Project Lore

They're two of the signature moves of rogues and hunters: Tricks of the Trade and Misdirection. Both allow the two classes to dps straight out at the start of a boss fight without pulling aggro, and in fact can also help a tank build up their threat levels quickly from the start. But I had never seen a fight won solely because of the tactics of these two moves until last week.

My raid group had gotten through Lord Marrowgar in Icecrown Citadel, but hadn't quite reached the Gunship Battle shenanigans that I already happily told you about. Which left us taking on Lady Deathwhisper, and things were going great -- the Adherents and Fanatics were going down fine with the help of our two tanks, the deformed ones were getting kited around to avoid their hard hits, and the boss' mana shield was getting hacked down steadily.

Then right as we were finishing off the last of the mana shield, somehow one of our tanks died. With no battle rez in sight, we assumed that the attempt would be a wipe because usually two tanks are absolutely necessary for the second phase of this boss. She has a nasty, stacking debuff that essentially makes a tank lose the ability to generate threat, so the two tanks taunt off each other, ensuring that at least one tank is holding aggro.

Time to improvise.

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Up until recently, most of my questing was done in pairs. My rogue teamed up with my husband's warrior for a while as we leveled together. And when he out-leveled me, I started questing with his DK. Either way, I essentially had a tank as we took on quests and easily progressed through the game. But over the past few weeks as I ventured through Dragonblight and now in Zul'Drak, Locomomo has gone solo. So now I've got no tank. Combine to that the fact that many areas within this zone have a high concentration of mobs that like to attack you in twos and threes, and I was in a heap of trouble. But it's been a good learning experience; I've adapted my play style a bit, and that alone has been a fun challenge. Being a rogue, I've been able to escape the multiple mobs with Vanish, and when that's on cooldown, a combination of Sprint and Evasion paired with some strategic weaving through mobs so I don't draw more fire. When I have multiple mobs I can handle, Adrenaline Rush and Blade Fury work nicely together. But there's still the problem of the sheer amount of damage I've been taking. I'm running low on Frostweave needed to make bandages, and also need to restock on foods - both for the buffs they give and for their healing properties. What's been saving me there is the Medallion of Heroism trinket I picked up as a quest reward from the Battle for the Undercity. I love the critical strike bonus, but more importantly at this point is the healing capacity. I've been hitting that trinket as soon as it goes off cooldown. As I said, it's been a fun challenge and really reminds me of some of the awesome rogue abilities that I wasn't using as much when leveling in pairs, simply because I didn't need to. As for the healing issue - I look at this as a good reason to go for that Stocking Up achievement! So have any of you found a reason to alter your play styles recently? Do you prefer soloing or questing in pairs? More importantly, anyone have some Frostweave to spare? :)

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Now that 3.1 has been out for a while, and the dust is at least starting to settle, I think its time to take a step back and discuss how much impact the patch has really made on the game.

While the introduction of the Ulduar raid was obviously a big deal, I want to take a moment to examine how dual-specs has changed the way that we play. This feature, after all, changes the basic mechanics of how we play and will affect the game well past Ulduar and into future expansions.

At this point, I feel many of us have seen both the advantages and the pitfalls of this is action.

First the good, the increase is raid utility is undeniable. Instead of needing to sub people out for encounters because we need more heals, DPS, tanks or whatever we now just need to ask people to switch specs. I have found this to be particularly useful in 10 mans, where we can balance for 2 or 3 healers depending on the encounter.

Beyond that there are some unexpected advantages. For example the shaman who dual spec’d enhancement/elemental. While initially I thought this was the worst idea ever (great you can be DPS or DPS), it has turned out to be incredibly useful on several occasions. Sometimes having DPS at range vs melee, or having an extra buff can make all the difference in a close encounter.

There have been drawbacks too. As I think we all expected loot has been an issue. There are some players that are legitimately splitting their time between two specs. But does that mean they have a right to accumulate two sets of tier pieces while everyone else is working on their first? I certainly don’t think so, but they can make some convincing arguments. Additionally this added flexibility leaves some of the “bubble” players out of raids. Players that are used to being number 1 on the standby list are getting used less and less, as more people can fill more roles.

Personally I find myself changing specs much less often than I expected. While I can now go ret at anytime, I still find I am a tank 99% of the time, and often forget I can switch if need be. Although, being able to PvP whenever I want is certainly nice.

What do you guys think? Have dual specs been working out they way you imagined? Or are you using them much less or more than you expected?

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One of the perils of doing anything publicly is the risk of being labeled "Stupid". Ignorance we can handle, stupidity not so much. Is there a difference? You bet. Ignorance is the absence of knowledge. How do rogues do an attack rotation? We have no idea; we're ignorant about rogue-mechanics. Stupidity is acting in a manner inconsistent with known facts. We know not to pull aggro from our main tank. If we were to start firing before the main tank has established aggro, we'd be acting stupidly. There is a fine line between ignorance and stupidity and that's "Unconventional". A hunter who melees because he knows no other way is Ignorant. A hunter who knows the proper method of playing a hunter who chooses to melee his way while leveling is Unconventional. So also would be a player who eschews killing mobs while leveling -- known as pacifist-leveling -- or someone who refuses to wear gear while leveling, just for the challenge of doing it. Being unconventional is fine, as long as you don't affect other people without their knowledge and consent. For example, it is known by most hunters that bringing a level seventy-five pet to a heroic instance will be gimping his own damage-output. It is also well known that the fastest way to level a hunter-pet from seventy-five to eighty is in heroic instances. A single heroic Violet Hold will usually give a pet almost an entire level. Bringing a level seventy-five pet to a heroic with the goal of leveling it quickly, but seeking the permission of the rest of the raid before the raid starts, is Unconventional. Bringing a level seventy-five pet to a heroic because you didn't know there are level seventy-nine pets available for immediate taming is Ignorant. Bringing a level seventy-five pet to a heroic and without caring about the feelings of the rest of the raid is Stupid. Personally, we are ignorant about just about everything there is to know about tanking and healing. When we bellow at our tank, "Make more threat!" we are very fortunate she doesn't yell back, "Why don't you, in your infinite wisdom, tell me just how you expect me to accomplish that!" Because if she did, we'd stammer and stutter and exclaim, "Just... you know, get it angry. Hit it, whatever, right? Threat! Do it!" And she'd reach through the Internet and squash us for our ignorance. However we are not stupid, and we know that regardless of how the tank is generating threat, it is our responsibility to not pull aggro from the main tank. Our ignorance of tanking-mechanics can be compensated with our knowledge of hunter-mechanics. How do we compensate for a tank not generating as much threat as we'd like? * Cast Misdirection at every opportunity. * Feign Death before we overtake the tank on the mob's threat list. * Just chill out and decrease our DPS until the tank has a solid threat-lead. If we were to refuse to Misdirect, Feign Death, and reduce our DPS when the tank is having difficulties maintaining aggro, we would not be "teaching the tank a lesson" by intentionally pulling aggro. No, we'd be Stupid. Eliminating ignorance requires two people: an apt teacher and a willing student. Eliminating stupidity is the job of just one person: the stupid one. You can encourage, enlighten, educate, and cajole a person towards not being stupid, but ultimately, it's his decision. But what else can you do? You can learn to differentiate between ignorance and stupidity yourself and react accordingly. Your PUG is having a hard time in Culling of Stratholme because the priest keeps running ahead of the party? Remind him that the paladin tank makes a wonderful Undead battering ram. Teach the priest that standing on top of, or slightly behind, the paladin tank will basically guarantee the priest's survival. If the priest adjusts his tactics appropriately, you'll have eliminated a little ignorance from the game and probably ensured the success of your run. But if the priest says nothing and keeps running amok, you'll know that you're dealing with Stupid and it's time to abandon-party. Ignorance, stupidity, and unconventionality are big parts of Warcraft. Learning to modify your behavior when confronting these characteristics is key to your progression and fun in the game, (and in real life too).

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Kenzi from DeathKnight.info has been running one of the most amazing Death Knight sites since long before Wrath of the Lich King launched. In case you decided not to make a Death Knight your new main or if you just haven't been paying a ton of attention, here he tells us how things have been going with WoW's first Hero class. Two months have passed since the release of Wrath of the Lich King! The initial rush to roll a Death Knight has come and gone. Many have leveled their "free" level 55 for a bit then went back to their mains while tons have benched everyone for their new DK. However you fall into the two categories, one thing is for sure; everyone has had an experience with a Death Knight.

Getting past Deathtard.

So, are Death Knights the new Huntard? With the ease of availability and thought of being overpowered, many a tard has made their way to managing rune cooldowns and trying to tank. Has that put good DK's in a questionable position? I don't think so. In all actuality I found that those outside of the DK community were more oblivious to Death Knight capabilities then the ones actually playing them. How many of you tanking DK's got asked if you where "frost" before entering a pug? Was it really a mainstream opinion that tanking Death Knights had to be Frost and that Frost was -the- tanking build? Better yet, how many of you tanks got asked.."uh, hey man...where is your shield?" Luckily the above scenarios didn't last long after launch and some of the more stupid events happened a little less often. Or...is it still common to see a Death Knight in spellpower gear?

Finding our place taking it in the face!

Once most people learned that Death Knight's could seriously tank...without a shield...it became easier to find our way into groups and raids. Tanking problems still existed though. Many tanks found it hard to get and stay defense capped. Most of the preraid gear was from crafted blues that are really high in defense, but low in other avoidance stats. In order for a tanking DK to stay defense capped they usually have to put tier 7 epic upgrades in their bags because the lower defense rating caused them to drop below the cap. Unless you are lucky enough to get your hands on certain pieces of gear, getting and staying capped is a struggle. To help that struggle, Blizzard announced that with the release of patch 3.0.8 Death Knights would be getting a new "tanking" runeforge enchant that gives 25 defense skill along with a new tanking sigil that procs a 55 defense rating buff. Notice the runeforge has 25 skill, not 25 rating, which means Death Knights can easily afford to lose 154 points of defense rating via gems and enchants and still stay defense capped.  The thought behind it was because DKs can't use shields they miss out on a huge opportunity for more defense rating, which has lead to many topics about gemming and enchanting post 3.0.8. Single target threat has also been an issue for tanking Death Knights. Some have experienced problems with their threat scaling with their raids gear improvements. As the DPS in raids gets better and higher, holding threat becomes harder and harder. It was announced that a bug with Frost Presence was keeping the skill from properly resetting after a death, meaning when the DK died the presence was removed, but the server thought he still had it. That bug was hotfixed and it was also announced that with 3.0.8 Runestrike would be adjusted to be the proper tanking skill it was meant to be. The damage will be lower and the threat increased, which will make for even easier single target threat.

You mean I need two runeweapons to melt faces?

Enough tank talk, lets pew pew! It's been known for a while that Death Knights could dual wield as well as swing a big two hander and for the most part it was widely accepted that duel wielding was the inferior choice for DPSing. Wrong. Many smart people played around with and stuck with dual wield enough to finally find those right talent choices to make it work. And make it work they did. Now it seems almost all of the high DPS numbers we see today are from the dual runesword wielding Death Knights. So, do you think Blizzard is happy their first hero class, the fabled Death Knight who is famous for the two hander, is forcing people to go DW to DPS? The short answer is no, Blizzard will be changing some DW talents to bring DW DPS "back in line" with two handed DPS. Soon you will get a legitimate choice between one and two handed weapons without gimping your DPS.

This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.

PvP is still pretty open for debate. The new WotLK season 5 is still somewhat fresh. Most of the complaints about Death Knights stem from just the lack of understanding of what they can do and how to deal with them. One can argue though,  that many of the PvE nerfs stem largely from PvP overpowerness. Take Anti-Magic Zone for example. The duration is being reduced to 10 seconds in 3.0.8, down from 30 seconds now. Runestrike's damage being reduced also came from some complaints that argued that a high damaging Runestrike combined with a Scourge Strike, Obliterate or other attack in quick succession made it nearly impossible to stay alive long enough to kill a DK. All valid complaints, but it tends to rub people that wrong way when an ability is nerfed on one side of the fence because it is overpowered on the other. Maybe one day there can be balance between PvE and PvP.

Moving on without the Lich King...

So here we are, two months in, patiently waiting our first round of "balancing". Our class is starting to take a nice shape. We still have to battle against prejudice and thoughts that we are the new love of Blizzard. Yes we are called a "hero" class, but hero is nothing more than a fancy title for "you start at level 55". Wer're still going to see nerfs, get buffed and share that same car on the balancing roller coaster as everyone else.

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Today I would like to continue the tanking discussion we started the other day and dive a little deeper into the world of tanking stats. Last time around I discussed defense, which is the first major stat you need to get capped as an up and coming tank. It actually carries over quite nicely into today’s topic. Once you have 540 defense and are “capped” you can keep stacking it to improve all the stats I am discussing today. In fact some argue “cap” is the wrong word as you continue to see benefit from additional defense. Now, I would like to talk a bit about avoidance. So lets get right into it!

Avoidance –

What is it? Just because mob swings at you doesn’t mean he has to hit you! In fact we generally prefer that he doesn’t. This is where avoidance comes it. When a mob swings at you there are basically 5 options if you are at or above 540 defense. He either a) hits you b) misses you c) you parry the attack d) you dodge the attack or e) you block the attack.

Our goal is to make it so that A is not an option. Miss is a built in game mechanic which we have little control over (defense will help some here), fortunately we have lots of control over block, dodge, and parry. We need to stack these stats so that we avoid as much incoming damage as possible. Block technically falls into the “mitigation” category where it only stops a portion of the incoming damage, so I will cover that next time, for now let’s talk about dodge and parry.

Dodge: This stat increases that chance that you will dodge the attack, avoiding the damage from the swing completely. That’s right, you take no damage if you dodge! This makes it one of the best stats for a tank to stack. This is obviously better than avoiding just a portion, and therefore all things being equal is preferable to block. It is harder to stack than block (less rating per point on your gear), but it’s well worth seeking out the gear to help with this.

Parry: You didn’t think it could get any better than avoiding all damage, but it can. When you increase your chance to parry an attack the tank benefits from the avoided damage. The swing timer on YOUR attack is sped up after a parry which results in more damage from you, and higher threat on your target. This stat is especially useful to warrior and death knight tanks (especially DKs). Bears can’t parry and Pallies see little benefit. It also happens to be the most difficult to stack in terms of points per overall avoidance percentage.

How Much Do You Need? It can obviously be bit of a balancing act getting all these stats straightened out. Overall a tank can become “block capped” at 102.4% avoidance. This means when dodge, parry, block, and miss add up to 102.4% every incoming attack will be affected by one of those stats. This is not easy to do, but remember to take into account class abilities. Paladins for example have a fairly easy time of reaching this because holy shield gives 30% extra block rating, and it is possible to keep it up 100% of the time. If you do reach the block cap then it is time to stop stacking block and replace it with the superior dodge. Ideally just stack as much avoidance as you can, because it rocks. Just strike a balance, some of it is more effective, some is easier to stack.

A few things to keep in mind are that there are diminishing returns on these stats, so taking one of them way above the others may not be your best bet. However when in doubt dodge is almost always your best option for an avoidance statistic. This topic goes pretty deep so feel free to read around for more info, I am just giving you the basics here.

What Is The Real World Raid Application? You can see how this would be very important in a raid. With raid bosses hitting as hard as they do, pushing some of that damage completely off the table is a huge plus to your raid. Looking at fights like Patchwerk, having an off-tank with high avoidance means some of his huge hateful strikes go away completely!

I would argue that avoidance is the most important stat for tanking as it has a profound affect on how much damage is coming it. You can have all the health in the world, but if you are taking lots of damage then you are still hard to heal, and are likely a big drain of mana on your healers.

That is my overview of avoidance, my personal favorite tanking stat. Next time I will go over mitigation, and how to take a chunk out of the damage that gets through!

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Blizzard has made it no secret that there are some big tanking changes on the horizon in Wrath. On the surface this has all seemed really exciting. There are tons of new spells, abilities, and mechanics all around. They have stated they want all of the tanking classes to be viable raid tanks, meaning that the ability for Paladins and Bears to tank single targets will be greatly improved. On the flip side Warriors and bears are getting some great AOE tanking abilities that were the Paladin’s bread and butter. As I first heard about these developments, I got really excited. As a Tankadin, I was getting the equivalent to last stand, shield wall, and shield slam. Mana problems will be a thing of the past, and during raids I won’t have to justify having a warrior main tank a boss instead of me (apologies to TRG’s warrior MT,  Jato). All these new abilities were incredibly exciting. Here’s a quick summary of the exclusive abilities I have noticed that have now crossed over between classes: Consecration – Both Thunder Clap and Swipe now hit unlimited targets, making them better for AOE Righteous Defense – Taunt and growl now work at range as well Holy Shield – Warriors will now also deal damage on blocks with Damage Shield Last Stand – Lay on Hands cool down has been greatly reduced, making it much more useful. Shield Wall – Divine Protection has been reworked to fill this role. Shield Slam – Hammer of the Righteous is a new skill with a similar effect. There are many more, I'm sure. After the initial excitement died down, it occurred to me: are we all going to be the same? Are we losing class distinctions and individuality? It started to not sit right. I love being able to do things that warriors can’t do. I love being the "go to guy" when you want to beat the Shattered Halls timer by 20 minutes. It’s a great feeling to round up a 12 pull without breaking a sweat. And, I’ll admit, I loved being the underdog when it came to being able to tank the big raid bosses (and loved even more proving my guild wrong when I did). It seems like all this will be gone… I will no longer be a Tankadin, I will just be a tank. Perhaps these changes aren’t so good after all? Now take this all with a grain of salt. I have not played the beta, so this may be all in my head, but I fear I may be dead on. Does anyone have any experience to prove me wrong? Are you as concerned as I am? Or is my concern unwarranted? I can’t say I’m completely sure myself.

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This may seem obvious to many of you, but I thought I would share a bit of insight that I learned the hard way. No matter how much you want to free up that extra bag slot, you should always think twice (or maybe 3 times) about destroying your hard earned pieces of loot. I know it is hard to see a use for those boots you got in Kara when you have a shiny new piece of tier 5 sitting in your bags, but chances are you will need it again. I learned this lesson the hard way when it came time for our guild to take on Hydross in SSC. This fight requires that the main tanks deck themselves out in full resist gear, while still remaining uncritable. I, of course, was elected to be the guilds frost tank, meaning I needed to have both 365 frost resist, and 490 defense. This is not an easy task, and I found myself having to get creative to keep my defense up. This meant regemming many of my lower level Kara items and blues to maximize defense. As I began this long process I came to realize that there were a few items that I had long ago disenchanted that would be perfect for this! There was the trinket from Shadow Labs, that belt from Moroes, and those boots from Chess that would have put me right where I needed to be with minimal effort. Of course I had stupidly decided that I would rather have a void crystal to sell than a “useless” piece of gear, so I went ahead and did what any good enchanter would do and sharded it all. Next thing I know, I need this gear again and I'm back in Kara rolling on loot! While getting this stuff is fun and exciting the first time around, the second time it turns into a real grind. There is nothing like keeping your fingers crossed that some loot will drop that you already won months ago! Lucky for me I have a great guild, that was very understanding in the matter, but still there was a lesson to be learned here. I think this may be a timely reminder with WotLK breathing down our necks. As we all hop on the first boats out to Northrend, I'm sure we will be seeing all sorts of new gear finding its way onto our toons. There is no doubt that we will eventually replace all we have, but take a second look before you get rid of anything for good. I know there are still vanilla WoW trinkets that are used in TBC end game, and I have no doubt there is a piece or two we have now that will have its situational use for a long time to come. Think twice about getting rid of your gear, particularly If you are a tank, but I imagine the same goes for others as well. You never know when the next fight, the next unexpected gear drop, or a creative application of an ability can change your whole set of priorities when it comes to important stats!

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Well here's an interesting follow-up to my last post here at ProjectLore.com. In a strange turn of events, I was on WoW the other night. I haven't had much time to play 'cuz I got all these episodes to make for you, but I had a moment or two to do a fishing daily. While I was running around Shatt, I saw a friend pop on that I hadn't seen in some time. I clicked on his name to see where he was and saw that he was no longer in a guild. What happened? This guy was a great pali tank and he wasn't in a guild? Kara, SSC, TK, BT, Hyjal, some Sunwell and no guild? I watched this guy go from pali healer to pali tank over the course of a few months to be one of the best tanks I've ever seen. So what gives? As you can see from the screen capture, something stupid happened (btw - the names have been blurred to protect the innocent (I think they're innocent - who knows)). His guild /gbooted him right out of the guild for being afk for too long. WTF? Their main tank booted 'cause he had to go afk to help his kids out? His RL children needed help and the guild booted him. What a-holes. Now who knows if the his side of the story is the complete picture, but I do know of more stories where someone was kicked out of a guild for some of the stupidest reasons I have ever heard. I've seen people get booted for not showing up to raids or bad mouthing the guild or ninjaing gear in pugs thus soiling the guild's name - all of which are mostly legit reasons to /gkick someone, but I've also seen some absolutely stupid reasons people have been booted. What's the raziest /gboot you've seen or heard of? Did someone not wear their tabard to a raid? Did they not rez someone when it was easier for them to run back? Did they not bring enough mana biscuits? So what was it? Let me know.

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So, as most of you know from my older post about my alt I'm currently leveling a Druid. From the comments I've tried a bunch of stuff and I'm having a bit more fun, so thanks everyone! That said, I'm now spec'd balance. I know, I know, but it's a change from my Rogue so I'm really enjoying it. Recently though, I was questing in the lovely Redridge Mountains, and I got a random whisper from someone asking for my help with a 26 Elite. "Ok," I said, and I headed over. We had a full group of 5 and there wasn't a tank. So I did what any good level 27 Druid would do and *bam* bear form, growl, swipe. I have to say, it was almost a life changing experience. After such a long time trying with all my abilities to avoid aggro, it was so freeing to want it for a change. And not having the guy leave me to kill a healer was so satisfying... I think I'm going to be a Bear Tank! - Dr Dark

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