Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
"The ice stone has melted!" jokes are quite passé by now, yet I feel I must approve.
Just making note that I am featured on the Twisted Nether blogcast this week! I haven't listened to it yet, and I'm still not sure that I'm going to. Anyway, if you have a couple hours to burn, check it out!
Friday, February 13, 2009
The crit stops here.
My paladin dinged 80 last night. First order of business was to defense cap, and then run Heroic UP for a shot at the sword. Sword didn't drop, but I did a few times. Still, that was in part because my gear was kinda crappy (22k health and 23k armor buffed) and in part because my lovely wife would do silly things like Penance the mobs instead of me.
For those who are unaware, defense is the skill that makes things harder to hit and crit you. You need 140 defense over your level's base defense (which is 400 at 80) to be uncrittable. At level 80, 4.92 defense rating = 1 defense. Thus you need 140 x 4.92 = 688.8 defense rating to become uncrittable. Since defense rating doesn't come in fractions, you need 689 defense rating to truly be uncrittable.
Now, stats like stamina and armor are well and good for tanking, but defense is truly king (note this doesn't apply while you are leveling to 80; those instances are tuned with crittable tanks in mind.) The goal here is to reduce spike damage. You can have all the health and armor in the world, but if you keep taking crits, your healer isn't very likely to be able to keep up. And dead tank = dead group. Remember to gear for survivability first, and threat second. If you aren't uncrittable, no one will take you seriously as a survivable tank.
A quick look at what I did to defense cap:
When I dinged 80, I had ~580 defense rating. The defense rating cap is 689, so this meant that I had to cover an extra 100 or so rating to get myself capped. First stop was enchants. In my case, the guild enchanters had enough dust and shards that I only had to grab nonstandard enchanting mats.
Enchant Cloak - Titanweave - This required two Titanium Bars.
Enchant Chest - Greater Defense - This just required an Eternal Earth.
Enchant Shield - Defense - This was a scroll mailed to me by a guild enchanter who was leveling his enchanting. But if I had to buy the mats, I would have needed six Eternal Earth.
Enchant Bracer - Major Defense - This is a BC enchant, but we still had some mats in the bank for it.
That's about all you can do with enchants to boost your defense. However, that is only 70 defense rating. Where did the remaining defense rating come from?
Daunting Handguards
Daunting Legplates
Those pieces are both chock full of defense rating and are pretty easy to make (so says my Mining/BS friend.) While the gloves were technically a downgrade, becoming uncrittable is THE MOST important thing you can do as a tank. Not everyone has it as easy as Druids do.
While those pieces alone satisfied me, if you just hit 80 and are still strapping for more defense, there are some other easy to make blacksmithing pieces available with high defense. These pieces should be replaced reasonably soon, as they are rather low level, but never go below 689 defense rating.
One final note is gems. I personally prefer to enchant for defense first so that I can gem for stamina, dodge, or whatever else I need. But you can easily close the gap with defense gems. Thick gems offer +12 or +16 defense rating, while Enduring gems offer +6 defense rating/+9 stamina or +8 defense rating/+12 stamina. Additionally, there is a meta gem that provides defense rating, which is an especially good choice for paladins because of the 5% block value, as they pretty much always have a >40% block chance (>70% with Redoubt) and the block value also provides extra threat to Shield of Righteousness, one of the highest threat moves in a paladin's rotation.
Once you have geared yourself to uncrittability, it's time to get out there and tank! Heroics are fair game, though I would probably wait until you've upgraded about half of your gear from heroics before moving on to raiding (Sartharion is probably okay, though.) Good luck and have fun!
For those who are unaware, defense is the skill that makes things harder to hit and crit you. You need 140 defense over your level's base defense (which is 400 at 80) to be uncrittable. At level 80, 4.92 defense rating = 1 defense. Thus you need 140 x 4.92 = 688.8 defense rating to become uncrittable. Since defense rating doesn't come in fractions, you need 689 defense rating to truly be uncrittable.
Now, stats like stamina and armor are well and good for tanking, but defense is truly king (note this doesn't apply while you are leveling to 80; those instances are tuned with crittable tanks in mind.) The goal here is to reduce spike damage. You can have all the health and armor in the world, but if you keep taking crits, your healer isn't very likely to be able to keep up. And dead tank = dead group. Remember to gear for survivability first, and threat second. If you aren't uncrittable, no one will take you seriously as a survivable tank.
A quick look at what I did to defense cap:
When I dinged 80, I had ~580 defense rating. The defense rating cap is 689, so this meant that I had to cover an extra 100 or so rating to get myself capped. First stop was enchants. In my case, the guild enchanters had enough dust and shards that I only had to grab nonstandard enchanting mats.
Enchant Cloak - Titanweave - This required two Titanium Bars.
Enchant Chest - Greater Defense - This just required an Eternal Earth.
Enchant Shield - Defense - This was a scroll mailed to me by a guild enchanter who was leveling his enchanting. But if I had to buy the mats, I would have needed six Eternal Earth.
Enchant Bracer - Major Defense - This is a BC enchant, but we still had some mats in the bank for it.
That's about all you can do with enchants to boost your defense. However, that is only 70 defense rating. Where did the remaining defense rating come from?
Daunting Handguards
Daunting Legplates
Those pieces are both chock full of defense rating and are pretty easy to make (so says my Mining/BS friend.) While the gloves were technically a downgrade, becoming uncrittable is THE MOST important thing you can do as a tank. Not everyone has it as easy as Druids do.
While those pieces alone satisfied me, if you just hit 80 and are still strapping for more defense, there are some other easy to make blacksmithing pieces available with high defense. These pieces should be replaced reasonably soon, as they are rather low level, but never go below 689 defense rating.
One final note is gems. I personally prefer to enchant for defense first so that I can gem for stamina, dodge, or whatever else I need. But you can easily close the gap with defense gems. Thick gems offer +12 or +16 defense rating, while Enduring gems offer +6 defense rating/+9 stamina or +8 defense rating/+12 stamina. Additionally, there is a meta gem that provides defense rating, which is an especially good choice for paladins because of the 5% block value, as they pretty much always have a >40% block chance (>70% with Redoubt) and the block value also provides extra threat to Shield of Righteousness, one of the highest threat moves in a paladin's rotation.
Once you have geared yourself to uncrittability, it's time to get out there and tank! Heroics are fair game, though I would probably wait until you've upgraded about half of your gear from heroics before moving on to raiding (Sartharion is probably okay, though.) Good luck and have fun!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Since I'm too lazy to write paragraphs today...
[09:28] LotpMyze: So I ran HOK the other day with both a Resto Druid and a Discpline Priest.
[09:28] LotpMyze: Needless to say, we had a problem on the last boss.
[09:28] StoppableForce1: oof. got pummeled by phantom teammates eh?
[09:29] LotpMyze: So, I said to the Resto Druid "Strip down and go kill yourself, we'll four man it."
[09:29] LotpMyze: Thing is he didn't have any space in his bags.
[09:29] StoppableForce1: /facepalm
[09:29] LotpMyze: So he starts swapping out gear.
[09:29] LotpMyze: By the time he's done, he's wearing all winter clothes and the shoulders form the fire festival.
[09:30] LotpMyze: Runs in there, moonfires the boss. Dies pretty quick.
[09:30] LotpMyze: We go in and have no problem on the boss.
[09:30] TheRatshag: heh
[09:30] LotpMyze: I get requests to tank him such that he doesn't land on the druid when he dies.
[09:31] LotpMyze: Screens for posterity and the like.
[09:31] LotpMyze: I took a couple myself, but I don't know if I'm gonna use them on the blog.
[09:31] LotpMyze: Just imagine a male night elf in a santa outfit with torches on his shoulders.
[09:32] StoppableForce1: snrk
[09:32] StoppableForce1: awesome
[09:32] StoppableForce1: go go holiday elf
[09:28] LotpMyze: Needless to say, we had a problem on the last boss.
[09:28] StoppableForce1: oof. got pummeled by phantom teammates eh?
[09:29] LotpMyze: So, I said to the Resto Druid "Strip down and go kill yourself, we'll four man it."
[09:29] LotpMyze: Thing is he didn't have any space in his bags.
[09:29] StoppableForce1: /facepalm
[09:29] LotpMyze: So he starts swapping out gear.
[09:29] LotpMyze: By the time he's done, he's wearing all winter clothes and the shoulders form the fire festival.
[09:30] LotpMyze: Runs in there, moonfires the boss. Dies pretty quick.
[09:30] LotpMyze: We go in and have no problem on the boss.
[09:30] TheRatshag: heh
[09:30] LotpMyze: I get requests to tank him such that he doesn't land on the druid when he dies.
[09:31] LotpMyze: Screens for posterity and the like.
[09:31] LotpMyze: I took a couple myself, but I don't know if I'm gonna use them on the blog.
[09:31] LotpMyze: Just imagine a male night elf in a santa outfit with torches on his shoulders.
[09:32] StoppableForce1: snrk
[09:32] StoppableForce1: awesome
[09:32] StoppableForce1: go go holiday elf
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Twenty five rhymes
And now, in the spirit of "twenty-five things," twenty-five rhymes with (and including) my name.
Myze is wise,
and never lies;
Has pretty eyes
and giant thighs.
She goes and flies
into the skies,
And fall, she tries;
Goes splat and dies.
"QQ," she cries,
On guild relies:
They're such nice guys.
"Come rez, allies."
One comes, complies;
Starts cast, and sighs.
Expects no prize,
No cakes, no pies.
And now she'll rise
From her demise,
Say her goodbyes,
"Thanks," a surprise.
Restocks supplies
To raid, reprise.
Dons a disguise,
Becomes bear size.
Myze is wise,
and never lies;
Has pretty eyes
and giant thighs.
She goes and flies
into the skies,
And fall, she tries;
Goes splat and dies.
"QQ," she cries,
On guild relies:
They're such nice guys.
"Come rez, allies."
One comes, complies;
Starts cast, and sighs.
Expects no prize,
No cakes, no pies.
And now she'll rise
From her demise,
Say her goodbyes,
"Thanks," a surprise.
Restocks supplies
To raid, reprise.
Dons a disguise,
Becomes bear size.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
There's only one link to click.
So yesterday I talked to the leader of Guild X, the as yet unnamed-on-this-blog guild. He tells me that the person who was spreading the previous information around was acting of his own accord. They aren't looking for a guild to team up with, and almost have 2 Naxx10 teams ready to go. Well, good for them, but what are we to do now? Thankfully, I picked up two recruits. Unfortunately, they are both hunters, and we already have an abundance of those.
I'm trying to work up my Pally tank so that I can actually run two groups of Naxx before we really have four tanks. Right now she's 76, but I hope to hit 80 before the 13th. Something cool may or may not happen on that day, so keep tuned.
One more thing, I noticed the other night that pretty much every class on Savant's webpage had recruitment listed as "closed." This has been rectified, as we are now looking to recruit people of pretty much any class. As always, tanks and healers are of special priority.
I'm trying to work up my Pally tank so that I can actually run two groups of Naxx before we really have four tanks. Right now she's 76, but I hope to hit 80 before the 13th. Something cool may or may not happen on that day, so keep tuned.
One more thing, I noticed the other night that pretty much every class on Savant's webpage had recruitment listed as "closed." This has been rectified, as we are now looking to recruit people of pretty much any class. As always, tanks and healers are of special priority.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Coming soon: My adventures with "Guild X"
Savant has been posting recruitment ads on our server forums. Every night, I spend a little time spamming GuildRecruitment in game saying that Savant is recruiting. I've advertised us on this blog, which saw a recent surge of hits thanks to the WoWInsider twitter feed. I even whisper the unguilded 80s I see in town who appear to have their gear in order.
How many recruits have I picked up thus far? Zero. Of course, it's only been a week of active recruitment, but I was hoping to pick up at least one. But that's okay. What does a 10man guild who wants to do 25mans do?
Simple, find another 10 man guild and negotiate an agreement to do 25mans with them until you can boost your numbers. Luckily, such an opportunity has come to me without even searching for it. Another 10man guild (stuck on Sapphiron) is approached us about the opportunity to do 25 man raids. All I have to do is talk to their Guild Leader and work out the specifics.
How many recruits have I picked up thus far? Zero. Of course, it's only been a week of active recruitment, but I was hoping to pick up at least one. But that's okay. What does a 10man guild who wants to do 25mans do?
Simple, find another 10 man guild and negotiate an agreement to do 25mans with them until you can boost your numbers. Luckily, such an opportunity has come to me without even searching for it. Another 10man guild (stuck on Sapphiron) is approached us about the opportunity to do 25 man raids. All I have to do is talk to their Guild Leader and work out the specifics.
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