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!
Showing posts with label protection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label protection. Show all posts
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, August 6, 2010
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.
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.
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