Alt Update

Askevar is now 2h frost tank to collect souls for shadow’s edge.  Her threat actually seems a bit higher than in the dual wield build… not appreciably, but just a smidge.  I got just over 200 souls last week between a run of the first 4 bosses in ICC [6 of our 10 regulars were out so we snagged other random people and alts to fill] and ICC25 up through fester and rotface with a few shots at Dreamwalker – YAY ADDS!

Askalaphos – My hunter is now decked out in 4 piece t10, thanks to VoA 🙂  She’s a great example of toon in excellent gear doing mediocre dps.  On a stand and burn I can hit 5k…  with anything else I hover in the 3-4k range.  That’s fine for heroics… but yeah… the idea of raiding with her in this shape is not pleasing.  I may need to consider a respec.

Alika – My pallytank is coming along well.  I’m hoping to get her into an ICC run eventually… as either tank or dps.  I’ve snagged a couple failed pugs so far that either couldn’t clear the trash or wouldn’t listen to mechanics and wiped on Marrowgar.  But I’d love to replace her 219 tanking ring… and frankly her 219 shield as well.  Her day will come 🙂  I’ll get a pug that can hit lower spire eventually.  I’m saving up the badges for her tanking pants next.  Her ret set is pretty good, but it’s all crafted/ICC 5 mans drops.  Yes, I’m very aware that the NES isn’t the ideal trinket for her ret offspec.  Unfortunately, most of the ones she needs are in ICC…  not going to happen anytime soon and I darn well don’t need 500 hit… so the hit trinket is out.  And “facerolling” 4-5k in an offspec ain’t bad either in randoms.

Carlyn – is slowly gearing up.  I have several more things she needs via triumphs before she’s “complete” there, but she’s coming along well.  I actually managed to pull 5k on a heroic boss fight [I stink at trash – big shock I know] so maybe I’ve not forgotten too much of warlocking from back in BC.

Aulao – My mage is doing alright.  I’ve cannibalized most of her frost for saronite for Shadow’s Edge [and my poor shaman’s as well] so they’re both behind on gear, but still doing okay.  She’s been arcane for a while but I’ve been experimenting with fire – with mixed results.

Tsali – Enhancement/resto – but spends more time in healing gear than in dps gear ironically.  I heal so that I can buy her better enhancement gear…  Still having issues with resto shaman healing in some of the simplest places.  If the group is good, it all goes smoothly.  If I have jerks and people pulling for the tank… well.. we’re probably going to wipe.  I don’t have the instincts yet or the skill to do any amazing saves.

Arica – My kitty is about 20 badges from 4 piece t10 and she’s doing awesomely…  probably the best of all my dps toons.  I’m  pulling 6-7k dps on boss fights and typically end up with an overall of 4-6k.  I’m impressed and the “rotation” really clicks well with my playing style.  She’s my primary dps alt

Kintara – My primary alt and I love her so!  If I could walk away from tanking and Askevar I would be playing her as my main.  However, I still adore tanking and Askevar too much to give up.  Disc priesting is wacky bubbly fun :D.  Save for a drop in VoA25, I may never see, she’s as geared as she can be short of ICC10/25 gear.

Kalliana – Um… she’s there.  She does the weekly and is done with gearing from triumphs… just need a better ring [curse you HPOS!!]

Odyyn – He just got his first piece of t10.  I seem to fall in and out of love with warrior tanking… some weeks I like it and run his dailies… some weeks I don’t.  Of course, jerks in ICC 25 gear can test many a tank’s patience.

Now, how do I keep it straight?  I honestly don’t know…  I just do.  They are separate toons, with separate personalities… they’re individuals, so it seems easy enough.  I also have a list on rememberthemilk dot com of things I need/want/would like to do.  I mark them off when I get them done.

“But you’re making WoW into a chore!”

No, I’m not…  I have no deadlines set on the list… no requirement to get everything or anything done.  But hey, if I get in a mood to explore or grind rep, I can easily look and see who needs what, pick what I want and go.  It’s about efficiency.  Altoholic helps with that too.  But I try to make anything I do go quickly and easily.  Since I’m cutting back on my WoW time, that’s even more important.  And if I don’t touch the list for a week?  Who cares?!

Oculus Insanity

Queued up on my druid…  got Oculus of all places.  Cool, she still needs to ride a green drake for the experienced drake rider – [and I’m not going to ask for the voids in a pug].  As a tank and as a healer, I’ve helped numerous people – guildie and non, get this achievement.  It’s a small thing that can make someone’s day.  So I do what I expect pugs to do – and ask in party if anyone minds me getting the green drake as it’s the last one I need for the achievement.  No one objects and we begin.  We down the first boss without incident, I snag my green drake and move to the middle platform.  In the middle of the second pull, the healer asks

“y u got gren drak?”

I reply that as I said earlier it was the last one I needed for the experienced drake rider achievement and I really would like to get that done if possible.

“When?”

“Earlier in party.”

“Where?”

“In party chat”

*silence*

I do notice that I stop getting heals from aoe damage.  Okay, cool.  I have cooldowns as a kitty and I can heal myself if need be.  The healer does actually heal me on the bosses…. I guess my 6-7k boss fight dps was important since the two locks in party were doing 1300 each, but who knows?

We fly through the instance – get to the last boss, get up there and begin.  Since the healer insisted on staying on a green drake, I figured I’d keep the damage debuff up on the boss and let her handle her forte – the healing.  Well, mid fight she stops healing anyone but herself – so I start healing.  She’s sitting off the the side firing the poison at the boss – that’s it.    Boss goes down handily as everyone obviously knows what to do.  We land and loot… just in time to see the healer diving into a group of whelps and dying… to try and kill me apparently.  I looted the chest and dropped group so fast – ended up in Dalaran with 200 health left.

Seriously, what was the point?  I wasn’t asking for anything extraordinary, and no one else had issue with it.  I’ve swapped with someone who needed the green or red a number of times in oculus – since I get that all the time as a random and as long as they asked nicely, was more than happy to do it.

Have I Psyched Myself Out?

I often joke that I minored in worrying… because well, I’m good at it.  I’m starting to realize that I’ve let other people erode my self-confidence as a death knight tank. 

On my pally, threat has rarely been an issue – randoms or otherwise.  I can half sleep through the instance and keep threat on stuff.  Not that being good at pallytanking is easy, because it takes work and practice.  It is EASIER.  On my warrior I knew the “problems” they face going in.  I accepted them, and made a conscious decision to be fearless and plunge into heroics.  It worked and my warrior tanking experience has been mostly successful.  Now I’m working on getting my druid out there tanking… and I’m facing a lot of the same insecurities.  I took her on a guild heroics run this evening and did alright…  Had threat pulled a few times, and caught up with a bear tank friend who gave me a few tips…  I may try it again.  I won’t go into heroics until I consider myself good enough or until I make a conscious decision to be as fearless as I was on the warrior.

But back to the death knight…  It’s been a struggle with her for a long time.  Not because she sucks, or I don’t play her well.. or anything other than self-image.  Now, don’t be thinking I’m considering giving up dk tanking here.  I love it and I believe it complements my hubby’s pallytanking well… but I also have my own frustrations.  I’ve let a lot of stuff get to me that shouldn’t.  Former officer in the guild berating me on officerchat for low threat [dk versus pally], as well as in vent.  Same officer taunting mobs off me in the 25 man raids in order to be the center of attention…  pug healers that see me and “omg dk tank – drop group”.  The many disastrous pugs I’ve encountered on my dk and the poison that is trade chat – espousing that dks should never tank and weren’t made to tank…    It also can be a frustration when I can’t get a rune strike to proc in ICC and hubby’s aoe threat keeps yanking stuff, so I can’t get a rune strike… etc.  Bad RNG can suck.  BADLY.

My dk who was made and specced and geared with raid [mostly] single target tanking in mind… has trouble in heroics with ICC geared dps going all out [specifically bladestorming warriors, nonmisdirecting hunters and on occasion mages].  I see other dk tanks having the same issues… and warrior tanks, who are even more aoe threat starved than I am…  And I realize that I’m not alone.  I’m not the only one struggling and fighting to be the best and do their best.  Maybe this is why I try to be more careful with warrior and dk tanks on my dps toons.  I rarely have to tread very cautiously with pallytanks and bear tanks are rather rare in my random experience… so usually the ones that exist are very geared, very good, and have very few issues.

As several guildies have told me – my tanking talent is there and I’m good at it.  I just need to stop worrying, be fearless and just tank.

So… Let’s all be fearless together.  If you have a toon with a tank or healing spec that is ready for heroics but you’ve been too timid to try it, today is the day!  Throw yourself out there and just do it!  I declare today “Fearless” day!  Feel free to reply and tell us how it goes, good or bad!  Do it!!!  Do it NAO!!!

ETA: “Fearless” day can apply to all toons eligible for dungeon finder!

Weekend in Review

Decided to do a quick post before going to bed because I feel like it 😛

I spent the weekend doing a good bit of grinding Emblems of Triumph [and frost] on my main and alts. My death knight tank is of course getting the best and such, but the Disc Priest is second on that list, followed by the kitty druid, enhancement shaman, hunter and mage.

Askalaphos, my hunter got a few nice things because I ran her through the new instances on regular – Heartshiver, Krick’s Beetle Stabber and Rimebane Rifle.  She ended up getting the Windrunners Spaulders of Conquest with badges as well.

Aulao, my mage snagged herself a new wand, the Brimstone Igniter, getting her “Superior” level on all gear.

Arica, my kitty druid finally snagged the idol I’ve been working on casually for a long time – Idol of Mutilation.

Kintara now has 3 pieces of tier 9 and I’m loving it!  I’m 39ish badges away from the final t9 piece and I then plan to work on Merlin’s Robe and Bejeweled Wizard’s Bracers as well.  She snagged these:  Velen’s Leggings of Conquest, Velen’s Gloves of Conquest and she already had Velen’s Shoulderpads of Conquest.

Askevar, my main, snagged a trophy from ToC25 on Saturday evening and upgraded her chestpiece [Thassarian’s Chestguard of Triumph] and since I had the badges sitting, I went ahead and upgraded my gloves [Thassarian’s Handguards of Conquest] and pants [Thassarian’s Legguards of Conquest] to tier 9.  She’s never done better tanking than she did tonight… even with the dodge nerf, her threat was amazing and for the first time in a long time, I actually felt solid – which is a big deal for me because I have never felt on solid ground where she’s concerned.  I know that sounds crazy, but, well…  Let’s just say I think I finally accepted that she’ll never have pally level threat and I am where I am for a reason – because I’m getting the job done to the best of my ability…  Maybe nothing like the pressure of a new instance can make you focus on your strengths and attempt to overcome any weaknesses?  Eh, I dunno but it felt amazingly good.

And finally, my hubby queued up his baby pally with my baby prot warrior for a level 74ish instance.  I went dps because I didn’t really have good tank gear and I didn’t want to be a detriment.  I bought dual-spec for the occasion lol.  We got in there and the “tank” [another pally] had half of everyone else’s health and was a level higher.  He was using spellpower and ret gear rather than tanking/defense gear.  After a couple wipes, we voted him out since he decided to just refuse to move or do anything and I queued up as tank/dps [which seemed to relieve the shaman healer].  I did much better as a tank than I had as a dps and only lost threat a couple times when hubby’s baby pally spiked 2k dps [yes at level 73].

I love the new instance finder because I can get 3-4 toons through for their daily frost while my son has his morning nap!  I LOVE it!