However, WoW does not update the action bar for your second spec. I leveled through my 60’s mostly healing instances on my priest. Almost every time I visited the trainer, I was in my healing spec. During those visits to the trainer, I learned all my new spells, not just my healing ones. So, when at level 68 I finally switched back to my shadow spec, none of the action bar buttons for this spec had the correct rank of the spell on them. I did not notice for a level or two, after I was becoming frustrated with how hard it was to kill mobs.

So remember–if you’re leveling up with dual specs, each time you train, it’s worth it to switch to your alternate spec and check to see if any of the skills you just learned need to be updated on that particular set of action bars.

This public service announcement is brought to you by BinaryMuse.

Stonewhisper from <The Rat Pack> on Scarlet Crusade:

Mounts are 20, flight at 60… this is insane. Pure insanity. There’s no other way to describe it. All those months, years of grinding and leveling, farming gold, silver, copper… rendered meaningless. Everything I know about life now… soon to be gone. Just with this simple announcement.

So yesterday, resolved to my fate, I spent the day with the wife and kids, trying to keep up a strong appearance but knowing inside everything I held dear was coming crashing to a halt. Last night, as I kissed them all goodnight I silently wept at the losses I was about to suffer for this injustice. Eventually nature asserted itself and I drifted off to my final sleep as a whole being, as a man of pride and honor.

I awoke early but was afraid to open my eyes and face the desolation that my world had most assuredly become. But then… I felt a movement. Daring myself to peek at the horror that awaited me (dear God… mounts at 20…), instead… I see my daughter in bed next to me! Next to her, my wife was still here as well! I gasped in stunned disbelief as I noticed a brightening outside the window… the sun! It was indeed rising yet again! The sun… my son… wait, he wasn’t here! Fearing the worst, I burst into his room, and there he lay, still sleeping, still here… all was well!

Could it be… could it be true?! Is it possible that people getting mounts sooner and easier than me really won’t affect my life or… wait! The game!

It seemed an eternity as the computer booted up and the game loaded. Finally, the character screen… they’re all there! Can it be? Yes! Nothing is changed! No missing gold, mounts, honor… all of it still the same!

Can it be true? Can people have things a little easier than I did and my world not end? I dare now allow myself a glimmer of hope…

TL;DR: In no way, shape or form does allowing people to have an easier path to things today diminish or negate what you have already accomplished. You have nothing to cry about.

While people who disagree with his point will use his severe sarcasm to dance around the point, I find that he makes an excellent statement. I don’t fully understand why people have such a sense of entitlement–”I couldn’t have this nice thing so neither should anyone else.” Play the game, have fun, and leave everyone else alone. As stated by Zarhym: “Mount change announcement not ruining your life? We must fix this bug in an upcoming patch.”

Overall, the expirement went really well. I took the paladin along the path of retribution and just used Righteous Fury to hold aggro, while the priest went holy for improved healing and some DPS talents like Divine Fury, Searing Light, Holy Specialization and Surge of Light, along with Glyph of Smite. Mobs died quickly, and after the paladin got the replinishment effect it was difficult to run out of mana on either toon.

At level 56, while I was in the Plaguelands leveling, a guildie offered to run me through Scholomance and Stratholme. I gathered up all the quests and off we went. By the time we were done, both characters (the priest especially) had some nice blue (and a purple!) gear, and was about 30% from dinging level 61. So, now I’m taking my time leveling through Outland, with a focus on getting professions up to speed before I set foot in Northrend.

The experiement was a lot of fun, and though I considered doing the same thing with more characters (and I might in the future), for now I’m eager to get my priest to 80 and into heroics and raids, and my budday Neal and I are still doing our RAF with other characters.

Sometimes it’s fun to visualize websites as being actual places you can walk in. I like to think of the WoW forums as a sprawling building with wings, courtyards, and meeting rooms for example.

General Forums: A room filled with picketers and angry protesters. A handful of people are desperately raising their hands and telling everyone to remain calm as the Blizzard gods have not forsaken them. A troll jumps in and yells “Blood Elves rule!” and a violent riot erupts. The people who actually enjoy the game step in then immediately turn around, desperate to hop on the next boat back to Azeroth.

WoW Getting Started: A shining and grand hall. Bright-eyed innocent new players step in and are greeted by smiling veterans, covered in armor more wild and fantastic than the naïve newcomers’ wildest dreams. Envision the jedi academy and Hogwarts combined.

Guild Relations and Recruitment: A big job fair. Numerous new lowbie guilds have small booths with free pens that nobody seems to pay notice to. The big raiding guilds have bouncers outside their exhibitions which tell people in tier 6 that they’re not on the list. There’s a bar and free shrimp.

PVP: You open the door and an axe flies out followed by sounds of crashing and fighting. You slam the door shut and back away.

Suggestions: A courtyard where one can see throngs of people standing on boxes and preaching such mad things as “crabs as a playable race!”. Onlookers crowd among these boxes with keen interest. Several cry “heresy!” at the preachers and throw fruit.

Tech Support: An infirmary filled with sick patients. Doctors dressed in blue scrubs rush about trying to assign treatment. A person donning a t-shirt marked “Linux” sits patiently while his doctor looks sadly at another physician and whispers, “There’s nothing we can do for him…prescribe morphine.”

World’s End Tavern: Pretty much as it sounds: A smoky, ale-laden tavern in the middle of the woods, filled with adventurers of all sorts looking to share stories and learn of the land’s lore. Every so often a naked mad man wearing nothing but a playstation 3 t-shirt jumps in and calls everyone freaks.

Class Forums: A series of adjacent rooms with different groups meeting in each. As you pass by the paladin room, you see a guest speaker discussing his latest book, “Seriously, We’re Pretty Friggin’ Awesome.” A Death Knight cuts a warrior at the vending machine line.

Off-Topic: There is a large heavy steel door at the far end of the hall. You push its icy surface open slowly and peer into the quite dark void. You take a step in and hear the moaning and screaming of the forsaken souls banished to this dark realm. Before you can run away, the floor collapses into a writhing mass of outstretched arms and hands that begin pulling you under. As the darkness surrounds your vision, you swear you can hear Cher playing in the background…

Of course I’m exaggerating some stuff here for the sake of humor. If anything the forums are fun and diverse webpages to visit and I enjoy posting and reading within them. Let’s just hope for the love of physical safety that it never becomes realized as an actual physical domain

In a group, the experience awarded by mobs drops due to the fact that it was easier to kill in a group. WoWWiki covers the math in detail, but in simple terms:

XP Gained = Mob’s XP / Number of Group Members * Modifier

Modifier is a constant that changes based on the number of people in the group; it’s higher in larger groups, so as to not punish people as much for running instances with full groups, etc. While playing solo, or in a two-person group, Modifier is 1.

In the end, assuming a two-person group (which is what I was running), and also assuming both characters are the same level (which they were), each character receives half the experience that a player killing the mob alone would receive. This makes the leveling experience when dual-boxing slower, and makes questing not only more efficient than grinding mobs, but practically required to make any decent headway at all.

However, Blizzard introduced once system that flipped that world upside down: Recruit-A-Friend. It was intended to get new players up to level more quickly so they could play with their high-level friends; the high-level friend would send an invitation, and for 90 days, the two accounts would be linked. For the duration, characters on both accounts receive 300% XP from everything assuming that (1) they are grouped together (2) they are relatively close to each other, and (3) they are within 3 levels of each other (if not, only the lower character gets the 300% XP).

So, the higher-level friend would create a new alt with his new WoW-playing noob buddy, and for every mob kill get 150% normal experience (the experience is split, making it 50%, and that is tripled, making 150% total), and 300% experience for every quest.

This is huge.

A friend and I have been leveling a few alts using the Recruit-A-Friend system. It is really… really fast. The 300% XP from quests is amazing–I’ve had quests give me half a level or more worth of experience.

At the same time, I’ve decided to dual-box again, this time using Recruit-A-Friend, during the times my buddy and I aren’t playing our RAF characters. 150% XP from mobs makes it much less painful to do, ie, quests where each character has to loot a certain number of items, and the 300% XP from quests makes practically every quest worth doing. Last night I started another pally/priest combo on my new server, and when I logged off they were level 10. I’m still using the same technology from my previous posts, so if you’re interested, be sure to check out the other posts in this category.

As time progresses, I’ll post some other information, tips, and tricks.

BLIZZCON^®2009 TICKETS ON SALE MAY 16

Exclusive coverage of Blizzard Entertainment^®’s gaming convention available through DIRECTV^®satellite TV service and Internet stream

IRVINE, Calif. – May 5, 2009 – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that tickets for its fourth BlizzCon^®gaming convention will go on sale May 16. Live coverage of the event will be available as a DIRECTV^®Pay Per View event and, for the first time, as an Internet stream. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment^®’s Warcraft^®, Diablo^®, and StarCraft^®game universes. The event will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on August 21 and 22.

“BlizzCon always offers us a great chance to meet players and celebrate our shared passion for gaming,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We look forward to delivering another entertaining and memorable experience to all attendees and to those joining us from home.”

In addition to serving as a gathering place for the different Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, BlizzCon will offer an array of activities, including discussion panels, hands-on playtime with upcoming games, tournaments, contests, and more.

Tickets to the convention will be priced at $125 USD each and will be available for purchase from the official BlizzCon website at www.blizzcon.com beginning May 16. For those unable to purchase tickets on that date, a second block of tickets will go on sale May 30.

To streamline the ticket-purchase process this year, the company has made upgrades to the Blizzard Store, including a first-come, first-served queue system and a fixed time limit for completing purchases. Also, those interested in attending BlizzCon can simplify the purchase process by registering a Battle.net account at www.battle.net before ticket sales begin.

Due to its popularity last year, the DIRECTV^® BlizzCon Pay Per View event will return in 2009, available to existing DIRECTV customers for $39.95 USD. The event will again deliver a minimum of eight hours of live HD coverage from the show floor on each day of the convention, including exclusive interviews, demos, and more. In addition, gamers around the world who are unable to attend BlizzCon will for the first time be able to purchase the Pay Per View event as an Internet stream, also priced at $39.95 USD (pricing may vary by region). DIRECTV customers who order the televised event will receive this Internet stream at no extra charge, allowing them to watch in the format of their choice. Anyone who orders the event will also receive this year’s BlizzCon-exclusive World of Warcraft^® in-game item — to be revealed at a later date.

In addition, in the weeks ahead DIRECTV will offer a BlizzCon promotion for those interested in signing up for the DIRECTV television service. New subscribers through this promotion will receive the DIRECTV BlizzCon Pay Per View event, the Internet stream, and the BlizzCon 2009 World of Warcraft in-game item for the price of becoming a new DIRECTV customer.

To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities can be found at www.blizzard.com/jobs.

As BlizzCon draws closer, further details about the show, including ordering and programming information for the DIRECTV BlizzCon Pay Per View event and Internet stream, will be announced at www.blizzcon.com.

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft^® and the Warcraft^®, StarCraft^®, and Diablo^® series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes eleven #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service, Battle.net^®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active users.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Blizzard Entertainment generally uses words such as “outlook,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “might,” “remains,” “to be,” “plans,” “believes,” “may,” “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimate,” future,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “project,” “remain,” “scheduled,” “set to,” “subject to,” “upcoming,” and similar expressions to help identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales of Blizzard Entertainment’s titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, Blizzard Entertainment’s ability to predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms (including next-generation hardware), declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Blizzard Entertainment’s products, adoption rate and availability of new hardware and related software, industry competition, rapid changes in technology and industry standards, protection of proprietary rights, litigation against Blizzard Entertainment, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, vendors and third-party developers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates, integration of recent acquisitions and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities, Activision Blizzard’s success in integrating the operations of Activision Publishing and Vivendi Games in a timely manner, or at all, and the combined company’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits and synergies of the transaction to the extent, or in the timeframe, anticipated. Other such factors include additional risk factors identified in Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

For putting up with all of this garbage, you’re dedicated man. My hat is off to you

Re: GC I’m going to send you a Gallon of Gin by Ghostcrawler

Nice. I’m going to have a sweet weekend.

Quote:
But how do crabs reproduce?

Arthropods generally lay eggs. If you mean how do the eggs get fertilized, the same way they usually do. One catch with big crustaceans is that they can only mate following a molt. Males of some crabs will literally keep a claw on a female who is about to molt until she’ sheds her skin. Molted crabs are soft, which is where softshell crabs come from. However because their mouthparts are also soft, they don’t eat for awhile following a molt. This can make them difficult to catch say blue crabs (Callinectes spp.)through conventional methods, which use bait. Many crustaceans carry the eggs until they hatch. Larval crustaceans are very small and are carried through the water column as plankton. Insects by contrast tend to have a mobile adult form and a relatively immobile larval form (think butterfly v. caterpillar). Crustaceans have a mobile larva and adults that don’t travel great distances (or in the case of barnacles, not at all).

This oceanographic moment has been brought to you by Blizzard Entertainment.

Re: GC I’m going to send you a Gallon of Gin by Ghostcrawler

Quote:
Ghostcrawler, are Malacostraca the class of crustaceans or a sub-class? Aren’t crustaceans themselves just a sub-phylum of Arthropoda?

There are more types of Arthropods that any other multicellular lifeform, so the taxonomy gets pretty complex. For example, there are probably 300,000 species of beetles. There may be 50,000 species of crustaceans, but crustaceans are vastly understudied compared to insects — something to do with the difficulty of sampling.

Phylum Arthropoda (armored things)
–Subphylum Crustacea (double legs)
—-Class Malacostraca (antennae, mouthparts, head and thorax)
——Order Decapoda (10 legs)
——–Crabs, shrimp and lobsters are in this group.

Quote:
GC, don’t forget that alot of freshwater insects do move around. Dragonflies, Mayflies, and aquatic beatles come to mind as examples of where the larval form of the insect is much more mobile, and interesting, than the adult stage.

True enough. They aren’t as planktonic (generally at the whim of water currents) as most baby crustaceans though. Interestingly (to me anyway) freshwater crustaceans like crayfish also skip over the planktonic larva. It doesn’t work well for stream-dwelling critters.

Quote:
on a side note, what is the yellow ‘mustard’ part of the crab? thats not crap is it?

It is called the hepatopancreas, and is a digestive organ that does some of the same functions as a vertebrate liver. It only looks that bad because you’re usually looking at the cooked version. Some people like the taste. It isn’t typically dangerous, but can accumulate contaminants depending on where the crab lives. Unless you eat crabs every week, it’s probably not an issue.

Which of the three DPSers did the best job? The insinctive answer is “the rogue, they did the most DPS.” And in a way, you’d be right.

But what if I told you the rogue stole aggro on half the pulls, refused to sap the correct target, and rolled need on every boss drop? And what if I told you that the hunter consistantly trapped mobs that got loose and ran toward the healer, never Multi-Shot mobs that were CC’d or minding thier own business, and offered a feast every time someone died?

I’ll tell you right now, as a tank and someone who often puts together and leads instance runs, I’d take the hunter anytime they wanted to run, and I’d add the rogue to my NotesUNeed list under “Avoid.”

It is very common to judge the worth of a player quantitatively–that is, based on how much damage, threat, or healing per second they can produce. Partly, this is because we’re human–how often are first impressions the only judge of a person we care about?

In the guild’s first Obsidian Sanctum run, which I blogged about a while ago, there were two particular guildies (who are no longer with the guild) with us: one of them was very well geared and had good DPS, the other one was a bit lacking in both gear and DPS. The first guildie, however, couldn’t manage to avoid the lava walls–I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me he got hit by every single one. The second one, with the lower DPS, avoided almost all of them, if not all of them.

In this situatation, the ability to follow directions and follow WoW Rule #1 (”WoW Rule #1: Don’t stand in the ______!”) was much, much more important than the ability to pump out tons of DPS.

While sometimes the numbers are important, don’t fall into the trap of judging people quantitatively. THE METERS DON’T TELL THE WHOLE STORY! Take the time and make qualitative assessments of party and raid members!

PS: Because I said I would: Yoder is awesome.

Now that’s what I’m talking about! A way to know that you’re going to be saved to a raid or heroic before it actually happens–and you even get a “Leave Instance” button so you don’t have to make a mad dash for the exit! This is quite possibly my favorite 3.1 change so far.

Corpse Explosion
1 Unholy
Cause a corpse to explode for craptastic Shadow damage to all enemies within 20 yards.  Will use a nearby corpse if the target is not a corpse.  Does not affect mechanical or elemental corpses.

I feel certain that if the WoW tooltip system supported italics, that “craptastic” would indeed have been italicized.

The reason Corpse Explosion sucked so badly was two-fold: first, its cost was an unholy rune. I have so, so many better things to do with an unholy rune, like say for instance, casting Scourge Strike? The second reason it was a horrible talent is because it did very little damage. Put those two things on the fact that you needed a corpse to even use it and you’ve got yourself a truly worthless talent.

My guess is almost nobody took it, because a little while back it was changed. Now, it costs 40 runic power and does significantly more damage. How much more damage? Well, I wasn’t sure, so as I respecced last weekend to pick up Anti-Magic Zone, I decided to nab Corpse Explosion too, and take it for a test drive.

Short version: I like it. A lot.

Long version: In my current tank gear, Corpse Explosion does approximately 1000 damage to affected mobs. That’s not as much as a Death Coil, but it’s AoE, and unlike Unholy Blight it does not take time to do its damage. It’s really good for quick bursts of AoE damage or threat (assuming there is a corpse around). Violet Hold comes to mind, as does the hallway between Noth and Heigan (the one with all the bats and stuff). And in AoE situations, if Unhoy Blight is already ticking, or if the mobs won’t live long, I’d rather toss out a Corpse Explosion than a Death Coil.

Furthermore, if you cast it on your ghoul, he will explode! This includes both pet ghouls and Risen Ally ghouls. I’m not sure if it actually explodes them per the spell or if it makes them cast the “Explode” spell, but either way they do indeed explode.

It also helps that the spell is insanely fun to use anyway. I mean, just look at that picture at the top of the article! Furthermore, it can be cast on player corpses. Raid member die to Heigan’s dance? Take THAT! Completely owned that ganker on a PvP server? Forget /spit, just explode their corpse! Nothing quite as humiliating.

In case your wondering, after a corpse is exploded you’re left with either a pile of bones or a hunk of meat with bones sticking out–both of which can be looted, skinned, mined, and so forth as normal. As an added bonus, the pile of whatever is always the same size, from a gnome death knight (kill it!) to Gruul.

All in all, my test drive is pretty much complete–Corpse Explosion is staying on my action bar.

Well now that brings back some memories! My WoW life pretty much started like this:

1) Roll a mage on Shadowsong-Alliance. Get him to level 6 and realize you still have no clue what you’re doing.

2) Roll a warlock on Maelstrom-Horde with some friends.

This screenshot is shortly after number two. You can also tell it’s old due to the lack of addons (even the extra action bars are missing!). Simpler times….

Click the small to make large!

Diminishing Returns

One key contept to understand in this debate is that of diminishing returns. Diminishing returns on avoidance stats, new to WoTLK, is a method of making a certain attribute less useful the more you have of it.

For example, let’s pretend that 100 dodge rating increased your dodge chance by 1%. For your first 100 rating, you’d have a 1% dodge chance. But because of diminishing returns, the next 100 rating might only give 0.95% dodge chance. The third 100 rating might give 0.90% dodge chance, and so on. This is an oversimplification of the topic, but it gets the point across–if you’re interested in more, check out this thread at TankSpot.

Why Does it Matter?

It matters because both runes provide their avoidance outside of diminishing returns. That means that the 25 defense skill from SG provides a straight 3% avoidance (1% miss, 1% dodge, 1% parry) and SS 4% (straight-up 4% parry).

Benefits of Swordshattering

Swordshattering, as mentioned, provides a plain 4% parry chance, while Stoneskin Gargoyle provides only 3%. Furthermore, 2% HP is not a lot, though it certainly shouldn’t be discredited–for a tank with 30,000 health, 2% would only be 600. Furthermore, since Rune Strike only becomes usable after a parry or a dodge (not a miss), Swordshattering is a slightly better threat rune (extra 2% chance to activate Rune Strike).

Benefits of Stoneskin Gargoyle

The major benefit of the Rune of Stoneskin Gargoyle is the ability to build your tank set without worrying so much about remaining at 540 defense (the soft cap for being uncrittable by level 83 raid bosses). Although technically not superior to SS, SG allows you to gem and enchant for things other than defense rating, and gives you freedom in your gearing choices–especially since it is hard to remain uncrittable as a death knight once you start upgrading to epic pieces with better avoidance.

Conclusion

The conclusion is this: there is no definite conclusion! (I told you this was a “discussion”!) If you can remain uncrittable and use the Rune of Swordshattering, great! However, if you feel you want more gear/gem/enchant options, or need to reach the defense “cap”, by all means use the Rune of Stoneskin Gargoyle, there’s nothing wrong with it!

For those of you who don’t know this fight, from time to time walls of lava rise up from the left or right side of the island and move across, doing damage to anyone standing in the way; if any of the adds that spawn get hit by the walls, they gain a lot of damage.

As you can see, there are gaps in the walls, which the raid must stand in to keep from taking damage, and where the off tank must pull the adds to keep them from enraging. The first time we attempted this encounter, we discovered that Deadly Boss Mods keeps track of, and announces to the raid, when and how many times people fail to get out of the way of the lava. And there were a lot of them–and my DBM happily called every one of them out.

It makes it very easy for leadership to quickly see if folks are doing their job.

We make a second attempt, which fails quickly due to respawns being added to the fight (is this normal or did someone aggro them?).

So, we take a moment to repair, come back, clear some trash, type “/rw MOVE THE #@$&*% OUT OF THE WAY OF THE LAVA WALLS!” (actually, there was more discussion that than, but when it all boils down…) and engage him once more. The “lava churns,” moves across the island… and I’m silent in raid chat. Adds spawn, I pick ‘em up, my buddy the main tank does his thing, lava churns again… nothing. Nobody called out. Great!

Throughout the fight, we took maybe two or three lava waves, and though our DPS was low, we managed to bring Sartharion down.

And what should drop? Gloves of the Lost Vanquisher. And who should win the roll?

/happydance

First, my prot warrior friend decided to tank VH to give me a shot at the Bolstered Legplates. They dropped, but the holy pally won the need roll (for an off set)–that’s okay, they’ll drop again (I hope–my prot warrior friend ran that place like thirty times before they dropped!).

A couple of guildies gave me two Frozen Orbs and some mats, which when combined with my mats ended up being a Tempered Titansteel Helm and Tempered Titansteel Treads. I purchased Tempered Saronite Shoulders, Tempered Saronite Belt, Daunting Handguards and Daunting Legplates. I also purchased a belt buckle for the belt, a bunch of gems, and a meta-gem for the helm.

All in all, it was a good night for my tanking set. I’m uncrittable for heroics now, but only because of the weapon enchant, which I’d like to replace if I can get enough gear.

I want to say “Thanks!!” to my guildies, especially Badas and Yoder, for the materials and instance runs yesterday!

If you see anything that’s out of place or missing, feel free to let me know!

The Role of the Tank and the Healer

I’m sure you all know what a tank does and what a healer does, but bear with me.

Tank: A tank’s job, at it’s most basic, is to keep aggro on mobs. There are secondary responsibilities, like not dying, which inlcudes gearing up, etc., but at it’s most basic, the tank is there to make things angry so they don’t get angry at the people that would die if the angry things hit them.

Healer: A healer’s job, at it’s most basic, is to make sure people stay alive, primarily the tank. Ideally (and barring AoE damage, which now days is unavoidable), only the tank should be taking damage, because the tank should be keeping the attention of all the mobs.

Connections to Real Life

This reminds me a bit of a traditional family. The man of the house is generally a protector, running interference between all the things that need to be taken care of–providing money for the family, taking care of the yard work, etc.–and the rest of the family. The woman is traditionally more nurturing, caring for the home and the rest of the family. When I realize that I couldn’t successfully tank without the support of a healer, it reminds me of the fact that I could never take care of everything that needed to be done at home without the support of my wife.

The Instant Bond

As a tank, you’ve got your mind on several things at once, especially if you’re tanking several mobs at once. As a death knight tank, I open with Death and Decay, then make sure my diseases get spread around, then make sure I nab the adds or any mobs the DPS may have pulled, and in it all, I might have a moment to take a look at my health pool and go “Holy cow, that’s low.” But then I notice all the green text flying up the right side of my screen–numbers followed by a name. “Oh, it’s okay,” I say to myself, “so-and-so’s got my back.”

I don’t know how it feels from a healer’s perspective, but for me it’s like an instant bond, knowing that someone’s focusing as much on keeping me alive as I am on keeping them from getting eaten by Erekem and his adds. Perhaps the parallel to a real-life relationship is what makes the feeling so strong and so sudden, particularly, as Phaelia points out, when the tank is a male and the healer is a female.

This “bond” (or whatever you’d like to call it) is very interesting to me. Especially when I know the healer (see the next sections), I feel a lot less at edge, to the point that I feel more secure when the healer has me as their target (my mind almost equates this to catching someone’s eye).

“That Healer”

I’d be willing to bet that most tanks have a “that healer.” “That healer” is the healer that healed you in that one instance things went so swimmingly in. “That healer” is the person a tank asks “do you want to run X” before he asks anyone else, because he knows that “that healer” is good at what they do and knows they’ll do their best to keep them up. A relationship between a tank and “that healer” can extend beyond that, in time, as experienced by Jessika.

As someone who spends their time in WoW taking hits for the team, there’s nothing better than not only knowing intellectually that the person keeping you alive is a good healer and will do their darndest to make sure you don’t bite the dust, but also that they’re a friend and that the relationship extends beyond just “I get hit in the face and you make it feel better.” That’s the kind of person that brings out the “Hey, I was gonna run an instance, but only if you’d like to heal!”

Types of Healers

This is a subject that I was thinking about last night when a friend of mine was healing me for The Amphitheater of Anguish in Zul’Drak. Each type of healer–priest, paladin, shaman, and druid–heal quite differently (a druid with HoTs, a shaman with lots of Brain Heal, etc). It struck me that it feels different, psychologically, to be healed by these different classes. The joke I made to my friend (a priest) was “Ah, familiar heals. Not those strange, unfeeling paladin crits.”

This particular friend has a pattern I’ve noticed near the beginning of every pull: a self bubble and a cast of Prayer of Mending for me. Waiting for the mob to run down the stairs, watching the little buff icon above my character frame show up, is when I realized that each class’ heals really do feel different. For example, the priest’s shields, “preventative” heals, and HoTs (and especially the way this priest friend tends to use them) makes me feel secure (”I notice you’re about to pull and tank for us–here, take this, it’ll help :)”), while being healed by a paladin, which is much more reactive and critty, feels more like heals are being thrown at you at a hundred miles an hour (”FEEL BETTER NOW DAMMIT!”).

Conclusion

I’ve rambled on long enough. Now it’s your turn. I’m very interested in what others of you have to say. Tanks, do you notice this relationship at all? Have you formed a stronger relationship with “that healer?” Does the relationship extend beyond tanking and healing? Healers, do you notice it to? What about the relationships with your tanks? You folks that play DPS, do you form bonds like this, or is it all about the meters, like it was for Elad?