I realize that by not being in a guild currently I have to suffer the fate of finding pick up groups (pug) to run dungeons my level. Why must the random pug always be such a headache?
Group composition:
Level 70 Warrior - Protection Tank Spec (myself)
Level 70 Deathknight - Blood DPS spec
Level 70 Shaman - Enhancement DPS spec
Level 70 Mage - Arcane (I think?) DPS spec
Level 70 Druid- Restoration Healing Spec
Dungeon:
Utgarde Keep
Here I am. My first Northred dungeon on my warrior. I have high hopes for this run. I remember back to a few weeks ago I did one night of Outlands dungeon runs with a group similarly composed to my current one and we did very well.
First few pulls went ok. I noticed the mage pulling aggro a bit so I placed Vigalance http://thottbot.com/ta148 on the mage which took care of that.
The run generally went pretty smoothly up to the first boss. The one pull where you get two spell casters and two melee mobs to fight was rough. The shaman died and reincarnated himself and the death knight died also. I felt bad for letting this happen and apologized to them.
We killed the first boss successfuly, though losing the deathknight again.
On our way up to the second boss I started feeling more comfortable with the rotation of using my abilities again and started watching my group members. They were attacking who ever was closest to them with out a care in the world.
Trying to maintain aggro on all of the mobs in the pack pulls was a complete mess by the end of the run with the each of the three dps picking their own mob to try to kill.
I'm pretty sure I know how to aoe tank. Charge in, thunderclap, back pedal a bit to group up mobs and unleash a shockwave followed by a demoralizing shout, and then a succession of tab targeting to apply devastate and cleave when rage allows.
I was like a mad man trying to maintain aggro on all of the seperate targets at once.
Now two realizations hit me here:
1) Why oh why can't PUGs assist the tank?
I think I know. Paladins and DeathKnight tanks have lovely lovely AOEs that give them great front loaded threat on the various targets. So much so that you can just, that's right.... set it and forget it. As having played both a level 80 Paladin and Deathknight as tank specs I cannot recall having to worry about group pulls pretty much ever.
Warriors can get this too, but it requires a bit more work because you have to make sure you position your shockwave to hit all the targets. Now being lower level I realize I don't have all the tools in my back of tricks yet to help assist grouping the targets up, but ARGH was this frustrating.
2) Perhaps leveling my DeathKnight alt (once the wife catches up) will actually prove less frustrating that the constant struggle I would face in my current predicament of haivng to find PUGs.
Why, then, does playing my deathknight feel like cheating somehow?
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ReplyDeleteEven as an 80 well geared Tankadin, I won't grab agro back from people if they start doing tard stuff.
ReplyDeleteMy philosphy:
"You pull it, you tank it."
It is as much the responsibility of the dps to NOT pull agro and watch their threat, as it is for the tank to try and hold agro and keep threat up.
So, next time, I wouldn't apologize for their stupidity, unless you absolutely do a bonehead maneuver, which, I have done on occasion before. lol Because we all have bad days.
Hey, how's your new guild shaping up? You liking the fit still?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have not tanked anything in the game recently on my 80 prot pally and have not kept up on the class changes either.
ReplyDeleteI do know they were scaling them back a bit when I stopped playing my paladin though.
The thing I'm really really interested in seeing is how the upcoming change to defence is going to modify tanking gear.
Will block suddenly become a stat to build for?
And how will new tank gear allocate its points now that we no longer have to stack defence rating?
Not only this, but how will this affect the tanking classes?
Poor druids are going to get the shaft. Not only do they have one of the weakest AOE toolkits but now everyother tank may possibly be able to build effective health and avoidance just as easily as they can.
Exciting times for tanks...
The new guild is.. Well.. Fantastic. Lots to do and plenty of really nice fun people to do it with. I've also started leveling up my gnome mage so I can eventually move him into the raiding guild my Pally is currently in.
ReplyDeleteThey are very generous with loot and want to succeed so they do their best to equip the people with the best possible loot who need it.
I've not had any problems getting items, since the other tanks in the guild have gear above mine, not much mind you, but they do raids for fun, not just for the loot, which is my philosphy as well.