Sunday, March 20, 2011

Tank School

Woooooooo! We're gonna get wasted!



Romilly spent much of her squirehood in the Blood Knights goofing off. Drinking at Saltheril's Party Haven, smoking mana cigarettes behind the Farstrider enclave in Silvermoon and treating the Eversong Woods like Spring Break in Cancun. It's no wonder she's having a little trouble carrying herself at level 85.


Hey, Akeldama, why don't any of these boys seem to be interested in us?


In order to not be such a slouch, and to learn how to play that neglected other half the game, Romilly has enrolled in the Grammaton Academy for Tanks (Thalassian Correspondence Course Edition), courtesy of The Wow Guys. With the help of some self-professed 'elitist jerks', I'm going to be taking a critical look at everything I'm doing with Virgoan precision, and noting my progression as a paladin tanking in the endgame from the ground up.

When I say 'the ground up,' I really mean 'so far underground even Therazane is claustrophobic'. Hearthstoned in Scrub City. Already, by tweaking my DPS/Healer bad combo gear into something with better tanking stats, I'm noticing my experience is getting better.

I like math and crunchy numbers, even if they don't always come intuitive to me. Having it spelled out in simple terms like dodge + parry =26% or dodge+parry+ block = 102.4%, or Mastery = Winning made figuring out how to reforge/gem/simply pick gear a little less like ordering off a menu in a foreign language.

After studying a few fight mechanics, I can now tank a normal 5-man to success without getting everyone killed (just people who pull ahead of me). Heroics are next, once I'm done shopping to replace some hopelessly bad equipment and get generally more familiar with my rotation and dealing with problems that arise (like people pulling ahead of me!)

So far, I've been able to upgrade Irontree Sword of the Faultlinewhich I don't even remember getting, to Mace of Transformed Bone. Originally, I'd gotten Clear-Eyed Waistguard based on the stamina bonus without knowing about anything else. I ran Lost City of Tol'vir this morning and the Sand Dune Belt I was gunning for happened to drop the first time. Hooray!

These are baby steps, but they feel pretty amazing coming up from the nervous, clueless wipe magnet I was just last week. Time to celebrate a little!


That's what I'm talking about

3 comments:

  1. Romilly, Akeldama would like you to know that if you want Boy attention the next time you go to Saltheril's 24 hour sloshfest, you need to wear something a little less classy. Instead, dress like an Elwynn Forest school marm, or like a reject from the Twilight's Hammer Home for Wayward Youth.

    For her part, she will continue wearing her Horns of the Left Hand Path with the dress she picked up from a Grom'gol rummage sale.

    She suggests your next vacay be to Yojamba Isle. She'll wear a turtleneck and hide under an umbrella the whole time. For greatest irony.

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  2. I bet Akeldama also wears her Outland gear 'ironically'. What a hipster

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  3. Akeldama is a total hipster. She liked draining demonic energy before it was cool.

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