I Tanked A Raid Instance

Granted, it was 8-man Naxxramas and then VoA 10, and I was the offtank. And I had a lot of help, both in the form of SSH (who helped me with boss strats and stuff) and in the form of several really good healers. But we won, and I even got a little bit of loot. So yay for that!

I’m not sure tanking is my favorite thing to do, and I still prefer healing overall, but it’s certainly a lot of fun, and I’m very slowly getting better at it. I still don’t do really well with chasing down adds that get loose, but otherwise, I manage to do ok!

I Am Playing My Hunter

Something that doesn’t usually happen very often – especially the part where I’m really enjoying it. I leveled Angoleth mostly with gritted teeth in Burning Crusade. I really wanted her to hit 70, and I wanted to be able to use her leatherworking/skinning skills as part of the great alt conglomerate to ease up on the cost of raiding mats for the three raiding healers I had at the time. The last time I was a hunter for more than 10 minutes at a time, I was running Karazhan (can that really have been 18 months ago or more?), but I’m finding that once I get the dust off, I’m enjoying it again.

I’m also planning out achievements I want to get… which is another first.

I DPSed For A PUG (and had fun doing it)

See that bit about being a hunter. I know very little about “modern” huntering, and my hunter instincts are weak at best. But I managed – and the group I got plunked into decided to keep me along for a second run. (To the guys from Crushridge – thank you for being awesome, and for even RPing with me. You rock!) I had my pet on passive with growl off; I MD’d the tank on cooldown; I used Bestial Wrath on boss fights and frost-trapped things that tried to eat the Tree.

I am not yet to the point of doing MQoSRDPS, but I will get there.

I Killed The End Game Boss

For the first time since I started raiding, I have killed the Big Bad of the expansion. TRI never made it to Illidan or Sunwell in the last expansion, and while I saw Nefarian, I never saw the original Naxxramas or even C’thun. But I have a Kingslayer title (and hopefully will soon have the 25 man version to go with it), and I think that’s pretty cool, especially considering the RP implications Arthas’ death has for Aely.

Being able to take part in an Arthas kill is something I really wanted for Aely since the expansion launched, and I’m really thankful for the other people I raid with. Without them I’d never have gotten to see the fight, let alone beat it.

What new things have you done lately? Are you trying new things in RP, PVP, or PVE, or maybe even all three? Have you enjoyed them, or did they reinforce that you prefer to do other things?

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***

A First Time for Everything

As many of you know, she is not from Gnomeregan. She is, in fact, from Westfall. Though her parents were respectable tinkers, after the Second War, (where her father was injured – though he did recover mostly), they decided to make a new life for themselves elsewhere, out of the way of all this “war” business. He took up a position as a Harvest Golem Mechanic, and Annie Mae grew up in the social and political struggles of post-second-war Westfall/Stormwind.

As such, she’s not been much of a Gnomish girl at all. Sure she knows she’s a Gnome. But she’s learned to poke fun at her height, and to use it as an advantage in a world of taller people. She’s something of an unusual little person, and much more comfortable in Human society than anywhere else.

And then?

This happened:

Actually, I’m getting rather ahead of myself.

Before Operation Gnomeregan happened, Duugvilder happened.

Who, you ask, is Duugvilder?

Duugvilder Demonbane is a Gnome. A very nice Gnome, and a Gnome from Dun Morogh. In fact, he is the first Gnome from that part of the world with whom Annie Mae has interacted as a personal friend.

(Ok, it doesn’t hurt at ALL that she thinks he’s cute. And kind of sweet. And ok maybe she’s a little smitten. But don’t tell her I told you that, or she’ll rough me up.)

Anyhow, Duugvilder joined up with the Wildfire Riders a few months back, and he now wears the Black and Red. Annie Mae has been hanging around a bit, and seen as he’s gotten to know them (and, in a strange little way, helped her get to know the Riders as well).

She’s also seen him talk about Gnomeregan – both as his homeland and as an upcoming battlefront.

Needless to say, my little Westfall-born, horse-loving, gun-toting, hat-wearing Gnome is now wondering what it’d be like to be around other people like her. If maybe she’ll have a role in taking on the Troggs and clearing out the Irradiation. If maybe, just maybe, she might have a spot in a newly-recovering Gnomish society, like the spot she has carved out for herself in the Human one. (After all, she was around for the rebuilding of Stormwind. This isn’t all that far outside her realm of experience.)

And I, for one, can’t WAIT to tell this story.

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***

Gnomeregan Exiles

Dear Heroic LFD Puggers:

Let me explain to you some things. First, the defense cap for heroics is 535. With 535 defense, you are uncrittable in a heroic, and it’s quite possible to tank them with less than 535 defense anyway. (The defense cap for raids is 540. We’re not pugging raids. We’re pugging heroics. And I have 563 defense anyway, so shut up.)

Heroics are, right now, easier than they have ever been.

Many of them have been nerfed. Some of them have been nerfed A LOT. Let me refresh your memory a leeeetle bit about things from a year ago, when there were not badge epics and Tier 9 the way they are now, and before the heroics had been nerfed:

1. Unbuffed 21k armor, 21k health and 32% dodge+parry is a good target for entry-level Naxxramas. (from Tankspot)
2. This guy, who at 565 defense and less than 25K armor is agreed to be geared to MT/OT Naxxramas (though he should get 25K if he wants to PUG it) (from the WoW Forums)
3. 23637 health and 21661 armor unbuffed now, 555 defense – “solidly for heroics” (From our friend the Panzercow)

So our friend the Panzercow takes the most conservative stance of the three, but last I checked, Tankspot is a pretty reliable resource for what is and isn’t acceptable for tanking. Looking at Annie’s armory profile, I have around 27K health, 24K armor, and 563 defense. My other avoidance stats aren’t so amazing (about 40% Dodge+Parry), but I’m working on it.

By any measurement that I can find on The Internets, a year ago I would have been OK tanking in a Naxxramas 25 man raid.

Let me repeat: I am not tanking raids. I am tanking heroics.

So when we pull into H-Nexus, sure, your Tier 10, frost badge, epic’d out the ass DPSy self might have to hold back a bit for me to tank it. And maybe the geared out the arse healer might have to pay attention a little on tough pulls. And no, I can’t pull the whole place at once. But if you will take THREE DEEP BREATHS, we can successfully beat this place. And, considering you have to wait 15 minutes for your next random dungeon, probably in less time than it will take for you to sit on your arse in Dalaran for 15 minutes and re-queue and then wait through the DPS queue again.

Making fun of me, telling me my gear sucks, bitching about having to “carry a tank with your healing”, playing like a total idiot, pulling things ahead of me, DPSing whatever the hell you feel like targeting just because you can? Solves nothing.

I know I’m not Tanking’s Gift To The World. I scrub it up, sometimes stand in it, accidentally miss pats, and sometimes forget to use Vigilance.

But I can tank.

And if you’ll give me half a minute’s chance, I can pretty much chain pull these dungeons (that aren’t ICC of course) and we’ll pwn and get our badges and get on with our lives.

Get over yourself already.

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***

Tanking Perceptions

Act 1: When I first leveled Annorah, the RNG tried to tell me something.

I’d leveled her as elemental, and was happily an elemental shaman, until one day in Karazhan I realized I had a full mail healing kit and 3/4 of an enhancement set – both of which were better than my elemental gear. So I went enhance… and then found TRI, went Resto, started a blog, and the rest was history.

Act 2: So then, when I was leveling Aely, in the last 8-10 months of Burning Crusade, the RNG tried to tell me something.

Just like Annorah wasn’t goign to be a healer, Aely was not going to be a healer either. I was pretty dead set against it. She was for the hawt holy facesmashing retribution deliciousness. I had two healers at 80 already, and didn’t need a third. And so I ran some mid 60’s dungeons as I was leveling, and got nothing but healer loot. And then Pallyzhan happened (the same day she hit 70, actually) and I was supposed to go ret, since I couldn’t actually do any harm as a noobshat ret pally. Healer loot again.

And now I’m a professional Holy Pally. Go me.

Which brings us to Act 3: Annie Mae

I leveled Annie Mae as protection, but I never ran any instances. I leveled as prot because it meant I never died, and there was very little that I couldn’t handle all by myself. My intent was to go dual wield Fury at 80, and be a tiny spinning top of DOOM.

I tanked one Utgarde Keep run, one Nexxus run, and one Azjol’Nerub run before I hit 80. Since then I’ve learned a few things, (among them that leveling prot means my highest 2H weapon skill is… 53) but I’ve not really done a lot of actual tanking, despite being rather committed to it gear-wise. Last week the raid weekly was Patchwerk, and the TRI 25 man raid snagged Annie Mae to tank it so our tanks could bring their offset DPS alts.

He dropped the Hero’s Surrender. I danced.

So then earlier this week, after a failPUG in CoT:Stratholme (normal) that managed to hit every single bad-DPS-in-a-PUG stereotype, a few TRI/Cowbell friends convinced me to go run a daily heroic random. I had a fantastic healer, so I wasn’t too worried. My gear at that point had me at 26K health and 548 defense, unbuffed, and I had tank gear in every slot except my trinkets (WOOO! Look at me tanking with Chuchu’s Tiny Box of Horrors!)

We draw Azjol’Nerub.

The Essence of Gossamer drops. I do a little squee-happy-dance, and we finish the instance with no problems.

I tanked a real heroic! And I have a real tanky trinket!! YAY!

And then last night, while waiting for RPz to happen, I queued my small and spiky self for a random, normal level 80 dungeon, thinking it’d do me some good to stay in practice and I’m overgeared anyway so who cares.

We draw Halls of Lightning, and after cycling through three healers (who joined the group, zoned in, and then quit), we pick up an awesome disc/shadow priest with a pretty fail name (Xpriest-Stormscale, if you ever see this, you’re an awesome healer, but “Xpriest”?) and proceed to mostly 3 and 4 man the instance, after the warlock afk’d to offline. We eventually picked up rogue and blasted through the rest of the place with no trouble.

Pwnt Loken in the face… and the Seal of the Pantheon drops.

So yes. This week I ran two random dungeons, drew the two dungeons that drop the pre-raid tanking trinkets, and had the trinkets drop. (Every single other drop in Halls of Lightning was caster cloth though…) This coming immediately after my only 25 man tanking experience nets me a new shield off a one-boss gank run for badges.

I think the RNG is trying to tell me something.

(also, to all the tanks (including Spaceship Hubby) who ran normal HoL for months and never saw the trinket, please don’t hate me…)

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***

I think the RNG is trying to tell me something

It’s Annie Mae’s turn. When I commissioned this, Lansiron came up with a tentative title for this picture that ended up sticking. And I think it fits pretty darn well:

Horsegun Gnomepower

Full Size Image Here

Lansiron’s caption: Annie-Mae Spursparkle, to be known in latter years as the first of the legendary irregulars known as the Stormwind Rough Riders (in legend only; half of them weren’t even aware of the existence of the rest, which just terrified their enemies even more).

Gotta admire a woman who can handle a gun that’s a full head taller than she is… (<3 Shad!)

I’m not sure I have to tell you how much I love this? But I LOVE THIS. It’s totally worth checking out at full size – the details are /amazing/.

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***

Horsegun Gnomepower (Art Post!)