Tank Once More, If Only For a Night
I finished up the Jade Forest last night, and I have to say I really like the way Blizzard worked the story lines into the zone. The end of the zone was excellent and set up the Jade Temple dungeon well. I loved the cut scene at the end, and how we deal with the aftermath.
I saw some guild mates asking to run a regular dungeon and I volunteered to go along. I was fine with going as Retribution, but they figured I wanted to tank. For the first time since coming back to WoW, I was going strap on my shield and tank.
I quickly read the Basic Training thread on MainTankadin so I would have a clue as to what I was doing and off we went. This was my first time in the Jade Temple dungeon and my guild mates talked me through the fights. We had a very good Death Knight with us, and I struggled to maintain threat, especially in AoE situations. I really missed not having Righteous Defense.
Note to self, Sha puddles HURT. Yowza! I was tanking the floor for the rest of that pull.
I like that we use Consecration again, even on single targets. It hearkens back to the 'Round them up and Consecrate' early days of Paladin tanking.
Holy Power generation feels much less fluid as Protection than it does as Retribution. I felt like I was constantly starved for Holy Power. Most of the time I dumped it into Shield of the Righteous. Only occasionally did I use Word of Glory.
We did the water boss first (sorry for not remembering the names). Our Death Knight death gripped the elemental over, I taunted and our dps burned it down. Then we ran around the boss, and burned him down.
We went to the library next and got the fight with the two mobs. We weren't great at switching DPS and the buff these guys get stacked pretty high. My health yoyoed around like it hasn't since Ice Crown Citadel. To survive I made liberal use of all my cooldowns: Ardent Defender, Guardian of Ancient Kings, Bastioned up Word of Glory. I even quaffed a pot or two.
After defeating those two we went back to the front and fought the Jade Serpent. I'm not really sure why. She was nice to me while I was questing, but now she wanted to make me a dragon chew toy and barbecue me. That lead to the final boss, the Sha of Doubt. Everything was going great until he called in our doppelgangers, then it got a little crazy. I survived those, and I think the incredible DPS our team was pulling down helped a lot.
We decided to queue up again after the dungeon was cleared and got the Brewery. This was a crazy place. Lots of adds everywhere and lots and lots and lots of beer. The first boss I've dubbed the Donkey Kong boss in my mind for all the barrels flying around. They hurt when they hit you though. We had lots of fun with the rabbit boss and the hammers the vermin dropped. The giant rabbit did a spray attack almost exactly like the Jinyu boss in the Jade Temple. Somebody on the dungeons design team really liked the Lurker Below fight. The final boss was a bit rough, and the Death Knight did almost as much tanking as I did. We had to get into these bubbles and fly around, a little like the Magister's Terrace fight.
It was a good night. Despite being really rusty and having a bunch of Cataclysm level greens I managed to survive both dungeons. I finished the night just a couple bars shy of 87.
Guild
I enjoyed being back in the tanking saddle again, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get back to tanking once I get to raiding. I still really don't know what's going on with the guild.
My friend Blue, who gifted me the scroll of resurrection came to this guild after I left for Star Wars. These guys raided all through Cataclysm and did pretty well. Toward the end of Cataclysm, several of my former guild mates came back tot he game and we all sort of congregated in this guild. I don't know if we will be trying to raid with the guild or if we will be forming our own team.
I'm leveling way slower than just about anyone else. I think some people will have an alt at 90 before I get there on my main. Once I do get to 90, I'll need to prioritize one role to get geared enough to raid.I just don't have a clue what role that will be.
Lowbies
I ended up making a Panda Monk, but I also made a Blood Elf mage. I've wanted to try a mage as my next class and a Blood Elf just seem to make more sense. Let's face it, male or female, they look great in the dresses and robes mages wear.
I've got a couple friend who stopped playing early in Burning Crusade and have never had a toon over Level 25. We are going to sort of go through the game together. As soon as they get their Monk and Shaman off of the Wandering Isles, I'll take the orb from Silvermoon to Undercity and catch the Zeppelin to Orgrimaar.
It's going to be wild seeing all these old sites through new eyes.
So are you raiding yet? How are you enjoying MoP so far?
I saw some guild mates asking to run a regular dungeon and I volunteered to go along. I was fine with going as Retribution, but they figured I wanted to tank. For the first time since coming back to WoW, I was going strap on my shield and tank.
I quickly read the Basic Training thread on MainTankadin so I would have a clue as to what I was doing and off we went. This was my first time in the Jade Temple dungeon and my guild mates talked me through the fights. We had a very good Death Knight with us, and I struggled to maintain threat, especially in AoE situations. I really missed not having Righteous Defense.
Note to self, Sha puddles HURT. Yowza! I was tanking the floor for the rest of that pull.
I like that we use Consecration again, even on single targets. It hearkens back to the 'Round them up and Consecrate' early days of Paladin tanking.
Holy Power generation feels much less fluid as Protection than it does as Retribution. I felt like I was constantly starved for Holy Power. Most of the time I dumped it into Shield of the Righteous. Only occasionally did I use Word of Glory.
We did the water boss first (sorry for not remembering the names). Our Death Knight death gripped the elemental over, I taunted and our dps burned it down. Then we ran around the boss, and burned him down.
We went to the library next and got the fight with the two mobs. We weren't great at switching DPS and the buff these guys get stacked pretty high. My health yoyoed around like it hasn't since Ice Crown Citadel. To survive I made liberal use of all my cooldowns: Ardent Defender, Guardian of Ancient Kings, Bastioned up Word of Glory. I even quaffed a pot or two.
After defeating those two we went back to the front and fought the Jade Serpent. I'm not really sure why. She was nice to me while I was questing, but now she wanted to make me a dragon chew toy and barbecue me. That lead to the final boss, the Sha of Doubt. Everything was going great until he called in our doppelgangers, then it got a little crazy. I survived those, and I think the incredible DPS our team was pulling down helped a lot.
We decided to queue up again after the dungeon was cleared and got the Brewery. This was a crazy place. Lots of adds everywhere and lots and lots and lots of beer. The first boss I've dubbed the Donkey Kong boss in my mind for all the barrels flying around. They hurt when they hit you though. We had lots of fun with the rabbit boss and the hammers the vermin dropped. The giant rabbit did a spray attack almost exactly like the Jinyu boss in the Jade Temple. Somebody on the dungeons design team really liked the Lurker Below fight. The final boss was a bit rough, and the Death Knight did almost as much tanking as I did. We had to get into these bubbles and fly around, a little like the Magister's Terrace fight.
It was a good night. Despite being really rusty and having a bunch of Cataclysm level greens I managed to survive both dungeons. I finished the night just a couple bars shy of 87.
Guild
I enjoyed being back in the tanking saddle again, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get back to tanking once I get to raiding. I still really don't know what's going on with the guild.
My friend Blue, who gifted me the scroll of resurrection came to this guild after I left for Star Wars. These guys raided all through Cataclysm and did pretty well. Toward the end of Cataclysm, several of my former guild mates came back tot he game and we all sort of congregated in this guild. I don't know if we will be trying to raid with the guild or if we will be forming our own team.
I'm leveling way slower than just about anyone else. I think some people will have an alt at 90 before I get there on my main. Once I do get to 90, I'll need to prioritize one role to get geared enough to raid.I just don't have a clue what role that will be.
Lowbies
I ended up making a Panda Monk, but I also made a Blood Elf mage. I've wanted to try a mage as my next class and a Blood Elf just seem to make more sense. Let's face it, male or female, they look great in the dresses and robes mages wear.
I've got a couple friend who stopped playing early in Burning Crusade and have never had a toon over Level 25. We are going to sort of go through the game together. As soon as they get their Monk and Shaman off of the Wandering Isles, I'll take the orb from Silvermoon to Undercity and catch the Zeppelin to Orgrimaar.
It's going to be wild seeing all these old sites through new eyes.
So are you raiding yet? How are you enjoying MoP so far?
Comments
But I am enjoying the questing. I just came off of SWTOR as well and while its not as involved I do think its a big step forward for WOW.
Still just trying and working at getting my mojo back playing my class (Paladin) but i'm ok, just not as sharp as i once used to be. However i'm in no hurry to dive deeper into the game so leveling for me is at my own pace and so far at lvl 88 leveling as Protect mostly occasionally as Ret.
My Guild is mostly completely inactive except for just one other person other than myself. So that kinda makes it another reason to just take time leveling up as have no real destination to get to in a hurry with guild. However i don't think of it too much that not many are on in guild playing, as i guess some may return in time to poke around and see whats new.