1. The hardest part about being a tank is learning how to pull. Mastering the art of pulling large groups of mobs with one click of the mouse is easy. Pulling only a few takes patience, observation and impeccable timing. *click* "Look, I pulled half the Banquet Hall!"

2. The feral gear drop rate in Kara sucks. Big time.

3. Epic flight form is the absolute best part about being a druid. Herbing in epic flight form is intensely amusing. Doing the Ogril'la bombing run with "Danger Zone" blaring in the headset is a real treat

4. Grinding CE rep is surprisingly difficult to arrange while trying to avoid pugs.

5. Anyone who is even halfway decent in a pug should be immediately friended. A well-stocked friends list is an essential part of doing daily heroics.

6. Making interrupt effects only available on PVP kitty gear -- effectively forcing druids to PVP to advance past Kara -- was a truly braindead decision by Blizzard.

7. With a small amount of effort, making money in WoW is surprisingly easy.

8. Potion recipes that are only obtainable after grinding rep in a 20-man instance that no one does anymore is frustrating.

9. Anyone who thinks kitties are no good at dps is an idiot.

10. The badge system + daily heroics is a brilliant way to encourage level 70 players to keep playing.

1. The hardest part about being a tank is learning how to pull. I would append that Marking (kill order, CC assignments, etc.) is difficult as well. The tank is expected to know every mob's abilities and how to use every class in your group to counter them the best way. That, is the part I find the most difficult while tanking (5-mans). But, it is also the part I find the most rewarding.

"Do you guys think mob XXX is a caster? His name sort sounds like a caster? Isn't mob ZZZ the one that does an AoE fear every few seconds?"

As a 5-man tank you are expected to know every pull in every instance, even those you have never run before....:grin:

A very astute set of observations. :> Things are going fairly well for you as a new 70, then?


-Annikk

As a 5-man tank you are expected to know every pull in every instance, even those you have never run before....:grin:

Oh...absolutely, marking is a huge challenge. I have no idea how I'm supposed to mark most of the mobs in the instances. And every instance is different. The worm-thingies explode, these guys spit out ghosts you have to avoid, these guys spawn mobs that can MC your group....maybe in 6 months I'll be able to remember everything. And I still haven't tried all the instances (the Arkanar, MT, anything in Caverns of Time...)

A very astute set of observations. :> Things are going fairly well for you as a new 70, then?

Um....yes, mostly. I've been told other than the stupid interrupt gloves I'm ready for Gruuls, despite having blues for half my kitty gear (3200+ AP, over 40% crit chance raid buffed, over 600dps). Unfortunately our guild only does Gruuls with an alliance of other guilds, which is a challenge in and of itself.

My plans for tanking upgrades got derailed last night. I was saving for a tanking cloak (Slikks? something like that) but I got the Thoriumweave off Illhoof. So now I need something to target. I'll probably focus on dps because of the new expansion. Maybe a ring, since the rings I want in Kara aren't dropping.

In bear form I'm so far over the uncrittable cap it's not funny, but I can't switch to dps gear without taking a huge armor hit. I'm finally over 28k armor raid buffed, but my dodge is only 34% or so.

I was pretty pleased with my aggro generation -- other than that damn uber warlock who can generate 25% of the raid's dps -- until I offtanked last night with a very well-geared warrior. She could take aggro from me fairly effortlessly, which is discouraging.

All in all, yeah it's going well.

Oh...absolutely, marking is a huge challenge. I have no idea how I'm supposed to mark most of the mobs in the instances.

That's why I heal. :grin:

The main thing your group(s) should be concerned about is you keeping aggro (and them holding back so that you can do so). And, don't you worry about having to know every aspect of a raid. You're not alone in there. That's why there is a Raid Assistant.

So don't sweat it....it will become clear as mud any day now. ;)

P.S. - Our Druid tank likes to pull with Starfire. I'm not a tank, so I can't tell you why he prefers it, but I can tell you he never "overpulls".

P.S. - Our Druid tank likes to pull with Starfire. I'm not a tank, so I can't tell you why he prefers it,It generates quite a bit of threat over just FFF. Plus the long casting time means he is able to shift into bear as soon as the shot goes off since the GCD is over before the cast is complete. I use it often in heroics to pull those tough guard type mobs that come in pairs and can't be CC'd. Starfire the X mob so I can focus on skull without fear that X will run off and one-shot the healer.

You're not alone in there. That's why there is a Raid Assistant.I don't consider marking much of an issue in Raids, but in 5-mans it is typically the tanks responsibility. That's where pulling and marking are more important. In Raids those aspects of tanking are not nearly as critical as typically the RL does it.

yeah i dislike doing the marking as i'm in the game to play a heroic and have fun not to know every single thing about every mob in every instance. so i dont tend to and it seems ok with someone else doing it. :)

Grim - do you mean the Thoriumweave from Capacitus in Mech ? its a great cloak but Sikk's is a good upgrade. i'm currently planning on getting one next now i've got all other needed tank upgrades like chest/legs/gloves/ring etc

Mag - yeah sometimes i wish i was healer with the marking / tanking stuuf ! lol

i agree fully with 3) although i cant say i've had Danger Zone blaring out whilst ever doing the Bombing Run !


4) CE Rep - grinded almost all of it from revered to exalted in pugs. being at the time in a guild of 2 ! it was me to tank, the priest to heal and we just found 3 dps. from that though we got some good friends in other bigger guilds some of which we still grp with now and again which links nicely into your 5).


7) its a piece of cake tbh. i could never have imagined having so much money i dont know what to do with it pre BC.

10) exactly. i'd have stopped playing long ago with heroics/badges and the chance to get upgrades given i do not raid anywhere.

Grim - do you mean the Thoriumweave from Capacitus in Mech ? its a great cloak but Sikk's is a good upgrade. i'm currently planning on getting one next now i've got all other needed tank upgrades like chest/legs/gloves/ring etc.

No, I meant the Gilded Thorium Cloak from Illhoof. It's a very nice cloak, just doesn't have the dodge I wanted.

No, I meant the Gilded Thorium Cloak from Illhoof. It's a very nice cloak, just doesn't have the dodge I wanted.

ahha not being a raider thats why i'm not familiar with it.

i do like the look of the Sikk's cloak.

11) if you're feral they'll want Resto, if you're resto you'll be asked if you're feral and, if you're really lucky, whether you'd like to respec and tank.

Yes guys I'd love to, I've got some level 65 blues without gems sat in the bank and I've never tanked in my life, when we going to Eric MagT?

heh

Mag - yeah sometimes i wish i was healer with the marking / tanking stuuf ! lol

I've been a healer for so long that the first time I ran my sPriest through a 5-man and the tank asked me to MC Star, I thought "Huh? cc something? Me?!? Well, this just SUCKS!"

*wink*

I've been a healer for so long that the first time I ran my sPriest through a 5-man and the tank asked me to MC Star, I thought "Huh? cc something? Me?!? Well, this just SUCKS!"

I'm terrified of being a healer. First off, there's the whole "I'm a tree" thing. Secondly, from EQ I know how important timing is, and I have no idea how the timing works with healing in WoW. Something about stacking 6 lifeblooms and recasting before they wear off? Okay that's one, two, three...oh, do you need a rez?

I'm terrified of being a healer.

I still am. :rolleyes:

The pressure of healing never really goes away. But I will admit it becomes rather secondary by nature.

As for the timings, you can try to follow the lifebloom stack rules, but there will always be an aggro generating Lock, Mage or BOOMKIN (you know who you are!) available to throw a wrench into that timing. ;)

TLB- I read your post regarding why tanks pull with Starfire versus FFF and I wanted to thank you for clarifying that.

Now it makes sense and I'm going to have to try that out soon!

I would append that Marking (kill order, CC assignments, etc.) is difficult as well. The tank is expected to know every mob's abilities and how to use every class in your group to counter them the best way. That, is the part I find the most difficult while tanking (5-mans). But, it is also the part I find the most rewarding.

"Do you guys think mob XXX is a caster? His name sort sounds like a caster? Isn't mob ZZZ the one that does an AoE fear every few seconds?"

As a 5-man tank you are expected to know every pull in every instance, even those you have never run before....:grin:

there's an addon called Mobinfo that comes in very handy for marking. Basically, it tells you what kind of class your target is... back when i was running bunches and bunches of instances, i found it useful to ask hunters their spec... if they had silencing shot (or w/e the heck it's called) then they could take care of the casters etc etc...

sometimes i would also say "i don't wanna mark... you mark, me bash" which was usually followed in /p by "lol... i'll mark"

My rule of thumb for marking is that anything with mana get's CC'd. That is if there is enough CC.

Tanking is definitley more stressful than healing in my experience. But it is rewarding as everyone LOVES a good tank :)

With pulling in caster, I would just like to advise that you only do this if you have under 10 rage. =x If you have a full rage bar, FFF is still your way to go.

That was a great post. And very true. Did you go insane from the CE rep grind because I sure as hell almost did. It was like a month before I could stomach running any Coilfang instances again.

Oh gods, are you talking about the Zalandar tribe Recipes though? I'm going nuts for that. I ran into ZG to kill two bosses and I'm still neutral. I'm never going to get my living action pot recipe.

/dripping sarcasm: I'm glad to hear that the grind for rep is eternal for all of us. I imagine that'll keep me pretty busy while I'm grinding through.

/dripping sarcasm: I'm glad to hear that the grind for rep is eternal for all of us. I imagine that'll keep me pretty busy while I'm grinding through.Check out the 2nd post in this thread (http://wow.thedruidsgrove.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12571) for a CE rep guide.

That said, given LK will be released soon, you may not want to even bother with CE rep. In fact, I wouldn't bother at all. Pickup a Braxxas off the AH for any Outland 5-mans you might run and then pick-up one of the LK tanking staffs. (http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?items=2&filter=ub=11;cr=131:41;crs=1:1;crv=0:0#0+2+1) At least one of LK tanking staffs is available from a starter zone quest. So, you could have it as soon as lvl 68.

I keep losing site of the fact that my little universe is going to change a LOT on 11/13. Not so much forgetting...but I'm so used to having the "To Do List" beaten over my head for when I hit 70...I guess I just get stuck there and don't look past it much.

It'll be nice to have the ability to skip rep quests. Right now, whatever Rep quests I have, I just grind on them when I'm burnt out on questing or instances and just want to do something mindless for awhile. Yay for SPIRIT BEADS!

Honestly you're world will be rocked when the next patch comes out. The entire game will transform when the new talents come out.

3. Epic flight form is the absolute best part about being a druid. Herbing in epic flight form is intensely amusing. Doing the Ogril'la bombing run with "Danger Zone" blaring in the headset is a real treat
:thumbsup:

Grim, I thought I was the only druid with a soundtrack! I never thought about "Danger Zone". Perhaps it's time to update my soundtrack?

Something's got to keep us lowbies sane as we grind to 70 and soon to 80...:crazy:

10. The badge system + daily heroics is a brilliant way to encourage level 70 players to keep playing.

Dropping the reputation needed so that every green geared newbie thinks they can do heroics was a retarded idea and thus forced more guild runs than PuGs in the end.

Then fixing it so Kara drops 22 badges for 3-4 hours effort made heroics a waste of time.

Dropping the reputation needed so that every green geared newbie thinks they can do heroics was a retarded idea and thus forced more guild runs than PuGs in the end.

This.

And dont worry about grinding BC rep. there will be plenty of rep to grind in wotlk. Ugh.

World of Repgrindcraft

I kind of like the grind for rep. It generally gives you something mindless to do while you plan your next move...especially for us "almost 70's".

And roflol @ World of Repgrindcraft!

There's a reason you don't have to rep grind until you've already put this much time into your characters...

ugh, i still remember the grind for rep for pre BC factions. How many undead can you really kill in the plaguelands, just hoping for minion stones and bone fragments to further your Argent Dawn rep

lol Tank, i still have a pile of the Insignias of the Dawn and Crusade in my bank ! Enough infact to get another epic item iirc !

pre BC i was not into rep grinding, mainly i guess cos i was raiding and that took all my time.

given i only do heroics in BC i've done all the rep grinds and have the Netherwing Dragon / Nether Ray / Epic Talbuk etc.

still working on exalted for KoT cos we dont tend to run them very often and need the last 4k for LC as Sethhek is the only one of them instances i actually like !

but i've never managed to get exalted with TB/UC etc etc

BTW, Kheldar i am pretty sure i logged out in bear form, have a look on the armoury and make suggestions for gear if you like :)
tankwhomee on Khazgaroth

cheers

i'll take a look later Tank as i cannot access armoury etc via the firewall.

logged in my kitty gear now, need better rings!

i'll try to rememeber later cos i forgot last nite !

lol, damn work firewalls!, i have the same problem

yeah not good :(