Selling Heroic queues

There is allot of discussion in and out of WoW and across the blogosphere about the problems with Tank & Healer shortage in Cataclysm, especially as it relates to LFD, Heroics difficulty and long DPS queues. There seem to be a discussion of the problem almost daily in the blogosphere and its on peoples mind daily waiting for LFD queues. As much as I may have my own opinion on this topic and I do, I'm just not sure where to jump into this shark pool of highly intense opinions everywhere.

I was playing on one my dps characters just doing a daily quest and this guy a Tank was quite serious in trade chat about his service as stated. This set off a firestorm of debate in trade about the comment, the situation and LFD queues and the ethics of creating a problem with doing so and fostering it in and of it self. It lead to some lively discussion in trade chat as a result. But with as many players playing WoW this can't be a original idea either and I'm sure some others are doing so. And I know I've been in 1 or two instances as dps where this happened as well unknowingly where the tank just all of a sudden just dropped out for what seemed no reason at all.

I really don't condone the practice as a Tank at heart myself and much against this as a practice for all the problems it can create. It can set some very bad future precedent in LFD, among others waiting in queue among groups itself. If you zone in and quit on any group you should suffer some consequence by Blizzard in the LFD queue as a result, no matter which role you play. That's just bad practice all around to other people in the LFD queues and don't help the current problem much either.

As for myself a person who has played a tank role for a long time and at heart someone who really enjoy the role to be quite frankly these days even though I can do heroics I just don't queue up for all my own reasons. I enjoyed the many months of stress free time away from WoW and i'm enjoying not returning all that quickly back to that role. That sure don't help you or anyone else much waiting for a Tank, group, heroics and long queues in LFD.

For sure the discussion on Tanks and LFD will rage on.

Signs of Things to Come, Tank AE and AE Tanking

And interesting WoW Forum thread and some thoughts from GC in this thread about Protect Warrior possible dps increase yet relevant as well to all tanks as a whole and possible signs of things to come in the future at some point. Clearly some things here are on Blizzards radar. Such as the oversimplified use and style of AoE tanking everywhere all the time and the whole AoE Tanking game.

A few things:

1) We're much more concerned about tank single target dps than we are tank AE dps. Especially in Icecrown, there are virtually no fights where the tank's dps contribution on an AE fight is really going to amount to much. You can make an argument that the single target dps can be relevant on e.g. Festergut (though again, I still don't think there are that many cases where the difference between success and fail are the tank's dps).

2) You may find Devastate boring, but Devastate is a very easy ability to buff because even small tweaks have large effects given how often it is used. Buffing say Shield Slam (or even Def Stance) would make the PvP balance we're trying to solve even worse. You'd have to buff Revenge enormously to see a difference. Any buff to Heroic Strike affects dps warriors in PvE as well who aren't hurting at all. Some of the ideas about e.g. Rend are interesting, but we're pretty sure the last thing the warrior needs is yet another ability to manage while tanking. Long term that might be the kind of thing we consider, but given that we're looking for a safe and easy buff, that's not the kind of thing we want to mess with now. (Consider that even if we did a PTR, who is going to be on there when the competition is new bosses in Icecrown?)

3) There are differences in how tanks generate AE threat, and therefore damage. Warriors are jealous of the DK and especially paladin persistent area-based damage, and the others are jealous of the warrior's burst AE threat on incoming adds. Druids are jealous of anyone with more than one button. :(

So, yes, one way of handling this is to give every tank a burst AE attack like Thunderclap, a sustained AE attack like Consecrate, and a mass taunt like Challenging Shout just for good measure. That's the kind of thing we are really reluctant to do though because it just works against the justification for having 4 tanking classes when they all perform the same way including using the same kind of tools. Now, on the other hand no tank should be horribly gimped in any of those situations, and except for rare exceptions they really aren't. We're mostly talking quality of life issues here. (One such exception: DK offtanks on Yogg had trouble picking up adds and the dps couldn't afford to wait. As long as there aren't a ton of fights like this though, we don't think it's a systemic flaw.)

4) Long-term, the paladin manner of generating AE damage and threat is probably too good, especially given how simple it is. To be honest, we have very mixed feelings on the whole AE tanking game. We brought the druid and warrior more in line with the paladin for fear of recreating the Shattered Halls / Mount Hyjal experience, where other tanks just weren't competitive. What that has led to of course is the AE tank + AE style of damage for almost every pull. You need the tools to be able to tank legitimate adds fights (imagine lots of incoming mobs), but does that mean every pull needs to devolve into that? We'd like to see less AE overall, so buffing everyone's AE tools isn't going to be tops on our agenda. That does however mean that we really can't afford to have a "best AE tank", and while things are more fair there than they were in BC, they aren't fair enough.

Sorry for going off topic here, but these kinds of questions have come up a lot lately, so I figured I'd just share some of our discussions publicly.

---

Ghostcrawler
Lead Systems Designer

I guess if you read GC's comments that it can be read different ways to different people. Such is as everything else in WoW. Anyway Paladin Nerf incomming! ETA Dunno!

Seems to me that's the AE Tanking style that is now may not be as quite intended by Blizzard or probably somewhat out of hand with some imminent changes for the future. But the issue and more is on Blizzards radar for Cataclysm in whatever form changes may come with a less AoE form of Tanking perhaps. Who knows! And I guess in a way this is somewhat related to the debate that's going around with Tank AoE and CC. As well the thinking that everything now is just AoE with all tanks. Tanking without much thought required, unintelligent mob trash packs that are just all AoE all the time it seems, especially in Heroics and some raids. Elite trash mobs just don't feel all that elite anymore, more like pushovers with everyone AoEing all the time.

What I really would like to see for Cataclysm with tanking is not everything being a AoE tanking grind like it is now, that's just boring at some point. Nor would I quite wish to see a great amount of CC return to the overall game, yet some measure of it for relevance in intelligent trash pack design to return for the sake of intelligent tanking among all the tanking classes and some form of intelligent dpsing as well as a result. Much of that is missing in WotLK. See Blessing of Kings as well for some intelligent thought here and older posts.

As far as Heroics and maybe some raids it don't even feel all that heroic anymore when all some tanks do is just run into a pack of mobs as a tank with no consequence whatsoever of anything or abilities a pack of mobs can do. Add some form of intelligent reaction required to how a tank reacts or intelligently pulls a pack of mobs for a challenge as well challenge the dps as well. It was good to give all tanks viable tools to AoE dps yet much of that has lead to just AoE Tanking with much lack of thought and with many dps who do much the same.

Its to be seen how things will turn out, but it seems its on Blizzards radar for the future and Cataclysm to focus on less AoE overall. Be interesting to see how that all turns out as well as it relates to Tanking. Who knows what Blizzard will deliver in the future....

Hoping Blizzard can deliver a fun expansion with Tanking with a bit more Intelligence and with more a lively challenge required for the often bored dps as well.

Icicle DPS Tanking Toy

Lucky Lucky me. I picked this up this morning just doing a H HoR run. Just the luck of all things I was able to win it with no real melee in group and have it to use as a dps/threat weapon toy. At least another weapon to add to my collection for gear swapping as a dps/threat weapon. Can easily maintain above 540 defense as well with it equipped so all good.

Not if my Shaman can only be so Lucky to pick up a pair of those let alone just one. Anyway I can have fun with it when I need to do dps tanking with SoComm (Seal of Command). A Shaman probably get heartburn seeing someone dps tank with it lol.

Been thinking of what to put on it and did a bit of research over at Maintankadin boards. And I probably end up putting Berserking on it. DPS tanking fun times with a Icicle toy for awesome dps. Someone else probably get heartburn thats been trying to pick that up in Heroics.

In Case You Missed This: Seals & Shield Cleaving

If your a Paladin in the Maintankadin community or one that frequently reads the forum over there and keep up to speed on the very latest things then your already most likely well aware of some recent change affecting Protection Paladins having to do with our Seals and Shields use. I'm just going to point you with a little bit of redirect link love to a few of our fellow Tankadins in the community that has already covered some aspect of these latest findings already and this is really worth reading.

Honorscode now moonlights a little bit from his well written Paladin blog and has a really good article piece over at Paladin Schmaladin: I'm No Expert, But This Is Important. Its really worth reading if you haven't been keeping up on latest in Tankadin news and on the tip changes affecting Tanking.

And then I turn you to Rhidach who also has two added piece over at his blog Righteous Defense with: Shoring up Expertise. This effect leads into his other piece Second Look at Seal of Command. All of those blog article pieces which have been well analyzed by Theck over at Maintankadin the math genius who's numbers always make my head ache in searing pain is so well tied together by Wrathy who writes a really awesome blog over at Avenging Wrathy with this piece: SoComm versus Vengeance/Corruption.

This is really good reading and worth reading if your a Tankadin or moonlight as one and not always keeping up like some of us that do on the latest news from the tip of the blade which often changes suddenly and very fast. All those blogs are really worth reading if you haven't been there before but follow the links and get the low down on the changes to Shield of Righteousness, Expertise and Seal of Command as well Shield of Seal of Righteous Cleaving. Its fun finding out just what that is and all about.

Follow the links and be informed. Enjoy!

Why Do You Pull So Fast?

A nice and simple question and a fairly lengthy new thread I saw and read on my Blue Tracker asked by Skeletorrior on the WoW Forums: Why do Tanks Pull So Fast? The reason It caught my attention again was more so because just a few days ago I had a chat discussion with a few guildies that brought up the question in guild chat. More so especially since Patch 3.3 with the new LFG system and with many of them now running allot of random heroics.

So quite a few guildies chatted about it and their experience with the cross realms LFG system and their grouping with random players often many high HP tanks and super fast runs. I'm still a Tank at heart and though I've been on break from it for quite a few months I still know how I like to tanks and think I can understand the reasoning why many tanks like to pull so fast. So I tried to chat with my guildies to help them understand some perspective of from a Tanks view.

Since Patch 3.3 in the random LFG System I've been in groups as dps where Tanks pull at amazing speed from start to finish. Some have been crazy pulls the entire instance. Often many those runs were with Tanks around 38K+ HP and more but all fun to me.

Some my answer to that is just based on my own personal experience and just how I like to do things from my experience over time as a Tank. But as a Tank I hate standing around twiddling my thumb in a Instance! Its also one the things I really hate at times about raiding, all the waiting around as well also and dead time. When I get to the instance and we ready, its time to get going, keep moving and get it over with. And the faster its over with the quicker I can get that done and move on to the next thing to do whatever that may be I need to do.

I also like the momentum and keeping the momentum of things moving fast if possible or at a steady pace. As well the better I now a instance the faster its going to go and as long as the healer has mana or fairly enough I'm going to keep moving. Plus with Divine Plea as a Paladin it favors being in constant melee combat to keep Divine Plea up for mana regeneration.

Faster runs to me are much more fun and well as chain pulling and keeping a fight going. That's just more fun than constant and stop and go and waiting around. Kinda remind me of highway traffic and stop and go traffic. I hate stop and go traffic as well. I like to drive fast and move fast. Quite a few times I've been in group where the healer and dps was asking to go faster or someone wanted the run to go faster because they had other things to go do and wanted the run to be over as fast as possible. I'm going to pull as fast as I think the healer can keep up and keep people alive without wiping. I don't like unnecessary repairs either from dying if i can help it from a stupid wipe if I can avoid it.

From beginning of Instance run to the end I'm constantly paying attention or evaluating how well the healer is keeping things going on heals. More so at the beginning of the run. And as long as they doing a good job of it on heals and keeping up it sets the pace for me the rest of the instance I'll keep pulling moving things along rapidly. The more Pro to me the healer seems or the more trust I have in the healer to be on the ball the faster I'm going to go and the more fun I'll try to make the pulls and run for everyone. At times I've tried to pull fast or make things interesting to give the healer a healing workout and so they don't get bored healing either. But for me it all depends more on the healer than the dps. And as long as the healer can keep up on healing I'm going to keep pulling and moving fast as long as I'm comfortable as well with the group performance and nothing tricky about any pull I'm doing like in learning a new Instance and getting a feel for things.

The faster the better, the more fun it is. Sometimes your just in the zone pulling and keep going unless the healer signal for a break or something to slow down a bit. But the quicker the instance is over with the quicker that I as a Tank can get back to doing whatever it is I was doing. I don't like to waste time twiddling my thumb! The last few months I been enjoying playing dps for a change of pace and I enjoy it and the relaxation of it all. And even dpsing I enjoy things when the Tank as well picks up the pace and keep things moving at a good steady pace and the faster the more fun to me it is or challenging it can be.

It might be the same for you or it may be different reasons. But why do you pull so fast?

WotLK Beta: UnCrittable in Beta?

With all the Beta testing of content. How hard is it to get to 540 Defense? The Uncrittable cap seem to be 540 Defense or 690 Defense Rating at least which gets you to the Uncrittable level at 80 by a lvl 83 Boss. As well the only big defense cap you seem to have to worry about for WotLK as well for a Paladin or Warrior Tank.

That didn't seem to be all that hard to get to in my opinion if you've given it some effort and done some fairly easy quests, the Dungeons themselves and the quests they give. As well Dungeon Quests does give some really nice item rewards. Also including a few pieces of BS crafted gear if needed, much of which I already had on already. That's pretty much all I did and just focusing on improving gear pieces really which are all blue in every slot except one or two AP trinkets just switching them around. Currently at 20.7 HP and 5734 mana in the screenshot.

I have all the gear enchanted yet not all the very best enchants as yet due to mats cost in Beta at astronomical levels and ability to obtain some mats. The hardest thing to obtain was getting the Epic Shield crafted which I wrote about previously which took a bit of effort getting some mats and some farming. Then transmuting over days to get the required mats from that. Not very hard it was all around but nothing like crunching numbers trying to get to 102.4% with gear for uncrittable and uncrushable in tBC.

Recent Patch Changes.
With the recent Patch Hammer of the Righteous (HotR) now does 4 x Character Sheet DPS which is still based off of having a high weapons dps. The spell still read as previous and has not being updated as yet in the tool tip. That DPS is modified by AP as well from buffs. Seal of Corruption/Vengeance has had some damage reduction change of some sort done to it again but most noticeable in the ticks which previously ticked for 10 now ticks for 5 on a target. I'm just really clueless with that change to say the least.

I've heard Sacred Shield may have being changed though the spell tool tip is unchanged but I haven't tested it to be able to tell. Devine Plea now has a 15 sec duration vs 10 sec and seem to affect Holy Paladins more but I do notice the change as Protect as well.

*If I have time will update this with the gear pieces I have on.

WotLK Beta - Tanking Issue with some Death Knights?

I'm not sure if this is a issue or if it will ever be. I'm not sure and I'm just going to record this as a event and keep and eye out to see if it happens again and under what circumstance. But I was running CoT - Stratholme and Utgarde Pinnalce with included a Death Knight in party and noticed I kept running low on mana.

Low enough that if I remember correctly I was popping Devine Plea and Arcane Torrent constantly for mana when off cooldown. I couldn't figure out why at the time. But I never stopped to drink though as i just rolled with it. At times I had to change seals to using SoW. On most my instance runs I've so far never had any real mana issues at all usually.

But in CoT - Stratholome I kept having it this one instance as well as I did notice it in Utgarde Pinnacle with another Death Knight in party. I kept running low on mana with BoS up. Now the only thing I can figure so far is some Death Knights using Death and Decay often as AE without regard to how the current Tank (Paladin) in the group Tanking mechanics work. Thus causing Threat over the Tank threat and reducing the mobs hitting the Tank (Paladin) who does need the reactive threat and for BoS to proc for mana.

Thus at times that may be the problem I have encountered, which may be due to how some Death Knights are playing their class at the moment. I'm currently unsure at the moment and may need some feedback on this since I've never really played a Death Knight. Mine is still sitting on ice. But at this point i'm not sure if this is a issue or can be one with some new Death Knights in groups with other Tanks in how they usually Tank.

Tanking: Crushing Blows in 3.0

Crushing blows to be changed when patch 3.0 hits for Raid Bosses at lvl 73 as confirmed per Blue. As well with all the Tanking gear change with drop in defense and being uncrushable a concern. Mobs at +4 will still be able to crush, but that be in WotLK if your already 70.

WotLK Beta: Shield Spec & Tanking Gear Re-Itemization.

Have tried to constantly long on since the new Beta Patch and have barely being able to stay logged on longer but a min or so before it crashed. Three mins if I'm that lucky to see changes among other things. I gave up after trying for quite a while. Good thing I'm working today anyway. But several changes are now live, some are quite big.

For Paladins, Hammer of Wrath is now a instant cast spell. Great news there.

Shield Specialization now DOES increase BV gained from increasing Strength stat (2 Strength = 1BV). So it's now useful again to increase BV from gear stat especially for WotLK.

Judgements are again currently bugged in Beta. Will have to wait another week for a fix I imagine as before.


Tanking Gear Re-Itemized:
All Epic tBC Tanking gear which includes T4 - T6, Vendor Badge Gear has been re-itemized. Items changed to either add Strength as a Tanking stat which affects Tanks and Tankadins gear. I'm unsure if the change also affects Heroic gear as well, but I can only assume it probably did as well if needed.

Spell Power & Intellect has been removed and some stats adjusted and Strength added as new stat. Spell Hits as well has been removed also given changes for WotLK. This change affects All tBC "Tanking Gear". Some crafted BS Epic gear with Intellect has remained unaffected for example "Belt of the Guardian". Items such as Trinkets, Rings, Neckpieces, Cloaks seem to remain unaffected by the itemization change. These changes DOES NOT affect Holy Paladin gear in tBC. I'm sure these changes will probably go live in Patch 3.0 as well.

Will try to screenshot some the gear changed tomorrow since currently not at home or on a PC.

WotLK Beta: Some Blue Tank & Defense Gear

Slowly have been changing out my gear to what i consider more WotLK oriented gear to keep getting a feel for things as it will eventually be. I'm not all attached to wearing the tBC Epics just because its purple.

Want to get a feel for gear in WotLK and its effects if i can in the spec i play. So did recently have a nice BS in Dalaran craft me the entire set of "Tempered Saronite" Plate crafted just being smart enough to get enough Saronite Ore to do so. Some of the set are level equipt gear and can't equipt as yet so in the bank for now. But these are some the gear i'm already wearing at lvl 75 that was crafted removing my epic pieces to get a better feel of things.

Armor
Tempered Saronite Belt.
Tempered Saronite Boots.
Tempered Saronite Breastplate.
Tempered Saronite Legplate.

Weapon
Saronite Defender.
Savage Cobalt Slicer.

Have various new trinkets as some green Stam/Str/Agi rings as well I picked up questing. But all the new gear Armor pieces I had enchanted with normal lvl 70 Enchants I have on my tank gear with mats I had in my bank stock. You not going to find anything much in Beta on AH either for mats and if it is its astronomical priced. The 1H Weapon I put a +20 Strength Enchant on it and does good DPS. The other 4 pieces of the 8 piece set are lvl 76-78 to equip.

Wearing the gear have more Armor, Stamina, Strength (by Far). Also lots of Defense Rating and increase BV which affects ShoR. Much higher AP by far as well which affects my weapons damage, HotR and spell scaling. Gear have lower Avoidance and Blockrating as a result of none of that raw stat on gear as compared to what you would see on lvl 70 Epic gear. I'm able to lvl in it fine best I can tell. Lower avoidance result in BoS also procing less also if you have less of it. But in Instances that I guess means you get hit and healed more too.

I need to get around to trying out the other new Instances when have some time as well in the this gear to test out. I do think it will be good as well upgrade. Was just trying to lvl up a bit really for the most part and to get the new Shield of Righteousness.

Blizzard want to people in Beta to have a feel for the new Instances and eventually have them tune for people in the expansion leveling in green/blues with enchants at most. Not tuned for people running around Northrend in Full T/4/5/6 Epics which you often see allot of who can run the dungeons often easily in such gear. That would just sku getting Instances tuned for people who will eventually be leveling up in green and blues as well as good testing.

Edited:

Tanking: Importance of Strength stat in WotLK

I'm not usually that active on the Maintankadin Forums. I usually read way way more than I usually ever comment usually and do comment when I feel like. Anyway in this thread related to someone new asking about Strength as a NEW stat for Tankadins in WotLK, I posted the response below.

So though I post it here as well for the benefit of those that don't know, don't understand, confused or just don't real allot. Made some corrections for clarity as well.

I think a lot of Tankadins need to start understanding things as well as a mind change from how things are (currently) to how things will eventually be in WotLK.

Stamina & Strength are becoming core stats for a Tankadin. Especially considering that all Plate wearing Tanks will be sharing the same gear as loot which thus include all the stats on that kind of gear. Think Tanking Warrior gear stats. It's will no longer be tBC as you know it for Tankadins when WotLK comes.

and Threat Stat for Our gear will be changing, thus as well the thinking and the talent stats to make that gear as effective to do our jobs as Tanks. Strength will be a new Mitigation and Threat stat for Tankadins with our new abilities and gear.

What Blizzard is doing IMO is giving us two stats to scale up our gear from lvl 70-80. But as you increasing level to 80, you gear will be more Stamina/ Strength and AP based vs what you used to in tBC.

Starting from 70 with so much Tankadins in hard earned Epics your spell power tanking gear will be more effective up to somewhere around lvl 75 or so depending on tier gear. Around that point Stamina/ Strength gear becomes more valuable to you because of how it affects your abilities. ( 2 Strength = 1 Block Value or BV, 1 Strength = 2 AP)

Increasing Stamina will increase your Spell Power which adds to all your spells. Increasing Strength will increase your BV for threat with the new Shield of Righteousness. Strength also converts into AP which is now good for us because it increase the power of all spell except to Holy Shield currently. So now Increasing Spell Power and AP both scale the power of our spells and abilities. That's a good thing.

Using a slow high DPS weapon is also now good, compared to a slow weapon on live the server. A slow high DPS weapon around 2.6 speed with high AP, and AP from stacking Strength increase how hard HotR hits on 3 NPC mobs dealing Holy Damage in the process. This same effect also affect Seals and Judgement among other spells.

Increasing Strength/AP makes effect of seals increase in value so they scale. More Strength/AP the more Holy damage and threat your damage seals do. The harder your Seals & Judgements hit for Holy Damage/Threat and the more mana or heals you get back as a result.

Using Seal of Wisdom or Light with high Strength/AP the more mana and heals you get on hits. Use HotR with the same seal active the more mana and heals it proc's for on three NPC mobs HotR hits. Also the more Holy Damage HotR does as well.

So as you increase you Stamina that spell power adds to your spells, increasing Strength/AP that adds to your spells as well. So you benefit from both stats increasingly.

As you start WotLK at 70 unfortunately you have very little Strength on gear as a Protection Paladin, but more Spell Power stats as well as weapon. So around lvl 75 or so seems a break point. But as you increase lvl your just shedding your tBC gear for your new gear stats of Stamina & Strength plus everything else bonus added to gear.

All just a mind set change compared to what most people are used to on live server. Start getting used to it!

Hammer of the Righteous (HotR) works off Weapons damage causing high threat Holy damage so you want a slower hard hitting high DPS weapon which does damage as Holy damage to targets up to (3). Shield of Righteousness (ShotR) does damage from 200% of BV causing very high threat to target. Having high Strength/ AP causes ALL your spells to scale in damage/threat or effect with the current exception of Holy Shield which currently only scale on Spell Power.

Starting Out - Why Do I Tank?

That's always a very good question! Why do people do what they do or rather why do you play the class you play. So its interesting to know why do I play the class role I play in the way that I play it. So Galo, why do you main as a Tank and why do you still play one?

You know there really is not a short or quick answer to that, their are many perspective to that. In my opinion and just my opinion only I just believe what or how a person plays their class says allot about their innate character, their inner self. I like being the great protector!

I guess if you cast WoW aside I've always love the idea of being the humble solitary Knight or a Warrior in heavy armor willing to go to the ends of the earth on a quest. Always like the seeing or reading about a character with a finely gloss hardened shield and a fine blade of sharp cold steel going toe to toe with a foe. Other time its charging into battle leading his army or comrades. I like being a Leader.

I guess I've watched too many movies growing up and wishing I lived in some far away land or mystic realm and being that brave lone Knight. Brave enough to face fear itself and still charge bravely into battle facing the unknown. Its hard at times to say exactly what it is that drive some men. I'm a Knight that just won't quit.

But I've always liked Epic movies of noble and valiant Knights going into epic battles or brave skilled Warriors on legendary tales of adventure. Too many Conan movies or Clash of the Titans movies and films like those I guess growing up.

Uhh What's a Tank?
When I first started playing WoW, I had never really heard of WoW. What the hell was WoW? A friend had told me a little about the game and knew I like games like Final Fantasy for and games like that. So when I decided to play WoW after glancing over the classes I was looking for a melee defensive player that wielded cold steel and shield. Playing high damage casting classes just did not appeal to me much.

My very first character was a NE Warrior I played on the 10 day trial right as BC was launching that I leveled to lvl 18. I enjoyed hearing the sound of raw flesh pounding and slamming into a shield and being toe to toe on a mob and seeing the white of its eyes while I sliced and diced it to pieces. Its was fun. I had no idea what a Tank was in WoW. I was learning the game as I went along on the 10 day trial and found it fun.

Choosing My Class/Spec
So after a while during BC launch the trial period was expired. Later I finally did sign up for a paying WoW account. After glancing over the classes again it was a choice between playing a Paladin or a Warrior. I liked the ideals of the Paladin class description more. It fit my idea of being a Knight or a Holy Knight or Crusader and a class I innately identified with that had high survivability and was a great melee fighter that carried a shield and sword. He wore heavy armor and could survive devastating enemy attacks.

But really in the end what make me choose, was something in the class description about the Paladins being the ultimate in survivability and highly defensively melee fighter. The real key word there for me was defensive melee fighter. The other reason I considered the class was that it had support abilities in a group if needed with ability to heal or self heal.

Those things appealed to me more than being a Warrior as in mindset I was also a solo player. I wanted a class that could level completely alone, was hard to kill, had good survivability with group abilities if I needed to. I choose my Paladin for everything defensive and protective about the class character. Having the ability to self heal as a Paladin was a plus. What greatly appealed to me was the ability to solo with high survivability and or support my group as a heavy defensive character.

So Galo you rolled a Tank then. What the hell is a Tank? Back then, I had no idea what a Tank was. It did not say a Tank that in the Blizzard class description of the class that I can remember. What I rolled was a defensive character. Only later in late lvl teens did I find out what a tank was.

I didn't care much for being an Alliance. Playing the Evil side sounded more fun. It sounded fun to be a Magic Energy addicted Blood Elf for a race addicted to Magic Energies. Since Horde Blood Elf's were Paladins that was just the obvious choice.

Protection Paladin Who?
I've only ever leveled my character entirely as a Protection Paladin. That was just obvious to me. After all I rolled the class to play melee defensive. I've never ever spec Holy nor Ret ever. I play my class specialize in role. And though many gave advice in the early days what was the fastest spec to level right when BC was starting I stayed and leveled entirely Protection. Back then it was just about unheard of to be a Protection Paladin at very start of Burning Crusade few days after the new expansion. Everyone I saw was either Holy or Ret.

I barely knew anyone on my server that was spec as a Protection Paladin, AKA Tank spec. But hell I had no idea what a tank was or what a Tank did. I just knew I like being in the mob face and having the mob beat itself to death on my shield while I whacked at it and laughed and grin the whole way. Like said I played WoW solo and wasn't till almost level 20 I knew what a Tank was or what one eventually did. And when I did I knew I was playing the right character to do so.

That Shinny Guy
The first Protection Paladin I ever saw was a lvl 70 who had already hit the lvl cap standing around in Org looking all shinny. So I looked at his armor and admired all the defensive stats on his armor and wondered how he got all that gear. I though to my self WoW this guy must be real tough to kill by mobs and such or in a dungeon. He probably raided and sure he did. But I had no notion of what a raid was.

What's a Instance
The first time I heard of RFC I was already lvl 20, what's RFC? The first time I heard of Shadowfang Keep I had no idea what it was or why I needed to go there. I was a noob I guess. I was just enjoying questing and playing solo. Yet another reason I had no idea what a Tank was either. I was just playing and learning the game as I went along. First time in Shadowfang Keep we had 2 tanks as well.

Hey, Get some Skill!
It wasn't until I met that first shinny Paladin with defensive stats on his armor did I ask him how to be a good Protection Paladin did he take the time to give me some advice for my spec and told me to get good fast 1H and good Shield. Learn to Instance, be good in groups and and learn to AoE in a few levels. Umm, "Hey Sir, whats A.O.E?" He gave a brief idea of control fighting lots of NPC's or mobs all at once. I was still confused what he meant. So he told me to "google" it. And I did.

You know the fact that I followed that advice and did a google search is the one reason your reading this blog. Because If I never did I probably wouldn't have found the very few WoW blogs their was back then. So only a handful of Paladin Blogs back then if that. So I searched everywhere on how to AoE tank. Reading blogs along the way found our more about my class and learned how to be better at my class. In time I started my own blog to capture My Life and Times.

I'M Not that Slow.
So I leveled what many called slow but it didn't seem that way to me. I took the time leveling and became damn good at AoEing everything. It was fun. Watching everything die was fun. I was enjoying my Spec, and my class. I enjoyed hearing mobs slam into my shield.

I enjoyed outlasting mobs in a fight running into camps. I found being hard to kill on physical mobs, all fun. I made a game out of killing mobs and seeing who would out last who with elites or many groups for fun. I did a few instances leveling but not many. But I practiced at it tanking on being a skilled in my spec and roll.

King of the Grind
Much did I grinded learning how to do my seal rotations or handling groups of mobs. I found that fun. I once slaughtered raptor grinding almost 2 levels in Un'Goro on raptors all in the name of just having fun. All that was my training. I wasn't worrying about speeding my way to lvl 70 to get to some unknown appointment.

I was just having fun playing my Protection Paladin and beating the heck out of anything that crossed my path. It was always fun killing stuff in masses while other people passes by to stop and watch thinking your in need of help. That was before AoEing was really popular. I enjoyed being like a porcupine fish, will kill you for messing with it due to its defensive mechanism.

Building that Resume of Experience
Along the way approaching lvl 70 it was time to re-gear for instancing and beyond and build up more group experience. So I ran PuG Instances until the ends of the earth for everything. I was good at it. I enjoy being the guy up front talking trash to the mob or the boss. I enjoyed the idea of protecting my comrades with my shield while they kill the mob. I enjoy being that line in the sand between the mob and my group.

Tanking for me is FUN. In more ways I enjoy it for being tactical in role playing tactics and strategy with the mob or bosses. I like figuring out which mob I'm going to take out first, how or why to make it easier on my group. I find that all fun vs just doing damage to it as a dps.

The Tactician
Tanking for me is All Tactical game play. I could care less about high yellow or while numbers because for me its not about seeing high numbers. Its about beating on the mob and making it hurt. Its about breaking the knee caps and putting a hurt on the mob. For me that's the fun. But overall I enjoy protecting my group or my comrades.

Its like being the great protector protecting my group of friends. Its why I can enjoy playing my class. Its why I can do it day in day out while trying to progress and not get bored of it. Its why I can sometime fail, get up, reanalyze things and try again another tactic. There is something about being all alone up front. All alone with the mob fighting with sharp cold steel and hardened shield in hand seeing just who will fall first.

Breaking Knees
The thrill for me is seeing the other guy, mob, NPC fall over first while your left standing with a smirk on your face knowing I went the distance and I broke your knee caps. Going toe to toe at arms distance and in the end your left standing as that line between the mob and your comrades. Playing defensive offense I guess is why I love to tank in no simple words. Maybe I should say its a big reason why I'm a Dedicated Tank.

I Got Me A Phat Epic Hammer!

This is my New Epic Toy. Ohhh no Galo has turned to Death Knight!

Recently acquired this Epic piece for some 2H fun. Was actually Inspired by Invisusira who's vids I like and is just a awesome tankadin. Her stuff is also linked at side bar and is a member at Maintankadin. Saw this Maintankadin Forum thread she had there on the board. So went out and acquired the HAMMER. Actually had not heard or seen this 2H before. It was added in the game back in 2.1 I think it was.

The only known crafter on my entire server is an Alliance NE Warrior with the Recipe to craft it. Thus as far as I'm aware I'm probably the only person with this Hammer and a Horde on my server also, because it was actually crafted by the Alliance NE.

Its one the best 2H spell damage weapon in the game Armory currently that's usable by a few classes for the spell damage primarily. But this is awesome in the hands of a Protection Paladin to use for the spell damage to power all spells when not using a shield and using a 2H. A high spell damage weapon with Seal of Righteousness does a lot of damage or with Judgement of Crusader. For Alliance that may be prefered with Seal of Vengeance.

Galo has Max Weapon Skills with every single 2H weapon a Paladin can use as well as every 1H weapon also. Fully skilled in all weapons including unarmed skilled. I love to use a good 2H for my spec. Its awesome to use in various encounters when or where a shield is not required. On equipt my defense only dropped to 488, just barely under uncrittable. So most loss was shield stats, Armor, Blockvalue and some defense. At least I have a solid 2H spell damage usable weapon in my arsenal to carry and use when needed. Hello Mob here I come.

How Did I Acquire it.
Had asked on Horde side and in the higher guilds but no one could craft it. So pulled up my Realm Forum on the WoW page. Looked in the Crafters Sticky page for all listed realm unique pattern crafters. No BS listed as crafter having recipe. Entered in search function on the same Realm Forum page "Hammer of Righteous Might". Got (1) hit. Was for a Alliance NE Warrior BS that just few days ago got the recipe and was listing it to be added to realm crafters list. BAM good deal!

Well don't have an alliance toon, so immediately created one a Human Paladin. Logged on Alliance side. Did a /who for the named crafter and BAM he was on but running raid in SSC. /W crafter asked if he had the recipe and could craft. Did a quick chat that I needed a Hammer crafter he said can craft it. Yeap sure can and he had the needed Nethers, but not the mats. Cool no problem. Next day logged on and the crafter was logged on. Chatted for a few mins that I needed the hammer crafted and if he could craft it. He didn't have mats and would have to acquire then. We had a deal and in 15 mins the time it took me to get to a Neutral Auction House and buy the item. I had my Epic HAMMER! I tested it out un-enchanted and SoR in my gear proc's for about 150+ yellow damage without JoC.

I guess its sometime good to just be sitting on a pile of cash with nothing much to buy but a New Toy. I'm sure the BS was happy. I can even use it on Shade of Aran doing dps since you can't tank him. Imagine 2 points in Reckoning. Hmm, lots of food for thought. Anyway a new Toy.

75 Badges of Justice and a Chest Piece!

Being M.I.A. doing Allot of PuGing action....... Heroics that is. Yeah that scare some people PuGing Heroics. But If you want the Badge gear you do what it takes with or without guildmates whether they logged in or logged out. However I'm used to PuGing anyway. So with 75 Badges of Justice picked up my first (correction) second badge reward item piece a few hours ago Chestguard of the Stoic Guardian which will replaces my Breastplate of the Righteous.

Was really hard to decide what to get, but in the end decided on the chest piece especially since its not going to be replaced anytime soon in heading into Kara this weekend unless WotLK shows up quicker than expected. Anyway pulled some gems out the bank and socked it and got it fully enchanted before trying it on. Looks Awesome and with nice HP boost allot more Armor and Avoidance with a taste of Dodge Rating. Also still fully UnCrittable/Uncrushable with Holy Shield in my Kara tank set. More badges ahead!

Edited:
Had spent allot of time researching and deciding what Badge piece to get, here are some Paladin (Tankadin) resources all linked on the sidebar. As always the Maintankadin Forum is a resource for Tankadins.

Tanking Gear Evolution - by Zen Tanking
MT Gear Progression - Maintankadin Forum (Tankadins)

Boosting Tank Threat With SpellDamage Trinket

I think I have 3 other spell damage trinket at this point other than the Darkmoon Card Vengeance Trinket which is always equipped. When getting up to the boss and you need an Extra boost of threat there is a few things you can do short of having a Destruction Potion (yet to find) available to use for kicks. So what's one of the things you can do. Well one of the things you can sometimes do in a 5 man Instance or Heroic is to switch trinkets and use the Scryer's Bloodgem Trinket from Scryers Revered if not there is one from HellFire Peninsular if you have that, name eludes me as WoW is down for maintenance. But I use the Scryer's Trinket. Pop Avenging Wrath (Wings) in between threat cycle right before you redo Holy Shield, Consecration and Judgement of SoR. Nice threat boost.

Always pop spell damage trinket before consecration and not during as it uses the spell damage you had before use when used in the ticks. Gives nice boost to threat with the spell damage trinket for 15 sec and cooldown last 1.5 min. Always use when cooldown is up. As to how to fit that into your threat cycle, everyone is different depending on their threat cycle but have Judgement of Crusader up when you use it for amplified holy damage. I always have the trinket with me, it may not always be equipped but always there to use if and when need.

Tanking Threat Cycle - Variable
Ready Seal of Crusader (*Depends if using SoR instead)
Avengers Shield
Holy Shield - Before boss
*Judge Crusader/SoR (Depends on first seal)
Consecration
Pop Spell Dmg Trinket
Pop Avenging Wrath (Wings) - 30% boost to damage.
Holy Shield
Judge SoR - When Ready
Consecration
etc repeat

If you open with SoR for snap aggro threat on Boss the of course on next cycle Judge Crusader. If Crusader first then Judge and use SoR. All depends on how trigger happy your group is and up to your style. When need to use Judge Wisdom do so later on if need in threat cycle. However if i'm using the Spell Damage Trinket I will try to pop it and use Avenging Wrath both before I renew Holy Shield/Judgement or SoR, Consecration on the next cycle for greater threat boost when each comes up for use. But that's the basic idea with a spell damage trinket while tanking IF using one. However everyone playstyle can be different.

Related Info: Spell Rotations & AoE Threat @ Wolfbloods Writings

Galo's Karazhan Tankadin Gear Wish List

Should call it a Goal list for Karazhan however compiled a Tankadin gear wish list of Karazhan Boss Loot that I hopefully wish to acquire when I'm raiding Kara. At least that way I don't have to wonder when a piece of gear drops whether I need it or not. So its for my reference to mostly and which loot drop from which boss of items I need. Plan to keep this list updated and check off each item on it as I get it for my set. I'm not planning on collecting any Healing gear pieces so its not being listed, but if it drops and I'm only one that can wear it and I get it that's fine but its won't be gear pieces I'll be worried over or trying to collect.

Tanking Gear:

KARAZHAN TRASH MOBS (Any)
Boots of Elusion *Best* - Obtained 02/16/08

ATTUNMEN THE HUNTSMAN
Vambraces of Courage - Obtained 02/09/08


MOROES
Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable - Obtained 03/28/08
Moroes' Lucky Pocket Watch

MAIDEN OF VIRTUE
Barbed Choker of Discipline
Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden - Obtained 02/15/08

THE CURATOR
Wrynn Dynasty Greaves
Gloves of the Fallen Champion - Token for Justicar Handguards

SHADE OF ARAN
Shermanar Great Ring

NETHERSPITE
Mantle of Abrahmis

CHESS EVENT
Battlescar Boots

NIGHTBANE
Shield of Impenetrable Darkness - First guild drop 02/23/08
Panzar'Thar Breastplate

Prince Malchezzar
Helm of the Fallen Champion - Token for Justicar Faceguard. First guild token drop 02/21/08

Optional Spell DMG Gear Items if can:

ATTUNMEN THE HUNTSMAN
Spectral Band of Innervation - Obtained 03/18/08

MOROES
Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran

CHESS EVENT
Ring of Recurrence

PRINCE MALCHEZAAR
Adornment of Stolen Souls
Ruby Drape of the Mysticant

Tanking: Having Confidence & Right Attitude

Tanking is a real visible task or job depending how you look at it, but many people who tank or new to tanking lack allot of Self Confidence in themselves. Some players who Tank are intimidated by the four other people in 5 man Instance who watch them do the dance of trying to dish out pain on a mob or a boss. For others they are intimidated by their peers in their raid group or fellow guildies. From whatever angle you may look at it some players that perform the role of a Tank in a group whether its a Druid, Warrior, Paladin (Tankadin) lack the confidence in themselves to do their job.

Sometimes it can be due to lack of Tanking Experience or new to the Instance. In others they may just not have the right Skill and Attitude. Then they are those players that just plain suck at Tanking period! Not everyone is cut out to effectively perform the role of a Tank. I kinda think their are two kinds of Tanks in my opinion. Their are those who play a tank for whatever reason and their are those that are dedicated to Tanking and work at it to become as good as they can be. As a result you can have different attitudes while tanking for a group. You can be nervous yes, but you should not feel intimidated to perform infront of your group or guildies on a instance run. If anything those people there with you should also be supporting your and rooting for you so their ass don't get hit behind you. My first lvl 70 instance was Shattered Halls. Was I nervous of course, but i was confident in self though in knowing what to do as best as I could. I did let group know hey its my first time here and a bit nervous! But after i got the swing of things all that went away. Rest was just reacting to what happened and I did fine on my first SH run. Yet in time with experience came greater confidence and a bolder attitude.

With experience in anything comes confidence in your ability whatever it may be. Good tanks know their gear, know their skill or what they can handle. Sometimes you test your self to see how much you can handle to now your limits with a group and a good healer to support. They know how they are going to take down the mob and what they going to do. The know how they are going to do their dance before they even get there. A lot of that is having confidence in your ability. You can't control the things you can't control, but you can control how you react in a given situation when something unexpected happens or a pull goes not as expected. You should never panic as a Tank, if you do others will just as well. Never Panic! You can't be thinking about what the other people in your group thinks or thinking your going to fail. Anyone wanting you to fail don't belong in the same group with you. You have to have confidence with a group behind you that you know just what your doing on selecting a target, which target you decide to kill first or CC if need to while knowing how your going to tank the boss in a 5 man instance. In a raid its more people and things are more coordinated for the purpose of a raid.

So you have to have the idea and confidence in you as a Tank that when your at the boss that I'm going to break both his knee caps, I'm going to smash um and I'm here to deliver to you Mr Big Boss a open can of Whoop Ass! That's the kind of attitude you need to have. Have confidence in self knowing the limits of your gear and skill that you can do what your there to do and not feel embarrassed if you make a mistake or be worried about what other people think of you while your doing your job. Just do your job and do it well, that's all you can do. Everyone at times makes mistakes and will make them again, that's human nature though you try to minimize it. I once almost pulled the entire middle of SL in room going to BlackHeart. Instead of a Exorcism on the multi handed lady mob I accidentally hit AV shield and it bounced. Its was indeed oh shit but I didn't panic but the group almost shit their pants. I held my ground and tanked um all. If I was going to die as long as my healer did not let me die I was going to die on my own feel and kill them all before they killed me. That's Confidence and Attitude.

Confidence is Attitude which comes from experience and having the right attitude is very important in doing your job as a Tank. I myself have a long way to go to still tank many things in the game, but I have confidence even though I'm sure I will make mistakes along the way. Tanking is a lonely Job! Its often just you and the boss up close often trash talking each other with most people at some distance away. You have to have confidence in your Healers that they are not asleep at the wheel and that the DPS will do their job while your doing your to the best of your ability. Your job is not to worry about what other people think of your while doing your job, deal with that later after the run. If your doing everything your can do at the best of your ability and skill that's all you can do and that's about all anyone else can ask. But walking into a instance and thinking to your self that you suck and saying to your group/guildies that you suck is the wrong attitude to be having. I wouldn't want to be in any group with a tank that think and says he sucks. That's acknowledging defeat before you even try while doubting your ability.

If you lack confidence that bad you may need to seriously consider playing something else besides a tank and doing tanking duties. Tanks are often leaders in groups and who wants to follow a tank that sucks or one with no confidence, as a matter of fact who wants to group with such a person anyway. Players want to have fun and they like a confident tank that acts and perform confidently. You don't need to be a arrogant tank or have a arrogant elitist attitude. You just need to have the right attitude that you know what your doing and confident in doing it and that you can handle the situation with a group. You also need to show it.

As a Tank you cant be afraid to fail. So many people seem to be afraid to fail or even try. People often hate PuG's and decide well its a 5 man PuG Instance run and I'm not going to try because the PuG may suck. Yeah maybe, but good players are in PuG's too. The People in your guild were often found in PuGs. You just never tell the ones in your guild that they suck when you know they may. So what. You cant be afraid to fail tanking in a PuG. If it goes bad it goes bad, maybe you learn something while at it. When you have confidence in your self as a Tank, running a PuG for a 5 man is no big deal. You have to think that your there to kick some ass in a instance and your gonna kick ass before it kicks yours. Its OK to be nervous but you can get over that easily after you smashed a few mobs and cracked some skulls and have them smell the ground. If the tank don't have confidence its hard for anyone else to have it.

Experience running instances over and over to develop skill in self and in group develops confidence over time. The attitude is something you have to have or develop over time while having the confidence in your self, your group and healer. Attitude is something you develop from within and no one can teach a Tank how to have that. But when tanking tank with confidence and a big bold attitude that's your there to put a royal smackdown on the boss and your not going to be intimidated. Don't worry about what your group think while your doing your dance of pain in front of the mob or boss. You may fail, but kick some ass before you get your ass kicked if you do.

Tankadin Gear Gems and Enchanting Guide

I was crusing around as usual on the blog beat and Honor's Code had a blog post up on a Gem and Enchanting Guide for Tankadins. His guide was also attributed to a new extended guide post over on the Maintankadin Forums which I usually spend a bit of time reading. Really makes a huge difference if you know how to gem and enchant a Tankadin gear properly. Can save you a bunch from mistakes and from using poor cheap gems to socket good tier gear as well as enchanting. Don't play cheap with good tanking gear or tanking weapons. Do it right or be a dead tank!

Tankadin Gear Improvements: A Short Guide

Posting it here obviously to everyone else that it relates to to be able to find and read both guides over at Honor's Code and at Maintankadin Forum. So thanks to Honor's Code for finding it before I did. If anything you should really read his blog too which is linked above. He does have a excellent blog for a Tanking Paladin. Both are excellent reference guides if your not already sure which enchants to use for tanking gear and from where as well as how to gem your gear for needed stats. I know I can't remember everything so from time to time I myself have to re-read stuff to be sure including the stuff I forget sometimes. Will also post it in my guide section for Paladins of course. You may want to bookmark both the thread links that way I don't have to answer everyone questions LoL. Saves me allot of time.

Tanking Tactics: Target Targeting

Target Targeting is a UI function I found that's a absolute joy to have Tanking. My UI is mostly Ace based, its not perfect nor do I need it that way. It works for what I need it to do and set up the way it is because I tank. I use ag_Unitframes a Ace base addon for my UI structure and in that you can set it up to set Target Targeting or anything else you like such as being able to see mob spell casting on botton of pic. Very helpfull if your looking at casters to know that to either Hammer of Justice or release Arcane Torrent (Blood Elfs) to silence mob before the spell is casted.

So from the pic it should be more than obvious to you if your a tank to see the benefit of Target Targeting or as simple as one can say knowing just who that mob/boss is looking at or paying attention to. Aggro in short. Boss Warchief Kargath there in one of many game snapshots have me firm in his sight. If he changed target due to aggro or it keeps flipping back and forth from anyone else I know it immediately someone is riding me on aggro or I can look up at my threat meter (Omen). If he or any other boss takes off after group I know who it will be as their pic will replace mine (next to mob) as I'm still focus on him so I know who his target is. I can hit my Taunt macro immediately and he's right back to me in firm control. I can also at my eye level without wandering around see all his debuffs if it matters and see my judgement is still there. On mobs that remove judgements I can know I need to put my judgement back up there. I can easily see his life drops in relation to mine without looking all over the place right in one view.

However you look at it, as a tank Target Targeting is pretty darn valuable in knowing all the time who my mob is focus on, if I have first aggro or if someone else pet does and I need to taunt mob to me. If its a group fight with many mobs and clothy is in mob target and taunt is on cooldown. Then I resort to my next trick...Blessing of Protection macro Taunt without ever changing target as its done through Target Targeting on clothy, gets mob off bubbled clothy caster usually back to me. Target Targeting is nifty to have if your the tank, for dps too but more usefull to a tank IMO.

Heroics - Libram of Repentance

Well its finally now mine. Standard Paladin tanking Libram for Kara and beyond. With Holy Shield up I can attain uncrushable status without it gear wise. Now I'm easily uncrushable with it and Holy Shield up wearing my normal good tanking gear pre-Kara. Earned my last 5 badges completing daily dungeon for Heroic Steamvault. The Libram cost 15 Badges of Justice at G'eras in Shattrath city. I've now completed all my 5 man pre-Kara gear goals.

So how was Heroic Steamvault? Well be in my next post.