So, those of you reading this, may or may not be 70. You all have your goals, but do you have your role-models? And more importantly, do you have your rivals?
Yes, I know it sounds really silly, seeing as it IS a video-game. However, having a role-model to look up to in game can really REALLY help drive you towards new levels of performance. For example, my guild has an amazing warrior-tank. The whole reason I raised a warrior in the first place, was so that I could tank alongside him/in his place. I saw how well-respected he was in the guild, and I kinda craved that. A good role-model will give you someone to emulate, and hopefully someone to ask when you need advice about your class.
Now, a rival, is arguably more important. In my experience, having a rival motivates you to new heights. You'll want to out-DPS them, out-heal them, out-level them and generally outperform them. It really helps you put on your A-game all the time, when you might have been inclined to take it easy. Mind you, this should be a friendly mutual competition for best effect.
- Trysti
Friday, July 11, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
[General] Knowing your role.
Okay, I'm going to come off as a little grumpy, because it's 2:30am, and I've chain-tanked 4 instances tonight. That's way too many god damn instances in a row at 64. It's rant time.
People have been too lenient. Much too lenient. There are people in their mid-60s who are unable to instance properly. It's a sad thing, and yes, it's awfully PvE biased of me to say it. However, when I walk into an instance with 4 other people, I WANT THEM TO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING and to be able to follow orders. When I'm on my Rogue/Mage/Hunter, I follow the game-plan. If someone tells me that star/moon/square is my sap/sheep/trap target, you god-damn bet I follow the mark. So when I'm on my warrior, I expect people to follow the marks I put up and to do things when I ask them. I stopped using cheap-shot as an opener on my rogue in instances, because I learned that tanks HATE it when you stun-lock their target. Now that I've experienced it, I make sure to let rogues know that ambush or garrote are more acceptable substitutes.
Here's the thing that I try to impart into all my group members when they get out of hand. Know your god damn role in the group. Here's a nice and easy check-list.
Tank
Are you a bear?
Do you have more HP than anyone else in the group?
Do you wear plate?
Do you have a shield?
Do you have a taunt or three?
Can you take more than two hits?
If you answered YES to at least 3 of these, you MAY be the tank in the group.
Healer
Do you have a lot of mana-regen?
Do you have healing spells?
Are they good ones?
Does your DPS suck?
Do people seem angry at you when they die?
If you answered YES to most of the above, you might just be a healer.
You're DPS if you're anything but a tank or a healer.
Now, I have two examples to share of people performing outside their original roles in the group. I had an enchance shammy that managed to heal me through a boss when our resto druid bit it. While not his original role, he managed to fill in well enough to get us through. That is an example of when people stepping outside their roles goes well. An example of it NOT going so well, was when I had one mob marked up and ready to pull, and Mr.Huntard decides to pull an unmarked mob to the side so that he could get some ancient lichen.
Needless to say, if you're not the group leader/marker, you don't get to make decisions anymore. I struggled with this for the longest time when I was playing DPS. Eventually, I accepted it. My Prot Pally friend constantly asked me why I always told him "it's up to you" whenever we were deciding what to do for the night. At the time, I told him "Well, you're the tank." To expand on those words. I wouldn't ask him to tank something he didn't want to, because as a DPS class, I feel I have no right to do so.
So, to end my little rant, if you're the group leader, don't be afraid to hang up really stupid party members by the balls. If you're not the group leader, follow orders, but don't be afraid to ask questions or raise concerns.
- Trysti
People have been too lenient. Much too lenient. There are people in their mid-60s who are unable to instance properly. It's a sad thing, and yes, it's awfully PvE biased of me to say it. However, when I walk into an instance with 4 other people, I WANT THEM TO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING and to be able to follow orders. When I'm on my Rogue/Mage/Hunter, I follow the game-plan. If someone tells me that star/moon/square is my sap/sheep/trap target, you god-damn bet I follow the mark. So when I'm on my warrior, I expect people to follow the marks I put up and to do things when I ask them. I stopped using cheap-shot as an opener on my rogue in instances, because I learned that tanks HATE it when you stun-lock their target. Now that I've experienced it, I make sure to let rogues know that ambush or garrote are more acceptable substitutes.
Here's the thing that I try to impart into all my group members when they get out of hand. Know your god damn role in the group. Here's a nice and easy check-list.
Tank
Are you a bear?
Do you have more HP than anyone else in the group?
Do you wear plate?
Do you have a shield?
Do you have a taunt or three?
Can you take more than two hits?
If you answered YES to at least 3 of these, you MAY be the tank in the group.
Healer
Do you have a lot of mana-regen?
Do you have healing spells?
Are they good ones?
Does your DPS suck?
Do people seem angry at you when they die?
If you answered YES to most of the above, you might just be a healer.
You're DPS if you're anything but a tank or a healer.
Now, I have two examples to share of people performing outside their original roles in the group. I had an enchance shammy that managed to heal me through a boss when our resto druid bit it. While not his original role, he managed to fill in well enough to get us through. That is an example of when people stepping outside their roles goes well. An example of it NOT going so well, was when I had one mob marked up and ready to pull, and Mr.Huntard decides to pull an unmarked mob to the side so that he could get some ancient lichen.
Needless to say, if you're not the group leader/marker, you don't get to make decisions anymore. I struggled with this for the longest time when I was playing DPS. Eventually, I accepted it. My Prot Pally friend constantly asked me why I always told him "it's up to you" whenever we were deciding what to do for the night. At the time, I told him "Well, you're the tank." To expand on those words. I wouldn't ask him to tank something he didn't want to, because as a DPS class, I feel I have no right to do so.
So, to end my little rant, if you're the group leader, don't be afraid to hang up really stupid party members by the balls. If you're not the group leader, follow orders, but don't be afraid to ask questions or raise concerns.
- Trysti
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
[Warrior] Tanking and Meta-game.
I'm sure every tank goes through this (hopefully), but I just got off a tanking high. I had the perfect group for my Underbog run tonight. A rogue, a mage, a hunter, and a paladin. No one pulled aggro off me, and with the exception of the hunter (sigh), all the DPS were competent with their CC. We only had to stop when the mage had zero mana or just before bosses. It was the most awesome hour and spare change I've had as a tank to date.
However, sometimes you get a really bad run. And there are many things that can qualify a run as bad. The most recent "bad" run I had was another Underbog run. There was a feral druid in the party who had tanking gear who kept undermining me at every turn, claiming that I didn't need CC because he didn't (liar). Generally he made me feel like a very bad tank, even though I know that I'm not.
So this leads into bulk of this post. Tanks.
It's a funny thing how different each of the tanking classes is in ability/scope. Warriors are godly at single-target. Paladins are the masters of multi-mob. Feral Druids can take a beating like no one else. Yet, from time to time I run into a fellow tank with a personality disorder. Warriors seem to have a superiority complex, and it's not entirely unjustified. They have the longest history of tanking in the game and unlike Druids and Paladins who can perform well as either DPS or Healers, Warriors are stuck as either tanks, mediocre raid dps or really mediocre raid dps.
Prot Pallies, in my experience, have been fairly confident in what they do. They're not as hungry as I remember them being a few patches ago. They've gotten the biggest leg-up in TBC out of the trio, and I'm curious to see if WoTLK doesn't do the same for druids. Feral Druids seem to run the gamut. I've run into ones as arrogant as Warriors and others who seem to have inferiority complexes (I'm looking at you Hoenir). It's also kind of funny how T4 instances seem infested with them, T5 raids are barren and then all of the sudden you see them tanking SWP.
I asked my Prot Paladin and Feral Druid friends today what they envied/wanted that the other tank classes had. The pally wished he had my back-up taunts seeing as he only has the one. The druid friend wished he had consecration and uncrushability. Of course, there's things that I wish I had that they both have. Consecration. Group buffs that last more than 2 minutes. Not wanting to write an entire article off of just this little sampling, I asked the tankspot guys the same question (more or less).
You can find the entire discussion here, but I've decided to throw up two of the posts I thought were intriguing.
Norrath -
"Pros: Warriors have debuffs, panic buttons, Shield Block off the GCD, and good returns on Expertise. Paladins have Consecrate, Holy Shield with 8 charges, auras, and blessings. Druids have Swipe, Thorns, massive armor bonuses, health bonuses, and a very good Agi-to-Dodge ratio.
Cons: Warriors have only one AE-tanking skill, and it's on a CD and not particularly effective. Paladins cast spells, making them vulnerable to silence and mana-drain effects. Holy Shield is on the GCD, causing windows of crushability while it is being refreshed. Druids need to use macros to use healthstones and potions, and they are vulnerable while doing so. Druids cannot be realistically uncrushable."
Garbid -
"Warrior > Druid cause:
We can use pots, healthstones and avoid crushing blows through shield block.
Warrior > Tankadins cause:
We get better avoidance/EH stats while paladins need int/spell dmg. And we can hold threat when rage starved but paladins can't when oom.
Warrior > both because:
We have Last Stand, Shield Wall, AoE taunt and a reserve taunt if Taunt gets resisted (Mocking Blow). Through itemization we can usually produce more singletarget threat since pala/druid gear often lacks expertise/+hit. We can stance-dance on a fearing boss."
- Trysti.
However, sometimes you get a really bad run. And there are many things that can qualify a run as bad. The most recent "bad" run I had was another Underbog run. There was a feral druid in the party who had tanking gear who kept undermining me at every turn, claiming that I didn't need CC because he didn't (liar). Generally he made me feel like a very bad tank, even though I know that I'm not.
So this leads into bulk of this post. Tanks.
It's a funny thing how different each of the tanking classes is in ability/scope. Warriors are godly at single-target. Paladins are the masters of multi-mob. Feral Druids can take a beating like no one else. Yet, from time to time I run into a fellow tank with a personality disorder. Warriors seem to have a superiority complex, and it's not entirely unjustified. They have the longest history of tanking in the game and unlike Druids and Paladins who can perform well as either DPS or Healers, Warriors are stuck as either tanks, mediocre raid dps or really mediocre raid dps.
Prot Pallies, in my experience, have been fairly confident in what they do. They're not as hungry as I remember them being a few patches ago. They've gotten the biggest leg-up in TBC out of the trio, and I'm curious to see if WoTLK doesn't do the same for druids. Feral Druids seem to run the gamut. I've run into ones as arrogant as Warriors and others who seem to have inferiority complexes (I'm looking at you Hoenir). It's also kind of funny how T4 instances seem infested with them, T5 raids are barren and then all of the sudden you see them tanking SWP.
I asked my Prot Paladin and Feral Druid friends today what they envied/wanted that the other tank classes had. The pally wished he had my back-up taunts seeing as he only has the one. The druid friend wished he had consecration and uncrushability. Of course, there's things that I wish I had that they both have. Consecration. Group buffs that last more than 2 minutes. Not wanting to write an entire article off of just this little sampling, I asked the tankspot guys the same question (more or less).
You can find the entire discussion here, but I've decided to throw up two of the posts I thought were intriguing.
Norrath -
"Pros: Warriors have debuffs, panic buttons, Shield Block off the GCD, and good returns on Expertise. Paladins have Consecrate, Holy Shield with 8 charges, auras, and blessings. Druids have Swipe, Thorns, massive armor bonuses, health bonuses, and a very good Agi-to-Dodge ratio.
Cons: Warriors have only one AE-tanking skill, and it's on a CD and not particularly effective. Paladins cast spells, making them vulnerable to silence and mana-drain effects. Holy Shield is on the GCD, causing windows of crushability while it is being refreshed. Druids need to use macros to use healthstones and potions, and they are vulnerable while doing so. Druids cannot be realistically uncrushable."
Garbid -
"Warrior > Druid cause:
We can use pots, healthstones and avoid crushing blows through shield block.
Warrior > Tankadins cause:
We get better avoidance/EH stats while paladins need int/spell dmg. And we can hold threat when rage starved but paladins can't when oom.
Warrior > both because:
We have Last Stand, Shield Wall, AoE taunt and a reserve taunt if Taunt gets resisted (Mocking Blow). Through itemization we can usually produce more singletarget threat since pala/druid gear often lacks expertise/+hit. We can stance-dance on a fearing boss."
- Trysti.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
More Planning
So, earlier on I talked about the importance of planning your leveling areas out. Tonight I'm gonna apply that to instancing and loot within.
Most of the zones in Outland have a hub of instances in them. Helfire has Helfire Citadel, Zangarmarsh has Coilfang Resevoir, Netherstorm has Tempest Keep, and Terrokar has Auchindoun. As you level through these, you're going to be hitting these up a lot due to quests and the lure of new gear.
So, while not exactly "planning" per se, you can start making a wishlist of gear from those instances. I'll give you an example of my rogue's and my warrior's current wishlists for their respective level.
Trysti's Helfire Wishlist~
Vest of Vengeance - Blood Furnace
Mantle of the Dusk-Dweller - Blood Furnace
Legion Blunderbuss - Blood Furnace
Erryl's Coilfang Wishlist
Bogstrok Scale Cloak - Slave Pens
Unscarred Breastplate - Slave Pens
Greaves of the Iron Guardian - Underbog
Pauldrons of Brute Force - Underbog
Right away, you have a checklist to motivate you to get in there and get your stuff. A lot of sites say not to bother too long with trying to get that "one" piece of gear from an instance before moving on. Well, I'm of a different opinion. If you get yourself the best gear you can possibly get for your level, it'll make your life that much easier when you have to grind another 30 ogres to get another quest done. It all adds up. Now, I'm not saying that you should spend hundreds of gold on blue quality gems or enchants every time you get a new piece of gear on the way to 70. But there are cheap things you can do. Get green gems instead of those god awful whites.
If you're a warrior, talk to a leather-worker friend about getting some Heavy Knothide armor kits or if you're really lucky some Vindicator's Armor kits. They'll help you tank that much better, and a good tank makes for a happier group. And a happier group means that you get to be a part of other people's friends lists, which lets you be a little choosier about the kind of group you put together in the long run, and helps build reputation on the server.
- Trysti
Most of the zones in Outland have a hub of instances in them. Helfire has Helfire Citadel, Zangarmarsh has Coilfang Resevoir, Netherstorm has Tempest Keep, and Terrokar has Auchindoun. As you level through these, you're going to be hitting these up a lot due to quests and the lure of new gear.
So, while not exactly "planning" per se, you can start making a wishlist of gear from those instances. I'll give you an example of my rogue's and my warrior's current wishlists for their respective level.
Trysti's Helfire Wishlist~
Vest of Vengeance - Blood Furnace
Mantle of the Dusk-Dweller - Blood Furnace
Legion Blunderbuss - Blood Furnace
Erryl's Coilfang Wishlist
Bogstrok Scale Cloak - Slave Pens
Unscarred Breastplate - Slave Pens
Greaves of the Iron Guardian - Underbog
Pauldrons of Brute Force - Underbog
Right away, you have a checklist to motivate you to get in there and get your stuff. A lot of sites say not to bother too long with trying to get that "one" piece of gear from an instance before moving on. Well, I'm of a different opinion. If you get yourself the best gear you can possibly get for your level, it'll make your life that much easier when you have to grind another 30 ogres to get another quest done. It all adds up. Now, I'm not saying that you should spend hundreds of gold on blue quality gems or enchants every time you get a new piece of gear on the way to 70. But there are cheap things you can do. Get green gems instead of those god awful whites.
If you're a warrior, talk to a leather-worker friend about getting some Heavy Knothide armor kits or if you're really lucky some Vindicator's Armor kits. They'll help you tank that much better, and a good tank makes for a happier group. And a happier group means that you get to be a part of other people's friends lists, which lets you be a little choosier about the kind of group you put together in the long run, and helps build reputation on the server.
- Trysti
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
[Warrior] Trinkets and Colors.
So, I just hit 62 and am on my way out of Helfire (Not a moment too soon, I'm getting a little sick of red all the time.) so it's time for an event that I usually dread. Group quests. I'm not a huge fan of them this early in the game because I don't like having to spam "LFM COLOSSAL MENACE" for two hours on a bad day just to get some more exp out of the way. However, because I'm a stickler for doing EVERY QUEST HUMANLY POSSIBLE in any given area on the way up to 70 (I get very, very lazy when I actually hit 70), I endure. There is one quest, even if YOU DESPISE groupers, that you should do as a prot warrior.
Overlord. Why? Regal Protectorate
Chances are, that at 60ish you have NO TRINKETS WORTH MENTIONING. No, Carrot on a stick does not count. Argent Dawn Commission DEFINITELY does not count. If you're a jewelcrafter, you might have something nice at this point, but I don't know enough about that profession to comment. That and not everyone jewelcrafts. I personally came into outland with Force of Will and Hand of Justice. And they weren't too bad. But Regal Protectorate blows both out of the water. Right now, if I use the trinket + last stand, I'm sitting at over 10k health. I know I got my "oh shit" button ready, do you?
Another good trinket out of Helfire worth mentioning for tanks is Charm of Alacrity from the "When Voidwalkers Go Wild" quest. You'll have to do the pre-requisite "In case of emergency...", but you want to do that anyways for Flintlocke's Piloting Pants . I like to think of Charm of Alacrity as Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch extra-virgin-lite. I'm personally not a huge fan of "use" trinkets, even though they have the greatest effects. I'm more of a passive trinket kinda guy (which is why my mage sports Quagmirran's Eye and Lightning Capacitator ) for the most part, but I won't say no to awesome tanking trinkets.
I'm looking forward to finishing a few last quests in Helfire and moving on to Zangarmarsh. I'll get to really test my tanking (and patience) with lots of Slave Pens runs with some Underbog thrown in at 63/64. By that time, I'll be sick and tired of the color blue and will be ready for leafy green Terrokar/gray Bone Wastes.
- Trysti
Overlord. Why? Regal Protectorate
Chances are, that at 60ish you have NO TRINKETS WORTH MENTIONING. No, Carrot on a stick does not count. Argent Dawn Commission DEFINITELY does not count. If you're a jewelcrafter, you might have something nice at this point, but I don't know enough about that profession to comment. That and not everyone jewelcrafts. I personally came into outland with Force of Will and Hand of Justice. And they weren't too bad. But Regal Protectorate blows both out of the water. Right now, if I use the trinket + last stand, I'm sitting at over 10k health. I know I got my "oh shit" button ready, do you?
Another good trinket out of Helfire worth mentioning for tanks is Charm of Alacrity from the "When Voidwalkers Go Wild" quest. You'll have to do the pre-requisite "In case of emergency...", but you want to do that anyways for Flintlocke's Piloting Pants . I like to think of Charm of Alacrity as Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch extra-virgin-lite. I'm personally not a huge fan of "use" trinkets, even though they have the greatest effects. I'm more of a passive trinket kinda guy (which is why my mage sports Quagmirran's Eye and Lightning Capacitator ) for the most part, but I won't say no to awesome tanking trinkets.
I'm looking forward to finishing a few last quests in Helfire and moving on to Zangarmarsh. I'll get to really test my tanking (and patience) with lots of Slave Pens runs with some Underbog thrown in at 63/64. By that time, I'll be sick and tired of the color blue and will be ready for leafy green Terrokar/gray Bone Wastes.
- Trysti
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