(WoW) A Paladin Walks into Stratholme...
So... with discussion of meeting every other Saturday for Magic and/or roleplaying, this was an "off" weekend. I was hoping to make some progress in WoW. In the end... well, it wasn't so much as I might have liked, but it was something anyway.
We did the Violet Hold instance. It was quick and easy (as sub-80 dungeons seem to be for level 80 characters), similar in design to Black Morass, but with much better pacing. It felt fun rather than dragging into an endurance trial. Peeking at loot lists, I want to go back in heroic mode. In fact, I really want to be getting my paladin into heroics, as that's where the gear upgrades for her are going to come from at this point.
Our druid tank showed up more this weekend, and that led to a run through Gundrak in helping her get experience. It was my first time doing more than peeking in the instance. Trolls, snakes, rhinos... cakewalk for our group. Getting her up toward level 80 feels like a mixed blessing to me. On one hand, it's good to have another guildie at that level to progress with. On the other, I consider my paladin tank my "main" and thus we inherently compete for the tank slot in any 5-man dungeon we do together (usually I end up playing my priest when she's involved). So it goes, I guess, though I'll hate to see BoP tanking plate drop when I'm playing my priest.
Last night, with grouping prospects minimal at the time, I decided to walk my paladin back through Scholomance and Stratholme - "old world" level 60 dungeons. Neither proved difficult to solo, the worst part being stun-type attacks that were an annoyance. I marvelled some at how dungeon design has changed and walked out with a couple bagfuls of rare gear to sell and a chunk of Argent Dawn reputation. I think I'll be back for more rep, and in the future I'll poke at other level 60-70 instances to see what they feel like for a lone level 80.
We did the Violet Hold instance. It was quick and easy (as sub-80 dungeons seem to be for level 80 characters), similar in design to Black Morass, but with much better pacing. It felt fun rather than dragging into an endurance trial. Peeking at loot lists, I want to go back in heroic mode. In fact, I really want to be getting my paladin into heroics, as that's where the gear upgrades for her are going to come from at this point.
Our druid tank showed up more this weekend, and that led to a run through Gundrak in helping her get experience. It was my first time doing more than peeking in the instance. Trolls, snakes, rhinos... cakewalk for our group. Getting her up toward level 80 feels like a mixed blessing to me. On one hand, it's good to have another guildie at that level to progress with. On the other, I consider my paladin tank my "main" and thus we inherently compete for the tank slot in any 5-man dungeon we do together (usually I end up playing my priest when she's involved). So it goes, I guess, though I'll hate to see BoP tanking plate drop when I'm playing my priest.
Last night, with grouping prospects minimal at the time, I decided to walk my paladin back through Scholomance and Stratholme - "old world" level 60 dungeons. Neither proved difficult to solo, the worst part being stun-type attacks that were an annoyance. I marvelled some at how dungeon design has changed and walked out with a couple bagfuls of rare gear to sell and a chunk of Argent Dawn reputation. I think I'll be back for more rep, and in the future I'll poke at other level 60-70 instances to see what they feel like for a lone level 80.
According to http://be.imba.hu/ Sash should be doing Raids for her upgrades o.o;
ReplyDeleteWell, let me elaborate... Sashayla's gear is fully suitable for starting into Naxx. Naxx and other raids have the "best" gear available, so ultimately that's where I'd want to go. There are, however, several items in heroic dungeons that are upgrades - lesser upgrades, in most cases, than what's available in raids, but still upgrades. Given our difficulty in getting together a solid (ie. tank, healer, 3 DPS) level 80 group together, I don't see raiding (which requires twice that many) as feasible right now. Thusly, the attainable goal in my eyes is to get in heroic dungeon runs for gear progression. It may lead to more minor upgrades, but at least it's conceivable for us to have that many people active. Were I only concerned about progression, I suppose I could try to get into raid runs with others. Honestly, though, I don't have much interest in that. The guild is my home. My guildies are my friends. I'd far rather play with them or solo than with strangers. Such is my psyche, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteFrankly I am ready for heroics or at least level 80 dungeons. This 'doing lower level stuff' doesn't interest me much, though I do like doing things as a group. If I can nitpick, some of the bad habits I see will have to be unlearned, though. Not that I'm a perfect player, far from it, but when Elly tanked VH last night Kyn was running around gathering aggro and frost novaing the mobs in place, probably because Elly wasn't picking up all of the mobs. Well in heroics those mobs will smack the bajeebus out of him. Anyway, I'm not posting to criticize, I'm just saying we are about to get a dose of difficulty if we take those same tactics to a heroic. I suggest Nexus or Utgarde Keep first... those are generally considered the 'easier' heroics.
ReplyDelete<..> But part of Kyn's charm is his habit to go AOE crazy and consequently end up dead. I remember him approaching certain areas in Karazhan saying "Okay, so it's time for me to die here." o.o; You have a good point, though. We will need to work on tactics. We've slopped our way through a lot of dungeons and gotten away with it because we're overgeared or overleveled. Heroics (which are also good because we can use our championing tabards) will be less forgiving. Back in Outland, I saw heroic dungeons that didn't seem much harder than the normal version, and I saw some that made me just about cry. ;) But we're not going to get any better without pushing ourselves, and I'm about ready to start.
ReplyDeleteI'll back off... This weekend was my first time in either Gundrak or VH and, honestly, I sucked at both. I'll do DPS or Solo for a while.
ReplyDeleteI'll back off and let the other tanks tank. With all the changes to druids, I'm a mana sponge for healers and the other tanks aren't getting their upgrades. Itemization for bear tanks is beyond crap right now, anyhow, so any upgrades I get may well be worthless in a patch or two. I'll switch to doing DPS or Solo stuff again.
ReplyDeleteThe guy who'se frozen in the hall on Heroic Nexus kicked our ass repeatedly when we tried it. I admit his fear made one of us run into a group of frozen guys who, after the wipe, did not refreeze and subsequently would eb pulled as adds in every consecutive fight against the guy, forcing us to Pork Chop Sandwiches the attempt. As for my Nova's in VH? Well, yes. Things kept slipping past Elly. Thus they had to be rooted for her to get them. You'll notice Yeen also kept pulling adds to her. If my life dips, I have Ice Block which I'm about 70/30 capable of hitting fast enough *weak smile* As for "lower level" stuff that doesn't interest you? Not everyone can play often and of them, many only wanna play if there's a group to play with. The drive to 80 and Heroics and instances isn't their perogative and since this isn't a hardcore guild, but us just wanting to play with friends... I dunno. Can't appease everyone all of the time, despite me ALWAYS trying to.
ReplyDeleteTo this I have to ask, what other tanks? There's Sash. that's it. She's only reliable every other week for evening play times and apparently now every other weekend on Saturday and sometimes sunday mornings. Kinda need another tank in general.
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm a little conflicted about our tanking roles, but don't take that to mean you have to stop being a tank. That wouldn't be fair to you, and I'd feel bad. I'd miss our Ellybear. >.> It just means things are a little trickier until 1) patch 3.1 and the fabled dual-specs make it easier for either of us to play DPS secondarily and/or 2) we actually get into 10-man raids where we'll probably want two tanks. And, hey, even if Elly and Sash squeeze into something together, at least they're not rolling on the same gear (save, perhaps, a few items like trickets?). ;)
ReplyDeleteYeeees, that incident was unfortunate. The adds made it unmanageable really, and they shouldn't have been there. I think we could do better just by pulling him way the heck back initially. Some things we'll have to learn the hard way.
ReplyDeleteWell, note that you were a level 78-79 running with folks who've been at 80 for a while. Gear can make a big difference and "the best" isn't available 'til 80.
ReplyDeleteI don't have to respec, right now, to DPS. I am FULL feral spec... All my points are in the Feral tree (at least until they fix it). And thanks to what they've been doing to Feral Gear... Well... Rogue Leather is effectively Feral Tank and Feral DPS gear. Feral Itemization is presently non-existant.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately 3.1 has not been confirmed to be the Dual Spec patch... Trust me... I've been REALLY hoping for it. And, like pointed out to Kyn, I don't have to respec to switch to DPS... Feral Tanking Gear and Feral DPS Gear are, presently, exactly the same gear... IE - Rogue Leather. And being Full Feral Spec (Cause they keep farking up the Feral Tree), I can DPS almost as well as I can Tank just by going Kitty instead of Bear. That being said, though, I sucked at Tanking this last time around... My threat pull versus Kyn's AOE blastiness and Yeen's OMGWTFBBQ Level of DPS was... Lacking... No matter what Aggro Pull tricks I tried.
ReplyDeleteHmm. This makes me curious. Did they actually pull your main target off you, or the secondaries? Some of this might be a lack of discipline on the part of our DPS (plus some edge on their part having been gearing up at level 80 for a while). We've all got AOE tanking tricks to some extent, but they just won't generate as much threat as we do on our main target. If they're actually pulling your primary target, though... hmm... we might have to look at that more closely. I see reports that the dual spec stuff is on the PTR with 3.1 (and costing 1000g to purchase that ability). That's not a guarantee, but it's a good sign.
ReplyDeleteIn GunDrak, it was the Main Target getting pulled off of me... But none of the stuff in there was really a threat to the rest of the group. Most of them survived less than a minute. In VH, it was Adds appearing -after- I'd already swiped and was stuck waiting on GCD. I think I need to change up my Glyphs... Again. As a note... Everything a Druid does, except for Barkskin, is affected by GCD. Barkskin can be cast when the GCD is ticking away, but it just reduces damage taken.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Well, I missed some of the VH adds too. Admittedly, I wasn't trying very hard at the time to keep 'em, opting to let others just burn them down since I think everyone was level 80 in the run I was on. On a heroic attempt, I'd do things a little differently (Consecrate more mainly) - but I would suggest our DPS change tactics some as well. They do bear some responsibility in such situations. As for the GCD - you're not alone. Actually, a paladin's Hammer of the Righteous (3-target melee) is even on a 6-second cooldown. Avenger's Shield (3-target ranged) is even longer. Paladins do, however, benefit from being able to keep Consecration (AOE DOT) and Holy Shield (damage back on blocked hits) most of the time while juggling cooldowns. That's probably my biggest edge with groups, but doesn't involve activating out of the GCD. The drawback to Consecration is that it's mana-intensive. I can't keep it up for long unless I'm getting mana back from defending against several attackers (Blessing of Santuary) or being constantly fed healing (Spiritual Attunement). If we go CCing two mobs out of a pack of four, suddenly my AOE tanking capabilities become inefficient or unsustainable. It feels rather warped for me to hear, but the remedy for a tankadin running out of mana is usually "be attacked by more stuff." >.> But I'm rambling. My main point is: there may very well be things you could do (or acquire) to help the situation, but I know there are tactics the rest of us could adopt to help, too. The tank is the wall that holds nastydeathness at bay, but that doesn't work if others are jumping around in front of said wall instead of safely behind it. ;)
ReplyDeleteMy main pushing of myself, lately, was getting 3 levels in 2 days... Finally getting enough playtime to actually -do- that helped. o.o;; Though... Staying up till 3am to level is not something I recommend on a regular basis. >.>
ReplyDelete