Stop QQ.. Start Tank'n

Tonight was a big deal for Deathknugget. He reached Revered with "The Wyrmrest Accord" and purchased the Breastplate of Solemn Council from the quartermaster. I enchanted it with +275 health scroll as I'm much lower then everyone else in health. It looks like hell, but the stats are much better then Tempered Saronite Breastplate as you all know. Nice little upgrade. 

I then felt a little crazy. I decided to tank Heroic: The Violet Hold. Not one of the more difficult heroics, so maybe I wont get kicked. So...

I lived and completed the dungeon! Yeah first heroic baby. And guess what dropped from last boss. That's right "Bolstered Legplates". Their not T9, but heck of an upgrade from "Special Issue Legplates." Won the roll, and collected my loot. It was awesome!
 

Maybe I've been a little too worried about tanking heroics. Its time to stop crying, and start tank'n.

Tank-on!

Too Terrified to Queue

So, I didn't logon last night. I'll be honest I'm a little intimidated by the thought of starting to tank heroics. Tanking 5-mans, at least what I remembered 5-man to be, was the reason I got back into WOW. In my short 4 month (might as well be 4 years) absence from the game 5-mans changed from a progression step for new level 80s, into a farming ground for raiders. The little I've read lately has started to turn me off, and question my readiness.

My first worry, is gear. Sure, I've followed every Pre-heroic gear guide to the "T", but something tells me they were written for times long past. I don't see how a ilevel 175-200 tank is going to hold aggro from three ilevel 251 dps. I'd hope they would slow down DPS and use aggro wipe abilities more often, but it doesn't sound like today's style. It's all about speed, large aoe pulls, and killing stuff as fast as possible. This is going to be a big hurdle for Deathknugget to overcome.

My other worry, is group expectation. When people use the LFG tool, they are thinking fast easy farming runs. I'm thinking "am I ready?" These two mindsets are not compatible. DPS/Healers expect an experienced tank that allows them to rip through easy content and loot their emblems. This is most likely a piece of cake for a ilevel 245-251 geared tank. I'm sure it is going to be very rocky. I'm expecting rude players, back seat tanking, and even some "move a side I'll do it." I'm sure I'll be removed from groups due to low gear scores, health below 30k, and experience.

Not the best environment to learn in, and certainly not the best time to start tanking. So what do I do?

Option 1: Screw them all! I'm there to tank. I'll tank at my pace, leave and be replaced. This wont work if I'm not the group leader. Last normal Drak run, the healer kept group leader, instead of passing to tank. I'll bet that happens alot in heroics, so people can boot the under geared tank. With my own pocket restro duid following me into every heroic my chances to stay in group go up.

Option 2: Sign up for DPS, and ride coat tails for badges. Everyone else is doing it, why not an aspiring tank. If my gear is lacking, and I must collect emblems to improve it, this will get it done. MT might even let me do some tanking to learn, if I ask nicely. However, I didn't want to DPS. That's Bloodarrow's bag, and mainly the reason she's been absent these last few months. I've been DPS for years. I want a change, and this option doesn't provide that change. I see washing out after a few weeks following this option.

All in all I'm still on the fence. I haven't committed my DK to heroics, simply out of fear. Fear of failure. Fear of ridicule. Fear of not having fun. It's funny how these thoughts simply escape my hunter. She's fearless, because her performance isn't as critical to the group's success. I'm hoping to sort this all out in the next few days. Hopefully by weekend, I'll be swimming or drowning in the deep end of the 5-man dungeons. GULP!

Starting the Emblem Grind

Bloodarrow was happy doing her daily Argent Tournament and ice crown quests for gold. She's been refinancing our guild bank for weeks now. I've been focusing my energy on my DK and Druid tanks. The DK is level 80, and the druid (level 68) is ready to start his Northrend grind. All this time I've been ignoring Bloodarrow, well time to show her some love.

Bloodarrow is going to start the long emblem of triumph and frost grind. She is going to start her ICC (5 man) atuned shortly after. Her gear is mostly ilevel 219 (Naxx25/Maly25), having stopped raiding just as Ulduar came out.

Bloodarrow has spent the last few months as BM spec. Her and Rooney (the gorilla) were specc'd more like a leveling build, then a dps build. That all changed a few days ago. She's back to Survival, since I didn't like MM. I've worked on her rotation, and got it back to where it was in the early weeks of Ulduar. She's ready to rock!

I haven't quite worked out what gear she's be buying first. I figured I can think that through over the next few days, while we start earning those emblems. I've found a few websites, but mostly I'll be poking around wowhead.com. Weapons seam to be the problem with 5-mans. Her current bow (Arrowsong), while dated, is still better then anything she could buy with emblems or gold. Her Wrath's Spear isn't that far off from the Champion's Seal staff, although she will be upgrading tonight to it. I don't expect upgrades until BA starts her ICC assault. I don't expect that to start for a few weeks.

I'm confident she will do just fine running heroics, although I'm a little worried about long queue times. DPS is a dime a dozen, and I've read of queue times between 15-30 minutes. This might limit the number of heroics I complete each day, to less than 5 (remember I have to gear up my tank too). We'll have to see.

While I praise Blizzard for reviving casual gamers involvement with the game, I'm not so sure the 5-man speed run system is all that great. Mostly Deathknugget is going to suffer, as he's got to learn to tank in this fast paced world. BA on the other hand is going to just pew pew, and soak in the emblems each night.

Deathknugget Preps for Tanking 5-man

I've been digging playing my deathknight. It's a different set of mechanics playing a melee class vs hunter. I've been enjoying seeing what content I can solo, while leveling to 80. Now that I've reached level 80, I started making plans for Deathknugget. After much thinking, he's going to become a tank. I have no ambishion to raid, so he's going to run heroics only.

I've been reading like mad trying to catch up on the how-to of tanking. Specing/geming a hunter came naturally to me, so Bloodarrow was cake to gear for heroics. Tanking is more foreign to me, so I need to leverage other's expertise.

I've been collecting gear for the last 2 weeks, outside dungeons. I am very happy with my gear right now, and think its a good starting position. Its time to focus on geming and enchants needed to improve my stats. This should take a few days of sorting to fully understand what I need.

Regardless, of my gear/level, I'm heading to normal dungeons first. I want to "learn" to tank, not just "tank." I figure most groups would be happy with a properly spec'd and a geared level 80 doing their tanking. They may be less demanding then a heroic, hurry up group.

Myean is also back playing working on her druid. She's enjoying healing my druid as we level through Outland. I'm hoping we get to level 80 and she gears up for heroic healing. Having the healer on your side, being understanding when you make errors is a win in my book. It will be a month or so until she's there, at the casual rate we're playing.

Casual WOW = new game

So what has this non-raiding hunter been up too?

Well, Bloodarrow focused on her Merrymaker title, started a guildpurchased heirlooms for the alts, and farming gold doing daily quests in Ice Crown.

Two days ago Deathknugget dinged level 80. He's a Belf blood deathknight, who I hope to do some heroic tanking with. He's grinding rep, argent tournament seals, and questing in Ice Crown. Its also time he started paying the back the bank, who financed his epic flying mount. I've been reading a ton of tanking and deathknight guides. Its been alot of fun questing as a deathknight, and learning how to play the class correctly.

I did some questing with Darkranger through Borean Tundra. He's running around Dragonblight right now with a rino named Smoochy. For fun I leveled Engineer to 300 on Darkranger, with help from Deathknugget's mining. Darkranger now has a mechanical flying machine. Its been fun leveling engineering, and making different gizmos. Once he's level 80 he'll join Bloodarrow Inc, and farm daily quests in Ice Crown.

At somepoint I decided to try threeboxing. I created an elemental shaman team, who is now level 12. I must say killing three times any mob sucks. It's been an unique experiance, however I'm not sure how far I'm going to take them. I've considered breaking up the team, and leveling the leader solo.

Toasting New Beginnings

I'm back! Sorta. :(

I logged on to WoW on Thanksgiving evening. Maybe it was all the tryptophan coarsing through my veins. Maybe it was my boredom with American football or the Macey's Day Parade. But low an behold I logged in.

I quickly found out my account had been deactivated due to a credit card number change (oops). I reactivated my account and jumped in. Sadly First Order of Hell finally terminated my membership. I don't blame them and wish them the best. I was heart broken to learn my alt's guild folded too. That left Myaen, Deathknugget, and Udderpwnage homeless. Something had to be done.

I jumped on Bloodarrow, rode to Orgrimmar, purchased a guild charter, and galloped about the country side asking for signatures. Once complete I registered the guild, and gkicked all my founders. I proceeded to invite all our alts. So I'm now the guild leader of "Dogs of War." Cool name.

On Friday, I decided to take advantage of the faction change service. I haven't touched Darkranger since rolling horde. I figured another level 80 horde hunter would be fun. She's now a Orc, and a him. :)

I have no plans or ambitions right now. I don't want WOW to be a time sink again. No raiding guilds for me thank you. I'm going to quietly level my existing alts, and maybe start a few new ones along the way. Maybe work up one of each profession. Multiboxing? That might be fun....

So here is a quick holiday toast to a new and much more relaxing beginning. Cheers!

The weather outside is frightful

So its been snowing off and on all week. Temperatures below freezing most the time. Not exactly the best weather for cycling or most other outdoor activities.

Stuck inside, I am staring at the World of Warcraft program icon on my desktop. I'm doing everything I can from clicking on it and emersing myself in all the glory that is WOW. I even cought myself thinking about WOW while taking a shower this morning.

Hmmm

That must be it. I'm a winter wow player. When the weather outside turns cold, snowy, and generally misserable. I find myself drawn into the World of Warcraft. There isn't anything wrong with that. Some people read. Some people tinker in wood shops. Others simply watch alot of TV.

Me... I run a little cartoon elf around an imaginary world of adventure and monsters.