Coda

I was out of the game for a short while. A friend wanted me to rejoin and play with them in a new leveling endeavor, and they needed a tank, so I'm back for a while.  How long, remains to be seen, but I'm committed to being a tank for a small group of real life friends, so I'll shelve my warlocks for a while and concentrate here.  Not to the insane levels I had been playing, but hopefully, a more relaxed and fun game with people I actually know.

I rolled a goblin warrior named Coda yesterday on Wildhammer US-PvP.  I traditionally don't like PvP servers, because I played by myself so much in the past, but I'll give it a shot.  I've been a tank before, and I would have preferred a paladin over the warrior, but I didn't want another tauren or blood elf, so I went goblin warrior.

So, we'll see!

Tanking Shortage

Expanding a little bit about what I was talking about yesterday, I'm wondering why there is a shortage of tanks in the game.  There are probably a few factors that contribute to the overall problem.

• People are too impatient, and make the job harder than it has to be. I have tanked almost every instance from Ragefire Chasm all the way up to Forge of Souls, and I can't count how many times I've had other players "assist me" by pulling.  They do it with no regard to when I'm low on health/mana, or my taunts and abilities are on cooldown.  It's always my fault if I don't grab everything they bring me, all the while relentlessly doing damage and preventing me from gaining aggro.  Especially in leveling instances where some of the mobs may be higher level than me, and I get a miss or resist with an aggro causing shot.  And if someone's below 30% mana, and I pause for them to drink, I get, "Gogogogogo".  Then, they post the damage meters, so they can brag about how much they've done.  Every class has some form of threat management, and it's each person's responsibility to do the most damage they can, but back off when they start drawing attention.  Being a good DPSer is knowing when to back off and let the tank re-establish threat.  It's all these little things that make me prefer playing my warlock, following along in the back and throwing shadow bolts.
  
• People do not help new tanks gear up.  Each of my tanking capable toons that hit 80 has faced a major problem.  I can not start doing heroics as a tank right away, because there's no way I can hold aggro against someone who has ICC25 gear when I'm in crappy blues.  If I even try, I'm booted from the group.  If you want more people to tank, be more supportive of newer tanks getting better gear so they can better tank in heroics.  This is also a discouraging point, so I feel like I have to run and gear as a DPS spec first, and then start building a tanking set, which is what I've done on my paladin.  If you're a plate-wearer in the DPS slot, don't roll on defense plate when the tank needs it.
  
• People are ass-hats.  I've been in PuGs where I've been met with the must vulgar, rude and insulting party members you can imagine.  I don't put up with it anymore.  If anyone doesn't like they way I tank, or the pace I set, they go on ignore, I leave, and 10 seconds later I'm in a fresh instance while they're waiting for another 20 minutes for a replacement tank.  If I'm on cooldown, I hop on one of my other tanks, and I'll still be in a run before them.  I just refuse to group anymore with people who are disrespectful and mean-spirited.  You would think they'd be more appreciative and nicer after having to wait so long.

I think the bottom line is that tanking can be a lot of fun, and very rewarding, but every group has the opportunity for someone to make it a negative experience, and that's why more people aren't doing the job.

The Gearing Up

Yesterday, my tauren warrior I rolled in March, Squood of Steamwheedle Cartel US, dinged 80 in Icecrown.  He was at the top of the PvP and non-heroic dungeon finder brackets, and suddenly he's at the absolute bottom of the level 80 crowd.  He got wtfpwned in Wintergrasp and battlegrounds, and ended up face down on the dungeon floor in a few instances, running as fury spec.  Humbling after playing my well-geared warlock in ICC25.

He did get a few nice upgrades and made some progress, but the gap between him and toons who have been 80 for a long time is huge, and gear makes all the difference in the world.  It's going to take a whole lot of patience being at the bottom of the damage meters and getting called out for it for a few weeks to get him to a respectable level.  I'm not even going to try and tank in heroics for a while.

Luckily, the horde owns Wintergrasp much of the time on SWC, so I've already got 18 WG marks toward a nice pair of shoulders.  All those gems and enchants are expensive, though, and he doesn't even have epic flying yet.  He's also lacking any professions, having leveled almost entirely through the dungeon finder and battlegrounds.

I'm not entirely susre what I'll do with him for the moment.  The guild my other toons was in imploded and disappeared overnight, so they're all out in the breeze at the moment.  I just haven't been able to find a good, stable community guild in a long time.


As much fun as leveling the warrior has been, and getting instant queues, I've been feeling the itch to get back on my warlock again.  It's still the coolest class in the game by far to me.

Two more to go!

My tauren warrior Squood, on Steamwheedle Cartel US, dinged 78 this morning.  That means it's time to start collecting some Wintergrasp tokens!

On this realm, the horde is pretty overwhelming.  It usually controls Lake Wintergrasp for most of the day, with the alliance slipping a win or two in the very early morning.  Most of the battles I've done end up with the alliance standing in their graveyard, being shot up by the horde like ducks in a barrel.  I've played both sides for a long time, and it's not a lot of fun doing world PvP on the alliance end.

I got a few new two-handed weapons, so I'm making sure my skill is up this time for the Isle of Conquest Call to Arms, which starts tomorrow.  That should easily put me at 80, and give me enough honor for a few more pieces of PvP gear to get me started in heroics.  I'll probably start off as crappy DPS in fury spec, because there's no way I can hold aggro against some of the 6000 gearscore equipped damage monkeys as a fresh 80.

Next up, I want to go back and finish off the handful of dungeons I missed while leveling, so I can get the dungeon-master achievements for each of the brackets.

Squood enters the Tournament

I got my tauren warrior Squood to 77 last night, which means this morning he started on his Argent Tournament dailies in Icecrown.  I also cleaned out the Shadow Vault and started him on the Knights of the Ebon Blade rep grind.  He's getting so close to the top! :)

Skill up, stupid!

This morning, I didn't have a great deal of time, so I did a bit of minor questing on my level 76 warrior Squood in Northrend.  I switched to Fury spec, and got my 2-handers out with Titan's Grip, only to discover that I've been severely lacking in skill with those weapons.  I haven't used them in quite some time, and apparently all the PvP I did last weekend was done under an extreme handicap.  I guess you don't gain skill against other players as opposed to NPC mobs.  I wondered why I wasn't putting more of a hurting on the alliance in Strand of the Ancients.

I've fixed that problem now, and this weekend I'll be doing Isle of Conquest and Wintergrasp under a little more optimal conditions.

The dual-specs have been great, but while leveling, it's a sizable deal of work to keep my hotbars and weapon skills up to date!

I also just dropped a thousand gold on my new human paladin, Vez, on Skywall to buy her the retribution spec for PvPing.  That took her down to 4 gold, which I spent on a 2-hander, so I'd say it's time for her to start fishing again!

Squood nears the finish line

My tauren warrior, Squood, on Steamwheedle Cartel US, dinged level 76 from mostly running Strand of the Ancients this weekend.  He made good use of his alternate Fury spec, and is finally starting to perform respectably in there.  Just a few more levels, and he'll ding 80 and join my other toons in the gear chase.

To avoid becoming honor-capped, be's already bought the i-264 PvP cloak for when he tops out.  Wintergrasp is also just around the corner, and on SWC, he should do quite well tagging along in there.

The weekend was about half & half, pretty evenly split between alliance and horde.  Winning on the Call to Arms weekend gives you a pretty hefty chunk of honor and experience.  He should have quite a few gladiator pieces when he dings 80 to get him ready for heroics.

Pretty soon, I'll move back to my new human pally, Vez, but the upcoming weekend is Isle of Conquest, so I'll probably do some more for Squood to get him over the finish line.

To finish the weekend, I tanked Violet Hold and Drek'Theron Keep, and got him a few new blues, bringing his armor level up quite a bit.

Strand of the Ancients Weekend!

The weekend is here, and that means it's time for yet another battleground holiday.  This time, it's Strand of the Ancients, so it's Adult Swim, with level 71 and above.

I dusted off my tauren warrior, Squood, who is sitting at level 72.  I did 5 early morning matches to start the day, and ended up losing 4 and winning one.  A loss gets about 3% of a level, but a win netted me a whopping 14%! I have 2 of the XP bonus heirlooms on him, so he's getting the extra 20% gain.  I've also made about 5700 honor so far today.

I've got fury as my secondary spec, so he's dual-wielding 2-handers with Titan's Grip.  He does okay, but he's very much on the low end of the spectrum, so I think he'll do better as he goes up.

I don't think many of the quality players on the horde side were awake yet.  We had the obligatory Yelling Guy on our side in the first four matches, and we lost.  The fifth one, he wasn't there, and we faired much better.  Seriously, why does there always have to be one douche-bag who feels the need to let everyone else know that the entire group sucks except for them?  I think if they spend more time fighting, instead of typing, we might get somewhere.

I'm not sure how much I'll get to do this weekend, but I'm finding the Call to Arms makes a nice break in the dungeon finder routine.  No new gear drops, though, so I'll have to head back to instances before too long.

I Walk Alone

The guild my toons were on Steamwheedle Cartel imploded yesterday, with the leadership and most prominent names abandoning it, so I removed my collection from the remains.  Looking around, none of my characters on any server are guilded at the moment, which seems strange.  I'm not raiding, so I don't do much other than PuG runs and dailies for the time being, but I would like to get some benefits from the upcoming guild talents and achievements, so I guess I'd better find a new home for my main.

I'm really digging the new remote auction house feature.  I don't like to spend my in-game time moving crap around my bank and bags, so being able to do it from my browser or my iPhone any time of day is amazing.  Having instant access to the neutral AH is a massive advantage as well.  Blizzard seems to have taken note that players really don't like spending game time waiting on boats or absurdly long bird rides.  They've added a ton of flight paths, portals, graveyards, reduced hearthstone cooldown, and of course, the dungeon finder.  To me, they're just giving us one more access point to existing content and making things more accessible, so I'm pleased as punch.  I love being able to check in often and see if I've been undercut, and can pull things down and re-list them on the fly.  You can also re-list ended items and sell right from your mailbox and bank.  Being able to do it on my phone from the beach, on the toilet, etc, is just too cool to pass up.  I made about 1500 gold the first weekend just getting rid of a bunch of junk in my bags.

My level 70 tauren warrior Squood is still slowly making his way in Northrend.  He had a hard time learning Utgarde Keep, but he's doing good now.  Tanking has been very difficult with guys who open up with tremendous burst damage before I've even gotten a thunderclap in on the mobs.  The majority of them seem to be obsessed with getting numbers on the damage meter and they pay absolutely no attention to their threat.  A good team player will focus on the end goal and not their personal e-peen rating.

You are Now Leaving Outland

My tauren warrior Squood has reached level 68, and his brief time in Outland is over.  Time to move to Northrend for the final stretch to level 80.

I'll probably do some actual questing for a bit to swap out some gear pieces for upgrades and start tanking the Wrath instances when he hits level 70, so he's not at the bottom of the scope for the bosses.  I leveled my shaman and my human warlock in the dungeon finder through the 70s, and it went pretty fast.  Should be fun!

The Return of Squood

Two weeks of running heroics on my death knight has given me a nice break from leveling, but it's time to move the warrior into the home stretch.  I got Squood to level 67 last night, and killed some random mobs in Borean Tundra this morning, so he's unofficially moved into Northrend.

In the dungeon finder, he had a few good groups, and some not so good.  The evening started with a death knight in the DPS role who was in full aggro mode, and made it very difficult to get a good grip on the mobs.  The shaman in the group made it even better by casting typhoon and pushing all the mobs back into the next group.  He said it gave him more mana.

I'm pretty much just rotating through the Auchindoun instances right now.  I'm hoping to avoid any of the Tempest Keep dungeons for the next 30% of a level, and then my randoms switch over to the Wrath set, and I'll feel more at home.  The experience curve will slow down, so it's going to be slower going, but I'm fairly confident I can get through them all pretty quickly and start gearing up for heroics.  I've got a paladin and a death knight at 80, but I'm not comfortable tanking with them, so having a maxxed out warrior will be nice.

Jerk Finder

Had an awful lunch session on the warrior. I queued up and got Auchenai Crypts. Made the first pull, which is difficult and got through it. Started clearing the room, as is usual, because most of the time the folks in a dungeon are there to get experience. If you skip things, you get less. One of the DPSers starts crying. "If you make one more unnecessary pull, I'm leaving." Another guy pipes up, "Yeah, wtf are you doing?" Fine. I saved him the trouble and left, so they can stand there with their thumbs up their butts waiting 30 minutes for another tank to come along. Seriously, a DPSer is threatening to quit? You're a dime a dozen, pal. Nobody cares of you're there or not. I was just fed up with the attitudes, and after last night, I had enough. That was the first time I quit a group in disgust.

I can't go back in on Squood for 30 minutes, so I hopped over to my other warrior, Tempus, and got the same dungeon.  We were doing great until the first boss.  The healer just stood there, and the DPSers died.  I was able to finish off the boss, and instead of rezzing the others, the healer drops group.  The other guys were pissed because he didn't cast any heals the entire fight.  They didn't feel like running back, so the group fell apart.

Most of the time, groups are great, but some days you get matched up with complete douchebags.

Tanking in Outland

My new tauren warrior, Squood, is now level 65, and successfully tanked Hellfire Ramparts, Blood Furnace, Slave Pens, Underbog, Mana Tombs and Auchenai Crypts.  He's has some good spots and some bad spots, but he's coming along.

Most runs are fairly straightforward - I move at a fast pace, and only slow down when the healer needs mana.  Last night, I ended up as DPS in a Slave Pens run, and we had 3 paladins with shields. The guy tanking had to sit down and drink between every group of mobs, and he was amazed at his AOE dps.  And then, the question comes up, "Anyone have Recount?"  Seriously, if you're concerned enough about your place on the damage meter to ask the question, RUN RECOUNT FOR YOURSELF, YOU FRICKING RETARD.  I run a damage meter for the sole reason of seeing my own performance, and I never post the results in a group just to show off my own e-peen.  The joys of running pick-up-groups.

Just three more levels and Squood will start heading into Northrend, and the experience will slow down a bit.  I'm not looking forward to that transitional period where he hits 80 and has lousy gear compared to everyone else.  I have a plan to do some PvP and run as DPS for a bit to get him some badges for the better stuff.  I'm comfortable with the tanking role now, and I know the dungeons pretty well, so I think I'll do alright once I get some gear.  It's been a blast leveling with the dungeon finder, though.

You are Now Leaving Azeroth

Sqood is my new tauren warrior on Steamwheedle Cartel US.  He was born on March 25th, 2010, and this morning he reached level 60 and moved into Hellfire Peninsula in Outland.  Quite a milestone for the big guy.

Last night, he added Hellfire Ramparts and Scholomance to his list of completed dungeons.  For the classic dungeonmaster achievement, he needs only LBRS, Stratholme, and 2 wings of Dire Maul.  I have to go and choose those manually through the dungeon finder now, as the random choices will only give me Outland instances.  This guy has done more dungeon runs already than all of my other toons combined.  My goal is to have him do every 5-man in the game, hopefully as the tank.

As soon as he hit 60, he ran over and purchased his flying skill and mount, and went right to Shattrath and did the Going Down achievement.  Being able to fly will make it very easy for exploring, turning in quests, and bypassing stuff I don't feel like doing.

Squood now has the 51 point talents in both the Protection and the Fury trees for each of his specs - Shockwave for tanking and Titan's Grip for DPS.  Being able to heft two 2-handed weapons is pretty cool.  I still don't like being assigned to damage in a dungeon group, but I go with the role I'm given and support the tank if it's not me.  As a tank, Squood does very well, but can also handle the DPS role comfortably.

I'm actually doing a few of the initial questlines in Hellfire to get some of the easy gear upgrades.  Right off the bat, they handed me a better shield.

I also ran an Alterac valley and racked up a bunch of PvP achievements before moving into the 60+ bracket. The horde continues to dominate in my battlegroup.

Squood now has more than 50 non-combat pets and got the skunk as a reward.  I may go for 100 with him.

Onward! For the Horde!

It's getting crowded in here

It's finally happened.  A death knight showed up in one of my warrior's random dungeons last night, and I prepared myself for what I've been dreading for the past month.  He didn't disappoint.

On the very first pull, I charge in, hit thunderclap, and... my mob is gone, yanked across the distance by the DK's death grip.  Everyone groans and chastises the guy.  He's very sad.  He rolled this character to be a tank, and he's got all his aggro taking abilities lined up, and he's going to use them, even though he's in the DPS slot.

To make things worse, the hunter is "helping me" with pulls, gathering guys up, and then feigning death.  This is not too bad, but he keeps doing it when the healer had announced he was out of mana.  The healer dies, and immediately starts cursing me - "#$%#@ hold aggro, you %&^$! Seriously! #%$^%!!!"  If we weren't in the last room of Blackrock Depths, I'd have quit then and there, but I ignored him and we finally finished.  I still adhere to the mindset of - "You pull it, you tank it."

I had another group I went into this morning that re-queued, and 4 members listed themselves as a tank.  Most could do DPS as well, but I think the early 60s are going to be a real test of fortitude for my warrior, Squood.  Someone said they thought it wouldn't be too bad, as most people who want death knights have already rolled them, and you can only have 1 per server.  I've already seen a few at level 58, fresh out of their starter zones, though, and a lot of them will be brand new to tanking.

I did manage to acquire the Crescent Key for Dire Maul, and completed the East wing.  All the rest of the classics are available to me now in the dungeon finder, so let's do this! /cracks knuckles

I'm thinking of making some macros, asking for members to refrain from assisting with pulling and pacing.  Any advice on keeping the party under control without sounding like an elitist prick?

The Lamentations of their Women

What is best in life? According to Conan, it's "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women. Seeing my new tauren warrior, Squood, seated on the throne in Blackrock Depths reminds me of Conan as King. Squood has been kicking some ass lately and making great progress.

I'm getting a bit tired of BRD. For the past few levels, that's all that's come up. It's the longest instance in the game, and a lot of folks don't know where they're going. He's at level 55 now, so just a few more, and he'll be ready to move into a few Outland dungeons. I'm still going to pick up the last few classic runs, LBRS, Dire Maul, Scholomance and Stratholm, for the classic dungeonmaster achievement.

"I'm ready to play!"

My new tauren warrior, Squood, on Steamwheedle Cartel US, is now level 52.  He's knee deep in Black Rock Depths, and has gotten the Warbringer and Devastate talents, so he's kicking some butt.  BRD is huge, and I haven't finished Upper City yet, but I did get the Shadowforge Key in my collection now.  Looking forward over the next 8 levels to completing the Classic Dungeonmaster achievement.

There's always gotta be one...

I had the first jerk in a while in an instance last night. I was doing Sunken Temple with my tauren warrior Squood, and there's the room with Jammal the Prophet, and a lot of those guys cast fear. A hunter pet got hit, and ran up & attracted the boss and 2 other packs of mobs, causing a wipe. It's a long run back, but we only lost one guy. A replacement zoned in, and we finished the room. On the way to the last boss, the new guy pipes up, "How come you aren't holding aggro?" I look, and he's a warrior who got put in the DPS role. I guess he had to show his e-peen and make a comment about my tanking, even though I had just had 2 successful princess runs and 2 successful Sunken Temple runs prior to this one. I think I got frogged during Jammal, and he goes after other people during that. I didn't even dignify it with a response. We killed the last boss, and if you haven't cleared out all the trash, which we hadn't, they all come pouring into the room. I zoned out and left him there to show the group how aggro is held, since he's mastered it. I felt bad for the other guys, but only for a few seconds.

I have a feeling this is how things are going to be when I get to level 58 and death knights with something to prove start showing up.  Everyone and his uncle will be a tank for a few levels.

You can always tell the guys who are just looking to be jerks by making comments about gear, or how much life someone has, etc. in a lower level instance. Nobody cares. We're just here to kill the boss, get our bag and leave. If things are dying, who cares about those things? I've had some groups where we continue and do 2 or 3 more runs, and then someone has to leave and new guy will come in a whisper me to kick one of the other guys for not doing enough DPS. With stuff like that I just feel like asking, "Why do you care about that, and if you do, why would you be a jerk enough to comment out loud about it?"

Life is too short to spend time in a game bickering.

Squood is level 49 - next level I get the warbringer talent, which is a game changer (charge in combat and in any stance). One more after that, and I get Devastate, so the 50s will be fun, as most of the tools will finally be in place.  Looking forward to Blackrock Depths, Dire Maul, Scholomance, and Stratholm next!

Halfway There

Stayed up a bit late last night, but I got my new Tauren warrior Squood to level 40. I purchased a dual-spec for him, so he can switch over to DPS when the time of a million-zillion death knights comes at level 58, got his epic mount, and bought the rest of his bank slots. He is now a character I wouldn't consider deleting. The level 31 pally I spaced to make room for him had only some basic things, but a thousand gold for an alternate spec means they're permanent. My level 66 Night Elf warrior Tempus doesn't even have that yet (not enough gold on the Alliance side).

The last run I did last night was already in progress when I joined. I started pulling some guys when I noticed one of the other members was in bear form, and a quick glance showed I was strangely not the tank. I switched my stance and was second on the DPS meter, even though I was protection specced. Now that he's 40, I have a second weapon in my bag, and I can switch to fury and dual-wield hammers, and my threat won't be so high.

I'm in plate now, and got a few new tools for aggro, so the 40's are feeling good. At the end of Scarlet Monastery last night, I had one guy say, "You're the best warrior tank I've seen at these levels." Another pipes up, "Yeah, kudos." That really made my day. I took a screen shot.  It will comfort me later when I'm being told how badly I suck at holding aggro.

At level 50 and 51 I get two more very important talents, and that should get me back in the comfort zone that Tempus is in. It was very good to start over and work with the tools as I got them and really learn the class all over again, because it's nothing like it was in vanilla. I've got Maraudon, Zul'Farrak and Sunken Temple coming up this week, so he's really making some progress. The Classic Dungeonmaster achievement is my goal, and then Outland. I don't have that on anyone yet, but with Squood, I can say I did it all at level, rather than going back at 80 and destroying the place just for 10 achievement points.

Squood Smash!

My new tauren warrior, Squood, on Steamwheedle Cartel is progressing nicely.  I went pedal to the metal for the first week, but was a bit more relaxed the past few days.

He's up to level 37, and has tanked everything up to and including Razorfen Downs.  In the next few days, I have Uldaman and Maraudon to look forward to, which will be fun.  I've not done any professions with him other than first aid, as they just seem like places to spend gold at this point.

Tanking gear for lower levels is absurdly priced in the auction house, and I just won't pay those prices.  I have 3 pieces of heirloom gear, and the rest I get from boss drops.  There really hasn't been too much he's needed to spend money on beyond his first set of bags.

I've really had to adjust to the newer style of tanking since I last played a warrior.  Back in vanilla WoW, pulls were cautious, only grabbing the minimum, and giving the tank at least 3 sunders before DPS even made a peep.  That's not the way it works anymore.  If I pull anything less than 10 mobs at a time, I get yelled at for being too slow.  Groups now can burn down a tremendous amount of enemies at once.  When I learned this and adjusted my playstyle, I've had much happier groups.  I still get an occasional DPSer who runs ahead and pulls mobs when I have no rage, but I haven't had anyone die in quite a few levels.

I've still be doing the fishing and cooking dailies on my 80s, to keep some gold coming in, but the warrior has been a very nice way to spend my time while waiting for Cataclysm to hit.