A Disciplined Tank

I was able to get another Karazhan group going this weekend. This time we had a Shadow Priest and a Holy Priest.

My offtank for the run was Lamashtu. He's a Feral Druid who has gone resto for runs before. I also had a DPS Warrior in the raid so I could get Commanding Shout on the tougher bosses.

We killed lower Kara (Attumen, Moroes, Maiden, Opera, Curator). Out of all the bosses, the one that gave us the most trouble was Opera. We got Big Bad Wolf. This is usually considered an "easy" encounter. We were having two problems.

1. People not running away fast enough or running the wrong way. We eventually corrected this by having everyone stand across from where we were tanking him instead of diagonally. This way people knew the direction he'd be coming so we could run the other way.

2. Threat. Between him chasing Little Red Riding Hood and fearing constantly, I was having a tough time building threat. We had Lam go Bear and build threat with me. Lam was able to use his Feral Charge ability to get the Wolf back quickly.

Maiden was kind enough to give up her Neck piece.
Of all the upgrades I need from Kara, this is probably the most important right now. It replaces one of my remaining "blues" and further increases my Stamina. Unbuffed, I'm sitting at 12.6k hit points, with 20% dodge, 16% parry, and 20% block.
The only other "blues" I have left now are my Back, Ring, Trinket, Chest and Legs. I can get both the the chest and legs upgraded via Badges. For the Trinket, I really need Moroes'. The dodge on that thing is just so nice. I actually have an epic ring to replace my Andormu's Tear, but it really helps in the Uncrushable department.

I missed the 2nd night of the run when they did Chess and Aran. I'd love to tell you I hated missing it, but I didn't. I don't need a thing from either boss and that is some of the longest and most annoying trash in the place.

When we got going again last night we decided to do Prince. We tried him several times but never got a kill. I can see why people hate this fight so much. We had horrible luck with Infernals each attempt. Our best attempt we had him down to 1% when an Infernal dropped on our range and DPS while a couple of them were enfebbled. They were hemmed in and really couldn't move. Lam and I did everything we could to stay alive for those last few seconds but in the end, we died.

Two of the three healers for the run are rather new to Kara. I don't know if that was the problem or if it was just bad Infernal luck. I'm finding that as a tank who was a former healer, I'm very very reluctant to pin blame on the healers. I hated when tanks would do that back when I was healing. However, I do feel the need to communicate to the raid why I died. If I didn't get a single heal for 6 seconds (as happened in one of our attempts), I need to tell them that. Everytime we wipe, I just know someone is thinking 'We've have killed him with a Warrior Tank'. I know that's probably not true, but such is the life of an offspec.

The other project I worked on this weekend was my Engineering. I must say its coming along very well. One of my guildies has been very very generous in helping out with some of the materials I'm going to need. Last night I lined up the Arcanite Bar and Heavy Knothide Leather I'm going to need.

It looks like 2.3 will not be going live today. That means I've got another week to gather Badges. Although I just found out that Mech will only have 4 Badges once the patch hits. At least I won't have to decide between doing Kara and Heroics. Both will give Badges.

We are preparing for attempts on Void Reaver this week. I'm very excited about the opportunity to try him. Maybe I'll get lucky with a Seventh Ring in the trash on the way to him.