OS+1

Normally when I'm in Obsidium Sanctum, I'm the OT, the 'add picker upper' - given that I'm unholy and usually less well geared than the other tanks in the instance.

This time, I was given the daunting task of tanking Sartherion. Not sure if the RL did that because of my magic shield eating a few of his flame breaths, or because he wanted the better geared and more knowledgeable of the tanks on the drake and adds, or what, but there it was.

I wiped the first time on a flame tsunami. See, I didn't know that you had to dance between the two safe spots, and I thought there was just the one spot that was safe from all the flames. I am sometimes... not often, but sometimes... dumb.

So the first time, I went to what I was told was the 'safe spot', not realizing there was a second, and sure enough, the first flame tsunami was right on my back.

The next time, I went ahead and stood in the safe spot that doesn't require me to move from the flame tsunami that arrives from my back, so I just had to dance in and out of one tsunami.

I did die on our successful attempt, as neither I, nor my healer, were prepared for (or knew about!) the mini-enrage Sarth gets when you down one of the drakes. So BAM. Dead tank. Thankfully, the other tank was up to the task of picking up Sarth and the DPS were up to the task.

In the future, gonna try to save a bone shield cooldown for that time and be ready with trinket/other cooldowns. As it was, I went from reasonably alive, to dead, before I realized what happened.

So I can finally say that I've tanked Sarth. Go me!

After that, I went and pitifully DPS'd in Heroic OK. I need badges as Keiji for the Tier Chest. On the herald? Yeah. I slapped on my tank set and actually didn't do too badly in terms of killing my friends.

Unholy Tank Changes

There have been some changes made to two of the key components of Unholy Tank mechanics.

Namely they increased the cooldown on Bone Shield to 2 minutes, up from 1 minute and they changed Blade Barrier from a 10% increased parry chance to 5% reduced damage.

(They also did schtuff to Anti-Magic Shell, but considering that is a very situational issue and not a 'can you tank, at all' change, I haven't looked too deeply at it.)

Unholy Tanks relied on keeping Blade Barrier up to prolong the use of their Bone Shield. Bone Shield reduces damage taken by 20% (consuming one 'charge' per damaging attack, 4 unglyphed, 6 with glyph). We don't have access to a few of the seemingly 'tank specific' abilities that Frost DK's (probably the most common 'Tank' spec for DK's) have access too, Unbreakable Armor and Frigid Dreadplate. In order to get to Frigid Dreadplate (possible to do), we'd have to give up quite a bit of points in Unholy. And frankly, while 3% miss rate is nice to have, is it worth giving up some of the things that we take as Unholy because we want to be Unholy? I don't think so, personally.

In the past, we'd be popping Bone Shield like candy. In the past, keeping Blade Barrier up to increase our parry chance by 10% meant that Bone Shield stayed active until the cooldown was available.

Now, some DK's have the gear where they didn't need Blade Barrier active and could theoretically keep Bone Shield active and going without that additional 10% parry. For those of us Unholy tanks that don't have access to that gear... making sure Blade Barrier stayed active was an important element of our rotation.

Yesterday I took Keiji to Heroic UP. I was expecting it to be a bit tougher than it actually was. The damage reduction of the new Blade Barrier is a nice thing, (still miss the parry though!), that's 5% all the time, subject only to the cooldown of your blood runes. Bone Shield was being hit everytime it came up, as one would expect, but all in all... it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting.

So though people out there (I'm looking at YOU, Pos) keep saying that Unholy DK's are DPS, I'm thinking that I am going to keep Keiji Unholy, and Tanky.

BTW: The Red Sword of Courage dropped. If I can find another nice one-hander that will keep me uncrittable, I may switch around a few points and take the dual-wield talent in Frost (Nerves of Cold Steel) and play with that a little bit.

Normally, all these abilities would have links to WoW Head on them, but alas, a while back I was playing with my template and managed to delete the thing that let me put in WoW Head links. And I had to get that information from Pos, so I don't know how to do it myself. I shall have to pester him tonight.

Twiddle-de-dee

As many of you know, I have an unholy tank. I've been fiddling with rotations and methods to try to get blade barrier to stay up, my bone shield to stay intact and be the best tank I can be.

One of the problems I'd encounter is that by the time my initial posted rotation went through, it would be several seconds into the fight with the boss whacking on me before I could get blade barrier going. So I've twiddled a little bit and managed to get blade barrier activated a little earlier than I had before.

New rotation...

Bone Shield (I try to activate this well before the pull, so the cooldown is hopefully close to being done by the time I'm pulling. So if it does fall off mid-fight, I can reapply instantly.)
Death and Decay(1B1F1U) where I plan on standing.
Icy Touch(1F) as the boss is incoming.
Blood Strike(1B) (Blade Barrier, yay!) when the boss (or main elite mob) arrives.
Plague Strike(1U).
Pestilence(1B).
Blood Tap.
Blood Boil(1B).
Somewhere in there, if I have enough runic power (and I will usually), Unholy Blight.
Then Scourge Strike/Blood Strike, etc.

If just a single mob...
Bone Shield.
Death and Decay where I plan on standing.
Icy Touch. Blood Strike. Plague Strike. Then Scourge Strike whenever I can, Blood Strike to keep Blade Barrier up (and keep them Death Runes coming). Reapply Icy Touch and Plague Strike if they fall off the boss. Somewhere in there, Unholy Blight.

Anyone else have a different rotation?

Unholy DK Tweaks

I was having real issues sticking to my own posted rotation!

If I cast DnD, I'd wind up short a rune to do Pestilence & Blood Boil. And with ret pallies and mages and whirlwinding warriors, sinking aggro on all them mobs early is crucial to avoid mass hysteria (on my part, I hate having to try to figure out which mob is not attacking me so I can taunt it back to myself, and on the healer's part as they try to keep me and some squishy person alive). Unholy Blight does help a bit with that, but not enough.

Then I realized... duh. I have Blood Tap (and a new minor glyph to consider). Since that epiphany, I've been able to DnD, Icy Touch, Plague Touch, Pestilence, Blood Tap, Blood Boil, Unholy Blight and go! (And need to consider Empower Rune Weapon and see where I can/may need to fit that in.)

Keeping Bone Shield up is harder than it seems. I need moar parry and dodge. Some fights it seems to stay up forever, and other fights within two seconds it's done for.

Keeping mobs in front of me is sometimes an issue, especially if I have to maneuver around to grab something else. Can't parry attacks coming from behind, so that just mows through Bone Shield.

And sometimes you just laugh and laugh when some boss does a magic attack that your Anti-Magic Shell noshes upon.

Thus far my tanking experiences have included: UP (getting away from Skadi is a p.i.t.a.), Heroic CoS, Heroic UK, GD, VoA-10, OS-10, HoL and Heroic VH.

Only once did I have someone say, "Unholy tank? Does that actually work?" To which I said, "Yes."

Unholy Tanking: The Basics according to K

Naturally, there are guides out there all over the place about how to tank with a DK, even with an Unholy DK.

Lots of guides on what particular aspect of the unholy tree you should or should not keep. Do you keep your ghoul? Do you get morbidity? What about AMZ? Or do you just stick with Magic Suppression?

You could do a search on the internet and find a zillion and ten different specs and people clamoring as to why their spec works the best.

Let's go over the basics though, shall we?

One of the key components of an unholy tank is Bone Shield. This ability is on a 1 minute cooldown and comes with a base of 4 bones. Glyphed and you have 6 bones.

While this shield is active, we take 20% less damage and do 2% more damage. The more damage stuff is why Unholy DPS keep it up, even though they hopefully aren't taking damage, but the 20% reduction is what we're after.

Frost is considered "the" tank spec for Death Knights because it contains a lot of really nice damage mitigation abilities. Of which I care nothing for, since I'm not Frost. Go somewhere else to read about why a lot of DK tanks are Frost.

We unholy DK's however, we love our Bone Shield. The more we parry, the longer Bone Shield sticks around. The ideal is you want to pop your shield so it's cooled down before you even go in to touch a boss.

With the idea that Bone Shield is our baby and we want to preserve as much of it as we can until the next cooldown, a high dodge and parry becomes not just 'well, duh' abilities for us, it becomes essential for us to try to keep our dodge and parry as high as possible so when we do get hit, we take 20% less damage.

Because of that, one of the 'basic' abilities is Blade Barrier. The hard part for us is keeping those runes on cooldown. The DPS version of our rotation is heavy on Scourge Strikes. The tank version of our rotation is initially heavy on Blood Strike. We want to have Blade Barrier go off as soon as possible, and we want to KEEP those runes on cooldown as best we can to keep the barrier up, especially if our shield goes bye bye.

One of the things that will swiftly make your shield go away is if a mob gets behind you. You can't parry attacks coming at your ass, if you recall.

With our lack of physical shields, it's also imperative to take Toughness in the first tier of Frost.

And then it seems a no-brainer to also take Anticipation in the first tier of Unholy.

Now, these three are the 'basic' abilities that most DK tanks are recommended to start with. Given that our only way of avoiding incoming damage is armor, dodge and parry... it seems sensible (thank you Blizzard) that all three talents are in the first tier of the trees.

Each particular brand of tank, Frost, Blood and Unholy, have their own particular ideas about how to mitigate damage and what they should spec in. I'm only talking about Unholy here. I have not played a Frost or Blood DeathKnight and I won't entertain the idea that I can tell one how to play anymore than I'd feel comfortable trying to tell a Destruction or Demonology warlock how to play.

In my opinion... whatever spec you pick, whatever talents you take, if you can live through most things with your average healer, then you're doing something right. Some things may just make that easier than others. As Unholy, you've already decided to not go the 'usual' tanking route of Frost, Blood, or Frost/Blood hybrid.

My current rotation is opening up with Death and Decay (1B1F1U), Icy Touch (1F), Plague Strike (1U) and then Pestilence (1B)... and then Blood Boil (1B) / Blood Strike (1B) as soon as a rune goes off cooldown. The nice thing about Pestilence + Blood Boil is that it helps sink the aggro of all the things you may be tanking onto you.

As soon as you have the runic power for it, hit Unholy Blight, the other keystone ability that Unholy Tanks chortle over. It costs 40 Runic Power, so it isn't something that we can often hit right away. However, just like the Pestilence/BloodBoil combo, this is another handy trick that we can use to AoE tank (and do lots of damage, nummy nummy damage).

Some arguable no-no's:

• Corpse Explosion: While it sounds really nice as another way of sinking aggro on multiple mobs, you'll probably not have the runic power to spare, keeping up Unholy Blight as you will be.
• Desecration: This one is very arguable, often DPS will open up before you've had a chance to really sink your initial AoE aggro in, and if you put points into Desecration, the mobs may not run off so quickly before you can get it back. DPS usually only put about 3 points into this ability, but if you take it for tanking, you may consider 5/5 to guarantee your first Plague Strike will kick this puppy into gear.
• Blood-Caked Blade: Reports of this is that it has a separate miss/hit/parry attack than your actual melee attack, so each swing has two chances for you to get parried. We've discussed the parry issue before.
• Outbreak: Another argued ability. Plague Strike still does a good deal of damage, especially if you have the Glyph for it, and we've already discussed Blood Boil. But is it really needed for tanking? (I have it, personally.)
• Master of Ghouls: A lot of Unholy Tanks will give up their pet. I'm of two minds on it just yet. Right now, he's gone. That may change if I feel that having my pet out for extra damage will be more beneficial than having to worry about keeping my pet alive. Having one available for Death Pact is a BIIIIG bonus in my head.

Some arguable yes please!

• Virulence: Surprisingly, Unholy DK's have a higher hit cap than you'd imagine. You say to yourself, well, unless you're dual wielding, it's 9%, right? ... sort of. We actually do quite a bit of magic damage and so our magic hit cap is actually 17%, right up there with the casters.
• Magic Supression: A shield that will eat a bunch of magic damage? Yes plz.
• Ebon Plaguebringer: Makes them suseptible to magic and does more damage for diseases, basically a party debuff. It makes your casters give you kisses.
• Improved Icy Touch: This is a Frost ability, but some Unholy tanks will take the option for it.
• Bladed Armor: Yum, attack power! Some people pass this over in favor of the following.
• Two-Handed Weapon Specialization: More dmg! More dmg! Some people pass this over in favor of the previous.
• Ravenous Dead: Anything that increases our strength can't be bad, even if we don't have a pet all the time!
• Shadow of Death: While we may or may not have a pet out, again increasing strength and stamina is good!
• I'll toss Master of Ghouls down here too, because I'm honestly not sure if it's a 'not worth it', or a 'worth it'. I'm leaning towards worth it and thinking I can drop a point in Outbreak to get it again.

Other basics: 540 is the defense you're looking for to be uncrittable to mobs three levels higher than you. 535 is the recommended 'minimum' for tanking heroics, though a lot of tanks go in there with less as they work on their gear.

Where to find defense gear is another problem! We don't have shields, which usually stack some defense and health onto them. Instead, we have to deal with drops or crafted gear. You can easily hit uncrittable (or very very close to it) and close to 19k health with the crafted Tempered Saronite gear plus crafted Daunting gear, the Stoneguard Band (crafted JC) and of course, Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle. A good easy cloak to get is the Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions from Honored-Wyrmrest. Toss on some enchants onto those pieces, practice your rotations and keeping blade barrier active and voila, insta-tank!

In terms of what stats to stack, obviously stamina is an important one, but please do NOT overlook Strength. 25% of our strength is added to our parry rating. Naturally, hit and expertise are important too, but becoming uncrittable and maintaining a high parry and dodge rating should be what you focus on first.

And Keiji makes 4...

With a valiant push, Keiji has hit level 80. With regret, I respecced to say bye bye to Hammermouth, Limbbreaker, Gutchewer, Eyedirt and all the ghouls who have come before.

And then I stepped into regular Halls of Lightning with my crafted defense gear and four companions, Vaalena the priest, Sorakos the unholy deathknight, Seraphelia the blood deathknight and Vialora the retribution paladin...

And I held aggro. And I did well. Yay for Unholy Tank! It's fun. :) I just need to time my rune cooldowns better, a few times I pulled and couldn't do plaguestrike because I didn't have any runes available. That's the one downside I see to being a DK tank... our pulling timetable has to be more measured than another's because of our reliance on runes for some of our abilities.

In other news, I was having a discussion about parry before and what it means.
I have always maintained that DPS stays behind the boss so the boss can't parry. If the boss parries, his swing timer is reset/shortened, causing increased damage to the tank.

The same holds true for us tanks. If we parry, our swing timer gets reset, resulting in increased output from us.

The debate was... if I parry, does the boss' swing-timer reset. I maintain that it does not, because that is not how parry works. The opposite (my) side of the argument is that when I parry, MY swing timer resets. Likewise, when the boss parries me, HIS swing timer resets.

'A successful parry nullifies the attack (for the attacker it is like a miss) and reduces the swing timer of the defender.'

'When you parry an attack, the remaining time on your current swing is reduced by 40% of your weapon speed, unless this would result in a reduction to less than 20% of your swing time remaining.'

This is why expertise is important not just for DPS to avoid those pesky dodges, but also for tanks.

'While tanks like to profit from this effect, melee damage dealers should attack from behind whenever possible, both to increase their own damage and to avoid causing unneeded damage to the tank through the enemy's parries.'

Tanks need 9%-12% expertise to reduce/not get parried by a raid boss. (I can't seem to find any hard source that gives one particular number, but most seem to agree that it's somewhere between 11-12%) Any of you DPS up there in front of the boss, getting parried and resetting his swing timer so that he hits me faster... not gonna be happy with you!

So, parry is a very nice push for us tanks who hold aggro in part through damage, as it resets my swing timer. And with a big slow two-hander, this is awesome. Yes please, make my swing timer faster on my big ass weapon! Thanks!

So... now Boon asked if I wanted to level my mage a little bit. YES PLEASE! :D

Riding the Pony Express...

The title made more sense in my head...

While I'm at work, I spend a portion of my time (or a good portion of my time, depending on the way they schedule appointments. Stupid work.) on the game.

I can't instance (having to go randomly AFK immediately tends to make groups go WTF?), so that leaves doing dailies, farming or leveling.

I've dailied myself out. Farming has never been my favorite chore (though the other day I did spend 2 hours farming! I wanted to tear my head off by the end of the last stack of Saronite..).

Now leveling on the other hand. I like the leveling game. I bet you couldn't tell that.

I've a few characters I can't level without Boon because I made a solemn promise I wouldn't (and that explains why my poor little mage is still sitting in Zangarmarsh!) but there are a few that aren't linked to any of his. And those... well, I TRY to pace myself because they have to last until the next expansion... I try, really I do!

Keiji, my death knight, has hit level 77. She is currently unholy and I have intentions on seeing if I can be an unholy tank.

Until the point in time when I decide to go instancing though, I've been leveling relatively slowly. I think she was 70? last week sometime. The way I've been doing this is I'm making sure to finish all the quests in the zone before I leave it. It's not optimal for leveling efficiency, but this way I'm forced to spend a little more time running around in a zone. So far, I've finished Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Dragonblight and the Grizzly Hills. My next step is into Zul'Drak. I'd like to get some instancing done, but I think I'll go in as DPS, considering it was just this last week I decided to be a tank with Keiji, thus I have limited tanking gear (and am not specced quite appropriately just yet).

I have a lot of work to do on her (yay!) in terms of figuring out gear, rotation, and all that fun fun stuff. :)

The bear dinged 72 whilst tanking Utgarde Keep today. I wasn't intending on leveling her, as she's paired with Isabeaux the Mage, but hey, the guild needed a tank for a run. What is a bear to do? Besides that thing we do in the woods.

Unholy Deathknight: I can haz tank? I can be tank!

Keiji is unholy. Those that know me, should know how much giggling I've been doing since the expansion.

Tonight we went into four instances, the two Hellfire and the two Cenarion instances for low level 60's.

In the first two instances, we had a decent tank. I have discovered however, that being all I can be... equals aggro. Now, I love aggro. Healers hate it when it isn't focused on the tank. So my tank gave me 5. That is, 5 heals before he stopped healing me. :( No love, I tell ya...

So I had to turn down the pure evilness a little bit. Just a smidge. Sad Deathknight. :(

In our next set, we got another DK tank ... who ... really ... uh.

Held aggro... okay. Pulled oddly. And without the healer sometimes. And had broken armor. And didn't know the boss fights though s/he said, "I have three 70's, I know the fights."... yet stayed right next to Hungarfen when he spawned his mushrooms and when he covered himself in vines.
(I so had to bite my tongue and not say how many 70's I had... it was a heroic effort, really. You all should be proud.)
...
Yet pulled the hydra boss lengthwise down the side ramp where everyone was. Finally I taunted the damn thing to get it's head into a wall and it's ass away from the group of melee DPS that we all were.
...
Yet managed to aggro both the Bog Lord and the hunter-boss at the same time. We burned down the hunter, then I picked up Claw and Boon's DK picked up the Bog Lord.
...
And didn't know where to go to the last boss.
...
And lost aggro to Boon's DK on the Stalker, and then reset the boss on accident. When we asked why s/he reset it, when it was ALMOST dead, the response was, 'how, you can't reset'.
...
So we dropped her from the group, and I donned whatever stamina gear I had on me and proceeded to tank Slave Pens.

And O.M.G. *gigglefest*

So, you prepare the ground first with Death and Decay. Then you Death Grip the first mob to you.

While the other mobs are coming towards you, you prep this first mob with your two disease-generating attacks, Plague Strike and Icy Touch.

If you have enough rune energy for Unholy Blight, pop it.

When all the mobs are clumped around you, hit Pestilence (which spreads your disease to all of them from the first mob), then if you have enough rune energy, Blood Boil.

As always, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike or especially if you're tanking, Death Strike.

When the first one goes down, Corpse Explode if you have it. Blood Boil as often as you can.

Keep your diseases up. Keep Death and Decay up. Desecrated Ground should have proc'd by now.

Blood Boil. Corpse Explode.

They stay glued to you. We had a moonkin AoEing and not budging them.

Don't forget - Frost Presence. We don't have the group buff version of it, but it'll jump not only your health points, but increase your threat generated.

Also don't forget Bone Shield when it's available. And Icebound Fortitude.

And have fun. Because ... *giggle*

Hurricane + Barkskin = Druid AoE Tanking

So, my fangirl squeal the other day was due to BBB answering a question I had on the proper use of Hurricane for a druid tank.

I've read somewhere, probably on a BBB post or article somewhere, about the use of hurricane. The very few times I've run with another druid tank, I've seen them use hurricane. In very specific situations, true, but it was used.

Healers need to be prepared when a bear does this, because instead of lots and lots of health and lots and lots of armor, I have baby health and pitiful armor. Still uncrittable, but still taking more damage than they are used to! Granted, 20% less than otherwise due to barksin, but still more.

However, the benefits of Hurricane outweigh the negative of additional healer stress! At least in my opinion and the opinion of other bear tanks who use this method for threat generation.

Now, my take on Hurricane with nonelites is to use it until Barkskin runs out then shift to bear form (with the caveat that I have a hand hovering over the bear button in case the healers start to fall behind for some reason). This way I get the most out of my spell and barkskin. Bears don't have threat mitigation (especially not for their spells!), so this is a really nice way to get a lot of threat on a lot of mobs all at once and unless we have Uber-Lock or Insane-Mage in the group, even once the DPS open up, they tend to STAY on the tank. It may not do a ton of damage, but it gets the threat and that's what is important.

When a bear tank is AoE tanking without the use of hurricane (like say in a 3 or 4 elite situation...)... it's a lesson in swiftly targetting things, knowing what to hit to build the highest threat, and how to keep everything on you instead of the healer, and how to keep the current 'kill target' on you when all your DPS are throwing the kitchen sink at it. And often, with the eager beavers that all DPS are (MUST OUT DPS EVERYTHING!), you'll lose the main target when it's barely halfway dead. And the choice becomes - can the DPS kill it before it kills them and I don't have to go pick it back up, or do I need to go save their asses?

Me being me, I'll often let it go and start sinking threat on the second mob. Hey... if you want the aggro, you better be able to take the hit or kill it before it hits you. It's the strategy I use when I'm warlocking! If I don't want the aggro, I watch Omen. If it isn't important, I just have fun. And take my lumps if I die.

AoE Bear tanking is fun, exhilirating and a massive headache!

Now to quote my email!

"Remember, the key reason a bear tank uses Barkskin/Hurricane is to generate threat on many multiple mobs to enable other classes to DPS/AOE without pulling aggro to them, especially healers. As such, you will be taking hits from all affected mobs, so it pays to use it only on non-elite groups.

As an aside, I have used it on 4-pull elites myself to generate initial threat, and was kept alive by a very good healer, but I was the only person doing AOE, and as soon as I shifted to bear one add was trapped, so it can be done, but BOY do you have to watch your health.

Having all your Druids do it just after you, especially Moonkins, also helps prevent squishie healers from pulling aggro and dying. Moonkins have some truly awesome tanking power, much better if they be the ones to inadvertantly pull aggro.

So get a jump on damage, make sure your other healers and DPS let you get a jump on generating the threat before they unload on 'em, and be prepared to shift to bear and Swipe, Swipe, Swipe as soon as your Hurricane runs out." -- BBB

Heavy Clefthoof and Heroic Underbog

More druid related stuff! I'm OBSESSED!

Actually, it's more that I've hit a ceiling with Kiki right now. My current guild had a setback (see previous blog!) and I don't think I'm going to get further with her right now. So rather than talk more about how awesome I am with my warlock, I've switched tracks.

I'm an awesome druid.

I completed the heavy clefthoof set yesterday. I ran BM twice and didn't get the shoulders from the Chrono Lord. I did get the cloak though and took it as an upgrade over the devilshark cape. Not ideal but...

Then we did heroic UB. No salvation on the insane warlock in the group (love you, Abs!), or on the epic'd out hunter (you too, Werenal!) or on the piddly little rogue (Boon's alt, Dhark, hate him) and I held aggro rather well.

I lost it on the banish's more easily than on the others, because I can't start on them while everyone else is still on the last one. I have to wait until the banish is up, but by that time, everyone is ready to unleash! But with rare exceptions, the banish's didn't get to hit anyone other than me, still. (I didn't play the lacerate game, I went ahead and taunted when they tried to eat someone else.)

Our first wipe was on the four-pull after Hungarfen. The X and the hunter trap decided to ignore everything that I or the hunter was doing to them and decided that the healer, an awesome shaman named Shougeki, looked far more tasty. We did get one down, so it turned into a three pull after that. My method of tab-lacerate-tab-lacerate worked decently even on heroic. I tried to get a mangle in on each, too.

We had a partial wipe on Ghaz'an. The rogue, though he wasn't by the tail, still got tail-whipped into the water, so we were down a DPS most of the fight. We still killed him because 1: he's slow and 2: we had a warlock and hunter kiting him after I died. The method I like to use is pulling him down the path to the wall. I ran up there, barkskinned, moonfired, cat formed, sprinted then turned into a bear when I hit the wall.

Ever notice how FREAING BIG your ass is in bear form? I mean, I always knew it was big (hence 'Big Bear Butt' blogger), but dear lord, it's impossible to SEE when you're in a corner. I had to ask the group to tell me if I was straight because I couldn't see anything but my own ass.

By the way... a warlock can SOLO that boss just by kiting him. (Because warlocks are teh aw3s0m3!)

We had a partial wipe on the first Underbog Lord, who after I died, immediately ate the healer then the hunter, and then was successfully evasion tanked by the rogue and killed by the warlock from 10% down. Apparently, my 23% dodge isn't better than a rogue tank. Why do you need me? Just have a rogue. ><

A wipe while we figured out how to handle Mussleman and Claw (I know, his name isn't really Mussleman, but can you recall how to spell it without having it in front of you? That's what I thought. You know who I mean.). We tried to down Mussleman first then Claw, but I couldn't keep Claw on me that way. He was all over the place. The second time, I had the hunter MD Mussleman on me and we focused on Claw until he went friendly. That worked.

(Kiting no longer works well because according to WoWWiki, Claw ignores the kiter and returns when Mussleman commands him to 'obey', and Claw is not hibernatable in heroic. The 'hug' method worked somewhat well, limited his charges a little bit, but was still on people. 8 yards is too small for most people!)

We had two wipes on Black Stalker until we figured out how to handle the adds. First try, we tried to ignore them and they wound up eating the healer. Well, not eating him, but electrocuting him to death. Though I don't know what the difference is... he still wound up dead. The second time we tried to have the rogue DPS them down and that didn't work either. The last time, I had all yellow gear and one red belt, and we ignored the adds again and this time we did it.

What was the difference between the first and last, other than I was down in armor and hit points due to a red item? No idea. The moon was aligned just right? Who knows.

(Or it may have to do with the hunter not being levitated out of the room and out of LOS, as he was in the first fight. The Stalker isn't very fair.)

And... two days after I get my heavy clefthoof boots... the epic boots drop off of the Stalker. :P

I also completed two quests! 'Oh, it's on!' to get the root from Hungarfen and 'Brain of the Black Stalker'. And I'm now 5900/21000 until Earthwarden!

To my way of thinking, this is a LOT of wipes. But Shougeki pointed something pertinent out. This wasn't a group of overgeared individuals (Owaru/Kikidas/Boon) going into heroic Underbog, this was a group of people in mostly blues, some greens and only one overgeared person (Werenal) going into heroic Underbog. And for that group, we did great.

I was awesome. As a group, we were great. :)

Bear Tank Basics, By K the Warlock

I have altisms disease. I freely admit it. But it isn't a problem. I can do my job well no matter what alt I'm currently afflicted with. Admittedly, some alts I do better with than others, but I still do a good job.

Lately, I've been afflicted with druidism. It's a nasty smelly disease that sometimes turns me into a cat, bear, bird or some odd sea mammal that I think is supposed to be a sea cow.

What? You've never read The White Seal by Rudyard Kipling? Either read the short story (which is good) or look up sea cow in a dictionary.

Anyway...

With my variety of disease, I sometimes become afflicted for short periods of time, during which I'll instance or farm or just have fun. This time, I've become afflicted with the desire to tank. Kathe, my druid, has been a tank since the early 60's. Before that, she was some resto/balance hybrid I think for solo-leveling. Don't ask me, I'm weird.

Without using any of Big Bear Butt's Druid Tank List gear (at least, not knowingly!) I was tanking Shadow Labs, Steamvaults, Shattered Halls. And doing it well. I wasn't uncrittable (defense in the mid 300's). I had somewhat lowish hit points (for a dire bear, that's in the neighborhood of 11k) and somewhat lowish armor points (13k). I had a good healer and good party members, which as in all things, can make up for my lack in gear.

But K, I hear someone ask in the background, you already have a tank, a warrior. Why a second tank?

Because it's different. Because druid is fun. Because I want to. Question answered.

It's true, I do have a warrior. She's all in blues. She's uncrittable. Not sure about uncrushable. She has good armor for a non-raiding-heroicing-Karaing-warrior, she has good hit points as well given the same caveat. But aggro management is so different.

With a warrior, it's all about the devastate and revenge and shield bash and stance-dancing and intervene and intercept and this shout and that shout. Which is hugely enjoyable, don't get me wrong. But so very very different from bear tanking.

With a bear, it's all about the lacerate. Oh, there are a few other things too, but lacerate lacerate lacerate... and omen of clarity. <3 Omen of Clarity. Oh, what's that? 100% reduction in rage cost? MUAHAHAHAHA! Warlocks need a skill like that. Instant cast shadow-bolt with 100% mana reduction and 100% increased damage. That's not asking much, is it?

(By the way, <3 is a sideways heart. Short for love.)

I play a game with my druid tank. If I lose aggro or don't have aggro on something, I don't taunt it. I know, I should. But I see how many lacerates it takes to pull it off of something (with the caveat that I'm in the neighborhood of their threat. If I was tanking against my own warlock, I wouldn't be trying the lacerate-game. I'm assuming an 'on par with me' group.). My average is 2 lacerates and I have aggro back. Without taunt. It's much fun. Of course, you do need to have a decent healer for this lacerate-game, because depending on what is hitting said poor-punching bag, they may not last two lacerates. But usually they do regardless of healing, otherwise they probably don't have any business being in a regular instance. (Mind you, I am not talking heroics).

So... the basics. I'm 0/47/14. The 14 in restoration include the 5 points in furor, 5 points in naturalist, 3 points in intensity and 1 point in the above-mentioned omen of clarity.

With intensity, I have the ability to instantly generate 10 rage with enrage. So, if for some reason I'm in bear form and I don't want to switch out and in again (because I have the nifty ability to generate 10 rage instantly when I transform into bear), I tap enrage and boom, instant 10 rage. Sure I take a hit in armor when I do that, but when it's needed, it's there. With omen of clarity, I build threat faster because I don't need as much rage to lacerate the hell out of something.

(It's also useful in cat form for those times I'm killing something solo. You pounce to stun, mangle to increase your damage from the cat-backstab ability, and then hopefully at some point in time, Omen's popped, which means you can usually backstab immediately, before the stun effect of the pounce wears off.)

The other 47 are in, naturally, feral combat. Obviously, anything that pertains only to cat-form, I have 0 points in. I'm not a DPS-feral. I'm a tank-feral. I won't go down the list of what points I put where, since those are probably pretty self-explanatory.

So, the average fight starts. If I have adequate crowd control and I have only one mob to worry about at a time, I charge. Charge has the bonus of getting me there faster and stunning the mob in place for a few seconds. So even if I have DPS that opens up before I have a chance to hit it, the mob isn't going to be running all over the place just yet. (Caveat is that it's in safe range TO charge, if it's too near other mobs, I don't charge, I faerie fire, back up, THEN charge.)

Since the mob is hitting me (as I'm right there), and I'm hitting it (because I'm there too!), I almost immediately have enough rage to lacerate twice. Then I usually mangle. Everytime the cooldown for mangle is up, I mangle. I lacerate until I have stacked 5 lacerates on the mob. If the CC isn't up by me, I then add swipe and maul into the mix. Swipe, though not as much threat/damage as maul, has the benefit of being instant. I lacerate when it's up. I mangle when it's up. Even though I have 5 lacerates stacked on the mob, I continue to lacerate. It doesn't continue to stack, but it does continue to generate threat.

Usually BEFORE the first mob is dead, I turn, find the next mob I'm killing, and feral charge it. Chances are, unless the first mob is a healer, it will be dead shortly. (I do this when the first mob is about 5% alive). If it's a healer, I stay on it to make sure.

The benefit of charging the 2nd mob in the line before the first is dead is that my aggro-whoring DPS group members have to finish killing the first mob BEFORE they can switch to the second mob. This gives me adequate time to be able to land a few lacerates and at least one mangle before they start in on this mob. This allows me to hold aggro better. This strategy works with my warrior too (sans lacerate and mangle, she has to do things with a weapon and shield, not just teeth and claws). I don't worry about losing aggro on mob #1 in the last few pathetic moments of it's life. If my DPS is adequate, (by that, I mean group DPS, not MINE in particular), it will die before it 1: switches off of me and onto someone else or 2: before it reaches said someone else.

(On the flip side, I do this with DPS as well. If I'm DPSing, in the last few (10 and lower) percentage points of it's life, I tend to up my DPS as much as I can. If I pull aggro off of the tank, no big deal. It's dead before it hits me anyway.)

So, feral charge #2 and lacerate-lacerate. I should have more than enough rage that this is immediately doable. The feral charge locks it in place so it can't go after whomever CC'd it, and since no one else was hitting it (or should have been hitting it), I gain immediate aggro control.

#3, #4, etc. on down the line!

Now, there will be times when I have to multi-tank targets. No problem. A little dicier, but that just adds to the fun!

So, I have X and Y. (I picked Y because Y is easier to type than Skull.). X is second, Y is my skull so it dies first.

I'm in caster form. I make sure everyone else is ready to pick up their charges. I then starfire the X. While I'm casting starfire, I change target to the Y. As soon as starfire casts, I moonfire the Y. Then I go furry. This is when tapping the improved enrage can come in handy.

So, my party members, because they are wonderful people, have control over their CC mobs. The X and Y are by me. Depending on whom gets to me first, I lacerate them at LEAST once. I then switch targets to the second mob and lacerate it, too. While I'm doing this, I'm looking around at where I am and where my CC'd mobs are. I back away from the CC to a place where I can swipe without breaking anything. By this time, I'm back on the Y who is the main target. I've tossed a few more lacerates and mangle's on it. With 1 (or 2) lacerates on the X, swipe should keep it on me and off the healer. As soon as (or slightly before) Y dies, I've switched to X and I've started to up my threat on it, the same way I've done on anything else. Then feral charge #3, etc.

Occasionally, you'll have multiple-multiple mobs to tank, such as the large pulls in SH. Provided I don't have a rogue to worry about (or even if I do), I use hurricane. This gets everyone pissed off at me IMMEDIATELY. If I have a rogue sap, I try to position the sap to the edge of the group, so I can position my hurricane such that it WON'T hit the rogue sap but will hit everything else. (Depending on how close you are to said mobs, barkskin helps with this maneuver.)

I tell people to wait on DPS for a minute while I sink aggro on 3 mobs. I do this in roughly reverse order. The second or third (whomever) I lacerate, then the second or third, whichever I didn't get first, I lacerate. Then I switch to the main target and go to town. This shouldn't be an issue with rage, because I should be getting hit by three mobs. At the SAME TIME as I'm doing the above, I'm backing away from any CC and swiping, otherwise the healer is going to be getting a visit soon. Other than initial sinking of aggro on the second and third mob, it isn't much different than two-mob tanking.

If I have to tank 4 mobs, that one... is a bit tougher. Namely because swipe only hits 3 mobs. However, lacerate the main target that everyone is hitting 3 times, then toss a lacerate or two on everything else. I try to go -- main target-maintarget- offtarget1-offtarget2-offtarget3--main target a few times to maintain -- off1-off2-off3-main if it's still alive.

If you discover that your healer is pulling too much initial aggro on those big pulls because they have to heal your non-dodging-sorry-ass, rejuvinate and refresh yourself immediately before starting your pull. This should 1: lessen initial healing aggro since they don't have to heal you massively at the beginning 2: sink more aggro on you since you're healing and fighting! Look at you, you can multi-task! and 3: cause the shaman in the group to complain that they never get to heal because of earth-shield, rejuvination and refresh .. by the time all three are out, everything is dead. It's great fun!

For mobs that are being CC'd. Always make sure your group knows if they're having trouble, they CAN TELL YOU! And they should. You're a BIG FREAKING BEAR! If you can't handle one more mob hitting on you, then you suck. They're a clothy or a leathery or a something else that isn't a BIG FREAKING BEAR! Go ahead and feral charge their target -- don't worry, your main target will follow you. Unless it's a 'I can't CC this anymore for some reason -- ie: warlock succubus is down' do NOT mangle or lacerate this target if you can avoid it. Otherwise the ticking damage will not allow it to be CC'd again. This is mainly an issue with hunter's traps being resisted or accidentally used on something else. You just need to keep it off the hunter long enough for them to lay another trap.

(sometimes the fastest way to get to a loose running around crazy mob is to BACK UP, so you can charge it. Benefit #1 you aren't chasing it like a loon with it always just out of reach as the person it's hitting runs away from you because they're a frantic dummy (RUN TO THE TANK! PLEASE!), #2 if you charge it, it stops running around due to the effect of feral charge, #3 uh... hi? But seriously, if it's too close or you're chasing it, either back up or stay still so it gets into range to charge at it.)

Unless I've still got two (or three) loose mobs to control, I tend to just ignore the no-DoTing rule and add it to the things that I'm currently tanking. You should be on ventrilo with your group or some other way of talking to them, so you can tell them that the new CC-now-tanked mob is next on the list before any other order you may have previously been doing.

And that's it. It's fun. :)

By the way, hunter trap targets you may have to do more than feral charge and lacerate. You may need to *gasp* taunt those, mainly due to the way that hunter's have to trap. The other CC types don't do any damage to their target (unless they're a warlock, then they may be searing pain'ing their target to keep it off of their succubus), so you can pull aggro easily. A hunter has to shoot it a few times (or more!) to get it into their trap. So you're working uphill on those fellows.

As for gear ... I'm less than 40 thick clefthoof leather from my chestpiece. I'm halfway along the quest lines that BBB lists in SMV. I have my stylin' hat. I have my deep necklace. I have one good defense ring and one mixed-stat ring (Ogre Slayer's Band). I'm at uncrittable (425 defense), I have, when fully buffed, between 14-15k life (depending on what constitutes fully buffed!), I have 17k armor, I'm at 20 or 22% dodge. I'm feeling furry and frisky!

Which, by the way, ever notice when you're out in the world and you're trying to play as your bear instead of catform for killing stuff, your rage generation is sucktacular? It's because you dodge too much in the world and they don't hit hard enough when they do land a punch. Isn't that funny? I find it amusing. You spend all this time going -- need more dodge, need more dodge! and then later on you go, 'Damnit! I'm dodging too much!'.

The K Game

There is a very fun little game that my friends play when I'm in a group with them. It's called the K game for some reason. I don't know why. Maybe you can figure it out.

The rules are very simple but do vary a smidge depending on what version of the K game you're playing.

You pick one person. Let's just call them 'K'. Just for simplicity's sake. Then, depending on that person's class/role, the rest of the game rules will follow.

The K Tank Game: This is the most popular (most fun, and easiest!) version of the K game.

K is a tank. The game is how frequently you can pull aggro off of the tank. (no cheating, such as taunting (from feral druids), taking off salvation, breaking crowd control, attacking 'second kill' mobs, etc.) This means that in a "normal" situation, with normal buffs, etc, on, you do your damndest to pull aggro off of the tank. Bonus points are given if the tank curses, sweats, cries or otherwise indicates distress. Additional bonus points are awarded if you do this without trying. Even more points awarded if you die.

(On a side note, this is a GREAT way to help tanks learn that they need to draw more aggro, how quickly, what works best, etc. In a "normal" situation, high DPS would hold back to not pull aggro off of a tank. In the game, the tank quickly learns how to generate that aggro, or s/he loses the game, pretty dang quick.)

There are variations given if K is a healer or not. (Making the healer cry, scream, rant and rave gives you points.)

In general, the K game is usually applied with the group versus the tank. The healer USUALLY stays out of it, since the healer getting whacked by something usually isn't so grand. But the K game has versions for the healer too -- generally involving the tank doing something outrageous, like tanking four or five mobs at once. This obviously requires a GOOD tank and GOOD DPS otherwise that quickly turns into a wipe. Bonus points awarded for the healer cursing, crying, shouting, weeping or having a heart attack.

(The bonus... your healer learns how to handle large groups, how to gauge the heals required based on how much projected damage the tank is getting, and probably even learns how to multi-heal multiple people taking large amounts of damage, all at the same time. Quick shifting between targets and mana conservation...)

Personally, I play my own K DPS version as well, this one just isn't advertised. Now, every DPS is trying to get to the top of the charts. Every DPS is trying to not pull aggro. My own version is to walk that very fine line. If I die, then I lose the game. If I'm not holding my own on DPS (given similarly geared individuals), I lose. If I'm not holding my own against a warlock from Risen, well, that I can understand. If I'm not holding my own against a green-geared whoknowswhat, that... well, that makes K cry.

The official version of the game doesn't actually HAVE points, but you can keep track if you want. Arbitrarily assign a certain number of points for each cuss word, for each time the healer shouts in desperation, "OOM!", for each time the tank has to burn challenging shout, for each time a DPS dies from pulling aggro off of the tank appropriately.

Obviously, for the DPS involved, this CAN be pretty pricey, if the tank isn't good at the game.

The tank wins, regardless of cuss-points garnered, if no one dies. :)