No, It’s Really Not Club Med

BRK » 28 January 2008 » In PvE »

clubmed.jpg“Dear Guild, it’s 5:30pm, do you know where your mains are? SSC-rockin’ time, it’s almost here! Hustle!”

And the guild logs and relogs and grabs food and pots and ammo and buff-consumable things and whatever else they need, and boogie out to Zangarmarsh.

“Where’s the GM?”

Doop. GM and co-GM have a family emergency, they can’t make it.

“Where’s the Main Tank?”

Um, he just called. Mom-aggro. We should all chip in to get him an apartment, ’cause this stinks. OK, no Hydross tonight, just Lurker.

“Whar’s da Doom?”

Doom is apparently experiencing Technical Difficulties and presently ripping his Internet provider’s customer service deparment a few new orifaces. No hide-hide stabby-stabby tonight.

“Where’d the ‘lock just go?”

Had to split.

“Where’d the pally just go?”

No idea, he just DC’d.

“That’s it, this is ridulous. Raid cancelled.”

/awwwwww

Our 2v2 partner whispers us,

“So whatcha gonna do now?”

Play BRKTestBed and see if any horde wants to get uppity in STV.

“You know, you should do the heroic Shattered Halls quest for the Naruu title.”

We should, yes.

“Are you?”

We really don’t want to; perfectly happy at the moment and don’t want it spoiled.

“Good. I like being one of only two people in this guild who has the Naruu title.”

Dirty. You play dirty, Bela.

“giggle”

OK, let’s do it.

BM hunter, feral druid tank, Bela respec’d to holy, the Diet Coke of Evil brought her gnomish mage, and a very competent warlock - one of our new guildies from the recruitment drive - went to Hellfire to enjoy the pleasure that is heroic Shattered Halls. Frankly, it’s like a vacation. Club Med in Hellfire. Just a fricken’ joy.

/sarcasm off

The tank says, “I’m gonna pull until you yell at me to stop, OK?”

Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.

JEEBUZ WAIT A SEC!

/pant

“BRK, you wanna trap one of these?”

No. Not in the least. You’ve got 40% dodge and 75% damage-mitigation, tank ‘em all, sweetie, that’s why we wanted you; the best feral druid tank in the guild.

/wipe

OK, fine. we’ll trap one.

/clear to the sewer

“I hate the sewer, guys.” says our tank.

Just tank the big one, hard. Hobbes and I will kill that while the AoE kills the little ones.

/destroy heroic sewer

“Wow, that was pretty easy.”

(Heroic Sewers, coming in Patch 2.5! You heard it here first.)

First boss down, start the gauntlet of fire.

Pull. Wait. Pull. Wait. Pull.

/wipe

Just blast through ‘em; tank that sh!t.

Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull.

As soon as you see the mini-boss, pull him!

“OK!”

Mini-boss pull, dead adds, dead mini-boss.

Nice.

“Can we Misdirect-pull those 5 and 6-mob pulls down the center of the hallway and into this room?”

Pfft. Piece of cake. Tank that sh!t and we’ll nuke ‘em.

MD pull, focus-fire, down they go. Nice tankin’. Rinse and repeat.

Stay in the center, stay in the center, stay in the center. We made it yay!

Wait for Flares!

/flare

There he is, kill that f-ing rogue!

Dead orc-rogue.

“OK, when we clear these last two, I’m going straight for the second boss, OK?”

Just tank it. Hold it. Don’t let it near us. He aggro-wipes, so be ready.

Tank, tank, tank. Aggro wipe, MD, tank tank tank.

Grabbed aggro! Feign Death! Uh oh, FD resisted!

/dead hunter

/dead warlock

And our arena partner, now repsec’d Holy priest, helps the DCoE by wanding that boss down while she heals the tank. Bela is a better WoW-player than we are, it’s now confirmed.

/rez

And we lag-spike. /fury!

And we’re back! Wait for Flare!

int rogueCount = 0;

do {

   /flare;

   There he is! Kill the rogue!;

   rogueCount++;

} while (rogueCount <= 3 );

We made it!

What’s the time left?

“Don’t know; the timer breaks when a party wipes.”

We could’ve come this entire way for nothing, that’s what you’re telling us.

“Yup!”

/hatred

How are we doing this boss?

Who’s got adds?

Hello?

Oh we get it, nobody on adds, just fear ‘em. Oh we like this!

/MQoSRDPS!!

And he’s down! We won! We did the quest!

“Not quite.”

/puzzled

“Gotta kill this last guy, then the quest is completed.”

Oh.

/kill last guy

And he’s down! We won! We did the quest!

“Need-roll on the Nether”

/lose Need-roll. Again. 0-7 with her in our party. We call hax!

Pass on shards, we just want the h3ll outta here.

Never. Again.

Comments

31 Responses to “No, It’s Really Not Club Med”

  1. guy on January 28th, 2008 1:05 pm

    We don’t call them “WhereLocks” for nuttin.

  2. yunk on January 28th, 2008 1:17 pm

    Wanding ftw! I especially love when my wand strikes the killing blow in BGs, I think it evokes a special kind of shame.

  3. Coristad on January 28th, 2008 1:19 pm

    Try it again with a protection pally. 5 people, 5 badges, 45 minutes or your pizza is free.

  4. Lady-Jess on January 28th, 2008 1:26 pm

    I am on my second 70, and did normal shatt halls last night…we one shotted it for the first time that I’ve been in there. I can’t even imagine it on heroic!! Oh that reminds me…I have a happy hunter post to get crackin on.

  5. Arrens on January 28th, 2008 1:50 pm

    So BRK, what you’re saying is, when I finally start to go for that title, I can’t count on your help in Heroic SH? Well son of a…

    I was asked by a GL in our sister guild to come along on a Heroic Arc run last night, which is obviously part of that quest line, so I’m happy to do it. I show up, prepped with some loving ‘lock food and consumables up the wazoo only to find out she was healing Kara.

    /grumble
    /footstomp
    /log onto alt and complain about questing through Redridge Mountains again

  6. Bela on January 28th, 2008 2:17 pm

    You make it sound so much more…fun…than it was. =p

    I remember it more like:

    OMG THE MAGE IS TANKING
    /heal

    OMG THE WARLOCK IS TANKING NOW
    /heal

    OMG THE TANK IS TANKING!
    /SPAM GH

    /aggro
    /die

  7. -_-' on January 28th, 2008 2:23 pm

    Since we are on the topic of Tanking Druids and I’ve been inspired

    http://theyoungandthequestless.blogspot.com/2008/01/i-have-seen-light.html

    or if you think thats self-promotion of my blog

    http://wow.curse.com/videos/details/816/

    either way WATCH IT!!!

  8. Doomilias on January 28th, 2008 2:24 pm

    comcast for the mother effing epic lose. im switching to verizon fios and high def package as soon as i move into my apartment…

  9. -_-' on January 28th, 2008 2:25 pm

    Since we are talking about druids tanking

    http://theyoungandthequestless.blogspot.com/2008/01/i-have-seen-light.html

    or if you think that is the self-promotion of my blog…

    http://wow.curse.com/videos/details/816/

    either way WATCH IT!

    Sry if I’m late finding it, but OMG watch it again

  10. Kelektra on January 28th, 2008 2:28 pm

    Yeah, that’s pretty much how it was. I did tell ya I was gonna keep pulling till one of you yelled to stop, lol. Awesome healing and dps’age all around. Didn’t even need me there :P

  11. -_-' on January 28th, 2008 2:32 pm

    BRK you gone and broke comments, this is the third time and my previous comments wont register…

    since you talking about druids tanking

    http://theyoungandthequestless.blogspot.com/2008/01/i-have-seen-light.html

    seriously watch it…..

    I may be late watching/finding it, but even if you have already seen it watch it again OMG OMG OMG

    but seriously if you dont watch it then you have never seen a druid tank…

    last line suxd but o well WATCH IT!

  12. Kelektra on January 28th, 2008 2:48 pm

    oh, and it’s not MY fault that the nethers like me…

  13. BRK on January 28th, 2008 2:49 pm

    Our Akismet filter is set to automatically moderate any comment with two or more links. You may certainly put links in your comments, but if you go the >=2 route, it’s gonna get placed in the moderation-queue.

    We check that queue frequently, but not constantly, of course.

  14. -_-' on January 28th, 2008 3:01 pm

    phewwe on the filter but anyway I found an easier way, thnx youtube and embedded them in the comment. Same link as a couple posts up.

  15. pelides on January 28th, 2008 3:28 pm

    Tank, tank, tank. Aggro wipe, MD, tank tank tank.
    Grabbed aggro! Feign Death! Uh oh, FD resisted!
    /dead hunter
    /dead warlock

    Hope you paid that lock’s repair bill, because you are directly responsible for that death! Feigning near a squishie and not running to a tank THEN feigning…. bad.

    Remember, feign death is a way to NOT GET AGGRO in the first place rather than a way to dump it once you have it. If you do get it, you’d best haul arse to the tank to deliver the aggro where it belongs and then feign death… or at least put some distance between yourself and the squishes before feigning. Give them a fighting chance at survival.

  16. Bela on January 28th, 2008 3:39 pm

    That boss hits hard enough that unless you *are* the tank, there is no time to run *to* the tank. I seriously doubt it was proximity aggro anyways. It may actually have been the boss switching aggro tables again. There isn’t much to be done about that when MD is already down.

  17. pelides on January 28th, 2008 3:51 pm

    I’ve done this fight on heroic numerous times. Yup, he hits hard and chances are you are going to get aggro if you are a hunter. Your options are to stay near the tank or at least far away from the squishies so that there is time to respond to the aggro dump in a way that doesn’t kill a clothie.

    When I hear a “feign death then squishie dies” story, I have to chime in that it was 99% preventable especially since this guy’s aggro dump is a known quantity. That’s why my pet’s growl is turned on during the first phase after the tank gets some solid aggro. Better Klaatu get aggro and die and buy us some time to maneuver than do the “oh crap! I have aggro feign death get squishie killed” maneuver. Thing is, my pet rarely dies because I have mend pet on him and he’s part of the strat so the healers know to heal him until we can get the aggro situation under control.

    I’ll even go so far as to have my pet grab aggro and then set him to passive so he runs across the room to me to buy us even more time and get him as far away from the squishies as possible.

  18. Lefaye on January 28th, 2008 3:53 pm

    I hope you still think I am competent, since I remember the run being one long string of:

    1- Fear (resisted), Fear (resisted), Fear (not resisted… finally!)
    2- Seduce (resisted), Seduce (resisted), Seduce (wtf_resisted)
    3- Quickly double-checking character stats … yep I’m still at the spell hit cap… fel orcs must be ordering some weird anti-warlock vitamins… prolly got it from the same people that thought up Cloak of Shadows…
    4- Oh no, Soulshatter is on cooldown!

    I’m really glad we got through that instance. Now on to Mag!

    @Bela - Thank you for the pw: shield… and the rez… I’ll be saving a deathcoil for the next mob that even thinks about aggroing you.

    @Kelektra - I disagree… we definately needed ya there.

    @BRK - Don’t feel bad, Bela is a better WoW player than most of us… I hope there’s a spot for a formerly compentent warlock on that 2v2.

  19. Bela on January 28th, 2008 4:09 pm

    all your deathcoil are belong to me *evil grin*

  20. Lovelace on January 28th, 2008 5:10 pm

    Sorry, Warbringer O’mrogg doesn’t hit hard. His blastwave is probably the only thing you have to be worried about, at worst.

    Yes, agro drop. Saving rage, and throwing a couple of mauls and lacerates should normally be enough.

    Remember, it’s not an “agro wipe” in the pure sense. It’s merely a “change in threat tables”.

  21. Nifen on January 28th, 2008 5:16 pm

    I play a prot pally, and while SH is a paladin tank’s bread and butter, I still don’t like going there on heroic. Just a nasty, nasty place. Well, in particular I don’t like the gauntlet, or Mr. Two Headed Ogre; the rest of it is fine. But that damn Ogre…when he first switches heads, it’s about 50-50 that I’m going to keep his attention. He just loves going after my poor squishies. On my most recent run (yesterday), he of course went straight for my druid healer and I was way too slow at BoPing the poor guy. It took a potion, lay on hands, some temporary rogue evasion tanking, and my own general invincibleness, but we managed to take him down without a healer. Stupid ogre.

  22. KaceAlraid on January 28th, 2008 6:28 pm

    Hey BRK, good job on the run it seems. Also wanted to comment on the programming. Java ftw! Still learning it in college myself so I thought I’d give a thumbs up *thumbs up*!

  23. BRK on January 28th, 2008 6:31 pm

    Pel, re-read the story. We FD’d and it was resisted. Then the boss killed us. Then the boss aggro’d the warlock and killed him. We didn’t dump aggro on the squishy, we died. If we had FD’d, survived, and then the squishy ate it, you’d have a legitimate beef.

    But not now.

  24. pelides on January 28th, 2008 8:44 pm

    I should ask if you were at range when you feigned and close to the squishie in question? If you were, then you could have handled situation in a completely different manner that wouldn’t have put the squishie in danger or at least given him/her more of a fighting chance and given the melee folks a chance to grab aggro back.

    Too many hunters feign death out of instinct on aggro gain and it’s a bad habit due to the 10/30 rule. Grab aggro and run to the tank and THEN feign should be standard operating procedure. Pop into Monkey to increase your chances of survival. It’s why we have the skill.

    I can tell you from experience that this tactic works, you gain massive squishie karma and the tank’s eyes will boggle as they’re not used to hunters doing this sort of thing.

    Trust me on this one.

  25. pelides on January 28th, 2008 9:33 pm

    @BRK

    I must apologize. The whole feign death thing is a big thing for me and I had just written a post about it before I read this, so it was fresh in my mind.

  26. BRK on January 28th, 2008 11:02 pm

    Pel, you are 100% correct about FD being used pre-aggro gain, as usual. Much love to ya, Pel, you know that.

    /peace

  27. Newgent on January 29th, 2008 9:53 am

    I have to second Coristad on the running it with a Prot Pally.

    On my warlock I do a lot of heroics with a really good druid tank but it has been harder and harder for him to tank for us as he has gotten better gear. He dodges and takes so little damage in 5-mans, he just can’t hold threat. He now has to tank in his DPS gear to have a chance on holding agro.

    The warlock needs to put his Soulshatter key in an easier place to reach. Part of the joy of the ability is you get to kill another clothy in the group before you end up dying yourself. Personal preference is killing mages, but if they aren’t available, any clothy will do :)

    -Newgent

  28. Newgent on January 29th, 2008 10:32 am

    ———-He dodges and takes so little damage in 5-mans, he just can’t hold threat.
    ———-
    Taking damage has nothing to do with generating threat for druids.

    If you are “geared” enough to have tons of dodge, you would automatically be having lots of agility, and given primal fury that would mean having enough rage always.

    Additionally, gear that gives you enough agility generally comes with strength, which all together means “he just can’t hold threat” shows your lack of druid tanking knowledge.

  29. Kestrel on January 30th, 2008 6:14 pm

    Never. Again.

    … Till next time, right? ;)

  30. Newgent on January 31st, 2008 11:57 am

    —————————-
    If you are “geared” enough to have tons of dodge, you would automatically be having lots of agility, and given primal fury that would mean having enough rage always.

    Additionally, gear that gives you enough agility generally comes with strength, which all together means “he just can’t hold threat” shows your lack of druid tanking knowledge.

    ———————————-

    Yes, primal fury gives 5 rage for every crit. Lets hypothetically say the tanking druid has 33% crit. That means 1 out of every 3 attacks they will gain 5 rage. Mangle costs 15 rage, lacerate is 13. So they will spend on average 39 rage to gain 5. Even at 100% crit they would have a net loss in rage per attack.

    The majority of rage gained for druids is from damage taken. High dodge means less damage taken (as does high AC) which means less rage. Less rage means less specials which means less threat.

    Therefore as tanks and DPS gear up it becomes harder for tanks to keep up enough TPS to hold agro versus increasing DPS unless the mobs damage is also scaling upward which does not happen in 5-mans.

    I would not question other peoples “druid tanking knowledge” when yours seems to be quite off.

    -Newgent

  31. Fanthis ( Kargath ) on February 1st, 2008 12:23 pm

    To Nifen.

    The ogre boss is pretty easy when he switches threat tables. Roughly what seems to occur is he takes the threat of the second person on the list and moves it to the top of the list. He effectively swaps second and first threat.

    So if you are 100k threat ahead of the second person on your hate list, and he switches, that person is now 100k.. AHEAD OF YOU.

    When I tank him on my protection paladin, I purposefully generate low hate on his first head. The DPS knows this, and I let them know ( I generally do not do pugs so this is an easy tactic for us ) and keep Seal of Vengeance on him, as well as Judgement of Crusader. When he switches heads and runs off, I instantly Judge Vengeance, and whip my shield at him. This has NEVER failed to return him to me as long as the DPS know to stop. It’s the morons who pull hate and stand there DPSing the boss while you’re trying to get it back who cause problems.

    If you suspect you won’t be able to get him back, use Avenging Wrath. I generally do the first change without it, and use it on the second change because of the tendecy of having a higher threat difference.

    Good luck, and hope this helps.

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