Project Lore

Bastosa has been writing an eloquent series of articles on Tanking stats this past week, and the latest post on Avoidance perked my interest. Before I ruin his credibility by agreeing with him while having a Rogue as my main, I assure you I have played a Warrior and tanked with her for some time.

Things have changed since the bygone days of Anatik, but even then, I stacked avoidance gear whenever possible. I figured, what's better for your healer and yourself than taking no damage at all? As many tanks will point out, itemization does not allow for tanks to go nuts with avoidance, especially back then. Hence why Bastosa labels avoidance (dodge/parry) the most important secondary stats.

The topic of avoidance did not lead me to think of my days as a terrible tank though, rather the fine art of rogue tanking. As Rogue4Life pointed out, rogues can be "viable" tanks by loading up on avoidance, which they will primarily gain from tons of Agility. The best known examples come from a single bored rogue, Gaeowyn and her Untouchables series of videos.

Gaeowyn managed to tank a few of the endgame bosses before she stopped creating videos:

• Solo BRD Run (the inspiration to the Untouchable series)


• Mother Shahraz of Black Temple


• 5-man Gruul With Rogue Tank


• Tanking Illidan Stormrage From 100% to 0%

There is no chance of Rogues taking over tanking jobs, so don't fret. If you haven't seen these videos then they should be pretty entertaining, especially if you happen to play the best class in the game. Any PvE player is likely to get a kick out of them though. Creative gameplay for the win.

Now if you don't mind, I am going to take a short break for the rest of the year, returning to your regularly scheduled blogging on January 5^th. Till then I will be in St. Croix, battling my arch nemesis, The Sun.