else they have to do), and DPS have to know how to put out high levels of damage without putting out too much threat. And they both have to trust that the other not only knows how to do it, but that they are doing it.
While Omen is less of a requirement with the addition of Blizzard's built-in threat meter, it's still a highly useful addon. You can work out how much threat your individual attacks are doing (potentially useful for maintaining some damage output as opposed to not attacking at all when trying to limit threat output), as well as see how much threat you're dealing per second and how far behind the tank(s) you are.
Inspired by this post by Latus. I even stole the title.
There are certain aspects of WoW that are required for effective tanking. Things such as general awareness, camera positioning and movement as well as, most importantly, threat management. Those who fill the DPS and healer roles - and who are good at doing so - will have a similar interest in those aspects which are relevant to them; movement is less of an issue for both, and threat mechanics aren't a huge issue for healers.
General Awareness
General Awareness is all about being knowing what's going on at all times. Tanks tend to have more to keep track of than other members of the group. Area effects such as void zones, rockets in Mimiron phases 2 and 4, etc everybody has to watch for. Other than those, healers concentrate on who needs healing, DPS concentrate on what they need to hit, and tanks concentrate on where they are, where the boss is, whether or not the boss is about to use a high-damage special attack, when and where adds are going to spawn, what abilities you have available to pick them up and whether or not other members of the group have aggro.
It's certainly a lot to keep track of, and not everybody can do it. If you can, though, life as a tank shouldn't be too difficult.
Camera Positioning
Camera positioning is important for the majority of fights. Only being able to see a boss's crotch is fine if you don't also have to pick up adds, move to specific zones or avoid things such as landmines. If you do, you need to position your camera in a way that allows you to see as much of the area of the fight as possible - this generally means zooming as far out as possible, and possibly adopting an overhead view.
Movement
Ever heard the saying "There's more than one way to skin a cat"? Well, there's also more than one way to kite a boss, and they aren't all equally effective.
If you have to move quickly and more than a few steps, walking away backwards isn't going to work - you'll get yourself killed by the void zone or shock blast or whatever else it is. If the boss hits hard, turning your back to them for any lengthy amount of time probably isn't a good idea.
As a semi-aside, my ex-girlfriend recently started playing WoW with me. I jump quite a lot when I move. To be honest, I rarely move in a direction without also hitting my spacebar. When she said that I "prance like a girl" I replied that I'm a tank, and I therefore have a jumping habit.
Jumping is good. It allows you to move quickly in one direction, but already be facing in the opposite direction when you land. If you've ever watched somebody tank Heigan, you'll probably notice that they turn away from him, run towards the next safe zone, and jump into it while turning back towards Heigan. This is fine because Heigan hits like a wimp, try doing it while taking ~20k hits kiting a boss like Ignis and you'll probably be dead in a hurry.
So if you can't do that, what can you do? Moving sideways is your best bet - it should allow you to keep facing the boss, but also move quickly out of anything that's going to greatly reduce your lifespan.
Obviously it's up to you, as a tank, to know which method of movement is appropriate to the encounter. As a DPS or healer, there's a lot less importance on how you move, only that you do it in time.
Threat Management
Healers, you aren't welcome here. Not that I don't love you guys, it's just that this really has no relevance for you. The only time healers pull aggro is when they get too close to enemies that haven't already been pulled, or cast heals when enemies haven't been hit at all by the tank.
Threat forms the basis of the tank-DPS relationship. Tanks have to know how to put out high levels of threat (while doing everything else they have to do), and DPS have to know how to put out high levels of damage without putting out too much threat. And they both have to trust that the other not only knows how to do it, but that they are doing it.
While Omen is less of a requirement with the addition of Blizzard's built-in threat meter, it's still a highly useful addon. You can work out how much threat your individual attacks are doing (potentially useful for maintaining some damage output as opposed to not attacking at all when trying to limit threat output), as well as see how much threat you're dealing per second and how far behind the tank(s) you are.
Mimiron: 42 Rebirth: 1
As the title suggests, we finally downed Mimiron. After 42 wipes, but who's counting? Took us about six and a half hours across three nights, but we've finally killed him. Vent and the guild channel exploded when we finally got him, as you'd expect.
Our third try of the evening last night saw us reach phase 4 for the first time, but fail because of a lack of co-ordination - we only had two ranged DPS in the group, one of which was focusing on the body rather than the head. We would only reach phase 4 twice (the second time coming several wipes after the first), and down him the second time it happened. The kill was by no means perfect - we lost the only mage in the group during the second phase (druid combat rezzed while waiting for phase three to start) and we only had seven people up when he went down - but a kill is a kill. Hopefully improvements will be made next week.
We also downed the Assembly of Iron after Mimiron. My first time killing them, bringing my personal Ulduar progress up to 10/14.
We'll be trying General Vezax in tonight's raid after (hopefully quickly) downing Hodir, Thorim and Freya. I'm not sure if we'll get to see Yogg-Saron this week, but it is a possibility - we have three days of raiding Ulduar 10 left before the reset.
Our third try of the evening last night saw us reach phase 4 for the first time, but fail because of a lack of co-ordination - we only had two ranged DPS in the group, one of which was focusing on the body rather than the head. We would only reach phase 4 twice (the second time coming several wipes after the first), and down him the second time it happened. The kill was by no means perfect - we lost the only mage in the group during the second phase (druid combat rezzed while waiting for phase three to start) and we only had seven people up when he went down - but a kill is a kill. Hopefully improvements will be made next week.
We also downed the Assembly of Iron after Mimiron. My first time killing them, bringing my personal Ulduar progress up to 10/14.
We'll be trying General Vezax in tonight's raid after (hopefully quickly) downing Hodir, Thorim and Freya. I'm not sure if we'll get to see Yogg-Saron this week, but it is a possibility - we have three days of raiding Ulduar 10 left before the reset.
Monday 8 June 2009
Ulduar Update
So I haven't really written much about Ulduar for a while now. That's because I haven't really seen any new content; 10 man progression is still on 10/14 (we've yet to even attempt Mimiron) and 25 man progression is now at 3/14 (Flame Leviathan, Razorscale and XT-002).
I've yet to down Ignis on either 10 or 25 man. Ignis should be downed easily, but it just hasn't happened. 10 man failures for the few attempts we've had on him seem to just be a lack of focus - we start on him late, so people are tired. 25 man failures are simply a lack of healing, at some point in the fight I'd simply not receive any healing for two hits in a row - I was sitting at just under 41k health unbuffed, so two ~20k hits (plus possibly a tick while moving out of scorch) without healing means I'm dead.
We've also been losing evenings. Saturday night's raid was cancelled due to a lack of available people - a large number of those signed for the raid simply didn't show up and the other tank had his account hacked. No big deal, it happens. We downed seven bosses in just over three hours on Friday night and haven't been back since. I was confident that this week we'd at least get to see Mimiron even if we didn't down him, now I'm not sure.
I've yet to down Ignis on either 10 or 25 man. Ignis should be downed easily, but it just hasn't happened. 10 man failures for the few attempts we've had on him seem to just be a lack of focus - we start on him late, so people are tired. 25 man failures are simply a lack of healing, at some point in the fight I'd simply not receive any healing for two hits in a row - I was sitting at just under 41k health unbuffed, so two ~20k hits (plus possibly a tick while moving out of scorch) without healing means I'm dead.
We've also been losing evenings. Saturday night's raid was cancelled due to a lack of available people - a large number of those signed for the raid simply didn't show up and the other tank had his account hacked. No big deal, it happens. We downed seven bosses in just over three hours on Friday night and haven't been back since. I was confident that this week we'd at least get to see Mimiron even if we didn't down him, now I'm not sure.
Friday 5 June 2009
Dual Specialization for the Protection Paladin
With the introduction of dual specialization, I've been giving a lot of thought to which is the best secondary spec for me. I initially collected a set of Retribution gear from heroics, with a few emblem of heroism and crafted pieces thrown in. When dual specialization went in, I spent my 1000 gold and opted for Protection and Retribution.
I have also (rather slowly) been collecting a set of Holy gear. I've even passed on a few items of Retribution gear stating that I'm planning on switching my offspec to Holy at some later date. Then I thought that, actually, having Holy as my offspec is going to be less useful than Retribution.
The main advantage of Retribution as a secondary spec is being able to switch to a DPS role for fights that only require a single tank, such as Loatheb and Sapphiron in Naxxramas or Hodir in Ulduar. Obviously this guarantees wipes if the main (and only) tank for that fight dies, but that's the price for the additional person DPSing in the raid. And, to date, fights such as this are the only time that I've really used Retribution.
Holy would be considerably more useful if I weren't going to be reliably called on to tank for guild raids. If this were the case, being able to fill a healer spot in a raid would be beneficial. But since I'm almost always going to be tanking, and bosses that only require a single tank don't tend to require extra healers, I have a feeling Holy as an offspec would go entirely unused.
I have also (rather slowly) been collecting a set of Holy gear. I've even passed on a few items of Retribution gear stating that I'm planning on switching my offspec to Holy at some later date. Then I thought that, actually, having Holy as my offspec is going to be less useful than Retribution.
The main advantage of Retribution as a secondary spec is being able to switch to a DPS role for fights that only require a single tank, such as Loatheb and Sapphiron in Naxxramas or Hodir in Ulduar. Obviously this guarantees wipes if the main (and only) tank for that fight dies, but that's the price for the additional person DPSing in the raid. And, to date, fights such as this are the only time that I've really used Retribution.
Holy would be considerably more useful if I weren't going to be reliably called on to tank for guild raids. If this were the case, being able to fill a healer spot in a raid would be beneficial. But since I'm almost always going to be tanking, and bosses that only require a single tank don't tend to require extra healers, I have a feeling Holy as an offspec would go entirely unused.
Wednesday 3 June 2009
When raiding goes bad
So I learnt the hard way that raiding whilst exhausted is not a good idea. While finishing off as much of Ulduar as possible before the reset, I discovered just how much of a bitch the arena in the Thorim encounter is when you've had two hours sleep and can't focus.
We did, eventually, get him down but the majority of the attempts were one silly fuck up after another - mainly healers getting one-shotted by champions because I was too slow on picking them up. Tanking is fun when it goes well (or even mediocre) but knowing that wipe after wipe is entirely your fault definitely makes you feel like a complete idiot.
We went on to down Razorscale, and called it for the week - bringing the number of bosses I've personally downed in Ulduar to 8. Less than the 10 I was hoping for, but we lost a day because of healers being unavailable and had trouble finding replacements when people had to leave early because we'd run two groups earlier in the week. Not to mention wasting a couple of hours on Thorim because of my lack of sleep.
We did, eventually, get him down but the majority of the attempts were one silly fuck up after another - mainly healers getting one-shotted by champions because I was too slow on picking them up. Tanking is fun when it goes well (or even mediocre) but knowing that wipe after wipe is entirely your fault definitely makes you feel like a complete idiot.
We went on to down Razorscale, and called it for the week - bringing the number of bosses I've personally downed in Ulduar to 8. Less than the 10 I was hoping for, but we lost a day because of healers being unavailable and had trouble finding replacements when people had to leave early because we'd run two groups earlier in the week. Not to mention wasting a couple of hours on Thorim because of my lack of sleep.
Saturday 30 May 2009
Oh Thorim, how I love/hate you
When I first started tanking, I knew that I was going to have to take on more responsibility than other members of the group. After all, the main reason I started tanking was because I didn't want to trust other people to do it competently. I knew that this decision would result in the majority of boss fights being stressful for me even if they're relatively relaxed for others, and I accepted that.
Anybody who has raided enough in Ulduar to have experienced the Thorim fight knows that it's relatively hectic. Particularly if you're left in the arena - which, as a Paladin tank, I am - to deal with wave after wave of adds coming down. It's tense and exciting and can be incredibly draining.
The key to success is learning to keep track of everything; something I assume most tanks did a long time ago. What you have available to pick up adds at range at any given time, what adds to expect next, what adds you currently have to deal with, who else in your group has aggro. It's certainly not easy, but there are things to make it easier.
A couple of tips:
1. /console cameradistancemaxfactor 4 should allow you to see the whole of the arena and pick out the important adds immediately when you zoom right out.
2. Save your ranged cooldowns. Exorcism and Avenger's Shield are useful for additional DPS when you're tanking at melee range, but you never know when you'll need one or the other for picking up an add because you have nothing else off cooldown.
3. Have your group stack on top of you in the centre of the arena, and keep consecration up at all times. This should be sufficient to keep threat on the smaller, inconsequential adds.
Anybody who has raided enough in Ulduar to have experienced the Thorim fight knows that it's relatively hectic. Particularly if you're left in the arena - which, as a Paladin tank, I am - to deal with wave after wave of adds coming down. It's tense and exciting and can be incredibly draining.
The key to success is learning to keep track of everything; something I assume most tanks did a long time ago. What you have available to pick up adds at range at any given time, what adds to expect next, what adds you currently have to deal with, who else in your group has aggro. It's certainly not easy, but there are things to make it easier.
A couple of tips:
1. /console cameradistancemaxfactor 4 should allow you to see the whole of the arena and pick out the important adds immediately when you zoom right out.
2. Save your ranged cooldowns. Exorcism and Avenger's Shield are useful for additional DPS when you're tanking at melee range, but you never know when you'll need one or the other for picking up an add because you have nothing else off cooldown.
3. Have your group stack on top of you in the centre of the arena, and keep consecration up at all times. This should be sufficient to keep threat on the smaller, inconsequential adds.
Friday 29 May 2009
The Observations of Ulduar
I will admit that my experience of Ulduar is not as extensive as that of others, but I've downed six bosses and attempted two of the others. By the end of this week, I should have hopefully downed ten (or more) of the Ulduar bosses.
So this post can be considered to be one or two observations of Ulduar (mainly in comparison to Naxxramas) so far.
It's considerably more intense. Learning raid content can be pretty exhausting, especially when you've been at it for awhile. Learning Naxxramas wasn't anywhere as exhausting as Ulduar is, and I suppose that's to be expected. It requires a lot more work from everybody in the group, and that's not a bad thing at all. More frustration when you wipe, but also more satisfaction when you don't.
Offtanking Naxxramas was dull. There was minimal effort required to pick up adds, and if you were slow on picking them up it wasn't a huge issue. Not to mention that a lot of Naxxramas bosses were simply pick up and stand in place. If you had a tank that wasn't that great, not a problem: just have them offtank, and it doesn't really matter.
As a tank in Ulduar you have to be on the top of your game, regardless of whether you're main or off tanking. If you're lax about anything there's a real possibility that you'll wipe your raid. More kiting to be done, more situations where you may have to taunt a boss off of the other tank, more adds to be picked up (and they have to be picked up a lot faster), pretty much more of everything that made certain bosses in Naxxramas actually interesting. Even trash is more exciting; the tank and spank tedium of Naxxramas replaced in places with the necessity for crowd control, movement, positioning or tank switching.
Tanking raid content is actually FUN. My enjoyment of previous raid content came purely from the emblem/loot rewards, I'm now enjoying Ulduar for entirely different reasons.
So this post can be considered to be one or two observations of Ulduar (mainly in comparison to Naxxramas) so far.
It's considerably more intense. Learning raid content can be pretty exhausting, especially when you've been at it for awhile. Learning Naxxramas wasn't anywhere as exhausting as Ulduar is, and I suppose that's to be expected. It requires a lot more work from everybody in the group, and that's not a bad thing at all. More frustration when you wipe, but also more satisfaction when you don't.
Offtanking Naxxramas was dull. There was minimal effort required to pick up adds, and if you were slow on picking them up it wasn't a huge issue. Not to mention that a lot of Naxxramas bosses were simply pick up and stand in place. If you had a tank that wasn't that great, not a problem: just have them offtank, and it doesn't really matter.
As a tank in Ulduar you have to be on the top of your game, regardless of whether you're main or off tanking. If you're lax about anything there's a real possibility that you'll wipe your raid. More kiting to be done, more situations where you may have to taunt a boss off of the other tank, more adds to be picked up (and they have to be picked up a lot faster), pretty much more of everything that made certain bosses in Naxxramas actually interesting. Even trash is more exciting; the tank and spank tedium of Naxxramas replaced in places with the necessity for crowd control, movement, positioning or tank switching.
Tanking raid content is actually FUN. My enjoyment of previous raid content came purely from the emblem/loot rewards, I'm now enjoying Ulduar for entirely different reasons.
Do you have the achievement?
A couple of weeks ago, while trying to put together a group for the 10-man version of Vault of Archavon, I experienced something interesting. I had a whisper from a DPS (I think it was a Paladin, but I can't remember), who we'll call Bob.
Needing extra DPS, I invite Bob to my raid group. The first thing he says isn't "Hi" or "Thanks for the invite" it's "Ask for achievement next time." Apparently he wants me to ask people whether or not they have the achievement for killing Emalon before I invite them to a raid to kill Emalon.
So I discuss this with Bob on the raid channel, and explain that I don't think having the achievement is the only indicator of being capable of killing him (I certainly didn't have the achievement BEFORE I killed Emalon for the first time, but I was capable of doing so). At this point, we get revelation number one: Bob doesn't have the achievement himself. So he wants me to apply a standard to the other members of the group that he wouldn't meet himself. Interesting.
After discussing this topic for awhile, we move onto the subject of gear. Back before joining my current guild, I ran the majority of the 10 man content with a Warlock and a Mage, plus whoever else we could get from our old guild or by pugging. Both the Warlock and Mage are good at what they do, so they can generally make up for one or two slightly undergeared people in our groups. It is at this point that I actually decide to check Bob's gear, and we get revelation number two: Bob's gear isn't fantastic. A handful of blues and a couple of level 70 PvP items along with level 80 epics.
I've done a fair bit of raiding with all kinds of people. I've played with well geared bad players and reasonably geared good players enough times to know that gear isn't everything. I've also dragged poor players through enough raids to know that having an achievement for killing a raid boss doesn't mean you were particularly productive during the fight.
Unless you're the raid leader, only worry about yourself. Your gear, your achievements, how you're playing. I'll worry about the group as a whole, and I'll kick people if they don't perform when required - I won't kick people or refuse to give them a shot simply because they don't have the best gear in the game and the achievements for killing every boss.
Needing extra DPS, I invite Bob to my raid group. The first thing he says isn't "Hi" or "Thanks for the invite" it's "Ask for achievement next time." Apparently he wants me to ask people whether or not they have the achievement for killing Emalon before I invite them to a raid to kill Emalon.
So I discuss this with Bob on the raid channel, and explain that I don't think having the achievement is the only indicator of being capable of killing him (I certainly didn't have the achievement BEFORE I killed Emalon for the first time, but I was capable of doing so). At this point, we get revelation number one: Bob doesn't have the achievement himself. So he wants me to apply a standard to the other members of the group that he wouldn't meet himself. Interesting.
After discussing this topic for awhile, we move onto the subject of gear. Back before joining my current guild, I ran the majority of the 10 man content with a Warlock and a Mage, plus whoever else we could get from our old guild or by pugging. Both the Warlock and Mage are good at what they do, so they can generally make up for one or two slightly undergeared people in our groups. It is at this point that I actually decide to check Bob's gear, and we get revelation number two: Bob's gear isn't fantastic. A handful of blues and a couple of level 70 PvP items along with level 80 epics.
I've done a fair bit of raiding with all kinds of people. I've played with well geared bad players and reasonably geared good players enough times to know that gear isn't everything. I've also dragged poor players through enough raids to know that having an achievement for killing a raid boss doesn't mean you were particularly productive during the fight.
Unless you're the raid leader, only worry about yourself. Your gear, your achievements, how you're playing. I'll worry about the group as a whole, and I'll kick people if they don't perform when required - I won't kick people or refuse to give them a shot simply because they don't have the best gear in the game and the achievements for killing every boss.
An Introduction
Welcome to my World of Warcraft blog. I play a Protection Paladin named Cardolan on the Ravenholdt-EU server.
My aims for this blog are pretty simple; to discuss aspects of the game that interest me, to comment on aspects of the game that annoy me, discuss raid progression and (when available) provide boss strategies for raid content. All from my point of view as a player and as a Paladin tank.
My aims for this blog are pretty simple; to discuss aspects of the game that interest me, to comment on aspects of the game that annoy me, discuss raid progression and (when available) provide boss strategies for raid content. All from my point of view as a player and as a Paladin tank.
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