XP from questing vs dungeons

This question is more suited to tanks who get instant queues but lately I've been wondering how can one get more XP: by questing in a level-appropriate zone or by running random dungeons?

Let's say you are a tank (like my worgen druid) and would like to level as quickly and efficiently as possible. Would you choose to chain-run dungeons and skip questing or quest instead, with the occasional dungeon.

Because my main (and favorite) spec on the druid is tanking, I had the notion that I would chain-run dungeons and thus gain levels quickly. Well, it turns out that's not really the case. During the short time between The Shattering and Cataclysm there was lots XP to be had from dungeons, especially from the in-dungeon quests. That, alas, was nerfed. Dungeon quests that would give, say, 6000XP now give 3000XP or less.

From my experience I find that just by running dungeons over and over again doesn't seem to award lots of XP. The dungeon XP improves considerably when there are quests to complete but this is a one-time proposition and afterwards it doesn't seem as lucrative to run the same dungeon again.

On the other hand, simply completing a bunch of "yellow" quests (i.e. of your level) on your own in a questing area can be very efficient. As an example, the other night my worgen druid (level 51) quested for about 30 minutes in Burning Steppes and gained a whole level. If I'd played for another 15 minutes he would have gained yet another one.

Chain-running dungeons, especially as a tank, can prove very boring and repetitive. I love tanking on the druid but leveling via the dungeon finder doesn't seem especially quick.

For this reason I've chosen a combination between running dungeons and questing. This way I can have the best of both worlds. But this reasoning applies mostly to tanks. As dps I have to quest while queuing for dungeons anyway.

What about you? Do you prefer questing over running dungeons?

Don't piss off the tank

Just. Don't. Piss. Off. The. Tank.

I will be the first to admit that tanks in random groups can be jerks sometimes, especially since their queue times are zero and some of them take this as a license to be assholes. Most tanks I've run with (as well as most dps/healers) are nice, regular folks. Generally, people in randoms are well-behaved, in my experience, because they just want to finish the dungeon without too much drama.

I like to think that I'm a nice and accommodating group member. I always try to keep things civil and I don't want to upset anyone if I can help it. Now of course, when I'm running as a dps I prefer to keep my trap shut or else I might find myself booted but when I run as a healer I'm a lot more vocal and when I'm tanking, you better not fsck with me BIATCH!

When I tank, I have something akin to a "zero tolerance" policy or perhaps a "two strikes" policy. If you do something stupid, I'll warn you but if you do the same dumb thing again, you're on your own.

The other night I was running a random Scarlet Monastery Cathedral dungeon. As soon as I got in I noticed that the mobs were gleefully coming at me without being aggroed by me at all. After a couple of minutes I realized that someone was pulling them. It was the damn healer, of all people.

Fine, I decided to go with it, grabbing aggro and dispatching the mobs. The healer did a good job keeping me up but then he went and pulled more and yet more mobs. When we got to the actual cathedral he rushed in and pulled about half of the mobs. We survived and I said "Thanks for pulling for me". This remark got ignored of course.

Then he told me to pull the boss even though the room wasn't cleared. I decided to clear the room instead. What did the healer do? You guessed it! He pulled the boss. So what happens in Cathedral when you pull the boss and the place hasn't been cleared? All the remaining mobs, regardless if they are out of range or LOS, or in rooms, swarm you.

Since the healer felt that way, I decided to spare myself the trouble and declined to tank that nasty pull. I'm sure that if I had cooperated we might have been able to pull it off. The reason I didn't is because it creates a precedent and sends a signal to that healer and perhaps to other members of the group that it's ok to pull mobs whenever you feel like it, disregarding what the tank may feel about the situation.

So I did the only sensible thing, which is to shift to kitty and haul my ass out of the dungeon, while the group was being raped. Since I didn't have any aggro from the dozen mobs + boss, I didn't have any trouble running to the exit. On my way I typed "Have fun tanking". Maybe leaving like that wasn't fair to the rest of the group and I really feel for them but it was the healer's fault through and through.

It turns out that I'm a very good tank (so far) on my druid. I've received compliments on numerous occasions in regards to my tanking prowess. I don't make a habit of leaving groups at the drop of a hat despite the fact that my queues are instant. I respect others but in return I demand a modicum of respect, especially when I'm tanking. That healer had it coming and the group was doomed anyway under his... healership.

I've had another guy a couple of nights ago, dps this time, who was in a hurry or something because he kept urging me to pull lots of mobs. I ignored him and did my own thing. I'm not usually comfortable with pulling tons of mobs in random dungeons because healers are sometimes very good, sometimes bad but most often average and I go by the mantra "better it takes a couple of minutes longer than to wipe". Besides, successfully fighting large numbers of mobs also depends a lot on how efficient the dps is at AOE-ing them down.

So please, dear folks, whatever your role, give the tank some respect and in return you will receive it (unless the tank is a total dick in which case he's not worth a dry turd anyway). Unless the tank specifically requests it, DO NOT PULL under any circumstance. The tank sets the pace, not the dps and not the healer. If you don't like it, that's too bad, put up or shut up. If you really got the itch to go at your own pace I suggest trying a tanking class or spec. Let's see how you like it when others are trying to run the show for you.

Bear tanking FTW

If there's been a lack of posting in the last week, that's because of Cataclysm. I hope you'll forgive me :)

I've been busy these past few days. First of all, I've been selling Cata mats like crazy, but that's another story. I've also been leveling a couple of my characters but not very seriously. Third, I've started a new worgen druid and he's only 17 but I enjoy playing him.

As soon as I hit 15 I queued up as a tank and tanked my first instance which was Deadmines. At this level there aren't many skills in a character's repertoire so tanking is fairly straightforward. The only thing lacking is some sort of AoE threat generation but that will come later.

What's funny is that my first group was composed entirely of worgen. There's a veritable worgen invasion going on! More depressing is that there are already plenty of level 85 worgen running around. Humph!

I've yet to hit level 20 but I don't think I like the worgen racial running ability. The way they look when crouched on all fours is ridiculous.

My druid looks pretty cool right now and tanking isn't too hard (doh!) but we'll see later. Hopefully I won't abandon tanking on this druid like I abandoned it on my paladin.

Sharded all my tanking purplz

Last night I decided to shard all my protection paladin's epic tanking pieces. Why you may ask? Because I don't think I'll be tanking again in Cataclysm. Thanks Blizzard for making tanking frustratingly hard (at least for noobs like me)! Now at least I won't have to worry about juggling two specs.

I've been thinking about disenchanting my tanking set for a while but I was hesitating due to the fact that I had invested almost 20K gold in that set. However, I failed at tanking normal dungeons, much less heroics. And so, I figured that I wasn't any good at paladin tanking. At any rate, I enjoy retribution more so I'll be going as retribution from now on.

I also hesitated to shard my set because I thought that there might be a small chance to tank some Cataclysm dungeons but after I heard that they will be much tougher, I decided against it.

What convinced me to shard everything was the elemental invasion which caused a jump in Abyss Crystal prices. I decided that it's now or never because I won't be able to get as much for that armor or for those shards in the future. The prices for Abyss Crystals were a bit over 20G so I disenchanted everything that would vendor for less than 20G. Of course, I kept my ilvl 232 weapons because they vendor for over 20G.

So I've cut my losses by selling those crystals now and good riddance paladin tanking!

Operation fail-warrior

Fresh on the heels of my mage adventure, I also remembered that I had a level 18 Tauren warrior on the same server as my Horde mage. Since I also plan to try a protection-specced warrior in Cataclysm, I decided to spec this guy into prot and try to tank a dungeon.

I bought a cheap 1H axe from the AH and also a cheap shield, I allocated my talents (which had been reset by some patch or other), learned some missing spells and spent a long time arranging them on my bar. Then I went out on the plains around the Crossroads and killed some mobs just to get the feel of a warrior tank.

Since tanks get instant queues, I quickly found myself in a dungeon. Alas, it was the worst one possible at this level: Wailing Caverns. Oh how I hate thee cruel dungeon!

Needless to say, our group languished in there for almost an hour before we gave up. My tanking wasn't bad and we only wiped once due to too much mobs being present in a certain room. Unfortunately we were all sick of this stupid dungeon and our resolve failed after getting lost in those convoluted corridors.

Now with regards to warrior tanking, I have mixed feelings. Overall I think I prefer paladin tanking, in spite of the mana issues at this low level. My beef with the warrior is that he depends on rage which is generated in fight only, with the exception of Bloodrage.

I'm not saying I did a bad job. I tried to use my abilities as intelligently as possible and considering that it was my first time ever tanking with a warrior, I think I did very well. I held threat with no problems, even when tanking multiple mobs, provided that the dps didn't hit the wrong monster. Still, the play style seems a bit restrictive when compared to a paladin tank. Oh, one signature ability that I really liked is Shield Block. This ability alone could give a paladin a run for his money.

I'm hoping that patch 4.01 and Cataclysm will make protection warriors more interesting. I will certainly attempt to level a warrior tank in the future, as soon as Worgen become available. Yes, I have decided: my future warrior will be a Worgen. A Worgen in plate. That's badass.

Tanking sucks, healing rocks

Just an update on my tanking and healing career on my paladin and priest respectively.

First, I've been apprehensive to tanking heroics on my paladin, in spite of the fact that I spent a lot of gold on his tanking equipment. I'm running most heroics as retribution and I don't mind the long queue, which is actually useful to me because I can do some dailies in the meantime.

Last night I decided to try tanking midway through a heroic (I won't even mention which one) after the tank left and I'm ashamed to say that after managing to wipe the group twice through my blundering, I called it quits in disgrace. From now on I think I'm gonna stick to tanking normal dungeons only, just to get my tanking fix.

My priest, on the other hand, is a different story. Since I turned discipline, I've been having tons of fun healing. To my credit I've only had one wipe so far and it wasn't something I could control. The tank pulled more groups than he could handle and that was that. So far discipline has been amazing. I can handle any dungeon that's been thrown at me.

Not only have I found a lot of nice upgrades up to ilvl 187, but I am currently halfway between 79 and 80.

I've met the usual crowd of random people. Most of them are nice and courteous but there's also the odd asshat.

What warms my heart is whenever someone comments on how good my healing is. On one occasion the tank was amazed by my "mana efficiency". I guess he always saw me with almost full mana. That's, of course, thanks in part to my Mercurial Alchemist Stone and my Endless Mana Potion. And then again, discipline is a fairly thrifty spec. If things get really desperate on some boss for example, I can always use my Shadowfiend as a last resort. In fact I do use him on most end bosses, just to be on the safe side.

Next, I'm planning to heal heroics but I'm a bit scared here as well since heroic mobs hit harder and all that. On the other hand, heroic tanks are also better equipped so things should even out. My main plan is to try and gear myself up as best I can. Speaking of which, I've already got almost 40 Emblems of Triumph which will get me a ilvl 232 item as soon as I hit 80 and it'll most likely be a hat which I can gem nicely with a meta.

An overabundance of tanks and tanking weapons

Here's an anecdote that you might find mildly funny but I also find it ironic. Whenever you queue as DPS there's a very long wait until a group is assembled due mainly to a scarcity of tanks. Well, a couple of nights ago the opposite happened.

I queued as tank/dps on my paladin for normal Pit of Saron. I wanted this dungeon specifically for a certain quest that needs to be done in there. Now, when you queue for specific dungeons, even if you go as tank, it still takes a while until a group is created. This time it went fairly quickly.

Halfway during the run one of the dps left. I re-queued the group but forgot that I still had the tank + dps boxes checked. After less than a minute we get our 5th group member and we continued to kill stuff.

At one point I realized that the guy, a druid, was fighting as a bear. When I look closely at his portrait I see the shield next to it and the sword next to mine. So I'm like LMFAO, we're both tanking! I ask the guy, "It looks like we're both tanking, are you okay with that?" He says sure, no problem. We finish the dungeon with 2 tanks. It was short and sweet. I recommend this setup.

From my point of view it looks like the dungeon finder kind of failed in this particular instance. Since normally there's a dearth of tanks, it would seem logical that because I was willing to both tank and dps, the system would keep me as tank and find another dps who are a dime a dozen anyway. The only conclusion I can draw is that at that time there was either an overabundance of tanks or the dungeon finder didn't function optimally.

Now let's talk a bit about tanking weapons. I'm referring specifically to 1-handed weapons that warriors and paladins use.

Up until a couple of days ago, my paladin sported the Teldrassil Protector, which is probably the easiest epic tanking weapon you can get at level 80 and you can obtain it from the Argent Tournament for a mere 25 seals. A real bargain.

In my quest to improve myself as a tank, I started looking at better weapons but these only drop in heroic dungeons or raids. Since I don't raid, I'm left with heroics. Eventually I set my eyes on Falric's Wrist Chopper which is (correct me if I'm wrong) the best tanking weapon you can get outside of raids.

Fate would have it that a few nights ago while dps-ing heroic Halls of Reflection as retribution, the axe dropped from Falric. Normally it's a dick move to roll need over an offspec item when there are other people in the group who actually need the item for their actual spec. This time I was really lucky because the tank was a death knight and there were no others who wanted that weapon. I told everyone I was needing it for my offspec and so I did. Seconds later I found myself in the possession of the most awesome tanking weapon my grubby hands could get their hands on.

Speaking of fate, the next night I won a greed roll for Lucky Old Sun from normal Forge of Souls. Great! Stuff always drops when you no longer need it!

Looking at the two weapons, the Wrist Chopper is definitely the much better weapon, but I really like how the Old Sun looks. I like its name and I've always loved its slightly goofy look. What the Old Sun also has over the Wrist Chopper is the bonus for expertise for humans. In fact that's the Chopper's only weakness as far as I'm concerned.

So there you have it: there's an overabundance of tanks and tanking weapons, except when you don't need them.