Comments on: You want me to WHAT now?

By: Nayo

Nayo — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:06:15 +0000

I totally agree with Finandir; the tank who suffers the aggro loss after getting picked up simply has to taunt; both have to be on #1 and #2 on threat and its a really easy fight. It does not matter who the main- or off-tank is.

By: Finandir

Finandir — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:47:40 +0000

Just as a note for this fight, I have always done it as one of the two tanks. However, we never designate a MT or OT. Just the two tanks. Reason being, if the tanks stack, they can both just fight for threat the entire time. It doesn’t matter who gets picked up and thrown. The advantage of this is that one of you will always be second on the threat list and that makes it easier to deal with the lunges. If one tank is trying to stay below the other in threat then well-geared dps, especially in PUGs, may move higher in the threat list and you then have to taunt off of them to get threat back.

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:41:48 +0000

Not apropos of this post, but an amusing thing to note from the recent feral changes: the epic [Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole] is now a +1860 feral attack power weapon!

By: Furbs

Furbs — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:16:58 +0000

Hi BBB!
Good luck on the job search. I’m sayin my bear prayers for you.
Remember that time, a while back when you were like: “Oh, bears are no fun. I’m going to roll a hunter”. I’m glad you stopped hanging out with that BRK, I think hes a bad influence. And yeah, I was OT on VoA with another bear as main tank, had no problems at all. I was pretty concerned when WoTLK came out that bears were in for a run of bad luck. Then 3.08 came along, and boy has my tune changed. Hooray.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed this flurry of activity from you, makes my day go by a little faster. Thanks for all the work you put in.
PS, I still have to upgrade my badge of tenacity as well. :-(

By: Faber

Faber — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:13:07 +0000

I’ve noticed that you don’t have to pull the boss in VoA out of the clouds he will run right back to the MT. When I tank it i just park my bear butt in 1 place and watch him walk right back to me while dps is still hitting him. I also agree with watching Tankspot videos if your first going into tank Naxx. I had some pre 3.0 Naxx stuff but still watched to refresh. Right now we are 10/15 in 25 naxx and the guides are still really helpful even after full 10 man clears.

By: Korsic

Korsic — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:53:36 +0000

My pet’s name is Steve, not fluffy :(

By: FaceTank

FaceTank — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:09:32 +0000

Great work there BBB. I love it when people try and tell you how to gem your gear or think that their way is the best way. We druids hear that all the time. I have found that it really depends on the needs of the raid group, hence why I have a high stam set (for 3 drakes I am at 52k hp fully buffed) and a mixed set (45% dodge with 42k hp) for fights where I need to dodge more but still take big hits :) Just do what you feel is best for you and your raid and ignore the know it alls.

Btw when you tanked did you get a chance to look at the animation when he lunges at you? He grabs you by the face and holds you in the air before he tosses you. I laughed so hard the first time I noticed my big bear ass in his hands :)

By: Lenaiya

Lenaiya — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:00:59 +0000

I have to agree with you Yggdrasil. OT for me is a much harder job than MT. When you’re maintanking it’s just “go grab this boss and stand there” for most fights. As an offtank, especially as a feral druid, you have to pick up any adds that come out, make judgements about if it’s ok to go kitty for a part of the fight, and if it’s ok, just when and where you need to be. You’re basically a tank and a dps throughout one fight. I personally find OTing much more fun than MTing. If I’m MT all the time, I’ll get bored. :P

By: Yggdrasil

Yggdrasil — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:51:38 +0000

Must have been a weird “Lets get out there and do stuff night” because I had the same experience on my DK, only mine was Naxx-10, and not nearly so successful, but the bunch I went with were great people, most of whom I’d encountered before on previous occassions, but no one I knew very well. Friendly and affable PuG, joking and laughing as we made some really weak attempts at a Anub’rekhan (or however you spell it) and Patchwerk.

We were all content to be noobs, and I too had not studied up on the bosses prior to going (I didn’t even know which bosses we were attempting until we went to get them), but everyone was so relaxed about it, that we had a good time even though nothing dropped and we all racked up copious repair bills, and I was glad for the raiding experience, such as it was, since I have been to only 1 raid in the last 6 or so months prior. The most satisfying thing was enjoying the “pleasure” of being beat on for about 30 seconds by Patchwerk. First genuine hard-hitting, tank-stomping boss I’ve seen since the expansion came out.

I’ve always thought of offtank as being the single toughest position for a raider, and while I understand the ego boost with being able to say, “I’m the MAIN tank”, I’ve never understood how people bristle at being “just” an offtank. Pretty much the whole game for a main tank is making your gear right and knowing positioning or movement on a given boss. You don’t worry about adds, generally, and you only have to make sure you are generating as much threat as you can. Main tank usually just means “the guy whose gear and/or class allows him to mitigate/avoid the most damage in this encounter”. Threat output and skill come into play, but I’ve always felt that it was the offtank who had to demonstrate more of either on most encounters. Its usually a tough and thankless job, but I’m surprised by how many people get upset about being placed in this role.

By: Xathras

Xathras — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:31:32 +0000

I sometimes wonder if we suck some of the fun out of the encounters when we read all the strats and gotchas of the encounter. Half the fun is figuring out how to survive that poison nova, though wiping is less than fun I must admit.

Side note, on my first trip to heroic Gun’Drak as part of a pug Slad’ran was easy. Tank runs up the stairs to pull and we kill the boss so fast no one has a chance to get snake wrapped. Second time was terrible, poison nova absolutely killed us. It is much better with a shaman in the group for poison cleansing totem.