In Which I Cause a Wipe

Off the back of last night's post, I queued up for a heroic. I should also warn, I'd had a few beers...
I zone in, and my first thought is "Where the feck am I?" This is because, as I previously mentioned, I've not run many of these yet and I'm going in quite blind.

Turns out, I was in Mogu'shan Palace.
So, a quick "Hey!" and away I went; popped Sacred Shield and fired off my Avenger's Shield into the mobs.
I quickly notice a "YAY!" moment, when in party chat, then subsequent whispers, that the Hunter in the group cast Misdirection on to me. To me, a sign that I'd have no problems - at least from him.
First boss encounter went down without a hitch, apart from after we'd killed him - I wasn't aware the encounter had finished so was waiting, only to realise the rest of the party had run off... and then I discovered I had no clue where to go. An apology and a few minutes of running back and forth, I finally get a little help by one of the party running back to me.
Could they have made the hidden passage any more hidden? Is it actually obvious the passage is there after you've killed the bosses? I'll need to check the next time I'm there...

Then, immediately before the second boss, the healer drops group - no word, nothing. He'd seemed quite happy too...
Replaced very quickly, fortunately - and a speedy kill to get me my Iron Protector Talisman. So, I was happy (:

After we finished the run, the Hunter and... Mage, I think it was, suggested a re-queue, so they were at least happy with my tanking. I accepted and off we went.
And, we land in Scarlet Halls. Another I've yet to be in. In Heroic, at least... I've done a quick run through the normal mode while face rolling it.
This meant I wsa quite unprepared for what the HC would throw at me.

Houndmaster... easy enough.
Then, we got Herod Harlan. And this is where I caused a wipe. The reason? I'm sure you can guess... I wasn't ready for Blades of Light.
Pretty much, I had assumed it would be similar to the old variant that Herod cast, and he would stand in place - so when he moved, and ended up moving in my direction, I got caught up in it and wasn't aware it'd be a "You're dead, honey" moment.

"Pro group..." from the healer, and he dropped.
The rest were OK with it [I did say 'Sorry', though] and we kicked his butt after got a new healer.

Rest of the run went well. No loot, but I did survive my wipe causing without much personal incident...

I Return!

It's been a while.

Basically, after Cata hit, a lot of my suspicions turned out to be true: the attitudes of many players didn't adjust to the return to 'finesse' of dungeons.
So, after not doing much tanking after patch 4 landed, my nerves got way too high to tank in PuGs, and I stopped.
For the entirety of Cata, I tanked a total of 2 instances. Once as a guild group, once as a PuG.

But not, MoP has landed, and I was able to brush off a few of those nerves and I've been hitting that "Find Group" button again.
However, I'm still not back at my old "spam them all night!" days of LK, but I'll do one every other day or so - or a run of them with guildies.

I've been going into the dungeons very much blind: I have no idea what the bosses or mobs do in it when I hit an instance for the first time, but I've only had 1 wipe so far: some sha in Shado Pan Monastry. And sadly, not many drops yet.

I've currently got my Paladin [Baberth] at level 90, my Warrior [Fillet - not Popesye] at 86, a Druid [Pitchblack] at 85, a DK [Clegane] at 75 and a Monk [Kidtor] at 30.
All are spec'd as their tank variants.

So, all going well, my rants, raves and stories will return...

Paladin invasion of Stratholme

During my dash to finish up a couple of the factions for the Insane title, I've noticed something rather peculiar. Well, it was at first, but then I realised why it was happening

Basically, I spotted dozens [across a relatively short period of time] of unguilded Paladins ranging from level 60 onwards in Light's Hope Chapel in EPL. At first I only ever noticed the Alliance ones - since their nameplates were obvious as I have them turned on - but recently, I've spotted some Horde ones too. Because I'd only seen the Alliance ones at first, I was thinking it was possibly an Alliance specific quest for paladins - until I followed a couple.

One of my personal alarm bells for potential bots is non-fluid turns, especially when performed frequently. Bare in mind, it's only a little flag, and not a definite "OMG, THAT'S A BOT!!!1"
There are other factors to take into account.
For instance, when I brutally slaughtered them [...what? I play on a PvP server... :] they released pretty much instantly - if the jerky turns from earlier were due to keyboard turning, then it's unlikely that the person would be able to hit the release button so quickly [bit more generalisation on my part, but the red flags mount up].
The final bit I noticed, while not indicative of a bot, was definite signs of cheating in some manner. I followed all the way to the back gate of Stratholme, and watched as they just ran through it. No-one on the other side to open it for them; no stopping to open it themselves; and it definitely wasn't already open. [This was on a few of them, by the way]

So, the TL;DR: the gold farmers are using paladins to farm stratholme undead side. And from what I can gather, they're in prot spec

The More You Know...

... and knowing is half the battle.
You may recall my post from the other day, where I mentioned about threat issues in a PuG. Well, I just discovered why I was having major issues.
Part my fault, the rest was the DK. I wonder if you can see where this is going.

I've not played a DK for quite a while - got a level 65 somewhere, and a 61 that's tanked a couple of times - so, I didn't really pay too much attention to their changes. Of course, I should have realised this one would happen based on the change to a dedicated tanking tree. You see, in days of yore, when knights were bold tanks, they did so in Frost Presense for their added threat. Well, all that has changed.
Because it's blood spec that has the tanking duties now, it makes sense that Blood Presense is the one for tanking in [interesting note, they swapped the names and icons of the 2 presenses in game, so BP uses the FP spell and vice versa - check the comments of each to see what I mean].
So, with that little explanation... can you see where I'm still going?

Yes. The DK was in Blood Presense. I noticed, and didn't say anything, because I was looking for Frost Presense!
So, basically - it was the fault of the FailPlayer DK for not going into Frost - I miss elitist group for pointing out specs to me - costing himself DPS at the same time.
And, it was my fault for not reading up on the changem since it does affect me.

More PuG annoyances

One of the many things that irritates me about PuGs is the way they almost all refuse to use names. It's always "Hey, tank!" or "FFS, healer!"
The other players are typically called by their class.
It's as if they're allergic to using the name of the character. Hell, you can even use an abbreviation most of the time - at least it shows you're paying attention...
I'd love to be in a run with one of those like I had a while back:
Tank = me, paladin
Healer = paladin
DPS1 = paladin
DPS2 = paladin
DPS3 = mage.
I think their head would explode.

I have just "finished" my Warrior's first run in to Old Stratholme. Notice the quotations - that's because we didn't even make the second boss.
The first healer DC'd [probably fake] just as we pulled the first boss. The second quit group midway through the next pack. I know the reason for the second's, and can guess the first's. Me.
Or rather, they perceived it was me.
I don't think I was able to perform a single pull in the run - besides Meathook - because either the DK or Balance druid would pull for me - who ever got their first. And, with them in ICC10HC/25 level gear, I just had no way of controlling the mobs. Sure, I suppose a really good tank could have managed things a bit more, but this was just beyond me.
It's not as if the hunter in the group couldn't have helped a little with misdirection...

Easy gear

One definite thing I'm liking from the patch is how much faster it will be to be able to upgrade gear from the old badge vendors. So much so, that on my warrior I am pretty much skipping the Badge of Triumph vendor where possible, and going straight to the Badge of Frost.
I've decided that the tier 10 helm and shoulders will be my first purchases - the helm is a massive upgrade for me currently, although I bought the shoulders last night purely because I think they look awesome - and then the non-tier chest and gloves. For legs, I may try to get the gold together for Pillars of Might. The rest? Not worked that out just yet.

I'd always said to myself, that once I hit 80 on Popeseye, I'd not buy any upgrades from the AH. However, last night I decided to spend just a little. Prices seem quite low, so I got myself a Titansteel Shield Wall [I'd hoped to have gotten the shield drop from HC Old Stratholme by now, but I've not even gotten a run there yet!]. Also spent about 20G on some ilvl 200 blue wrists, since the ones I had were really low level - granted, the wrists I bought were DPS ones, they were still an upgrade for me [I only lost about 0.2% dodge]. Due to these upgrades, my average ilvl - according to the in-game information - is now at 198... So close to breaking the 200. I have a fair few 187 bits of gear just now though, and I don't know what value they place on blues compared to purples.

On Baberth, I got myself her Tier-10 shoulders [Lightsworn Shoulderguards] as well yesterday, simply because they were cheap enough and they're obvious bling. I'm pretty much just going to get tier gear for her, simply for collection sake. Yes, I like to collect tier gear [and that rhymes :] and I only need the dungeon set 1 chest to be able to get dungeon set 2 complete - I finished the quest line the other day, apart from the "Saving the Best to Last" quest due to lack of chest. Which reminds me - I still have a single piece of the purple tier 2 recolour to get...
Next though, I'll be getting the last of the Tier 9 that I didn't get round to getting. Tier 8 and completing Tier 7 will take that little bit longer, however.
Finally, I managed to get my Violet Proto Drake last night. That elusive Hallowed Helm dropped for me from the bag you get when you kill the Horseman. I've been waiting almost a year for that little bastard! :D That puts me at 7025 points - mainly missing Raid and PvP achievements. Probably need to wait until cata to get those, when they can be face-rolled ):

Am I Fail?

A few recent posts by various bloggers have me wondering:

Would I be perceived as a FailPlayer/M&S?


This concern stems from claimed attitudes that FailPlayers will have; one of these being that the new patch will cause them to leave their current class and/or spec in droves to a new Flavour of the Month. Why am I concerned:

In vanilla, I was a druid [feral kitty spec to level 60, then resto as that was the required raiding spec back then];

In TBC, I was a combat spec rogue;

In WotLK, I started as my rogue, but combat just wasn't the same, and I couldn't get my fingers to work the muti spec. So, I switched to Prot Pala;

Now, come Cata, I'm considering jumping ship again - this time to Prot Warrior.


To me, this makes me wonder ig I fit the bill. Sure, it's only been on an expansion that I've switched, but I have typically completely abandoned the previous character in place of something I have more fun playing.

On the outside, then yes: I probably do.

On the inside, I'm not so sure...


Let me explain and expand upon why.

First, I hope you've seen, that I do my best to understand the class I'm playing - check up EJ, various forums and blogs, that sort of thing - so that I don't just blindly follow the advise, but try to know why I'm doing such things.

I keybind and macro to the best of my abilities - including mouseover taunts [and soon, mouseover faerie fire on my druid once he gets it]

I listen to advice and try to improve

When I'm in an instance, I don't just play for me

And finally, the reasons for my character switching isn't because they're FotM classes and specs. Hell, I tried the FotM spec on my rogue and hated it - and specced him straight back to one I enjoyed playing. No, my switches stem from my personal enjoyment. As stated, I started as a druid. My first alt was a rogue - since I'd enjoyed the sneaky of kitty spec, and was on a PvP server. So when I started afresh on the EU servers, it was a rogue I started with.

And I played Rogue as my main for the entirety of TBC. However, I did get a level 70 warrior in that time [which I previously mentioned, I believe]. I also started a paladin for fun, to try out the AoEadin spec that had been mentioned in a few places. By the time 3.0.1 hit, I was level 50 on the paladin and enjoying it.

As stated, I tried to play my rogue, but with the changes to the combat spec, it just didn't feel right to me any more [and I hated muti-spec] and started levelling my paladin more. I came to really enjoy tanking immensely. While I never got much opportunity to raid due to work and university taking up so much of my time, I was able to tank 5-mans a lot [although, I was never a huge fan of PuG tanking - as you may gather from many of my rants]

Recently, a friend asked me to level a character on her server. I chose to level a Warrior - I was never comfortable tanking on my original Warrior since I'd not been able to get the hang of the different abilties required for tanking - and I never really liked Fury or Arms. Sure, a spinning cow of death is fun for a while, but it just wasn't me...

My levelling of this warrior was done 50:50 instances and questing - by the time I reached Outland, only DiM West and Stratholme were missing from my achievements - as far as memory serves, anyway]. I'd like to think I became quite a competant tank on him. [If I stay on the server come cata, I may get a name change]


Now, with 4.0.1 having hit, I've tried to tank with Baberth, and it feels... empty. Granted I've not had much chance to play properly, but a quick run into SWP with a pug had me constantly losing aggro as I just couldn't build up the threat fast enough [part of this I believe is due to the changes I said I believe are coming for Cata [in an earlier post], and part because I was a full tier lower than most of the raid].

One thing I've noticed though - mana is definitely not an issue any more, and it looks like becoming mana-starved will be a thing of the past.

Compare this to my Warrior Popeseye [a type of steak cut. My Cow names are typically puns], and nothing feels overly different. In fact, things feel better. I have self-heals coming out of my ... shield! Of course, this is probably just as well, because due to the block "nerf", I'm certainly squishier.

Where-as previously, it was possible for you to completely block attacks; it is now only possible to block 30% of the attack [I have vague memory of this % being increasable through mastery [via critial blocks or something] but could be wrong and can't check as I'm at work]. However this meant that a 5-man quest mob in Icecrown I /almost/ 1-manned prior to 4.0.1 now WTFPWN!'d me very quickly, as instead of stopping most of his damage whenever I blocked [and he hit hard], I was now only marginally reducing it.

What do I feel this means for tanks? First, that even for Warriors, avoidance should now be pushed towards parry and dodge - more so parry if you use the Hold the Line talent. Next - this puts Death Knights and Druids at a head-start for current content since they typically stack parry and dodge respectfully [and don't get block]. How it'll look in the future, I'm not sure.


I'm probably going to persevere a bit on Baberth until Cata hits - see if I get the hang of the new rotation - and decide closer to time which tank I prefer.

Hell, I may even end becoming a bear tank or DK tank... who knows.

Does that make me a FailPlayer?ing of the past.

Compare this to my Warrior Popeseye [a type of steak cut. My Cow names are typically puns], and nothing feels overly different. In fact, things feel better. I have self-heals coming out of my ... shield! Of course, this is probably just as well, because due to the block "nerf", I'm certainly squishier.

Where-as previously, it was possible for you to completely block attacks; it is now only possible to block 30% of the attack [I have vague memory of this % being increasable through mastery [via critial blocks or something] but could be wrong and can't check as I'm at work]. However this meant that a 5-man quest mob in Icecrown I almost 1-manned prior to 4.0.1 now WTFPWN!'d me very quickly, as instead of stopping most of his damage whenever I blocked [and he hit hard], I was now only marginally reducing it.

What do I feel this means for tanks? First, that even for Warriors, avoidance should now be pushed towards parry and dodge - more so parry if you use the Hold the Line talent. Next - this puts Death Knights and Druids at a head-start for current content since they typically stack parry and dodge respectfully [and don't get block]. How it'll look in the future, I'm not sure.


I'm probably going to persevere a bit on Baberth until Cata hits - see if I get the hang of the new rotation - and decide closer to time which tank I prefer.

Hell, I may even end becoming a bear tank or DK tank... who knows.

Does that make me a FailPlayer?

Druid levelling concerns

I never really paid too much attention to the patch notes for 4.0.1; mainly because it was always in so much flux and by the time I got my head round one change, it became obsolete.
So, it was a bit of a shock when I logged in to my level 17 druid to find that Swipe was gone! Those of you not in the know may wonder why it was a concern.
This was always the druid equivalent of a warrior's Cleave, even back in the Vanilla days. Granted that until patch 3.0.1, it hit 3 targets instead of Cleave's 2, this was pretty much to make up for a lack of Thunderclap
For a Warrior, they received Cleave at level 20 - later than Swipe - but had thunderclap at level 6.
That meant that both Warriors and Druids could be viable tanks by level 16 - there wasn't much point in running instances before that anyway. A paladin's Consecration was a weird outlier.. while it is now a baseline ability, originally it was a Holy talent, a tier 3 talent at that - and if memory serves wasn't in the game until later in to Vanilla's life [I was a horde player, so Paladin abilities didn't concern me much back then]. But of course, tanking wasn't quite in the paladin design model anyway - it was more of an after-thought.

Much of the early tanking designs were vastly different from then by the time we reached where we were last week: Druids, Paladins and Warriors could tank quite effectively once they received their first AoE attack and threat modifier stance/aura [although, the fact that the dungeon finder isn't available until level 15 shows that you're not expected to until then]. This means:

• Warriors could tank as soon as they completed the quest for Defensive Stance [level 10]
• Druids could tank once they received Swipe [level 16]
• Paladins could tank once they received Consecration [level 20]

Sure, a gap of 10 levels between Warriors and Paladins, but that's not that much in the grand scheme of things at those levels.

All that has changed though with 4.0.1 and the loss of Swipe until level 36! A whole 20 levels later. This leaves a fledgling bear tank [level 16-23] with the following abilities that could be used for tanking:

• Maul [Heroic Strike equivalent]
• Mangle [nice single target damage, which was once not available until level 50 through talents]
• Demoralizing Roar
• arguably Thorns [which has been nerfed from a 10 minute duration to 20 seconds...]

I say 16-23 above because a druid actually gains no new abilities useful for tanking - that I can see - until Faerie Fire at level 24! Then, at level 25 they can use Glyph of Maul to add a second target to their maul attack [on a 3 second cooldown, with heavy rage cost]

To me, I can only think that to be able to tank more than 1 or 2 targets comfortably, a druid would need to run in with Regrowth and Renew ticking away, cast Demo Roar, and start tab mauling. If a DPS player even thinks of using a multi-target attack until level 36when a bear is tanking, then things may end up very nasty.

I honestly don't know what Blizzard was thinking - and I applaud any Bear that can tank well in those early levels.

Awesome news!

My originally unpublished rant is now null and void based on a blue post by Zarhym:

I provided an update in the lengthy thread about Master riding, so in case it gets missed I'm throwing it up in its own non-sticky thread for now.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27187849344&sid=1&pageNo=28

I have a slight update to spread to the masses. We are going to be adding a hotfix for the achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been. This hotfix will make it so that obtaining the Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake will award players Master riding.

The way in which 310% will be awarded is going to be a little quirky at first, but we plan to make it a more smooth process in a future patch. For now, you will need 280% flying in order to learn to use the Violet Proto-Drake. Once you mount the drake for the first time it will teach Master riding. The only catch is that you have to dismount and mount the drake again in order for 310% speed to take effect.

 Phew.

Then, it turns out that Anzu the Raven god now requires no summoning - I can try and get that mount too now. Yup, great news for mount collection and stuff (:

Grumbles and Moans

Please Note: This was a post I made but decided not to publish it because it was a bit too moany, even for me... However, recent news has made me OK with posting it now.

Bit of a grumble here.
One of the things I'm a bit pissed off about is missing out no free 310% mount speed on my Paladin. Sure, I have it on my original main - my rogue - but not on Baberth.
Why am I pissed off? I'm short 1 section of an achievement, which is part of a meta, which is part of the What a Long Strange Trip it's Been achievement.
The part that I am missing is the Hallowed Helm for the Sinister Calling achievement, This would have gotten me the All Hallow's Eve meta and in turn the full year one. I farmed the horseman daily for the entirety of the holiday last year, and spoke to innkeepers every chance I got. I saw it once - and lost the roll.
My irk is doubled by the fact that the event starts next week! [I'm sure it's next week - can't check at work] Then, I could have farmed the shit out the instance and innkeepers and hopefully gotten it.

But no, it is not to be.
Sure, I'll get my violet protodrake, but I'll need to drop 5000g to get the 310% speed ):