So, after a couple of discussions with different members of GIP I decided to take up feral on my druid to offer tanking as well as healing. In general, it just seemed that it would be nice to be able to give a bit more in the way of utility to the guild as well as give me something to do different. Also, a nice added benefit was that I found a hybrid kitty/bear spec that looked pretty promising. This way I could fit any need in any situation. I like the ranged DPS of the Moonkin but the guild as a whole seems heavy on ranged DPS, and I could really just push one of my other toons (Crabby or Orkette) the rest of the way to 85 if I really wanted to have a ranged DPS toon to add to the stable of things I can do.
Anyway, I have taken a couple of shots at tanking so far and I've learned quite a bit. First, as always gear is important. Also, paying attention is important. I took some of the info from Elitest Jerks to make sure that I wasn't doing everything wrong. From there I read some stuff on WoW Insider to get some more details. To be fair I think the Insider author was the same as the EJ author or one read the other because there wasn't much different between the two.
As I have been working up on gearing I've noticed something I haven't been able to figure out yet, and haven't found the answer to anywhere. How in the hell do I pick up groups of mobs and keep hate on all of them. I mark each pull, use Faerie Fire to pull 1 then use other abilities to pick up the second, but after that if there are more than 2, I'm screwed. Without fail, they will run by me and attack someone mushy in the back field somewhere. I turn and run to pick them up only to lose the aggro of at least one if not both of the mobs that I already had aggro on me. This then leads to a wonderful job of running back and forth like a chicken with no head (or is it bear?) trying to keep up hate on everything.
I have tried using Thrash/Swipe to help this but it does not give the huge boost of hate that I think I need to keep the things squarely on me. I have also tried the whole tab method of picking things up, but I am missing something because without fail someone is always getting their face beat in by the time I have tabbed back to whatever mob they were fighting (often the one I have marked appropriately).
It is actually pretty interesting to tank though, as it gives me a new perspective of the game. I grew up in FFXI as a tank, and the world of tanking in WoW is just entirely different. In FFXI I had to worry about keeping one thing focused on me while everyone else was doing their best to pull it off of me. This does me some good when I am doing single mob tanking, but lets face it there just isn't all that much single mob tanking out there.
Suggestions are appreciated to help my fail tanking stop.
Showing posts with label Tanking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tanking. Show all posts
Monday, January 24, 2011
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
We Interrupt this Post...
So, if you could see my drafts, you'd see that I actually was in the process of putting together a post on my recent first ICC 25 experience, and the terror that is involved in running with a group of out geared out experienced people. But, last night something so unusual happened that I just felt the need to write about it.
As a few people know I have kicked back and forth at trying DK tanking for a while. I never have seriously done much with it other than buying 4 pieces of the tier 9 tank set since I had a plethora of Triumph badges and have a deep seated need to not have any badges hanging around since they could be gear that fill up my bank.
Anyway, last night one of the guild members was lamenting that he couldn't get an ICC 10 run together because of a shortage of tanks, and how he was working on getting himself to a point where he could tank, building a tank set and what not. This got me to thinking, I have a tank set, I could work on leveling Paci, or I could see what I have. So off I went to the bank to look at what I had. Seeing that I had most of the slots filled with purple, I decided why not, and pulled it out, switched spec and took a look at what I look like. Notice that I didn't say I switched to Frost Aspect, because you know, I didn't.
Anyway, liking what I see (504 DEF, 26K HP) I decided that I was good enough to try tanking non-heroic dungeons, so queued up and got the insta-pop. OK, this is awesome I said to myself. Tanks really do get instant invites. Halls of Lightning. It started off OK, going through the first few batches of trash mobs (yes still without Frost Aspect turned on), and we came to the first boss, and almost instantly wipe. WTF? Oh, the Healer had to go AFK, but she/he didn't tell us. OK, well that happens it is a PuG. Back in we go, back to the boss, Wipe again! What? Ok I feel the need to tell people I'm new and do so. The group seems amenable and in fact the Warrior who is DPSing sends me a whisper pointing out my error of Frost Aspect ( at which point I realize I'm good an truly a Noob), and offers a couple of suggestions on tanking that I immediately put into practice. He also pointed out that both times the wipe was not me, it was the healer not healing. We get through the first boss (though I was down to 800 HP at the end. I swear the healer was AFK most of that fight too) and continue on our way, and die at the very next trash pack. OK this is getting annoying, maybe I shouldn't be tanking. At this point I see a thing flash across Party from the healer "Sorry guys, I have to go. Too much to do to heal this instance". Healer drops party. At which point the DPS all say, "Too much to do? you mean like heal?". So we waited a few minutes for a new healer who actually healed. We were able to fly through the rest of the instance without a single death, including an occasion where I went the wrong way and pulled a bunch of crap. You'd think that after the thousands of times that I have run these instances I'd know my way through them. Sheesh.
Feeling good at not totally sucking (and having gotten another piece of gear for tanking) I did it again. This time Culling of Strat came up. Sweet! easy one. This time I pointed out right away that I was new at tanking. We flew through it with almost no issue. A couple of times people died because I am still not quite up to snuff on tanking, but I definitely have it getting down.
Anyway, two PuGs successful in a row when we were not ridiculously over-powered for the content is a great thing. Hopefully there are more, we'll see soon because I plan on doing more of these for the heck of it. One thing I do need to do is figure out the rotation if there is one. I was just button mashing through most of my tanking experiences.
As a few people know I have kicked back and forth at trying DK tanking for a while. I never have seriously done much with it other than buying 4 pieces of the tier 9 tank set since I had a plethora of Triumph badges and have a deep seated need to not have any badges hanging around since they could be gear that fill up my bank.
Anyway, last night one of the guild members was lamenting that he couldn't get an ICC 10 run together because of a shortage of tanks, and how he was working on getting himself to a point where he could tank, building a tank set and what not. This got me to thinking, I have a tank set, I could work on leveling Paci, or I could see what I have. So off I went to the bank to look at what I had. Seeing that I had most of the slots filled with purple, I decided why not, and pulled it out, switched spec and took a look at what I look like. Notice that I didn't say I switched to Frost Aspect, because you know, I didn't.
Anyway, liking what I see (504 DEF, 26K HP) I decided that I was good enough to try tanking non-heroic dungeons, so queued up and got the insta-pop. OK, this is awesome I said to myself. Tanks really do get instant invites. Halls of Lightning. It started off OK, going through the first few batches of trash mobs (yes still without Frost Aspect turned on), and we came to the first boss, and almost instantly wipe. WTF? Oh, the Healer had to go AFK, but she/he didn't tell us. OK, well that happens it is a PuG. Back in we go, back to the boss, Wipe again! What? Ok I feel the need to tell people I'm new and do so. The group seems amenable and in fact the Warrior who is DPSing sends me a whisper pointing out my error of Frost Aspect ( at which point I realize I'm good an truly a Noob), and offers a couple of suggestions on tanking that I immediately put into practice. He also pointed out that both times the wipe was not me, it was the healer not healing. We get through the first boss (though I was down to 800 HP at the end. I swear the healer was AFK most of that fight too) and continue on our way, and die at the very next trash pack. OK this is getting annoying, maybe I shouldn't be tanking. At this point I see a thing flash across Party from the healer "Sorry guys, I have to go. Too much to do to heal this instance". Healer drops party. At which point the DPS all say, "Too much to do? you mean like heal?". So we waited a few minutes for a new healer who actually healed. We were able to fly through the rest of the instance without a single death, including an occasion where I went the wrong way and pulled a bunch of crap. You'd think that after the thousands of times that I have run these instances I'd know my way through them. Sheesh.
Feeling good at not totally sucking (and having gotten another piece of gear for tanking) I did it again. This time Culling of Strat came up. Sweet! easy one. This time I pointed out right away that I was new at tanking. We flew through it with almost no issue. A couple of times people died because I am still not quite up to snuff on tanking, but I definitely have it getting down.
Anyway, two PuGs successful in a row when we were not ridiculously over-powered for the content is a great thing. Hopefully there are more, we'll see soon because I plan on doing more of these for the heck of it. One thing I do need to do is figure out the rotation if there is one. I was just button mashing through most of my tanking experiences.
Friday, April 9, 2010
OK, I know, I missed my normal timeline for posting. The reason is good. I got stuck going on a whirlwind trip for work down to the magical land of New Jersey. While down there I contracted the New Jerseyian Death Flu, which kicked me in the head a few dozen times before finally pretending to leave me alone, though it hasn't really gotten done with me yet. I feel a few more kicks to the 'nads coming before I'm all done with this stupid thing.
Anyway, you all don't give a crap about me being sick, you want to hear me randomly pontificate on things that are meaningless to anyone but me, and maybe a few of you others out there. For today's post, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to talk about. At first I thought I'd talk about all the stuff coming out about cata-who. Actually I was going to talk about how little I care. Is the expansion out yet? No? Well then why the hell am I wasting time reading about all the new things that I may or may not get? Oh yeah, I don't.
Then I decided I could talk about how frustrating it is to be a pure DPS class (hunter) and have to wait for up to thirty plus minutes on the whim of a tank who may or many not really care enough to run the entire random with me. And, if they do deem themselves available enough to be able to run a whole instance then they obviously get to tell me exactly how to play my class. Since being a level 34 Paladin obviously gives you the ability to know everything there is to know about the other nine classes that are out there currently.
Instead, I think I might just do this. I did the Noblegarden achievements for Michelinea. It's awesome, I'm still on target for getting my cool year achievement this year. Also, in frustration of long wait times on Waterlemon, I created a Paladin and have leveled her to 15. I've now done 3 instances as a tank, but haven't once told someone how to their job (even the melee hunter who didn't have a pet). I also have learned that people don't really want tanks, they just don't want to die, they seem to like tanking themselves as long as the healer can keep them alive. More power to them.
Who knows what next week will bring, maybe something more interesting.
Anyway, you all don't give a crap about me being sick, you want to hear me randomly pontificate on things that are meaningless to anyone but me, and maybe a few of you others out there. For today's post, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to talk about. At first I thought I'd talk about all the stuff coming out about cata-who. Actually I was going to talk about how little I care. Is the expansion out yet? No? Well then why the hell am I wasting time reading about all the new things that I may or may not get? Oh yeah, I don't.
Then I decided I could talk about how frustrating it is to be a pure DPS class (hunter) and have to wait for up to thirty plus minutes on the whim of a tank who may or many not really care enough to run the entire random with me. And, if they do deem themselves available enough to be able to run a whole instance then they obviously get to tell me exactly how to play my class. Since being a level 34 Paladin obviously gives you the ability to know everything there is to know about the other nine classes that are out there currently.
Instead, I think I might just do this. I did the Noblegarden achievements for Michelinea. It's awesome, I'm still on target for getting my cool year achievement this year. Also, in frustration of long wait times on Waterlemon, I created a Paladin and have leveled her to 15. I've now done 3 instances as a tank, but haven't once told someone how to their job (even the melee hunter who didn't have a pet). I also have learned that people don't really want tanks, they just don't want to die, they seem to like tanking themselves as long as the healer can keep them alive. More power to them.
Who knows what next week will bring, maybe something more interesting.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Oh the confusion of tanking!
So, last night I was bored, and didn't really feel like doing anything with Mich so I decided to pull out my Paladin and play around with him a bit. While reading Wow in an Hour (see the side bar for the site), I found an add on called Tour Guide. It looked interesting to me, so I decided to try it out.
At first I was doing a quests only, until I remembered that I could LFG. What the heck I said and added myself to the queue. Three seconds later, I have the pop up telling me that there was a group in need of a tank. It was one that had started. Perfect I thought, this group had already gone through some of it, so clearly they knew what they were doing and would work with me a bit. Poof. I zone into ShadowFang Keep. Good I think, I've done this one before with friends when I was playing the Horde side. I introduce myself, and start running toward them. As I work my way over to them, being careful not to aggro anything, I watch as the rest of the group wipes. Huh, wonder what happened. No one says, so I keep going, and wait for the group at the point where I think it was just before they died.
Well the group re-gathers, and away we begin. The first pull goes well after I remember that I have Consecration, and the second pull too. OK, I'm remembering what I'm supposed to do. It works. Woot! Then the priest says she needs to rest for Mana. Cool. No problem. I sit down and get out my Iced Milk so I can get myself to full mana too. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuutttt, apparently the Hunter decides that he can pull and tank on his own while the rest of the part is waiting. Um. No. Hunter tank = party wipe. Not only did he not tell us that he was going to do this, he aggroed half the zone on his way back to us, thinking we might help him.
Since that didn't work, we re-gathered again, and rested up to full. While resting, I said the famous phrase that every DPS hates to hear, "You pull it, you tank it". I hoped that people would understand that I can't do it all on my own. Another 2-3 pulls go well, and it's time for the priest to rest again. No problem at all, I'm ready to rest myself. So we began to rest. Yep, you guessed it, the Hunter didn't get it last time and went off on his own. Again he aggroed a bunch of trash, and we ended up dead. At this point 1 DPS leaves, and the priest and I zone back to the cemetery to regroup.
I get back from the splash screen to see in chat that the hunter ranting that the healer and tank in this group blow. What? Huh? Wait a god darned minute here! If you don't go off on your own, you don't get us all killed. Well that was enough for the priest. He's outta here, and leaves group.
Being calm and patient, I say OK, I'll suck it up. I know if I leave, the DPS may have a long wait for a new tank and healer. That sucks, being a DPS most days I know. I start running to the keep again. Then the thing happens that pushes me over the edge on the group. The hunter says "Ihasz, get back in here and rez me." What? You can run back like the rest of us, and I tell him that. He proceeds to tell me to go F myself, he'll out wait me. Umm idiot. I have this one thing that he doesn't. The "Leave Group" Option. Which is exactly what I do.
Thirty second later, I'm in a new group, in the Keep, plowing through the instance. Moral of the story today? DPS, be nice, I'm not better than you, nor am I worse than you. I'm just there like you to have fun, and just like you wouldn't have fun if you are dying and being bossed around I'm not having fun when that happens. Oh, and by the way, it's a thirty second wait for a tank to get into a group, its what ten minutes for a DPS.
At first I was doing a quests only, until I remembered that I could LFG. What the heck I said and added myself to the queue. Three seconds later, I have the pop up telling me that there was a group in need of a tank. It was one that had started. Perfect I thought, this group had already gone through some of it, so clearly they knew what they were doing and would work with me a bit. Poof. I zone into ShadowFang Keep. Good I think, I've done this one before with friends when I was playing the Horde side. I introduce myself, and start running toward them. As I work my way over to them, being careful not to aggro anything, I watch as the rest of the group wipes. Huh, wonder what happened. No one says, so I keep going, and wait for the group at the point where I think it was just before they died.
Well the group re-gathers, and away we begin. The first pull goes well after I remember that I have Consecration, and the second pull too. OK, I'm remembering what I'm supposed to do. It works. Woot! Then the priest says she needs to rest for Mana. Cool. No problem. I sit down and get out my Iced Milk so I can get myself to full mana too. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuutttt, apparently the Hunter decides that he can pull and tank on his own while the rest of the part is waiting. Um. No. Hunter tank = party wipe. Not only did he not tell us that he was going to do this, he aggroed half the zone on his way back to us, thinking we might help him.
Since that didn't work, we re-gathered again, and rested up to full. While resting, I said the famous phrase that every DPS hates to hear, "You pull it, you tank it". I hoped that people would understand that I can't do it all on my own. Another 2-3 pulls go well, and it's time for the priest to rest again. No problem at all, I'm ready to rest myself. So we began to rest. Yep, you guessed it, the Hunter didn't get it last time and went off on his own. Again he aggroed a bunch of trash, and we ended up dead. At this point 1 DPS leaves, and the priest and I zone back to the cemetery to regroup.
I get back from the splash screen to see in chat that the hunter ranting that the healer and tank in this group blow. What? Huh? Wait a god darned minute here! If you don't go off on your own, you don't get us all killed. Well that was enough for the priest. He's outta here, and leaves group.
Being calm and patient, I say OK, I'll suck it up. I know if I leave, the DPS may have a long wait for a new tank and healer. That sucks, being a DPS most days I know. I start running to the keep again. Then the thing happens that pushes me over the edge on the group. The hunter says "Ihasz, get back in here and rez me." What? You can run back like the rest of us, and I tell him that. He proceeds to tell me to go F myself, he'll out wait me. Umm idiot. I have this one thing that he doesn't. The "Leave Group" Option. Which is exactly what I do.
Thirty second later, I'm in a new group, in the Keep, plowing through the instance. Moral of the story today? DPS, be nice, I'm not better than you, nor am I worse than you. I'm just there like you to have fun, and just like you wouldn't have fun if you are dying and being bossed around I'm not having fun when that happens. Oh, and by the way, it's a thirty second wait for a tank to get into a group, its what ten minutes for a DPS.
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