Mirror Shield - Yakra's Reflections on Tanking

Suggestion

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:59:00 +0000

This isn't WoW Related, and I'm aware the very act of bringing up my not currently active blog is likely to give you a reason to finally remove it, but I'm banking on enough of you still subscribing having enough in common with me, that you'll appreciate this...

It's a blog / webcomic, by a close friend of mine. The actions of the characters are directed by the people that leave comments, and it's updated -daily-. Those last two reasons should be enough for you to give it a shot, if not just to add another consistently active blog to your daily reading.

...until I am compelled to share something again - signing out.

-Yakra

Dungeon Diving Dwarfs Defeating Dragons

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:47:00 +0000

Franklin said...

Alright... Thanksgiving is upon us. You said (heck, I'm gonna exaggerate and say you PROMISED) to come back at Thanksgiving. ;-)

I'd love to say something along the lines of "But my fellow blogger, I've never left you!" and go on to reveal something like I'm still playing WoW (and am actually Tobald), or something along those lines - but it's just not the case.

What may be of interest - is that I've been tossing in a decent share of time with Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)- which went free to download & play somewhat recently. I'm having quite a lot of fun (tabletop D&D has been a regular part of my geek diet for a number of years), and could see myself playing this MMO-incarnation for quite awhile. Yakra the Dwarf is making a living getting beat on, but in a slightly different light.

I'll throw this out there: Let me know if there is interest in hearing about the adventures and experiences of Yakra & Aertimus (& Company) in the world of Eberron. It's certainly a horse of a different color (compared to WoW) - but I do miss this community, and if the feeling is mutual I could stage a return.

Quiet For Now

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:38:00 +0000

This post is overdue, and I apologize for that.

I stopped playing WoW shortly after my last post. Not out of any dislike for the game, but for the frustrations which can arise from the people that play it. I don't plan on going into any detail.

There are a few things which may be on the horizon:

1) I may pick up WoW again at some point, on a different server. Among those whom I've kept in contact with, a few have expressed interest scaling down to / forming a ten man guild. If this happens, it would probably be after Thanksgiving - some time after Aertimus has had time to get into the school year.

2) I may re-purpose this blog. I haven't stopped reflecting, really. Just hasn't been about tanking.

If your interested/curious in the above scenarios, stay subscribed. You may see another post someday, or you may not. There is only one way to know.

( Alternatively, you could follow me on Twitter, which I infrequently ((but increasingly)) use. http://twitter.com/chad_silva )

Thank you all for your readership. It has certainly meant a lot to me.

/Salute

There Is No Triumph Over Grinding

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:21:00 +0000

The cost of all tier gear, excluding 25-Hard gear, requires tons of emblems. For the dedicated raider, emblems will be the limiting factor in how quickly they gear up.

The part that gets to me, is that a 25 man raider *can't just raid 25 mans*. With assumed equal emblem drop rate from both 10 and 25 (so far, both Northrend Beasts 10 and 25 drop 3 Triumph, and I'll make the assumption that the heroic versions will drop the same), a normal 25 man raider doubles his weekly allotment of triumph by clearing the ten man each week, triples it by also doing the ten man hard mode, and almost quadruples it by also running the heroic daily each day that week. And if they're doing hard mode 25 man, there is even more.

I only plan on doing ten man raids, so my emblem of triumph rate will be even slower, and the period of time in which I'll need to raid both normal and heroic ten man (after my group has progressed past the normal ten man) will be even longer.

There is no gearing out of this requirement! Until you have 410 Emblems (Enough for T9 Triumph, and non Tier-Side grade offsets), you can't stop grinding. You are compelled to clear the same content multiple times a week. And if you want off set pieces to allow different gear configurations (you should), pick up any of the conquest level gear as stepping stones, or God forbid off-spec gear... I don't even want to imagine.

I know I can get in the groove of doing the same bosses once each week, as many tiers of raiding has proven.

Doing both 10 and 25 man versions of the same boss in the same week borders being annoying. Its why I didn't want do Naxx 10 while I was doing Naxx 25 - but this was ok, because with Naxx 25 rewards being superior, there was no reason to do Naxx 10.
I can't imagine doing the same bosses up to four times a week, to get appropriately geared. It's lazy design, and it is being forced on raiders. It is not just an option to raid hard content to get good gear, as it has been in the past.

Notice I'm not angry that it is an option to gear up over time by doing easy content. That's all fine and good by me. I've just always enjoyed that I was able to take the option of doing hard content exclusively for my gear, rather then grinding gold/rep/emblems.

I smell resentment in the future. Those players who grind the everliving daylights out of multiple raids each week and the heroic daily unfailingly, will be bitter at the people they play with, who don't have that time.

In LOKI, I always enjoyed that we were able to support people from all walks of life - including those who's jobs/wifes/school limited their play time to the few hours a week we raided, and then just enough to procure consumables outside of that. As a matter of fact, I'd say that the raid schedule drew in these sorts. What will LOKI (or any other limited-raid-time guild) look like in a few weeks, when some raid members are slipping into their 5th piece of T9, and others are just buying their first?

Epics From Head To Toe

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:08:00 +0000

For the low, low cost of...
25 Champion Seals
305 Triumph
155 Conquest
110 Valor
40 Heroism
Enough Gold for one AH BoE Epic

You can get this. (Second trinket, Glyph of Indomitability, missing)

You can now equip a warrior head to toe in quality epics (including T9, without stepping into a raid, or relying on a drop (As long as your willing to do the heroic daily for 153 days, that is).

I was looking new gear, and wondered if every slot could be filled in. It is indeed true. And if you want to replace the BoE shield for the Hero Badge one (to stay completely true to the emblem-only theme, go for it).

Non-Generic Warrior-Type 3.2 Impressions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:45:00 +0000

Darkspear was one of the servers that saw its shadow, and went back into hiding for another few hours. During this time, MMO-Champion forums read that the first 25 Man boss had been defeated by people on a more stable server, and that was all that would be the only raid content available this week (with one new boss being put out to slaughter each following tuesday).

Is it surprising that I (and I suspect others) wasn't giddy with anticipation for this patch?

T7 was entirely played out, before T8 arrived. Raiders were anxious for T8, and when it finally went live, it was pretty sweet. It's a well done instance, with lots of content. I'd argue that it was worth the wait.

T9 is pretty clearly a filler content patch. The tragity is - its release caused developers to rush people through T8 - a quality content patch. The nerfs were hard and fast (XT, Mimiron, and Yogg come to mind), and let people push through content with speed that insulted the amount of time spent crafted the content, and the wait that we endured.

As an added insult - T9's rewards (including all non T9-25-Heroic Gear) are hugely dependent on Emblems of Triumph. As it stands, the Heroic Daily (done each day) will provide more of this crucial currency then raiding, on a weekly basis. Raiders better be able to find the time *every day* to go sprint through content that offers no challenge, so that they don't fall behind the gear curve.

Also - Epic Gems. I picked up nine, with a combination of honor from alts and Yakra. Wintergrasp and the insane amount of heroic daily grinding meen that I'll never need gems from any other source again. The bottom is going to fall out of the rare gem market, including prospecting for profit (and as a result, ore sales). They don't feel epic at all, unlike the handful of precious actually-rare gems you got each week from Hyjal or BT.

Now, that said - I think this patch has plenty to be happy with. (I just think that this tier of raiding is going to stick out like the runt of the litter, and the development time should have gone into a more epic final tier for Wrath).

The new five man. While most of my normal heroic partners were smashing the first boss in the raid, I grabbed some PuGs and dove straight into the heroic. I had a pretty good time.

Blah Blah the intro is long blah blah. I was never really bothered by Kael's TK intro, so this didn't seem much different. Having it replay on a wipe was a bit much.

Yes, we did wipe on the horsey phase the first time. I don't think any of the five of us had done the argent jousting thing before, but it was easy to pick up. We let one of them re-mount the first time, and I similarly did not know I could remount after getting knocked off. Once we were aware of these features, it was a *mark skull*, *spam buttons*, repeat. We did have our horses despawn when we got down to two riders, and the third was still mounted while the two dismounted ones went all active/combat-like. That killed us, but on return the mobs were waiting on the ground, to pick a good ole fashion fight.

The second boss was hillarious (we had the paladin), and the third was fun (though I didn't fight him as part of the daily quest chain, so it probably lacked some impact). There was some lack of finality, as the final boss didn't cause a [[ You've Cleared This Instance ]] achievement - due to us not having fought all the alternate bosses. One member was very confused, and thought there would be more fights. Regardless, many abyss crystals were had by all.

Trading BoPs. After getting my five man loot rules spam multiple times (Need if Need, else Pass, and Aert greed's to DE), the warlock greeded/won a pair of mail shoulders. Normally, its a loss of an abyss. Luckily, we remembered that he could *trade* the item to Aertimus, since she was eligible for the kill and it was sub-2hours.

Raid ID Extentions. This is really what made the patch for me. I couldn't honestly get too angry at whatever package this feature came in. My Uld10 group now only needs hard modes from Vexaz, Mimiron, and Yogg. No one really needs gear from the early part, particularly now that there is a whole tier of stuff available. We can now skip hours of clearing crap we don't need, letting us work on the stuff we actually need! Its like I was gifted multiple hours of playtime each week.

Engineering
The first thing I did, was put my belt on my action bars. Free frag bombs every 6 Min makes it feel like an actual utility belt, and throwing bombs in PvE & PvP always fun. I trained the Wormhole Generator, but didn't get to craft it. I found someone in trade to craft Jeeves, but he's going to take some mats gathering to get done. I also need to get three more points in engineering, which is going to be expensive.

Still to Do
Try new Battleground
Buy new Heirloom items
Find a Glyph of Commanding Shout
Really take a good look at my improved Prot DPS
New Orphan Quests
Go Fishing for the new Waterlogged Recipe

Knock Knock Knockin' on Algalon's Door

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:32:00 +0000

Yakra take this sigil from me
I can't use it anymore
It's getting dark too dark to see
Feels like I'm knockin' on Algalon's door

I think I'm getting into this longer format, weekly posting bit, where I go over the week's experiences and things learned/noticed.

Starting off the week! Thursday was back to Ulduar 10. We made do with the early trash bosses, got a repeat IC Hard Mode, and started on Hodir. It was both awesome, and disappointing.

We didn't have much trouble with the achievement. Two Healers (Druid/Paladin), One Tank, Three Melee (Arms Warrior, Ret Paladin, Enh Shaman), Four Ranged (Two Elemental Shaman, Warlock, Hunter). Not a particularly well synergized group, but we made the most of the buffs, and got it done. I really was just disappointed with my DPS contribution. I'd like to credit it to having to do sunders, commanding shout, and demo shout - but that shouldn't have hurt my DPS as much as it did. I guess that all the other physical DPS was getting the bonus of the singed buff in some form or another (from shaman/paladin spell damage), but I felt like I wasn't pulling my weight.

Yakra, why are you worried about pulling your weight as DPS? Your a tank!

I think the future of warrior tanks, particularly in ten mans and hard modes, includes the necessity of being flexible. We could not hope to do Hodir Hard mode with two tanks, and fights like Vezax don't benefit from having more then one. If your group wants to get these challenges done, and you don't have the luxury of a huge roster on the sidelines (a rarity in ten mans), then the ability to do two different roles well is huge. Add to that the superiority of some tanks in some situations (Paladins on Hodir, DKs of Vezax), and you'll almost certainly serve your raid better in some situations, by standing on the other side of the boss.

So following that night, I crunched gear even more, made some big emblem of conquest purchaces, and got a bunch more scarlet rubies and had em cut up.

Skipping ahead some, Vezax for the week provided me an awesome opportunity. We had pulled in another DPS warrior to replace someone who wasn't feeling well. I set it so that neither of us was responsible for interrupting - giving me an awesome opportunity to compare recount between the two of us. Arms has alot of proc based attack opportunities, and priorities matter (IE, What should you do, when rend has fallen off, MS is up, Taste for Blood Proced, Sudden Death Procced, and Bladestorm comes off cooldown? - oh and where do you fit in sunders, and should you risk clipping into another cooldown by slamming off excess rage?)

What did we do the same? Nearly the same amount of Slams (26 vs 28).

What was different? I prioritized Mortal Strike big time. I had more Overpowers, and less Executes. I either used Bladestorm once less, or he got an iceblock included in one of his. I had higher Rend uptime (contributing to the increase in Overpowers).

What can I do different? Well, I doubt I use execute properly in the sub-20% stage. I tend to mash it regardless of if Sudden Death proc'ed or not, which can steal all my rage - looking into better usage of it will help me. I also make rend my #1 priority when it needs to go up, but I'm thinking possibly I need to let it go momentarily, to deal with currently available procs and cooldowns.

Stepping away from Ulduar momentarily - I decided to get my Argent Dawn rep going. I had heard of a trick for speeding to Baron Rivendare, used by Mount-Hopeful players, and decided to give it a shot (getting both Rep, and a shot at a rare mount, is my kind of farming). Check the timer on the 45min duration debuff that you get when you start UD Strath.

It has 42 min left on it. Entry-to-Baron time was ~3 min.

The trick has to do with (what I'll presume to be) an Easter egg left/put in by programmers. Certain "trapped" boxes in the instance,when used twice, despawn gates/doors . This lets players skip the three minibosses in the beginning, (and more importantly) the Ramstien/Abomb event outside of the Slaughterhouse. Along the way, I kill the Spider Boss and Magistrate, for the bonus Corrupters Scourgestones (totalling 3 for each run).

In the end, you get 200 rep for each optional boss (50 for kill, 50 for scourgestone turn in, 100 for the argent dawn token use), 250 for baron (including stone), and 300 bonus for doing baron in under 45min. Barring any named mobs you kill by accident, I was getting 950 Rep a run... that is, until I maxed out my instances for the hour.

And then Sunday, back to Ulduar. We knocked, and we knocked, and we knocked heads some more on Freya. Freya+3 really is just an all around harder version. Damage is higher. Damage requirements are tighter, there is more to not stand in, and more targets to quickly switch to and kill.

Our MVP, if I had to name one, was our hunter (Moneyx) - the only ranged DPS by the end of the night, who not only dealt with all the trees and iron rooted people out side of melee range, but kited snaplashers and ran aspect of the wild on ancient conservator phases. And did 4k+ DPS.

Freya+3 puts us close to the Rusted Protodrake. Closer then I had originally thought that I'd get. The last three are the big ones - Mimiron Hard, Vexax Hard, and Yogg+1 (I don't count Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare, because that could get finished at a moment's notice - we're just doing it bit by bit each week). And once we get Mimiron, we unlock the chance to work on Algalon for an hour a week.

As an aside - our group made huge strides towards Champion of Ulduar. After Freya, we rocked Vezax with no deaths - a first, but one we expected sooner then later. The big surprise, was absolutely nailing it with a one-shot Yogg with no deaths.

That was the final pieces needed by our Hunter (who had run with a different ten man one week), to complete it. He's the first Champion of Ulduar that I know, and we were all amazingly excited that we got it. The majority of us are like me, needing just a clean Mimiron and

The design of this achievement is so amazingly superior to T7's Immortal, that I don't have words to describe it. If you recall, LOKI missed Heroic Glory of the Raider (T7) by only Immortal. We has weeks of minor mistakes / lag / disconnects that kept us from the achievement. If it had been designed like this one, we would have been riding Proto-Drakes a long time ago.

Double Feature: PuD & Glory of the Hero

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Two big topics, of which I am impatient to delay writing about. D-D-D-Double Post.

Pick Up Dining
Most everyone that plays this game can say they've participated in the running of a dungeon or downing of some elite with a smattering of strangers, joined together with a common goal - a pick-up-group.

Saturday, I had the awesome opportunity to go pick-up-dining. A reader of Aertimus and my blogs had picked up on a number of similarities between us. Both play warriors, have wives that are teachers, work in the IT field, and live in the Harrisburg, PA area. These commonalities in mind, they bravely shot Aertimus and I an email invitation to go down some elite foodstuffs at a restaurant with him and his wife, which we accepted.

It was an awesome experience. We ended up hanging out at the restaurant and talking for over two hours, just sharing experiences (WoW, Teaching, Guitar Hero & Work), and getting to know each other some. It's defiantly something we'll repeat.

So on this, I'll say - consider reaching out / responding to the people with whom you interact with online (keeping safety in mind). Bloggers tend to be niche type people in the first place - so revel in the fact that you may find someone who understands all the obscure hobby-jargon you using online, offline!

Glory & More
I was busy this weekend.

One of the recent thing's Aert and I have been doing with our time, and as a way to keep in touch with people, was working on finishing up Glory of the Hero. We both had about six left when we decided to start spamming execute.

The big break, was when our VH group got Ichoron as one of our two random boss-spawns. He's required for Dehydration, an achievement that we knew the random number generator could keep out of our hands if it really wanted to. Our wonderful group mates were even willing to wipe after he did absorb one of the little guys on our first shot, and go through all twelve (12!) waves to do him again (he was the second random boss).

After that came Less-Rabi, which was Aertimus's last one. I still needed Intense Cold, which she lol-druid-shifted her way to, long ago. Finally on Monday, Free Action Potion and PvP trinket in hand, I got mine.

We then both got ours out of the mail, headed to Crystalsong, and did a photoshoot. It was Proto-gasmic.

The whole Glory of the Hero bit was alot of fun to do. The challanges were unique, required some out of the box thinking, and some felt like huge accomplishments. Making five man content have more of this kind of fun challange and reward is really what should have been added to respark interest in heroics, rather then the 3.2 solution of just turning them into the loot/emblem treadmills. Change it so that only bosses you earn/do the achievement on drop a higher type of badge, and all of a sudden the content takes on new life in a good way.

Flying around on the new drake felt like a good a time as any to hit the last two spots I needed for Explorer in Crystalsong. Bam - Triple Achievement.

And then to wrap up the point orgy, I did the last two AVs I needed to hit exalted, and get 20 Exalted Reputations.

Lose Your Steelbreaker

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:34:00 +0000

Solid return to Uld-10 last night, if I may say.

We did a repeat FL+4, on the second try. He may become another hard mode we repeat Ad Nauseam, since the trash is technically shorter, and we get an extra item. Then Razorscale, to put a couple more notches in our frying pan. XT-Hard was one shot, and finally finally coughed up an Aesir's Edge.

We couldn't make up our mind on whether to do Iron Council Hard or Thorim Hard next, so we did a quick vote, and hit up Thorim. His hard mode adds more damage and health to him, and includes (fake) Sif running around adding in frost damage and snares. It doesn't require a ton of changes to the normal strategy as far as tanking or DPSing is concerned. Healers (who really are the ones most often challenged/shafted by hard modes) need to adjust for cleansing/dispelling frost novas, and healing the frost bolt volleys.

The screenshot is somewhat deceptive - we were doing awesome down till the last few percent... when I mistaunted (just a stupid move) and got owned. He then turned back to the other tank who soon took an Unbalancing Strike, and that spelled his end. Two DPS got taken out, but at that point we were just waiting for him to roll over to friendly-mode.

Feeling bolstered by our kill, we moved over to Iron Council. I'd read different accounts on if Molgeim or Brundir should die first, but we found Brundir dying first to be easiest. With DPS on him, people had easier times interrupting and running out of overload. We did have death runes to worry about in p2, but that was balanced by having a rune of power up for the first half of the all-important Steelbreaker burn.

Killing Molgeim (the second boss to die), was by far the hump to get over. I ate some powerful hits off Steelbreaker who got Runes of Power (more often) under him at this point, when he was already rocking damage increases from the first dead boss, and I was slow getting him to move out of them. I really just had to get on the edge of the hit box, have Molgeim as a focus target (to see his cast), and be ready to strafe the hell away from him (and his awkward hitbox) so he'd get out of the buff. You do have to move him way farther then you'd think.

On our first attempt we killed Molgeim, we won. I was on Steelbreaker first, and just was able to ride it out with my Indestructible Potion (that I'd used with ~1min left till Molgeim died, to get full effect), Last Stand, Stoneform, and Heart of Iron's procs. None of them really seemed crucial, though, with three healers on me.

The Overwhelming Power debuff he puts on you is pretty sweet. It reminded me alot of Burning Adreneline - you get double sized, and start putting out some serious damage. We had him to ~30% before I blew up, in part due to Molegrim's lingering rune of power + heroism. Taking out the then remaining 40% in the following minute was cake (ot at least seemed like it, from my vantage point). Our other tank was even so benevolent, that after the boss died, he ran to a safe place to meltdown (instead of playing hug-the-raid).

Guildmaster, No More

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:03:00 +0000

I've had complaints about T8 for some time now. Not that the content was necessarily bad, but that it's the roughest tier ever released from a human (gnome?) resources standpoint. I won't rehash it all - but widely accessible content, and a large difficulty gap between normal and hard modes (which doesn't match the rewards for a guild that isn't getting/competing for server firsts) - has made getting and keeping enough of the right people to consistently run high-functioning raids, a draining job.

T8 stressed me out, and made me an unpleasant person to be around. Aertimus has been witness to my entire range of frustrations with people/bosses, even when I would then take a moment to compose myself, and return to vent a calm and collected raid leader. After so many aggravating nights, it was too much for her to deal with, and she left LOKI. Looking back, I don't blame her.

When she left, I had to evaluate my priorities. It didn't take much to realize that maintaining a hobby (raiding) that keeps me engaged for three evenings a week (in addition to the out of game work I'd put into it), and that would continue to frustrate me, would only serve to push us apart more.

I began to go about the task of organizing my departure. I knew that the departure of the GM, following multiple weeks of fruitless Yogg-attempts, had the potential to seriously damage the morale / stability of LOKI. My first order of business was to kill him - and the next raid, we did. That was the last boss I killed with LOKI.

I first set up my successor. I had previously identified the person that would be willing to take leadership if there was something sudden and tragic that took me away from the game for a period of time, but another option had come up since then. Aeralith - a guy who had been Ruffianx's (the original LOKI GM) right hand man, since the very beginning of LOKI (before I even started playing). Aeralith was only ever able to raid one night of our three, since BC - which is almost certainly why he wasn't the one that was made GM when Ruffianx left. This had changed in T8, and he was now a consistent three night a week player, who I'd always turned to for advice.

The following week, I did my best to maintain a semblance of normality. I informed the officers of my intentions, and had myself sat out. I wanted to see them succeed at a second full clear / Yogg-kill, without me - and not just for my sake, but for theirs. When I left, I wanted people to know that they were entirely capable of succeeding without me, because they allready had.

When I checked the Wednesday's WWS posting on Thursday morning, I saw that it was done. Yogg went down in the last minutes of the raid. I began writing my letters.

Sunday, before they went in to clean up optional bosses, I gave my speech. I got whispers. I got /salutes and /cry's. We all got blast wave'd by some horde standing around the steps. The entire process was short, and somewhat surreal. I then left them go into Ulduar completely and officially under new leadership, and stood there in an empty tabbard.

They went on to do Razorscale, Ignis, and LOKI's first medium mode Iron Council kill. I put up my post on LOKI's forums for those that were not present that night, and sent the 37 personal messages that I'd composed via forum mail. Finally, I joined the placeholder guild that Aertimus made, "Low Key". Get it? We're witty people.

So now what?

I'm not done with WoW, and I'm not done with blogging. I'm just stepping away from leading a guild.

I'm going to try my best to keep the ten man group that I'm part of going. It went by the wayside this last week (as did my blogging) while I got things in order, but its a fun group of people, and may be how I continue to see content. I know that I don't plan on doing 25 man raids, short of some pug stuff on an alt mabey.

I've started working towards Loremaster.

I couldn't stand running around and wtfpwning boars while wearing uberepic armor - so I started just equiping the gear I picked up. I still one shot everything, but it feels more right this way.

I even got to be a tree!

Another side project I'm checking out, is soloing old content. I started with Geddon/Garr for a shot at bindings. Garr was easy, but Geddon took a specific setup and healthy dose of fire resist. (the other person in the raid was in Darlaran, and just had to be there so I could zone in).

I also may start taking some shots at rare mounts.

I did huntsman suprisingly easy, and then did Maiden for kicks.

So I'll still be posting. There is plenty in this game to do, and plenty to reflect on. For me, theres just also lots more time outside of WoW, and I'm taking advantage of it. I've attended 208 on time calls, gotten DKP for some 600 hours of raiding / standby in the last two years. This last week of not having to be online at a certain time has been invigorating. I know that I'll miss spending so much time with the people I've come to know so well, as time passes. But for now, I'm all about getting more quality time with Aertimus.

Heartbreaker: XT Hard Mode Guide (10 Man)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:40:00 +0000

This was the first ten man hard mode my group tackled, and has been the most easily repeatable. If you have any two handed weapon users in the group - expect them to want said repeats over and over till Aesir's Edge drops, too.

I suggest 2 Tank, 3 Healer, 5 DPS (with 2+ Ranged) for your composition. It's the most stable comp, and should beat the enrage timer if all members perform reasonably.

The first 25% goes like normal. Don't slack on damage at this point, since you are working against the enrage timer already. Move away with bombs, heal the weaksauce tantrums, and push him into the heart phase.

On the heart, blow heroism, and give it everything you have. All three healers should be DPSing their little healey hearts out. Shattering throw. Army of the Dead. Avenging Wrath. If you can't manage it (perhaps with the help of some speed potions) - you likely aren't ready for the rest of the fight.

When the heart goes over, pop a light cooldown to ease into the increased damage, and tank away (I suggest using some cooldown following every tantrum, while healers get themselves back and casting on you). Ranged will need to peel off momentarily to kill the adds in the bank (that will only spawn this once, since he never goes into heart phases again).

The first thing you'll notice is his increased damage on the tank. Make sure his damage is consistently debuffed, and tanks are rocking survival setups. Next thing you'll notice, is that tantrum damage is increased, to the point of lethality on unhealed targets, even if they aren't taking any other damage. DKs and Druids of all specs can pop IBF and Barkskin on every tantrum to help healing, and non healing-spec paladins and shamans can (and should) drop heals during the duration.

Besides increased damage, your now dealing with enhanced light/gravity bombs. Gravity bombs drop a void zone under the person when they go off. Have gravity bomb affected people head towards the entrance door, and drop off their void zones as tight as possible - like Grobbulus. Make sure they don't get out of range of healers, but are far enough that they don't drag others to them with the explosion. After, *get right back to the group*. People getting spread out hurts healing, makes bomb people have to run further, and in general is a bad idea.

Light bombs spawn an add when they finish. This is where the second tank comes in. Grab them from the person that ran away from the raid, and having them tanked off to the side. Ideally, the ranged shouldn't have to turn at all to kill them. The faster they die, the less AoE damage they do to the raid - so make sure 2-3 ranged immediately kill them as soon as they are tanked. Having one up during tantrum just stresses healers more. The add tank can attack/debuff XT when nothing else is going on - the contribution *will* be noticed.

When all the above aspects are learned, the fight just becomes an endurance battle. DPS has to be strong the whole way through, and even then expect to have close calls on the enrage timer. Healers need to not let anyone go down on tantrums, and use intelligently use cooldowns when a bomb/tantrum combo happens. Tanks need to contribute DPS as best as possible, and keep a steady flow of cooldown use to minimize total damage taken.

Yogg. Down. Finally.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:29:00 +0000

After far too long, we did it. Everything went as planned.

We had a full 25 people in there that could play at the required level. No scrounging around for someone to fill this or that roll, and no under-performers.

Wrath is not an easy expansion from a guild management point of view, and the length of time we took on Yogg is a testament to that. I've seen more people lose interest in raiding faster then ever before, and replacements (generally) only slowly live up to the shoes of the departed. I don't know if players new to WoW as of T7 will ever be able to develop the finely aged skills of those whom were punished by challenging content repeatedly in the previous six tiers - T7 was like trying to sharpen a blade on a sponge. I see some people that show great promise, but it's taken a long time to get our hands on them.

That, and content isn't exclusive. Once upon a time, we could have 10+ people on standby, knowing that we were one of few guilds on our server that could show them past 4/5 Hyjal 3/9 Black Temple. Now talent is spread out over twice the number of twenty-five man guilds, and countless ten man's (which can let people "see" content in an even less demanding fashion). There is little reason for a person to join a guild that can't give them a large majority of bosses each week, forcing guilds to run on skeleton crews, and causing flexibility issues.

I don't know what the future of the twenty-five man guild is, but it's been a rocky road in Northrend. We'll certainly stick to it, but I wonder how rough Blizzard will let things get.

Orbit-uary: Flame Leviathan Four Towers (Hard Mode) Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:04:00 +0000

The ten man group I'm running with two nights a week set our eyes on this hard mode last Thursday. We spent about four hours that Thursday working it, then this Thursday finally clenched it in another hour.

I enjoyed this (and am sure some hate it) - because its nothing like WoW. I could take any computer game savvy person, and they could perform as well as a hardened WoW veteran on this fight.

I won't lie that a decent amount of this fight seems random-esque. Not coin-flip win-or-lose, but there are tons of factors that can make things rough one attempt, and easy the next. That said a group of people with a solid strat, and some dedicated time, can come out on top (and collect three conquest emblems, three pieces of loot, and a good chance at a runed orb / pattern).

How to do it

I'm going to assume you've done FL before, and have basic knowledge of vehicle abilities. FL himself will act the same, but with greatly increased health, increased damage with his normal attacks, reduced damage taken from your Pyrite, and (of course) the addition of four orbital defense systems.

Vehicle Setup (at start) :
Demolisher with Driver & Co-Pilot
Demolisher with Driver, Loaded Passenger (Non-Hunter Ranged DPS) & Co-Pilot (Non-Hunter Ranged DPS)
Siege Engine with Co-Pilot
Siege Engine with Co-Pilot
Chopper Driver.

Hazards All Drivers Must Deal With

Thorim's Beams: These are the stationary white/blue beams. They'll appear randomly scattered around the map, twice during the fight. When they activate, all vehicles will take some damage, but vehicles close to them will take far more. Note that these two beam activations take place early on in the fight, so it will seem like you've taken a ton of "unavoidable" damage (around 40%) early on - but when the second set of beams is done, your incoming damage should drop off dramatically.

Mimiron's Fire: This is a orange beam that leaves a trail of fire. It travels in a diamond shape around the map, and can easily trap someone in a corner. Its easy to avoid damage from this beam in general - its true danger is in limiting your escape options from other hazards.

Hodir's Beams: These blue/white beams are "random", and highly annoying. Each beam will pick a vehicle and attempt to move on top of it - while these are moving, they pose no threat. When the beam stops, however, it starts to send down a ball of ice. If this lands on any vehicle, that person is frozen - taking a large amount of damage until they are broken out with a siege cannon blast, burning tar, boulder, or pyrite. The beams can change targets at any point.

These are most dangerous to Demolishers, that need to keep FL in their sights / stay by pyrite, and are therefore most hurt by needing to move erratically to avoid being frozen. Forward movement will always get you out from under them in time, but reversing can sometimes get you caught.

Freya Adds: These spawn in the corners periodically. Each wave has several small ones, and one large lasher. Left alone, these can take out vehicles rapidly. Drivers with adds on them can attempt to drive in/through lit tar, to damage them (though this isn't required).

Jobs by Vehicle / Position

The Demolisher Driver with just One Co-Pilot has a straightforward job: keep ten stacks of pyrite on the boss. Get ten stacks on him right off the start, then switch to weaving in boulders to conserve pyrite (since its the tick of the pyrite DoT that deals damage, not the actual landing of the pyrite on him, and the DoT lasts somewhere around 6-10 seconds). I alternated one boulder : one pyrite during times that I had to move lots or was far away, but occasional was able to do two boulders : one pyrite when I knew the last pyrite would hit in time to keep up the stack.

Keep in communication with your co-pilot, as to when the area around you is running out of pyrite. You'll want to have a full tank *before* you start moving, so you can keep applying it as you move.

The Demolisher Driver with a Loaded Passenger waits for FL to pursue his first target, -then- launches the first Non-Hunter Ranged DPS. Shoot earlier and the person will fly right past him. After they are on FL, act like the other Demolisher (above). When FL finishes overloading, your current co-pilot (the other non-hunter ranged DPS) will load himself into the catapult, and get fired as soon as FL starts pursing the other person. You'll be without a co-pilot for a short while, while the chopper driver drops off your previous passenger.

Demolisher Driver Co-Pilots primary task is keeping their demolisher stocked with pyrite. This is half actually targeting and reeling in barrels, and half communicating with your driver. Your driver needs to know when he can sit in one spot and blast away, and when the surrounding area is empty of pyrite - and they need to start navigating elsewhere. Giving speed boosts is important as well - you'll want them when FL chases you, or when you need to get to a fresh pyrite-containing corner - but your use of speed has to be carefully measured due to its cost. During periods that you aren't scouting for / picking up pyrite, shoot down more of it.

For the two People Being Launched - you'll want to let the first person being launched get in first, and then get into the catapult. When you get shot up, start going to town on the turrets. Call out when you estimate that overload is ten seconds away, and then five seconds away. After you get shot off, look for the chopper driver, and GET IN. Any of FL's abilities will kill you, including flame jets (if he was casting it when he went into overload).

The person remaining in the Demolisher should not load themselves until the overload is over - they should remain in position to collect and shoot down pyrite until ready to be shot. When they load themselves, they should call it out - this is the cue for the other person who's passenger in the chopper to jump out, and immediately into the demolisher. If they jump out before the other person is in the catapult arm, they will not be able to get in - and die.

Siege Drivers have an un-complicated job. Don't get melee'ed by FL, ram adds when possible, and interrupt flame jets. Melee'ing FL isn't worth the danger associated with it, and losing a Siege causes Demolishers to be pursued more (and do less damage) - so don't sweat it. When there is five/ten seconds left till target change, back away from FL. Consider that the target person can then steam rush away, and the one not targeted can rush towards him and int erupt (if needed).

Siege Passengers have an un-complicated job as well. First priority is Cannon Blasting Adds - using mini-missiles on them (or to ignite tar) while its on cooldown . When adds are dead (and they come in waves, so there should be down time) - shoot down pyrite. While FL is overcharged, if there are no adds - you can shoot at FL, but this should be the only time.

Chopper Driver has lots to do. Sonic horn grabs aggro on adds extremely well, and when combined with speed boosts, lets him kite adds around. Laying down tar snares adds, and burning tar damages them also. Adds left on a siege or demolisher will kill it in short order, so protecting them is key. As a bonus, you get to pick up the ejected person during overloads, and ferry them to the demolisher they were shot from. Make sure you raid mark the two people being launched so you can find them easily.

All Passengers: Pre-Shoot Pyrite Barrels from the sky before each pull.
Shoot down pyrite before pulling. Having tons to start out with saves you time during the actual fight. Make sure to get 7+ canisters landed in the two close corners (as you look at him), and lots in the back right. Back left corner just doesn't have much ever fly over it.

That's it

If things go well, you'll go through two to three overloads before he bites the dust. Each job is simple on paper, but performing them correctly while simultaneously avoiding hazards takes some practice. Make sure you set aside a large chunk of time for people to master their jobs, then keep plugging away. Sometimes FL and Hodir's Beams will target your demolishers constantly (bad), and sometimes they'll stick to siege engines (good). Things can go wrong at any point, and sub 10% wipes are very possible (and likely). You won't know the fight is really over until your vehicle falls apart underneath you.

Keeping Positive

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:31:00 +0000

Still no Yogg-25 kill. I'll talk about that in depth when we get him.

Instead, I'm going to try to focus on the things I am looking forward to in 3.2. Of course there are some changes I disagree with in violent and passionate ways - but I think I need to just let that go, and stay positive.

Shield Spec giving rage on block/dodge/parry.

Warrior 2p T9 set bonus (now -2 sec on taunt CD & +5% Dev damage) is slowly getting better. Slowly.

Devastate damage increase.

Engineering. I thought this day would never come.
- Remote Bank Access (via Jeeves). I can now keep my frost resistance gear (and any other random, highly situational crap) out of my bags.
- Dimensional Folder: Northrend Access on a non-hearth CD.
- Steam Powered Auctioneer: Northrend AH access. My bank alt will see far less action.

Raid ID extension. On late-instance progression, this will effectively add 3-6 per week of progression boss attempts (we only raid 3 nights at 3 hours each, so a bit is spent clearing early bosses). With the speed at which we've gone to DEing Uld25 gear and giving tier pieces to 2nd and 3rd specs, I doubt many people will mind the accelerated rate at which we can start finish (and then start farming) the whole instance.

Ability to trade BoP's to other people in the raid & eligible for the kill, in a two hour time window. The end of "ooops, mislooted" or "wait, this isn't as much of an upgrade as I thought" tickets.

So for now, I'm going to hope/assume that the positive changes are going to go through, and the ill-contrived ones will be thrown out. Time will tell.

Yogg Progress, Alts, Ten Man Achievements

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:02:00 +0000

The things I have been up to - let me show you them...

Yogg-25 is just barely evading our defeat. 13% on our best attempt.

We didn't get in as much time on Yogg as I wanted last week, on account of having to get some new recruits up to speed on preceding bosses - but last nights fresh raid ID cleared through all four watchers in three hours, with everything being a clean one shot. We only had about fifteen min at the end, so rather then not get through Vezax trash, I had us do Razorscale as a bonus. Then post raid we had Wintergrasp, so 24 of us mollywhomped that place. Good evening overall.

Finished Fire Festival the other day - putting me one holiday (Brewfest) away from What a Long, Strange Trip its Been. I think this holiday is one of the better designed one - I enjoy its mix of traveling, the resulting light PvP, a handful of fun/silly achievements, and the chance to stock up on some unique (but short lived) consumables. Going into the holiday, Aertimus and I had most of the fires done already. I'm glad we finished off the missing few in Kalimdor/Easter Kingdoms early on - the day after we did, was the day that fires got reset, and achievement progress was lost. That would have been crushing (not in a crusher tentacle sort of way - more in a "oh, someone ate the last slice of leftover pizza" sort of way)

My many alts haven't gotten much attention over Wrath, with so much to do on Yakra (achievements, raid prep, ect), but I finally hit 80 on my warlock. Same as with Yakra, I dinged in Grizzly Hills - having done all quests leading up to it, and as many instances as I could get my hands on. The BoA items were really fantastic for leveling - I was using the Staff (with +30 SP enchant), Shoulders (with stam/resil enchant), and double spellpower trinkets. Those will all get passed off to my 64 mage once they're replaced, and we'll see how fast I can tear up outlands on her.

This is really the first time I've been PuGing content behind the curve. The Naxx10 run I went into Monday was utter fail - people bailed after the second time they wiped on Anub, myself included. I decided to go with some less risky endeavours, and instead cleared Heroic VH and UP with PuGs. The only truly infuriating moment was when I was turned away from a Heroic AN group after getting to the instance, because I "wasn't geared" for it (armory is slightly out of date). I guess I missed the memo where Heroics became srs bsns.

I then went on to get in some VoA action, after convincing some raid leaders that knowledge and ability was greater then gear. I went on to embarrass some fully epic players by out DPSing them. The instance failed in its normal function of giving sweet tier gear to fresh eighties, but such is life.

Ten man Ulduar was on fire this week. We started off with FL+3 - which was a comfortable one shot. Then got a one-shot repeat on Heartbreaker (XT Hard Mode), though it failed to drop the sword that our two-handed weapon users can't stop talking about.

On Kologarn, I figured we would give "With Open Arms" a shot (the achievement to not kill any arms). We just went one tank (since there would be no rubble), popped heroism off the bat, and went to town on the torso. When he gripped someone, we only did the ~20% necessary to break them out, and only broke out four people. I told people to not break out or heal the fifth person gripped (as we'd kill the arm) - and of course was the one snatched up. I watched them finish off the boss from my vantage point on the ground.

Then we went for Crazy Cat Lady. Our DK grabbed the boss, I got the two adds, and we ignored the feral defender entirely. Heroism was popped early, and we just zerked her. I was the recipient of some insane heals that kept me up through sentries stacking DoT ticks (that were up to about 14,000 at the end), and managed to stay up long enough for the job to get done.

We put in some Thorim hard mode attempts, but something just wasn't clicking for P3. Not having a priest for mass dispel hurts. After a while, in the interest of clearing at least the other watchers before the reset, we just did him normal. All our practice paid off though, as we managed to all not stand in lightning on the kill.

In general, things are pretty good. I'm waiting for 3.2 changes to settle at least a little before I speak my peace on them, but I foresee some positive (though mild) changes for warriors, and a few good features being added to the game as a whole.

Wishlists

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:42:00 +0000

Satrina posted a Wishlist on the WoW Forums...

Given the lack of anything in the 3.2 patch notes, I'm guessing they haven't quite figured out what to do with warrior tanks just yet. I don't actually think we need all that much in terms of adjustments to be honest. My list is this:

- Rage on avoidance. Please? Strings of avoidance killing your threat generation sucks. (Bandaid until rage generation can be fixed properly)
- Reduce Shield Slam's innate threat from 770 to 250, increase the average damage to compensate (and maybe a bit more)
- Make Revenge like Overpower in that it cannot be dodged or parried. Remove innate threat and increase average damage to compensate (and maybe a bit more).
- Buff Devastate's damage, boost the 50% weapon damage up to something decent.
- Glyph of Bloodrage. Remove the health cost reduction, replace with 10-15 more initial rage

A couple of others that would need pretty careful tuning:
- Change warrior crit conversion from agility to strength. Would need a lower conversion ratio than the current agility conversion, of course.
- Vitality grants x/y/z% of strength as expertise rating

Rage on avoidance really does seem like a no brainier. Putting in a fixed amount of gain on the Anticipation and Deflection talents (for dodge and parry, respectively) would do the trick nicely, if they don't want to just bake it into defensive stance. Satrina nails this one.

Shield Slam and Revenge Damage - The damage increase wouldn't need to be too significant, and its a far less major change then upping the percent increase granted to these skills through talents. Having revenge not be dodged/parried would be nice, but could lead to a dangerous combination in an arms-heavy revenge-centric build. I'd put these on my wish list, but with a far lower priority.

I don't think bigger devastates is really a big need. Some buttons need to just be filler - that filler doesn't have to be great. We'd also run the risk of DW 0/30/41 builds returning as a top DPS spec (as it did in early, early wrath / beta).

Regarding Str converting into Crit: I love the idea of alternate ways of getting crit as a protection warrior. When agility was gutted from our gear, crit became a memory. I can imagine some more flavorful way of tying crit to dodge or parry, though (some type of general finesse).

My big thought for warriors as a whole - move away from shields/block as a source of static damage reduction, and simply erase the concept of block value. It simply can't scale in a way that makes it not overpowered for five man content, and trivial on twenty-five mans. Take the mechanic of block, and use it to instead solve the above problems.

Have block be an activator for cool abilities or effects...

On a block, gain X critical strike rating on your next attack- making shield block rating into a threat stat. Scale the critical strike rating gain as much or as little as you want, from a minor increase, to a guaranteed crit.
Have Sword and Board be a talent that refreshes shield slam on a block.
On a block, double the armor contribution of the shield for X seconds - mirroring its current damage reduction, but making it into a valued stat that scales - and one that's uptime is based off of SBR.

We have something broken/worthless, and things that could use boosts. Using one to solve the other just seems like the thing that will make the most people happy.

Looks, Arms, Tentacles

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:55:00 +0000

I've been having a blast recently...

A look change - the first major one in awhile. New weapon, shield, and helm (which matches the chest and gloves, since you can't notice). The T8 helm is absolutely sweet on a dwarf. I feel like a Satyr from hell, with my beard sticking out perfectly, horns, and glowing red eyes.

Then Yogg-25. We got in one full night Sunday before last, before the nerf's came. Still got to P2 a few times, but it was messy (I got my kiss in). This most recent Sunday, our best was 35% (not quite out of P2, but close).

Following my mediocre contribution to Vezax-25 this last week, and fueled by the sale of a BoE epic I won in a greed roll in Uld-10 recently, I decided to get my DPS gear up to snuff. After choking on the amount of materials needed to enchant one two-handed weapon (which Aert and I thankfully had accumulated in our alt bank), I decided to try arms. It was the best decision in the end, but for arguably the worst reason : P

Arms is AWESOME. I won't pretend its top achievable DPS is the most ideal, but for my purposes (DPSing occasional boss), I'm having a blast and doing more respectable DPS then I was with fury. I even took the opportunity to shine up my PvP gear (which is entirely from VoA & massive Wintergrasp honor - I still have 620 Resil!) On Vezax, I did 3.2k - in line with our regular Ret Paladin, and only slightly behind our Enhancement Shaman (bear in mind the -20% swing speed debuff on this fight, and lacking of some raid buffs)

Part of what I think is making Arms work for me, is my new obsession with the Power Aura's mod. I'll likely write more on that later, when I feel more comfortable with it. Its application to DPSing is far greater then tanking, but I certainly feel like there is a lot tanking can get out of it.

Following the experience we had on Yogg-25, my 10 man group rolled into his room with a ton of confidence - and rightly so!

He didn't last long at all to the might of ten people that could avoid clouds, keep straight the three different C-Tentacle names, and kill things at a satisfactory rate. We ran 2 tank, 2 healer, 6 DPS (3 ranged, 3 melee).

Its a huge confidence boost for this comming weeks 25-Man - especially for Losti and Myself, who weren't entirely sure what to expect from adds in P3

Raid Leader Auras

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:18:00 +0000

So an aura, as far as the various Warcraft's and Diablo's have taught us, is a passive buff that emanates from a person and bolsters the abilities of others around them - usually some bolstering of abilities or resistance to some element.

I'll propose that group/raid leaders have unique auras, which provide similar effects to the people they are playing with.

Think about the last group projects or tasks you've done in your life. In most every case, you should be able to identify the group leader's ability to inspire others to either work longer, strive harder, feel better about the task at hand, be more resistant to roadblocks, or be more efficient.

Now - all leaders need to be pushing their groups to have these virtues. It's just natural that some people will excel in some areas more then others. Think about character creation in a game, where you play with slider bars or allot stat points to determine attributes. The sum ability of two equal level characters is equivalent no matter how you spend them, but they can end up looking and feeling radically different.

When a regular group of people changes raid leaders, it feels different. It may be the regular RL is out for the night, has left the game, or your running a semi-pug with another guild. The net result, is things aren't done quite the same, and it can be unsettling.

What I want to establish, is that this is not necessarily the result of weakness. Vene posted not too long ago, "a [raid] is weak if it cannot function without it's strongest link", and I don't want to confuse what I'm saying, with the phenomenon he notes.

When experiencing a change in raid leadership, one must simply adapt to the new strengths brought to the table. If the new leader is as competent ("the same level as") the old one, then they are both going to bring just as much to the raid. If the rest of the group sticks with their same expectations, however, the result will be weakness.

When your group doesn't have Frost Resist Aura, you drop Frost Resist totem, right? Both have advantages, and both have opportunity costs. But if you don't adjust, and keep dropping Healing Stream totem, you're inflicting weakness unnecessarily.

I'll give a rough example of an actual raid leader situation (and examples for this kind of thing is tough, since the really important stuff tend to be more indescribable gut "feeling" types of things). But lets say Raid Leader A's strength comes in the form of whipping the raid through trash at a breakneck speed. When Raid Leader B steps in, who typically coordinates comprehensive boss assignments during trash - the raid ends up screeching to a halt. The entire leadership is tied up with assignments - while the rest of the raid stares at the trash pacing back and forth. Had the differences in their "auras" been noted, people that normally do assignments could have shifted to directing trash - and the raid would go on and benefit from improved assignment coordination, rather then improved trash speed.

My challenge is this - Consider what you/your raid leader's aura is. What do they help groups do, that you find noticeably absent in groups without them/PuGs? How can identifying this help the raid shift its efforts when not under that person's command?

Cooldowns

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:39:00 +0000

Cooldowns are great, and are one of a tanks best friends. The simple definition of a cooldown (as far as we're concerned here), is a thing that helps the tank not die.

And we don't like dying, do we?

But beyond that wonderful (and eloquent) explanation, there are several types of cooldowns, and several different considerations to be made when choosing a button to help not become a permanently empty health bar. The net goal may be to help the tank not die, but the route for getting there requires foresight, as different cooldowns give different results.

Flat Damage Reduction Cooldowns

These are the primo-cooldowns. When you press this button, there is no doubt in your mind that you will take less damage.

Warrior Cooldown: Shield Wall
External Versions: Pain Supression (Disc Priest), Hand of Sacrifice (Paladin, when used in conjunction with Divine Shield).

When these are ideal...
-You know a big burst is about to hit, and it's going to either exceed your maximum health in one shot, or do damage at a rate higher then your healers can heal. (ex, Plasma Blast)
-You are picking up a mob unexpectedly, and need to give healers time to react. (ex, current Thorim Tank dies).

When these are weakest...
-When you are critically low on health, and not expecting a heal to land. Taking even 10% of a 20,000 damage hit will still kill you when your at 2000 health.

Maximum Health Increasing Cooldowns

These are great, in the effective health sense. You won't take less damage (heals will still need to be greater then incoming damage) - but in most cases, you'll be able to take an extra hit (or two) when avoidance fails.

Warrior Cooldown: Last Stand
External Versions: Battlemaster's Trinkets

When these are ideal...
-In preparation of spike damage. They have long durations, during which you have a much larger pool of health to fall back on.
-When heals just need another swing's time to land in an emergency.

When these are weakest...
-When damage increases, but healing can't increase to match.
-When heals are not expected to be comming.

Avoidance Increasing Cooldowns

There are no native warrior cooldowns that increase avoidance (they always come from items). They are generally weak, but have a place.

Example Sources: Heart of Iron, Defender's Code, Monarch Crab, Valor Medal.

When these are ideal...
When your trying to give healers a little break, while they are busy (Feared, Raid damage spike).
When your trying to avoid a certain debuff being applied (Ex, Overhead Smash)
When you need to be a little more lucky (Thorim at high charges, where two consecutive hits will simply kill you).
When your already critically wounded, and really really are hoping you dodge the next swing.

When these are weakest...
When you absolutely need something to happen. An 8% avoidance increase guarantees nothing.

Armor Increasing Cooldowns

Armor cooldowns are along the same lines as max health increasing cooldowns, but on a physical-damage only side. While they are more mild in overall effect (compared to last stand, for example), they have the benefit of actually reducing the damage you take - resulting in heals being more meaningful.

Examples: Furnace Stone, Indestructible Potion, Stoneform

When these are ideal...
-In preparation of spike physical damage or soft enrages.
-When healing is compromised, and you need to get further on what your getting.

When these are weakest...
-When your taking magic damage.
-When your already critically low on health.

Health Recovery Cooldowns

Healing isn't a tanks job. We just aren't nearly as good at it as the people with mana bars waving their hands in the back. Health Recovery Cooldowns are the weakest ones out there. While they are more effective in five man content, their effect on ten and twenty-five man raids is minimal.

Warrior Cooldown: Enraged Regenration
Item Examples: Healthstones, Healing Potions

When these are ideal...
Your just under the amount of health needed to get though a potential fatal swing, and not confident a heal is going to land.
Your in the middle of sustained high damage, and need to give heals time to keep landing.

When these are weakest...
When your in the middle of being healed anyway.

Vezax & DKs, +10-Man Achievements

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:57:00 +0000

On the first week we got all four watchers down in the same week, we knocked out Vexax in short order. I guess this was back on Sunday?

First point of business - we used a DK tank. There was no compelling reason not to, and it did make things easy. I won't say that having him stationary (and surge of darkness being negated by icebound fort) is broken, because its perfectly doable without a DK (kiting takes more effort, but isn't impossible - or raid cooldowns could be rotated through with any tank). This particular mechanic feels about the right level of one-class-having-an-advantage, just as warriors have a bonus on Mimiron with charging back in after shield bash to keep him from moving (other tanks just have to manually reposition him, with the potential for mines to get off center).

Second note - Lawlmydps. I've busted out my Fury spec for a few misc things, but being there to run a first kill on Vezax had me standing behind a progression boss. My performance is less then steller, but not completely terrible (Even with his -20% melee swing speed aura, melee destroyed the meters in general ((pun unintended)) ). I'd like to pretend that I was interupting, but no, the two rogues sitting near the top of the meters were. I have alot to practice regarding fury, if I was to ever need to seriously perform as it.

After Vexaz, we pulled Yogg for kicks. We got stomped, but I've got a strong feeling that he's something that won't last too too long versus us.

Then last night, I finally ran another Uld-10, after some busy weeks that had directed my time elsewhere. It was productive...

I think I just finally decided that Uld-10 wasn't something I wanted to do with alts, other people's undergeared friends, or randomly assembled groups of currently-online people. I had hopped in for some action in groups containing elements from the above, and the wipe-to-kill ratio was just not what I wanted for a relaxing off-night activity.

That said, I thought about who I'd done ten man stuff on Thu/Mon (the nights I have free for ten mans typically), who would make a good composition, and started gettting in contact with people to setup a time. We ended up with this, with the Resto Shaman having a fully equiped Elemental Set for two healer fights. Confident in our ability to have a relaxing faceroll, we hopped inside.

We first got brave on Ignis. The Druid and Paladin agreed to two-healed it, and we pulled up our timers for a four min kill. We beat it with about 8 seconds left. This emboldened us even further...

Hard Mode XT was something I'd been complating on ten man, but wasn't entirely sure it was worth attempting yet. We decided to take a stab at it, the deciding factor of course being if we could kill the heart. The heart died crazy fast, and on the second attempt, we finished off the rest of him as well. Very fun fight - the changes/additions made it seem far more T5-ish, as far as complexity and difficulty went.

No tank loot for me out of there (the big two things I'm eyeing up is the Freya Helm (didn't get to her yet) and the T8 Shoulders from Thorim(dropped, lost roll)), but it was fun regardless. I really do enjoy off night content more when everyone is competent enough to simutaniously relax and succeed.

Turnover Across Three Tiers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:34:00 +0000

I got a hit of nostalgia / curiosity the other day, and started digging through old screenshots of significant first boss kills. Going back to Vashj, I hardly recognized some of the names. Then I started counting - how many people from our big first kills were actually still around and downing bosses?

Vashj

No Longer LOKI Raider (18): Tecknoman, Adonni, Left, Ruffianx, Yttrium, Asmileyface, Kurse, Lumandris, Hoofroodat, Sabere, Gamish, Neishean, Vaultias, Catastropee, Monario, Oz, Touche, Tessa
Still Here (7): Tonystarks, Aertimus, Dragoe, Nethy, Furnz, Yakra, Notforgiven

Kael

No Longer LOKI Raider (15): Hoofroodat, Neishean, Ronaldb/Christeenmae, Moia, Ruffianx, Left, Oz, Shamantha, Monario, Tessa, Morwel, Teknoman, Vaultias, Gamish, Killertoday
Still Here (10): Aertimus, Lusith, Yakra, Nikto, Dragoe, Jerey, Yiffy, Furnz, Tonystarks, Nethy

Archimonde

No Longer LOKI Raider (12): Sempra, Ruffianx, Ronaldb/Christeenmae, Vaultias, Mashandheal, Left, Havack, Monario, Yttrium, Moia, Oz, Hordestalker
Still Here (13): Gorgon, Aertimus, Ujelang, Yakra, Rainkat, Tolsmir, Tygranna, Jerey, Notforgiven, Nethy, Nikto, Furnz, Alcyone

Illidan

No Longer LOKI Raider (10): Ruffianx, Baromir, Mashandheal, Kalka, Havack, Oz, Yttrium, Tessa, Stormlance, Hordestalker
Still Here (15): Aertimus, Jerey, Yakra, Ujelang, Gorgon, Alcyone, Tolsmir, Dragoe, Tonystarks, Duex, Rainkat, Nethy, Nikto, Zophor, Furnz

OS3D

No Longer LOKI Raider (5): Oz/Soulless, Stefanos, Hissarrzz, Morwel, Bretta
Still Here(20): Strombolli, Jerey, Yakra, Ujelang, Aertimus, Notforgiven, Dragoe, Katanna, Kiranthos, Nikto, Zophor, Lusith, Alcyone, Rainkat, Estia, Gorgon, Furnz, Drspock, Tygranna, Duex

I realize that this isn't a whole guild view - it only looks at the 25 people in for certain first boss kills. I guess I just consider these first kills as having our most dedicated players in them in the first place (with some exceptions, such as people just being on standby that pull).

So what did I notice? Between each instance clear, we lost about three highly able raiders (or gained three new dedicated people, if that's your preferred way of looking at it).

Aertimus, Furnz, and Myself have been there for all of them. Nethy missed only our OS3D (couldn't raid Wednesdays), Notforgiven only missed Illidan (gave someone else his spot that night), Dragoe only missed Archimonde (not sure why, we may have bumped him for a totem-dropper), and Jerey missed only Vashj (Paladin tanks weren't cool then).

It's been a long journey to get to this point (working Yogg-Saron). I've met amazing people along the way, and I've met some real asses. I'd like to think that we'll retain 100% of our members all the way to Arthas - but a part of me defiantly wonders who won't be raiding with us then, what new people will have stuck around, and what people I haven't even met yet will be there.

Yakra's Theories on Tanking - Version Two

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:50:00 +0000

After much delaying, I've finalized the rewrite of my first big publication - Yakra's Theories on Tanking. It's what got me into putting down tanking stuff in writing, and at 200,000+ views, its probably the most widely read thing I've ever written.

http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&topic=2399
Note the vintage Wowhead Forums post number...

If you haven't ever checked it out, give it a look. If you have - tell me if you think the change is for the better. I'm fairly confident it now more clearly speaks to the WoTLC Warrior tank, but I always like to hear that from other people, to confirm I haven't just taken one too many hits to the head.

Guild Size

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:53:00 +0000

In a perfect world, you have 25 raiders in your guild, in awesome composition, and everyone shows up to every raid.

This is pretty far from the reality of most every guild.

That said, you need to have more then 25 raiders in your guild. The big question at this point - is how many?

I'll say a reasonable point of division, is if you have 0-5 people on standby, or 5+. I've seen both sides of things, though from a bias standpoint.

In T6, I remember filling all 40 slots of a raid group for ontime, before filtering things down into a group of 25. Pros: We could field any composition of tanks, healers, and ranged/melee DPS, and never were delayed for lacking composition. Cons: Officers spent a decent amount of brain processing getting everyone in for at least some content, and of course, we had people whom only got to raid for an hour (out of three).

Throughout T7 & T8, we've been on the other end - running 0-5 on standby. Most of the time, it works out well enough - we have enough online, have a reasonable composition, everyone that shows raids for all (or nearly all) night, and there is a higher loot concentration.

Recently, however, we've gotten burned having a poor mix of characters online. In one night in recent memory, we were lacking tanks early on (which did get solved when some latecomers logged on), and then lacking melee DPS for the arena part of Thorim. Long story short: we only ended up getting 3/4 watchers, in a week that should have been our first look at Vezax.

Now - through all of this, I've never been the one sat out frequently. I don't assign myself a raid spot, but our tank lead knows I prefer to be in when reasonable, to keep things moving (though I've had some "Virus Test" moments in the past, which my awesome officer base has consistently passed with flying colors).

What I guess it comes down to, is I want to know:How bad is sitting out, when its something outside of your control? If there aren't enough people to form a successful raid, everyone ends up sitting (essentially), so I tend to lean towards pushing officers to over recruit and have people on standby - and the ability to volunteer to sit out on standby I know lets some of our raiders focus on studying/housework/homework while not feeling like they are letting the guild down.

Yakra's Mimiron Tanking Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 23 May 2009 03:49:00 +0000

For a healing companion to this guide, see Aertimus's Mimiron Healing Guide.

We wrote these guides together, for maximum compatibility!

Mimiron is a tough fight to tank. Sadly, about half of the difficulty as a tank, is dealing with a overly-large model on an overly small hitbox; but overcomming this, and other movement/positioning issues is key to a successful kill. This guide includes some methods I / LOKI either developed on our own, or have not seen widely published, such as Five-Point Positioning in P2, and Bomb Soaking in P3.

I will recommend -two- tanks. LOKI used a Protection Warrior and a Protection Paladin. Warriors are nice for tanking the Leviathan, because of their movement abilities (charge, intercept). Any player comfortable with AoE tanking works for the P3 adds, but we thought paladin would be best, for their high block vs multiple, fast hitting creatures. Whoever ends up tanking the Leviathan / Soaking Bombs should aim for maximum stamina/health, and whoever tanks the adds should prepare for rapid, small hits.

Phase One

This phase is about the tank not dying to plasma blast, and melee not dying to shock blast. If melee fail to consistently avoid shock blast, they stand no chance in P4 when things are even more chaotic.

Go right ahead and charge Mimiron himself. He won't take damage, but you'll get the rage. Then get ready to target the Leviathan.

Immediately after going active, the Leviathan will throw Mines around him, in a circle. He will periodically lay new mines in a ring around his current position.

Proximity Mines: These Explode upon contact, and are a major pain for melee/tanks. Casters need only avoid standing right at the edge of the initial ring of mines, in the event that Mirmiron spreads them when not properly centered - as they may land under the caster.

Keeping him in one spot throughout P1 and P4 (or as close to it as possible) is important, so that you have a single circle of mines, as opposed to a minefield.

The other ability you'll experience soon after the pull, is Plasma Blast.

Plasma Blast: 30,000 unresistable spell damage per second, for 6 sec.

Plasma Blast requires a cooldown to live through reliably and has a 3 second warning. You can expect 4-5 of them before Mirmiron is pushed into P2.

Aertimus and I recommend you prioritize/order your cooldown rotation as follows:

1. If you have to rotate tanks to use their cooldowns, do that first - less tank swaps is better. Acceptable tank cooldown's are: Shield Wall (Warriors), Divine Protection (Paladins), Barkskin + Survival Instincts (Druids), Vampiric Blood (Blood DKs), & Icebound Fortitude (DKs).

2. Next come Priest cooldowns. Pain Suppression and Guardian Spirit both work on their own.

3. Next come Paladin cooldowns. Divine Shield + Hand of Sacrifice + Divine Sacrifice (if they have it) together should do the trick.

Napalm Shell is a concern for ranged only, and happens througout the fight. Know it exists, and that it may divert some healing from you during plasma blast.

Periodically throuout the fight, Leviathan will use Shock Blast.

When he casts it, run away, doing your best to avoid mines. Plan your escape route ahead of time, and have the camera pointed in that direction, so you can just double-mouse-click/run your way to safetey. Curse of Tongues makes this almost impossible to die to, due to the increased cast time. You'll want this up at all times in P1 & P4.

While he is casting shock blast, he is immobile. Right after casting it, he'll become mobile and head towards the tank if he is out of range. A warrior can run away, then charge at him when his cast appears to be about 90%, to prevent him from budging at all (making mines easier).

Transition from Phase One to Phase Two

Don't die to mines. It is the most pointless, stupid, idiotic way to die. Even if you think there is just one, there could be multiple stacked. Just wait until they all blow themselves up.

Phase Two

This phase is a healing check, and a raid-wide "can you avoid rocket strike" check. If anyone fails to consistently avoid rocket strike, they stand no chance in P4 when things are even more chaotic.

This phase is not tanked.

Divide the raid into five groups based on parties, and spread out around the center circle of lights in a five point pattern. Mark one person in each group and have the group stick with their mark to assist AOE healing for Heat Wave and reduce the amount of people being hit by Rapid Burst. Groups remain in place when they are being Rapid Bursted.

Every so often, he will cast "Spinning Up", as a precursor to P3Wx2 Laser Barrage. This is a slowly rotating stream of lasers, that will kill you if it connects. Move yourself to a position where he will not hit you during his near 180 clockwise degree turn from his current location. The model may seem to jerk counter-clockwise as it spins up, but will always rotate clockwise while casting laser barrage.

The most obnoxious ability for melee introduced in this phase, is Rocket Strike. There is no cast bar or raid warning for this, but those watching the boss can see and announce on vent when a missile launches off his body. When the missile launches, a red targeting circle appears underneath someone. The missile lands in the spot three seconds later, dealing five million (yes, million) damage to those in three yards.

Turn OFF Projected Textures in your user interface. You will still see targeting circles, but you will no longer see Consecrates, Desecration, or any other beautiful-but-ultimatly-deadly friendly graphic.

Rockets will not be launched while P3Wx2 is being cast. They will often be cast immediately after.

Transition from Phase Two to Phase Three

The raid should clump up on the add tank, and prepare to follow him around. The bomb soaker (see below) should get in position under the Aerial Command Unit, and /focus him.

Phase Three

Turn on Free For All loot!

Mimiron will enter the Aerial Command Unit, and be tanked by a caster. Adds will appear in beams of light, comming from the circles in the rooms.

Assualt Bots

These are the main focus of the Add Tank. They spawn from orange beams. The add tank requires constant/chained Hand of Freedom to avoid being affected by Magnetic Field, which can lead to overwhelming damage

All melee DPS should focus on Assault Bots. When an assault bot dies, a single assigned melee DPS should loot the Magnetic Core and use it under the Aerial Command Unit. If the raid is low on melee, and Assault Bots are constantly overwhelming your raid, consider reassigning a few ranged to focus them as well.

Junk Bots

These spawn from green beams and are picked up by the Add Tank. Their damage is trivial. Ranged/Healers should group on the Add Tank, so that Junk Bots are hit by the Add Tanks AoE abilities.

Aerial Command Unit

This is tanked by a Caster/Hunter. All ranged DPS should focus on the Aerial Command Unit, at all times (If possible, have one warlock casting Curse of Tounges to reduce his outgoing damage). All melee DPS should focus on the Aerial Command Unit when it is grounded.

Bomb Bots

These are soaked by the Bomb Soaker (the same high stamina tank as tanks the leviathan). They should stand under the Aerial Command Unit, and make sure no one is around them. When a bomb bot drops down, they taunt it then attack it. It will explode on them for trivial damage (for a tank), neuralizing the danger to the raid without consuming DPS.

The bomb soaker should avoid gathering junk bots to make targeting the bomb bot easier. Make sure they are showing enemy nameplates. They can focus the Aerial Command Unit to see when he is casting bomb bots.

Transition from Phase Three to Phase Four

Remaining adds need to be AoE'ed down, preferably before he becomes active.

Phase Four

Any Magnetic Cores looted can be used in the beginning of P4, to help burn the head. This is also a good time to burn heroism, to reduce the amount of time needed to finish P4.

Things He Still Does:

- Bottom: Shock Blast

- Bottom: Proximity Mines

- Middle: P3Wx2 Laser Barrage

- Middle: Hand Pulse (A renamed Rapid Burst)

- Middle: Rocket Strike (Two at Once)

- Head: Plasma Ball

Things He Does NOT Do:

- Bottom: Plasma Blast

- Bottom: Napalm Shell

- Middle: Heat Wave

- Head: Summon Adds

The most dangerous/difficult part of this phase for the Main Tank, is when Mimiron does Laser Barrage. The bottom section continues to move and be tanked while the middle section rotates. Due to the small size of the leviathan's hitbox and large size of its model, the bottom section tends to "hump" the tank. This can place the middle section on/over the tank, resulting in the tank being hit by Laser Barrage and dying. Tanks simply must practice small strafing movements within his hitbox, to avoid causing jerky repositioning of the Leviathan. Focusing his middle section helps to see when Spinning Up (the precursor to Laser Barrage) is being cast.

In the event that Laser Barrage and Shock Blast overlap (or nearly overlap), use a Guardian Spirit (if possible) to allow the tank to eat the Shock Blast, rather then risk him moving while Laser Barrage is cast.

Of course, all the potential movement of the Leviathan in this phase means that Mines will likely form clouds of mines. Melee need to take special care to find their escape route, and ranged need to stay clear of areas where mines may land.

Rocket Strikes can also be cast in melee range, and be partially obscured by the leviathan model (which is not present in P2). At least some part of the circle is typically visiable, provided all those in melee range stay at max distance - it just requires hightened awareness.

- Preferably, the head will be the first section to die, because melee cannot help DPS it. When one section of his body is destroyed, there is a ten second window in which the other two must also die. At this point, healers should contribute as much DPS as they safely can.

Long, isn't it?

Mimiron is a great fight. It takes a full team of coordinated, personally accountable players, performing their best from start to finish. Of all the watchers, he is certainly the gatekeeper to the final wing of the instance.

I hope you found this guide helpful (don't forget to pair it with Aertimus's Healing Guide - both guides assume the other is in action), and I'd love to hear from you if your guild used even part of it in achieveing a kill.

Exit Strategy, Followup

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:18:00 +0000

Rather then overfill a comment, I'll just take my responses to yesterday's and go in depth here. Thank you Logtar, Kadomi, Mookey, and Bent, for your long/insightful comments!

Kadomi's guild has cleared Naxx 4 or 5 times, and is raiding every weekend. She's thinking about how her guild should deal with farm raids, Malygos, OS, and Ulduar.

Kadomi - I would definatly clear Malygos first. Have your guild kill every T7 boss, collect your titles, then dive into Ulduar. OS+Drakes may just be something you need to cut out at this time. You can gain many of the skills it teaches in Ulduar - it'll just put you behind in some areas compared to guilds that could do that learning pre-3.1.

Don't take a wipefest in Ulduar on your first night/week as a bad sign. Luckily, you'll 99.9% (repeating, of course) be able to do Flame Leviathan+0 your first night in, which should start to get people pumped. After that, hit up Razorscale / XT, Iron Council, Kologarn.

I would say drop Naxx completely. If you really feel like you need a farm night every now and then, take every second/third week, clear Naxx & farmed Ulduar bosses. But as soon as you feel people are feeling done with Naxx, dump it like a green.

Mookey is the leader of a 25-man, 3/day a week guild, who looks at epics per hour, and different progression paths...

First off - thanks for posting! I love seeing new names in my comment section.

I wouldn't give your guild the title of "casual" - its allready a widely (mis)used word, and I don't think its fitting for how your guild sounds. LOKI is a 3 night a week guild as well (3 hours a night), and we too are simply serious about how we use our time.

If you look at Ulduar gear - many classes don't have upgrades (rather having minor upgrades or sidegrades) for many slots. I don't think that nearly as much gear is needed to get raiders geared (or overgeared) for T8, as it was for Naxx. By the end of Ulduar, if your raiders are mostly in 226's, you'll be awesome for T9. Just think of how many enduring pieces of gear there were from T4 (Dragonspine Trophy, Pocketwatch & Aldori Legacy Defender to name a few) that didn't get replaced in T5.

You also mention "inevitable need that you kill all bosses at least around 10 times in order to make everyone happy". Don't necessarily associate getting loot with making people happy. There are lots of people that would kill a boss only once ever, and move on, if it was possible. Ten kills certaly borders on the point where even people that are missing gear will be getting tired of doing a boss, and want fresh content.

They layout of Ulduar, and skippability of bosses, certainly is a boon. I definatly use Razor/Ignis/Council as rewards for progression, but am carefeul to not do them as the result of frustration on progression. Last week, we didn't kill Mimiron until a half hour from the end of our last raid day. Razorscale, Ignis, Council, Hodir, Freya, and Thorim - all bosses we've killed/farmed, went unkilled that week. If I had said, at any point on our 5-6 hours on Mimiron, "hey lets go do something else for a break" - I dont' think we'd of gotten the kill. When raiders know that they can get loot without doing the hard progression, they slack. Its just human nature to go for the low hanging fruit, the easy epics, the best loot per hour. But when you have to decide where to alot limited time resources, and your truely progression focused, you have to make hard calls, and hope that your raiding force believes/trusts you enough to follow you.

As for your Naxx run - an offnight alt/trial-including night in Naxx is a fine idea. "Best possible time investment" may be a strech, if your feeding the majority of the drops to said alts/trials/disenchanters - but if its all done in time outside your normal raid schedule, then by all means.

Walls of text, by the way, are encouraged and appreciated. Inspiring / making people think (readers and myself, alike) is why I write, and the things people say make me more thoroughly reevaluate my own thoughts.

Bent - The difficulty jump is certainly pronounced. T4 -> T4.5 was rough since it was a transition from 10 to 25 man raiding, which changed the dynamics of raid composition, assignments. T7 -> T8 is hard, because T7 was arguablly one of the easiest tiers released (as may be witnessed by the amount of people doing the content), and T8... isn't.