Actual Paladin Tank Stuff Complete with Strategy Tweaks!

I know I don’t usually talk much about tanking, talenting or strategies but we’ve tweaked a few things in our raids - and I’ve tweaked a few things in my spec for different fights - so I thought I’d break with tradition! (You’re very excited now, aren’t you?)

If I don’t mention a strategy change we’re probably doing what everyone else is. As for DPS and heals we’ve used every bizarre, theoretically unworkable combination you can think of for a 10 man but we build the raid with the following:

Always -
Rogue
Warlock
Resto Druid
Pally tank (Yeah, I know, I said I heal sometimes but I really haven’t had to for a while.)
DK tank (on 2 tank fights otherwise he is DPS)

Rotating in and out based on the fight (or RL stuff) -
Holy/Disc Priest
Warrior (DPS)
Kitty (And occasional bear)
Hunter (Usually there)
Resto Shaman (Sometimes DPS)
Resto Druid #2 (Sometimes chicken)
Resto Druid #3 (Sometimes a Shaman)
Warlock #2
Mages #1-3


Blackwing Descent

Magmaw - Paladin tank on boss, DK tank on worms. DK just kites the little buggers around and no one kills them. As long as they move out of the way periodically we’ve had no issues.

Tron Dudes - Single tank FTW. The reason behind single tanking is simple - the healers like it. If I am able to hit the Tron Dude beating on me I can squeeze in a few self-heals. If the Tron Dude just wails on me and I can’t hit him…well healers have to work harder…add in a second tank and, well, you get the picture.

Achemedes - Meh, standard strategy as far as I know.

Chimaeron - I respec to ensure I have full points in Eternal Glory and Guarded by the light as well as Divine Guardian for this one. I use Holy Radiance while we are grouped up for Feud. I also pop Divine Guardian on the third Feud. The first time we got him to 20% (the largely unhealable, untauntable phase) I expected him to make a mad dash to nomnom on the healers but instead he stayed on our DK tank, then me, then he was dead. No worries on that one.

Maloriak - I always have points in Grand Crusader for the Avenger’s Shield refresh but in this fight it’s particularly handy. Our rogue interrupts the Storms and I handle the add releases while our DK tank kites the adds. I keep points in the Divine Guardian for the last phase and blow through pretty much every cooldown I have at that time.

Nefarion - I’ll let you know next week!



Bastion of Twilight

Halfus Wyrmbreaker - For this one I generally take Halfus myself first and bubble taunt off the first set of stacks of the healing debuff when applicable. This is one fight I really like having a Holy Paladin in for so he can Hand of Protection the DK tank when it’s his turn. I can do it but we’ve had a few times where my tank partner is too far away. Obviously we change strategies depending on which dragon combo we have but we haven’t ever killed all three. Just burn the first two and burn the boss. We start this one on hard mode this week so I’ll let you know how it goes!

Valiona & Therlion - Pretty standard

Twilight Ascendant Council - DK tank with ranged, me with melee, our warlock switches targets to keep them even if needed. DK tank on Ignacious for interrupts, me on Feludious for round one. Round two is DK tank on Arion and me on Terrastra. If it’s going to put melee too close to the wrong buff if I move him then I just pop a CD and eat the Quake/Thundershock.

Cho’gall - This is another fight I make sure I’m specced into as many healing boosts as possible. We two healed this with two resto druids (They cried a lot and begged for a “tank healer” and MCs suck with only two but they are more amazing than they think they are and we did just fine!) Our DK tank takes Cho’gall first and I cast Hand of Salvation on him immediately. His D&D works very well for the adds and as he can cast it ranged he doesn’t build stacks. HoS is up for the third taunt from him as well. Our DK tank is the recipient of many, many of my Word of Glorys (Word of Glories? Looks weird…) on this fight.



Throne of Four Winds

Conclave of Wind - What is there to say about this, really? Hard mode this week should be interesting!

Al’Akir - Not much to this one once everyone gets the movement and timing down. I make sure I have Hand of Protection ready for a healer in phase 3 and use Holy Radiance as we fly down to the base. Cooldowns are your friend in phase 3 LOL.



So, that’s all I can think of at the moment. Please feel free to post anything you may do that differs from the usual strategies!

And if anyone has found a sound strategy for Heroic Halfus and/or Conclave let me know!

Stupid Awards of the Week ***Epic-holy-crap-I-haven't-done-them-in-Cata Edition***

(Names have been badly smudged to protect the guilty)

The Paranoid Huntard Award of the Week goes to….

/drumroll

The hunter who wouldn’t go near Al’akir’s platform until she was completely buffed and ready to go for fear she would accidentally pull him. Needless to say we spent every night we were on him making her more paranoid by dropping Jeeves, guild banks and cauldrons near the boss!




The But It’s Not A Green Award of the Week goes to….

/drumroll

The same hunter who did many attempts (key word: attempts) on the now-PVP-boss-loot-piñata when we were all fresh 85s while in PVP gear. It took a while. We also found out what she wears to raid in. (Start noticing a theme here...)






The Where’s Jeeves? Award of the Week goes to….

The resto druid with broken gear who was obsessing over healing meters….

The Wait, Wasn’t I on a Taxi? Award of the Week goes to….

/drumroll

The guild master, who shall remain nameless, who decided to multi-task while on route to Throne of Winds. 4 words: Dead. Feralas. Rez sickness. /facepalm

The Naked Raider Award of the Week goes to….

/drumroll

The kitty who died (and led to a wipe on Al’akir by dying early on)…who then informed us that although he hit “yes” on the ready check he had just run naked out of the shower. He plays Dance, Dance Revolution as well as WoW…. Go ahead. Picture it. Just go ahead.

The Huntards Have Competition Award of the Week goes to….

The Locktard after a wipe who was also obsessing over meters…





The OMG His Hit Box is HUGE! Award of the Week goes to….

/drumroll

So very many people who hit Magmaw instead of the trash in front of him so very many times.




The I WANT TO LIVE Award of the Week goes to….

/drumroll

The resto druid who told the tanks that if they wanted to live they would call out tank swaps on Cho’gall…despite the DBM warning and GIANT FREAKING LASER BEAMS from his eyes at Fury. For the rest of the raid each tank called out “I want to live!” every time they taunted.




The WTF Happened to My Threat? Award of the Week goes to….

/drumroll

The DK tank who couldn’t get aggro on Cho’gall. We wiped. Come to find out he had a chat bar open. So much for keybinds.

Raiding Challenges

I find myself in the middle of a series of GM/Raid Leader dilemmas. I’ve been working a lot lately and had some RL issues come up that have limited “real” play time to raids unless it’s my day off. I do log on every day to check in but haven’t even had the energy to run randoms most days I work. Needless to say this means when I log I am bombarded with whispers and NEEDS!


Healing Issues!

Raiding is not going badly but neither are we moving as fast as most of us would like. I’m sure many GMs and raiders can relate when I say that a fair amount of our issues stem from heals. The ones I’ve needed for progression haven’t always been available and some of the ones we counted on in Wrath are either gone, DPS, or struggling.

Right now I have one very, very good resto druid who has done well enough to hit the top 100 in world rankings on certain fights but (BUT!) she has a very needy husband (God, I loathe wow-couples!) which brings me to…

A pally healer who wants to tank or DPS - anything but heal - and is trying to persuade me that he has actually changed his mind (again) and wants nothing more than to be a healadin in raids…but he doesn’t. I know this, he knows this, his wife knows this. He is also one of those extremely annoying types who relentlessly whisper you when they get sat and feel that even though they haven’t put in the time or work that others have should be in on every raid. He also feels entitled to loot he hasn’t earned. Good times.

Another remarkably good resto druid who just went back to school and missed a week due to no computer…he is supposed to be back for raid tonight. Fingers crossed.

Another pally healer who does well and is much more low maintenance than the other but changed his main from a DK for Cata and is still learning the more subtle nuances of the class. He is also fire challenged at times which isn’t good for most Cata fights.

A shammie whose attendance got flakier and flakier before he finally left because it “wasn’t fun anymore”. ‘Nough said.

A priest who got a late start raiding (we knew well ahead of time that she just HAD to go to Hawaii) and is still searching for the right balance that will make her competitive in Cata. She’s doing tons of research but is feeling pretty beat up by the changes right now. (Don’t even get her started on Smite!)

And then there’s me. I’ve healed more in the short time Cata has been out than in the entire Wrath expansion but I’m needed as a tank and it’s much harder for me to effectively make in-fight calls while healing.

The light at the end of the tunnel right now is a 3rd resto druid (soon to be resto shammie perhaps?) who has returned to Heroic after being very disappointed by Horde grass. He is one of the best healers I’ve ever seen in any class he chooses but don’t tell him I said so or I’ll never hear the end of it.

So, this week I will be largely ignoring most advice on which specific healing classes I “should” have for fights and bringing in the best damn players I have on!


Ego Issues!

Another thorn in my side is the lack of accurate self evaluation that some raiders are capable of performing. I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about…raiders that think they are better than they actually are and won’t truly HEAR otherwise.

I have a lot respect for players that are still finding the right way to play their class/spec in Cata and are willing to respect, research, spend hours on training dummies, ask others for advice and understand completely that as much as I may like them personally and am happy to let them try out what they’ve been working on while we do farm bosses I can’t bring them in on a boss that is a DPS race or super healing intensive. These are the players that more likely than not whisper me first and offer to sit when they look at where they are for the night.

What I have a hell of a lot less respect for are the players that deny they stand in bad or make lame excuses for poor DPS or healing. I have logs and recount and watch the raid. I know what they are doing and not doing.

Most often these are the people that go all emo on me when I sit them and despite the number of times I’ve talked with them about performance and raid awareness issues they refuse to see they have a problem. And OMG do they like to send me whispers!!!

And don’t get me started on attendance…don’t tell me you were here on time when you weren’t. I track it. I know.

I know that this week, in order to make a big dent in progression and get back on top, I’m going to have to bring in the best raiders and only the best raiders for all but the easiest bosses just so I can be assured we are moving at top speed. My concern is this may lead to gquits and it will certainly lead to disappointment. I keep telling myself that we are a progression oriented raiding guild and we have to do what we have to do. Best case scenario…the ones that get sat that think they are all that may make a more honest evaluation of their performance. Yeah…not likely.


Second Group Issues!

The plan was to have two 10 man teams running by now so everyone who was interested in and capable of raiding would have a spot. It was a good plan. We liked the plan. The plan has not happened.

The person who was going to own the second group and raid lead is tied up with RL and wants to simply participate when it happens and no one else has stepped up to take ownership. We also really don’t have the healers for it at the moment and I’m not sure we even have enough DPS. So right now I have a few geared players with nowhere to go. I can’t possibly fit them all in the ongoing group and until someone steps up to run it and makes an assessment of what we need for it I don’t even know where to begin with recruiting. Yes, in theory, I could make that assessment myself but let’s go back to the first thing I stated about work and real life and time! Besides, if it’s going to be successful as an independent raid then it really needs to be built by that team.

Basically I’m at a loss for words right now when they ask me when it is starting. I have no idea. Anyone want to run a 10 man group?



So that’s the long overdue, very wordy explanation of what’s been going on in my world lately!

It's Also True.

Dear Guildies,

We are once again #1 for Alliance progression on the server. Keep it up and don't stand in bad.


Love,

Lark

It's True.

Dear Guildies,

Standing in bad is bad.


Love,

Lark

Long Overdue Update!

I realized I haven’t even posted a “hey Cata!” post or anything like it since the release and feel like a slacker. Truth is I’ve been swamped - both in the big world outside and in the WoW world.

As much I love some of the new content Cata feels very much like a grind right now. I’m behind in my daily randoms and don’t even get me started on rep grinding.

We made a decision before the launch to sponsor one person per profession to ensure we have access to what we need within the guild as much as possible so we have everything maxed except a JC at this point and we’ll get him up there tomorrow. We bought and farmed everything possible to get us raid ready fast and about 100k later we got there!

Magmaw is down as well as the new Tol Barad boss (Does he even count? A team of drunk monkeys could handle that fight. LOL) In typical Heroic fashion we didn’t start with the easiest boss. /sigh We are looking very good to defeat Halfius (despite our luck in getting the worst combo of dragons possible) and the Tron dudes this week so yay for death.

Raiding has been more of challenge than I expected. Not the content but the raiders.
Healers have been hard to come by and the holidays sure as hell haven’t helped. Yours truly has been healing at least half the time and that definitely isn’t what the raiders expected…the ones who have been around know all too well how raids have historically gone when I haven’t tanked but thanks to a few strong players I’ve been able to step back, stare at raid frames and try not to stand in bad and let them call things out.

It also feels like a few folks are lacking the fire the rest of us expected and I feel that we are much further behind than we should be. A few changes in the roster and a new pally healer leveled and geared have helped the past couple of raid days though so there’s no reason we can’t get back on top where we need to be.

Anyways there’s the very, very brief update! Now I’m off to try to clean up the bank and come up with a system in it that works better…. Wish me luck!

Things I Learned About Leading a Guild in Wrath

You will never be able to make every single person in the guild happy all at one time but as long as you’re fair they will accept occasional disappointments.

Second chances can be very good. Third (or fourth if you’re really having a dumb moment) will bite you in the ass.

The Raid Bitch is your friend.

Guildies are friends not family. You can choose them.

They are called Huntards for a reason.

Trust your instincts. Even if they come with great experience if your gut tells you “no” then don’t accept them into the guild.

If they want to change mains more than once an expansion be very, very worried.

Your officers will either be your best assets or your worst liabilities. Choose carefully.
Elitism isn’t always a bad thing.

No matter how much you may like them personally some people will never, ever get it.

A minimum age requirement helps you stay sane longer.

It doesn’t matter how many times you say it, put it in the MOD, post it on the forums, or send them mail…there will always be people who don’t pay attention.

Landing on the Stupid Awards may become a badge of honor.

If you give them your phone number they will call or text you at ridiculous hours.

Once the focus is gone on a progression fight it’s best to just call it and go fishing until tomorrow.

The better your guild is the more trolls you have.

Psycho happens.

Emo happens.

Nerd Rage happens.

Progression isn’t worth sacrificing your code of acceptable behavior.

At the end of the day the friends you spend your time with make the guild successful and keep you going day after day even when you’re ready to disband the guild and go play Sims 3.