A bloody good night Tanking

Our Wednesday raiders typically smash Mogu’shan Vaults in a reliable and solid way. Much of the gear now goes to offsets or to DE and frustratingly a few of the team still await those few gear drops that will snugly fit them out. Last night I joined them for the MV clear, but due to the silly season we were a few characters/roles short. That meant some characters needed to switch roles around, which adds risk and can frustrate.

To facilitate the first 3x boss kills before one of our regular tanks could join us – I became the off-Tank for the first three fights. I was bloody nervous being Blood spec. Now that I can look back some cool things happened:

(a) It was challenging and fun. Fun because I saw these fights in a totally new light, and didn’t feel that I made more than a few silly mistakes which cost us. I love seeing new content, and changing roles really does change the fights significantly.

I loved the Petrify mechanic in the Three Puppies Fight and think it is a very clever idea. I hate it as a Melee dps as the mobs move around, but I love it as a Tank as the fight becomes about correct taunting, positioning the bosses, awareness of bad on the floor, and control of cool-downs. It is better as Tank than melee dps.

Trash in MV is “be aware” and “use common sense” rather than disastrously punishing and that makes sense. Yes, some hit hard/often (especially if you’re missing significant amounts of requisite Tank stats because you’re using high level Dps gear) but use of cool-downs and not being an ass made this viable.

I didn’t understand the tricky-button-thing for Feng and likely didn’t use it properly ever. It smells like a gimmick to me, or rather a good idea executed using a gimmick button, anyway I need to see and do that fight more to learn what/how.

The poncy dress wearing Troll Shaman Boss was cool, switching based upon being pulled into the Spirit realm means we have a reason to be there – and the task of smashing the special Tank mob is plain enough to be straight forward. Much more than that it seemed I was just hitting and swinging. I’m OK with that.

(b) While actually Tanking nothing really awesome dropped, but some Tank gear did drop when I was back in Dps mode, which I snaffled for my Tank set (a great 489 Ring, and a dps Helm I can re-purpose for Tanking). Offspec gearing looks to be a higher need if I Tank again, so I’ll amp up the priority.

(c) I’d like to see the later 3 bosses in Tank mode too. Elegon’s taunt-switch sounds like something I think I’ve done before and having the positioning and stacking buffs keeps us honest.

I have no idea how to execute the Emperor’s New Dance mechanic for the Will of the Emperor fight, but will be willing to learn (link)

ps. We did have a few funny screw-ups along the way, but I have not yet made character assassination demands from the Priest involved yet; just waiting while I ponder how much gold those screenshots are worth to stay hidden. Your secret is safe Sir, for now.

Happy Killing

Angsty about gearing

Another loot & gear post…this time its as the rounding to the holiday event for Hallow’s Eve and the disparagingly lackluster experience trying to keep pace with a set of regular raiders.

Firstly I am sunk but not surprised that I didn’t get the Horseman’s Helm update this time around. It was a long shot that the daily goodie bag would drop the damn thing, and the fact that it is one of the better available gear items at the moment only makes it more bitter. Yes, some of the item level 463 gear are not far behind in terms of itemisation, but they are also rare and they get rolled on by all the asshats in randoms. frankly the time spent doing HH was better than getting Need rolled by a random who should know better. Yup, its happened.

Secondly I am sliding backward down the gear rank, with the raid team leaving me behind as they progress through Mogu’Shan Vaults. I expected this, but hate the sensation. I can grind/sell/buy/farm my way through another good item (the blacksmith craftable gloves) and keep saving for a Valor upgrade sometime in two weeks (Trinket, Helm, Belt, and Gloves, and the gloves will be from BS), but more than that I cannot plan for. Unless I get bloody lucky in a LFR run, or some ungodly rare world drop I won’t have a set worth speaking about in a month’s time. I’ll be out geared for Heroics, but not geared enough to be doing progression on the last of the raid bosses. Damn it.

And yes, pull my finger out and raid I hear the audience say – I’d love to. I really would. If Elegon and Emperor were melee friendly I might get a spot, but while we have raid team regulars I won’t be wasting sub-geared toon on progression fights unless I am filler. A range character on those fights can do more active switching, and a range who uses significant DoTs is probably going to do exceedingly well. Nobody likes being filler. Harrumph.

I think too that the broad expectation to stay geared by comparison to a 10 man raider is not reasonable. In fact if it was possible I’d wonder why bother raiding. This early in the expansion a very lucky or very dedicated person can be very far ahead, and a person with terrible luck can be well behind. I was hoping that luck and sweat might keep gearing levels closer for a while longer, and it was always a stretch. I cannot hold that position once Heroic raids are out, and it will be certainly harder once all the instances are open in a week or two. So many more opportunities for all players means the dedicated few will accelerate – perhaps this comes from misplaced jealously, or a want for what I cannot get (yet).

I did find a good resource at Wowhead – with a breakdown by source for loot for each clas/role. Saving that for later reading.

Happy Killing.

ps – Maint for 30 Oct is only an hour or so outage, starting from 10am PDT Tuesday, which for the Aussies is 4am on Wednesday morning. Yeehaw!

Mogu’shan Vaults LFR Requirement

If you’re slowing building gear for your fresh level 90 (like I am) you might be interested in the LFR requirement for the Mogu Vaults. The official word is:

You need to be level 90 and a minimum of 460 average ilvl if you wish to enter the first part of Mogu’shan Vaults LFR that will be opening tomorrow.

Go get those Scenarios and Heroics folks – 460 is tough but doable for a freshy. By example I have 7 of 15 item slots that are 460 or higher, playing fairly casually although luckily – with an average of ilevel 452. A few upgrades in 3x 437s and my level could be there quickly.

I wonder if that will nudge the pvp gear prices and supply a bit as people sherk the system to add higher level gear?

I wonder why the last gear roll in every instance has everyone rolling need?