What Bear? I Don't See Any Bear

Other than an irritating case of insomnia, I'm not really sure what posessed me to do this, but for some reason I'm in the mood to make a blog post. I don't know if anybody actually still subscribes to this (as I sincerely doubt anyone would read this if their feed reader didn't pull it in for them), but eh, what the heck. And to ensure nobody ever checks back here ever again, I'll write about the most boring topic I possibly can. . . what's been happening these last 6+ months.

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Well, first of all, the reason it has been so long since I last posted. I primarily used this blog as a way to keep my mind busy while at my mind-numbingly secluded and boring job. This job, as I'm sure I mentioned at least once, was as a research engineer for General Motors. Well, anyone who knows how to turn on a TV or read a newspaper headline knows, american car manufacturers (and in fact the economy in general) are in the toilet right now. And as a result of this, I, and about a third of my fellow contract employees, were flushed as a result. And as of right now, I still don't have a job (and bonus points, my wife lost her job about a month later. We have Gov. Patterson's crack economic decisions and education budget slashing [that is, decisions made while ON crack] for that one), but I'm forever looking, with renewed vigor every time the bill collectors get more aggressive (like, for example, the power company employees I chased off today as they tried to shut off our power). And as a bit of cruel irony, a large part of our current budget woes comes from the car payments we are making for our GM-built car we bought last year.

Anyhow, one plus side of being unemployed is that when I've exhausted my job search options on any given day, I have LOTS of extra time for WoW. As it turns out, Jasminne won the "election" for WotLK main character. The deciding factor? I also left Prophecy, opting to fully dedicate myself to The Ugly Future. Alas, that guild kinda fell apart as people got burned out on the game, but just before that happened, I reunited with some of the folks I really enjoyed the company of in Prophecy, so when the call was made to disband, I already knew where my new home would be. It wasn't long before I found myself in an officer position again (despite having promised myself I would never be a guild officer again, given some. . . unpleasant experiences with guild leadership), and we're now well on our way in Ulduar, having defeated everything on the way to, and including, Auriaya. And bonus, our small 10-man raiding guild is growing well, and we're just about big enough to become a 25-man raid guild. I must admit, I personally enjoy the 10-man runs much more (and my computer has MUCH less of an issue rendering them), but I am a bit of a gear whore (really, you have to be if you're a tank), so still look forward to being able to get the higher quality 25-man gear.

As for my other characters? Well, after getting Jasminne to 80 and geared, I figured it would be a good idea to have a healer ready for when tanks are abundant, but healers are in short supply (you know, the days ending in "Y"). So I cranked Kornaq through Northrend, specced him resto, and, while I much prefer tanking, I have to admit he's kind of fun to heal on. I just wish boss' hit boxes weren't so big in ulduar, whenever I try to chainheal the tank to get some heals on the melee, nobody is actually in range of the jumps! I also levelled up Kibler, my hunter, to have a DPS toon, but mostly because he also became my only miner, as I dropped Jasminne's mining to pick up blacksmithing (yeah, I'm one of those min/maxed profession tanks, so sue me). As such, I just finished levelling up my warlock, Kirari, and have just started trying to gear him up to be my new primary DPS toon (Yes, I could dual spec Jasminne to ret, and I HAVE dual specced Kornaq elemental, but I really enjoy the affliction warlock playstyle, and I HATE melee DPS).

Unfortunately, I just can't drive myself to gear up my little gnome. I just haven't been able to get my heart into PuGging heroics. Part of it is that I've already geared out 3 level 80s, and was already working on a fourth, my wife's priest. But more importantly, I'm feeling more and more like an emo kid each day, and ironically, depression does NOT make me want to play a class that cuts itself on a reglar basis. Go fig.

Anywho, I guess this was the part where I wrapped up my typing, hunted down a semi-topical image to put on the post, and filled in some keywords. I'll go ahead and get on that. And who knows, maybe I wont take half a year to post again next time. Maybe.

Continue reading 'What Bear? I Don't See Any Bear'

Yet Another PvP Gear Rant

Yep, again. This time, I'm moved to speak by a recent post by the guy who (indirectly) got me into blogging: The Big Bear Butt himself, who seems to have a number of misgivings about the gear system, himself.

Now, while I've spoken a number of times about how I dislike the alternative routes by which a person can obtain epics of equal or greater value than the raid gear available to myself, I feel like I have yet to really hit the nail on the head. Not only do I feel like I keep coming out of it misunderstood and misrepresented, but I feel that I have yet to even fully pin down why I loathe PvP and badge gear in my own mind. I just know that I do. But bear with me, while I try once again.

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I've come to realize that my problem isn't that the PvP gear system is "E-Z mode Epix", but is instead that most people seem to BELIEVE thats the case. And because of that, everybody and their brother, especially these days, seems to do nothing but grind out PvP gear. Now sure, there are plenty of people who enjoy PvP, but I see people who hate it even more than I do in there, every stinking day, grinding out honor and Arena points (And shush, I know you can't truly grind out Arena points, just like you can't grind out Vashj drops). And while 90% of my guild, and the server as a whole, is in doing PvP instances, my PvE oriented self rarely, if ever, gets to do a 5-man instance run or, god forbid, a Kara badge run.

Quick sidenote: I still hate the fact that there are badge rewards better than the T5 gear I currently wear. I absolutely loathe that I have to grind Karazhan to keep up with my guildmates in gear, even if I make it to every single raid we have, simply because you can get better gear running Kara than you can running SSC/TK. But, as BBB said, "If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying, to use an old Marine (or Navy) saying… meaning, if you’re not using every advantage you can to win, you didn’t deserve to in the first place." Of course, that requires actually getting badges, which requires getting people to do PvE instances (unless, of course, blizzard decides to replace battleground tokens with heroic badges, which ironically would both enable me to upgrade my gear more easily, while simulatneously making me hate the system even more).

So anyhow, its not that I begrudge people that want to do PvP the opportunity, but instead is the fact that the people I used to run instances with (On, mind you, a PvE server) are no longer available because they're too busy grinding in PvP for the next "Phat Purp", because for a server like mine, PvP gear is the best raiding gear you're going to get your hands on. Sure, if you happen to be in a guild that has Illidan on farm and is working through Sunwell Plateau, the only reason you need to PvP is if you want to be good at PvP, or get PvP gear for, you guessed it, PvPing. Though honestly, I haven't compared the season 4 gear to top end raiding gear, so even that may not be true any more *shrug*.

Wait a second, this sounds familiar. A die-hard PvEer, complaining that the people that do PvP get an unfair advantage outside of PvP? Now is it just me, or was it only a couple years ago that the PvP community was constantly complaining that raiders, in their shiny T2/2.5/3 epics, had an unfair advantage in battlegrounds? I mean, I could be dead wrong here, having never been a PvP-oriented person myself (Like I would be a druid back then if I was . . . ), but I'm fairly certain I remember hearing a rather loud volume of QQ over the gear imbalance back in the day. And while it isn't completely the same (Top-end PvP gear is comparable to top-end PvE gear, as opposed to towering over it in quality), I think the similarity bears mention.

But there's another factor in play here. Like I said, people used to complain about top-end raiders decimating PvP with their overpowered gear. That was before resilience. Nowadays, raiding gear is really only good for raiding. PvPing in raid gear these days is like healing in a moonkin set: It's technically possible, and better than nothing, but if you want to be any good you really need to get a set of gear tailor made for the task at hand. The reason for this is resilience. When Blizzard introduced resilience rating to the game, it changed the face of PvP forever (well, not quit forever, but we'll get to that). It used to be that a huge health total was the hallmark of a good PvPer. Nowadays, that huge health pool needs to be augmented with a huge chunk of resilience rating to do you any good. And guess what, 99% of raid gear has exactly 0 resilience on it. So while your 50% crit rate and 4000 attack power might have made you a ganking God back in the day, the guy you just attacked with 350+ resilience is going to /laugh and /spit in your face when he absolutely rips you apart.

Now, to a degree, resilience also limits the usefulness of PvP gear in raiding. After all, resilience eats up item budget, but is a (near) useless stat in PvE. However, as any decent feral druid will point out, having a part of your item budget spent on a useless stat *coughintellectcough* does not necessarily make an item useless. Missing a vital stat entirely, on the other hand (Sunwell T6 feral pieces with no stamina during beta testing, anybody?) does. Thus, we have this double standard, where the PvE gear I get from raiding wouldn't really help me in PvP, should I decide to cross over, the Gladiator gear Joe Schmoe got from PvP allows him to keep up with my raiding gear rather nicely. But, from what I hear, that won't last forever. . . supposedly, Blizzard is looking to remove Resilience in WotLK. A move which, ironically, will help raiders more than it helps the PvPers who complained about the stat in the first place.

So, there you have it. My current two complaints about PvP gear: it kills (or at least seems to kill) the instancing pool, and PvP gear functions much better in PvE than PvE gear does in PvP.

PS: The next time someone tells me I should just go grind PvP gear to equip my alts, instead of complaining about a lack of people willing to run 5-mans, I'm going to smash my keyboard upside their head until they hear me when I say I don't like PvP in this game, I do not like it Sam I Am. . . er, wait, what?

/equip flame retardant suit

Continue reading 'Yet Another PvP Gear Rant'

The Jump To Heroics

Ah, heroic dungeons. Every time I level up a new character nowadays, one of the things I look forward to is getting them into heroic runs, both because the loot is better, and the challenge is. . . well, existant. Honestly, whenever I run a nonheroic instance, even on a character who isn't decked out in blues and purples yet, I look forward to one of two equally unappealing outcomes: The group is good, and the instance is a snorefest, or the group is BAD, and the instance run makes me want to tear my hair out.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago (yeah, I miss posting 5 times a day too), Jasminne hit the big 7-0. And much to my surprise, it was only a couple of days until she found herself decked out in blues from doing a few select quests, grinding some rep, and buying some BoEs from the Auction House. I found myself going through the nonheroic instance loot lists, and thinking to myself "Wow, these are extremely minor upgrades, at best". And yet, I look at my stats and cringe: 12k health, 12.5k armor, 45% avoidance. . . the only decent stat I have is my spelldamage! Great, I'm a tank who can hold aggro just fine, until I die to a trio of lucky 4k hits. Hence my current dilemma: I'm stuck in-between normal instances and heroics!

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So what is a tank to do, faced with such abysmal stats? Well, fortunately this isn't the first time I've faced this dilemma, but since Surania was in this situation well over a year ago, I had forgotten about it. Not to mention that at the time Surania was first hitting heroics, it was the norm to struggle running them. Heck, I can remember the excitement I felt the first time I got asked to tank a run for what was THE raiding guild on the server at the time, and how amazed I was at how few wipes we experienced by the time we finally killed. . . Quagmirran!

Alas, these days most people are used to Kara/PvP geared epic tanks with 16k+ health and tons of avoidance and mitigation. Nobody wants the scrub who just got his first set of blues to tank. Heck, if I were a healer/DPS, *I* wouldn't want me to tank particularly! But like I said, to get the gear I really need to run heroics the way people are accustomed to running them, I have to get the gear FROM those heroics. But how?

Well, your first option is to just keep chugging away at those nonheroic runs, using them to grind reputation with various factions for their rewards. But if your server is like mine, you'll never get enough Shadow Lab runs to buy that sweet spelldamage mace, or Tempest Keep runs for that lovely shield, or Steam Vault runs for the ever-so-sexy hammer. Grinding rep with the Aldor/Scryers for your shoulder enchant, or the Shattered Sun for an epic necklace and shield, is a reasonable pursuit, but many factions are likely to be out of reach (and anyhow those faction grinds are obnoxiously long). So, back to the drawing board. . .

New approach. First of all (and this applies at all points in your WoW career), know what the hell you're doing. I've always said that Skill > Spec > Gear, and even in a situation like this, where your gear is a major limiting factor, I hold that to be true. Skill can make up for a lot of blue gear, especially when it comes to knowing those fun little tricks to things like Dash Pulling or rezzing people while tanking. For example, last night Jasminne tanked heroic Slave Pens. An easy instance for most of us, but let me tell you that she was just BARELY staying vertical. And one of the biggest saving graces for me was being able to use my bubble, even while tanking (Note: if you are a tank, you should have a macro set up for divine shield that both casts DS and /cancelaura's it. Hit it once to put up the bubble, hit again to drop it). My bubble saved my butt many times, including a couple times I bubbled to give the healer time to bring my health back up, then broke bubble just before the mobs got to said healer and tossed my shield at them to regain their attention, and the time I dumped Rokmar on the poor enhancement shaman long enough to get a heal and drop the debuff (poor guy got hit for 95% of his health, bet he's glad for every point of stam his gear had!)

Secondly (and this applies doubly to Paladins), you have to remember your crowd control. Yes, this coming from the guy who does 30 minute Heroic Shattered Halls runs with no CC for fun. The fact is, if you dont have the gear to survive getting beaten on by half a dozen heroic mobs at a time, you need to not be GETTING hit by half a dozen mobs at a time. I think that as Jasminne I surprise people when I start putting up marks for sap, trap, and sheep on pulls, but I know that if I try to, for example, tank all 4 Bogstroks at once, I'm going to faceplant real quick. Don't be afraid to ask for unusual forms of crowd control, either. I'm sure that rogue will be glad to toss stuns on one of the mobs, and I know of at least one frost mage who revels in frost kiting mobs around SH just because.

Third, don't be afraid to go to Karazhan. No, you wont have the gear to maintank Malchezaar and Nightbane, but if you're in a decent set of blues, even if you're like me and have yet to reach crush immunity, you should do just fine as an offtank. Most of the trash in there is actually MORE survivable than your average heroic pull, and you probably have 2-3 healers there instead of just one (albeit one will be working on keeping the MT up as well). Of course, if your guild doesn't have Karazhan on farm yet, it may be a bit more challenging, but I assure you, it isn't going to be as bad as you think. And with 22 badges and at least 23 epics dropping on every full clear, you'll have TONS of opportunities to upgrade as you go!

As I mentioned, I'm still crushable. But thats not as big of a deal as you might think. Most of the fights in Karazhan aren't so bad that getting crushed occasionally will spell your doom. Crushing blows on Nightbane will mess you up, granted. Getting crushed by Netherspite can really hurt (though one of the effects of the red beam on that fight is actually a stacking defense boost, so you're not likely to stay crushable for long). And Prince Malchezaar in phase 2 will really mess up a crushable paladin. . . but at the same time, Prince Malchezaar has a huge Dual wield penalty during that phase, so even if you are for some reason trying to tank him in the crappy gear I have, you probably ARE crush immune during that phase. But I digress. . .

On a similar note, you could always try to get in to some heroic runs as an offtank, or respec to DPS or healing for them. You don't have to be the tank to pick up tanking gear, necessarily (though I would advise making sure the tank for said groups doesn't need what you're looking for). The fact of the matter is, its a lot easier to make a group run with undergeared DPS than it is to do the same run with undergeared tanks and (to a slightly lesser degree) healers. There's no shame in taking a slightly easier road to purple bliss. Just realize that running heroics as an undergeared tank can teach you a LOT about your class and capabilities!

And finally, some of us are lucky enough to be able to obtain crafted epics to tank in. There's a cloak thats great for starting bear tanks, some really nice plate bracers, a handful of beautiful belts (And if you happen to be a blacksmith or leatherworker, a set of matching boots), a couple of great stamina trinkets, etcetera. Sure, crafted epics will cost you a pretty penny, but these days its easy to do a week of dailies and buy a purple with the proceeds. And as an added bonus, some of those dailies have a chance of giving you a shiny Badge of Justice as a reward (Just don't count on getting them, so sayeth the paladin who has been at 34 badges for the last ten Supply Pouches, just one shy of a new cloak)

I leave you with one small piece of advice that I had to (re)learn the hard way. Remember that not all heroics are created equal. Slave Pens, Underbog, and the Mechanaar are good places to start earning epics. Shadow Labyrinth, Magisters' Terrace, and Black Morass are not. Continue reading 'The Jump To Heroics'

Two Tanks. . . This is Madness!

So, a couple days I posted about the tank shortage that seems to exist in my guild (and on the server, as well, though that may just be the "Tanks don't generally PuG" phenomenon). Well, far be it from me to just be part of the problem. I'm now also one of those level 70 tank ALTS that I spoke so much about. Yep, thats right, last night Jasminne dinged her last ding (until WotLK anyhow), and is my newest level 70 character. And additionally, despite my levelling her with the intent of her becoming my healing alt, recent developments are making it very likely that she will remain prot for a long time to come.

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Why the change of heart, you might ask? Well, it wasn't actually that I fell in love with paladin tanking (though I have to admit its fun, if a bit too easy at times). Nor was it that I decided I dislike healing (though I would still kinda prefer to have a resto druid over a holy paladin, I just didn't feel like levelling a second druid). The change of plans stems entirely from guild events. Prophecy once had four raid-ready paladins (maybe not four at once, but at least three). One, a high ranking member of the guild, got burned out on the game and left. Might be back someday, but I kind of doubt it at this point. Another, a personal friend of mine, had her computer blow up on her a couple months back, and she probably wont be able to afford another until Wrath comes out. A third we hired as a raiding paladin, but ultimately had to demote them because they couldn't come to raids often enough, and a couple weeks ago they quit entirely. And number four, who for a while now had been our primary prot paladin, had to leave because our raid times and his availability just didn't match up, and raiding with us was causing a huge strain on his life.

No big deal, right? We still have prot warriors and feral druids, and both of those classes can tank just fine. . . well, not exactly. You see, while Tier 4 content can legitimately be tanked fully by any of the three tanking classes, higher end content doesn't share that distinction (or would that be a lack of distinction? Meh.) The most commonly cited examples are Illidan and Reliquary of Souls, both of which put bears at a severe disadvantage due to our lacking shield block and spell reflect to deal with those bosses' special abilities. Kael'thas often makes that list too (Any bear who has been oneshotted by Magisters' Terrace's version of Kael on heroic knows about his deadly pyroblasts. . . he does it three times in a row in the "real" fight IIRC.)

But in addition to bear-unfriendly fights, there are a number of fights that practically REQUIRE a prot paladin to tank. Morogrim Tidewalker and High Astromancer Solarian. On top of that, Mount Hyjal is pretty much build around the assumption that every raid has at least one prot paladin in it, and while not required, Zul'Aman is also much, much easier with a paladin tank. So whats a guild to do when they're in this content (Yes, we're peeking into Mt. Hyjal these days, and have downed Rage Winterchill a couple of times now), but suddenly have no prot paladins to tank these fights?

Well, actually, the first thing we did was to have our guildmistress' Enhancement Shaman boyfriend switch mains from the shaman to his paladin, and then had the entire guild come together to gear the hell out of him. It's truly amazing what a group of people can do in short order when they set their mind to it, one week into the switch we had him tanking Hyjal waves. He's really doing a great job. . . but I have this thing about not hinging a guild's success on a single person. I, and a few others, really wanted to see us have at least two capable prot paladins, the second being more of a backup plan should the one we have not be able to come for whatever reason.

And what can I say, I'm a sucker for a challenge. While I'm not going to get geared up NEARLY as quickly as the other paladin was, I fully plan to make Jasminne that backup paladin. In fact, I have two distinct advantages over our current paladin tank: I have a lot of raid tanking experience under my belt already, and I have no need to gear Jasminne up to be a raid MAIN tank, as I already have a character fully able to fill that role. Crushing blows? Don't care. Paladin T4? Hell yeah, I'll tank in that!


. . . Oh God, what have I gotten myself into . . .

Continue reading 'Two Tanks. . . This is Madness!'

The Ten Commandments of the Raider (Reformed Raid Bible)

So. . . yeah, despite what you may have heard, the Rambling Bear is still alive and out there somewhere. Unfortunately, I haven't even had the time to keep up on my reading, let alone writing, of blog posts. But, as I'm stuck at work this weekend, I do at least have time to put the spit and polish on an article I started before Easter. So, I present to you the Raider's Ten Commandments:

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1: Thou Shalt Raid With No Other Guild Before Me. When you joined a raiding guild, one of the conditions you agreed to (explicitly or implicitly) was to raid WITH that guild. For some of you, this may be a "No, duh?" comment, but others of you know exactly what I'm talking about. There are people out there who sign up to raid with one guild, then end up spending raid nights running with another group. Thats not to say you shouldn't be able to raid with other people, but don't do it when your guild needs you, and don't go raiding content your guild is still running with another guild or group. And if you do, don't be surprised when you find your spot permanently filled by someone else.

2: Thou Shalt Not Make thyself an Ignoramus. Some guilds choose not to follow written strategies for boss fights, instead preferring to learn encounters the hard way. I have absolutely nothing against those who choose to play that way, and in fact even envy you a bit. Most guilds, however, prefer to use all resources available to them to progress, and instead focus on execution of proven battle plans. So, unless your guild is the sort that goes in blind, do us all a favor and read up on encounters BEFORE you come to them. There is little more irritating than having to explain a boss fight multiple times because one or two people don't know how a fight goes. Its a huge waste of time, when a group of 25 informed raiders could get by on a 5 minute overview of a fight just to get roles assigned.

And on that same note, a raider should also not be ignorant as to the workings of their own class. Now, as a blogger, I'm preaching to the choior here, but I'm sure we've all experienced people who, for example, don't know what a misdirect is (that hunter didn't last long in the guild), or don't know what is meant by "Judge Light on the Tin Man" (Likewise with that paladin, I believe). While levelling and running 5-mans, folks can get away with half-assing it, but raiders need all the advantages they can get if they ever want to get far in endgame.

3: Thou Shalt Not Take the Raid's Time in Vain. This one is a bit of a catch-all. Don't show up late to raids. Don't go AFK after every boss attempt *glares at a certain shaman*. Don't wait for the rezzers to run back, run with them (unless you have a good reason). Time limits are a big limiting factor in raiding, between hard limits like respawns and enrages, and soft limits like curfews, jobs, and just plain mental fatigue. Sometimes delays are unavoidable, because the baby just puked in your lap, the dog is about to crap on the floor, or the missus is about to lop your head off if you don't take out the trash NOW! But if you're interrupting the raid every 10 minutes for things like that, perhaps you shouldn't have signed up for that particular raid.

4: Remember the Consumables and Keep Them Handy. I'll be the first to admit that I don't use consumables all that much. Farm content doesn't really require it, at least at my level of play. However, if I'm maintanking in a 25-man I'm damned sure to chug some elixirs and eat some food. Or if we're working on a boss that we don't have on farm yet. Progression content is where your entire raid really needs to be sure to take every advantage you can get. Yes, flasks, elixirs, buff food, weapon oils, potions, and the like are all very expensive. Get over it, raiding is expensive. Always use your consumables on tough fights, and for God's sake, pack enough with you to last the night. In fact, pack twice what you think you'll need, because most people seem to underestimate what they'll go through, and even if you heavily overestimate, that just means you can help cover for the schmuck who didn't pack enough.

5: Honour Thy Guildmaster and thy Raid Leaders. There is a time and a place for bringing up issues with the guild and how things are done. Raid time is not that time, and the middle of a 25-man instance is not that place. If you have a suggestion for how something can be done better, by all means suggest it. But if the raid leader chooses not to take that advice, suck it up. You can debate the issue all you want after the raid, but during the raid, be a good little soldier and follow orders. Even if your ideas really ARE good, you'll just cause more problems than you'll solve by picking a fight with the leadership mid-run.

6: Thou Shalt Not Kill the Fun. Repeat after me: "Its a game. Its only a game. Games are not work. Games are fun. I will have fun. I will let my friends have fun." Good. Now, if you AREN'T enjoying a raid, don't go and ruin it for everybody else by screwing around and not pulling your weight. Either get yourself replaced, or suck it up and deal. You're not participating in a 25-man team "sport" to be selfish, young man!

7: Thou Shalt Not Commit if you Can't Come. Here's a hypothetical (if just barely) situation for you. 26 people sign up for a raid. 25 of them get accepted into the group, and the 26th decides to cut his losses and go out with some friends since there's no room for him. Except, come raid time, raider25 isn't there, because he forgot he had to go see his Aunt Bernice tonight. Nobody is online who can replace raider25, and the whole raid gets cancelled (and its too late for raiders1-24 to make other plans, to boot). I've seen this sort of thing occur far too many times, and its quite preventable. Always make sure you really CAN come to a raid before you sign up. Don't sign up "just in case", or at the very least make your situation known to the raid leader beforehand.

8: Thou Shalt Not Steal From the Guild Bank. The guild bank is a great tool for furthering a guild's raiding goals. In prophecy, it is a place to both share commonly used materials among guildies, as well as a place to stockpile BoE blues, Nethers, Flasks, Elixirs, Buff Foods, Oils, and the like for when they're in short supply. Certainly, if you find yourself in need of something from the guild bank, you should make use of what you have available to you. But don't abuse the privelege and, say, have the guild bank provide your raid consumables every single day, unless you're also conributing just as much. For example, I personally have been bad about this lately, and have been using the guild bank to restock my elixirs and potions. Which sounds especially strange considering I'm an alchemist, but unfortunately my mage has seen little playtime lately, and he is my herbalist. But, at other times in the guild's history, I have also been a huge contributor, having payed a large amount out of pocket for tabs when the banks were first introduced, provided elixirs for entire raids for a few weeks back when I first became an Alchemist, and once the mage gets to 70, I fully plan on paying the bank back in full for all of the mooching I've done as of late. Treat it like a bank, not a welfare line.

9: Thou Shalt Not Bear Ill Will Against thy Neighbor's Epics. Seriously guys, they're purple pixels on a screen, created by a string of 1's and 0's on a server somewhere. Don't get all huffy because the enhancement shaman got his DST before you, or you're the only Warrior/Druid/Priest without your T5 shoulders. Remember that even if you don't PERSONALLY recieve an item, every gear upgrade recieved by a guildmate makes your raiding team as a whole stronger, and is thus still of benefit to you personally. Sure, your gear can be a point of pride for gamers, but if all you want are shiny items to wear, why are you gambling on gear dropping in a raid, when there are plenty of equally shiny pieces to be gotten with Honor, Arena Points, and Badges that are sure things?

10: Thou Shalt Not Covet thy Neighbor's Meter Ranking. Damage meters, healing meters, and whatever all other meters people look at can be a useful tool for raid leadership at times (Especially if you use a tool like recount, like I do, and get to see things like the hunter that fired off 27 Aimed Shots on a Gruul fight, or the time the tank died on Nightbane because he got no heals for 9 seconds). But competing for the top spot on meters is the sure way to drive a healer OOM, or to push a DPSer to out-threat the tank. Sure, a little friendly competition can be good at times, but hide the meter during the run, at the very least. Play smart, and remember you're there to beat the boss, not to beat your friends.
Continue reading 'The Ten Commandments of the Raider (Reformed Raid Bible)'

Epic Tanking Weapons. Yep, All Three!

So, I was recently surprised to see someone say that the Earthwarden was a druid tank's best option until the legendary LOL that is the Pillar of Ferocity. And while I'm not sure if he felt that the weapon commonly regarded as our best tanking staff (Wildfury Greatstaff) was inferior to the Earthwarden, or if he simply didn't know about it since its a trash drop, I felt compelled to compare the three items formally.

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The Suspects:
All translated values assume a standard spec with all tanking talents taken.

Earthwarden
Drops From: Cenarion Expedition Exalted Reputation
500 Armor
39 Stamina
27 Defense Rating
24 Expertise Rating
712 Feral AP

--Which Translates To--

0.46% Crit Reduction
2750 Bear Armor
0.91% Avoidance
663 HP
712 AP
3.05% More Accuracy (Dodge/Parry Reduction)


Wildfury Greatstaff
Drops From: Serpentshrine Cavern Trash
500 Armor
75 Stamina
54 Dodge Rating
992 Feral AP

--Which Translates To--

2750 Bear Armor
2.86% Avoidance
1275 HP
992 AP


Pillar of Ferocity
Drops From: Anetheron (Hyjal Summit, Second Boss)
550 Armor
47 Strength
96 Stamina
1059 Feral AP

--Which Translates To--
3025 Bear Armor
1632 HP
1166 AP


Round 1: Earthwarden V. Wildfury Greatstaff

Earthwarden Advantages:
0.46% Crit Reduction
3.05% More Accuracy (Dodge/Parry Reduction)

Wildfury Greatstaff Advantages:
1.95% Avoidance
612 HP
180 AP

The Lowdown: Crit immunity comes first. If you ned that defense on Earthwarden to stay crit immune, by all means stick with it for the timebeing. However, once you find a way to replace that with a few gems or some PvP bracers (for examples), the story changes. Earthwarden's only advantage here is the 3% effective hit provided via Expertise (and some slight avoidance via reduction in parrys, though not enough to make up the 2% gap). Assuming 2500 AP and 30% crit with the Earthwarden, if we plug in the threat stats into the handy, dandy threat calculator, we find that the hit and AP almost exactly cancel each other out (Wildfury comes out 1 TPS ahead). So it appears that Wildfury is a cut-and-dry upgrade from Earthwarden, with more health, more avoidance, and the same average threat.

Hold on, though, don't go vendoring that hammer just yet. There are situations where you just might want to swap it in: Pick-ups. No, not those horrendous groups of slackers you get for 3AM Steamvault runs, I'm talking about picking up mobs on pulls and after threat dumps. Three percent more effective hit makes it much less likely your Maul/Mangle combo will miss. Lets say you have 82% effective hit without EW, and 85% with it. Earthwarden increases the chance both Maul and Mangle will hit from 67.2% to 72.3% (Yes, 5% more likely, funny how that works huh?), and reduces the chance both will MISS from 3.24% to 2.25%, which means more than 1 in 4 of your double-whiffs would no longer happen, causing a very sensitive threat situation. Normally, this isn't a big deal, but on threat-sensitive fights like Hydross and Leotheras, losing a bit of mitigation for some increased threat reliability can be a very good idea. And you can always switch back to the Wildfury once you've picked up your target.


Round 2: Wildfury Greatstaff V. Pillar of Ferocity

Wildfury Greatstaff Advantages:
2.86% Avoidance

Pillar of Ferocity Advantages:
275 Bear Armor
357 HP
174 AP

The Lowdown: First of all, lets remember where the Pillar drops: Early T6 content. At that point, most bear tanks are already going to be butting up against, if not exceeding, the armor cap, making the extra armor on the Pillar more or less useless. Even if we don't take that into consideration, though, 275 armor isn't a whole heck of a lot (Probably about 0.6% less damage taken), and even combined with the 357 extra health the Pillar affords us, I would much rather be hit 3% less often, thankyouverymuch. So even though the Pillar drops from a later instance, its actually the inferior mitigation weapon.

But, as with the Earthwarden V. Wildfury comparison, the Pillar of LOL does have one redeeming quality: Superior threat generation. If we assume the same basic stats as before, Wildfury would boost our threat by about 31 TPS. Not a whole heck of a lot, but if you're really struggling to stay ahead of your DPSers on threat, it might be an option to swap this in. As a bonus, you'll be getting hit more as well, so will have extra rage to work with (Yeah, even lower mitigation can be an advantage sometimes).


Round 3: Earthwarden V. Pillar of Ferocity

Earthwarden Advantages:
0.46% Crit Reduction
0.91% Avoidance
3.05% More Accuracy (Dodge/Parry Reduction)

Pillar of Ferocity:
275 Bear Armor
969 HP
454 AP

The Lowdown: So, since Wildfury wins out against both of its competitors, I guess we should go ahead and compare Earthwarden, obtainable via rep, to the Pillar, obtainable through deep endgame raiding. The good news is, the Pillar comes out ahead in my opinion. The bad news? Not by much. In terms of threat, I'd call it even between the Expertise rating of the Earthwarden and the extra AP on the Pillar, as the pillar's overall threat advantage is counterbalanced by the earthwarden's higher reliability. In terms of mitigation, though, I would actually have to give the advantage to the Earthwarden. The Pillar's armor gives about 0.6% less damage per hit, granted, but assuming you're around 50% dodge, the 0.9% avoidance on the EW actually translates to about 1.8% fewer swings landing (I refer you again to "The Diminishing Returns is a Lie")

Why, then, to I give the Pillar top billing on this matchup? Nearly 1000 more health, thats what. While I'm a firm believer in getting enough health and then focusing on mitigation, that amount of health would take over 5 Solid Stars of Elune to make up, and thats a lot of gems I could switch from, say, +12 stamina to +8 agi to make up the avoidance difference.


Putting It All Together

So, in terms of overall quality as a tanking weapon, it seems that the Wildfury Greatstaff is better than the Pillar of Ferocity, which in turn is an upgrade from the Earthwarden. Not surprising results, really, as most druids already knew that the Pillar is one of the worst itemized pieces of gear Blizzard has ever come up with. Not that the Living Root of the Wildheart is terribly incredible either, mind you. Seriously, though, hold on to that Earthwarden for making those critical pick-ups, since having a bit less mitigation is always preferable to that mob going and beating on a clothie or three because your aim sucked. Continue reading 'Epic Tanking Weapons. Yep, All Three!'

Respecs: Bad for (the Raiding) Business

Respeccing is a fact of life in WoW. There are very few people who have not, at one time or another, gone to our class trainer and clicked that unlearn talents button, paid our money, and seen our spec return to whence it came. At the very least, most people have spent a gold on fixing some misclicks made while levelling, or to switch from their levelling spec to an endgame spec of choice. In this respect, the respec is a valuable tool to all players. But there is a price to pay for the infinite availability of respecs (aside from gold; Lets face it, 50 gold is chump change in Outland), and that price is paid most heavily by the raiding guilds.

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Now, to be fair, there are some great advantages to be reaped, even by the raiding guilds. Respecs allow raiders to switch from a grinding-oriented DPS spec into a more raid-focussed one, by dropping raid-unworthy talents like Spirit Tap, Wand Specialization, or Improved Voidwalker, to pick up more raid-focused talents (well, ok, Spirit Tap is a bad example, as the only other alternative is actually even LESS useful in raids, generally speaking). It also allows healers and tanks to use a DPS spec to level, and then switch to healing/tanking once they hit the level cap (At least warrior tanks, Prot pallys and feral druids are great at levelling).

It also allows for flexibility when a particular character encounters a fight for which their spec of choice might be a disadvantage. Warlocks, for example, might choose to spec affliction when learning the Gruul encounter to improve their DPS on such a high mobility fight. On hydross, however, they may decide to spec full-on destruction due to the problems that any form of damage over time can cause on transitions. And when you get to Leotheras? Better have someone specced SL/SL to tank demon form!

However, especially early on in Prophecy's raiding, respecs tended to be more of a curse than a blessing. Our number one problem, which has thankfully become less so as time goes on, has been healers respeccing to DPS roles. Oh, sure, it usually starts out as a "oh, just let me go feral this week, I'll switch back next time", or "I just want to see how I do on the meters as Ret". But for a long time, it seemed like any time any of our healers got a taste of damage-dealing, they were lost to it forever. Strangely, we never had that problem with tanks, but that may just be a part of the masochistic mindset we have.

Even DPSers respeccing, though, can be problematic. First of all, even when switching from one DPS spec to another, a character's gear will generally be subpar for their new playstyle. An affliction warlock's gear doesn't have the crit required to make Destruction really pay off, and a beast master hunter wont have NEARLY the agility of an equivalently geared survival hunter. But, even if a player has gone through the effort ahead of time to collect appropriate gear for their new spec, they aren't going to be on top of their game until they get used to the new spec. The affliction->destruction warlock is likely to pull threat more often due to his newfound burst threat from his shadowbolts, and that BM hunter is going to have to get used to a more involved shot rotation, for example.

Possibly the biggest hassle, however, isn't something the individual player has to deal with, but instead goes up the chain of command to the person in charge of filling the guild's roster. You cant just take 3 of each class blindly from a guild and call that a raid, you have to look at each person's chosen role, both the holy trinity positions of Healer/Tank/DPS, and the more specific benefits any particular spec brings to a raid. That hunter from before might have the gear, and the skill, to play a successful survivalist, but if the guild is already bringing two SV hunters to every raid, and he was the only person able to give the physical DPS group Ferocious Inspiration, it doesn't matter if he is the best survival hunter in the world, he is gimping the raid.

Personally, I have offered on many occasions to respec to full restoration to help the guild when we've been short on healers. And on all but one occasion, I've been turned down, or made to respec back to feral after one raid. The biggest reason my guild is so reluctant to let me heal is that they've come to rely on me as one of the most reliable tanks they have. By respeccing to heal, even though I have solid (though not optimized for resto spec) healing gear and a decent (if somewhat rusty) knowledge of the role, I would be leaving a hole in the guild's roster that is hard, if not impossible, to fill.

So remember, next time you're thinking about a major respec to your raiding characters: Its not just about your personal performance in raids, but about how well your unique skill set works with the rest of your raid. 25 FotM characters does not generally lead to a balanced, functional raid group. Continue reading 'Respecs: Bad for (the Raiding) Business'

Badge Reward Epics: Do Not Want!

So, information is starting to come out regarding the 2.4 patch. We already knew about the new 5- and 25-man instances we were getting. We had heard there was going to be a new legendary bow (Seriously though, blizzard, whats with the utter lack of legendaries in Outland?). And now, the floodgates are opening, and we're getting all sorts of information on specifics, Sunwell opening quests, class changes, 8-piece extensions on T6, Tier 6 quality badge rewards. . .

T6 badge rewards? Pardon me while I die a little inside. . . thats just not right.

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Now, first off, let me get one thing out in the open here. I could care less about what Joe Schmoe of Kokomo has for gear. People used to get all upset because they couldn't get epics in what has come to be called Vanilla WoW without either raiding with 39 of their closest friends, or PvPing for 30 hours a day to climb the ladder. Blizzard listened, and gave more casual players avenues for acquiring epic gear: heroic instances, badge rewards, crafted epics, a completely revamped PvP point system, and arena. Lets face it, in the Outland, purple is the new blue. But whatever, color is color.

Fast forward to 2.3. Among the changes to the game are new badge rewards, equivalent to the gear that drops in The Eye and Serpentshrine Cavern. Honestly, I probably would have had the same issue with this that I do with the upcoming badge rewards, being much higher quality (T5) than what the content one runs to get it would dictate (Karazhan and Heroic Instances). At the time, though, I was distracted by the fact that two pieces of new badge gear would effectively "plug" two gaping holes in feral tank itemization: Bracers and Idol.

So, what do I care, anyhow? I already said I dont care what other people are wearing, and this new gear doesn't hurt anybody in any way, only gives us new opportunities. Well, first of all, I consider each piece of my gear to be a mark of accomplishment. I wear my T4 Helm with pride, knowing that I earned it by being there for my guild's first ever Prince Malchezaar kill. A'dal's Signet of Defense sits proudly on my finger as a testament to my guild's first slaying of the pit lord Magtheridon, shutting down the source of the Fel Orc menace. My Waistguard of the Great Beast, on the other hand, is simply evidence that I found the time to farm Karazhan for badges for a few weeks. Whoopy doo.

Which brings me to my second reason: expectation. I know that right now, my gear is in great shape for tanking. In fact, other than my T4 chest (which I may never get to see, since I've only been able to attend that one Mags raid due to my schedule), I really dont have any upgrades to look forward to in the forseeable future. So you would think that I'd love to have new gear to work toward in 2.4, right? Wrong. Guess what, its NOT about the gear for me, thats not why I raid. I raid because I love the CHALLENGE of it, not the purple color of my gear text (which, as I already noted, can be gotten by pretty much anybody nowadays). Farming heroics and Karazhan for badges of justice is NOT a challenge to me, and it frankly pisses me off that I now will be expected to continue farming these places to replace my hard earned raid drops with better pieces that even somebody who can only run Heroic Slave Pens and Underbog can get.

Ok, so maybe I DO care about what other people are wearing, just a little bit *shrug*

Third, lets look at an interesting fact: casual content (Which I define as 5-man instances and Karazhan) can be done just fine with casual gear (Which I define as anything that does not come from a raid instance, raid reputation reward, or badge reward other than those TBC released with). The only people that need T5 and T6 quality items are guilds DOING T5 and T6 difficulty content. Quite frankly, having high-quality gear takes all the challenge out of the casual content anyhow. I tank most heroic runs and much of Karazhan in my kitty DPS gear just to make them go faster, for God's sake, I dont need full T6 to run Heroic Underbog! If people are having a hard time doing content without uber gear, thats GREAT, that gives them a challenge, something to work toward. Kind of like how raiders have to work hard to down new bosses, fancy that! And if they really, truly, want to do the equivalent of cheating by acquiring gear beyond what the instance was designed around, go ahead and farm honor/arena points and buy PvP rewards (My disgust for the fact that I should also force myself to do arena since my S3 gear is worlds better than my current raiding epics is another topic altogether.

I've heard some people put forward the thought that this gear can allow people to "catch up" to guilds raiding higher end content. And to a degree, they're right. A person will be able to farm badges and get T5/T6 quality gear to catch up with those who have loot from SSC/TK/Hyjal/BT. There are two problems with this line of thinking, though, which can be summed up in one of my very abbreviated philosophies: Skill > Spec >> Gear. Sure, you can get BT quality gear from badges, but when you really look closely at the difference between T4 and T6 gear, the difference isn't THAT great. A person in full Karazhan and Heroic gear isn't going to be topping the charts on Illidan, but I bet that if they had a decent amount of skill to back up that gear, they would make at least a respectable showing.

And more importantly, even if a level 70 could farm heroics for a full set of BT quality epics, I gurantee you that person, unless they have another raiding character of the same class and spec, is going to be extremely lacking in the skills you need for high end raiding. Whether you realize it or not, you learn valuable raiding skills while killing off Curator's sparks, clicking on Magtheridon's cubes, and dodging Void Reaver's balls *chortle*. Guilds dont take weeks learning a new boss because they're waiting to get enough gear upgrades, they take weeks because they need to learn the ins and outs of the fight, develop strategies, hone reflexes, and generally get better at the game.

If I had to sum up why I dont like the idea of T6 badge rewards in one short sentence, it would be this: Putting high-end raid quality rewards in G'erasMart helps least those who need the items the most, and helps most those who dont even need the items. Continue reading 'Badge Reward Epics: Do Not Want!'

Altoholicism: The Descent Into Addiction

Hi, my name is Surania, and I'm an Altoholic.

(Hi Surania)

I have a problem. I'm addicted to making alternate characters. Actually, I think its a deeper problem, I'm addicted to character progression. If I'm not somehow a little bit better, a little farther along every week, I start to lose interest, and start making new characters.

I first started developing my disorder when I was with Patronus Veritas. We had finally started to down Ragnaros in Molten Core, but were unable to get past Razorgore in BWL (We got past the egg phase exactly ONCE. . . with 6 people left standing). Surania's gear was good, certainly nothing left to upgrade in normal 5-man instances, so when I wasn't busy helping guildies get some gear, I started to level alternate characters. Between then and the release of The Burning Crusade, I managed to get three different characters to the mid-30 level range: Kirari (originally my bank/disenchanting alt), Chalith, and Tornaq (34 Shadow Priest). Thats as far as they got, though, because soon my mind was on levelling and gearing Surania, and rebuilding a guild whose leadership suddenly became my responsibility.

Surania occupied all of my time for quite a while. Lots of time was spent gearing her up, then gearing the rest of my guild up, then learning Karazhan. Eventually, the guild grew big enough that we started to plan for running two Kara groups per week. One problem I saw was warlocks: We only had one (And only had the one because I recruited an old raiding friend from PV after that guild fell apart when a major clique mass-quit the guild), and we had JUST started downing Aran and Illhoof, two fights where having a Warlock is damn near a necessity until you out gear it. And seeing this problem in the future, I decided to start hammering levels out on Kirari so I could gear him up and sub him in on those fights, and maybe Netherspite when we got to him for blue beam duty.

Around the time my warlock had hit 70 and gotten some decent starter raid gear, my fiancee started to get some decent levels on her priest. I decided that when she caught up to my mid-30s alts I should try to keep one of them at her level so I could play with her without just powering her through random instances on Surania. And thus, Chalith started gaining levels. I actually ended up racing ahead to 58 on him, because I decided to make him a gathering mule for Surania (Skinning/Herbalism to complement Surania re-levelling Leatherworking to make the SSC pattern boots while still keeping Alchemy since she has ALL the flask discoveries and the coveted Major Mageblood Elixir). He tends to only get played a few times a month, unfortunately, as the fiancee usually is kept busy with work, college, and other obligations, and often when she has free time, its at the same time I'm needed in Gruul/Magtheridon/SSC/TK/TLA.

When Kirari's upgrade opportunities became limited (I dont care to farm for Spellstrike mats/gold, and I dont get to run many heroics on him), it was time to start yet another alt. I decided, after trying to play him again, that priest just was NOT my class, so Tornaq was ignored in favor of a new class. Since I wanted to make a healer, but wasn't really into the ways of the shaman, I went with a Paladin, Jasminne. I got her to 41, I think, before patch 2.3 hit and introduced a new set of shinies to collect on Surania with heroic badges, and she is now 43 and holding, probably waiting to be my next 70 after Kibler gets geared.

Ah, Kibler. Kibler was created the day 2.3 came out. I saw someone link the new pet food pattern in guild chat excitedly, and my twisted mind decided that it would be fun to have a hunter named Kibler, with a pet named Bits. And so, I quickly made a hunter named Kibler to hold the name, with no intent to actually play the character. But, less than 2 weeks later, I got absolutely fed up with our guild hunters' propensity for NOT using Feign Death proactively and pulling aggro at exactly the wrong times and actually started playing her to, in my mind, show them how to play their dang class. And hot damn, did the levels pile on fast! I think it took me about 3 weeks total to get her to 70, due to the combination of new easy levelling (Unfortunately, pet levelling wasn't fixed until the week after she got her last ding) and the disgusting ease of playing a BM hunter. She's my current focus, though I'm sure it wont be long until she's "finished" and its time to kick the Paladin into high gear again, or start gearing up my Mage assuming the missus finds more time to play.

Anyone know of a good 12-step program?
Continue reading 'Altoholicism: The Descent Into Addiction'

Its an Armored Bear!

No, this isn't about The Golden Compass (Though I definitely enjoyed the movie, and it really made me wish we could choose fur color and display some armor on feral druids). Instead, I want to touch on one of the hot topics of the feral community. . . the Armor Vs Dodge Vs Stamina tank gear debate. There are roughly a trillion posts made each day on the druid boards touching on this subject, and in most cases they have valid, but narrow-minded points.

First off, there are those who base all of their gearing decisions on other people's theorycraft, such as Emmerald's Gear Guide. And sites like this can really prove to be a great resource, I personally use them to find hidden gearing gems I may have missed. But if you use the list to actually decide what gear to use, be careful. The lists are based around a specific set of stats, and disregard defense and resilience for crit immunity. Not to mention they attach no value to threat generation and other important, non-mitigation factors which, while a secondary concern of a bear tank, carry value nonetheless. Watch your stat balance, or you could easily end up with horribly lopsided stats and crit vulnerability.

I break down a tank's gearing into 4 phases of development: Levelling, Pre-kara, Karazhan/Heroics, and Post Karazhan. In my experience, each phase needs to focus on a different stat/stat balance for best effect. And given the number of times I have been told "You were the easiest tank I've ever had to heal" or "Take some damage, Surania, I'm bored!", I'd like to think my personal gearing philosophy is a good one. But enough flexing of the e-peen. . .

While levelling, tanking gear should be a peripheral concern, at best. Your tanking set is likely to be your DPS set, at least until you hit the outlands. Pick up high armor pieces when possible, ignore defense, and if you expect to be doing much tanking, lean more toward agility than strength for the extra dodge, but ultimately you should be able to tank instances just fine with very little tanking-specific gear.

When you hit 70, its time to start collecting tanking gear. At this point, you have 2 major goals: Build a full set of tanking gear (generally identified as gear with green armor values), and reach uncrittability; 103 resilience, 154 defense rating, or some combination of the two to hit -2.6% chance to recieve a critical strike. One of the biggest, and easiest, steps in this is to pick up a full Strength of the Clefthoof (Heavy Clefthoof) set. Many of your other pieces will come from quest rewards like Manimal's Cinch and Verdant Gloves. Others, like the clefthoof set and the incredible Badge of Tenacity can be found on the auction house. Oh, and dont forget to run LOTS of Steam Vaults (Or, once you get geared enough, heroic coilfang instances). . . The Earthwarden is going to be your best friend for a LONG time. Overall, by the time you start doing instances that drop epics, you should be shooting for at LEAST 12k health, 21k armor, and uncrittability, unbuffed. Dodge is great, but dont stress if you dont have much, armor and health are your best bets for now.

When you hit Karazhan and heroic instances, its time to focus your gearing efforts on armor, while also boosting your stamina a bit. This is where a lot of people start preaching the "all stamina, all the time" gospel, but frankly they're WRONG. Stamina does nothing but provide a time buffer for healers to get your back up. Its spike damage defense, and does nothing for your actual mitigation. As such, if you have enough, you dont need more, there IS such a thing as too much health (not that having too much is a BAD thing, but your item stats are better spent elsewhere once you have what you need). Nonetheless, boost your health to at least 13.5k or so, and crank up that armor (T4 gloves and helm are both great, and despite popular opinion, so are Zierhut's Lost Treads). Oh, and pick up Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch to go with your Badge of Tenacity, those two trinkets together give you a great alternative to a warrior's Shield Wall, on a 2 minute cooldown. Additionally, there are a TON of good tanking items to be bought with the badges that now drop like candy in Kara, including the new 2.3 batch of Tier 5 equivalent gear, and its crowning glory, the Idol of Terror, the first and only druid tanking MITIGATION idol. Once you have close to 14k stamina, and approximately 29k armor (and likely a good chunk of dodge too, without you even trying), you're ready to graduate from Karazhan (Even if your guild/group isn't).

And then we reach where I am currently, the post Karazhan club. This is where you pretty much drop armor out of the equation and start focusing on dodge and stamina. Yes, I am well aware that the armor cap is 35,880 armor, not 29,000, but I stop you there for two reasons. First, your armor will continue to increase with future upgrades anyhow, and second, this is where you hit the armor cap every time you get the Inspiration or Ancestral Healing buff. And while you cant count on those buffs always being active, they proc often enough when you have a few healers on you to cause armor to start to have signifigant diminishing returns (whereas before this, armor has a SLIGHT diminishing return only, the math of which I'll probably address eventually). So up your agility when you can, both to decrease the amount of healing you need and to increase your threat generation via crits, increase your stamina as needed, and dont forget to keep yourself crit immune, especially as you replace your heavy clefthoof gear.

Ultimately, it comes down to this: If you're dying to damage spikes, you need to boost up your stamina (assuming it isn't a problem with your healers). If your healers are running out of mana too fast, you need to up your mitigation via armor and dodge. And if you aren't having any problems at all, keep boosting your mitigation, and maybe switch to some gear with better threat generation to increase your DPS' ability to do their job. And of course, the numbers I give here are rough guidelines at best, your mileage may vary.

Happy Tanking!

Continue reading 'Its an Armored Bear!'