Tanking Prince

Well last night Mozul finished up a Kara run for this weekend. It turned out I main-tanked nearly all of the bosses in Kara! I have off-tanked Kara many times before on Mozul, but this was my first time main-tanking so many of the bosses.

The first night we did all the required bosses up to Prince, and we had many tries on prince but gave up for the night. Afterwards, I went and spent some badges and got the Gnomeregan Auto-Blocker 600 trinket (Equip: Increases the block value of your shield by 59, Use: Increases the block value of your shield by 200 for 20 sec, 2 min cooldown). This helps quite a bit when you are in a pinch. It dropped my defense rating a bit, but I was able to make that back over 490 by getting my chest enchanted.

With this trinket and a bit more learning I was able to succesfully tank Prince the next night. The key is to keep shield block up continuously while still executing the other moves to generate threat. On Phase 1 I tanked him normally, but on Phase 2 he seems to hit faster and harder. So at the beginning of phase 2 I activated both of my trinkets and really kept a close eye on my health. Whenever it went to low I did a pot, healthstone, last stand, or shield wall whichever was needed. I was very happy once we finally got him down.

After Prince we went on to Netherspite. This one was not too bad, I think we got him on the second or third try. It is a different fight since it takes two tanks to swap off on the red beam. I learned a bit easier way to deal with the beams. When you are tanking him you stand in the red beam. It gives you a debuff. At first you let 10 of the debuffs stack up and then you step out of the beam for a second and then back in. Then you step out of the beam for a bit after every 5 debuffs. At first I had trouble figuring out where to look for the number of debuffs, but then noticed that it was showing up in my Scrolling Combat Text. After that it was very easy. I just watched the number on the debuff go up and would step out for a second at the appropriate time. Between the beam phases there is a netherbreath phase. During that time I found that you can try to tank him, but keep running through him while you do it, in order to keep out of his NetherBreath. This will knock you back and do damage. You repeat these phases until he is dead.

Next was Terestian Illhoof. We had many tries on this one. The first several I tanked Illhoof the entire time, and we had a pally tank take Kilreck and all the imps with consecrate. We also had two Warlocks and a Mage for the imps. With a priest and Resto Druid healing and a Rogue and Elemental Shammy rounding things out. This method did not work for us. I dont know from others perspectives, but we seemed to be losing people a lot in the demon chains, and not enough dps on Illhoof. Finally we tried it with the Pally Tank taking Illhoof and consecrating to still get the imps and Mozul (warrior Tank) (me) taking Kilreck and the Demon Chains and Illhoof when those are down. This is the method that worked for us. I think we may have had the shammy throw in chain heals as well at certain times. From Illhoof I won the roll on the Gilded Thorium Cloak a good tanking cloak. It has 385 armor, 30 Stamina, and increases Defense Rating by 24.

Our final boss for the night was Nightbane. We didn't one-shot him, but I learned a lot on this fight and became a clicker. Nightbane has a ground phase and an air phase. When he lands, you have to get his agro real quick since he seems to target whoever has the least bit of threat. So to gain the threat right away I generated as much rage as I could ahead of time with a blood rage and a rage potion. This way I could get my Commanding Shout up and have plenty of rage to start with a Shield Slam. This does the most threat in one shot that I have. When he lands, you have to orient him so that his tail is in the building. Otherwise it will really wipe out your raid. Like the other aggro responding bosses, you have to keep Shield Block up the whole time. During this fight I figured out my best way to do this was to continuously press my key for shield block with my left hand while simultaneously clicking the other spells I wanted to cast with my mouse in my right hand. That way I was sure to get Shield Block back up as soon as the cooldown was up. In the past I had heard over vent our guilds main pally tank furiously clicking his keyboard while tanking things and I thought it was humorous. Well tonight I realized why he does it and I have become a furious keyboard clicker as well.

I am taking a trip for 24 days soon, and I have recently purchased a Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad. While I am gone, I will be teaching myself how to use this speedpad in WOW. I think it will really help with tanking and regular play.

With the badges I earned I had enough to get another piece of tanking gear. This time I went with the Bracers of the Ancient Phalanx (703 Arm, 45 Stam, 23 Def Rating, 22 Expertise). It is the #2 on Tanking Tips.com's new 2.4 Badge Pick order. I am down to only 4 badges on Mozul now but I think I learned a lot and he is a lot better geared.

I also decided to move Mozul to my raiding guild, Distant Beliefs. He was my first character and was in the Band Of Righteous Geeks since I started playing WOW. They are a very small guild that includes some of my RL friends. However that guild is not raiding, and probably never will. I will always have a soft spot for that guild, but I thought it appropriate to bring Mozul over to Distant Beliefs since I am using him there so much now.

Well that's it. Sorry it has been so sporadic in posting here. But it is my blog.

Mozul Goes to Kara

Mozul was my first character in WoW. He is now a level 70 protection warrior. He is still in my first guild which is quite small and probably won't be going to Kahrazan for quite a long time. However, Hunzul and Dollah have joined a new guild that has a PUG (pick up group) Kara run every Saturday. Well today was the day for Mozul to go. I was the off-tank and had a great time. It is the first time I have raided with Mozul and as a tank. I think I did pretty well. At times I had to use bloodrage or a rage potion to generate rage if I was on the same target as the main tank, but other than that it was OK. Essy was able to come as well. One of the few times she is able to bring her rogue.

And Mozul got Loots. I got the Band of Impenetrable Defenses that dropped off one of the trash mobs. This will improve my defense armor set quite a bit.

The really cool thing I got was the Fiery Warhorse's Reins from Attumen.

We did Attumen, Moroes and Maiden and got up to the Opera event before I had to leave for work. They got Oz for opera and tried it a few times, but just couldn't do it. We had a whole lot of melee class and no mage which makes the Oz event especially hard.

Lets hope I get Mozul into more raids soon.

Introductions

For my first post on my new WOW blog, I thought I would explain a little. I started playing WOW back in 2006. Kinda late in the game's life, but before the Burning Crusade expansion. I played it on and off learning as I went. My wife didn't play then, so I mostly played while on travel, or while she worked on other stuff or played BZFlag. By June of 2007, my main was 64, and my two closest alts were in their 50's. That is when my wife joined me and we started playing together. By October 2007, we both had new level 70 characters! Essy, is her rogue, and Hunzul is my Hunter. She also had a high level 60's Druid, Deressy. Who has now made it to 70.

Needless to say, my play time has increased since my wife started playing with me. We both like the interaction that we get, and the fun problem solving of the game.

As you can see from the lists of my characters on the side bar and the footer, I have a lot of alts. Eventually the plan is to run one of each class up to max rank.

I like them all, but I would say my favorite right now is Hunzul. He is a beastmaster hunter. I really like being a hunter. I have got Hunzul's Kara key but he hasn't started raiding yet.

Mozul, my warrior is now at 70 as well and I am prepping him to be a protection warrior for raids.