Threatened
I returned to the 10 man scene this weekend doing Zu'lAman on Friday night and Karazhan on Sunday.
Friday night, I ran with a group from Heroes Inc that included Wichita, Bacon, Lakini, Origami, Sweatyz along with a couple of new faces like Bluetide, Desirabela, Dario, and Tonkadonk. We were going to try to get as many chests as we could.
The run went really well. We got to Bear and killed him with no major issues. I didn't have a single taunt resisted the whole fight. We had me on the human form and Tonkadonk doing a little Bear on Bear action. /ParisHilton: "That's hot!"
We went on to Eagle. I ran the gauntlet trash with me up front tanking the two elites and all the little eagles. Wichita suggested I try tanking Eagle Boss himself. We were very heavy on melee DPS and I was concerned. We had the attempt rocking pretty good when we lost two people. Shortly thereafter I went splat. I went back and looked at my combat log, but I didn't see a crush.
The next attempt we put Tonkadonk on Eagle and I threw on my healing gear, which is getting better. Right now, I sit at about 1300+ healing. I don't mind healing, especially on something like Eagle which is pretty heal intensive. I just don't want to do it full time.
We downed the Eagle boss and started pulling towards Lynx. The trash was pretty easy, though the mind control was interesting. One pull I got mind controlled right off the bat and the mobs got loose. We one shot Lynx with me and Tonkadonk tanking. I was picking up the Spirit Lynx. He got away from me one time, but I got him back before he killed anyone. It seems he has something like a secondary attack where he will change targets for just a moment and do something, then turned back to me.
As we moved from Boss to Boss, Desirabela would ask me about mages in MK and Dominion, mostly looking for information about how they were spec'ed. She told me she wanted to be the mage she could be. That's an admirable quality and the kind of attitude I like to see in people. I told her to try to find Raistlan. He's been every spec of mage known to man (or gnome).
We finished up there and moved onto the Dragonhawk. I gathered up the adds and we were ready for him to pop them all after just 3 hatchers. It got a little crazy because he teleported just before he hatched all the remaining eggs, but I was able to get the adds under control and we killed him as well. Neither shield that I could use dropped, instead some caster dagger.
I really wanted to continue onto Hex Lord, but it was midnight and I was driving to Charlotte for Code Camp the next day and had to be awake at 5am. I left the group.
Sunday, I was in WPL working on my fishing skill. Currently Honorshammer fishing skill is at around 275. I'm trying to get him to 375 so I can fish up my own food for raids, but I have one small problem.
I hate fishing.
While I was there, I was invited to go a Karazhan run by Thunderbolt, who I had raided with in SSC. They were doing Shade on up, including a shot at Nightbane. The group ended up being a mix of Dominion and another guild on our server called Manus Domini. I was really happy when the last DPS slot was filled with my old buddy Agamegnome.
We started with Nightbane. I was a little nervous because we only had one Priest to give me Fear Ward to handle Nightbane's fears. We had enough DPS that we never had more than 1 fear a phase. During the final phase, one of the Warlocks pulled aggro and got killed.
It was an odd moment for me. I haven't had a DPS pull aggro off me in months and months. I made a comment that I'd see what I could do to ramp up the TPS and switched into some high threat gear for trash.
I checked the Cfchief, who was healing/OT for the run. He thought I was doing a good job. I received a complement at Shade when I switched the DPS from Salvation to an appropiate DPS buff. Usually, they would have to remind a Paladin to switch the Blessings.
Our first hiccup of the run came at Netherspite when we lost control of the green beam. Netherspite got healed and we wiped. We fixed it our next go around and got him.
Then came the Prince.
Our first wipe on Prince was because one of the Warlocks passed me on threat and I got Enfeebled. He was right on my tail the second go and someone in the raid basically had to yell at him to either Soulshatter or stop casting.
This was really an odd occurrence to me. It's been a long time since I've had someone give me so much trouble to stay ahead of them on threat. I remember stories of Brekke/Joanadark talking about a mass of purple and yellow bars above his pink bar in Omen, when he was maintanking. I started watching Omen. The numbers would hover around 600-700 TPS, then drop to 200 TPS then rocket up to 1100 TPS. I'm going to see if there is another update to Omen tonight, maybe mine is bugged.
I know Dominion likes to use Misdirects almost constantly on their tanks, and we didn't have a Hunter in this group. I run nearly 500 spell damage in my tanking gear. I don't see a way to improve that dramatically without some of the upgrades I need from Black Temple (Najentus' Boots, Shade's Bracers), but I hate the thought of threat capping my DPS.
I checked some threads on Maintankadin and found a statement from someone who played a Destruction Warlock. He basically stated he was threat capped nearly constantly regardless of the class of the tank. I wonder if this Warlock in our Kara run was also Destruction spec. I know he would sacrifice his Succubus almost as soon as he summoned her. That's cold.
I really know very little about Warlocks. They have never appealed to me as a class.
After the Lock soulshattered I was able to stay on top of threat pretty well. I'm not sure if he throttled back or I was able to get into my rotation better or what. I was relieved that the group seem to be directing their ire at the Warlock and not their tank (me). I'm really trying to show I'm a good player, and build the trust people have in me tanking.
I wound up picking up a Jade Ring of the Everliving off of Prince. Now the only blue left in my regular healing set is A'dal's Recovery Necklace. If I can put my Hunter (just hit 67!) on the backburner for a couple of nights, I should be able to grind up some honor to buy the PVP neck.
My badge count is back up over 100. I'm holding onto badges at the moment, but I'm thinking about getting some Fire Resist gear off the Badge vendor for Anetheron and hopefully, one day, for Illidan.
My next alt project is going to be a Resto Druid who I am hoping to have around level 55 right before Lich King drops. I'll never lack for a group for anything! (Deathknigths are Tank/DPS, but they are going to need healers). I really hope I enjoy Resto Druid healing better than I did Holy Paladin.
Friday night, I ran with a group from Heroes Inc that included Wichita, Bacon, Lakini, Origami, Sweatyz along with a couple of new faces like Bluetide, Desirabela, Dario, and Tonkadonk. We were going to try to get as many chests as we could.
The run went really well. We got to Bear and killed him with no major issues. I didn't have a single taunt resisted the whole fight. We had me on the human form and Tonkadonk doing a little Bear on Bear action. /ParisHilton: "That's hot!"
We went on to Eagle. I ran the gauntlet trash with me up front tanking the two elites and all the little eagles. Wichita suggested I try tanking Eagle Boss himself. We were very heavy on melee DPS and I was concerned. We had the attempt rocking pretty good when we lost two people. Shortly thereafter I went splat. I went back and looked at my combat log, but I didn't see a crush.
The next attempt we put Tonkadonk on Eagle and I threw on my healing gear, which is getting better. Right now, I sit at about 1300+ healing. I don't mind healing, especially on something like Eagle which is pretty heal intensive. I just don't want to do it full time.
We downed the Eagle boss and started pulling towards Lynx. The trash was pretty easy, though the mind control was interesting. One pull I got mind controlled right off the bat and the mobs got loose. We one shot Lynx with me and Tonkadonk tanking. I was picking up the Spirit Lynx. He got away from me one time, but I got him back before he killed anyone. It seems he has something like a secondary attack where he will change targets for just a moment and do something, then turned back to me.
As we moved from Boss to Boss, Desirabela would ask me about mages in MK and Dominion, mostly looking for information about how they were spec'ed. She told me she wanted to be the mage she could be. That's an admirable quality and the kind of attitude I like to see in people. I told her to try to find Raistlan. He's been every spec of mage known to man (or gnome).
We finished up there and moved onto the Dragonhawk. I gathered up the adds and we were ready for him to pop them all after just 3 hatchers. It got a little crazy because he teleported just before he hatched all the remaining eggs, but I was able to get the adds under control and we killed him as well. Neither shield that I could use dropped, instead some caster dagger.
I really wanted to continue onto Hex Lord, but it was midnight and I was driving to Charlotte for Code Camp the next day and had to be awake at 5am. I left the group.
Sunday, I was in WPL working on my fishing skill. Currently Honorshammer fishing skill is at around 275. I'm trying to get him to 375 so I can fish up my own food for raids, but I have one small problem.
I hate fishing.
While I was there, I was invited to go a Karazhan run by Thunderbolt, who I had raided with in SSC. They were doing Shade on up, including a shot at Nightbane. The group ended up being a mix of Dominion and another guild on our server called Manus Domini. I was really happy when the last DPS slot was filled with my old buddy Agamegnome.
We started with Nightbane. I was a little nervous because we only had one Priest to give me Fear Ward to handle Nightbane's fears. We had enough DPS that we never had more than 1 fear a phase. During the final phase, one of the Warlocks pulled aggro and got killed.
It was an odd moment for me. I haven't had a DPS pull aggro off me in months and months. I made a comment that I'd see what I could do to ramp up the TPS and switched into some high threat gear for trash.
I checked the Cfchief, who was healing/OT for the run. He thought I was doing a good job. I received a complement at Shade when I switched the DPS from Salvation to an appropiate DPS buff. Usually, they would have to remind a Paladin to switch the Blessings.
Our first hiccup of the run came at Netherspite when we lost control of the green beam. Netherspite got healed and we wiped. We fixed it our next go around and got him.
Then came the Prince.
Our first wipe on Prince was because one of the Warlocks passed me on threat and I got Enfeebled. He was right on my tail the second go and someone in the raid basically had to yell at him to either Soulshatter or stop casting.
This was really an odd occurrence to me. It's been a long time since I've had someone give me so much trouble to stay ahead of them on threat. I remember stories of Brekke/Joanadark talking about a mass of purple and yellow bars above his pink bar in Omen, when he was maintanking. I started watching Omen. The numbers would hover around 600-700 TPS, then drop to 200 TPS then rocket up to 1100 TPS. I'm going to see if there is another update to Omen tonight, maybe mine is bugged.
I know Dominion likes to use Misdirects almost constantly on their tanks, and we didn't have a Hunter in this group. I run nearly 500 spell damage in my tanking gear. I don't see a way to improve that dramatically without some of the upgrades I need from Black Temple (Najentus' Boots, Shade's Bracers), but I hate the thought of threat capping my DPS.
I checked some threads on Maintankadin and found a statement from someone who played a Destruction Warlock. He basically stated he was threat capped nearly constantly regardless of the class of the tank. I wonder if this Warlock in our Kara run was also Destruction spec. I know he would sacrifice his Succubus almost as soon as he summoned her. That's cold.
I really know very little about Warlocks. They have never appealed to me as a class.
After the Lock soulshattered I was able to stay on top of threat pretty well. I'm not sure if he throttled back or I was able to get into my rotation better or what. I was relieved that the group seem to be directing their ire at the Warlock and not their tank (me). I'm really trying to show I'm a good player, and build the trust people have in me tanking.
I wound up picking up a Jade Ring of the Everliving off of Prince. Now the only blue left in my regular healing set is A'dal's Recovery Necklace. If I can put my Hunter (just hit 67!) on the backburner for a couple of nights, I should be able to grind up some honor to buy the PVP neck.
My badge count is back up over 100. I'm holding onto badges at the moment, but I'm thinking about getting some Fire Resist gear off the Badge vendor for Anetheron and hopefully, one day, for Illidan.
My next alt project is going to be a Resto Druid who I am hoping to have around level 55 right before Lich King drops. I'll never lack for a group for anything! (Deathknigths are Tank/DPS, but they are going to need healers). I really hope I enjoy Resto Druid healing better than I did Holy Paladin.
Comments
Also, threat management on a destro lock is difficult since the only thing they do is shadowbolting. They either do a lot of damage or none at all, unlike for example affliction locks who can leave their dots ticking but not shadowbolt if things get dicey.
Of course, that's where soulshatter comes in and the guy should've used it. Wouldn't feel too bad about it if I were you.
Nice description here:
http://destructivereach.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/un-talented/
Because of a lot of easy to get crafteds (Frozen Shadow Weave, Spellstrike, Belt of Blasting) it's not unusual for them to run at 1.0-1.5k DPS (and top the damage done chart) pre-Kara.
I wouldn't be surprised at them out-threating you. They should be at 25-35% crit and they regularly see 8-10k crit Shadow Bolts.
My understanding is that everyone else's gear doesn't catch up to these crafteds until T5-T6.
Make sure the Warlocks have Salvation. Admonish them to watch their aggro.
Nibuca
http://chicanery.fibergeek.com/
It's interesting to hear your interest in a resto druid. I have enjoyed the character alot. The healing is more "proactive" than reactive as it happens with the other healing classes. I find myself anticipating the incoming damage and try to counter it with the right amount of HoTs as well as juggling the mana issue. But druids are versatile too (much like Paladins) in that Thursday night I respecced to off tank Kara (and I got to MT Curator). While my tanking gear pales in comparison to yours, I still managed to put up the numbers I needed to for early Kara. Times like that make you appreciate your raiding comrades and their responsibilities that much more.
I too have considered lvling an alt for the expansion. I have a lvl19 Draeni Warrior and a lvl41 Shaman. I just haven't decided yet which one to stick with. It'll probably be the warrior so that I'll never be out of a group.
Just get the SSO exalted healing neck (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=34677) and you'll be set.
If you're already gotten enough fishing skill, you might just want to park that toon in Wailing Cavern and fish deviant fish. At least they're worth something on AH (and if you can get someone to cook 'em, all the better).
Destruction warlocks are notorious for high threat. There's really not much you can do expect throw on Salvation and pray he doesn't get lucky (long string of crits) too often.