This is Easy. Fail.

"But this is easy."

How many times have I heard that from a dpser?

Yeah sure it's easy for you, you just have to stand there and hit your buttons and what? Not pay attention to threat meters, not pay attention to incoming adds, not pay attention to the healers mana, not pay attention to the tank moving the mob.

Argh, this subject makes me so angry. When someone comes into a group and just assumes that whatever they are doing will be easy and they can proceed with no cares in the world.



When grouping it is important to remember that there are 4 other people in the group with you. They all have differing levels of gear, experience and skill -- all three of which are insanely important in how "easy" anything is.

I can't tell you how many times I have run with a PUG in an heroic and someone keeps saying that this should be a breeze and that, "any 80 will have 1300 dps." Then, when I remind them that people are always leveling alts or new toons they take a step back and I can hear them gulp a little.

Yeah, we might have some under-prepared members of our group -- people who aren't geared enough or don't have any idea how to deal with the first boss in heroic gundrak or just aren't very good at their class.

You just don't know until you hit that first boss.

Just, please please please remember: Unless you're in a guild run or with good friends, you never REALLY know the capabilities of the other people in your PUG. The Armory can't tell you that they're watching Dollhouse on hulu while running heroic Azjol-Nerub.

And there isn't a spell for healing stupid.

Still Pissed Off or Group Dynamics 101

Some things from the past still piss me off when I think about them.

I still get angry when I think about that priest that stole the mining node out from under me when I was fighting mobs in a cave in Winterspring. I had actually hit the node once, and then was attacked. While I fought them off she came up and clicked away. (slow simmering anger)

I still get mad at the many many times my very first toon wiped in Gnomer because of stupid people and those dwarves with their mines.

And I get mad by road-ragers in PUGs, and that anger stays with me for a couple of days.

Last night I logged on with the express purpose of getting my last two heroic badges so I could purchase my sexy Waistguard of Living Iron. Just two badges, how hard could that be? Well, let me tell you:

Got onto LFG channel and put myself forward as tank for Heroic Gundrak, Utgarde Keep and Nexus, mostly because I am familiar with their heroic bits and pieces. I also asked what the heroic daily was and instead of a reply got an invite. The invite was, in fact, to the daily which was Culling of Stratholme, Caverns of Time. Alright, I know I'm statistical ready for that instance, even though I have never been on a heroic run.


I told the rest of the group that this would be my first heroic run, to which they mentioned that they intended to make it a timed run. Which means that we have to run through the instance as fast as possible in order to get a boss that goes away after ... 25 minutes I think (?). I mentioned that this would, of course, be my first timed run, but that I was up for the challenge -- only thing, "If I start going the wrong way, just ping on the mini-map or yell at me." No one said anything and we traveled to and started the instance.

We got to the first boss, the abomination guy, and things had been going quite smoothly. He was downed and we moved on.

I had been moving quite quickly, not even bothering with any non-elite mobs, as I was told. We turned and rushed to the other side of the instance only we were moving just a little too fast I guess because the new elites had not spawned yet and we passed their spawn point (everyone but one member of the group was following me without question). The last member of our team was waiting for us at the appropriate spawn point for the next set of elites and said so.

I turned us around and run up to him, but BOOM the elites spawned and downed him. We got into the fight and things were totally disorganized at that point. I concede that was partially my fault, but I DID tell them that I might need some direction. Slam slam slam -- full wipe. I wasn't all that bothered, but one of the members just started yelling and yelling calling me a f*cking noob etc, etc, etc. At first I thought, "Ok, he's just got to get that off his chest, then I can re-explain that I had told them I was going to need some help in navigation."

But this guy just kept berating me, and after the third "f*cking noob" I knew I was done with this B.S. I told them that next time they should look for another tank and promptly left the group. I was so angry. I really wanted to get through that instance and prove to myself that I was not only statisically ready (right stam, enough armor, uncrittable), but play-ready as well. I guess I wasn't. Nor was I with the right group.

Sometimes it's all about the group.


As soon as I hearthed back to Dalaran I put myself back into LFG and was immediately invited to an Heroic Gundrak run. I sighed, hoping that I would not need to deal with any grief and accepted the invite. Within 5 minutes we had a full group and within 15 we were zoning in. The run went well. We had some problems as I think some people had never run it on heroic, and perhaps some of our dps was a little low, but we got through it with the minimum of fuss.


And no one called anyone a NOOB.

I got my two badges, and then some, ported back to Dalaran and got my new shiny purple belt. I was just about to port back to Ironforge and gem it up when some friends whispered that they needed a tank in Gruul's Lair for the achievement.

I accepted their invite and summons and we downed Gruul with 17 people and only a few deaths.

Really, it comes down to the group dynamic. When in a group try to be polite, you never know what's going on in the background for any person. And if someone screws up, it should not be that big of a deal, unless, of course they throw blame around and start calling everyone else a f*cking noob.

And seriously. Listen to your groupmates. They will tell you things that you never knew before, or tell you that they really don't know what they are doing, so you can find a more experienced player for that instance or encounter. If you're not listening, how can you know what is going on?

If you're not listening, then when something bad happens, at least some of the blame falls squarely on your shoulders. Really.

Getting There

So my guild and I have instituted 2 weekly instance days, Friday and Monday. We are planning on some progression. Woot.

I am very excited by this possibility. It means that we can plan on instance runs every week that get our people leveled and geared -- then those of us who are somewhat geared can ramble on into our heroics of choice and get the gear and badges we need.

We have also started to recruit more, but I think this will be hard. I really like the people in my guild, it is like a little family and, so far, relatively drama free. But the thing is, we ALL move fairly slowly. Here it is 4 months into the expansion and we are just now really starting serious heroics runs. That's pretty slow for alot of people. So while I think the core group of our guild -- which is really only 5-7 people -- will stick it out, it will be hard for us to recruit and then keep people who really want to progress. We need to figure out some way to recruit the right kind of people.

Now, just how do we go about that? Honestly, I am not sure. I think it's important to be honest with people about where we are, how many players we really have and what we intend to do. We just got a new tank the other day, who seems to be as geared as I am (I believe he was a server transfer) and right now he seems content to run PUG heroics. But if it were me, that would get old, and it has (for me). It is my fond wish that he holds on long enough for us to be able to field 2 5-man heroics teams and then start to really build that into a nice 10-man raid team.

I know that we have good players. Our core group is pretty solid, and they all want to do their part. One of our pally tanks just respecced to Ret because he wanted to hang our with our core people and not have to pull together his own groups. And that's great. One of our other tanks has set that toon aside and leveled her 70 shadow priest nearly to 80 at this point as well.

What really makes me happy is knowing that a guild I enjoy socially may actually be able to pull off getting some progression done. In the past it's always been the social guilds that have never been able to get organized and the raiding guilds that have never been all that much fun.

How to Figure Out If You're Ready

There are always questions being thrown around forums and in comments sections of blogs about whether or not you are ready for an instance.

For some things, like tanking heroics and raids there are some hard and fast rules. You MUST have 535 defense in order to be uncrittable for heroics and 540 for raids. MUST. But then there are some not so easy to answer questions like, "Is my stamina high enough to tank heroic Utgarde Pinnacle?" Everyone seems to have a different answer to this, based mostly on how hard they think a given instance is.

If you ask me, I don't have any real true answers for you either -- other than what my GM told me. "Give it a try, if you fail then oh well, it's just a game."

He also mentioned to me that there were sites out there that help to rate your gear and you'll get an idea of where you should be instancing and where you should be getting your gear. Imba is one, but I'm not sure it's the best. So far, my favorite is WoW Heroes.

It's got me rated as yellow for Naxx 10, which I believe means I could tank it, but that it wouldn't be EASY. And that Eye of Eternity 10 I am just not ready for at all. Which I would totally agree with.

Now I would not say that this site -- or any others like it are the end all be all. You have to understand that they are built on certain parameters which you may or may not agree with (most I think do) and the numbers are based on your current Armory set. Which, hopefully you know is itself based on what you were wearing when you logged out of the game (with some updating exceptions).

So go on out there check out Wow Heroes, and read around on forums and such to find out just what's going on.

Open Letter to DPS

Dear DPS,

I am a tank, I get hit hard and I do it so that you can continue to kick the crap out of whatever is hitting me. I thank you for hitting it harder and faster than anyone else can.

I do wish, however, that you could all learn the basics of your role. For melee dps there is a great list on DPS Plate that you should read, but I want to focus on macros. Gimme a sec, I'll get to the good stuff.

When I am hitting something and I am focusing its attention on me -- there is a purpose to this. The purpose is to allow you to melt the face of THAT mob. The one that I am hitting. Not the one next to the one that I am hitting.

More often than not, when in a group (mostly PUGs), when pulling more than one mob, I find that I need to keep on eye on what the dps are doing because they are not hitting that which I am. How often is it that a hunter will be targeted on a mob only to pull them off me? Way too often. And why does this happen? No, it is not because I'm not uber enough -- or that hunter is too uber. It is because that hunter (sorry I'm picking on hunters) has targeted a mob mistakenly. You heard me. You are dpsing down something that you should not. Yet.



You should only and always be targeted on what I, the tank, have targeted. Now, some people mark every single mob and have a set and established kill order -- and that can work great, but, as we all know, things are not always working as intended. Things get out of hand -- pats are added, someone dies or there is a runaway with low health -- yeah go ahead and one shot that sonofa .... but what I'm talking about is MOSTLY dps just being sloppy.

What I'm about to show you can make EVERYONE's lives easier -- even yours, you dps machine.

First let me give credit where it is due -- these both came from BRK, a hunter blogger. The original article is here, at WOWInsider.

Ok so macro one. This is the simplest really doesn't need to be put on your hotkeys. Its something that you'll use every time you engage a new tank. You are using this macro to make your tank your "focus."

Are you ready? Here it is:

/focus target

That's it. That's the full extent of your macro.

What this means is that even though you manually target something else, you can always come back easily and re-target your tank. Because that's what this is meant to do. You click on your tank, hit this macro and that character is saved.

Why would you want to target your tank? Well that's where this next little gem comes in.

/assist focus

That's it -- that's all for the second macro. Pretty easy huh? Hotkey this one -- you will use it alot. What this does is automatically set your target to be the same as the target of the tank (if the tank is your focus -- which they would be if you used the previous macro in the beginning of your instance run). So if you fire off that Frostfire blast -- it will hit the same thing that the tank is hitting.

At the end of the day, all the above is about not pulling aggro off the tank -- because what they are hitting hardest, and therefore aggroing hardest on, is also what you are dpsing on, so there should be no way that you pull aggro off of them. Then, when that one dies, it only takes a split second, most likely faster than tab targeting the next mob, to hit the assist macro and BOOM you are slamming that which your tank is tanking.

I have heard alot about Wrath content and how easy it is, and also how easy it is to AOE tank all of those trash mobs. While this is true, especially when you get to slightly higher end content, when (and I say "when" intentionally) you, as a dpser, pull aggro off the tank and you don't have a Feign Death, or some kind of other aggro wipe, that mob will come at you and if your tank is AFK tanking, or doesn't like you much, it come over to you, not say nice things to you, and not leave you alive to help kill other mobs. You will be dead, and it will definitely be your fault.

So, what have we learned here? Hopefully you've learned one important lesson in HOW to play a dps character (dps what the tank has aggro on) and a few lessons in how to make THAT easier (use those macros or something like them).

Have a good day.

Yours truly,

Tank.

Friends are Important

I did something last night that I had told myself I would not do.

I allowed an undergeared dpser to fill a slot in a heroic run.

I had just finished running a guildie through Scholomance (undead ftw) and decided that I wasn't tired enough for bed yet. I realized that the daily heroic was one that I knew very well and was confident in, so I thought that I would put together a group.

There are currently 4 level 80 tanks in my guild, but only 2 have hp over 20k and defense over 530. Me and my friend %*#$)%(. Since about 75 I feel that he and I have had a nice relationship trying to help each other gear up to be the best we can be in tanking situations. Perhaps later on we might become competitive with one another, but that's a ways away.

My friend also has a level 80 rogue alt. He and I often play at the same time, but not often together because who really needs 2 tanks on 5 man content. So when we can and he's not busy tanking something else I invite his dps to whatever I'm doing.

I had decided to run heroic Utgarde Keep and wanted to bring my friend. Without asking about his dps or experience in heroics I sent him an invite which he accepted.

He did immediately tell me that if his dps was not up to par that I could kick him with no hard feelings. I told him in a whisper that I didn't want to do that, but if it became necessary, I would. He didn't know his dps off the top of his head, but I knew him as a good player and someone who tried really hard, and to me that makes a huge difference.

As we got the run together I realized that the other 2 dpsers totally outgeared the instance so was even less worried about my friends output. Though what I did not realize was that the healer was less geared than I was lead to believe -- we were not CCing based on their belief that they could handle me getting hit (I knew I could handle it, but without heals it's another story).

We ended up wiping twice, both times I believe it was the healer just being in the wrong spot at the wrong time (being pushed back by the dragons into a nearby group and dying).

As soon as the first boss died it became clear to me that my friend had never been in this instance on heroic setting, and, in fact, had never been in ANY heroic when he got the Badge of Heroism achievement. At that moment I closed my eyes and hoped that I wouldn't be getting whispers from the other members who had noticed that as well and wanted me to boot him. It didn't happen, I sighed in relief and we moved on.



Throughout the rest of the run I could tell that the others had been there and didn't need explanations for the bosses, so I just whispered my friend instructions. I knew that he had been to Utgarde Keep before and knew the bosses, just not on heroic difficulty. So when I told him about the encounters I made sure to focus on what was different in the fights.

Most of the run was pretty easy, and we finally got to the last boss -- the heroic daily quest target. I told my friend rogue to watch out for the bosses cast bar and to get out of the way whenever he cast anything. Now, perhaps that's not totally needed, maybe it's a bit of an oversimplification, but as he was the only melee class and his dps was hovering near 980 I figured it wouldn't gimp our encounter too badly.

He said he would do his best and I aggroed the boss. Within 30 seconds my friend had hit the floor. In a whisper to me he laughed and apologized, but I told him it was no big deal. He got a battle rez from our druid and we continued into the undead phase with no problems. He promptly got out of Dodge when he needed to and we took our guy down.

In all honesty our healer and one other died during that last part -- but as I saw it happening I Layed on Hands and Avenging Wrathed and with our remaining members we got it done.

No true rogue gear dropped but the epic crossbow did, and because he's a good guy he did not need it, even though I knew that no one else wanted it. He did win the greed roll and I was ecstatic for him. It was a massive upgrade even though it wasn't a main weapon or armor.

As we were leaving some members were discussing running straight over to heroic Utgarde Pinnacle without missing a beat. I was surprised and happy to see that no one really felt my rogue friend was a liability -- and truly I never thought it myself. I decided that I was too tired and that I believed I was not geared for it yet and so we all parted ways.

This whole wall of text is to say that bringing my friend, while not adding a significant boost to dps, made him and I happy and didn't ruin anything for anyone. "Bring the player, not the class (or spec)" is something that we hear a lot lately from Blizzard. I say, "bring who you want, and hope for the best."

Change

A wise man once said, "The only thing that does not change is change itself."

Well, it's true. My last post I was pissed off by lame pug members, but today I must say, that has changed.

I ran heroic Utgarde Keep (no, my sword did not drop) and there were no wipes and no deaths. There whole thing ran rather smoothly. Well, not totally smoothly.

The person who put the group together was a rogue who really wanted a purple crossbow drop. When he invited me to tank he even asked me if I was going to roll for it if it dropped ........... (sigh).
"I'm a paladin." I said. It took that a moment to process but he finally got it.

Then, because he wanted this drop so badly, he turned on master looter and kept it on the whole time. He would not pass leader to me, he would not mark. But, as it turns out, we were somewhat overpowered -- DPS burned all the bosses down in what felt like record time, and I never ever worried about my health bar. Gotta love those awesome big-love heals.

In the end, because the rogue had master looter on and set to Epic level, when the last boss died and a Frozen Orb dropped, the first person to loot got it. We all cried foul and they, graciously, gave it up for a /roll.

The rogue kept talking like it was no big deal, and that he had it under control. The healer and I both agreed that it would have been nice to have let him die at some point -- too bad he never had that much aggro. It wasn't until he said he was going to disenchant what none of us wanted that things went really insane. He looted the pieces, of which there were maybe 2 -- DE'd one of them, and only then found out that he could not DE the other. (sigh).



That's when I put him on /ignore. The instance was over, we didn't have anything else to do, but I seriously just couldn't listen to that j*ck*ss wail and whine anymore.

I added the healer and one of the dpsers to my friends list with their permission. (For whatever reason, I know I don't have to, I always ask people if it's ok for me to add them to my friends list. I think I just want to know that maybe they'll respond if I whisper them later.)

And that was that. It really wasn't all that bad. We got through it in, what seemed like, record time, and nobody had to be rezzed.

I guess the real lesson here is, somewhat similar to weather and baby's attitudes, if you don't like what's happening in your PUG, just wait for the next one, and hopefully you'll like it better.

=)

Not awesomesauce

I am going to whine. I just want you to know this so if you want you can skip this post right now.

This is my PUGS SUCK rant.

I will readily admit that I'm not in a progression guild, I've still not been to Naxx, and I've not run all the heroics yet -- I'm just a slow progressor (I can put about ... 10 hours a week into the game).

One of the reasons that I've not been to all the heroics I would like, is that the PUG heroics groups that I've gotten into SUCK ASS. Almost all of them.

Granted, sometimes I'm with a group that has run H Nexus a bunch of times and it's a breeze, but then I'll get 3 dpsers (I'm still a tank) and none of them do above 1k dps. Zero. I must say that most of the healers I've run with have been pretty good, seems like they know they have to gear up a little after dinging 80 in order to run heroics -- just like tanks.

Now this isn't really a rant against DPSers, although they have been the ones that have given my pugs trouble. Really it's about how alot of the time, these instances are really not as easy as you think they are -- and that gear matters ALOT. To all classes and specs.

With the tank gear I have I feel set to tank H Utgarde Keep and the Nexus. I have not tried anything above and beyond those both because I want more stamina and because I fear the pugs.

Even in H UK and Nexus I've got dpsers who refuse to CC and they just want me to take all the hits from all the mobs (which I can do provided the healer is awake). I've got hunters misdirecting and pulling when I'm not ready -- but they just want to move quickly. And, and this one drives me batty, I've got people wanting to start boss fights without even checking to make sure that all members of the party know what the deal is.


Random screen shot. =)

Yes, indeed, there are a bunch of those bosses that can be considered tank and spank fights, but really there are some really great strategies to ensure that everyone survives the fight without adding to the repair bill. Stack up on Prince Keleseth in order for the adds to be easy for the tank to grab and so that it's easy for everyone to pound on whoever has been iceblocked. But, noooooo, the healer and the mage HAVE to stand at range because they are what? Uber? I don't think so, if you were uber you wouldn't still be farming H UK. And so the mage dies. And so the healer is iceblocked when I need a big heal and I blow my CD for Lay on Hands on myself (which, I'm glad to do, but it could have been avoided by just a little strategy, just a little planning).

Same thing with Keristrasza, the final dragon boss in H Nexus. This one can actually be really rough if people don't know it at all. I ran it the other day with a rogue and a fury warrior who both said they knew the fight and didn't need the run down. When the ice debuff hit, the one where you "jump around" alot -- BOOM both dead. "WTF?, wth wuz that?" (sigh) We all wipe and I explain it to them, and the second time around we get it right. But come on people, it only takes a few extra seconds to simply explain most fights -- if you've NEVER been in the instance, even on normal, then you really do need to hear what happens.

And the final boss in H UK, Ingvar the Plunderer. I really hate that fight because so many groups just want to tank and spank it -- and, truly if people are geared enough, then it's not too bad, but if people are even slightly unprepared then it's a full wipe guaranteed. [If anyone is reading this and has a foolproof way to deal with this boss -- other than "just heal through it" -- please let me know.] So many people think they have the uber-answer to this guy, but for the most part there are still bodies on the floor at the end of the fight.

So, yeah, just like in The Burning Crusade when they lowered the reqs to get into heroics, and everyone thought that were ready and able -- it was a wipefest. People need to know the instance and gear for it.

And speaking of gearing .... the interview process is getting a little weird. I get DPSers asking me about my hp and forgetting to ask about my defense. I even try to turn it around and ask them about their dps and INVARIABLY they lie about it. I had a ret pally tell me that she was 2k+ dps on my recount showed her barely topping 1.5k. Honestly 1.5k is fine for the lower heroics, why bother with the lie? And since when is 22k hp too low for the easier heroics? I've been turned down a number of times for that. (sigh) It's just tiresome to me.

But I will continue to put myself in LFG, and I will continue to build my friends list, and I will hope that the 10 people in my guild will get their toons heroic-ready. But my faith is shaken. Just like in TBC.

How I wish I could have been hanging out with the first round of 80s and blasted through this content -- but, alas this was not to be.

Hope it's better out there for you than it's been for me. QQ.

Adios.

P.S. And I DO know that one possible way to get around my problem is to get my arse into a larger guild, one that can put together heroic groups easily on the fly -- but I really like my small family-like guild.

Pick Up Groups

I am, really, not a fan of PUGs. That said, I really love it when I finish an instance run with a PUG and it went well -- that means that, against all odds, people paid attention, listened to strategies and played well and we finished. How often does that happen?

As a tank (or a healer to some extent) you are saved certain problems that DPSers have to contend with when it comes to PUGs. Tanks are usually the ones that are running the show, with marking and "going". They can make the run as quick or as slow as they like (excepting for people dropping group because they don't like the pace). Plus, as tank, you are usually the leader, or can be made the leader quite easily ("Hey, make me lead, I gotta mark.") and can kick unruly or truly evil players at your discretion.

Last night I ran The Amphitheater of Anguish with a PUG, didn't put it together, didn't even pay attention to roles and levels or gear and it was smooth, like a baby's bottom. Granted the fights aren't all that hard, but still -- it was very nice to know that you can count on most players who are in their mid-70s to pull together for a few quick fights in order to attain mucho XP and perhaps some decent gear.



I was surprised and delighted at how little communication was needed or, really, desired for this event. We all pretty much knew our jobs (tank, healz, dps, dps, dps) and the fights are pretty straight forward tank and spank. Seriously, though, I think I may have exchanged 2 sentences with the other players after the invite, and that was "Rdy?" on the first fight and "Thanks alot all. Seeya around."

Normally at the end of an instance run, even when I was a healer I had a standard farewell that included a "good job" and "fun" -- but most importantly I would let most if not all the players in my group know that they could call on me anytime to tank (or heal). Truly if it was a good group and if I'm available then I will tank for almost any instance I am leveled for. It's good practice and it gets me introduced to more and more players (fairly new to this server) and, more importantly, more HEALERS. It's always nice to have a friends list full of healers as a tank, because, as we all know, it's not so hard to find DPS.

In the end, unless you have a good group of friends that are always on at the same time, or a nice big guild, you will have to PUG at some point or another in your progression to level cap. I find that if you go into it with a positive attitude and do your best things have a way, most times, of working themselves out. This is not to say that a 4 hour Gnomer run can't end in total disaster, with players coming in and going out and finally after the fifth wipe people just giving up, BUT I find, especially with the short and seemingly easy instances in Northrend this is the exception, not the rule.

Happy hunting.