Not A Post

This is not a blog post. You see, I decided to be lazy today, and not post at all. I know, I am a meanie. But, I decided to share some pictures of my first experience tanking in Wrath!

I got asked to tank Heroic Utgard Keep. See?

Wait, thats me playing with a Paper Zeppelin. I logged in, and these two cool dudes (whom I shall call Tweedledee and Tweedledum (up to you to decide which is which.) Started to throw the Zeppelin at me, so we made a triangle of tossing fun, it went on for hours, with giggling and merriment. Its just so cool how Dalaran brings people together, and with all the toys in Wrath, we do stuff now, instead of standing there, staring at some yuppie on his Mammoth. (Btw, no one cares about the mammoth you spent way too much money on, don't AFK in front of the bank.)

But, as all things do, the fun ended. As usual, it ended in a bear attack!!!!

I hate bears, I think they are going to be the death of all of Azeroth.

Anyway, on to the tanking. (And not Bear tanking, remember folks, bears are evil.) So, we went in, and despite my fears, found the going was relatively easy. Even the bosses went down with relative ease, until Ingvar the Plunderer I honestly believe that it was a coordination issue, we made three attempts, the first time, no one told the healer to stop casting just before the Staggering and Dreadful Roars.

This is the first time I have shown these, this is from the addon Eavesdrop, which I highly reccomend. Anyway, at the end of each combat, it prints a summery. It goes Dmg In | Heal In | Heal out | Dmg Out. So, we can see that I took 69.6K Damage, but got healed for 79.6K, that's not bad, it means the ratio is at least survivable. However, something went wrong, as I said, and within the 6 second spell lockout of the Staggering Roar, I was dead.

On the second attempt the Deathknight took a smash, (btw, if your a DPS, its a really simple rule, stand behind the enemy, unless its a dragon, then you stand to the side, c'mon, folks!) The healer got panicked, and took another interrupt while trying to save the DK, and we wiped.

This attempt was a little less peachy, 48.2K in, and only 23.9K healed, a clear healing problem, which as I explained, was due to a mis-targeting on his part.

And then the third and final attempt was bad because, well, it was the final attempt. I really despise people who say things like, "last try." It puts too much pressure on the folks who may be learning or may be undergeared, and most people don't respond well. Sadly, I don't have a picture of the last death, it was obscured by a tooltip, but I don't blame others for failures, mostly because I don't control what others do with that blame, instead, I figure out what I could have done better, there is always some way to improve. After researching, I found that at one point I took a 15k hit from one of Ingvar's smashes. And that was not a crit. Simply put, I need better gear. I need a bigger health pool, 540 Defense, and better avoidance. I took this picture to show you where I was at.

Less than 18k health, (the DK had 20k, without Frost Presence.) and 529 Defense, is just not going to cut it. Im shooting for 25k health, 540 Defense, 20K armor, and 40% combined avoidance (Dodge + Parry,) for Naxx, and I have to say this was a wake-up call.

Just before the run, I replaced the last of my BC gear (except trinkets) with Pieces of the Tempered Saronite set, and got my hands on the Daunting Handguards and Legplates, In other words, there are no other crafted items that will help me archive my goals. I am loathe to spend a lot of money on enchants or gems at this point, and I don't think its necessary when the majority of my items are below item level 160.

So, what do I do, other than making a gear list? Well, I am going to identify my three weakest peices, and decide on how to get an upgrade, drum roll please....

***

First up, my Tundra Pauldrons gotta go. Its a shame, because although the values are too low, this is what I look for in a really good item, diversity in stats. Str, Sta, Shield Block, Defense, and Dodge, not bad.

Obviously, there is the Tempered Saronite Shoulders, but 8 more Defense Rating (1 more point of Defense) is not worth the loss of 26 Block Rating and 25 Dodge rating, so it is out.

That left me with this. That's Pauldrons of the Colossus from the Drakkari Colossus / Elemental in Heroic Gundrak or the Iron Dwarf Smith Pauldrons from General Bjarngrim in Heroic Halls of Lighting.

***

How in the world do I replace my Libram of Repentance? Ultimately I have to, 42 Shield Block Rating was 5.3% Block at level 70.... At 80? 2.5% Yet, in spite of this, its still almost the best in slot. Eventually, I will have to pick up a Libram of Obstruction for 15 Emblems of Heroism, but I am not looking forward to it. Maybe I am under-valuing Shield Block Value?

***

I am also going to need to replace my two trinkets Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch, and Dawnstone Crab, but I am nervous. For whatever reason, I can use both of these trinkets at the same time for a mini-Evasion, at 70, I got 22.5% Dodge with both up, at 80, I get  11%. Still nothing to sneeze at, but I know I can do better. First up is crafting me a Monarch Crab, which is just wonderful because of the options the gem sockets give me. If I am still not defense capped, 2 Thick Dragon's Eyes, when I get the cap, I can switch to 2 Solid Dragon's Eyes, I do look forward to that. But as for the other Trinket? There is the Valor Medal of the First War for 40 Emblems of Heroism, but basically, I haven't found a good replacement? Are Trinkets like other items? Are the meant to be replaced? I hear that the Commendation of Kael'thas is still one of the best tanking trinkets in the game. Maybe Essence of Gossamer from Hadronox in Heroic Azjol-Nerub?

***

So, after planning that out, where am I? I need to run Gundrak, Halls of Lighting, and/or Azjol-Herub on heroic. But I also just need heroics, and hell, it wouldn't be bad to go back to Magisters' Terrace? Maybe I hate gear plans so much because I suck at it?

BTW, this was not a blog post, if it appeared to be a blog post at any point, you are mistaken, and should have stopped reading. You had been Post-Warned?

(I don't even know what I am saying.)

Long Live the King

I've been looking for the pillars of the Paladin blogosphere, you know, the BRKs, Phaelias, and BBBs... In doing so, I found Palordin. So far, I like what I have been reading. However, she recently posted about Blessing of Kings. In her post (here) she says that Kings should be required for Tanks. In her comments, she also says that Ret paladins should also have it, and agrees that Holy probably should too.

I guess I just dont agree. But this is for me personally, and before I go into my specs, I wonder, in what situations, should a paladin not pick up Kings? In order to frame that question, we have to understand the history. Kings has been with us since sometime before I started playing, at that point, Blessing of Kings was the protection 11 point talent. It was with the release of Wrath of the Lich King that it was moved to tier one, but as a 5 point talent. (Split, as is required by the technology, into one one pointer, and another four pointer.)

But the interesting bit about the history of Kings is its efficacy over time. No one argues that a flat 10% increase to all stats is one of the best buffs in the game, the argument is whether it is the best buff. If it is truly the best buff, then Palordin is right, all paladins should have it. I am no longer convinced it is best. For some specs and classes, it absolutely is (warlocks, looking at you here.) But that fact tells us a lot. When BC came out, stats other than attributes became far more common, because of the new rating system. In other words, a much higher percentage of your crit chance came from your Critical Strike Rating than it did from Agility. In addition, as was always the case with Spell Damage and Healing (now Spell Power,) Attack Power has become a key stat, instead of being constructed almost entirely from Strength and/or Agility. Kings only helps those classes and specs that stack attributes, for the other classes, Kings is more of a questionable prospect.

I am not suggesting that Kings is not hugely beneficial, or even, in many situations, the best blessing out there. All I am saying, is that Blessing of Kings should be much more thoroughly inspected than it is.

But, all that discussion, however academic and intriguing, is entirely moot for most players. Most players need to be aware of the needs of their guilds or raids, not taking a rule of thumb as the gospel. Only one Paladin should be required to take Kings if there is more than one per raid. And for me personally, I do not take Kings in my Protection build.

I take Pursuit of Justice. That's because I am a freak. (Which, therefore, should make you wonder if you should have even listened to me about Kings in the first place.) This is my protection build. I love it, because for me, the build has to have a certain amount of me in it. I cannot stand cookie cutter builds.

For me, Pursuit of Justice more than makes up for the loss of some of the other talents I have to give up, and I have never had a problem doing my job. (Incedentially, the threat game is over, folks, why are we so focused on Seals of the Pure?) In addition, Pursuit of Justice helps me tank better in many situations where I am required to reposition myself or the boss. And the disarm reduction is a nice bonus, even if its largely meaningless.

There are required talents, so be sure, but Kings doesn't make you a lesser Tank, DPS/Battery, or Healer. Its incidental. We have never been stacked in a raid for it (that was for Salvation.) The buff itself is often not used when raids have no paladins. It is not required. But if you want it, take it, it has immense value. I value the player who makes the decision (one way or the other,) over the player who lets anyone tell them what to do, me included.

(Think about it... Get it?)

Gear Planning

First, go read (or, like me, have a seizure as the list of links flies by your screen.) That post is the springboard for my post. I want to apologize to Honor, as he is picked on (he doesn't care, no one reads me,) by this post. But he is wrong. You see, gear planning is bad, not good. A gear plan indicates a 'me' state of mind. If you have a plan, and someone asks you to run instance Y, and you don't need that instance for any gear, what do you do? If your a friend, or a good person, or have to, or what-have-you, you run anyway, right? Good, your not a complete douche. However, you see what happened there? I did, you justified. You came up with an excuse that would let you run the instance with friends. Making excuses to hang out with friends? Tisk tisk. You will never see a gear plan here, mostly because I am not sure enough of myself to rank stuff, but more importantly, I run instances for fun, not for the gear. Let me crawl off my high horse, this will only take a second. Hold on, its really high. No, long legs, really. Okay, now that I am down here with the huddled masses, I can say that, obviously, my method is not perfect, especially since I am a tank, the group relies on me having good gear (and a little skill.) So, sometimes, I need to take the lead, tell people what I need to run, and you know what annoys me most? "Oh, I am sorry, Ogre, I don't need anything from that run, get someone else, but I will go if you really need me." I cant count how many times that used to happen in a former life. I would just say to myself "orly? Well, nm then, waste of time," and lo and behold, no gear for me. I know, bad call on who my friends were, so I transferred servers, but still, the point is. Don't do that! Or, at least, don't be a douche when you do. This has been this months segment in "Ogre tells you what to do." Which is a free public service brought to you by my high horse, who is very tall, and needs much feed.