Tank Validation and Accountability

Tanks make mistakes too.

I’ve decided to continue this series on my observations about how different roles are treated. I’ve already hit the big one to me, and that is healing. Next, I plan to point out some of the faults blamed on tanks, including a story from a fellow tank and friend of mine.

Like healing, tanking is often a required role in a group. Not always, at least 98% of the time in 5 mans, but 100% in raids. The short and sweet is that if you do not have a meat shield on the front lines, you are going to become that meat shield. That mound of flesh wrapped in plate (or furry leather) armor is there to get punched in the face repeatedly so you don’t have to. Because of this, they too should be treated with a certain level of respect. In addition to their normal duties, Tanks also often are placed in a position of leadership, whether they like it or not.

For nearly 6 months, I would tank on my Paladin. It was a nice change of pace, but also changed my view of how a tank’s job works. I remember when I first started the dungeon crawl, that the tank was allowed a certain amount of time at the beginning of a pull to gain aggro. This was before threat became such an easy thing to come by. Back when Warriors had to get a certain number of Sunder Armors off before the raid or group even thought about casting anything. Now-a-days, from what I’ve noticed, that is no longer the case. It is now a race to the end of the dungeon, and a test to see who can kill the mob faster. Normally this wouldn’t bother me, as quick runs mean quick rewards, but it can cause problems as well.

Workin’ all Night and Day

Just got some new Blue news today on some of the changes to Professions in cataclysm. As paladins, there are several professions that would best fit our class. Especially with the hybrid aspect of our class, there are several that can provide benefits for each spec.

It seems to be pulling some folks out of the woodworks, and I’m sure pulling the farmers out, so that they can begin gathering to flood the market early.

Farmers/AH Stalkers coming out of the Woodworks

I personally have Mining and Enchanting on my Paladin.  I have been really slow at leveling these skills, but have finally reached 450 with Enchanting, and am at least onto Northrend ores with mining.

I chose enchanting specifically because I didn’t want to dump the cash to buy enchants, and would rather gain the materials myself if possible. Now-a-days, everyone gets some materials if I’m in the group, but I still end up getting my fair share. I would enjoy it if the enchanter himself gets slightly more if they win the disenchant roll, but that’s only wishing. I have taken full advantage though, and am able to sometimes enchant a new piece of gear mid raid/dungeon, allowing me to use it right away.

I chose mining partially for the chance at getting gems and either selling them or getting them cut, but that’s just taken a long time, and I’ve been a bit lazy about it. The stamina boost, however, was somewhat useful, especially when I was tanking.

The new changes from Cataclysm though, do promise some interesting changes. See more info on it after the break.

Cataclysm Speculations: Old Gods

Cataclysm Screenshot of the Day

Blizzard had recently announced that the the Friends & Family Beta/Alpha testing has begun. According to the Blues, the F&F Testing is covered by a NDA (Non Discloser Act). Well, that doesn’t always stop everybody. Just last night, MMO-Champion spewed some sweet screenshots onto their front page. Allegedly, these are from the Alpha client, and are views of some of the affected areas. Well, I’m a sucker for spoilers, especially pretty eye candy like these. So, I plan to point out a few that I found interesting.

Just in case, here’s a SPOILER ALERT! I plan to post some of the images as well as some speculation on them, so please don’t continue if you don’t plan to see anything till Cataclysm is released.

Diamonds are Forever: Paladin Gemming Part II

Welcome to Part II of my guide to Paladin Gemming. Here we’ll cover Prismatic, Dragon’s Eye (Jewelcrafter only), and Meta Gems. Again, I have marked each with what spec it works best with. In this case, I also marked some for their PvP uses, mostly including those with Resilience or Stun/Silence/Fear reduction effects.

First up, we’ll talk about the Prismatic gems. These provide increases to all stats in a single gem, most often used as filler gems, as they match every color, and can be used to fill the requirements of one red, one yellow, AND one blue gem for Meta gems.

Prismatic
	Enchanted Pearl	+4 Stats
	Enchanted Tear	+6 Stats
	Nightmare Tear	+10 Stats

It’s obvious what is provided by each, and the only difference is the amount of stat increase, and cost. Obviously Nightmare Tears are far more expensive then the lesser Enchanted gems.

Diamonds are Forever: Paladin Gemming

Good afternoon folks…

Big 'ol Gem

Got a new topic on my mind, this time dealing with Gems. Not just any gems, but gems good for Holy and Retribution paladins. I would go into Protection paladins, but I think that has been covered fairly thoroughly.

A good while back, I had created a sheet with all the different gem types, and their uses. Some of that has changed due to the +healing +spell damage combination, but not that much. So, here’s my little guide to gems and what I’ve chosen for my own gemming needs on both my Holy and Retribution sets.

The Basics

Below I have put together a set of tables including the different colors of gems, as well as the attributes in which they modify. Each gem will match the same color slot, in the cases of gem bonuses; HOWEVER, you can put whatever color gem, in whatever color slot you want, there is no limitations, only the loss of the extra gemming bonus.

Maintaining a Tank / Healer UI

I had promised to provide more “guides” to tank/healer coordination, and felt that this was a good topic on how they each display and use different UI elements. 

Holy and Protection UIs

I consider your UI (User Interface) the most important thing on your screen when playing WoW, well at least when raiding/dungeon-crawling.  Well, and outside of the fire that you are not supposed to be standing in… that’s important too; but I digress. 

When participating in a raid or dungeon, you need information at your finger tips.  Whether it be the health of your fellow party when healing, or the health of the boss and his adds when dpsing, or even the health of both the boss and your party when tanking.  As I have mentioned before, I’m a glutton for punishment since I have spec’d both Holy and Protection as my dual specs.  Basically I get to either stress out over keeping everyone alive, or stress out over keeping everyone alive and making sure that nobody goes and kills one of my teammates. Kind of speeds up the burnout process, but as the Help Tips during the loading screens say “Be sure to take all things in moderation, even World of Warcraft.” 

Anyway, being both a tank and a healer, my UI needs to change each time that I change specs.  I was in a hurry, and unable to send the pics to the PC that I post from, but will add them later, as I have an example of my tanking and my healing UI, and the differences between each. There are different focuses that you need to… focus.. on when healing or tanking.  I’m guessing that some would say that that’s obvious, but I’m simply trying to point out the specifics.