Last I posted about my Baby Pally I was running amok through Scholomance. And my oh my, how time has flown. I'm no longer a delicate Blood Elf flower screaming Thalassian insults at Banshees and undead Constructs....
No, now I'm a large delicate Tauren flower screaming Taurahe insults at Valkrie and undead Constructs.
Anyone who knows how many tauren I have really wouldn't be surprised at this. I have had people betting on whether or not Jabberjack would become a tauren. Jabbers is very much so a blood elf and I don't think I could. Male Blood elves look much better in plate, than their female counter parts in my mind. A female blood elf in plate ends up a little too much dress up barbie for my tastes. So really it was only a matter of time before Jackaline became a cow. Especially since she was rolled in late November/early December and I couldn't make her a Tauren.
But It's still amazing to me to look back and realize, holy cowbells I'm level 79, and by the end of the week I will be 85. I haven't leveled this fast ever, and what's more important I'm Having Fun doing so. This alone makes me value this toon far more than any other toon. Fun is what games are supposed to be about. Leveling this toon has been the breath of fresh Air I've been craving in this game.
And I'm still learning.
Some of the things I learned when I first started tanking still apply at this level.
Go at your own pace! The more you run a place the better you will know it, and the faster you can go. Odds are still good that your DPS is chomping at the bit to and I quote, "GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO". I've found that picking a mob and charging in works really well. If you're marking mobs, aim for the casters first.
Confidence is the best Buff. If you know your rotation and are buoyed by your confidence you can tank anything. If you've had a group shake you up, grab a buddy and go for another. You are the tank, you own those mobs. Don't become the entitled asshole tank with this. There will ALWAYS be a bigger fish out there that is better than you, but the main thing here is to feel good about yourself and your abilities. You are a stud. Now go tank that Bastard you sexy beast you.
/ignore is Amazing No really it is. If you run into a bad player, or an abusive player that makes you want to punch the screen just ignore them. There is currently a bug so in pugs if you need to ignore someone click on their name and ignore them that way. I ran into a case where I was farting about on my worgen druid and i ended up healing a run that was so awful. The tank was abusive the rogue was even more so. I dropped group because I didn't want to deal with them. If I'd been on top of things I would have ignored them. Five minutes later when I decided to try again, the random dungeon finder tossed me back into that group. I wanted to bang my head on the desk and just coped by being obnoxious back (while still healing even if i was spamming moonfire and wrath).
And Tanking is still getting a little bit harder, but I relish the challenge. I'm almost into Cata content. My familiarity with Wrath content meant that I rofled my way through it. It really helped that I picked up a pocket Healer and a pocket boomchicken/healer. If you're tanking get yourself a pocket buddy. Pocket dps count for this too, because having backup makes life SO MUCH EASIER.
By the end of the week I hope to hit 85 on Jackaline, and then the race to gear up for heroics and raids begins anew.
Walk with the Earth Mother.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
Ch-ch-ch-changes
So my awesome baby guild on Ysera is kind of dead in the water, or rather it's gone tits up. The Gm? Total WoW burn out, our tankadin is afk, and well it just sucks and makes me sad. So after talking to the GM I got his blessing to go looking for a guild.
Monday I joined a new guild, and last night was the first night of raiding. First off, I like it, there's a lot of active players I ask in guild if anyone wants a heroic and BAM full group. It *FEELS* low key and relaxed, and as someone who really, really doesn't want drama in a guild it's awesome.
But yeah first night of raiding with them. There some jokes in vent during trash, but boss time was serious time. It reminded me a bit of my wrath/ICC 25m guild on Hao. I did have flasks but in my nervous dancing chicken way forgot my buff foods. I had looked up 2 of the fights in Bastion of Twilight and a few of the fights in Blackwing Decent. The bad news is we were in BoT, and what I had looked up was helpful, but I felt like such a huge blithering idiot. Especially when we hit the Asendant Council and I died on the trash before it and hadn't looked up that fight. /idiot.
My dancing chicken of nervousness self combined with not knowing enough and forgetting my buff food all combined to make me feel woefully inadequate, as well as near worthless. And then add on that my last raiding experiences were during August as my Guild was working on 25m Hard Modes in ICC. And that I was a hunter, not a holy pally.
Performance anxiety, I has it. But we 1 shot Halfus, got Valiona and Theralion down and had one super awesome attempt on the council (2% or less). That's probably not as good as they usually do and by the Earthmother I will be better prepared.
I like this guild and their 2.5 hrs a night 2 nights a week (with a float day on Sunday) Schedule. I want to be the best damn player I can be for them. It's like they say, if it's worth doing, It's worth doing right.
Raiding, I wanna do it right.
Monday I joined a new guild, and last night was the first night of raiding. First off, I like it, there's a lot of active players I ask in guild if anyone wants a heroic and BAM full group. It *FEELS* low key and relaxed, and as someone who really, really doesn't want drama in a guild it's awesome.
But yeah first night of raiding with them. There some jokes in vent during trash, but boss time was serious time. It reminded me a bit of my wrath/ICC 25m guild on Hao. I did have flasks but in my nervous dancing chicken way forgot my buff foods. I had looked up 2 of the fights in Bastion of Twilight and a few of the fights in Blackwing Decent. The bad news is we were in BoT, and what I had looked up was helpful, but I felt like such a huge blithering idiot. Especially when we hit the Asendant Council and I died on the trash before it and hadn't looked up that fight. /idiot.
My dancing chicken of nervousness self combined with not knowing enough and forgetting my buff food all combined to make me feel woefully inadequate, as well as near worthless. And then add on that my last raiding experiences were during August as my Guild was working on 25m Hard Modes in ICC. And that I was a hunter, not a holy pally.
Performance anxiety, I has it. But we 1 shot Halfus, got Valiona and Theralion down and had one super awesome attempt on the council (2% or less). That's probably not as good as they usually do and by the Earthmother I will be better prepared.
I like this guild and their 2.5 hrs a night 2 nights a week (with a float day on Sunday) Schedule. I want to be the best damn player I can be for them. It's like they say, if it's worth doing, It's worth doing right.
Raiding, I wanna do it right.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Oh Hey It's Scholomance and It's scary.
So Continuing the theme of what I learned from tanking, I'd like to take a moment to do an instance I like and have some mild knowledge of. I ran it a few times and I even went out and got the stinkin' skeleton key on my hunter back when wow was shiny and new for me. I speak of Scholomance.
From leveling that baby tank of mine I've been thrown into Scholomance a few times. I'm right at the level where the stupid starts to weed out tanks and life starts to get really. just. angry. If you're like me and leveling mostly from the random dungeon tool you've probably seen it too. Players that can't dps their way out of a wet paper bag, noob* tanks with attitudes, and healers you wish you could choke. So. In the interest of helping some of the newbie tank/players in general out there I'm going to talk about Scholomance. (It's a bitch of a place.)
To start, have a map. are you confused yet? Good. Here's that same map with a path drawn on it.
Okay. It looks bad. I know it looks horrible and scary and evil. but once you get in there and pull up the in game map it'll be less scary (hopefully) and easier to navigate.
To Start with see that yellow star in the middle? That's about where you port in. First time in there you get a nice amount of quests. I think it's like 6 or so total. (Delicious experience nom nom nom.) Go through the doors and you find yourself in a large room at the top of some decorative stairs. Go left. No really go left. at the bottom clear out the left side of the room and at the back of the room there willl be a table with the first quest item on it. Go through the door, and you come to the first of many more rooms. Kill the trash, the melee with probably ass pull some of it for you if you're tanking.
See that light pink like on the map, go in that little side room. Get everyone in, and click on that brazier. That summons one of the quest bosses you need. He flies in as a gargoyle bat thing and changes to a forsaken dude. He does a knock back, but he's not too bad as far as bosses in thishellhole instance are concerned.
Next room is moar trash, this place is filled with it. You have the option of just going to the right hand doorway (the red line) and taking out this boss before going on or coming back to her. I'm going to pretend you're going to take her out then go to Rattlegore. She's in the back and to get to her you have to take out more trash. /sigh. The trash is remarkable in that it has some of the most annoying trash in the game. I'm talking about the double life zombies. You see them in Stratholme, and they're here as well. Basically you kill them and in oh... 10 seconds they pop up again and finally they stay down. There's also a poison cloud zombie and the rest is just annoying. As for Jan herself she's pretty easy to tank. At least once or twice during the fight she's going to summon a metric ton of adds. Save any big aoe threat moves for this. Basically the adds are all Illusions of her and she reappears after you kill them all.
Now head back to that room from whence you came, and get the deed on the table on the right hand side. there's a door here that's straight ahead from the door you came into the room originally from. It should be a room with a ton of little diseased dragon whelps and their keepers. Be cautious in here, as there is a knockback. There are holes in the floor and you'll end up in rattlegore's room. Kill the whelps and head for the stairs. Rattle is there on top of his bone pile looking all mean with his little minions around the room. Hug the walls and kill his spawn. Now, I hate this boss. He likes to stun you. You also want to get into a corner when you fight him. He does a knock back as well as a stun so it's really easy for dps to rip him off you if you're the tank.
Now head back up the stairs, back through the whelp room and into the room right after the whelp room. there's a door on the right hand side. (I should have switched colors. whoops.) next room is more trash with the spider dudes and the poison cloud ghouls. Once you get through that room you'll find your self in a room with a lot of neutral mobs and a couple of guys you have to kill for a quest. Usually your dps want them dead now. Marduck is a caster, his buddy is a warrior. When you agro them ALL THEIR TRASH agros and runs to you. Aoe, aoe, aoe. Luckily the trash dies fast.
Now. Once that's done head to the door in the back across from where marduc and what's his face were. Down the stairs you get to a room where a deed is (right hand side, close to the boss.) more trash, and a lich boss. Kill the trash and head in. Raz, the boss, is a caster. So positioning him might be tricky. He also does a knock back. If you have anyone in the group that can dispel magic let them know that it's very important to dispel the ice block he puts on the tank. Once he's dead rejoice because you are almost done. For reals.
Head back up to the previous room and look to your right. There's a door there. You are in the final area. there are three rooms on the top level and three rooms on the bottom. go into each of the three rooms and kill everything in there. Every thing is tank and spank. in the room right across from where you came in is the Dr. guy. Kill him and in his room on the left and right sides are the remains you have to burn for your quest. Underneath him, on the ground floor is the crypt. The last deed you need should be in there. Once you kill everything in those side rooms there will be a yell and the Headmaster (aka last boss.) shows up.
He's tank and spank. He will randomly pick a player and teleport them into one of the six side rooms. If you are teleported just try to stay alive as there's some adds in there with you. Eventually the gate opens and you can rejoin the group and hopefully get some sweet loots.
TA DA. You've made it through Scholomance. Go turn in those quests you got in the beginning and rejoice. You have made it through and you can do it again even though it takes forever.
* When I type Noob I mean the high functioning idiots. When I say Newbie I am referring to the players who are new. As in New to tanking/the game. This is an important distinction to me, because roughly 50% of the time I'm a noob.
From leveling that baby tank of mine I've been thrown into Scholomance a few times. I'm right at the level where the stupid starts to weed out tanks and life starts to get really. just. angry. If you're like me and leveling mostly from the random dungeon tool you've probably seen it too. Players that can't dps their way out of a wet paper bag, noob* tanks with attitudes, and healers you wish you could choke. So. In the interest of helping some of the newbie tank/players in general out there I'm going to talk about Scholomance. (It's a bitch of a place.)
To start, have a map. are you confused yet? Good. Here's that same map with a path drawn on it.
Okay. It looks bad. I know it looks horrible and scary and evil. but once you get in there and pull up the in game map it'll be less scary (hopefully) and easier to navigate.
To Start with see that yellow star in the middle? That's about where you port in. First time in there you get a nice amount of quests. I think it's like 6 or so total. (Delicious experience nom nom nom.) Go through the doors and you find yourself in a large room at the top of some decorative stairs. Go left. No really go left. at the bottom clear out the left side of the room and at the back of the room there willl be a table with the first quest item on it. Go through the door, and you come to the first of many more rooms. Kill the trash, the melee with probably ass pull some of it for you if you're tanking.
See that light pink like on the map, go in that little side room. Get everyone in, and click on that brazier. That summons one of the quest bosses you need. He flies in as a gargoyle bat thing and changes to a forsaken dude. He does a knock back, but he's not too bad as far as bosses in this
Next room is moar trash, this place is filled with it. You have the option of just going to the right hand doorway (the red line) and taking out this boss before going on or coming back to her. I'm going to pretend you're going to take her out then go to Rattlegore. She's in the back and to get to her you have to take out more trash. /sigh. The trash is remarkable in that it has some of the most annoying trash in the game. I'm talking about the double life zombies. You see them in Stratholme, and they're here as well. Basically you kill them and in oh... 10 seconds they pop up again and finally they stay down. There's also a poison cloud zombie and the rest is just annoying. As for Jan herself she's pretty easy to tank. At least once or twice during the fight she's going to summon a metric ton of adds. Save any big aoe threat moves for this. Basically the adds are all Illusions of her and she reappears after you kill them all.
Now head back to that room from whence you came, and get the deed on the table on the right hand side. there's a door here that's straight ahead from the door you came into the room originally from. It should be a room with a ton of little diseased dragon whelps and their keepers. Be cautious in here, as there is a knockback. There are holes in the floor and you'll end up in rattlegore's room. Kill the whelps and head for the stairs. Rattle is there on top of his bone pile looking all mean with his little minions around the room. Hug the walls and kill his spawn. Now, I hate this boss. He likes to stun you. You also want to get into a corner when you fight him. He does a knock back as well as a stun so it's really easy for dps to rip him off you if you're the tank.
Now head back up the stairs, back through the whelp room and into the room right after the whelp room. there's a door on the right hand side. (I should have switched colors. whoops.) next room is more trash with the spider dudes and the poison cloud ghouls. Once you get through that room you'll find your self in a room with a lot of neutral mobs and a couple of guys you have to kill for a quest. Usually your dps want them dead now. Marduck is a caster, his buddy is a warrior. When you agro them ALL THEIR TRASH agros and runs to you. Aoe, aoe, aoe. Luckily the trash dies fast.
Now. Once that's done head to the door in the back across from where marduc and what's his face were. Down the stairs you get to a room where a deed is (right hand side, close to the boss.) more trash, and a lich boss. Kill the trash and head in. Raz, the boss, is a caster. So positioning him might be tricky. He also does a knock back. If you have anyone in the group that can dispel magic let them know that it's very important to dispel the ice block he puts on the tank. Once he's dead rejoice because you are almost done. For reals.
Head back up to the previous room and look to your right. There's a door there. You are in the final area. there are three rooms on the top level and three rooms on the bottom. go into each of the three rooms and kill everything in there. Every thing is tank and spank. in the room right across from where you came in is the Dr. guy. Kill him and in his room on the left and right sides are the remains you have to burn for your quest. Underneath him, on the ground floor is the crypt. The last deed you need should be in there. Once you kill everything in those side rooms there will be a yell and the Headmaster (aka last boss.) shows up.
He's tank and spank. He will randomly pick a player and teleport them into one of the six side rooms. If you are teleported just try to stay alive as there's some adds in there with you. Eventually the gate opens and you can rejoin the group and hopefully get some sweet loots.
TA DA. You've made it through Scholomance. Go turn in those quests you got in the beginning and rejoice. You have made it through and you can do it again even though it takes forever.
* When I type Noob I mean the high functioning idiots. When I say Newbie I am referring to the players who are new. As in New to tanking/the game. This is an important distinction to me, because roughly 50% of the time I'm a noob.
Things I learned from Rolling a Tankadin.
So I'm trying to sleep and I was thinking about my newest side project (everything in wow is some form of side project for me. Go figure.)
Namely, my protection paladin that I rolled to learn how to pally tank. She's currently sitting at 43, and I've learned many things from this.
Firstly, when you hit the magical level 15 and go into your first ever random dungeon you have a 50-50 shot of being tossed into the Dead Mines or Ragefire Chasm. Me being Horde meant I know RFC in my sleep. My first dungeon was Dead Mines. FML. What I really remember about this run is the level 22 mage in heirloom gear bragging about his dps and who decided he was going to pull for me. The level 15 paladin.
This brings me to the first important thing any newbie tank should remember. YOU are the tank. Not the dps. Not the dps in heirloom gear or the healer. YOU are the tank, so remember to tell yourself that as the tank this is YOUR run. And make it so.
When the mage and the warrior tried to gang up on me and heap more abuse at me for being a "fail tank" I lol'd at them and let them pull the boss. I sat down and chilled out as they bitched and moaned. Oh I was furious, because damnnit let me learn my job! They downed the boss (it was sloppy) and a nice shield dropped. I won it, as a nice slap in the face to the dps (namely the warrior) that rolled against me. Finally they settled down enough to let me do my job. At the end of the run i made sure to /ignore both the warrior and mage who had made my run pure hell.
Second important thing for newbie tanks. /ignore the assholes. When you do that you won't be grouped with them again. I'm not kidding it's the best thing to be able to do that and never see them ever again. Normally I just shrug and go about my business and rarely ignore people. But I've learned that it's not worth the mental agony of dealing with some of the really awful people. I'm looking at you 90% of Mal'ganis.
The next thing I've learned is that it's okay to go at your own pace. You will probably get dps that want you to go faster. Ignore them. It's okay to tell them that if they yank it they spank it. If you're comfortable with your key binds you can go ahead and move fast. Set the healer to focus and run in. Check the healer's mana, and if they have about 80% mana you should be able to pull more with out causing a disaster. It's really easy to heal at the lower levels so don't worry too much.
And one of the other things i've learned is that Tanking slowly starts to get a little bit harder as you level. At about oh 25 it slowly starts to ramp up in difficulty. More dps get aoes, your dps get more high agro moves, your healer's heals start to cost more and ect. It's important to keep in mind that wow does get a bit harder as you level. It's supposed to. Keep moving forward and remember It's YOUR run, the mobs are YOUR mobs to hit first, and the ignore tool is a thing of beauty.
Good luck fellow Newbie tanks.
Namely, my protection paladin that I rolled to learn how to pally tank. She's currently sitting at 43, and I've learned many things from this.
Firstly, when you hit the magical level 15 and go into your first ever random dungeon you have a 50-50 shot of being tossed into the Dead Mines or Ragefire Chasm. Me being Horde meant I know RFC in my sleep. My first dungeon was Dead Mines. FML. What I really remember about this run is the level 22 mage in heirloom gear bragging about his dps and who decided he was going to pull for me. The level 15 paladin.
This brings me to the first important thing any newbie tank should remember. YOU are the tank. Not the dps. Not the dps in heirloom gear or the healer. YOU are the tank, so remember to tell yourself that as the tank this is YOUR run. And make it so.
When the mage and the warrior tried to gang up on me and heap more abuse at me for being a "fail tank" I lol'd at them and let them pull the boss. I sat down and chilled out as they bitched and moaned. Oh I was furious, because damnnit let me learn my job! They downed the boss (it was sloppy) and a nice shield dropped. I won it, as a nice slap in the face to the dps (namely the warrior) that rolled against me. Finally they settled down enough to let me do my job. At the end of the run i made sure to /ignore both the warrior and mage who had made my run pure hell.
Second important thing for newbie tanks. /ignore the assholes. When you do that you won't be grouped with them again. I'm not kidding it's the best thing to be able to do that and never see them ever again. Normally I just shrug and go about my business and rarely ignore people. But I've learned that it's not worth the mental agony of dealing with some of the really awful people. I'm looking at you 90% of Mal'ganis.
The next thing I've learned is that it's okay to go at your own pace. You will probably get dps that want you to go faster. Ignore them. It's okay to tell them that if they yank it they spank it. If you're comfortable with your key binds you can go ahead and move fast. Set the healer to focus and run in. Check the healer's mana, and if they have about 80% mana you should be able to pull more with out causing a disaster. It's really easy to heal at the lower levels so don't worry too much.
And one of the other things i've learned is that Tanking slowly starts to get a little bit harder as you level. At about oh 25 it slowly starts to ramp up in difficulty. More dps get aoes, your dps get more high agro moves, your healer's heals start to cost more and ect. It's important to keep in mind that wow does get a bit harder as you level. It's supposed to. Keep moving forward and remember It's YOUR run, the mobs are YOUR mobs to hit first, and the ignore tool is a thing of beauty.
Good luck fellow Newbie tanks.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Oh Woe is Me.
Well. After much careful deliberation, much calculations of funds and dare i say it... the use of accounting Goblins I realize that Alas I don't have the funs to even make it to Blizzcon this year.
I am a sad, sad Moo Cow, but this means I should still keep trying on this costume even though real life wants to eat my face.
And Due to a Post over at Dear Gnome I am going to try to post an easy to read easy to understand summary of boss fights from a not-the-tank's perspective. There might be videos. There might be screen shots. I don't know, but eh. Worst case, my ADD squirrel brain gets distracted by shinies.
I am a sad, sad Moo Cow, but this means I should still keep trying on this costume even though real life wants to eat my face.
And Due to a Post over at Dear Gnome I am going to try to post an easy to read easy to understand summary of boss fights from a not-the-tank's perspective. There might be videos. There might be screen shots. I don't know, but eh. Worst case, my ADD squirrel brain gets distracted by shinies.
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