Finding a place to call home

So what is it about Warcraft that feels right for any individual player?

Is it a faction?  Maybe it's your chose faction?  Or perhaps you feel most at home playing a certain class or role.  I'm sure it's a combination of all of the above.

What about a literal place you call home in game?

One of the main differences between the Alliance and Horde main cities is the fact that there's housing.  Of all of my time playing as Horde and spending so much time being bored in Orgrimmar, the only place I could really call home is the bank roof or perhaps the rock next to the palm trees and mailbox outside the bank.

The Alliance cities however, seem to have an abundance of housing, albeit most of the doors in Stormwind are shut.  And I spent some time riding around the main cities recently looking for a spot that would feel the most homely for my character.

I'd like to first introduce you to my main character.  Deftig the proud Dwarf warrior.

Rawr!!  Fierce, ain't he!?

I found a spot that I think suits my character quite well.  Firstly, it's in Ironforge... and he's a Dwarf.  It just fits.  Additionally, I seem to prefer Ironforge to any of the other Alliance main cities.  I'm not sure why, perhaps it's because I worked in an iron foundry for a while myself, or the fact that it's centrally located and most importantly you don't have to take any fall damage when you port there and run out of the portal chamber (as opposed to Stormwind jumping off the mage tower, or falling down the side of the city in Org) - I don't know what that bothers me,  but it does.

The spot I've picked is in the Military Ward part of the city, and it's right between Craghelm's Plate and Chain and Timberline Arms.  Can't pick a nicer spot that that...

Riiiiiiight here

So with out any further ado...

Come on in!

Main room properly decorated (click to read text, I made it a bit small)

Upstairs

Yep, this house has it all; good location, perfect decorations, great neighbors, and it's quiet most of the time.

So what spot is home for you?  I'm looking forward to seeing some replies and hopefully some blog posts detailing your own homes in game, and the reasons why.

Paladin Sends Mage Alt Into Shadowfang Keep! Film at Eleven!

So what are you looking at?  Can't a guy send an alt into a 5-man without commentary?  Sometimes, you just want to stop playing your main for a little while.

Oh, right.  Most of my alts are Paladins too.

Well, I was up way late last night with sleep nowhere in sight*, so I got on WoW.  Instead of clicking straight through to Quintalan when I selected the Area 52 server, I paused.  My mage was staring back at me, with her Blood Elf snarky attitude, daring me to pick her instead.

Why not?  And why not actually try her on an instance?  At L26, she's ready to go, and I think I know enough about instances to handle ranged DPS.  ('Just keep yer threat down, willya?')  A place like Shadowfang, which is a straight shot without lots of trash coming at you from behind, seemed the perfect first instance.  Well that and that it's fairly short, and at L26 Neve is right at the maximum level for the dungeon.

I queued her up, and proceeded to wait about 1/2 hour for a group to assemble.  In that copious time, I

• Conjured up about 100 Food and 100 Water, ready for when people needed it.
• Cruised through the Barrens and Mulgore, working on the Exploration achievements for each.  After months of riding the Thalassian Mount and Charger, a hawkstrider just doesn't look right.  (Neither would a raptor, for that matter.  A worg?  Now that'd be interesting.)
• Practiced on sacrificial raptors in the Barrens.  It had been months since I'd done anything with her other than level Tailoring and Enchanting, and I needed to get back into the swing of it.
• Danced with the Flight Master in Camp Taurajo.  Hey, if you're gonna go, go out with a bang, right?

When the LFD tool finally assembled a group and we ported in, the instance was very nearly over before it began. 

I started buffing people with INT, and asked if anyone needed food.

"Do I look like a Mexican?" the warrior DPS snapped.

I'm still not exactly sure how, but I resisted my almost immediate urge to /drop group or /smack him for that crack.  "You look like an orc to me," I finally responded.  I made a mental note of the timer left on vote kick, because I wasn't screwing around with this guy.

At last the Warrior tank moved forward, and we got going.  He pulled the first group of trash, and I mentally counted out the time where I felt comfortable with his aggro lock, ran forward, and....

HOLY CRAP!  WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING??!!

I immediately burst Frost Nova and skittered back to the edge of the group, where I remained.  Every chance I got, I found a corner to cast from, watching my threat the entire time.

Because I'd never run Neve through an instance before, I was pleasantly surprised when Healbot came in handy for her.  You'd not expect a healing add-on to give any extra boost to a decidedly non-healer, but when you right click on a member of your group on the Healbot bar, it's the same as using a macro to assist whatever they're attacking.  Very handy indeed, and saves me a key binding.  Decursive saves me another slot, because Remove Curse is used very heavily in Shadowfang Keep.

For the most part, I managed threat well; in fact, the only time I pulled threat was when the tank died, and being the one dishing out the most damage, I was the one that the mob aggroed on.  Scratch one squishy Mage.  The rest of the group finished off the mob, so it wasn't a total wipe, and the Tree was nice enough to raise me once the fight was over.  Not that I can't run back in Shadowfang, but let's face it:  a Mage is armored with glorified tissue paper, and wandering mobs are not soloable by a Mage.

The fight with Arugal, however, was a bit of a problem.  The tank left him on his spot at the top of the steps, and I couldn't get a good line of sight to cast at him without getting far too close for comfort.  Looking around for somewhere, anywhere to go, I saw the top of the steps that you entered with.  I ran over and up the steps, and I was in range for casting.  That was very considerate of Blizz to set that up for ranged DPS that way.

My only regret?  The mouthy DPS dropped before the kick timer expired.  He was earning a vote kick throughout the instance, but I never got the chance to initiate one because he dropped after the the tank death incident.

So, what did I think of something decidedly non-Paladin?  Not bad at all.  Once I got over my initial urge to go in there and mix it up in melee, I learned the joys of staying to the rear and keeping an eye over your shoulder.  You have to manage Blizzard --even if it is off cooldown-- because of the mana bite it takes.  You also have to stock up on mana potions, because you might just end up with a tank that won't listen to anyone and will just keep pulling.

I do have big issues with being so squishy, but I guess that's something I'll have to live with.  At least I won't feel guilty when I see her in the startup screen.

*The allergy medicine I was taking left me wired to the point where I couldn't sit still and read.  Not fun.

Don't forget your Swiss Army Knife

In this era of role silos, I’ve found that I like playing the jack-of-all-trades.

This isn’t exactly a revelation to anyone who has read our blog the past year or so, but I’ve found that leveling new Paladins on the Alliance side has reinforced that attitude.

I’m the guy who actually likes handling the stairs on Drak’Tharon:  I can heal myself, use Righteous Fury and Consecration to draw aggro, and do enough damage by myself to keep the scourge from causing issues with the crew down below before Phase 2 of the fight.  Healer getting overwhelmed with debuffs or damage in a scrum?  I can step in and plug the gaps as needed.  Tank losing aggro to the ranged DPS?  A quick Hand of Salvation or a pull using Righteous Defense will drag that trash back into threat range, and a bubble will drop the threat right off of me, enabling the tank to reestablish control.  Garfrost’s stacking debuff hitting everyone hard?  Frost Aura will take a bite out of it.  Those Ymirheim Flamebringers blasting everyone with AoE over in the Pit of Saron?  Interrupts, Fire Aura, and Holy Wrath will stop that.

The bag of tricks that a Paladin has is an eerie echo of my own personal set of tools for work.  I might not be the most knowledgeable person at my job, but I’ve got a wide set of homegrown tools that will assist me in whatever is thrown my way.  By comparison, every Pally has the ability to heal, tank, and DPS right out of the box, but it’s the application of those various little abilities that let a Paladin really shine. 

When was the last time you saw a Ret Pally switch out of Ret or Protection Aura to help mitigate damage?  There are plenty of opportunities to do that in places such as Razorfen Downs, The Old Kingdom, the Scarlet Monastery, Halls of Lightning, and Pit of Saron, but why doesn’t it happen?  Because the theorycrafters say that’s not optimal DPS?  Why don’t Ret Pallys help out more with an occasional debuff removal?  Because they’re in their own silo?  Believe me, having run as a healer, if someone wants to assist with the occasional Cleanse, go for it.  Don’t overdo things, because it’s not your primary role, but if you want to help out, a zap or two of Cleanse in the middle of your rotation makes my job easier and lets me concentrate on the tank more.

As an example, I was in Razorfen Downs with Tomakan last week.  Tom’s reached that point where his Holy Spec gear isn’t being replaced fast enough, so he has mana issues.  Rather than burden a group with Tom being underpowered, I queued him up as DPS and switched to the 2H Heirloom Axe.  However, it was obvious that the healer and tank were struggling with the ranged DPS pulling aggro, so I pitched in with some debuff clearing and an occasional HoS or Righteous Defense to help out.

After about 10 minutes, the healer finally spoke up.  “Tom,” he asked, “are you cleaning debuffs?”

“Yeah,” I said.  “I’m guilty.  I wasn’t going to say anything about it, though.”

“Oh, that’s fine.  I’m having lag problems, so by the time I see it pop up it’s already gone.”

The next instance that night was Scarlet Monastery, and I was doing the same routine:  clean debuffs when I can work it in, and help with crowd control without stepping on the tank’s toes. 

About halfway through the instance the Priest healer piped up, “I don’t believe it!”

“What?” the tank –also a Paladin—asked.

“Paladins who clean their own debuffs!  Not one but two of you!  That never happens!”

You know, maybe it should happen a little more often.  Working as a team means acting as a team, not just confining your actions to a specific set of keyboard strokes. 

How to effectively tank the Lich King

I had to explain this to a fellow guildee last night, so I though it would make a good post and great information to any tank coming up on the LK fight.

First, you have to decide what role you're going to fill; Main tank or off tank.  And this decision actually has a lot to do with what class you are, and how good of a player you are.

You want situational awareness.  There a LOT going on during this fight, and you've got to keep track of a lot as one of the tanks.

PHASE 1 (LK 100% HP)
Main tank engages LK and positions him.  LK will spawn wave after wave of ghouls.  It's your job to pick up and hold aggro on these as well as the LK.

Offtank picks up the Shambling Horrors as well as one or two of the Ghouls.

Main mechanic - Necrotic Plague - stacking dot that thins out the ghouls and horrors. The plague jumps targets, and as it does it gains a stack becoming more powerful.  It's up to the raid to manage the stacks and make sure it does not fall off.  It's also the job of the healers to make sure this DOT does not tick on a player as it will kill them instantly (you have only a few seconds to get into the proper position for it to be cleansed off you and it jumps to a new target).

TRANSITION PHASE 1 (LK 70% hp)

Everyone moves to outer ledge, finish off horrors and ghouls if you have any, and then lose the disease by having a player get out of range of everybody else and cleanse it off.  Here's where it gets tricky for the tanks.  The spirits that start to spawn do a conal silence effect.  This means your tanks are going to be silenced - this also means they cannot taunt.  We chose to bypass this by having the main tank stand off to the side out of the cone and taunt mobs to the off tank.  This allows the main tank to freely engage the LK at the start of phase 2 with no spirits also beating on him.

PHASE 2 (LK 70ish %)

This is the hardes phase, due to the RNG factor of Defile placements and well as valkyr paths.

Main tank engages LK and the entire group moves to the middle.  Off tank must be careful with positioning as you will likely have spirits up still.  Make sure you don't silence your raid.  A Valkyr will spawn and select a target - all dps must move to kill the Valkyr before she drops a fellow raid member off the platform.  Stuns and snares DO work, make sure you apply them. 

During the Valkyr, one raid member will be targeted for Defile, which puts an aoe where ever the player happens to be.  As the main tank has the LK targeted, it's help full to call out who's going to get hit, and hopefully people can move away from them ASAP.

As a tank, the main thing you need to be concerned with during this phase is placement of the LK as close to the center as possible with out getting in defiles, as well as dealing with Soul Reaper.  This deals 50.000 shadow damage to the tank and increases the LK's haste by 100% for five seconds.  If you're not prepared for it, you will more than likely get instagibbed.  Blow what ever cooldown you have to live through this.

Warrior tips:

 I find as a warrior tank that you can take 3 Soul Reapers before you need to worry about having your off tank pickup the LK.  On the first one, blow Shield wall, second pop Last Stand, and on the third pop your corroded skeleton key (4 piece tier 10 bonus works too) and enraged regen.  After which you will be out of cooldowns and should call for the off tank to pick up the LK right after you get the fourth Soul Reaper (you'll take the damage of the debuff, but will not have to worry about surviving the haste buffed LK).

DK Tips:

You are a one man army.  This is all you!  DKs are perhaps the best suited tank to deal with Soul Reapers.  If you're a good little DK and are specc'd into the blood tree, you're golden on this fight.  Dealing with Soul Reapers is cake, because you always have a cool down up and don't have to worry about another tank taunting.  You can chain your Vampiric Blood, Anti Magic Shell, and Icebound Fortitude and have them come off of cooldown in time to continue popping them.  (It's rather OP that the Anti Magic Shell makes you immune to the shadow damage suffered by Soul Reaper)

The off tank in this phase should help kill the Valkyrs after his spirits are dead.

TRANSITION PHASE 2 (LK 40%)

Everybody off the platform again and get into the same setup as on the first transition phase, where one of the tanks taunts spirits to the other one.

PHASE 3 (LK 40 ish %)

Main tank drags LK to the complete edge of one side of the map, and the off tank drags any remaining spirits on the platform and finishes them off with the DPS. 

Main tank waits for vile spirits (Can't miss it, LK stops and raises Frostmourne and spirits come out of the sword.) and then hauls ass to the complete opposite side of the map.  Off tank should run around and try to soak up any of the spirits heading for raid members.  Rinse and repeat until LK is down to 10% at which point he kills all of you, and then you get your free kill after being resurrected by the NPC.

Through the Looking Glass

While I was waiting for LFD last night, I was mentioning to Soul about how similar --yet different-- the questlines are between Alliance and Horde.  I've not done a lot of quests on Tomakan as I've been using the LFD tool a lot, but I have done several quest chains in Ashenvale, and I'm partway through the Shady Rest Inn chain in Dustwallow.  What continues to interest me is how essentially the same chain can be viewed through two different lenses.

Take Felfire Hill for example.  The Draenei simply can't believe that they traveled this far just to have a Legion outpost nearby, and want to eradicate it.  While you're cleaning out the mess of demons, the secret plans for the assault on Forest Song drop, and you are then sent to wipe out the Dreadlords.  You see the quest entitled "Never Again!" and you know how important it is for the Draenei to eliminate the Legion.

Sounds like a perfect fit for the Draenei, but until you see the Horde side, you can't help but think that the quest chain was custom designed for the Alliance.

The Orcs, however, are outraged that this group of demons managed to survive.  They have nothing but disgust and hatred for their former masters, and want to destroy them at all costs.  When the plans drop for the assault on Splintertree Post, the Horde questgiver gives you the quest "Never Again!" with the orders to eliminate the Dreadlords.  The Horde will never be subject to demons again, and you believe it.

Same quest chain, two equally valid --yet different-- viewpoints.

Another comparison is the Shady Rest Inn chain.  For the Alliance, you're given a quest to check up on a relative, and when you arrive in Theramore you discover that there was a fire, and the wife and kid of the relative died.  Your job is to investigate the fire and bring the perps to justice, because the Alliance's laws will be upheld.  Contrast that with the Horde:  You enter Dustwallow Marsh and pass by this burned out husk of an inn, with the owner wandering around dazed.  He's human, but not flagged as an enemy.  Well, you think, what the hell happened here?  You arrive in the Horde outpost in Dustwallow and are pulled aside by a questgiver.  Thrall, the giver explains, has received word about the fire at the Inn and he knows that because it's on the border of the Barrens the Horde is the main suspect.  Thrall is anxious to keep the peace, so your job is to investigate the fire to demonstrate the Horde's good faith in maintaining the truce.  And if it does turn out that Horde people are implicated, show no mercy.

The same questline begins with completely different motivations:  Alliance is personal/legal, Horde is diplomatic.

Now that that's out of the way, I want to drop a big gripe about the LFD tool:  lack of context.  So far as I can tell, there are no quests or common ground for the opposing faction in the Deadmines, Ragefire Chasm, or Stormwind Stockades.  Sure, there's an achievement involved, but with LFD nothing highlights the lack of context quite like those three.  If you're Alliance, the Searing Blade means absolutely nothing to you:  an Orc is an Orc is an Orc.  To the Horde, the Searing Blade is serious bidness:  they want to return to the "glory days" of being Fel Orcs in the Burning Legion, and will stop at nothing to overthrow Thrall and the rest of the current Horde leadership.  Likewise, I had never heard of the Defias Brotherhood until I started leveling an Alliance alt.  "Big whoop," I said.  "A bunch of thieves.  Try the Scarlet Crusade on for size instead."  But for the Alliance, the Defias represents a real threat to the existing order, and have a nasty ol' surprise in store for leveling characters.

Don't get me wrong, I like the LFD tool.  It allows solo artists a chance to check out instances they ordinarily would have a difficult time getting into.  From a lore standpoint, however, I have to wonder about the dungeonmaster achievements gained via the LFD tool.  There's no context for several of the instances, and there never will be.  What I'd like to see is a separate achievement, highlighting all of the quests that touch on an instance, and have a separate achievement for that.  Call it "Contextual Obligations" or something similar, emphasizing that your toon has been involved with the lore leading up to the instance.

(EtA:  Cleaned things up because, you know, I need an editor.)

Did Aragorn have these problems at Helm's Deep?

When I was in high school, laser tag was in its infancy.  A few places had opened across the country, and one in my hometown had popped up by my senior year.  That winter, one of the two physics teachers put together an outing to go the laser tag facility, and I found out about it through word of mouth and signed up.

The equipment was heavy, somewhere in the realm of 30 lbs./13.5 kg, and consisted of a jacket, a gun + backpack, and a solid blast helmet worthy of Star Wars.  The were two towers that contained the "flag" that each team was supposed to zap, plywood and carpet obstacles, and a couple of bridge and upper level areas.  Above the entire arena was an observation deck, where you could watch other people when they were playing.

Sounds an awful lot like PVP Battlegrounds, doesn't it?

Well, except for that part about the observation deck.

Unless you have your own observers who act like they're watching Rocky Horror Picture Show or Showgirls.

I was on as Quintalan yesterday for a bit in the afternoon, which was unusual for a Saturday.  I wasn't planning on doing anything much, just some fishing that I'd promised myself I'd do to provide some haste chow and fish feasts for the guild.  (Hey, it's an excuse to fish, what more do you need?)

Well, one of the guildies asked if anyone was up for a battleground.  Since she and I had been in quite a few 5-man runs the past couple of months, I whispered her that if she didn't mind having a creaky wheel tagging along, I'd go.  After all, I have no PVP gear to speak of, and haven't really PVPed in a battleground since Quint was in the mid-40s.  That lack of experience didn't deter her at all, because without another word she popped up the invite and I accepted.

We queued up with another guildie and waited for the BG to pop up.  Knowing my luck, I figured we'd end up with something I knew absolutely nothing about, like Isle of Conquest, but I was surprised and pleased to see Arathi Basin appear in the load screen.  This, I could deal with.

Except for the [expletive deleted] death knight who took his first death at my hands personally, and spent most of the rest of the game sending Armies of the Dead to chew on my group's position.

It was then that the first spectator appeared.

My son wandered over to see what instance I was in, and he said, "this is different."

"Yeah, it's a battleground."

He watched me pursue a shadow priest for a moment.  "Is it like tag?"

"More like having to capture and hold your position."

"Oh!  Like Axis and Allies!  Or Civilization IV!"

"Well, a lot quicker than that."

He watched me some more.  "You died."

"I know."  I sat there, waiting for the rez so I could get back into the fray.

I ended up not lasting that long.  "You died again."

"Thanks.  I noticed."

Arathi Basin over, we queued up again and got Warsong Gulch.  By now, the girls had come by.  "Watcha doing, Dad?"

"He just died," my son said.

I glared at the screen.  "Playing in a battleground.  You see, these people are on my side--"

"You're playing as Quintalan?"

"Yes."

"So they're Horde, right!  Go Horde!"

"Yeah, go Horde.  And we're trying to--"

"Hey!  You've got a flag!  Are you playing capture the flag?"

"Yes, it's like tha--"

"Wow!  I love that game! Hey Steph, Dad's playing Capture the Flag on WoW!"

"When can I play?"

I took my eyes off the screen to shake my head at my youngest.  "You're not old enough yet."

"Dad," my son said, "you died again."

"I know that.  Look, I can't see with your head in the way."

"And again.  You die a lot."

Now I remembered why I don't play WoW very much in the afternoons on the weekends.  And I longed for the days of laser tag, where the spectators were separated from the players.

You want me to WHAT?

"So, do u tank?"

That little question completely changed the tenor of my afternoon.

I'd had kind of a terrible week at work --if you come back from vacation to a boatload of stuff to do, you'll understand-- so when my Dwarf Paladin hit 20 I resolved to queue him up for Ragefire Chasm.  Friday seemed an excellent day to do just that, so I dialed up RFC and selected DPS for ol' Balthan.

Three minutes later, an image of a Searing Blade Cultist greeted me.  Such a short queue was surely a good sign.

While we were buffing, the Gnome Warrior tank asked, "Are there any quests here?"

"I have no idea if there are any for Alliance," I replied.  "For the Horde, there's plenty.  Thrall doesn't like these guys for some reason.  No idea why."

"Oh," he said, and then proceeded to tank the first couple of mobs.

Then he vanished right before the next room.

"You have got to be kidding me," the Night Elf Priest said.

"Yeah, tell me about it," I replied.

Then the Priest dropped his loaded question.

"No, I usually DPS or Heal.  But I guess we could clear this room."

"Gogo."

Thankfully, there aren't a lot of tanking tools available at L20 that I didn't already have, so I started pulling one mob at a time.  Did I mention that there weren't a lot of them available at L20?  Well, did I also mention that I never bother to configure those tools on my keys, since I don't tank except in a rare emergency?

Good thing I was at the high end of the level range for RFC, so I didn't have to worry too much about health, even with a bunch of green gear and no heirlooms.  I was kept busy taunting the mobs when they were peeling off me and going after the Warlock, but mercifully nobody died.

Another tank ported in (another Gnome Warrior), and we resumed our regularly scheduled run.

Well, sort of.  This tank wouldn't let anyone drink, but kept running onward.  You know, when three other people in the party are telling you to wait, maybe it's a good idea to do that.  I had the impression that if we'd been past the time limit for the vote kick option that tank would be gone, but we'll never know.

The tank dropped before one last boss, and the Lock joined him.

This left myself, the Priest healer, and a Mage.


The Mage laughed.  "Go on, B.  We'll cover you."

So, once again Balthan the Reluctant Tank took the lead, tanking the last boss.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad.  Of course not having a lot to use helped immensely, but the worst part of the job was yanking back threat from ranged DPS who lay down a boatload of damage.

I filed this under the heading of "extended emergency tank duty", and washed my hands of the affair.  I'm much happier letting another person run the tanking duties while I DPS or heal, but it was definitely an interesting experience.

If you come across this post and you're looking for some basic info on threat and tanks, Lara over at Root and Branch has a great Threat Primer for Beginning Tanks.  For DPS who wonder about how to handle the various tank classes (as of 3.3.5), Souldat has a great post on his opinions about when to hold back and let loose with your DPS in pug 5-mans and raids.