Heroic Halls of Wretchedness
Posted by mindflayer in PUG on March 2nd, 2010
Zone into H HoR as my random, totally PUG daily. I notice that the first two bosses are down, which is odd, since that is usually the killer. I’m advised that this I am the fourth tank and I “better be good” and “heals are fine.” I’m also told this is the second healer. All warning signs, but I figure it’s the back half of H HoR so it can not be too bad.
We trigger the Banshee Queen and she starts down the path. We all move down to the wall when the Retribution Paladin – the one that had spammed gear scores when I entered – races down to Arthas as he’s summoning and starts engaging the mobs. I taunt, slap down Death and Decay, and struggle to keep threat on mobs pulled far, far away from me. During this ordeal, the healer is spamming his 900 HPS on the Retribution Paladin, all in vain.
The Retribution Paladin is raised just as Arthas starts to summon for the second wall. Once again, the Paladin races down to the pack, drops Consecrate, and gets eaten by Arthas’ aura. The healer thinks this is a sign to DPS and pops a Hand of Reckoning so he “can help brun down the mobs”. The Shaman, in party chat, reflects mournfully, “This is why we’ve gone through three other tanks. I hate PUGs.”
Healing ICC5 as a Paladin (or, Why not to make your tank and healer angry)
Posted by mindflayer in PUG on February 1st, 2010
Now that I have some gear on my Paladin’s Holy set, the ICC5 dungeons come up a lot. First off, I am a relatively new Paladin healer. I am still getting the hang of things. Next, and more importantly, those instances deal a lot of damage to the party as a whole. It’s hard enough to heal without DPS standing in poison or casting spells at a spell reflecting mob. This was last night’s conversation:
DPS: “MAN THIS PALADIN SUCKS.”
Me: “I am a single target healer. Please try to avoid standing in void zones and casting at a reflecting mob, etc.”
Tank: “He is an OT/MT healer, not an AoE healer. Don’t be an idiot.”
DPS: “I HAVE A PRIEST ALT AND THIS PLACE IS EASY.”
Me: “You have AoE heals. I don’t have any.”
DPS: “THIS IS LULZ. YOU SUCK.”
Me: “kay.”
Tank: “Just keep me alive.” (Races ahead to next mob while the DPS is QQing. PEW PEW PEW, mob dead.) “See, we don’t need them. Let’s roll on the trinket.”
Me: “Sounds good.”
DPS: “HEY WTF.”
DKs should shield bash
Posted by mindflayer in PUG on January 4th, 2010
Heroic Old Kingdom PUGs seem to be among the worst for me. In this particular case, a Fury warrior insisted on charging ahead on every pull and then screaming for me (the tank) to “fucking tank!” while also screaming “fucking heals!” Sadly, the healer and I were unable to initiate a kick as this Warrior charged ahead time and again.
The best part was his sage advice to me, a Death Knight tank, that I should “shield bash” more. Indeed, we should.
Forge of Idiots
Posted by mindflayer in PUG on January 4th, 2010
Forge of Souls. I zone in and assess the field – 3 people in the same guild, which is either very good or very bad. I start to respec to tank. Paladin pops wings and pulls first mobs, dies. I am far enough out that I am not in combat, so I cancel the respec, change gear, and tank the two giants. We take them down. I eat to recover health from the battle and the gear swap.
The Warlock and Priest run off ahead and cast Seed of Corruption and Penance on the next group. The last DPS, a well-geared Rogue, takes the smart path and leaves the party. I get kicked for daring to tell them my threat is low when I am not even in combat.
New category: Bad PUGs
Posted by mindflayer in PUG on January 4th, 2010
It’s time to regale you with stories of the wicked bad PUGs I always seem to find. Goull [HDL] swears it’s some kind of bad karma I am reaping – I think it’s good karma I am storing to live to be 180.
Please share your bad PUG stories as well.
What it’s like leading TotC 25 PUGs
Posted by mindflayer in Uncategorized on December 2nd, 2009
I hate being RL on the Faction Champs fight:
“Don’t stand in the Bladestorm”
“Don’t stand in the Hellfire”
“Attack the SKULL”
“Interrupt”
“Use Hammer.”
“Kick”
“Pummel”
“Kick”
“Mind Freeze”
“Get out of the hellfire.”
“Stay on the skull.”
“Run away from the chained warrior.”
“Stay on- ah, it’s a wipe.”
Situation Awareness and tanks
Posted by mindflayer in General, Tank on September 17th, 2009
Good article on Tanking UI on nostockui.com. The real story is not the eye candy, but the need for a tank to have good SA – echoing the original post on SA and the others touching on the subject.
How to Blood DK DPS
Posted by mindflayer in Death Knight on July 8th, 2009
• Stack Armor Penetration. Blood DKs actually do physical damage versus spell damage, so ArP helps. I didn’t switch over until I had > 200 ArP. If you go Blood early, your DPS won’t be amazing. (Mine still isn’t where it could be with more ArP.)
• Heart Strike. Heart Strike some more.
• You want to Death Strike to generate Death Runes, with which you can execute – wait for it – Heart Strikes.
• Watch your diseases. You won’t have the simple reapplication of Frost Fever and Blood Plague that Unholy DKs have, so watch for it. Heart Strike does more damage when you have more diseases on the target.
• Fire off Death Coil only when your DRW is on cooldown. This means you should be building Runic Power leading up to every 90s. You also want to keep your RP up for Death Strikes. (Read below)
• Don’t be afraid to call a ghoul during a boss fight. You won’t have control over it but once the fight starts you should be good to go.
• I glyphed for Dancing Rune Weapon, Death Strike, and Dark Death. You want a longer lasting DRW (esp. come 3.2), more damage and healing from your Death Rune generator, and with Sudden Doom the Dark Death glyph pushes your DPS.
• Speaking of Death Strike glyph – the glyph will increase your damage by 2% for every 2 runic power you currently have (up to a maximum of 25%). The runic power is not consumed by this effect. Keep your RP up for this, but dump whenever DRW is ready.
• Use Hysteria on yourself. You want to pop it right before you trigger DRW.
• Make sure you talent for Virulence. Why you don’t have the spell needs of an Unholy DK, you still need to ensure you hit a lot.
• Stay in Blood Presence.
• Heart Strike.
Are you a robot?
I read a post on WowInsider about the difficulties of playing a Ret Paladin. Someone commented that while DPSing as a ret paladin was pretty simple, there are very few who know how to use other abilites to prevent deaths, wipes, or other things that make raids go wrong.
This touches on a few things, namely situational awareness, but it also concerns how well you know your class, its specs and capabilities.
I’ve known a few people who play hybrid classes as DPS specs. But they played like their toon was a pure DPS class. Even more so, it seemed as if they wouldn’t press a button if it didn’t cause damage. I liked to call them DPS robots, since really, a bot could do what they do. To a certain point this is OK, but to really be good at your class and affect how your raid performs, you have to use all of your available abilities when they’re needed. Of course, this doesn’t just apply to ret paladins, but I’ll use this particular example.
I raided with a ret paladin who lived up to what I described above. He never did anything except press one of his three dps buttons (pre 3.1). He barely even wanted to cast blessings, but he at least cast Blessing of Might on himself because it boosted DPS. During raids, you would never see a self-cleanse, a blessing of protection on someone who had aggro, a hand of salvation. This same person usually died to void zones or fire as well.
Point is, there are a lot of abilities that every class has, that most people never use. The best players will learn how, when, and where to use them. Rogues can blind or vanish/cheap shot a mob. Mages can polymorph, frost nova, decurse, spell steal, etc. DKs can save a healer by using chains of ice, or death gripping and using chains. A feral or balance druid can barkskin/tranquility to save a raid. I don’t play every class, but I’m sure every class has these tricks that can save a fellow raid member, save him or herself, and even just make the raid go more smoothly. It’s up to the player to know these things however, and to use them without needing the raid leader to ask you, or to have it done before the raid leader asks you.
Even though you may be a hybrid class, it doesn’t mean that you should limit yourself to what your tree offers. Pure dps classes shouldn’t think that since they can’t heal or tank, that their class has no utility.
How to make your guild leader happy
Posted by mindflayer in Uncategorized on April 12th, 2009
An amusing and good read: http://wordywarrior.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/10-ways-to-make-your-gm-love-you/