Stunty MT? o.O

Today was Gruuls Lair and I was pretty sure I would be running it as a tank due to the list of people who had signed up, but when I looked at the line up today some silly bugger had gone and put MT next to my name. I've never been MT in a 25 man raid before.

This is a joke right?

You guys know how much I hate responsibility, and yet you go and do this to me?

Anyway, being MT on the trash was actually easier than being off tank since when those ogre guys did their charge thing it was someone else's job to pick it up. I just had to mosey on over and pick it up off them again, easy ... I like easy I do.

High King Mulgar.

Even High King Mulgar was easy as MT I just stood by the wall in the middle of the room and had a hunter misdirect him onto me. Then I just built up some threat and made sure shield block was up every time it could be. My gear did most of the work on that one ... and the healer, who did a brilliant job of keeping me off the floor. We one shot Mulgar and his gang, and in revenge he refused to drop the T4 defender token ... again.

Gruul the Dragonkiller.

Then it was time for Gruul the Dragonkiller himself, the head honcho, the big kahuna, and anything else you want to call him. Now I was a little nervous. This guy hits like a truck, and hits harder the longer the fight goes on. So while the raid leader was going over the fight for those who had not done it before, I whispered the enhance shammy in my group and asked if I could get grace of air totems for this fight instead of windfury. The answer was an of course you can, which made me a very happy tank.

This differed from the Mulgar fight in that I needed to build a lot of threat fast while reducing as much damage as possible, this meant rotating in Thunderclaps and Demoralizing Shouts along with my shield block and still keep my TPS above 1000. Not that easy let me tell you, well not for a tank of my gear level anyway.

During the shatters I decided to be a space bully. You see that spot next to Gruul? That's mine, the rest of you can bugger off. Now I didn't say that but it was sure as hell what I was thinking. It worked too, it seems that nobody else really wanted the spot right next to the big guy, or if they did they must have seen me already there and headed elsewhere.

By the end of the fight he really was hitting like a truck. I was chain chugging Ironshield Potions and was rocking out with 19000 armor, and with raid buffs and Commanding Shout up I had over 18000 HP, yet he was dishing out normal hits for 6.5 - 7k he was able to kill me with three hits ... without getting a crushing blow. So for the last few percent I smacked up Shieldwall and hoped like hell I didn't die. And I didn't the healers did their healy stuff and I stayed on my feet while the dps did there nuking thing and brought him to his knees. A good thing too because he was about to swallow me whole.


So until next time this is Stuntyone the Incompetent Warrior signing off,

He Does It Again!

Thats right folks the Incompetent Warrior has done it again, wiped the raid that is. And I did it in a no nonsense completely my fault kind of way. Now that I have your attention I suppose you'll want to know the where and the how of it. Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words to for the where let me present you with this.


Thats right, Al'ar the big canary in Tempest Keep. Now you know the where lets move on to the how.

Well you see that shield in my hand?

Yep, I was tanking again.

But how exactly did I do it?

Was it the good old standing too far back on the platform? ... nope.

Was it the falling off the edge while tanking the birdie? ... nope.

Was it failing to move my short dwarven ass fast enough when Al'ar was going to Fire Quill? ... Darn tootin' it was.

It was horrible, I was just too slow in dropping off the edge of the platform, which consigned the raid to a slow death by Flame Buffet ... and I got every last one of the buggers too. No escape for you guys when Stunty messes up, oh no. Oh well, I guess if your going to mess up you might as well do it in a big way :).

Oh but the mistakes don't end there, oh no. The best is yet to come, but at least this time it didn't wipe the raid.

This remind you of my last Al'ar post? It should because it's almost and exact copy of the pic I posted there. You want to know something? This happened not once but twice in the same fight.

The first time was completely my own fault. My key bindings for my Intercept macro and my Intervene skill are right next to each other and guess which one I hit while I still had the Melt Armor debuff on me. Thats right stunty shoots across the room right into a crushing blow from Al'ar that was meant for the current tank, hello Splatsville population me.

Fortunately for me a very nice druid threw me a Battle Rez and I was up and cooking again. Al'ar must have thought I looked better on the ground because the next time I was tanking him and just before my Shield Block cooldown was up ... well let me just show you the appropriate part of the combat log.

21:08'19.956 Stuntyone is afflicted by Melt Armor
21:08'20.200 Al'ar's Swing hits Stuntyone for 15388 Physical (crushing)
21:08'21.124 Stuntyone Dies

Thats right, in less than half a second he hit me with melt Armour and slapped me with the death blow. *sigh* I think this guy has it in for me.

That about covers all my major mistakes of the night ... Oh we also did Void Reaver, Loot Reaver, Lol Reaver, whatever you want to call him. Let me tell you it is without a doubt the most boring boss you will ever face while tanking. Just trust me on that one, it must get a little bit more exciting for the ranged dps and healers, because they at least have to move around a bit, but for the tanks and melee it's just snoozeville.

Oh and why isn't this on his loot list?

So until next time this is Stuntyone the Incompetent Warrior Signing off.

How To Find Out About The People You Play With.

Tonight we went back to SSC to do Fathom Lord Karathress. We had downed him before, and last time it only took two attempts, this time however was to be very different.

I was running as a tank again for this one, but K could make it this time so the threat of tanking anything serious was removed (much to my relief). We had only planned on killing Karathress and taking a peak at Lady Vashj, which was a good thing considering how the night turned out.

It took just under 2 hours (from buffing up to pull the trash) and 7 attempts to kill Karathress and his cohorts. Now surprisingly this was not a bad thing for me. It let me see how the core of our raiding team handled this sort of thing. The answer was really bloody well. I've stated before that I don't get wipe aggro (frustration from repeated death's), and it turns out that neither do most of the raiders I run with. Most weren't complaining and the rest were actively joking about the whole affair, even on wipe 6. This I found to be a very pleasant revelation and reminded me how lucky I am to be in this guild.

Here he is finally put to rest.

Then we went for a sneak peak at Lady Vashj, just to get a taste of things to come. We didn't have any real plan just wanted a taste of the encounter. We actually managed to get two of the shield beams down in phase two before wiping. Below is a comment someone came out with as we were about to start the encounter.

When it was confirmed that we would wipe Seb the hunter Feigned Death and then claimed afterwards that he "Had faced Lady Vashj and lived."

Oh I almost forgot to mention my latest bit of loot.

So until next time this is Stuntyone the Incompetent Warrior signing off


For the attention of Banshee: The red team had a great night last night one shotting Netherspite on their first try and then going 2/6 in ZA. the night before blue team downed the prince and got some nice loot. thats bout all the news I con think of from the CoT.

Damn, They Don't Half Hit Hard.

I have started adding links to the appropriate pages on Bosskillers.com for each boss I mention in the post. This will allow those of you who have never done these fights to gain a better understanding of them.

Today I logged on to do a few dailies before going to SSC. Instead I got whisped by a friend of mine asking if I'd help him get his karazhan key fragment from normal Shadow Labs. I slapped on my pvp gear and tanked the hell out of that place. I had to do it in just over an hour to be ready for SSC. We made it with time to spare.

Anyway I was on my way to the meeting stone in Coilfang Reservoir (I like to arrive early) when the guild leader whisps me saying that they would be bringing two pally tanks with them to make Morogrim Tidewalker easier, and that I would be on back up for this one. I said it was no problem, which is true since I've been brought to every 25 man raid since I got the raider rank and was more than happy to sit one out if needs be. He then whisps me again saying that K the other protection warrior would not be able to make it. My brain did a bit of work and came up with the frightening thought if we were bringing 2 pally tanks to deal with the murlocks on Morogrim, that only left me to tank him *Gulp*.

Morogrim Tidewalker.

As I have stated before I hate Murlocks, and the trash pulls before Morogrim only reinforced my opinion of them. We managed to pull two groups of Murlocks ... not once, but twice. Thats what I don't like about them, they just don't play fair. /grumble

Then it was crunch time. Time to see what I was made of tankwise and go head to head (or head to lower ankle) with Morogrim himself.


Man this guy hits like a runaway train, fortunately it's all physical damage that I receive so I was chain chugging Ironshield Potions to mitigate the damage, the rest of the time I spent trying to maximize my threat while keeping shield block up. Oh any having a little panic attack every time Lady B. was set to a watery grave, I think she got targeted for it something like 3 times in that fight, This was nor reassuring considering that she was one of my healers.

Just as he hit 25% and the raid had to move into the tunnel I used Shieldwall to make the transition easier on the healers and moved big 'n ugly over to one side so that it was easier for the raid to see what was going on. Of course this meant that I could now see nothing but boss foot, my awareness of what was going on wasn't helped at all by the AoE explosion fest that was now happening right on top of Morogrim. But in the end we prevailed, I popped last stand when he got to about 5% since the last thing I wanted to see happen was me die in the last few percent of the fight and have the giant farting dwarf wipe the raid. Also a cooldown not used on a boss is a cooldown wasted.



Loetherass The Blind.

We move on to Loe with a few minor problems on the trash that I won't go into right now, and I'm thinking that the hardest part of my night is over, and all I'll have to do is act as debuff b#### for the next fight. Imagine my horror when I find out that I will be tanking Leo in his human form.

Horror because I had not mentally prepared myself for tanking this guy, and when I reviewed the strategy guides and movies the night before I had not even considered the possibility that I might be tanking him. I like to plan exactly what I will be doing in each stage of a fight befoe I even set foot in the dungeon. This doesn't mean I wont change my plans based on changing circumstances, but I like to have a plan going into any boss fight. The thought of going in blind is anathema to me. Also this fight has a lot of aggro dumps in it, and creating that instant aggro is one of my weak points as a tank.

I made my reservations clear to the raid leader pointing out that VP (one of the pally tanks) was much better at creating that instant aggro than I was, something I had noticed during trash pulls. I could only hold a mob off him if I had enough initial rage to power through that first part of the aggro fight and overtake his aggro after several seconds. It was however pointed out to me that there was the fear of him going OOM late in the fight, and so by virtue of the mechanics of my class I became de facto main tank for this fight.

Sure enough my lack of preparation for this aspect of the fight soon became apparent as I ended up tanking him in the wrong area causing the raid to take too much damage while running from the whirlwind. We have too many death's so we move down to a safe area for being reserected and let him finish us off.

Take Two.

This time things go better with me tanking him in generally the right spot. I however get an inner demon, but oh ho I was prepared for this, I flick into berserker stance and pop recklessness which allowed me to kill my demon with time to spare.

Then it came time for phase three where both of Leotherass's forms are out at the same time. Aaaaaaaaargh! The frustration of it. As long as Loe wasn't heading right for them the dps just would not stop and let me grab him. I could only get him under control after he had killed one or two of the people topping the threat meter. However yet again we prevailed and killed him, killed him good I tells ya.

I also found out something about mages during that fight. When Loe charged straight at Lau he yelled "Oh S##t!" into vent, then ice blocked. This lead the raid to believe that this was a mage term for that particular skill.

So until next time this is Stuntyone the Incompetent Warrior signing off.

Back Behind The Shield.

Yesterday I tanked for the first time in tier five content. It was only a quick run to The Lurker Below, but still it was nice to be back behind the shield. One of the guild tanks had gone off for some fun in real life for a couple of weeks so we were short a tank for the run. A quick respec and brushing the dust off my tanking set was all I needed to fill the spot. Oh and making sure that I had rearranged my user interface properly, I've had some bad experiences with that one.

It was some nice stress free tanking. All I had to do was tank my marked trash mob on the way to the Lurker, and on the lurker himself (whom I caught with my imba fishing skills) all I had to do was keep the warrior debuffs on Lurker and tank the inner ring add near my island.

We one shot the fishy with only two death's. One being a mage new to the fight eating a spout, and the other being Lady B, we still can't quite figure out how she died.

The Important Bit.

None of that is really important. The thing I want to talk about it the refreshing perspective it gave me on the game. I've been dps in the raids for a while now and it's seemed to become more and more about the numbers behind the game rather than the feel of the game that I've been concentrating on. During the trash pulls I felt something I had not felt in a long time, I felt I was part of a battle, part of an adventure.

Standing out in front with the other tanks, flanking the main tank to the right while the prot pally flanked him to the left as he leads the charge at the enemy, the melee class following close behind. It felt more like the start of an epic fight rather than just another trash pull.

The enemy would see us and start to counter charge, and we would clash together in a swirling melee, then separating out into it's separate duels. I could almost see it as you would see a movie. The melee fighting for their lives in the thick of it while the mages and other casters crackling with power, raining destruction upon the foe. The willy hunters unleashing their pets and firing volley after volley into the enemy ranks, using their traps and tricks to slow any loose foe that managed to make it to their position. The healers calling upon their patron gods or the forces of nature to heal the wounded and protect those around them.

At that moment I could understand why people like to play on RP servers. It was a very refreshing moment and if I can continue to see the game in this light I could very well avoid burn out indefinitely.

So my advice for today would be that the next time your in a raid, while continuing to concentrate on your role within the raid also think about your role within the game :). Also try thinking about it less as a raid and more as an army. Who knows you might just enjoy it a little more.

The Mistake.

Damn, I nearly wrote a full post without mentioning an incompetent moment. What ever you do don't start tanking a loose sheeped mob unless the raid leader tells you too. The resulting reattempts the sheep the mob could very well sent the mage into fits (at least that's what I imagined him having behind the computer screen). I only did it once, but once was more than enough.

Oh and I got a nice piece of loot too. A shiny new thrown weapon, and many many thank you's to the fury warrior who passed on it for me. I love it to bits :)

So until next time this is Stuntyone the Incompetent Warrior signing off.