Growing up Tank

It's Friday and Svenn is tired. Rather than dig deeper into patch 3.3 today, he has decided to share the below quote from a post by Rohan over at Blessing of Kings, talking about the updated LFG tool. A pretty good observation... if it holds true. As always, you can check out the whole article by clicking the link above.

"You know, in a few months there are going to be some sick skilled tanks available. Imagine levelling to max purely by running dungeons with PuGs. Those tanks who come out of that are going to be really good."

Lets hope so!

Icecrown, more like Icecrash

As the title alludes to, Svenn had no luck trying to get into the new instance last night- and as such, there will be no review:( He did however knock out the daily random heroic and the weekly raid quest, netting himself 7 Frost Emblems with about 45 minutes of work. I'd imagine the weekly raid quests will not always be as easy as killing Flame Leviathan.

Anyways, first impressions of the patch:

Negatives:
The auto-DE function, which seemed like such a good idea, may in fact turn out to be just another opportunity for drama.

Changing the daily heroic system to a random dungeon is annoying. Svenn isn't in it for the badges so under the old system he could pick and choose which days he would do the daily based on whether or not he enjoyed the instance. Additionally, with 5 lvl 80's, Svenn could pick an Alt to go if there was a particular piece of loot that might drop (yes Svenn still needs a few epics from 5mans- it is hard to gear up 5 toons!) There may be a way to switch out toons once the random dungeon has been assigned, so it may not be that bad- though you would still be committing to a run you didn't necessarily want to go on.

Patch day lag.

Positives:
The revamp to the map and linkage of the quest log to it seems nice. Svenn did experience some trouble while questing on the druid (lvl 72 now:)) with the mini-map displaying the wrong sub-zone names, but nothing too major.

The new LFG tool updates are nice, however, Svenn doesn't really PUG so they are not all that useful to him personally.

Vampiric Touch now a 30 minute buff to shadow priests, rather than a 1.5sec Global Cooldown to be eaten every time there was a new mob (good news for Ottar!).

Increased opportunity for casual players. From heroics to raids, opportunities abound now for those not in Raid/ Full game guilds.

Sparkly new gear!

Svenn didn't get a chance to fully explore all the changes that came with 3.3, so expect a more coherent rundown sometime in the future.

iTank

Svenn is running out of excuses to miss days posting. With the addition of some new technology to his arsenal (he got an iPhone) he can now blog from anywhere! Unfortunatley it doesnt come pre-loaded with good ideas of what to write about. Anyways this post is a test of this new system...Initial impressions:

Svenn has fat fingers for being such a skinny guy.

Touch pad typing does not help Svenn's word per minute count.

Bloging during a briefing is NOT reccomended!

In other news: Today is Patch Day - see you in Icecrown!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Argent Aspirations

No, Svenn has not reversed his stance on dailies and started up the tournament nonsense in Northrend. Rather, today's guest spot comes from fellow guildie Shakha. Inspired by his rep grind with the Argent Crusade/ Dawn, and possibly Shaara's fantastic works of fan fiction, he wrote up a little something; a teaser to some future tales perhaps?
Shakha bowed at the waist, hands outstretched and upraised in the traditional manner of his people. “You sent for me, Lord Eadric?”

The Grand Champion of the Argent Crusade nodded. “I did indeed Shakha. Your progress in the tournament here has not gone unnoticed. You've Championed the cause of the Alliance well, and won high favor with every Kingdom. You are even spoken of in the inner circles of the Argent Crusade. High Lord Fordring himself has said that we have few Champions of your mettle.”

“I am unworthy of such praise, milord,” Shakha replied, “though I am grateful for it.”

“It is because of this that I summoned you,” Eadric continued. “There is yet one thing to be done before you claim your place among the Argent Champions.”

Shakha rose and looked up at Eadric the Pure. “Name it my liege, I am ready to do whatever I can to bring light to the dark corners of this world.”

Eadric raised his sword in gesture, as was his habit when giving orders. “We need you to return to the Eastern Kingdoms, to what is now called the Plaguelands. Arthas has not forgotten his victories there, and has not given up hope of prevailing. Even though Naxxramas has come to Northrend, so too has most of our strength been sent here. A new threat has arisen in the dark places of Stratholme and Scholomance. You must go there and purge them of evil. Show the denizens of those dark corners that they dare not come out from hiding. You have grown in power since your last foray into those places, and I am confident in sending you alone.”

Shakha bowed once more. “I will do my best not to disappoint you milord.”

Eadric nodded “I'm counting on that. Report at once to Light's Hope Chapel, where you'll be given instructions on what must be done.” Eadric turned to the table beside him and lifted a magnificent two-handed sword, presenting it to Shakha. “Take with you this Claymore, it was born with honor by the great prophet Velen. May you bring it equal glory. Light be with you, mighty warrior.”

Adding on Add Ons

It has been awhile since Svenn has talked about tanking. The last topic he dug into was that of running Healbot as a tank. This prompted some good discussions in the guild as well as quite a few Google queries. So, to expand upon that topic, Svenn will share some other must have and some nice to have Add-ons for tanking.

Deadly Boss Mods (DBM): This add-on is indispensable for all raiders, and tanks are no exception. It tracks the cool-downs on boss abilities, shouts raid warnings as things happen, and in general makes life so much more manageable when raiding. MUST HAVE

Omen: This add-on tracks aggro levels, which is good for DPS so they don’t pull the boss by accident, but it is also useful for tanks. As a tank your name should always be on the top of the aggro list, but there are other factors to be concerned with as well. Omen also tracks Threat per Second (TpS) which will give you a better understanding on how fast you build aggro, and as such how long you need to wait before telling the DPS they can open up (not long if you’re a Pally :). Additionally, it will let you know which DPS or healers you need to keep an eye on. The person throwing the most damage is not necessarily the one you need to worry about. There are various threat reduction talents, as well as enchants (Wisdom for example) and Meta-Gems that can further reduce threat. A DPSer with none of these is likely to be a bigger threat for pulling aggro than the 10k DPSer with all of them. MUST HAVE

Recount: This add-on tracks more than just DPS. It is invaluable for analyzing raid performance as a whole, but has some specific applications for tanks as well. For example; should you die, you can pull up the number of deaths options- click on your name and get a log recounting the final few seconds of your life to include damage in and healing received. This enables you to better determine what went wrong and devise strategies for overcoming it in the future. There are so many other options built into recount, Svenn recommends you download it and scroll through all the selection screens, making sure to click on your name, as this will in most cases bring up a window with more detailed breakdowns. MUST HAVE/NICE TO HAVE

Tank Totals: This add-on consolidates your tanking stats into a useful easy to read format. Svenn originally downloaded it in order to calculate total avoidance, but it does much more than that. It calculates effective health (based on actual health pool + damage mitigation from armor, etc. Svenn was surprised to learn that 40k health translate into him being able to eat a 60k hit unblocked or 70+k hit blocked). It can also be configured to shout raid warnings when an ability like Argent Defender is procced, or a special “tank” ability like Shield Wall or Last Stand is activated (HoS, Lay on Hands, Divine Sacrifice, etc. for us Pally types). NICE TO HAVE

Auctioneer: This add-on tracks prices at the AH along with a whole host of other options. While it has nothing to do directly with tanking, it does help when buying consumables for the next raid :) NICE TO HAVE

It is important to note: there are some risks associated with running add-ons. Never download add-ons from an unknown source. Svenn gets all his add-ons through Curse.com. He has never had a problem to date, and they have their own client which can also be downloaded to help manage your add-ons and inform you when there has been an update released for one of your current add-ons. Have some add-ons that you run that didn’t make the list? –Leave a comment.

Spotlight Skyjen

Jen!!!

Name: Skyjen

Number of Alts: 6

Favorite Toon: Skyjen

Hometown/ Where are you now: East Riding of Yorkshire England

Favoritie Food: Anything spicy

Pets: None now had horses and rabbits and dogs and farm animals - parents have a farm!!

1 Well known Fact about you: I'm small!! I love Star Trek

1 Little Known fact about you: I used to race horses

Your greatest WoW moment: Too many but mostly they involve a bad day at work and cheered up by all the great guildies on here when I get home!
Your greatest moment outside of WoW: Birth of my son and finding out about the impending arrival of our second son.

Anything else you would like to share (IRL or Game related):
Game wise I dont say much on the website because Jon usually incorporates what I think in his posts and invariably we think along the same lines so no point putting the same thing up twice!!
If given the choice when running an instance I would choose to heal and if there arent many people answering the call for a run I will badger u into agreeing via whisper!!
I was unsure about joining WoW as Jon and I played Joint Operations a shooting game before so wasnt sure I'd like WoW on top of which I was unsure about the monthly outgoing. Now its me who's hooked!!

In RL: Work gets very stressful for me so my family is very important to me as they help me to unwind. WoW helps too BB and Macho are a tonic for sure!

I would do anything for my family and my friends, if I can help I will and if I cant i feel terrible when I have to say no!
I'm the most relaxed when we visit the Lake District and climb the mountains.

Top 5: Heroics

Rather than finishing his class work or writing any real content for the blog, as Svenn is incredibly lazy, its time for yet another Top 5 list; Heroics.

1. Utgarde Keep (UK): Maybe its nostalgia, UK was the first Heroic Svenn ever tanked, maybe its the ease and relative quickness of the place, but Svenn has always had a soft spot for UK. The design and artwork of the place isn't incredible, though the forge area at the beginning is worth pausing for a look at with its flame walls, anvils, and whatnot. It is a great proving grounds for new specs, crazy ideas like lock tanking, and of course casting path of frost when running out at the end and listening to the surprise in the voices of your group mates as they die on contact.... not that Haager would ever do such a thing.

2. The Culling of Stratholme (CoT4): Svenn has always found the Caverns of Time instances among the best in the game. From both a lore standpoint and an immersion standpoint CoT is probably tops, the mission within a mission design of CoT4 is enjoyable too.

3. Trial of the Champion (ToC): This instance is tailor made for Pally Tanks, hence Svenn’s love for it; the lack of trash is good too. The fact that it rains epics doesn't hurt either.

4. Halls of Lightning (HoL): Some of the encounters are a bit annoying, but the inside is spectacular. Svenn highly suggests you take a minute and pan the camera around to take in the full scope of the cavernous layout.

5. OK, so maybe it’s a top 4 list. Places that don’t make the list are The Occulus and anything with spiders. UP, VH, and Nexus are all Meh. Halls of Stone would have made the list based on the whole Brann storyline, except that place is kinda annoying and Svenn doesn’t enjoy it all that much (the inside artwork is pretty amazing there too).

Want to make a case for your favorite instances, leave a comment.