On the denial that mana will matter

From when Blizzard first announced that their intention for the Cataclysm healing design was to make mana management matter again and make using the right heal at the right time more important than keeping raid members topped of, I knew the playerbase would resist it. I had a feeling that players would be hesitant to give up their limitless mana pool, in spite of the downsides that healing design has brought on the community. There's something about human nature that just isn't willing to give up the luxuries one has already obtained, even if the cost of those luxuries makes them not worth having. That's why so many lawyers and other professionals stay in jobs they hate when those jobs pay well (I'm only targeting lawyers here because I know many who say they hate their job); they have adjusted to a certain lifestyle that those jobs make possible, and thus they stay in them, even though they dread going to work each day. I'm sure there are marriages that continue to exist for the same reason.

Well, we players have a similar relationship with mana and healing. The luxury, in our case, is mana pools that never seem to run out, no matter how much overhealing we do. The downside, then, is boss attacks that do ridiculously large amounts of damage and require split-second timing of heals, for without those elements to add challenge, healing would be a brainless activity, a boring one that wouldn't actually require anything of the player. Now, I'm sure people have differing opinions on whether huge damage spikes are a fair price to pay for practically limitless mana, but it seems that Blizzard believes it is not a fair price to pay, which brings us to this quote from Ghostcrawler on the official forums.

Q u o t e:
If you have to use your inefficient heal too much, you will go OOM.
If you take too much damage, you force your healers to use their inefficient heals more.

Avoidance reduces damage. Stamina does not.

"I think the issue is that some players are rejecting the notion that mana will ever matter, in which case there is no reason to approach surviving as a tank any different than you do today. There's not much we can do to disabuse anyone of that notion until they see the content." -Ghostcrawler (source)

It's easy to follow Ghostcrawler's logic here: The reason stamina is so emphasized by tanks is because a larger health pool gives healers more time to react, and healers need that time to react because boss attacks do so much damage, and boss attacks do so much damage so the boss fights can actually be challenging for healers, and the boss fights wouldn't be challenging for healers without those large attacks because healers have a largely limitless supply of mana. Because Blizzard wants to change the third link in that chain, they have to change the fourth, and by doing that, they will change the second link, and thus the first. All that is a long way of saying that avoidance will be more important in Cataclysm than it is now because of the new healing design.

So, why the hesitation to accept this design change? Perhaps players see their effectively limitless mana pools as a necessity when they consider the fact that Wrath of the Lich King bosses have high spike damage. It's hard to worry about using the most mana-efficient spells when taking the time to consider which spell is right for the job could result in the tank dying, after all. As such, rather than recognizing the spike damage as a result of the large mana pools, they see it as the other way around, that they focused on having high mana and regeneration so they could use their inefficient but powerful spells to heal through the spike damage. This is all conjecture, mind you; I could be completely wrong about this, and would appreciate some affirmation or denial from those who do raid.

However, what I do know for a fact is that the players that are still holding on to the ideas of high health pools and limitless mana for healing are holding on to crutches used to overcome challenges that won't exist once Cataclysm hits. Perhaps this is out of habit, or perhaps it's due to comfort with the familiar, or perhaps these players are afraid to give up the tools they need now. Whatever the reason, I have a feeling this trend will continue into Cataclysm. Tanks will gem and enchant for stamina, healers will gem and enchant for spirit, and who knows? Maybe it will work. Maybe what the tanks lose in avoidance, and thus gain in damage taken, the healers will gain in gross healing output as their super high regeneration allows them to heal more without running out of mana. Then again, by focusing on regeneration, healers will be losing out on having higher healing-per-mana, so that added regeneration may not be enough to make up for the extra damage taken by tanks, especially considering that healers will be healing everyone else, as well. We'll just have to wait and see.

Damage Meters and compensation

I've been putting off writing a post about damage meters, recount, and other such addons for quite some time, because it always seemed like a very clear-cut issue to me. The addon has its good side in that it can be used to help DPS better themselves and improve their contributions to the group. It also has its bad side in that it can be used as justification for one DPS to belittle another DPS, it can be used by a good DPS to show off how good their DPS is, in both cases serving as an ego boost, and it can cause DPS to become myopic about what really matters in a group setting. As many of you who frequently do heroics know, the people who link damage meters in party chat tend to be the ones doing top DPS, leading to the impression that they are just showing off because they have abnormally small man parts (to quote Frostheim).

It's this latter group that interests me the most, the people who are top DPS in a group and feel the need to show that off publicly. There are also variants of this group, like people who ask for recount to be linked in party chat and just happen to be at the top of the list. What I've always wondered is, why can't they be content to know that they have the highest DPS and not need to show it off? Conventional wisdom says that it's because they are compensating for something, but conventional wisdom never makes any real guesses as to what they are compensating for. That's what I plan to do today.

One of the complaints most frequently lobbed at recount and the like is that it can't measure any of the DPS's contributions to the group other than damage. It can't measure off-healing he may do to lighten the burden of the healer (which, in instances like Halls of Reflection, is a much appreciated contribution), it can't measure when he eschews certain abilities that boost his own damage so that he can increase the sum damage of the group, and it doesn't take into account the drop in damage that comes when the tank dies and a DPS jumps into action to tank the pull. (I've seen a DPS be threatened to be kicked from a group because their recount was low because they tanked when the tank died.) All it can measure is how much damage the DPS put out, a rather shallow way of measuring the contributions of a DPS. That's why it is a tool that is best used sparingly and discretely.

But perhaps that's the reason why it is so popular with DPS that need to compensate for something. Because recount only measures the DPS's damage, all they need to do to top the meters is focus on doing as much damage as possible, or on getting better gear that will boost their damage without them even trying any harder. DPS don't need to try to contribute to the group in any ways other than damage in order to top the meters, and in fact, doing so will probably lower their numbers, since they'll be spending less time and resources on doing damage. In short, it is a very simple matter to reach the top of the meters, even though doing so limits your other valuable contributions to the group and can actually make you more of a burden than anything (tank who's still gearing up + ICC-geared AoE-happy mage = disaster).

Because recount works in this way, perhaps the people who post their numbers in party chat are the ones who can't contribute to the group in any way other than damage. Maybe they aren't skilled enough to take advantage of the full capabilities of their class, or maybe they play a class that doesn't have many valuable ways of contributing to the group's success other than damage (such as rogues), or maybe they are just good at damage but stink at being part of a group, so to compensate for their lacks, they try to cause as much damage as possible and top the meters, thus affirming their only valuable contribution to the group. It's a sad idea, if it's true, but its no surprise, considering that since the dawn of WoW, DPS have been eschewing good group play in favor of doing high damage (of course, when they are new, they do it because they don't know any better, but now the reason may be more complex). Recount and the like just give them the tools to inflate their ego without putting forth much extra work; you can hardly blame the mod for exacerbating what is already a festering problem.

Druid healing in heroics, part II

I have already covered the basics of healing in heroics with this flowchart, but a flowchart cannot give the whole picture (see what I did there?), so this post will be a companion guide to that flowchart. For the record, the strategies herein are for druids who are still using heroics to gear up; if you already out-gear heroics, then just follow Jen's strategy:
1. Rejuv the tank
2. (Optional) WG the group
3. Afk until the Rejuv runs out
4. Collect emblems
What follows is advice for people who don't have good enough gear to follow this strategy. This advice is also meant to help healers build the habits they will need when they enter the raid scene.

1. Get some sort of HUD mod that puts your health bar in plain view.
One of the main issues new healers face is forgetting to heal themselves; they get so focused on keeping everyone else's health bars topped off that they forget about their own. That's why I recommend you get a mod like IceHUD (that's the one I use) that puts your health bar in the middle of the screen so it is right in your face. Here's a picture of it in action:














It may seem like it would just be in the way, but trust me, this bar is a life-saver. Having my health Bar right there is the only way I can remember to heal myself. You may want to man it out and try to watch your own bar along with everyone else's, but though your intentions may be good, they won't be worth anything when your carcass is on the ground not healing your party. Trust me; get the mod, or one similar to it. I use it all the time, so it's not a bad addition to your usual mod lineup.

2. Healing Priority: Tank, you, DPS
In heroics these days, you aren't likely to encounter situations where you will need to prioritize healing, but these situation do arise. Your tank may get overzealous with his pull, or you may get Moragg in Violet Hold, or you may be plopped in a Frozen Halls instance. Either way, remember this: the tank must survive. When you need to decide between dropping a heal on the tank and anyone else, the tank's survival comes first. Your survival comes next, for, without your healing, the party will drop like flies. Now, this does not mean that your should not heal your DPS; without them, the boss won't die. However, most DPS these days are in such good gear that they don't need to be healed immediately; still, clothies will be clothies, so if you and the tank are all set for healing, make sure the DPS gets their share.

3. Use Barkskin if you are attacked.
Nothing too complicated about that. Barkskin reduces the damage you take and allows you to heal without your spells being delayed by damage, so if enemies decide to head your way, toughen up a bit with this spell. I also recommend using it before using Tranquility so as not to lose ticks of that spell.

4. Use Innervate when your mana reaches 10,000 less than its maximum.
Innervate restores 7866 mana at level 80, or about 8,000. Since it is your main way to get back mana, you want to have it available frequently, especially when you move into raids, where boss fights will be long enough to allow you to use Innervate two or three times. As such, you want to use it early, but how early? If you use it when you are lacking exactly 8,000 mana, you may regenerate mana in the time that Innervate is active, causing you reach maximum mana and waste your innervate. If you wait until you are lacking 10,000 mana, you probably won't regenerate enough mana to cause you to waste the mana you gain from Innervate. So, if you have 30,000 mana, use Innervate when you have 20,000.

5. Rebirth the tank if the fight is salvageable; rebirth a person capable of resurrection if it is not.
Let's say your tank has died on a boss fight, but that Death Knight DPS went into Frost Presence and took control. He can tank it for now, but you know he won't last long (of course, in a heroic, he will, but we are building habbits for raids, here). In this case, the fight is salvagable, so use Rebirth on the tank and heal him as quickly as you can so he can get back in the game and start tanking again. Now, suppose the tank has died and none of your DPS can off-tank. In this case, the boss will probably rush through and massacre your party before you can resurrect the tank and get his health back up, and if no DPS survive, the fight will take forever. As such, if any of your DPS can resurrect, it's better to use Rebirth on them once they have died. They can then wait for the fight to end, then accept your rebirth and resurrect everyone else. That way, people don't need to run through the heroic again. Note that, in most heroics these days, you are unlikely to encounter a situation where using Rebirth on a DPS is better than using it on the tank, but again, you are building habits for raids here. In fact, you probably won't ever use Rebirth in a heroic, but still, if you encounter a situation where you do need to use it, it's important to know how.

I accidentally posted this early, so you get your advice early this week.

Druid healing in heroics in flowchart form

I have resigned myself to doing heroics so I can get a cloak for when I level from 80 to 85, and in order to save my sanity, I have decided to run them as a healer. I find healing to be a much more relaxing job than tanking, and with all of the gear everyone has, healing in heroics has become quite simple--so simple, in fact, that it can be reduced to a flow chart, which is exactly what I have done here. For the sake of ease of use, I have highlighted the starting point of the chart in a red box.

















Click for the full size.

When spells are put in pairs or triplets, use them in order from let to right. For the sake of space, I used icons rather than spell names. Here's a visual guide in case the spells aren't familiar to you.

= Healing Touch




= Lifebloom




= Nature's Swiftness




= Nourish




= Rejuvenation




= Regrowth




= Revive




= Swiftmend




= Tranquility




= Wild Growth




Note that this post is only meant to visually cover what spells to use for restoring health. For a more complete guide to druid healing, I highly recommend Lissanna's healing guide. I was going to write more on the other points of druid healing, but I am too busy to do so this week; expect more info on druid healing in heroics next week.

Advice for emblem-gear-fueled dungeon speed runs

I don't think it's a controversial statement to say that the new emblem system has changed the face of the five-man dungeon scene, making it near unrecognizable compared to what it once was. Heroics these days are more comparable to running Scarlet Monastery at level 60 than Blackrock Depths. It's safe to say that much of we thought we knew about five-man dungeons has changed, and new assumptions need to replace old ones if we are to evolve to face the new challenges (or lack thereof) that await us on the other side of those instance portals (now replaced by an interface). Many have made these changes subconsciously already, but some may have avoided heroics during this time of great change, and this guide is for them. Note: This guide only applies to heroics, and only to the original Wrath heroics. The advice bellow doesn't apply to raiding or The Frozen Halls.

Tanks:
-Focus on whatever the DPS is attacking.
When it comes to trash, kill order is mostly meaningless these days. As much as you may want your DPS to attack the healer first, you will encounter DPS that just won't want to do it. Rather than getting worked up over them, it's better to just go along with it and focus on causing threat to the enemies they are attacking. Why? Let's say you focus on causing threat to the target you think should die first. This makes it easier for the DPS to over-aggro, so you will lose control of the mobs, making the battle slower. If, however, you focus on what the DPS is focusing on, you stay in control on the situation and the mobs will die faster, making the run faster, and because the mobs won't be running around doing damage to everyone, the run will be more enjoyable in general.

-Focus on AoE threat while fighting trash.
Back when kill order mattered, you would try to cause the most threat to the enemy highest on the kill order while not causing too much AoE threat because your DPS would be focusing on the target of highest priority and not trying to cause massive AoE damage. These days, DPS just want to AoE everything down, meaning if you try to focus on causing most of your threat to one target, you'll end up only holding on to that one target. Though you should use your auto-attacks to cause extra threat to whatever your DPS is attacking (as per the previous piece of advice), you should focus on using your AoE abilities rather than your single-target abilities.

DPS:
-Try to attack what the tank is attacking.
The tank losing control of trash is bad. Sure, with the kind of gear you're wearing, you can probably afford to take a few hits, but if the tank can't keep control of enemies, he can't cause as much damage to them as he could otherwise. As such, the run will be slower. The tank will be causing the most damage to his target, so it helps to focus your attacks on whoever your tank is targeting. You can turn on target-of-target in the options menu to make this easier.

Healers:
-Do some damage if you don't need to focus all of your time on healing.
If you and the tank are in great gear, you probably don't need to spend all of your time healing him and the group. In the olden days, it was considered unthinkable for healers to do any damage to enemy targets. After all, they need to heal when people take damage, and healing causes threat. The DPS can stop doing damage if they cause too much threat, but healers don't have that luxury. Extra threat was just something healers didn't need; it was something they couldn't afford. These days, however, you'd be lucky to break 1% of the tank's threat in an average heroic run. As such, consider dropping some damage on your enemies to make the fights go faster. This will be easier for Priests and Shamans than for Druids and Paladins, of course, since Druids need to leave Tree of Life to do damage, loosing a healing boost in the process, and Paladins can't do much damage without entering melee range, but Priests and Shamans should definitely consider dropping the odd offensive spell when they have nothing better to do. If anything, it will make the run more fun for you while you wait for your tank to drop bellow 95% health.

-Forgo mana efficiency for spell potency.
If you out-gear heroics and are rocking tier-nine or ten gear, you don't need to worry about mana. You do, however, need to worry about wiping. Heroics have become so easy these days that players simply have no patience for wiping. Now, granted, wipes are a near impossibility these days, but you still don't want them to happen. An unexpected development (adds, runners, etc.) can cause a sudden influx of damage, even in these heroics that we have all run before, so you need to stay on top of your game. In fact, being so comfortable with heroics likely leads us to make mistakes we would not have made in the days when they were difficult, if only because of sloppiness. Anyways, your main goal is to avoid a wipe, and knowing that running out of mana is a near impossibility unless you are blatantly overhealing everyone, you should feel free to use your larger, more expensive heals to reduce the chance of a wipe to near zero. It may feel wasteful, but it's only wastefulness if you can run out of whatever you are using.

A post-dungoen-finder guide to instance etiquette

When I wrote my first guide to basic instance etiquette, I didn't expect that my work would be done, but I did at least think that it would at least last another patch. However, with the advent of patch 3.3 and the dungeon finder, it has become clear to me that the old rules governing instance etiq0uette have once again become inadequate. New behaviors have come up that are so horrifying that I am afraid to even run random dungeons these days, even though I am a tank and that solves about 25% of my potential problems. But rather than complain about this issue, I will instead compose some guidelines that we should all follow for a smooth instance run. Let's hope this does some good.

As a final word before I start this, if this all seems obvious to you, that is a good thing; it means you are likely not part of the problem.

Everyone:
-The fact that you will likely never see these people again is not an excuse to be a jerk. A little courtesy goes a long way and will make the run smoother for everyone.
-If you haven't run that particular instance before, say so. People will be more forgiving of your mistakes and will likely explain the boss fights to you.
-Do not kick people just because they don't have all ilevel 232 epics. No one needs über gear to run a heroic. Heroics were designed to be run in gear obtained from normals (ilevel 187 blues), reputations (ilevel 187 blues, 200 blues, or 200 epics), and BoE crafted items (ilevel 200 blues or epics). Remember the days when Wrath first came out? Everyone was in that kind of gear, if you were lucky; seeing someone in a heroic with low-level quest greens and blues wasn't uncommon in those days. If one person--or even four people--in your group has that kind of gear, you can still complete the heroic. Ninety nine times out of one hundred, you'll be able to carry the person in "sub-par" (I use the term sarcastically) gear and won't even notice their presence.*
-Likewise, if you are in the minimum gear for heroics, it helps to let your group know. If you are a DPS, this won't matter too much, but if you are a healer, the tank needs to know that he can't chain pull half the instance and the DPS need to know that they will have to avoid damage during the boss fights, and if you are a tank, the DPS need to know that they need to watch their threat and the healer needs to know that he/she may actually need to stay on his/her toes.
-Most items cannot be traded cross-realm, with two exceptions: conjured items and BoP items that dropped during that run. As such, there is no reason to flip out if someone accidentally picks need on an item you wanted and wins it; just ask for him to trade it.
-If you know an upcoming boss drops an item you need that is a lower tier of armor than what you can wear (like if you can wear leather and you need a cloth item the boss drops), let your group know so they know to pass on it and not hit the DE button.
-Don't link damage meters or recount. I have never sen anything good come from doing so. Only link them if one person is doing such bad DPS (as in triple digits) that you want to kick them, and you need to convince the group to do so.

Tanks:
-If someone is low on mana, see whether they are drinking to regenerate that mana. If they are, don't pull.
-Do not pull enemies when the healer doesn't have the mana to heal you, and make sure you give the healer enough time to regenerate that mana.
-Don't pull more enemies than your healer can handle. Pull one pack at first. If you healer has any trouble healing you through that, you'll know you can't chain pull during this run.
-Don't go so quickly that your group can't even loot the corpses. Wait until everyone is next to you before you pull. This is especially true for bosses.
-You should still go pretty quickly, since these days, with everyone in such amazing gear, you can, and most people will be glad you did so. Just go as fast as you can without violating any of the above rules.
-Don't body-pull enemies without causing any threat to them; if you do that, your healer will get aggro and die.
-Don't focus on AoE threat when everyone in your group is attacking one enemy at a time. Don't focus on single-target threat when your group is AoE'ing everything down.

DPS:
-It is not your job to pull enemies. If you don't like the pace the tank is going, tough it out. The only possible exception to this rule is if you are in a place where pulling patrols at opportune times is important in order to avoid pulling more enemies than you can handle. If your tank is about the finish killing the mobs you are fighting now and the patrol is in just the right place to pull it, then it is partially excusable to pull the enemy if you tank doesn't look like he has noticed it. Still, when this happens, it's best to try to bring that enemy to the tank so the tank will pick him up, either actively or accidentally with his AoE. Note that this situation will rarely, if ever, happen for you.
-Just because you and the healer out-gear the instance doesn't give you the excuse to act stupid and pull threat or take easily avoidable damage, such as standing in the fire.
-Turn on Target of Target in your interface menu and use it to attack whatever your tank is attacking. As a tank, there is nothing more annoying than a DPS who attacks enemies that I am not focusing on, even when they are behind me and are thus clearly not whom I am causing the most threat to.

Healers:
-As sad as I am to have to say this, you aren't allowed to pull enemies either (yes, I have seen healers do that).
-You should heal DPS through the occasional mistake, but saving them from their serial stupidity is not your responsibility. Do so if you are bored, but know that they will only learn their lesson when the see their repair bills.

*This rule obviously doesn't apply to the new Frozen Halls instances, and to some extent heroic Trial of the Champion. The gear requirements for those instances are much higher, and someone in all quest blues just won't be able to pull their weight unless their presence is offset by someone in full Trial of the Grand Crusader gear.

Which role is most consequential in a party?

This is something that I have been thinking about for quite some time, so I thought I'd write about it here. I'll tell you right now that my group experience is largely limited to five-mans, and its those experiences I'll be basing this dissertation on. For the record, I am, of course, referring to the roles of tank, DPS, and healer.

When I first thought about this issue, I looked at the consequences of one member of the party not pulling their weight. If a tank doesn't pull his weight, then the enemies go off to attack other members of the party, killing them. A fantastic healer could make up for this kind of fault, but only so much so. If the DPS don't pull their weight, the enemies won't die fast enough, which can be bad if they have an enrage timer, but otherwise it is only bad inasmuch as the healer might run out of mana trying to heal the tank. If the healer doesn't pull his weight, everyone dies, plain and simple. These are all very extreme cases, though, so these are not the end-all-be-all determinations.

Another thing one needs to consider is how much a good person filling each role can improve a run or save a run gone sour. When a group has a good tank, he can cause enough threat that the DPS can go all out and kill things faster, thus the run will be over more quickly. If the DPS get a little overzealous in their damage, the tank can use taunt liberally to make up for that fact to an extent. If the healer isn't so great, he can use his defensive cooldowns judiciously to make up for that fact as well. In short, a good tank can make a good run fantastic and can do some things to improve a bad run.

While good DPS is worth their weight in gold, I'd say they can't do much to make a run better if it goes sour. Sure, some can be emergency tanks or emergency healers, but if the tank and healer just aren't doing their job, there isn't much the DPS can do to make up for that fact. Granted, smart DPS can make a run much more smooth. Every time I see a DPS actually follow the kill order, not use an AoE attack on a pull with two or three enemies, watch his threat, and get out of the fire, I know the run is going to go much more quickly. So, in summary, good DPS can't do much to make a bad run good, but they can do a lot to make a good run great.

Which leaves us with the healer. If a run is already going well, the healer's job certainly becomes easier, but he can't do much to make the run better, with one exception. If a group vastly out-gears a dungeon, they can ignore the boss tactics and simply burn the boss down. However, doing this means the group will take a lot more damage, and who needs to heal that damage? This kind of thing requires active communication between group members, but I can say from personal experience that if you make that communication, your runs can be made faster. And if the group doesn't know what they are doing? Then the healer can pull out the big guns and heal them harder. Yes, there is a sort of ceiling on how much healing per a second a healer can put out, but you'd be amazed what a good healer can do when everything goes wrong. So, in short, a good healer can make a good run faster and a bad run salvageable.

So where does this leave us? A bad healer can screw over a run the most, the healer and tank tie for saving a run gone bad, and good tank can make a good run even better. It seems like the healer and tank are equally consequential then. I suppose it just matters where the party is in terms of average skill. The lower they get on the scale, the more consequential the healer becomes, whereas the higher they get on the scale, the more consequential the tank becomes. Seems about right to me.

How to tank as a druid (or any class), Part 4

I realized recently that my last few posts on how to tank as a druid had no advice for people just starting with the roll of tanking. There are certain things we tanks know that we take for granted, but there is no way for a newer player to find them out. As such, I will post about them now. These are pieces of advice that apply to all tanks, not just druids.

1. Know how to do an LoS pull
LoS stands for line of sight. If there is something standing in between you and an enemy (like a wall or a corner, for instance), then your and their LoS is obstructed. You won't be able to attack them, they won't be able to attack you. This is key, though. You see, melee enemies, when pulled, will run right up to you. Enemies that mostly attack with ranged attacks and magic, however, will stand where they are and attack you. This makes it really difficult to pull them together into a group, which you need to do to effectively tank them. However, if you pull an enemy and then move to obstruct his LoS, he'll run towards you until he can attack you again.

What does this mean for you? It means that if your next pull contains enemies that use magic or ranged attacks, you'll want to do an LoS pull. How do you pull that off? Start by identifying a corner you can run behind. If you aren't sure if something will block your LoS, try hiding behind it and pulling the group. If you can't attack them, it will work. Next, get within pulling range of the group or enemy while staying as close to the enemy as you can. Pull them (bears should use Faerie Fire (Feral)), and then run behind your corner. The ranged and magic fighters will try to attack you and not be able to, so they will run to you, allowing you to make the group more compact and easier to manage. Note that the ranged/magic using enemies will not run farther than they need to in order to see you, so don't run too far beyond the corner. Also, melee fighters will get to you before the magic fighters, so be ready to pick them up when the show up.

2. Face the enemies/bosses you are tanking away from the group
This is applies to almost every fight you will ever engage in. Even if the boss has no frontal area-of-effect attacks, I can't think of a singe boss fight where you need to face the boss towards your group-mates. As such, unless you know that the boss must face your group as part of the strategy for defeating him, place the boss/enemies between yourself and your group. Do this by running around to their backside, since they won't move on their own.

3. You set the pace of the run
Tanks determine how fast a run goes. They are the ones who pull the enemies, so they decide how quickly the group progresses through the dungeon. As such, you want to find the perfect speed for your run. Go too slow, and your group will lose interest and the run will take too long. Go too fast, and your DPS and healers will run out of mana. Generally, you want to use your healer's mana as the gauge of how fast you should go. It's generally ok to pull trash enemies (those between the bosses) when the healer has half of his mana, but for bosses, you'll want the healer and everyone else to have full mana.

4. You will most likely be group leader, so know how to mark your enemies
This won't be as relevant once patch 3.3 is released and everyone will be able to mark, but even then, I suspect that people will still look to you to decide the kill order. If you and everyone else in your group outgears the instance, you may wish to eschew kill order entirely and just AoE everything down. Otherwise, you should mark a kill order. Enemies that do heavy damage need to die first, so its helpful to look up an instance on WoWWiki and see if any of the trash in the instance do major damage. Otherwise, it generally wise to kill healing enemies first, then offensive casters, then ranged attackers, then DPS. As a good rule of thumb, anything with a mana bar should die first.

To mark your enemies, click on the enemy first, then right click their profile and you'll see the option. Generally, skull marks the enemy that needs to die first, followed by X. It's ok to not mark the last enemy in the kill order, since people should assume that if they are not marked, they should die last. If you need to use more than skull or X, then it's likely the pull is big enough that it doesn't need a killer order, but if that is not the case, then be sure to tell your group the kill order. I generally start with skull, then go through the rest of the symbols in order of color (red X, orange circle, yellow start, etc.) Finally, though this may not be as common as I think, I usually see people mark a patrolling enemy with a green triangle so that people know to stay away from him, and if an enemy should not be attacked at all, I usually see people use a moon to mark him.

How to gear up for two roles at once

As a druid who is both a tank and a healer (I gave up on being competitive at DPS a long time ago), I know how difficult it is to keep an adequate set of gear for two roles. By trying to stay competitive at two roles at once, you need to dedicate more time to gearing up just because you are keeping two sets of gear updated at once, whereas people who focus on one role don't need to do that. When your resources are spread that thin, you need to make ends meet however you can. That is what this post is about: tips to help you keep two sets of gear updated at once.

1. Take advantage of unneeded epics
This piece of advice applies more to people who are trying to start a second set of gear, but rolling on gear that drops in raids that other people don't need is a great way to keep two sets of gear up-to-date. This may be difficult if you guild uses a loot system that doesn't allow for people to role on gear for offsets without serious detriments to themselves, but if you take advantage of both sets of gear in raids, they'll probably understand and make some sort of accommodation.

2. Use your emblems intelligently
The various emblems that drop from instances are a great way to upgrade your gear when you may not be able to otherwise, but don't spend you emblems on something you may be able to get an upgrade for in an instance. If you are running 10-man Trial of the Crusader and you need a healing offhand item, you should spend your emblems on that since none drop in there, but if you need a DPS offhand, you may want to wait for the one that drops in there. Likewise, if you are a Death Knight, Druid, Shaman, or Paladin, you should focus on upgrading the item in your relic slot first, since no relics drop from TotC. More generally, you should look on wowhead to see what gear the raid your are running drops so that you know which items you won't be able to get. Those are the slots you should get gear for first using emblems. Aside from that, if you are interested in keeping both sets up-to-date, just update whichever item is in most dire need of an update, no matter which set it is from.

3. BoE/crafted items are your friend
No one said keeping two sets updated was easy, or cheap. Because you will need to split your drops/emblems between your two sets, anything you can do outside of an instance to make gearing up easier is a good thing. If you are starting a new set from scratch, use a combination of reputation rewards, BoE drops, items from the Argent Tournament, and crafted items to get yourself started. That should get you geared enough to do the daily heroic quests, which will be a good source of emblems.

4. Consider taking up enchanting
As an enchanter, I can't lie to you; if you aren't leveling it up as you yourself level up, enchanting is a pain and a half to level, and incredibly expensive too. It's not as lucrative as it used to be ever since rare enchants like crusader went the way of the shaman tank, so what's the main draw of it? Mainly, you can enchant your own gear the minute you get it. If you win an item in an instance, just put an enchant on it right there. It takes the hassle out of getting new gear enchanted (which you will need to do a lot if you don't have it, considering you will be going after twice as much gear) and gives you that much of an edge if you have difficulty staying ahead when it comes to gear.

Keeping two sets of gear is difficult, but the reward is that you will be able to fill two roles in any groups you join and any raids you do with your guild, making you a more flexible player and increasing the chance that you will get an instance group. I can tell you from personal experience that it is incredibly rewarding, so go to it!

How to tank as a druid, Part 3

And now for the meat of druid tanking: how to do it. As you should know, the purpose of tanking as a druid is keeping enemies attacking you, and thus the main focus of this post is generating as much threat as possible. Make sure to read part 1 so you aren't lost when I mention which abilities to use, since I won't put links to each ability when I mention them. With that said, let's talk about tanking tactics. I'll split this into two sections: trash and bosses.

Trash
1 enemy
Since swipe causes more instant damage than lacerate, it's perfectly acceptable to simply use mangle every time it is off of its cooldown and use swipe when it isn't, using maul when you have extra rage (more than 50), but this method won't cause optimal threat. It's good to use lacerate on single-enemy trash pulls (unless the enemy isn't particularly powerful and will thus die too quickly to make lacerate's bleed effect worth it), but the only way you can cause more threat using lacerate than you can using swipe is if you let lacerate tick. Thus you need to be able to use a rotation where you only use lacerate every three seconds, thus allowing it to tick once before you apply it again. Assuming you have improved mangle, here is a rotation you can use until you get to five stacks: mangle, lacerate, swipe, mangle, swipe, lacerate, etc. This allows for six or three seconds between each application of lacerate, allowing it to tick and making it useful. If the enemy isn't dead by the time you get five lacerates on him, just use mangle when it is off of its cooldown, swipe when it isn't, maul when you have extra rage, and lacerate when it is within five seconds of running out.

2-4 enemies
If the enemies are going to die fast (as the likely will) then swipe with mangle should be enough assuming you have a kill order and use mangle on the one you are killing first. Glyphed maul helps quite a bit with these pulls. Just make sure that you are always targeting the enemy that is highest on the kill order so that you cause the most threat to them. Use mangle when it is off of its cooldown, swipe when it isn't, and maul when you have extra rage. If your pull is limited to two or three enemies, try using berserk with mangle. It will make your job a good deal easier.

5 enemies or more
Swipe. That's it. Maul when you have extra rage, but aside from that, swipe.

Bosses
1 boss
You will want to use mangle whenever it is off of its cooldown while keeping a full stack of lacerate on the boss. I usually use mangle, lacerate, lacerate, mangle, lacerate, lacerate, mangle, lacerate, lacerate again if one missed. After that, I use the following thought process for deciding which ability to use:

















After you use each ability, start at the beginning again, and use maul when you have extra rage (above 50). Congratulations! You're tanking a boss!

2 bosses
There are some fights where you will need to tank two bosses by yourself. It's a good idea to start these fights with Berserk and mangle, which will give you some nice starter threat. After that, I recommend switching between the two bosses (the tab key works for this) and using mangle when it is off of its cooldown, lacerate when it isn't, and maul when you have extra rage (glyph of maul helps greatly for two bosses). Thus you will do the following:
Mangle boss one
Lacerate boss two
Lacerate boss one
Mangle boss two
Lacerate boss one
Lacerate boss two
etc.
This has the added benefit of allowing lacerate to tick, causing even more threat. It takes a bit of practice, but it works wonders when done well. If you can't pull that off, then just spam swipe while using mangle on the first boss that needs to go down. It won't cause as much threat, but it's better to cause some threat than no threat.

I don't think any boss fights require you to keep aggro on more than two bosses for an extended period of time, but if they did, I would use the same strategy as I use for medium-sized trash pulls. If you need to keep aggro on a boss and his adds, use swipe when mangle isn't off its cooldown and mangle when it is.

So there you go. Now go get geared up and do the druid class proud!

My take on "The disappearance of the bear"

There was recently a post of Shifting Perspectives, wow.com's weekly druid column, in which Allison Robert discussed the reasons that bear form druids are underplayed brought up in a thread on the official forums. You can find the post here, and it's an interesting read. It also depressed me badly, because most of the reasons are true, though some are more relevant than others. Being a druid tank myself, I thought I'd give my thoughts on the reasons listed. All of these complaints and the accompanying quotes are taken verbatim from Allison's post; they are not my own creations. The one exception is when I replace words to make them more child friendly, in case any kids are reading this.

Complaint #1: Bears just aren't as visually compelling as other tanks.
"If I'm going to tank, I don't want to stare at a bear [butt] all the time, especially a LARGE bear [butt] that takes up half the screen."

WoW is a very visual game, but I am surprised that players actually have time to look at their characters during raids. With all of the enemies that need to be kept track of, the difficulty of positioning them correctly, and all of the numbers flying across the screen, I wasn't even aware my bear had a butt. That said, the essence of this complaint was about the unchanging bear model and the lackluster animations of bear abilities. I have already gone over ideas of how to make bear form scale with gear in this post, so I'll let you read that if you are interested. I suppose I am biased in this issue, since any dedicated druid will have long given up on their forms being as cool as other people's armor. Like I said, though, time spent in combat leaves little time for admiring your character's shiny gear, and if you really want to see the gear, you can spend time out of combat in caster form. (Doing this also allows you to take advantage of Furor.) Armor is cool, but there is plenty of time for admiring it when you are going from place to place on a mount or waiting between a wipe and the next pull. These times are much more appropriate for thinking about how cool your armor is than during battle. The same goes for animations, which seems to be such a petty complaint to me. Sure, they may not look cool, but all abilities end up looking stale when you use them long enough. I think this is just a case of people trying to come up with a justification for why they think bears aren't fun to play and making one up.

Complaint #2: Gear consolidation had a more demoralizing effect on druids than other tanks. "In BC the tanks talked the drops over and took care of each other. Now I'm fighting half the raid for gear while the other tanks get everything handed to them. That's not fun."

This is a more reasonable complaint. The short version of it is that plate tank gear is plate tank gear, no if's, and's, or but's, but we druids need to share our tanking gear with our kitty and rogue compatriots. This is a result of the gear consolidation of Wrath of the Lich King that made more classes able to use the same gear, which reduced the incidences of unused drops, but had the unfortunate effect of increasing competition for us druids. Now we need to compete with DPS for our tanking gear, and I will admit, that does make it harder to gear up.

The heart of this issue lies in the fact that the three other tanks have their own separate gear from other classes, but we druids, as leather wearers, don't. It would be unreasonable to expect Blizzard to give us unique itemization again, since that doesn't fit in with their new design philosophy, but where can the happy medium be found? Perhaps if Blizzard made more leather armor with high amounts of stamina and less agility, it would mark it as tank gear without making it useless to rogues and kitties. This would allow bears to have a sense of which gear was all their own and which gear the rogues and kitties should get first dibs on. Perhaps this gear could also be more likely to have +hit or +expertise than other gear, in order to make it more like tank gear and less appealing to a rogue, who are also looking for +haste and +armor penetration on their gear (though they won't be looking for armor penetration after the expansion hits). At this point, its uncertain how reforging will affect the way gear is distributed, so any sort of change to the system will need to wait until after Cataclysm hits.

Complaint #3: The need to use DPS leather has resulted in an uncomfortable opportunity cost associated with gearing bear tanks.
"My raid leader's a rogue, and he's sick of sitting around waiting for me to get my stuff. We're going for hard-mode Jaraxxus-25 this week and his three options are a warrior, a death knight, and me. Guess who'll be coming as resto?"

The essence of this complaint is that DPS are bitter about bears taking their gear, and that it takes longer for bears to gear up because they are competing with so many other people. Allison downplays this issue as one that solves itself with time, but I think it's an unreasonable one because we should only be competing with rogues and kitties for our gear. The article mentions competing with hunters and warriors for our drops, but they should be rolling on mail and plate, respectively, and not our leather. Why? Because allowing them to have the same priority for leather that we do gives them an unfair advantage in getting gear. It allows them to role on gear that is below their tier, but we can't role on gear that is above ours. If a warrior can role on plate, mail, and leather, but a druid can only role on leather, then it is unfair to let the warrior role on gear outside of his armor type. In short, a druid should never need to compete with a hunter or plate wearer for gear.

That said, what about the fact that we do still need to share our gear with rogues and cats? Like I said in my response to the last complaint, this would be less of an issue if there was clearer itemization for tank leather and DPS leather, so these two complaints could be solved together. Until then, its a legitimate concern, more so than Allison makes it out to be.

Complaint #4: Early Wrath weaknesses in 5-mans left a bad impression on players, and this bled through to raid content.
"Who's your least favorite tank to heal and why?" "My least favorite in a 5 man is a druid. It's not their fault and I still love them to pieces but they have the biggest challenge for maintaining aggro on groups. In a Pug situation, I will outright decline if the tank is a druid."

The issues of balance have been solved since Wrath was launched, but the damage has been done. Not only have players lost trust in the druid class as a tanking class, but I'm sure many bears started going to raids as boomkin, cats, or trees, thus falling behind in their tank gear. As such, their tank set is probably woefully outdated, making them unable to hop back into taking easily if they haven't been tanking through the new content. More on this with complaints seven and eight.

The real issue here, though, is the general perception of tanks, and the fact that old prejudices die hard. It probably won't be until Cataclysm is released that players are willing to rethink how they think about druid tanks, and like it or not, we are stuck with the existing perceptions.

Complaint #5: Bear gameplay is boring. Too much of the bear's effectiveness is baked into talents rather than being determined by player skill.
"I wore the letter off my Swipe hotkey."

Like Allison said, this is mostly an excuse written by people who don't actually play a bear tank, but its still a legitimate point. We druids have a ton of abilities open to us, but we can only use one fourth of them in bear form. It would be nice to see some variety, but the problem is in shifting out of bear form to use our other abilities. Yes, we have rebirth, innervate, cyclone, and other awesome abilities, but we can't shift out of bear form to use them.

Perhaps Barkskin could be the key to this problem. As it stands, Barkskin doesn't reduce damage by enough in order to use it to shift out of bear form, but what if it did? What if the talent Protector of the Pack was edited to include something like this:
Also, when Barkskin is used in bear form, it causes 33/66/100% of the bonuses you receive to your damage taken and threat to apply to your caster form as well.
This would allow you to pop barkskin and rebirth a fallen healer or innervate a caster. A talent like this would really go far in making druids closer to their nature. After all, we are masters of shifting, and it seems quite un-druidic to stay in one form for the whole battle.

Complaint #6: Gear consolidation often results in druids looking insanely stupid in caster form.
Allie: (In Ulduar), all of the non-set melee leather was oriented toward rogue tier, which had the effect of making druid (tanks) look like a postmodern clown on the run from Cirque du Soleil. Matt Rossi: Druids look like they got into the craft bin at the local thrift shop.

I suppose if I'm going to call complaint #1 bogus then I need to acknowledge this one as legit. I don't really look at my armor very often, personally, but I will agree that the druid set pieces look very different from the rogue pieces. This problem could be addressed if Blizzard took my advice concerning complaint #2 and then made the tank-oriented pieces look more druidish, while making the DPS-oriented pieces look more roguish. Its a simple complaint, really, so I don't think it warrants much thought.

Complaint #7: If the raid needs more tanks, it's easier and faster to gear up a plate class than a druid. "The plate +defense gear's been going to offspec for weeks, but the hunters get dibs on the next Twin's Pact or Hellion Glaive, and the rogues are still rolling on non-set. We need another tank, but they'll just respec one of the death knights for the next boss."

This is closely intertwined with complaints #2 and #3, and perhaps my suggestion for solving complaint two would address this as well, but the essence of this complaint is in the fact that plate wearers can easily build an off-set for tanking by picking up unneeded drops in raids, whereas druids do not have that option. Thus plate-wearers are more likely to be taken when an extra tank is needed. That said, if you are DPS'ing and are picking up a tank set in your spare time, what are you doing complaining about not being able to tank? I find DPS'ing to be more stress-free and more enjoyable than tanking, so why are DPS druids worried about being picked to tank? This complaint only applies to DPS who are picked as extra tanks, but I personally would not want that role if I were lucky enough to be a permanent DPS.

Complaint #8: A druid who's dual-specced into healing or DPS has more difficulty returning to tanking than other classes.
"Look, I know you really want to tank this fight, but all three of our tanks have excellent attendance and I don't want to leave any of you out of the raid. The warrior's going to tank, the pally's going DPS, and I'd like to have you come boomkin or heals because melee sucks on this fight. Would you seriously rather be benched?"

The essence of this complaint is that druids can be every role in the game, and the pressure to fill those roles tends to squeeze us out of the tank slot. As Allison says, its the classic druid dilemma of "do I change my spec to fit around the group, or do I force the group to fit around me?" and most people will do the former. That, after all, is the greatest strength of the druid class; to be able to fit yourself around the group. Warriors and Death Knights, the two most popular tanking classes currently, both can only be tanks and DPS, but paladins and druids, the classes that are currently lacking representation in the tanking community, can be healers as well, another in-demand role. Because healing leather is much easier to pick up than tank leather, it's not unreasonable to expect a druid to be able to pick up a healing set in a quick amount of time (it happened to me), thus forcing that avenue open for him, making him less likely to be picked as a tank.

Unfortunately, this it just par for the course when it comes to druids. Because we can fill any role in the game, we will be expected to, and considering that it is easier for us to gear up for healing or DPSing than tanking, and it's easier for plate wearers to gear up for tanking than it is for us to do so, I guess that's going to be our lot in life. Because of dual specs, its harder for us to put our foot down and say that we will only fulfill one role. Perhaps if Blizzard can solve the issues above and make tanking more lucrative for Druids, this issue will solve itself.

Until then, I will wear my tank gear with pride, for tanking is the role I am best suited for, and I will not let circumstance push me out of that role. I hope other feral tanks make similar commitments, for considering how far we have come as a class, we cannot let ourselves die out. It took a long time for us to become viable in all four roles (tanking, melee DPS, ranged DPS, healer), and we cannot let our victory become our demise.

How to tank as a druid, Part 2

Here's the link to the first post, in which discusses abilities, talents, and gear. Without any further ado, let's continue on to the important issue of key bindings.

Key Bindings
I myself use the in-game action bars to bind my abilities, so if you want to bind them to specific keys on your keyboard, I can't help you there. If you choose to bind to the in-game action bars, you will definitely want to enable more than just one bar. Go to the Game Menu, then Interface, then Action Bars, and at least check off the bottom left bar. I use all of them except for one bar on the right.

Main Action Bar
Because this bar changes with your forms, you'll want to put abilities that are specific to bear form here. Here are the bindings I use. If you think something different would work better for you, then use a different configuration. The main idea behind this binding system is to put your most important abilities close to the WASD keys, since you will need to use them more than the others, and putting them close to your left hand allows you to use them with your left hand while still being able to use your mouse to select targets or even click abilities (the great sin of tanking, I know; but I still do it, and you don't see my group-mates complaining).

1 - Feral Charge (Bear)
Because of the nature of this ability, you will want to keep it within easy reach, so that you can use it the moment you need it. That said, you won't use it as frequently and Growl, which is why I put it first; it's important that you be able to use this ability instantly, but not so much as using growl instantly.

2 - Growl
The essence of the tanking role is keeping enemies attacking you, and that is exactly what this ability does. Because clothies, be they DPS or healers, can probably be killed in a few hits if they draw an enemy's attention, you'll want to be able to use this ability to get an enemy's attention before he gets to them. That's why I put it right above my middle finger; that's the easiest place to reach it.

3 - Mangle (Bear)
With few exceptions, you should always use this ability when it is off of its cooldown, which is why I put it so close to the WASD keys. The 3 key is pretty much as reachable as the 2 key, and since this ability is as important as growl, it is a good one to put on the 3 binding.

4 - Lacerate
Another ability that is used frequently by bears, but the fact that it's use is less imperative than Mangle is why I bind it to the 4 key. What do I mean by that? Like I said, Mangle should be used whenever it is off of its cooldown, so you need to be able to use it at the drop of a hat. Lacerate does not need to be used with the same urgency.

5 - Maul
When you use this ability, you will want to be able to spam it, which is why I put it relatively close to the WASD keys. This allows you to hit the ability whenever you have excess rage. However, because I don't use maul spam very frequently, and because maul only needs to be hit once before each of your attacks (which gives you a 2.5 second window to hit it if you don't have any haste on your gear), I put if after Mangle and Lacerate.

6 - Swipe
When you use this ability, you will probably want to be able to spam it. That said, unlike Maul, you won't be spamming this ability while using other abilities (with the exception of Maul), which is why it can be off on its own. Because I rarely need to target a specific enemy while maul spamming, I usually reach up with my right hand to use this ability while also using Maul when I have the rage for it.

7 - Bash
While I do sometimes need to use this in a pinch, I don't use Bash very frequently, which is why I put in after my more frequently-used abilities. You'll usually have a pretty good window of time to use it for interrupting a caster or stopping a runner, so you can usually click it rather than hitting the key is it bound to.

8 - Demoralizing Roar
If you use this ability at all, you'll have enough time to click it. It can be used frequently, though, which is why I put it here, before the emergency use abilities.

9 - Enrage
I usually put my emergency abilities after my frequently used abilities since I usually know when I am going to us them and thus have enough time to click them. I put Enrage and the next two abilities on the action bar because they have no use outside of bear form. I put Enrage before the other two abilities because I use it more than the other two.

10 - Frenzied Regeneration
This is a pretty useful emergency ability, but it is used a good deal less frequently than Enrage, which is why I put it after Enrage.

11 - Challenging Roar
I rarely use this ability, but I still keep it on the bar for the few times when I do need it. You could argue that, because this is basically a taunt ability, you would want to have it within easy reach of your hand so that you can use it quickly. Well, I tend to only use it in maybe one run in every five of ten, so it's hardly worth putting in a prominent position on the action bar.

12 - Runic Healing Potion
I tend to not use healing potions, but if I ever did, I wouldn't want to go looking through my bags to use it. Why do I bind healing potions on the bear bar and not on the additional bar? Because the only time I would ever need to use my potions is while I'm tanking.

Additional Bar
I tend to put spells that I can use in multiple/all forms or that are used before the battle, when time is not of the essence, on the additional bar. The order isn't as important here. Though I put my more frequently used abilities closer to the left, you can do whatever you are comfortable with. That said, here are the abilities I keep on my additional action bar in the order I keep them in.

Barkskin
Because of this ability's short cooldown, I find myself using it frequently, which is why I put it first.

(Lifeblood)
Not everyone has this ability, but I do, and I put it next because I use it pretty frequently. Why? Because it gives me healing in a pinch when I need it, so I like to be able to use it quickly. If I had Survival Instincts, I would probably put it here too, since it serves a similar function.

Trinkets
As a tank, your trinket should be defensive in nature, and they should be on-use trinkets so that you can save them for when you need them. As such, you'll want to be able to use them without needing to look for them, so you should bind them to your bars somewhere within easy reach of your mouse.

Berserk
Because this ability is offensive in nature, rather than defensive, it's not as important to be able to activate it immediately, which is why I put it after the defensive ones. If you use Berserk, you will probably plan it in advance anyways, meaning you won't need to be able to move the mouse immediately.

Faerie Fire (Feral)
This is really nothing more than a pulling ability which you will only use at the beginning of the fight, which is why I put it so far to the right.

Moonfire
Sometimes you will find yourself in caster form. It is during these times that you will want to start the fight with Moonfire and then switch to Bear Form to take advantage of Furor. This is because Moonfire causes more damage and threat than the damage of FFF. That said, you'll probably have time to apply FFF to your target before you get in melee range, and you should do so.

So there you go. Due to time constraints and the unexpected amount of space needed to explain keybindings, I'll need to put off going over strategies for different kinds of pulls until next week. See you then, same time, same place.

About me

I decided to finally write this post, since its really silly to not have an introduction of some sort in my blog. My WoW name is Ardol, my real name is Owen, and this post is about me.

Note: My blogger name was once O-Digga, so any comments that appear by that name are mine.

History of Ardol
My first character was an undead warrior. I decided to be a warrior class after I had seen an episode of Cheat on G4 about WoW and they recommended a warrior for anyone starting out, since they could take a lot of damage. Some of my newbie-er habits included only having one quest in my quest log at a time (so that I could focus on it) and selling my ore and skins to vendors (I didn't know about the AH). I got him to level 13, and when I joined a guild, I saw that the GM was a rogue. I had heard all about how awesome rogues were, so I rolled a troll one. He only got to level 8, when I decided to try a paladin, since Cheat had referred to them as a hybrid class, and I knew I wanted to be a hybrid. He was very boring, though, so I dropped him and rolled a hunter on a new server with one of my friends. He was alliance, so rolling on that server made my transition from horde to alliance complete. I got my hunter to 22 before my friend left the server and I decided to reroll to start fresh. I left the horrors of the RPPvP server and rolled a druid. I played my druid on and off and simultaneously sampled every class in the game before realizing that the druid class was for me. It took me a year and a half from when I started playing to get him to 70 (he was 46 when BC came out).

What attracted me to the druid class was the idea that they could tank and DPS with one spec, and since I wanted to be a hybrid, this was perfect for me. I leveled my druid feral and only had a brief fling with resto during BC. Aside form that, I was feral only until dual specs came out, when I made my second spec resto and put together a healing set. Since then, the healer shortage on my realm has become a tank shortage, so I have shifted my focus from healing back to tanking, a focus I will probably retain through Cataclysm unless healers are in short supply again. For the longest time, my healing set was better than my tank set, but now my tank set is better than my healing set, since that's the one I focused on after the healing shortage became a tank shortage again.

Why the name Ardol? Well, when I rolled my hunter, I named him Arder. Don't ask why; I thought it was cool. When I rerolled, the name was taken, so I chose Ardol instead. Why do I keep it? Meh, I'm too lazy to change it, even though I have a shaman named Ollendi so I'll always have that name reserved in case I ever decide to spend the ten bucks. (If you don't understand why I want "Ollendi," just read it aloud. Still don't get it? It reads, "I'll end thee." I know, it's a name more suited for a PvP'er, but like Arder, I thought it was cool.)

History of Owen
Due to the inherent risk in putting anything too personal online, I will simply tell you that I am currently a full-time student studying mathematics. I play video games in my spare time, including WoW and Rock Band, and I also enjoy biking, reading, drumming, and, of course, philosophy.

Achievements I am proudest of:

5. Cooking with Style 10 (11-15-2009)

4. Hail to the Chef 10 (02-13-2009)
3. Traveler's Tundra Mammoth 10 (11-08-2009)

2. Lil' Game Hunter 50 ( 11-22-2009)

1. What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been 50 02-15-2010

How to tank as a druid, Part 1

I know I said I wouldn't include many specific posts in my advice section, but one can only write about generalities for so long. As such, I decided to write a post about tanking as a druid, something I'm quite familiar with. This post will refer to tanking at level 80, and thus leveling druids will want to look elsewhere. This guide also assume that you understand the basic elements of the game's mechanics and are just new to tanking or druid tanking. With that said, let's begin.

Abilities
Because of the hybrid nature of our class, we may not have as many abilities available to us as other tanks, but that means fewer abilities for you to memorize and adjust to.

Mangle: This is our single greatest single-target threat-causing ability, and the bleed damage increase it applies makes it great when used in conjunction with Lacerate. Unless you are fighting four enemies or more, use it whenever it is off of its cooldown.

Lacerate: Sunder Armor for druids; this ability is useful, but only for the bleed effect. Swipe causes more instant damage than Lacerate, so Lacerate is only worth using if the target will live long enough for the bleed to cause damage. As such, it is worth using on bosses and trash that takes a long time to kill, but otherwise, it's hardly worth using more than once or twice.

Maul: Heroic Strike for druids, and an interesting ability, this; it increases the damage (and thus threat) caused by your next regular melee attack, while also preventing that attack from generating rage. It's good to use when you have extra rage, but if your rage falls bellow thirty, stop using it so that you can guarantee that you will have rage for your other abilities. Otherwise, spam the hell out of it. Any druid tank worth his salt will want to glyph this ability, which will make it great for holding threat against two enemies at once.

Swipe: This ability is simple enough; it causes damage to everyone around you. It's thus most useful when you are facing a large crowd of enemies, though it's also good for when you have five full stacks of lacerate on the target and Mangle is on its cooldown. Swipe causes about a fourth of the damage of Mangle, so if you are facing four targets or more, you'll want to simply spam this ability.

Growl: The spell's description is simple enough, but I'll elaborate. This spell not only forces the target to attack you for a little while, but if someone has caused more threat than you, you will instantly cause the difference in threat. If you have 2000 threat against an enemy and your mage somehow has 10,000 threat, this ability will cause 8000 threat. Also note that this spell is not subject to the global cooldown, so you can use it any time it is off of its own cooldown. It's worth repeating that this will be next to useless if your target is already attacking you. I say next to useless because, in order for someone other than you to catch a mob's attention, they need to cause 110% more threat than you if they are in melee range or 130% if they are farther away (forgive me if my numbers are wrong). Thus it's worth it to use this ability if you have threat meters and your rogue is hovering around 108% threat or your warlock is hovering around 128%. Also note that many bosses are immune to this ability, but it's still worth using if someone else draws aggro, just in case the boss is not immune. Finally, because this has a thirty-yard range, you can use it on an enemy that runs off to attack a party member when you don't want to rush over to help them, due to positioning or something like that.

Feral Charge - Bear: This ability causes you to rush your target, while also stopping them from casting any spell they are casting and making them unable to move for a short while. If one of your enemies runs off towards a party member, this stops them dead in their tracks and gives you some time to build up threat or use Growl. If no one in your party can interrupt spells and you are facing a boss whose spells need to be interrupted (and Bash is on its cooldown), keep in mind that you can use this ability as a last resort. Just back up and charge back in. You'll loose threat from not being in melee range, but those are the sacrifices we make.

Bash: Stuns the target for four seconds, making them unable to move, attack, or do anything, really. I often use this on trash by stunning a target when he is about three or four seconds away from death while moving on to another target to start causing threat. Most bosses are immune to the stun effect, but you can still use this to interrupt their spellcasting. Keep that in mind if they have a spell that causes large amounts of damage.

Faerie Fire (Feral): This does decrease the targets armor, but it's really not worth using too frequently. It's a good ability for pulling an enemy because it causes some damage and thus gets their attention, but the extra damage caused by the decrease of armor is only really worthwhile on bosses, so once you are in combat, don't bother to use this ability unless you are fighting a boss and it has run out.

Demoralizing Roar: This makes enemies cause less damage to you (about 30 less damage every second, if the AP conversion rate is the same for mobs as it is for players.) The thing is, the damage reduction is often negligible (1800 over one minute), so it's only really worth using on large crowds when it will make a bigger difference. Otherwise you're just wasting time that could be spent causing threat.

Enrage: This ability does exactly what is says it does, though I have found the armor reduction to be not worth worrying about. This ability is more useful at lower levels, but considering that most trash pulls in high-level dungeons allow you to go from zero to 100 rage in ten seconds, it becomes situational at the level cap. It's good to use before a pull when you have very little rage to start with, and it's also good to use in conjunction with Frenzied Regeneration, which will eat up your rage. If you have less than 20 rage before going into a fight, use this.

Barkskin: A useful spell for all druids, but as a tank, it's main use is as our only no-strings-attached defensive cooldown. It may only reduce damage by 20%, but for a one minute cooldown, that's pretty good. I usually use it at the beginning of trash pulls when the most mobs are alive, but I also sometime wait until we are facing a particularly difficult pull to use it. During a boss fight that requires you to use your defensive cooldowns at a specific time, save this ability for that time.

Challenging Roar: This works like an AoE taunt, but unlike Growl, it causes no extra threat, so it only really gives you a six-second window to catch up with your DPSs' threat. That said, it's useful if an entire group of mobs has gone after the healer and you don't want to take any chances.

Berserk: Remember how awesome Mangle is? How would you like to use it without a cooldown? And have it his three targets? For fifteen seconds? For multi-target pulls with no more than three mobs, this really shines, and it's a good way to start a boss fight where you are facing two or three bosses at once since it lets you build up a large amount of threat on up to three people. It also makes you immune to fear effects and dispells any fear effects already on you, so if you are facing a boss with a fear effect, save this ability for when the boss uses it's fear and use Berserk immediately afterward. That increases the chance it will last until the boss does it a second time. It's one flaw is that it activates the global cooldown, so if you are going to use it for it's multi-mangle capabilities (as you always should, even if you intend to use it to break a fear effect) use it about a second before you intend to launch your first attack.

Frenzied Regeneration: It's unfortunate that this ability is our most potent emergency ability, because it isn't a perfect one. You should only use it when you have full or near full rage and you are somehow generating more, since it needs to consume ten rage with each of its ten ticks in order to be most effective. I have generally found that I can usually keep using swipe, mangle, and/or lacerate with FR up with no problem, but maul spamming with FR up will usually cause you to run out of rage, so don't use maul with FR up. As long as you follow those guidelines, FR should serve you well when your healer lapses or you take some heavy damage and you need some emergency self-healing. Dedicated tanks will want to glyph this ability.

Survival Instincts: I personally don't use this ability, but that's because I mostly run heroic 5-mans, where burst damage is rare. This ability is only useful on a boss that causes easily-healable damage normally and simply causes high damage every once in a while, since if the boss is causing consistently high damage, that damage you take after 20 seconds will only make it more difficult for your healer. If you do use this ability, you will probably want to glyph it.

Savage Defense: This is technically a passive ability, but it's still worth mentioning. This ability makes crit rating worth getting on our gear, and also makes swipe-spamming even more worthwhile, since swipe hits multiple targets, and each of those hits has a chance to crit, and a crit means a mini-shield.

Talents
If spells make the class, then talents make the role, so you'll want to choose a good spec for your tanking druid. This build contains all of the necessary tanking talents with a few points left over for you to play around with. You can put those in talents to further improve the nuances of the tanking role or talents to help you while solo-ing. The decision is yours. This is the build I use, though if you copy it, you'll probably want to take a point out of Brutal Impact and put it in Survival Instincts. It's intended use is to have all of the necessary tanking talents while still having some talents useful for solo-ing, thus making it a tank build and a solo build.

Gear
As leather wearers, we druids need to share armor with rogues, but we can still wear tank gear in the form of our cloaks, rings, amulets, and trinkets. Because of that, there are basically two sets of guidelines you need to follow for gearing up: one for armor, and one for the rest.

Armor:
We druids share itemization with rogues, so you'll be choosing among DPS armor for your tank set. You'll want to look for pieces with more stamina than agility and with hit, expertise, or crit.
Haste and armor penetration aren't completely useless for a druid, but they don't have as much use for a tank as they do for a DPS'er, so look for pieces with at least one of the three above-mentioned stats. Two is ideal, but you can't always get what you want.

The Rest: Tank pieces are pieces with strength, rather than agility. Thus you will want to look for cloaks, rings, and amulets with strength on them, and the rest will generally be stats you need. There are, however, some DPS pieces with strength on them, but you can usually tell the strength pieces apart because they will have defensive stats and much more stamina than strength. Just avoid pieces with parry rating, block rating, or block value, all of which have no use for a druid. As for trinkets, just take what you can get, and try to avoid the chance-on-hit or chance-when-hit trinkets, since as a tank, you'll want to save your trinkets for when you need them. Extra armor used to be an important druid stat, but now extra armor is only really useful on cloaks, since they will get the 370% bonus from Dire Bear Form. As such, look for cloaks with armor quantities in green, but treat armor on rings, amulets, and trinkets like you would any other defensive stats.

Weapons: There are very few two-handed weapons with tank stats, so look for weapons with a lot of stamina and with hit rating or expertise. It's also a good idea to look for weapons with agility on them, rather than or in addition to strength, since agility increases your dodge chance, and is thus a defensive stat as well as an offensive one.

Next week: Strategies and placing abilities on your action bars.

Should Blizzard buff/nerf classes based on popularity?

This question has been on my mind ever since I read a WoW.com post that said that because druid tanks were the least popular kind of tank, Blizzard was hesitant to nerf them. This was part of a longer article about the relative popularity of certain tank classes, which showed that warriors were the most popular tanks by far, with druids being the least popular. The article speculated that the reason for this was that warriors have always been viable as tanks, but paladins and druids only became popular as tanks with the advent of Burning Crusade. Even then, paladins were arguably better tanks than druids, and only recently have druids become truly viable as tanks. Death Knights have been popular ever since they were added to the game, which explains why they had no problem carving out a part of the tanking community for themselves.

But I digress. The fact that Blizzard was hesitant to make any changes to an unpopular class got me thinking: should Blizzard buff or nerf classes based on how popular they are? Although the popularity of a class can be viewed as an indicator of its relative strength compared to other classes, such a comparison is misleading. After all, for the longest time, hunters were the most popular class in the game due only to the fact that they were a good class for newbies. Death knights are now by far the most popular class, but I would argue that this is due to their newness, and not their relative strength compared to other classes. The popularity of a class can be based on many things, meaning you cant take it to be an indicator of that class's relative strength.

This means that Blizzard can't use class popularity as a guide on how the classes should be buffed and nerfed, but does that mean that it shouldn't factor in at all? In an ideal world (of warcraft), it wouldn't. The classes would all be able to stand out on their own merits because they would all be fun to play, and thus you would have players dedicated to their class who would play it come hell or high water, even if their class were nerfed into the ground. Thus, if every class is fun to play, then Blizzard doesn't need to factor their popularity in how they buff/nerf them, since that class's devotees would continue to play as that class.

This begs the question, though; are the classes fun to play? Having limited experience with the various class, I can't truly say. I suppose the fact that, aside form death knights and paladins, the other classes have more or less equal representation at level 80 could be a sign that people enjoy playing all of them. Each class and each class's specs are unique in their own way, meaning there is something about each the ten classes and 30 specs in the game that appeals to some kind of player. That said, there are certainly specs that are more limited than others in terms of how they can perform their role (holy paladins, balance druids) and perhaps they could be fleshed out a little bit more, but people still play them, so they must be enjoyable in some way.