Loading ...Why gear up now for Karazhan?
Dunkealme posed a great question in the comment section of How to Talk about your Warrior
What sense would it make to gear up now for Kara when the expansion is coming out in 2 months? I prolly should get as much “welfare epics” as I can and then move fast to 80 when the time comes.
To which I say…
Why gear up now for SSC? TK? Hyjal? BT? Sunwell?
Experience.
No, I’m not talking about that value used for going from one level to the next, I’m talking about real experience. Real experience’s value is unmeasurable, yet nothing is more noticeable when in the presence of someone with it. Every encounter you can learn before the expansion offers you an invaluable amount of experience that will aid you far, far more in the long run than being a little better prepared to level when the expansion is released.
Right now with so many people posing the question that Dunkealme presents… with so many people believing it’s a waste of time to even play at the moment if you aren’t going to be killing Kil’Jaeden…
There’s never been a better opportunity to gain Experience
People are throwing away their raid spots left and right. You’ll never have an easier time getting into a raid than you do now and with WotLK talents going live in the coming patches right at this very moment you have a unique opportunity to gain a strangle hold on those raid spots. Now is your chance to secure your spot so that when the patch with all the fun new toys shows up, it’s you that gets to test those abilities at 70 and ultimately, you who is most prepared for what raiding will be like at 80.
I strong suggest you don’t pass up this opportunity. It’s not going to come around again for well over a year 
September 19th, 2008 at 8:10 am
I wanted to disagree with you when I read the title but you make several very good points I did not think about. Good post.
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September 19th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Another point I’d throw in: Seeing Content.
Chances are: When Level 80 you’re not going to go to Karazhan ever. So going there now, and then with the new talents going ZA, will open up for you more great content to see.
And ultimately, that’s what you bought the game for, was it not? BC offers a hell of a lot more endgame content than the basic version did and the most part of it is really easy to get a look into.
So do it now. Even if you wipe and wipe and wipe, it’s pretty damn sure the last couple weeks you’ll have the opportunity to experience that content. Even if you’ll go have a look with some 80 mates, it won’t be an experience.
Go see content. Epics are nice, but blizzard is ingenious when it comes to content. You’ll not want to miss out on the best part of the game.
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September 19th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Don’t forget about the pocket watch…
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Kavtor reply on September 22, 2008 10:45 am:
Heeyooo pocket watch!
my 4/6 sunwell tank buddy just got his 3 weeks ago!
Not really a post, nor have I read anything. Just wanted to give Venny a hit from Rodes Island, Greece. The Beaches are great!
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Veneretio reply on September 22, 2008 11:27 am:
Haha, good hearing from ya. Don’t get lost!
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bosephus reply on September 24, 2008 12:40 pm:
ooo….I went to Rhodes about 8 years ago. The old town is fantastic at night! Wow, I would love to get back there some day.
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September 19th, 2008 at 9:21 am
The only counter point I might offer is that there are going to be a lot of changes coming with the expansion to the tanking classes. What you may learn now may not apply after the expansion.
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Herid reply on September 19, 2008 10:37 am:
Bigbunz,
I get what you’re saying, but it’s not just knowing what buttons to hit and when. It’s learning how to be situationally aware as a tank. You learn this all throughout all of the quests and 5-mans of course, but raiding is where you need to refine it.
So, what’s the point? Experience. Exploration of content. And while Karazhan may have become Badgeazhan for most of of us, it is still one of the best designed raid instances in the game. On top of that, how many Guild applications still ask what Pre-TBC raiding experience their applicants bring to the table?
I feel badly for anyone that raids solely for gear. The camaraderie of the raid and the challenge of tanking is enough for me.
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BigBunz reply on September 19, 2008 12:48 pm:
Let me get this out of the way - I raid for fun. I get the gear so I can do my job better so we succeed.
I probably should have explained myself a little better. The point I was making is that our abilities as tanks are getting modified in the expansion. So what we’ve learned to do now may not apply in the future. Some skills have nothing to do to our abilities as tanks (i’m a bear-tank). Situational awareness for instance - positioning so I can see what cc’d adds are doing or rotating so that I don’t break cc. Those skills will always be useful no matter how Bliz changes the tanking classes. Other skills are directly correlated to what we can do as each type of tank. If what we can do is changed by the expansion then what we’ve learned is no longer applicable.
So in part I agree with you, but I also feel, like me, you need to be more specific. After the expansion comes out, a good chunk of what you’ve learned in these instances may no longer apply because the techniques you learned were based on what your class was and not on what it will be post-Wrath.
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Rochelle reply on September 19, 2008 2:59 pm:
The point isn’t WHAT you learn, it is THAT you learn.
Someone else mentioned it already, but whenever you look at a guild application, one of the questions is almost always regarding prior experience. I gaurantee that the prior experience question is weighed more heavily than questions about gear, because problems with gear are easily fixable, but a lack of experience takes a long time to fix.
You can always go to wowwiki or bosskillers.com to find a strategy for a boss, but 90% of the time you aren’t going to kill a boss by simply doing what the guide says, you need to learn all the nuances of the fight and decide how best you personally need to respond and how the strategy needs to be tweaked to fit your specific raid.
Experienced players know how to ‘read’ an encounter and they are able to make those decisions and strategy tweaks quickly. Its not an understanding of class mechanics that kills bosses, its an understanding of encounter mechanics. And since every encounter is different, the thing that differentiates strong raiders from poor raiders is the ability to discern encounter mechanics quickly. And you only gain that ability by exposing yourself to as many different encounter mechanics as possible.
herid reply on September 20, 2008 5:42 pm:
BigBunz,
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that is why YOU raid. Merely that that is the common reaction to continuing TBC raiding in the face of WotLK that I’ve seen.
‘Why keep raiding now when I’ll get level 73 greens that’ll replace mah puplez lololz.’
Those are the people I feel sorry for.
As for you, I don’t agree with your conclusions, but I appreciate the discussion.
Andenthal reply on September 19, 2008 11:00 am:
BigBunz -
I dont think he is refering to encounter specifics. Like diving underwater for Lurker. Talking about things that you can take to every encounter. Moving while DPSing/tanking/healing. Learning NOT to move (Shade of Aran). Types of things you can take to any encounter.
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September 19th, 2008 at 9:30 am
It’s so funny you bring up this Vene. Last night I main tanked Kara for the guild as they wanted badges (I have everything I can obtain with badges personally). It was my first time in weeks, maybe months. Let me tell you. It was interesting. My off tank was a ret pally who only brought an axe and board (zul’jin’s axe, no doubt - something I still have not obtained).
We definitely had a few pulls go awyr. Back in my earlier days (pre 2.3), I wouldn’t have had a CLUE how to handle the fact that we pulled the 4 group just before maiden and THEN got the pat at the same time, with the pally dead. I’m now tanking 6 mobs with dps attacking all of it. Needless to say, I was able to handle it, because of the experience that tanking has brought.
Gear does not make a good tank. You cannot ever hope to be a good tank without dumping literally hundreds of hours into the craft (and visiting tankingtips.com haha).
Also, without the experience that tanking has brought me, I wouldn’t know things like “wear max expertise on nightbane” or “wear max avoidance on prince” or “wear max block value on trash”. All of the months (and now years) i’ve spent tanking have made me the tank I am today, and my guild, I assure you, knows that I’m damn good. Experience is just like you said: you can’t measure it, but you know when it’s there.
Vene: have you thought about an optimal spec when the new talents get launched (at level 70 that is, with 61 talent points to spend) ? Suprised you haven’t made such a post yet.
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admin reply on September 19, 2008 9:48 am:
Hehe, I try my best to always talk about what’s relevant to now rather than what could be relevant. The day the patch is released, you’ll see my new level 70 spec
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September 19th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Great post, and I absolutely agree with it.
I still sometimes go MC/BWL/AQ/naxx with friends and I just love it! Even thou they say at level 70 is caek walk, well I just love those encounters and love to learn/study them. My only regret is I hadn’t started playing classic WoW earlier…
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September 19th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Karazhan is one of the coolest places in the game. I’m my friends into for both gear and experience. The boss fights require far more coordination any any heroic boss. If we want to do the 10 player raids in WotLK, we’d better be able to coordinate on Karazhan bosses.
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September 19th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Exactly!
Everyone keeps saying that we should stop raiding. Don’t they get that if they want to raid in WoTLK, they’ll need to keep getting new experiences?
Sigh. Then again, its not the tanks that are crying for raiding.
Great Post!
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September 19th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Arvernien touches on the counterpoint I was going to make to BigBinz’s counterpoint…
Even if there is a sea change in mechanics once Wrath comes out, one steady constant is learning how to function as a cohesive, puropseful 10-man unit.
Our guild has implemented weekly Kara runs in the past month. Part because it’s where we are in terms of progression (we’re not a raiding guild, but rather a town defense one)… part for the experience of seeing the content… but mainly because I want us to have the experience and ability that comes with operating in a raid format and knowing your companions’ abilities in that setting.
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BigBunz reply on September 19, 2008 12:53 pm:
I agree whole-heartedly with your point about team coordination. That is something that won’t change with the expansion. My observations were focused on an individual level.
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September 19th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Another great post Vene.
Any new fights completed (or even attempted) will always provide valuable experiences for future raiding. Personally I would like to keep raiding until the xpac comes out.
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September 19th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Doing weekly Kara runs with the hope of hitting ZA prior to the WoTLK release as I may never see the inside of it afterwards and if I do it just wouldn’t be the same.
Waiting for the new patch and your 70 spec!! It sure will be great to practice the new spec each week on Kara…….
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September 19th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I’m also sick of people who think that it’s not worth it trying to upgrade their gear or push through new content just because things are going to change soon. With that kind of attitude, why shower today? You’re just going to get dirty again.
I want to see as much as I can and beat as much as I can before encounters become trivialized by new abilities and new levels. My goals before WotLC? Beat at least one TK boss, beat at least one non-trivial T5 boss (not lurker/VR), and beat ZA. I don’t want to have any regrets about not pushing ahead to see and beat what I could 10 levels in the future.
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September 19th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Very good post Vene. I will be copy pasting this to our guild forum.
I think that one of the main points Vene made that many people are overlooking, is the oportunity to learn the new mechanics of tanking that we will soon be experiencing in a raid setting before the new content of WotLK is opened up. (holy run on sentences)
I for one will be focusing hard on learning how each and every new ability works and how I can best use those abilities while still in content that I am familiar with.
I also think that the new abilities to every class will accelerate the push forward in current content allowing us to see more encounters and giving the entire raid invaluable experience learning new encounters while at the same time mastering thier new abilities.
This is an opportunity that no one should be passing up on. It’s not about the gear so much anymore as about the chance to learn.
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September 19th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Well Vene, Thanks lol
You understood what I was talking about and I love the answer and the comments, but this brings up another question (that ties more to the other article):
With so many guild rushing to get as much BC content done before the patch (or cashing in from bear runs in ZA), I am left (like other tanks I assume) with the only choice of pugging for a spot, which becomes kind of hard when everyone is insterested in BT tanks or ZA tanks.
Kara runs seems to happen all the time, yes, but from well oiled guild teams that maybe pug for one or 2 more dps.
As I spend my evening facing this dilemma on the LFG system and getting closer to better gear I can’t help myself wonder why I am doing all this when by the time I can make a team with friends to go to kara, I will have nobody to fill slots because of the wrath release.
Am I losing it here? Am I making any sense?
Experience. Hehehe I was the one that almost forced some fellow guildies to do ramps over and over with different other guildies so that we could get that GROUP Experience. I know exactly waht you are talking about =)
Content. I love it. But I never can find enough people interested in doing any pre-bc runs… is it the server? And if so (putting the transfer option aside) waht should one do to get a good group going?
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Al reply on September 20, 2008 3:25 pm:
Perhaps it is just my guild and how the core group of us used to raid ZG and AQ20 all the time before burning crusade… but for a good solid month we did Saturday night classic raids. Just for the love of the content, for the ability to down bosses we never even got to back then. (For getting me that enchant from ZG).
If your in a guild, i’d say encourage people to do it for the heck of it. For the chance to get your mages their turtle polymorph! Just plan it, find like 5 people who you know want to do it. Plan it. Then do it. If you have some place where you plan raids with the guild just stick it on there and be like Hey guys, i’m doing this. Come join me. It’s good times (it really is good times “How the hell did we just wipe on ZG trash?”) If you plan it they will come.
I’m also pretty sure I just got really long winded.
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September 20th, 2008 at 3:49 am
You should never abandon your character, in my opinion. If you regularly get badge gear you’ll be close enough to those who raid T5/T6 that you can fill in a raid spot, as Vene says. Lots of guilds will be restructuring and you may land a permanent post, or at least see some encounters.
Some guilds may be doing “farewell” raids to Vashj, Kael, Archimonde, or Illidan and if you can get a spot there by all means take it, because that is your chance to see the the encounters. I was fortunate enough to be on a farewell raid to Nefarian just before BC and it’s been one of my most memorable game experiences.
Even if you simply finish BC with up-to-date badge and Kara gear you’ll be in a good position to use the new talents and do instances in Northrend. Badge gear should last you some way through levels 71-75. You aren’t going to throw it all out the moment you step onto Northrend.
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Khrushchev reply on September 20, 2008 3:57 pm:
This is true. They seem to have tuned the early gear in Northrend much better than they did in Outland. TBC epics are still better than Northrend greens (which is different than what most people found in TBC where their t2 was getting replaced by greens in HFP).
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September 20th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Thx Vene for reassuring me that I’ve taken the right path. Thats exactly what im doing. I rerolled warrior 2 months ago and planning to play him in LK at high level (gonna join my old guild which is now in Sunwell).
Im basicaly doing 5man/Kara etc, gearing up, testing gear, enchanting all weapons testing again etc. And i have to say it gave me alot eventhough some of my friends think that im retarded to spend hours trying to aquire badges to get gear that will become obsolate in 2 months.
But as you said, experience is everything. Great blog btw. Cheers.
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September 21st, 2008 at 9:33 am
i just wanna know if u have any points on the collection of res gear and the likes, I’ve collected a lot of gear in the past, 5 bags in the bank 2 on the char, and always in lack of space.
I raid SSC/TK MH and beginning BT to, i have full NR (given by the guild) gear for hydross and always planed to get the FR one to but it looks like its taking a lot longer than planed due to working and all that.
But my SR gear is still lacking a lot, don’t even have the Q neck, since disguise wore off at A´lar fight Bummer.
Should i just skip attaining more res gear or should i still work on the res gear?
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September 21st, 2008 at 10:32 am
Gotta disagree. What if your guild does not raid (or even do heroics)? I don’t want to leave my guild and PUGs are not an option. IMHO, if WOTLK raiding is your goal, you are better off leveling quickly to 80 and tanking 5-mans in WOTLK with the new talents/mechanics. Alternatively, you can instance-tank all the way to 80 (like some did in to 70 in TBC). That being said, I’m currently working on a DPS set for turbo-leveling to 80 and getting as many factions to exalted as I can. It may not be the best option, but for some of us it’s the only option.
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Talldar reply on September 22, 2008 12:42 am:
Hm, if your guild doesn’t raid and do heroics now, how would they do so in the Addon? So yes, if raiding isn’t your goal at all, why should you do it in Kara?
But I guess for the most part a tank’s aim is to become that guy 9 or 24 or 39 other players pray for not dying
It’s just so much better than 5-mans.
I dunno about your server, but I’m on a really small one (really small, that is) and PUGs for Kara happen regularly, are well-organized and good times. Powerleveling to 80 and then starting to learn the new tanking mechanics to me sounds like the worst option - you’ll have to get used to a lot of new talents and abilities at once, so I guess it’ll make the whole thing even harder.
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September 22nd, 2008 at 4:45 am
I have been to kara on PTR yesterday and must say it is whole new lvl of experience for TBC tank. We are now capable of tanking crowd, not controlling it
it is easier and much more fun.
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September 22nd, 2008 at 6:37 am
What I say often is :
“Gears are tools. Even with the best tools. if you don’t know what you are doing, you’ll fail.”
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September 22nd, 2008 at 7:26 am
I’ve PuGged my warrior to some pretty decent gear.
I PuGged normals, then heroics, PuGged Karazhan and even ym first Zul’Jin kill was in a PuG.
(now I have a 17,6 k hp tank, pretty nice huh for a PuGger :P)
As a PuGger you don’t get to see a whole lot of 25 mens, so I take every opportunity, which resulted in me offtanking in Gruul’s Lair and once on Lurker.
Yesterday was my lucky day and I got to tank Magtheridon. I was basicaly a guild run where the guild was a few people short and I was one of the fillers. My first real main tanking job in a 25 man dungeon was a blast. We got him down in 3 tries.
I will still take any opportunity to tank something new. I’m not afrad about my gear and will take on anything that comes.
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September 22nd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Our guild is doing our best to ignore the fact that the expansion is looming. After a couple months of very little progression, we’ve had guild first kills on Voidreaver, Solarian, Tidewalker, Fathom-lord and Rage Winterchill in the last few weeks. Expansion or not, we are having a great time doing raids while other guilds on our server have quit.
Which brings me to the question, for those guilds that stopped raiding, why? Is there some great preparation to do before the expansion? I guess I could see stockpiling some gold, maybe. Or do they just take a break from WoW all together? I don’t get it.
Another reason I’d be reluctant to stop raiding is I plan to keep my raid slot in the guild when we start raiding at level 80. There’s no telling what kind of jockeying will go down for raids slots. People may make alts their mains. People just starting raiding may try to be faster at hitting level 80 to beat out established players. New people may join the guild. Etc.
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Dahler reply on September 23, 2008 12:52 am:
The reason I’ve heard most often (both pre-BC and now pre-wotlk) for stopping raiding is that it give the whole raiding crew a coordinated break. After a few years of playing WoW, it’s not unreasonable to get burnt out. This gives everyone a chance to step back, take a breather, and come back into the new content fresh.
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Croboy reply on September 24, 2008 2:48 pm:
well the same situation is at my server… alot of end game guilds stoped raiding while my guild is pwnzoring MH/BT… got archie down the other day,and thats an awesome reason to not stop raid and w8 for wotlk,as vene said experience
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September 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I forgot to mention that our guild is planning to finish all the TBC raids even after the expansion. LOL, we may all be level 78 when we kill Illidan but at least we will get to see all the TBC content. I started playing WoW after TBC had come out so I never got to see any of the level 60 raids.
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Gussar reply on September 24, 2008 2:24 am:
Yep, same thing. Never seen pre TBC high-end content, except one
random AQ20 raid. And i fear that would happen with TBC high end
content. 2 month not enough for me
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September 22nd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
As much as I have been sick of running kara every week, it gets guildies geared. I bring in horribly undergeared and unexperienced healers and dps to maiden and everybody dies to holy fires (one healer had only +600 to heals) . But on the good side, we finally got Halazzi down and we figured out how to get into the water during the lurker spouts resulting in me getting some decent tanking gear. (stone pauldrons from ZA 1st timed event and the mallet of the tides from lurker) We did this with some help since guildies like to sign up and not show up on raid day…. Even on progression…
In terms of gear, in general, everybody wants to get the gear without the work. Especially since WotLK is coming in a month. This makes for some terrible players and the explanations of “i have no clue what happened” when they die in raids. Either that or “we were doing everything right… We’re geared.. I don’t know why we can’t kill [insert boss here]”
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Dunkealme reply on September 23, 2008 9:57 am:
Hao:
This makes for some terrible players and the explanations of “i have no clue what happened” when they die in raids. Either that or “we were doing everything right… We’re geared.. I don’t know why we can’t kill [insert boss here]”
I’ve heard that, but I think I said it as well, sometimes just to avoid drama and finger pointing.
Gearing up is fun, I admit but it requires a good group. If you start pugging around get ready to hear a lot of ^^ That and prepare for a lot of wipes.
I’ve been trying to get a group to down Coren (brewfest boss) for Coren’s Lucky Coin trinket (equivalent to the Autoblocker) and with all pugs: 7 tries, 7 wipes. oh well, today is another day LOL
Question. when your healer runs out of mana during that fight (as heals stop coming) and I die, is that a sign of a bad healer or a sign that I (the tank) don’t have enough gear to absorb Coren?
Mind: 16k armor, 13k health, not defense capped but uncrittable thanks to RR. My Avoidance is really low, hence trying to gear up better: Dodge 9.44% Parry and Block 12.72% Block value 197 and total avoidance at 42.6%
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Hao reply on September 23, 2008 11:11 am:
At the moment, I have 16.5K health, 18.5K armor unbuffed. 70%ish avoidance according to the calculator that vene has in one of his earlier blog posts. The group I get now a days can’t get past maiden since our main healer had to leave for personal reasons. Avoiding drama is good, but if the problem persists, you have to confront the person that is lagging, identify what he/she is having trouble with and get him/her help. That is what a raid leader is supposed to do. This isn’t to single anybody out, but to help get other people better.
I lead kara, ZA and Gruul/Mags raids, but we just started SSC with a groups held together by alliances and pugging some but that is what we’ll be doing until wrath comes out.
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Talldar reply on September 24, 2008 6:23 am:
You can’t bring it down to either. It’s a really simple fight - if everyone (and that’s including DPS also) is doing the right thing.
Your stats aren’t extraordinary, so the healer won’t get bored during the fight, that for sure. Now if you healer’s gear is similar to yours the situation gets even more interesting, though this fight is definitely still doable.
If the tank & healer aren’t overgeared the dps needs to adjust accordingly: Take down the adds, get adds off the healer, stuff like that.
In general I’d advise one thing: The lower your gear, the less pugging you should do. If you’re overgeared it’s not a big deal if the healer’s only mediocre, but if you’re at the cap of requirements a group you can rely on makes even more difference (though this is true all through the game).
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Djiss reply on September 24, 2008 8:58 am:
Dunkealme :
“Question. when your healer runs out of mana during that fight (as heals stop coming) and I die, is that a sign of a bad healer or a sign that I (the tank) don’t have enough gear to absorb Coren?”
It can be many thing.
Tank taking too much damage (ex: tank is undergeared).
DPS taking too much damage (ex: DPS pulling agro, DPS standing in fire).
Healer taking too much damage (ex: Healer pulling agro, standing in fire).
Healer not using the right spell (ex: Priest spamming flash heal).
I was doing h.Ramp once and even with my BT gear, I was still dieing from priest going OOM. He was spamming Flash Heal, did like 80% overhealing and ended OOM after 30sec on every fight.
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Croboy reply on September 24, 2008 2:53 pm:
lol damn priest,done ramps hc with two mages only… tk/ssc gear
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
I absolutely love this site and especially this post!
As GM of a fairly new raiding guild I am encouraging all of my Senior members to continue on with our current raid progression with the impending expansion.
In a very short time our guild has gone from lvl 1 players to running Z’A and that is a awesome testament to our membership. My main is a Rogue, but as with all guilds, tanks and healers are in short supply. So I made a Orc Warrior and started tanking. Glad I did! I just recently started OT’ing Kara with him and I love it! Being a tank takes you to another level of game play that is invaluable IMHO.
With each encounter our guild becomes better as a whole. We learn to play off one another’s talents and there is nothing like the feeling of beating a boss for the first time with a less than optimal group makeup.
I see the expansion as a great opportunity for our guild to expand it’s membership and grow stronger. People will still be leveling characters and needing the experience gained from current content. Our guild will most assuredly be accepting anyone who wants to raid and progress at any level of content.
Gear is great and everyone strives to improve but, the real accomplishment comes from learning to play well together. The more encounters we face the better prepared we are for the next level of content. If we have to run Kara twice a week for the next 6 months, so be it, we will all be better for it when we finally do step into Naxx.
Happy raiding all!
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September 23rd, 2008 at 11:23 am
Personally, I’m done with TBC. I’ve seen all the content I’m going to see, fighting up through Illidan on my Priest about the time of SP release and I’m fine with never seeing Sunwell. I’m in the beta, and time spent in TBC that I’m not farming cash, is pretty much a waste of time for me.
I’m just happy we got 6 Beta keys in guild, and we can get experience in those 5 mans. Because a lot of experience is fight dependant anyway.
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September 25th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
i have to agree with the experience. in the last two months or so i have gotten my budding tank from barely able to get a group for kara to the point i am just a couple pieces of gear from tanking bt and hyaj. I have known wotlk was coming out shortly from the time my tank hit 70, but thats no reason to stop. Tanking is fun, its the whole reason i started a tank and lvled him from 1-70 as a tank with all my talent points attributed as such. it was slow, it was tiresome, but i am a very good tank i am told. so lets tank for the fun of it and be psych ourselves up for wotlk because its going to be a fun ride.
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October 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I had taken a few months away from WoW, came back a little over a month ago and don’t think i’ve chosen a better time. I feel like with other tanks dropping out of raids… one moving to another guild this week as well, being chosen to MT right now will hopefully set me up for a higher position when the expansion comes. Got to MT in BT last night and it was nice being needed
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October 7th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Even getting even small upgrades in gear is reason enough. But like everyone has said, raid experience is invaluable, any raid experience. Nothing like seeing people trying to put together a Kara pug and only taking people in full epics(actually saw one pug REQUIRING +2200 healing for a kara run), and refusing to run unless they have specific classes(priest/lock). These same people would scream at you if you suggested it was ok to go into the moroes fight with no cc whatsoever, or taking on Illhoof with no lock. By gaining all the raid experience we can, we can work around any class makeup we have, and without the best gear. Hell, last couple runs we facepulled Curator with a couple of the groups still in the hallway, and slapped the crap out of him, because we had experience and knew how to adjust on the fly.
I want to get as much experience as possible before WOTLK drops, and when the new patch drops getting raid experience with the new talents, and seeing what changes in the encounters because of them will be extremely beneficial, and those extra epics/badge pieces will make leveling that much easier. And even if your raid groups have run Kara a thousand times, it can still be challenging, especially if the only things you make sure you have are 2 healers and someone that can offtank occasionally.
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MadTanker reply on October 7, 2008 11:41 am:
Key thing you said there that applies to all wow venturing.
“..because we had experience and knew how to adjust on the fly.”
This is the invalueble lesson learned by raiding still, even in the shadow of LK’s release. Taking a bad situation, pull, add, or group comp, and coming out on top of the fight is what raiding teaches you. recently we had 3 melee dps to fight madien. Myself as a lock, and a hunter litarally dps’d her solo. (tank did a bit too though.) a ret pally was on holyfire duty, and 2 melee just watched the fight. I think we had them bandage a few times. But we downed her. Inexperianced groups would have not even tried her.
In the arena, you cant have a set “way” or “order” to kill, you have to be able to adjust on the fly. Take what you see coming at you, and within a few attacks, gage the weak point in the team you face, and adjust your startagy accordingly. WoW is really not about set ways to do things, it’s about having enough people with the experiance to know how to do it reguardless of gear weakness, bad group composition, takeing on adds, or even loseing a key party member, adjusting to fit the moment, and grinding on.
So, Go Grind On wow’ers.
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MadTanker reply on October 7, 2008 11:45 am:
btw, the group comp for madien we had:
Tanks: druid warr
Heals: preist druid
ranged dps: lock hunter
melee: warr pally rogue
we 9 man kara alot, we even 8 man certain bosses and lots of trash. We use our “A-Team” to run our new guild 70’s in kara to get them geared.
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