Chealz FTW.

Here’s three healers on their way to the Assembly of Iron in Ulduar: Keredria (resto druid), Makawee (resto shaman), and Suzzy (holy/disc priest). Nkm the Molten Iron Construct killer is behind us (stop pinching our butts Nkm). Makawee is my alt. I think K and I were discussing how we were disappointed that our gear doesn’t match very well. Suzzy looks very good though. I was a little nervous to be working with two much more experienced healers that evening, but even K had to admit that my chain heals, or “chealz” as I’ve come to call them, much to the dismay of the guild (cue collective groan), can sometimes be quite helpful.

Has healing made me a better tank?

So today Keredria emails me to suggest that I do a post on how healing has (maybe) made me a better tank by seeing things from the “other side.” Of course it hadn’t occurred to her that maybe tanking has made me a better healer. Heh. Lately I’ve been doing a bit of raid healing on my resto shaman, Makawee. I’ve done a bit of Naxx as well as VoA and OS, and for the first time last night normal Ulduar. At first I couldn’t think of anything specific I do, or do differently, as a tank or healer that could be attributed to my experience in the other role. However I think that maybe  my healing experience has influenced my tanking attitude in terms of how I see my role in the raid. I see myself has having two general roles in the raid, in decreasing order of priority.

Make the job of the healers as easy as possible. This encompasses much of what we think tanks (should) do. We gear and spec ourselves appropriately, we hold aggro, we use our cooldowns when things get tight, we buff the raid (e.g., Commanding Shout) and debuff the boss (e.g., Demoralizing Shout, Thunder Clap). Our primary job is to help the healers by keeping ourselves and the raid from taking damage, and to survive the damage that we do take. It all seems obvious, but I think that some tanks get an attitude that they lead the attack and the raid supports them, when in fact it is the other way around. When it comes down to it, a tank is mostly crowd control with a few buffs and debuffs. However…

DPS. Yes, DPS. More so than before Wrath of the Lich King a tank can do a reasonable amount of DPS, and the relative amount of DPS is that much more in a 10-man raid. All raiders can remember wipes where there were just a few too many adds or the boss would have been dead had the raid put out just a little more damage. A tank should look at their abilities and think not just about holding aggro, but also about how they can maximize their DPS. A rotation is not just about generating threat, it’s about inflicting pain (which also leads to threat so that’s good!). But just as importantly a tank can often buff the raid and debuff the boss to increase the raid DPS.

So healing has given me a greater appreciation for how hard it can be to keep a raid alive, and has motivated me to make the job of the healers easier. Now if I can just get K to spec feral sometime…

The Lost Pole of the Covenant.

OMG I haz screenshotz! Here’s me and the tree chillin in Wintergrasp. The other day I was surprised to get the Jeweled Fishing Pole from the Dalaran fishing daily quest. It’s a bit gaudy to say the least, but who says your fishing outfit can’t have a little bling? Veloreynn however thinks the shape of it is rather obscene.

I’m still a noob.

Keredria tagged me to discuss my past noobishness. As she notes, I am still a noob, but that is fodder for her blog, not mine. I was quite a noob. When I started playing I was very much into the escapism and increasingly the social aspect of the game. I soloed mostly, did very few instances, and had no idea what raiding was. Here are some examples of my noobishness from those wonderful days in Teldrassil, Darkshore, and Ashenvale.

• It took me until maybe level 7 or so to understand that doing quests was maybe a more efficient method to earn experience.
• I spent some time trying to figure out how I could get a pet to fight with me. I didn’t realize this was a hunter-only ability.
• The first time I encountered an item that would become soulbound when I equipped it, I stopped. I thought being “soulbound” sounded bad.
• I wanted a bow in the worst way when I was in the Night Elf starting zones. It seemed like a good thing to have. Other people had them and seemed to use them to great effect. Of course, I didn’t realize that a hunter can make much better use of a bow than a warrior. I saved up so that I could eventually buy one from a vendor in Darnassus. And even after I realized that a bow wasn’t going to do much for me, I used it for a long time to pull mobs to me rather than using Charge.
• I thought a quiver/bandolier was necessary for carrying ammunition to use with a bow/gun. I did not realize that non-hunters were better off just carrying a small stack in a bag. But I did think that the quiver looked cool.
• I didn’t start auctioning stuff until maybe my late 20s. I vendored everything I didn’t use.
• I once bought a potion that stated that it increased healing. I thought that maybe I could take it to make Keredria’s heals more effective on me.
• It was a long time before I realized that Berserker Rage could be used to counter a fear after the fear had taken effect. I thought one had to hit Berserker Rage before the fear.
• I applied wizard oil to my sword. I thought it would enchant my sword to cause magical as well as physical damage.
• I thought that the gold you paid when you unlearned your talents was per talent point you unlearned.

Whoa! Raid LF3M. Now who should I take? Keredria, and…T-Pain.

If you’ve not seen/heard it yet, check out I’m On a Boat first and then you can sing along. Warning: There are MANY naughty words.

Aww shit, get your addons ready it’s about to go down
Everybody in the place click the ready check
But watch your motherfucking threat
We’re running this, let’s go

I’m in a raid
I’m in a raid
Everybody look at me ’cause I’m running in a raid
I’m in a raid
I’m in a raid
Take a good hard look at the motherfucking raid

I’m in a raid motherfucker take a look at me
We’ll be farming Ulduar soon I can guarantee
Raiding five nights, ever since Burning Crusade
You can’t stop me motherfucker ’cause I’m in a raid

Take a screenshot
I’m in a raid, bitch
We be drinking elixirs
Cause we’re so rich
I got my five deeps
And my three epic heals
I’m tanking Algalon, you in Northrend
Straight tanking seals

I’m riding on a big drake, doing heals and shit
The drake is flying, Maly is starting to sweat
But this ain’t Outland, this is leet as it gets
I’m in a raid, motherfucker, don’t you ever forget

I’m in a raid and
Progressing fast and
I got skillz so slick
That I should be banned
I’m the queen of the world
In a raid like Leeroy
If you’re wearing blues
Then you’re not with me, boy

Get the fuck up, this raid is real

Fuck 5s, I’m in a raid, motherfucker
Fuck BGs, I kill elites, motherfucker
I’m in the raid with my guild, motherfucker
The raid is so skilled, motherfucker

Hey ma, if you could see me now
Grinning ear to ear because I’m pwning WoW
Gonna take this raid to Arthas somehow
Like Ghostcrawler said, bring the player not the class

Yeah, never thought I’d be in a raid
It’s the best game that I’ve played
Yeah, Protection
Look at me, oh

Never thought I’d see the day
When a big raid would be kk
Believe me when I say
I got an upgrade

I’m in a raid
I’m in a raid
Everybody look at me ’cause I’m running in a raid
I’m in a raid
I’m in a raid
Take a good hard look at the motherfucking raid

OMG! The bunnehs! They are making it!

A few guildies thought it would be amusing to turn everyone into rabbits using some sort of Noblegarden thingy while we were waiting for our raid to form up. Then they got out their pet rabbits that proceeded to, as Vel said, “make it.” I love it when she talks dirty on vent.

So anyway after the bunny orgy we got ourselves into Ulduar. Friday and Saturday were our second and third nights in Ulduar. I wrote earlier about our first night. Our first attempt on Flame Leviathan was, well, interesting. We accidentally started it on hard mode. But after downing the four towers to deactivate the hard mode it was fine and we went on to try Razorscale. We gave him a few attempts but didn’t make much progress so we moved on to XT-002 Deconstructor which we proceeded to one-shot. That was a little disappointing. We had time for a few attempts on Ignis the Furnace Master, and were getting the fight down, but we ran out of time and called it a night. Saturday we had to wait awhile to fill the raid so we went dancing in Naxx for a bit and then went to Ulduar to work on Razorscale. I think it took us ten attempts before we finally got her. It was exhausting but it felt good. It felt good to work hard on something and to see the hard work pay off. My tanking fingers are very sore. The drops were…I forget…DPS stuff mainly.

As usual I forgot to take screenshots, but I know Keredria got some so look for them on her blog soon.