I had a really good weekend.
On Friday night I was invited to go along to 25-man Naxxramas with Felony, which is one of the top Alliance raiding guilds on my server. The invite came from a mage who has an alt in my guild - she advertised in one of our OOC channels that they were going to need some non-guildies to come along. I jumped on board, offering to come as either DPS or as a tank. She whispered me back a few moments later to tell me I would be tanking. I may have been a tiny bit excited.
I have never done a 25-man anything before (no wait, I lied, I've done 25-man Vault, but that almost doesn't count). I also had only done Naxx once before, a guild run during which we cleared all of Arachnid, Plague, and up to the Horsemen in the Military Quarter. So this was going to be a learning experience.
And I learned a TON. I failed at Heigan's safety dance - again. I did a good job picking up ads but should have been more focused on taunting more mobs off of the main tank on initial trash pulls. We had three tanks - something I've never experienced before - and I wasn't used to needing to coordinate that much, especially when the main tank and the other off tank had clearly run together before.
I did a lot of things right. I made a pretty decent save on the Horsemen fight, despite seeing it for the first time. I got the Thaddius fight down immediately, and was able to practice the fight two more times since we did wipe on that one (the raid leader referred to it as the "PuG killer," but we did finally down him and move on). I survived Patchwerk and managed not to look at my health as much as possible. Other than Thaddius, it was smooth sailing - we even needed only one try for Sapphiron - until Kel'Thuzad. We tried twice, but by then it was after the point at which the raid had planned to stop, and so it was called for the night.
Regardless, I made out with some truly phat lewts:
New Tanky Ring (good thing, I only had 1)
Belt with the crazy name (why did I spend those badges?!?)
Tank pants, which aren't ideal as they have block value, but were still a huge upgrade
... and ...
My tier chest. Z.O.M.G.
At that point I stopped rolling. I mean, I had to. A few other choice tank pieces dropped, but I felt like I'd taken too much in a raid that wasn't even for my own guild. After I got out, my guild's main tank happened to be online and he helped me with some socketing and enchanting choices, all leading to my shiny new 27,875 health points. Love it.
To add copious amounts of frosting to this seven-layer cake, on Sunday night I was invited to a 10-man Naxx run that two of our guild members run. I was supposed to come as DPS, but just before the first boss our off tank started to have some serious lag and connection issues, so she dropped the group and I took her place. We cleared all the way to Patchwerk before we had to call it due to time. After our first raid leader left about halfway through the Military Quarter (was way too late for him at that point), I got to call the fights in Vent (which I was extremely dorky and excited about). The best thing, though, was that after one failure, I went through the Heigan fight twice more and I did not die! I can see the divisions now, I totally understand how to do it, and I'm confident that I will be able to consistently pull it off in the future.
I can't believe how much I learned this weekend. I've finally seen every fight in Naxx, I've heard the strategies for each of them, and I feel confident that I understand how to do each of them and that I am actually able to do what I need to do. This is so exciting for me. It means that I will be more willing to put myself in LFG, or to join PuGs when I see them forming, or to -maybe- organize my own Naxx runs during the week for those who can't attend the guild's normal runs.
Trying really hard to resist the urge to dance around the room right now.
Showing posts with label tanking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tanking. Show all posts
12 May 2009
06 May 2009
DK Tanking 101: Pulling with confidence!
In the short time I've been tanking, I've learned one or two things. Now, being in a position where I am able to help some up-and-coming dual specers in my guild who'd like to add the title of "meat shield" to their resume, I've decided to share my newly-acquired wisdom with the rest of the internets as well. Aren't you lucky?
The Thesis (remember, I'm not crazy)
I'm giving you the mother-load first, so get ready. The number one secret to tanking is confidence. Really. That's it. It's the thing that will make a dungeon run heaven or make it hell. So, basically, tanking is like being the most obnoxious flirt in the room.
No, wait. Hear me out.
Picture this. You walk into a party with a couple of friends behind you. Across the room you see a group of cute guys. You're faced with a choice: do you give them the eye and hope they come over, or do you run straight over to them and try to grab their attention?
And thus, the two types of pulls.
Giving mobs the eye
Most new tanky DKs I watch walk up to a group of trash mobs, cast Death and Decay at their own feet, and then Death Grip one of the mobs into it. My guess is this is probably a symptom of the way most DKs (including me) quest, which involves casting Death Grip every time it comes up on every mob you need for any given quest. Hey, it's there, and you'd be lazy too if you could bring a mob straight to you rather than run over to it. Trust me.
So this strategy works, but it doesn't work particularly well, and it's not really ideal. To explain why we can go back to my awesome thesis.
This would obviously fall into the first option I discussed: giving the guys across the room the eye and hoping they come over to you. The problem with this is that mobs are like men - stupid and easily distracted. The last thing you want is for the beefy Vrykul to spot the slinky warlock or the pally with the nice legs behind you and veer off towards them.
This is the problem with casting D&D before you're in range of the mobs. D&D lasts for ten seconds and if you only Death Grip one mob directly into it, it's probably going to take at least another three to four before it has any effect on the other mobs. They'll run for you as soon as you pull their friend, but if you're not actually doing any damage to them for those first crucial seconds, you won't be building up much threat. You won't be casting D&D a second time, either, as the shortest cooldown you can possibly have on the spell is fifteen seconds, and that would require 3/3 points in Morbidity.
What's the solution?
What I prefer for a long-distance pull, is to pull with Dark Command. Dark Command is my best friend. It's trainable at level 65 and works just like a Warrior's taunt, which means no pulling the mob to you - you have to wait for it to run there. Why is this better? I have two reasons.
The first is because I want to save my Death Grip. It is amazingly helpful to be able to pull a mob directly to you if you see it heading somewhere it shouldn't (i.e. making a beeline for your healer), or if it wants to throw something at you and needs to run away first. The problem with Death Grip is that it has a whopping 35 second cooldown, reducible to 25 seconds if you take 2/2 in Unholy Command. Dark Command, on the other hand, is only on an eight second cooldown, and you can improve its effectiveness with the lovely Glyph of Dark Command, which is a must-have for any DK tank.
The second is that in the time it takes your targeted mob to get to you, the others will have arrived as well. Here's where my sweet analogy comes in again. Say you give one of the cute boys across the room your best come-hither look. It's so good, in fact, that his three friends decide to come with him, too. The problem is, once they get close enough to you, they'll start to notice the pretty girls (a good way to describe DPS, really) behind you. So what's an obnoxious flirt to do? Something crazy. Something that will grab their attention and make their eyes snap back to you.
This is when you drop D&D at their feet, and -boom- insta-agro on every mob, and they're standing right in front of you, ready for you to start smacking away. You now have a full ten seconds to lay your diseases, spread them with Pestilence, and drive the point home with Howling Blast (or Blood Boil if you're speced Unholy). You should be able to make a full rotation before D&D wears off, and if anything breaks agro after you've generated that much threat, feel free to punch your DPS in the face.
The only I time I find it helpful to use Death Grip over Dark Command is if I'm facing a group of multiple mobs with one (huge stress here on ONE) caster. In that case, you can Death Grip the caster and wait for the melee to come to you, but I actually still prefer to do even those kinds of pulls differently ...
Which brings us to option #2.
Shameless!
So let's say your the kind of girl who doesn't want to just stand across the room making eyes at people. Let's say instead that you'd rather run straight up to this group across the room kamikaze-style, stare them down, and then go crazy all over their faces. Welcome to my kind of pulling.
What this means is running headlong into a group of mobs, dropping D&D as soon as I get in range, then going through my normal rotation as described above. It means lots and lots of agro, and no chance of stray mobs noticing squishy DPS as they're running toward me. It also means that both Death Grip and Dark Command are still in my arsenal in case anything should go wrong. Doesn't get much better than that.
Obviously, this can't work for every pull. There are plenty of times when you need to pull a group back for any number of reasons: mobs that fear, patrols, etc. But it's surprising the number of groups that really do work best this way, especially if you have a group comprised of some melee and more than one caster. You want to be in the middle of that.
This is precisely where confidence comes into play. Running into a group of three or four mobs takes a bit more, um, spunk than pulling one and waiting for the rest to come to you. You need to have some faith in your hit points, gear, and healer. But if you've made it to the point where someone is letting you tank a heroic dungeon, these things probably shouldn't be an issue.
Gimme some chutzpah
I remember the first time I tanked something. It was Hellfire Ramparts on my old server, with a brand new Frost DK who might have just hit 59. I phased in to the instance and then realized what it meant to be a tank - I was standing in front, no one between me and all those elite mobs, and there were four people behind me waiting for me to show them what to do.
Intimidating and scary? You betcha.
Invigorating, empowering, and one of the most fun things you can do in the game? HECK yeah!
Tanking is all about confidence, and having the nerve to pull efficiently and with assurance is one of the first things a new tank has to learn. Running into a group of four elite mobs may go against anything you've ever learned about this game, but pretty soon you'll be wondering why you ever played any other role.
The Thesis (remember, I'm not crazy)
I'm giving you the mother-load first, so get ready. The number one secret to tanking is confidence. Really. That's it. It's the thing that will make a dungeon run heaven or make it hell. So, basically, tanking is like being the most obnoxious flirt in the room.
No, wait. Hear me out.
Picture this. You walk into a party with a couple of friends behind you. Across the room you see a group of cute guys. You're faced with a choice: do you give them the eye and hope they come over, or do you run straight over to them and try to grab their attention?
And thus, the two types of pulls.
Giving mobs the eye
Most new tanky DKs I watch walk up to a group of trash mobs, cast Death and Decay at their own feet, and then Death Grip one of the mobs into it. My guess is this is probably a symptom of the way most DKs (including me) quest, which involves casting Death Grip every time it comes up on every mob you need for any given quest. Hey, it's there, and you'd be lazy too if you could bring a mob straight to you rather than run over to it. Trust me.
So this strategy works, but it doesn't work particularly well, and it's not really ideal. To explain why we can go back to my awesome thesis.
This would obviously fall into the first option I discussed: giving the guys across the room the eye and hoping they come over to you. The problem with this is that mobs are like men - stupid and easily distracted. The last thing you want is for the beefy Vrykul to spot the slinky warlock or the pally with the nice legs behind you and veer off towards them.
This is the problem with casting D&D before you're in range of the mobs. D&D lasts for ten seconds and if you only Death Grip one mob directly into it, it's probably going to take at least another three to four before it has any effect on the other mobs. They'll run for you as soon as you pull their friend, but if you're not actually doing any damage to them for those first crucial seconds, you won't be building up much threat. You won't be casting D&D a second time, either, as the shortest cooldown you can possibly have on the spell is fifteen seconds, and that would require 3/3 points in Morbidity.
What's the solution?
What I prefer for a long-distance pull, is to pull with Dark Command. Dark Command is my best friend. It's trainable at level 65 and works just like a Warrior's taunt, which means no pulling the mob to you - you have to wait for it to run there. Why is this better? I have two reasons.
The first is because I want to save my Death Grip. It is amazingly helpful to be able to pull a mob directly to you if you see it heading somewhere it shouldn't (i.e. making a beeline for your healer), or if it wants to throw something at you and needs to run away first. The problem with Death Grip is that it has a whopping 35 second cooldown, reducible to 25 seconds if you take 2/2 in Unholy Command. Dark Command, on the other hand, is only on an eight second cooldown, and you can improve its effectiveness with the lovely Glyph of Dark Command, which is a must-have for any DK tank.
The second is that in the time it takes your targeted mob to get to you, the others will have arrived as well. Here's where my sweet analogy comes in again. Say you give one of the cute boys across the room your best come-hither look. It's so good, in fact, that his three friends decide to come with him, too. The problem is, once they get close enough to you, they'll start to notice the pretty girls (a good way to describe DPS, really) behind you. So what's an obnoxious flirt to do? Something crazy. Something that will grab their attention and make their eyes snap back to you.
This is when you drop D&D at their feet, and -boom- insta-agro on every mob, and they're standing right in front of you, ready for you to start smacking away. You now have a full ten seconds to lay your diseases, spread them with Pestilence, and drive the point home with Howling Blast (or Blood Boil if you're speced Unholy). You should be able to make a full rotation before D&D wears off, and if anything breaks agro after you've generated that much threat, feel free to punch your DPS in the face.
The only I time I find it helpful to use Death Grip over Dark Command is if I'm facing a group of multiple mobs with one (huge stress here on ONE) caster. In that case, you can Death Grip the caster and wait for the melee to come to you, but I actually still prefer to do even those kinds of pulls differently ...
Which brings us to option #2.
Shameless!
So let's say your the kind of girl who doesn't want to just stand across the room making eyes at people. Let's say instead that you'd rather run straight up to this group across the room kamikaze-style, stare them down, and then go crazy all over their faces. Welcome to my kind of pulling.
What this means is running headlong into a group of mobs, dropping D&D as soon as I get in range, then going through my normal rotation as described above. It means lots and lots of agro, and no chance of stray mobs noticing squishy DPS as they're running toward me. It also means that both Death Grip and Dark Command are still in my arsenal in case anything should go wrong. Doesn't get much better than that.
Obviously, this can't work for every pull. There are plenty of times when you need to pull a group back for any number of reasons: mobs that fear, patrols, etc. But it's surprising the number of groups that really do work best this way, especially if you have a group comprised of some melee and more than one caster. You want to be in the middle of that.
This is precisely where confidence comes into play. Running into a group of three or four mobs takes a bit more, um, spunk than pulling one and waiting for the rest to come to you. You need to have some faith in your hit points, gear, and healer. But if you've made it to the point where someone is letting you tank a heroic dungeon, these things probably shouldn't be an issue.
Gimme some chutzpah
I remember the first time I tanked something. It was Hellfire Ramparts on my old server, with a brand new Frost DK who might have just hit 59. I phased in to the instance and then realized what it meant to be a tank - I was standing in front, no one between me and all those elite mobs, and there were four people behind me waiting for me to show them what to do.
Intimidating and scary? You betcha.
Invigorating, empowering, and one of the most fun things you can do in the game? HECK yeah!
Tanking is all about confidence, and having the nerve to pull efficiently and with assurance is one of the first things a new tank has to learn. Running into a group of four elite mobs may go against anything you've ever learned about this game, but pretty soon you'll be wondering why you ever played any other role.
30 April 2009
Progress is a beautiful thing.
This past week has been slow for running dungeons due to a few of our members who are always up for Heroics having been away or absorbed in other things in-game. However, I was able to attend a portion of my guild's Sunday raid and went along to Obsidian Sanctum as the off-tank, where I picked up a helm for my DPS set. That means that my DPS set is now nearly complete; a neck piece is the only thing I'm still really missing. I haven't had a chance to experiment at all with that build, yet, due to my gear being incomplete, but I really want to. It's a Frost DPS build that I figured out on my own, but then was pleasantly surprised to find our top DPS Death Knight giving almost the same build to Dyna for her DK alt.
I did manage to get in a regular Utgarde Pinnacle run with the guild's morning crew on my day off. The bracers I was hoping for dropped, and equipping them finally gave me my Superior achievement. I'm hoping to do an Heroic UP run in another hour or two if everyone we need is online. I miss my regular, nightly 5 mans. Here's hoping that as a few new 80s emerge I'll be able to get a group going again. By then maybe a few more of my old regulars will be back around as well. *Crosses fingers.*
The bigger, more impressive movement has been on my professions. As of about an hour ago, mining has made it all the way to 320 (thanks especially to our raid coordinator who tipped me off about a particularly perfect place to farm thorium in Winterspring), and jewelcrafting is up to 275. That means they are now close enough that I can level them together from here forward, which is a huge relief. I even managed to make a few rings and pendants that were helpful for a few alts besides my own. It was good to finally feel like my professions are doing something useful.
My other bit of news is that I was made an officer of my guild this past weekend along with Dyna, everyone's favorite Holy Protadin. I'm really excited to start working with the other officers, and we're in the process of ironing out who will be filling what roles. Have I mentioned recently how much I love my guild?
RP and alt update to come.
I did manage to get in a regular Utgarde Pinnacle run with the guild's morning crew on my day off. The bracers I was hoping for dropped, and equipping them finally gave me my Superior achievement. I'm hoping to do an Heroic UP run in another hour or two if everyone we need is online. I miss my regular, nightly 5 mans. Here's hoping that as a few new 80s emerge I'll be able to get a group going again. By then maybe a few more of my old regulars will be back around as well. *Crosses fingers.*
The bigger, more impressive movement has been on my professions. As of about an hour ago, mining has made it all the way to 320 (thanks especially to our raid coordinator who tipped me off about a particularly perfect place to farm thorium in Winterspring), and jewelcrafting is up to 275. That means they are now close enough that I can level them together from here forward, which is a huge relief. I even managed to make a few rings and pendants that were helpful for a few alts besides my own. It was good to finally feel like my professions are doing something useful.
My other bit of news is that I was made an officer of my guild this past weekend along with Dyna, everyone's favorite Holy Protadin. I'm really excited to start working with the other officers, and we're in the process of ironing out who will be filling what roles. Have I mentioned recently how much I love my guild?
RP and alt update to come.
22 April 2009
Tanky belt!
After a completely fantastic run of Heroic CoS a few nights ago, I finally had saved up enough Emblems of Heroism to get my shiny new belt! So that means I get to cross an item off the list without even having to pray that it drops in a heroic run. YAY!
The run was really one of the best heroic runs I've been a part of so far. Great group - three of our top DPS in the guild and one of our best healers - and we were able to pull off the timed run, too, so that I got the achievement for that and another guildie was able to get the bronze drake he'd been wanting. It stands out in my mind along with a heroic Nexus and a heroic HoL run as the most efficient time I've spent on WoW since I hit 80. I couldn't have asked for much more.
Gosh, I love my guild. I love that I don't have to worry about PuGs anymore, hopefully ever (except on Hordeside with my poor priest, but that's another story). I love that everyone knows their role and does their best to play it well. It makes so everything so much less stressful and, therefore, more fun.
The run was really one of the best heroic runs I've been a part of so far. Great group - three of our top DPS in the guild and one of our best healers - and we were able to pull off the timed run, too, so that I got the achievement for that and another guildie was able to get the bronze drake he'd been wanting. It stands out in my mind along with a heroic Nexus and a heroic HoL run as the most efficient time I've spent on WoW since I hit 80. I couldn't have asked for much more.
Gosh, I love my guild. I love that I don't have to worry about PuGs anymore, hopefully ever (except on Hordeside with my poor priest, but that's another story). I love that everyone knows their role and does their best to play it well. It makes so everything so much less stressful and, therefore, more fun.
20 April 2009
Gear wish list (Tanky style)
These are the pieces that really should be upgraded if I'm going to take raiding seriously and be more consistent in heroics. (... I think. Granted I'm sort of making this up as I go along, but I'm pretty sure I'm not totally devoid of common sense.)
Bracers:
Bracers of the Herald
Herald Volazj
Old Kingdom (Her)
17%
Bindings of Dark Will
Salramm the Fleshcrafter
Culling of Stratholme (Her)
22%
Svala's Bloodied Schakles
Svala Sorrowgrave
Utgarde Pinnacle (Reg)
23%
Waist:
Ancient Aligned Girdle
Azjol'Nerub (Her)
Anub'arak
18%
Girdle of Obscuring
Occulus
Mage-Lord Urom
17%
Trinket:
Seal of the Pantheon
Halls of Lightning
Loken
19%
Essence of Gossamer
Azjol'Nerub (Her)
Hadronox
20%
Ring:
Gal'darah's Signet
Gundrak (Reg)
Gal'darah
29%
I have to say that seeing it laid out like that actually makes me feel much better. It's only four pieces, and I had it in my head that it would be much more than that. Yay!
Bracers:
Bracers of the Herald
Herald Volazj
Old Kingdom (Her)
17%
Bindings of Dark Will
Salramm the Fleshcrafter
Culling of Stratholme (Her)
22%
Svala's Bloodied Schakles
Svala Sorrowgrave
Utgarde Pinnacle (Reg)
23%
Waist:
Ancient Aligned Girdle
Azjol'Nerub (Her)
Anub'arak
18%
Girdle of Obscuring
Occulus
Mage-Lord Urom
17%
Trinket:
Seal of the Pantheon
Halls of Lightning
Loken
19%
Essence of Gossamer
Azjol'Nerub (Her)
Hadronox
20%
Ring:
Gal'darah's Signet
Gundrak (Reg)
Gal'darah
29%
I have to say that seeing it laid out like that actually makes me feel much better. It's only four pieces, and I had it in my head that it would be much more than that. Yay!
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