Circle of Tanks

Not that I am a big name poster, but I'll fill it out.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary tank?
Xarnen(US-Cairne), Tauren Druid, Feral

What is your primary tanking environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)
Heroics, and Raids (10/25 dont matter)

What is your favorite tankng spell for your class and why?
Berserk. For scary trash pulls you can mangle maul swipe spam pretty good, and for single target threat it's a nice boost during bloodlusts and such.

What tanking spell do you use least for your class and why?
Frenzied Regeneration. I really only use it as part of strategic cooldown management as it's a huge threat loss to get good use out of it.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your tanking class and why?
This is a really a tough call, because I'm divided between bear's ability to kite+swipe adds and generate nice sustained threat while positioning vs the flexibility in changing gear to gimmick out encounters.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your tanking class and why?
Interrupts in raids. Most bears don't spec 2 points into improved bash and feral charge is rarely practical.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best tanking assignment for you?
It really depends on the encounter, but more often than not boss tanking. Bears have so much stamina that they can just outlast huge damage intake. If the boss hits like a sissy but has adds all over the place, then that's probably my secondary home (Hi Jaraxxus).

What tanking class do you enjoy tanking with most and why?
Warriors. They more naturally spec into Improved demo shout and thunderclap for the speed debuff allowing me to be the terror tank focusing on high damage output(sunders ftw!)

What tanking class do you enjoy tanking with least and why?
Paladins, by far. Many(not all) paladins tend to have an elitist attitude about their class. Also their ungodly threat generation and captain america shields tend to cause a lot more problems than they realize.

What is your worst habit as a tank?
Tunnel-vision on omen.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while tanking?
Since bears lack snap aoe threat, overzealous AOE is a concern, but I'd say vent chatter during encounters when stuff I call out is missed.

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other tanks?
Not really. We have stupid amounts of health and mitigation, awesome damage, and great dps flexibility with cat form. We lack ungodly threat, great cooldowns, and viable interrupts. So that does kind of pigeon hole is for being either the kite tank or the big hit tank.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a tank?
Recount to evaluate deaths, and world of logs sometimes to evaluate performance. Mostly I evaluate my in fight threat management and did we kill the boss or not.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?

That we're a lot more effective than people think against magical damage.

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new tanks of your class to learn?
Multi-target threat management

Effective Health or Avoidance and why? Effective Health, because of how well bears scale armor and stamina.

What tanking class do you feel you understand least?
Death Knights.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in tanking?
X-Perl, Omen, DBM, and SCT.

Do you strive primarily for balance between your tanking stats, or do you stack some much higher than others, and why? Stam, stam and more stam. I tend to adjust to threat/avoidance through trinket management or occasionally and older piece of gear enchanted for resistance.

We Press On

So the guild is still stagnant and I haven't decided yet what to do for the long haul. We've been pug raiding, downing Ony 10 and another TOC clear since I've last written. Pugged the first two fights of Toc25 and picked up the neck piece off of Jaraxxus. I've also recently made the conversion to Jewelcrafting and netted another 78 stam and lost maybe 20 agi and some crit. I've had the death-warmed belt crafted and now await to pick up some expertise gear (either the 232 helm, Ony's polearm and/or the Acidmaw Boots), to balance out the loss from changing from the badge belt. The warlock saunters on and picks up badges here and there, and still yearns for the H TOC dagger to upgrade from the POS piece from Naxx-10. DK is level 70 and well into the Howling Fjord quests. He's on a rest cycle awaiting to max out rested xp (that 20% XP boost from boa gear sure burns it fast). The priest continues to plug along and is up to level 40, kickin shadowform, and well established in alc/herbs. The rogue is a mining bot/guild JC for now ,and doesnt do much else. I guess what I'm getting at here is that I will grind my way to Arthas and be in excellent shape to powerlevel all the toons and be fully armed and dangerous in Cataclysm.

0 for a billion

Well I managed to tank both Ulduar 25 and ToCR 10 this weekend and came up with not much else other than some emblems.

Ulduar 25
Flame Leviathan - Meh 2 towers, not much of an issue. I don't need the ring, and I already have the bracers. I drove a siege.
Razorscale - I tanked adds and switched to dps once she was ground. Nothing meaningful dropped.
XT - Again nothing meaningful dropped (WTB Twisted Visage. I Main Tanked the boss
Ignis - Drops Heart of Iron, and I lose the roll. I've Main Tanked this guy on 25 man twice, and he's dropped it twice and I've lost it twice. My luck just sucks
Kologarn - DPS'd the right arm, and tanked the adds.
That's as far as the pug lasted. We made one attempt on Auriya and wiped (WTB Shamans who use tremor totems). I was main tanking the boss and praying swipe covered if the paladin offtanks couldn't hold threat.

TOC 10
Beasts - I started off cat berserking as usual and switched once the other tank had 2 stacks of impale. Then I as usual I tanked Acidmaw, but this time I got the poison debuff right when he died and no one could fire debuff me or keep me healed. So I got watch the group finish off Dreadscale and Icehowl. 1 shot
Jarraxus - I tanked the mistress and adds, and mixed in some cat dps here and there. Nothing special, and 1 shot
Faction champs - Switched to pure cat and was on burst/main duty. Took about 5 tries to get the kill order down. The warlocks had a helluva time keeping the druid banished. Once we decided to kill the druid second, it was easysauce (priest was first). I won the Sunreaver Assassin Gloves
Twins - I tanked the Dark Twin. 2 shot. Pretty easy fight, just had some minor confusion with dps getting the orbs and hitting the correct light/dark portal
Anub - MT. I died in phase 3. Damage was very smooth, but the healers seemed to have forgotten me and all of sudden I was burning CDs to stay alive then...well I didn't have CDs. Somehow the OT picked him and dps was able to finish him off. The shoulders dropped, but they're kinda meh. If I go back to a pure agi build for dps, then they will rock

So yea technically it's 2 for a billion, but those gloves are such a minor upgrade that it really didn't matter and the shoulders are a minor upgrade for dps depending how i compare gemming and such There's two pieces left from TOC 10 I want, Acidmaw Boots and Anguish. Then I'm done, and will be fully ready for 10 man Heroic. Hopefully I can get into a 25 man pug this week (without 5 lolrogues and 4 huntards), and maybe get a piece.

So now what

I think there comes a time for many players where you need to make a serious change to progress. I came into this game as a complete noob to play with my friends. It was a casual endeavor to pass time when I was bored. But as I got into the game, and started catching to them in leveling it became more of a hobby and it was more competitive to progress. I was a late comer near the end of Burning Crusade, and most of the guild was fairly casual - mostly ever doing 5-mans. By the end I was the one pushing to try a guild Karazhan run. I was the one heavily studying my gear and trying to tank heroic dungeons (and failing miserably). And yet at the end, I was by and far light-years ahead of them in terms of gear. I religiously followed Emmerald's gear lists. Since I mostly focused on being a cat, I had a fair amount of badge loot, crafted epics, my good old boe epic staff, and 2 pieces from Karazhan. Other than that silly quest crap from 3.0, no one had this kind of gear. The one warlock had made his epic tailoring set (just like my Primal Intent set), and many had their welfare epics from grinding AV all day. But in terms of PVE gear, I was very solid.

Then comes Lich King. And once again it's me leading the way for the guild. I wasn't the first to 80, but I also got the upgrade a few days after they did and played the DK all the first day. Needless to say though, I caught right up and was the first person well prepared and starting heroics. Lick King made heroics a lot more accessible than BC (e.g Easier), so a lot more of the guild got into them. Nowadays I'm still one of best geared and accomplished members of the guild, but there a few others in the same boat. But the guild has radically altered. What was once a friendly casual guild all of which had some sort of personal connection to each other, now has random strangers as members that raid together. We've gone from that casual group, to the hardcore raiders, and now we're at the burnout point and back to casual friends with a few realm stragglers who can tolerate us (lol). It took some of those of those new strangers to our inner circle to actually make any raiding progress. Now we're back to square one.

So what to do now? I've done everything short of spamming trade chat to try to develop and build this guild. There's one other member who has done his part, and the GM also does a little too. All in all, I'm at a breaking point. I don't know to write this all out to convey my confusion so I'm just going to stream of conscious bullet point it.

- My guild doesn't actively show it wants to progress. But I do.
- My guild is comprised of a lot of good players, many of whom are real life friends that I enjoy playing with.
- For me, it's just a pointless grind to nowhere without guild driven raid progress
- I can't progress my gear very reliablely pugging raids.
- My server does not have much going for it in terms of Horde progression with lots of solid guilds and players. It's not all suckage, but you won't be seeing much in the way of hardmode stuff.
- I want to do hardmodes.
- 10 or 25 man raiding. I love to raid lead for 10s. For 25s? I just want to kill things. I've lead guild run 25 man naxx pug runs and I hated it. Every bit of it.

My options?
1. Soldier on where I am and hope for some good RNG in re-sparking the guild.
Cairne is bloated with tons of small crappy guilds that each have a few good players. We were lucky with the S8 absorption, but that was short lived. Getting a second chance here might not be so good.
2. Join a guild on my own server. There are many I am sure I could easily get into.
This is very realistic option that I'd pursue IF the current guild more or less calls it quits. I'd feel awkward if I just left and stayed on Cairne with them still plugging along.
3. Transfer to another server, and take my chances in the wild.

I guess I actually got to be on with the other officers (at least the 4 main people doing shit) and make a call. Then we'll see what's next.

Toc-10 - How Best to Approach Bear Tanking

As a raid leader I try to take of advantage of the best use of my abilities as a druid tank. I have a good cooperation and synergy with the other MT in our guild, a paladin. We try to make best use of our respective strengths as tanks. I am giving you my view of the world as a bear and raid leader.

There are some assumptions here:
1. The other tank isn't a druid
2. The other tank is MT capable

Gormok
Set your raid frame focus on the other tank. Begin as cat and start up a standard rotation to 5cp rip and then berserk. Keep dpsing the boss until you see the other tank have 2 stacks of the debuff. Quickly go bear, position yourself in front, get up a few lacerates and then taunt. Swap til dead.
Acidmaw and Dreadscale
Ideally you should be tanking Acidmaw if your raid strategy is to burn down Acidmaw. Tank as your raid is comfortable, and then switch back to cat and use berserk again on help burn Dreadscale down. This works best because when Acidmaw goes down, Dreadscale soft enrages so your added dps will help win the fight.
Icehowl
You can stay as cat as long as the other tank is alive on this one. Hopefully berserk is up in time for once he crashes into the wall. BE ALERT though and ready to take over if something goes wrong.

Lord Jaraxxus
Start off by blowing berserk in cat form on the boss and quickly get ready to pick up the mistress. Depending on how fast you can dps down the mistress, quick toss up a demo roar (if relevant) on Jaraxxus and back to cat for some quickie dps. Pick up the infernals and move them out of harms way and away from the legion fire. Growl, faerie fire and feral charge are your friends. Rinse and repeat. The key again is sneaking in cat dps whenever possible and using your mobility to tank the adds.

Faction champs
For me personally I've either zerged the healer with maim finishers or bear tank and kited the warrior/dk as much as possible (nature's grasp is your friend).

Twins.
Nothing special, you'll be bear form the whole time.

Anub
I've only MT'd this, and given how hard he can hit I'd say this favors a bear MT. I pretty much stayed away from the adds and let dps handle them. Key point. Save barkskin for when you are frozen if possible.

More details as I get more fights in there.

This thing still exists?

I never really put much time or effort into this blog, but it feels therapeutic to summarize what's been going on in my WoW world.

The Main - Xarnen
It's been a helluva ride since I last posted. I was promoted to an officer within the guild, and have been actively busting my ass to grow and progress everyone. Sadly all of my efforts have been in vain, and slowly but surely the guild is spiraling into a place of uncertainty. We've gained and lost a few members who have created some minor drama within Bad JuJu (which in relative terms is major since we're MOSTLY drama-free). We've lost a few to burnout, class changes, and real life and it has made a major dent on success as a 10 man raiding guild. We've tried plugging in some other members, and with a good deal of previously cleared content, we've managed by just fine. We're back to pugging, and I hate it. We got off to a rough start with Ulduar because we were pugging with another guild and a bad raid leader. Exit the raid leader and absorb the guild, get on our feet a few weeks later and whammo progression occurs. A new boss every week after a handful of tries. BAM! We get past the keepers and take a first look at General Vezzax. BAM! 3.2 hits and we start looking at ToC, farming heroics for better loot and it starts spiral downwards. Members suddenly stop showing up, and come back and tell us that real life has taken over. It's all too odd that the timing of the patch, and the gradual disappearance of some key members of the guild. Pretty much our raiding has ceased to be meaningful, and at best progression comes as a pug. Sure, I personally have seen my gear skyrocket, but it's mostly due to all the e-z mode epics from the change to the badge system. I've cleared TOC-10 with a couple guildies in a pug, but it doesn't feel the same when you do with your guildmates. Needless to say, I'm pleased with what I have been able to individually accomplish with my character, but I'd trade it all for a full guild Yogg kill.

Reelacks
I've come to grow and depend on this toon. It's really a nice diversion from the pressures of being a guild officer and tank. Sure, I'm still an officer and do officery things when I have him logged on....but it doesn't feel that way. I can play and stand in the back and a good little Onxyia raider---more dots. I absolutely LOVE affliction. I may one day grind out the gold and get a dual spec to fiddle around with demo or destro, but I love the complexity and challenge of a more difficult to master dps rotation (ala cat dps). I learn a bit more each time I play him, and thanks to ez epics he's ready for Uld25/Toc10. Not that I'll get to raid much w him...but it's nice to know "I can". Plus it's handy to have a maxed out tailor/enchanter around.

Nenrax
FINALLY level 80. Maxed out in JC and Mining, and acquired many epic JC patterns. This toon will most likely never develop into much, but that mining prof may quickly turn into Engineering.

Exxiss
I've gotten him back on track a bit and decided to make him my skinning and ore bot. I mean what else are DKs good for? ;-) He's 64, well rested up, and well into the 300s in both gathering profs. A few more days of AT dailies on Xar, and I'll get the BoA chest and powerlevel him. Then Xar goes JC and ditches skinning with the stash I've made on leveling up mining. Then another farming circuit and usage of the leftovers and get the rogue maxed out on Engineering

Raxnen,
Fully BoA'd out, level 38, and steadily progressing on herbs/alc. Not much else to say tho I do like shadow priest. It gets easier every level and I can't wait to get shadowform. He'll still only level while fully rested and I play til the rested XP is burned through. Keeps the time invested to progressing earned fast and easy. It worked well for the rogue for more than half his levels and the warlock from 70-80. This one by far will be easiest since he's had BoA gear since level 1 I believe.

I won't make/play anymore toons until the next expansion. I don't know where I'll be at that time, so no real need. If I do make a new toon, it will be a goblin elemental shaman inscriptionist. Beyond that no clue. I still have my lol-a-din on the pvp server that I play if/when Cairne is down.

Alt-itis and project Self Sustaining

Just a brief update on the status of Nenrax and Raxnen.
Raxnen burned through a good chunk of rested xp and now comfortably sits at level 27. Made a bit of progress with herbs and alchemy, and also got the fish finder book and leveling up all the secondary skills to the next rank. I also got my hands on another BoA trinket, so he gets to level with two nice shinies along with the shoulders. I'd like to get the mace or a staff next. I think I'll get the mace, because it has mana regen and crappy shadow priest is oom always.
Nenrax also burned through most of the rested xp, sitting just a few xp shy of level 63. Minor progress on lock pick, but to date is at about 303 or so. I ran some pugs through Ramps and BF, got some new blues. Hopefully most of the classic zone gear will be replaced very soon.

Other alts. I still haven't completed decided what to do with Exxis. I think I may make him an herb/mining bot as a feeder for other alt crafters. Short term, the herbs and ore will help Nen and Rax level up and it will be easier to farm since he already has the epic ground mount. I think once Nen's JC is maxed, I'll drop mining and pick up Blacksmithing for him and once alchemy is maxed, I'll pick up inscription for Rax. The DK seems much more sensible to farm with comparatively speaking. This will take a long time to work on, so the key priorities are to get Nenrax to level 80 and well situated with JC first. Then I will switch him to blacksmith and Rax to Inscription and go on a mass farming exodus for both herbs and ore with Exxis. This would leave me without an engineer cept for "Charmie", but that is the least desirable of my profs at this time.

Reelacks has been a slow progress, but I did pick up the Wispcloak recipe and honored with SoH. He's definitely the down time toon for when the priest and rogue are resting and there's no Raiding to do with Xar.
Speaking of Xar, he's finally maxed at 450 with LW so any Ulduar recipe drops obtained can now be crafted. WooT!

Expansion, Consolidation, and General Craziness

Well a lot has happened in the state of our raiding and guild affairs over the past week or so.

In Bad Juju land, we've welcomed a new 80 to our mix and can finally add a hunter to the fray. We upgraded one of our warrior tanks to getting closer to Naxx 10. So the guild raiding capabilities continues to grow. Membership has also smidged a bit upwards as we added an alt of a long time friend to the mix, and also a new recruit is on the way via one of our main healers. Slow but steady we grow.
I chatted a bit last Friday with our guild leader, and he set things in motion with the Protectors of the guild ensuring and clarifying that they all are indeed officers of the guild. This is a good thing. I feel as a protector now more obligated to increase my role within the guild, rather than just the feeling of being a "senior" member so to speak. We've also been given the go ahead to recruit outside of our personal circle.

So here-in lies the dilemma we are facing. We're getting new Jujus, but we dont have quite enough. We raid very well alonside the members of Section 8. Section 8 is recruiting. There's been a whole smattering of discussion about reforming a new guild, or combining or whatever.
So what are the scenarios?

Bad Juju absorbs Section 8:
Given the more personal nature of our guild, this would be the easiest solution. The issue I see here is that S8 Guild leader is also recruiting and I don't think his fall from grace would settle well. I could see most of the rest of that guild fitting AOK with us, but this is a touchy realm
Section 8 absorbs Bad Juju:
This is not a very realistic solution. Bad Juju currently has 3 times as many individual members, and not to mention our personal relationships of which many would object to be absorbed. This scenario would translate into a true raid guild. S8 GL would not be the ideal person to lead a guild of this size.
S8 and Bad Juju raiders /gquit and form a new guild:
This could happen, but it would create a lot of hard feelings and sort of slap both GLs in the face. The only advantage of this would be the smoothest possible raid team.
Nothing:
This is probably what will happen. The raids will be co-op guilded until S8 fleshes out its ranks. Hopefully this doesnt cause any defectors from Bad Juju, and we can continue our good relationship with S8 members.

Ulduar Update

So our collective little guild co-op finally downed a few bosses (besides the Flame Leviathan).

XT-002
Two shotted. Finally convinced the RL to tank the boss at the stairs. It took everything we had, but we nailed. Key highlights for me. Innervate the OOM'd mage who was CCng the repair bots, and battle rezzing the unfortuneate DK during the heart phase.

Razorscale
Two shotted. We followed a pretty standard strategy of group up all the adds and blaze them down. A few minor issues occurred on the kill. OT took threat from me on Razorscale and eventually died, but I somewhat growled him back. That fight is just some awesome to watch. I love being the center of attention. The breath weapon and speed at which the dragon moves vs. the giant dire bear is something pure rage. A truly breathtaking and visceral experience. MOAR!

Ignis
We initially tried to position him near the furnace to make the heals a bit easier. Yea didn't take to well to scorch. The second round of wipes we tried the internet strat guide method of kiting in a four point rotation. We did a little better, but again wipeage. Our third and more interesting attempt had me kite him to one of the water pools to minimize raid damage on debuff. Had a modicum of success but it has issues as well. The pull is tricky to get back in enough time to avoid the scorch. Probably can have the hunter do a misdirection pull to correct that. Also I was drowning quite a bit and that gave issues to the healers. Lastly, the silence affect really jacked up our healers.

Kologarn
We tried a few different methods. Both of us tanks fell off the edge and generally speaking we did "OK", but no kill. I think that's just a simple find the best solution scenario and nail it. The hard part for me is to figure if I can tank that in my gear to give some added oomph.

Comments:
Gear. Ulduar is really testing my gear. I'd say my gear is barely adequate to MT a lot of these fights. I've gone all out, respeccing my resto in to 2/2 IMOTW and 3/5 furor, quaffing down blackened dragonfish, with elixirs of expertise and elixirs of fortitude. Carrying 36k+ health is good, not great. I need to regem my helm with the 8agi/12stam helm.
I'm not some theorycrafter in an uber raid guild who's cleared naxx 30 times. I need more Naxx-25 runs to flesh out some key pieces. Thankfully we've got a run scheduled for this week, so hopefully a few choice pieces will come my way (here's looking at you hood of the exodus).

Why you think your toon is special, and I don't.

Everyone will always think their class is special or is the best or whatever else. That's fine for you. But I am going to tell you that the most valuable member of ANY raid is a feral druid. ESPECIALLY a feral cat.

1. We're the only class that selectively rez someone in the middle of a fight.
2. We're argueably the only class that can tank in their DPS gear or DPS in their Tank gear relatively effectively. We're the only class that will most be crit immune even in dps gear.
3. We can pop a raid-wide heal, a quick HoT, decurse and remove poison.
4. Our main buff gives great overall universally good upgrades (all base stats, armor, and resistance)
5. We heal you when you crit and you crit more often.
6. We give tanks threat for doing nothing but getting hit.
7. We have the best DoT ever. RIP!
8. We have speed (better than rogues) and stealth (almost as good as rogues).
9. We have CC that does DPS, and that can be selective cast or made to proc on hit.
10. With dual specs, we're the only class that can effectively tank, dps or heal.
11. We're immune to polymorphs (sheep this bitch), and shapeshifting can get us out of some snares.
12. We never have to train our weapon skills for melee.
13. Cat attack speed is never worse than one (unless debuffed). This means weapon dps is what matters, never speed.
14. We crit more than anyone.
15. We AOE as well as you, sometimes better.
16. We can neutralize stealth.
17. We can render you inert.
18. We can still use ranged spells in a pinch (burst, DoT, and AOE).
19. We have useful and frequent ways of lowering our threat.
20. We are druids. We do more than enough. Long live hybrids!

This is by no means saying 10 druids could succeed in a raid (or maybe they could?), but if you had to pick a melee dps toon between a DK, Rogue, Warrior, Enhancement Shaman, or Ret Pally who would you pick. I'll take the cat anyday.

Alt notes - Nenrax skills development update

Nenrax finished off his rested xp earlier this weekend, and will now enjoy a nice 10 day rest building up rested xp. He's about 2/3 of the way to level 61, with now most of Silithus cleared. I only did the breadcrumbs quests in Hellfire, and managed to snag a few flight paths en route to Shattrath, my new home.

Jewelcrafting - Up to 276. I have farmed enough thorium to make enough settings to carry me through to 300. I still have a few unused gems for the higher level recipes, so a few more circuits through Un'Goro and I should be set.
Mining - About 320 or so. I went off to Outlands, trained mining to Master to continue leveling on Thorium.
Cooking - Again, trained up in Outlands, and leveled off of the Sandworm meat obtained in Silithus. Still plenty of free points to level up from old world foods, so cooking will be a breeze in Outlands. Currently just over 300.
Fishing - Only leveled up another 5 points to 250. I think one night when not raiding, I'll just hang out in TB or Org and max it out. Catching for cooking is irrelevant at this point, as the skill-> misses in Azshara aren't worth it and I can't stay rested.

Gear - nothing new of consequence really. Outlands will take care of that in short order soon, although finishing off a few of these Silithus quests may yield a nice shiny or two to make Outlands a smidge easier.

Raiding Ups - Naxx for Noobs a Bad JuJu success story

After finishing up our failed Emalon attempt, we regrouped for a planned Naxx-10 run with as many members of Bad JuJu as we could muster up and fleshed out the rest with our "sister" guild compadres.

All in all, I am very proud of how everyone performed in the two completed quarters of Arachnid and Military. The wipes were minimal and usually just due to rushing through trash pulls. My breakdown of the performance

Arachnid -
Anubrakan (sp?) - One shot. Since our MT is overgeared, it was easy enough to "heal through" the debuff. Everyone performed admirably, especially our OT was new to the fights in picking up the adds. I raid healed the fight
Grand Widow - Two shot. Our MT did go down, probably due to all the poison abolishing I was doing and not being able to heal through the enrage (we did it the hard way lol). Second time was much better.
Maxenna - One shot. I healed again, flailing my mouse and keyboard to keep off the poison and raid heal. Definitely a good test for my newfound healing off-role. Offtank did well on the add pickups, and the hunter did well on the wraps.

Military -
Instructor Razzledazzle - I think one shot. First time to mind control tanks for our OT. He did very well. I dps'd this as we had picked up a third healer to replace a fury warrior from our guild. I topped DPS on this one with over 3k.
Gothik - Two shots. First attempt the light side got overwhelmed. Again the OT was here and was his first attempt. We reassigned groups, so I was now with the OT and could help him tank the adds on the 2nd attempt. Try two the dark side started to get a bit overwhelemed, but they perservered in time. The boss came down and went after me initially, but no big even in cat form to take a couple swings. In the end he went down.
Four horseman - Two shots. The first try we failed because I was trying the backside for the first time. I tried to go bear and was thinking the healadin was going to stick with him. I guess I misunderstood the strategy, so round two i switched back to resto and "heal tanked" while the front side group worked them down. This obviously worked out much better. The only issue we had was our shadow priest died twice (battle rezzed once) dying on the back side to the voids the one boss plops all over the floor.

All in all, with several players with little to no experience running these quarters of Naxx they did a very nice job. Several people from Bad JuJu got some nice little upgrades, as well as a nice new bow for our hunter friend from the sister guild. Yours truly, finally can say goodbye to his staff of trickery now that I have the shiny new Wraith Spear for my dps set.

It definitely made up for the Emalon wipes, and the mood and general attitude was much more relaxed without the usual raid leader in tow.

Kalon over at Think Tank recently posted his views on successful raiding (much more in depth than I have described), and I think he's hit the nail on the head and I can truly relate. This is not to say our usual Raid Leader is a bad player or bad strategist. I think he has some good ideas, and at times shows a willingness to listen to little ideas. However he can be a bit grating and TOO pushy, and sometimes he needs to be willing to take on some new fresh ideas. However he does get groups going and there's something to be said for that. Babysitting 9-24 pug raiders is NOT an easy chore. However I have to step up more in speaking out when I see things going wrong. As a player who is perfoming MANY of the roles within our group, I see a lot more perspectives and I have to speak up more. I have to also help lighten the mood when things are frustrating and maybe even keep the RL's tone a bit downed.

I see hope yet for better raids to come.

Raiding Downs - An Emalon adventure

Last evening we joined forces with a "sister" guild to take another crack at Emalon, the new boss in Vault of Archavon. Since our guilds are small we've been doing this on 10 man mode. This is probably our 4th attempt with about 5 of us of who have been in all of the attempts.

The raid leader has been instructing us to do as follows: (perspective of facing the boss at the at the stairs)
Off-tank leads off gathering up all the adds near the stairs on the front left side of the room.
Main Tank (always has been me since I have the most health/armor) is taunting the boss (since the OT starts off) and positioning him to the back right part of the room.
DPS - Melee is handling adds and dpsing them down a bit but not killing them
DPS - 1 "plate" dpser has been assigned to kite new adds to the OT.
DPS - Keybinding a mark to the overcharged add
DPS - Ranged on boss until overcharged add appears, then all dps on the add
Healers spread out appropriately to minimize chain lightning.

The closest we have gotten is having the boss down to 5% health left. That was our "best" effort and the results before and since then have not even come close.

We're all seeing the strategy as "not bad", but obviously it's not good enough. What do I see as the issues?
1. We're losing the dps race on the overcharged add
Correctable
2. We're cutting it dangerously close on the boss's enrage timer.
Correctable
3. There's too many little mistakes adding to wipe frustration
Correctable
4. We need the same 10 people to work together before we can mix and match people in to get all a chance to beat the boss
Maybe

How do I think we should correct the issues I've described.
1. The dps race on the add.
The keybind to mark the overcharged add idea is "OK". We could still use this as a visual clue.
The key idea is to have a macro assigned to target and kill the overcharged add that dps can spam based on boss mods warnings. This is something I have to research.
2. The boss enrage timer.
I've had feral faerie fire on the boss from the fight's start (growl off OT and then FFF and mangle to establish threat), and in our better attempts it was about to drop off (meaning we have 1 minute left to kill). The problem with the current strategy is twofold.
- The positioning is off. I propose we adopt a strategy as follows.
Same opening with OT gathering adds and MT taunt and position
MT positions to the back left corner of the "pentagon"
OT positions adds to the front left corner of the "pentagon"
Ranged dps and casters spread out on the right side of the "pentagon".
OT keeps adds busy, taunting any new ones that appear
ALL dps on boss until DBM warns of the overcharged add. DPS then needs to spam macro to target and blaze down the overcharged add. Melee dps needs to position themselves to avoid the boss's big blast and stay on the add. This last part is probably the trickiest and precise positioning will need to be worked out to keep melee dps safe.
3. Little mistakes
We've had some minor issues with the add finder plate dpser accidentally taunting the boss. No biggie, especially if we change to my suggested ideas.
Aggro. DPS and healers need to delay just a bit to let the tanks get their aggro. Again no biggie.
4. This is always a challenge having the same core make the initial attempt succesfully. I don't suspect it will happen, but we can hope. The other issue will be getting the raid leader to step aside on this one and try something new. I hope we can get this resolved.

Effective gearing usage per situation

I am beginning to realize that for most of the standard content and really most of the 10 man stuff, I don't need to use my tank gear at all. My dps set is more than adequate thanks to the fact a lot of the key stats like agility and armor are relatively the same. They key mitigation I gain comes from talents, not so much gear. It is only in some Naxx-25 situations (hatefuls on Patchwerk for example), that I really need to strap on my gear with more defense, dodge, stamina, and expertise. Even then I think I could squeak by without it most of the time if the healers keep up. It's a blessing and a curse to be able to switch around gear for any situation. It just takes a LOT longer to fill out two sets of upgrades. Flexibility is nice, but not without a price.

Pug raiding the Flame Leviathan

Flame Leviathan - Check
Pugs - Check
Raid Leader not on vent - Check
3 hours of wipes - Check

Turrets down - CH....oh wait we didnt do that
Flame Leviathan downed - DOH! FAIL.
Xarnen gold lost to repairs = 100g

I still fail to see why wearing your highest iLvl items and pre-buffing the raid has ANY effect on survivability or DPS. I'll have to confirm this for sure, otherwise I'm downing it nekkid and unbuffed. I didn't calculate dps, but vehicle health didn't change. I also wonder if pre-casting a few debuffs on the boss will work. I am thinking quick and easy things like Curse of Elements or Faerie Fire? Will have to test it out. :-D

Hope for this week

This week I hope I can garner some "meaningful" upgrades to Xarnen's tanking set of gear. Right now I see some serious deficiencies with my gear. Ideally I'd like to snag Hood of the Exodus, Defender's Code, and Boundless Ambition or Heritage. Hit rating is becoming a concern in full mitigation gear forcing me to stick with Icewalker enchant on my boots, and Gored-Hide Legguards. My dps set is pretty solid, although again I'd like to upgrade my helm and start dumping heroics gear with +hit in favor of some more crit/agi/ap (and still keep +hit up there). On the resto side of the fence I'm feeling pretty solid for Naxx-25, although I'd very much like a better mace and trinket that I can get in heroics.

Reelacks I think is going to fall on wayside a while. I think he's going to be a dumping ground for amassing enchanting mats for a while. Gear wise, he is solid enough for 25man content without setting foot in Naxx.

Nenrax will be a key focus when not raiding or doing other Xarnen-esque activities. I can taste maxing out jewelcrafting, and that will be key for long term gold making. You'll note(from my intro post) the other "project" toons. I am somewhat interested in playing at least the shaman, but otherwise they serve for one purpose - crafting. The goal here is to have most of the major professions well in tow. It's a very long term project as you can see. I am still debating on how best to handle Exxiss, but I think Blacksmithing will yield the longest term best bet for him. However I think he'll take a backseat as DKs start with no trade skill points. My best bet after Nenrax for any serious leveling will be Raxnen. Although I don't care for priest (originally was made to have a healer toon but with dual spec Xarnen is taking the cake there), Alchemy will be invaluable profession. It should cover all the basics needs between at least 4 of them, with Xar's LW, Ree's Enchanting/Tailoring, Nen's JC, and Rax's alchemy. Again, it's a long term goal for all of this. Realistically, I see having Nen get up there before this summer. Having 3 crafter toons all maxed out should be able to maintain Xar pretty well without much cost. Getting the alchemist will be key to self sustainence. Blacksmithing and inscription will be nice eventually, but much much longer term. There will be a point of too many toons to manage, and by the time I'd get them all there, it'll be expansion time again(maybe).

Weekend mumblings

I spent a good deal of time (as usual lately) playing this weekend.

Xarnen - most of the weekend was doing odds and ends as well as clearing Naxx-10. I didn't obtain any really useful gear updates (nothing great really dropped other than the tier helm and I lost the roll on that). However I did obtain the key to Eye of Eternity, and TWO shiny new mounts this weekend! We ran a timed run of Heroic Culling of Stratholme, and I rolled and won the bronze drake. Also while fishing up some tasty dragonfin angelfish outside of Naxx, I snagged the rare and coverted Sea Turtle mount.

Nenrax - I finally brought him out of hiding for a good run this weekend. Leveled up from 54-58 with nearly 50% rested XP still remaining. I also got jewelcrafting up from 218 to 262. I think I will play out this rested xp this week, finishing up quests in Winterspring and Felwood. Although he's 58 and can go to Outlands, I think I'll keep this guy in Kalimdor and farm up the rest of the needed gems and ore to max out Jewelcrafting. I'm also getting a lot closer to completing the 685 quests in Kalimdor. I still have all of Silithus to do, so after that we shall see if going for the achievement is worth it. At worst I get to 60-61 and finish off JC. I also have to level up my lockpicking(mutter) as it's sitting sadly at 172. Other than that, I need a solid hour of fishing to get to 300 and first aid and cooking are well into the 290s.

Here we go

Hi and welcome to Demoralizing Roar. This is "yet another World of Warcraft blog" spamming the internet. Seriously though, I am using this is as a personal forum to improve my writing skills, collect my thoughts about my experiences playing WoW, and anything else that comes to mind.

Who am I on this WoW thing? I have several "toons", and I will list the "regulars" and the "projects".

The Regulars
Xarnen - level 80
Tauren Druid - Feral(Tank)/Restoration - Skinner/Leatherworker
Reelacks - level 80
Undead Warlock - Affliction - Enchanter/Tailor
Nenrax - level 58
Troll Rogue - Combat - Mining/Jewelcrafting

The Projects
Raxnen - level 24
Blood Elf Priest - Shadow - Herbalist/Alchemist
Nenxar - level 14
Tauren Shaman - SPEC TBD - Herbalist/Inscriptionist
Exxis - level 62
Orc Death Knight - SPEC Unholy - TRADES TBD