Full Body Armor

Tanking Paths: Stamina Vs. Avoidance

2009-09-01T14:13:00.010+01:00

This is the ultimate fight in all tanking discussions all over the world…in and out of World of Warcraft. Everyone pitch’s in and sadly few are experienced tank’s to really know what the hell they’re talking about. Nothing pisses off more a tank then another player non-tank-player to give him advises about anything especially when it’s something obvious.
“Hello! Welcome to the group? Is that your hp? Are you in your tanking gear? How much is your defense stat?” – Can you possibly piss me off anymore????
I very rarely join LFG channel for instances and especially raids (never to be most exact). The other day most of my guild mates were busy so I decided to take a stroll into the LFG channel to make it into a daily dungeon instance. I saw an announcement for last spot for a party looking for a tank. I whisper asking for an invitation and at the time I was using my Arms Spec and was geared properly for that. It didn’t take 10 second’s to get in the party channel messages like: “is that you HP? It’s too low mate! You can’t tank a rat!”. I took a deep breath trying to keep my cool and answered politely: “Currently with my secondary spec and gear mates. Hold on a second.”. And I changed back to Protection switching into my Heavy Gear. The message tones changed quite a bit off course but there was one that was the motivator for this post: “Above 30k of hp…nice mate. Not great but good!”….needless to say I could not kept my cool under such a stupid and naïve comment. But now I’m cool, well rested and my brain is at ease enough to share the knowledge and with hopes to bring some of that knowledge to a small brain resident of a “fracking” Warlock. (Thanks Galactica for bringing such a nice word where the meaning of it is no secret to anyone and still you can use it widely without being called cheap mouth).
Prior BC and still a bit in BC, Stamina was the how-good-of-a-tank-are-you measurable stat to compare. If you had tones of it you’re able to meet take a couple of Gruul punches without much effort. This WAS and still is for many uninformed people (I’m such a nice guy for not using the word NOOB), the measure from which a tank is evaluated. Needless to say this is a brainless evaluation. Skill, Threat, Avoidance, Mitigation is in the eye of a real professional player and knows what to look for to make a clean and knowledgably evaluation when checking a tank out.
The Wrath of the Lich King Expansion changed the tank rulebook a bit. For much better, in my opinion. Made tanking a smoother job and reflected the need for the tank to work is avoidance and mitigation as much as his hp pool. Make no mistake, it is very important to have out of the ordinary Hp pool. The more the merrier, yet you can compensate sometimes having less hp with something, that for me…is pure gold. Avoidance!… ladies and gentlemen. What’s better than being it and survive? Not getting hit and survive. This is a logic that you simply cannot beat. Every time a boss or mob fails the attacks to you its less strain to your gear, to your healer and a nice big-ass open window for you to land a ground-breaking shield slam or a swift swing of Devastate to upgrade your threat numbers. Nothing pisses off more a boss then missing the tiny orc that keep’s poking him. Trust me.

Don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at the math of it … ‘cause the numbers never lie!
In my previous post I explained the equation behind the avoidance numbers, so if you miss that be sure to check it out pronto! In this example I’m going to set, to make things a little easier to follow I’m going to ignore the Chance to be missed stat and the overall 5% base miss rate from all NPC's. Using the parry and dodge stats alone. Now let’s assume this situation:

We’re on RAID X. We have the standard 2 tank’s composition for a 10 man situation. But in this case we have a Stamina Tank (A) and an Avoidance Tank (B).

Tank A - 33k Stamina – 20% Dodge + 15% parry = 35% Avoidance
Tank B - 30k Stamina – 25% Dodge – 17% Parry = 43% Avoidance

Let’s take an example of Boss that hits on Plate for 10K per attack at least 50 times in a certain amount of time or even during the whole fight (specials aside) that is equal to 500K of pure damage that is going to rain over some poor schmuck.

Tank A – Avoids 17 of those attacks which means he manages to pass on 170K of damage but receives 330K of it.
Tank B - Avoids 21 of those attacks which means he manages to pass on 210K of damage but receives 290K of it.

Bottom-line: The extra 3K of HP proves to be meaningless when compared to the extra 40K the avoidance tank manages avoid. By the end of the fight the Avoidance Tank needed about 37k less of heal then the Stamina tank.
This pure math and cannot be contradicted. Of course there aren’t two equal fights with the same needs, and varies from tank to tank they way things are going to work out. Skill’s, talents and mitigation can determine the end results too, but looking at plain number’s in simplistic manner it’s safe to assume that the Tank that can combine intelligently his stamina number’s without neglecting stats like Parry and Dodge, has clearly the upper edge.

It’s very important that a tank can deal with two blows without requiring any heals and still stand’s to tell the tale. That should be your kick-off pointer. But it’s my firm opinion, that once after reaching the 30K HP unbuffed, the really good tank should aim to improve his avoidance and not his HP pool. There are other opinions running around the web, and most of them with firm logic's and strong arguments, so don’t take my word for it and shop-around. If you wish another completely different perspective be sure to visit Rihns Blogspot where he makes a strong case with a very well written composition making me look bad and amateur (besides the fact he is ...blarghh...alliance). Fact is there is no right answer; it's up to the tank to choose his own patch.

The Return of the Tank

2009-08-31T14:02:00.005+01:00

Greetings fellow warrior's

Though i've been absent for the last couple of months due to some wild activitys in my professional life, i've been slowly returning to the tank leads ready to ravage some new content and achieve some new tactics about tanking.
Theres a lot of stuff going on at the moment and the hype about the new Cataclysm is gonna bring a big load of rumours not also about the game itself but also about the class mechanics. Im sure we're pretty safe since the Warrior Class is pretty well established and has given proofs of how bloody hell good it works in the Lich King expansion. What can i say? We rule! 'Nuff said...

So keep posted 'cause ill be bringing a lot of discussion to our plate on the ongoing effort to establish this great class as in ... THE BEST TANKING CLASS. (PERIOD)

Clarification about Avoidance

2009-03-02T10:53:00.004Z

Avoidance is such a mouthfull! Everyone's worried about the avoidance stat shooting questions all over the place like "What is the avoidance number i should reach to tank this or that?". Yet, before worrying about that, people should ask the right question, wich is: "How do i calculate my avoidance numbers?". I say this because i clearly been seeing some confusion about that special equation. It's my intention to bring some clarification about that math procedure.

First of all: "What is AVOIDANCE?"

Avoidance is the tank ability to avoid damage from incoming atacks. Do not confuse avoidance with mitigation wich its base calculation includes all forms of damage absorbing. Avoidance relys 100% to the fact you avoid geting hit at all! Dodge and Parry are the only base stats that can allow you such achievement.

On a quick side-topic, all proper tanks should have installed a "must-have" addon if you want to be anything worth in this business, Tankpoints. It's your guide and pal since early levels to forever and ever. Tankpoints will guide you in the right direction in case of any doubt toward a item switching or gem aplication. Use it, breath it, sleep with it.
" TankPoints can be seen as how much damage you can take before damage reduction, it considers your max health, armor, defense, dodge, parry, block, block value, resilience, crushing blow chance, miss, crit reduction, talants, buffs, stance/forms, and more. " - Needless to say anything else. Download it and use it like it was your right arm.

Let's say your not looking at your computer screen, drinking a nice beer with a couple of friends and someone asks your avoidance. Or even someone asks you how he/she calculates his avoidance. It's pretty simple and i'll use myself has a example.

Macklaud:
# Defense: 552
# Dodge: 22.67%
# Parry: 20%
# Block: 22.18%

Add Dodge, Parry and Chance to be Missed together. If you hover over your defense stat you will get the Chance to be Missed number and to that, add 5% wich is the base miss rate from all NPC's.

ex: 22.67% + 20% + 6,08% (My chance to be missed) + 5% = 53,75% Avoidance

Hope this comes handy.

The Holy Grail for Tank Loot - Gz fellas!

2009-02-27T11:44:00.008Z

Everyone from every class has that special item we consider the ultimate "must have". More important then having it, is the sense of achievement that fill's us with pride each time we wield that unique piece of loot. Its a statement of our work and determination towards the high-end content conquering as a unit.

In my personal perspective, a Warrior tank daydreams about these two items:

Wall of Terror - The best stats combined with one of the most intimidating design ever, remembering people that the shield on a Warrior hands is no longer a simple Barrier but also a great Weapon!

and my personal favourite...

Last Laugh - Im out of words... this is simply the most stunning and impressive tank weapon EVER. Especially for a Orc Warrior that always have a special thing for Axe's. The name...the design...the stats... its simply impressive.

I'm lucky enough to be part of one of the best and most solid Guild's in Runetotem: Droods.
Every guild is only as strong and good as it's members and in the tank department we are rich with skillfull people composed by Warriors, Druids, Paladins and Death Knights.
This is the part where i use my blog to honor these people in wich im lucky as hell to join them every night ravaging the raid's Northrend has to offer.

Congratulations Rogg! I bow to you and may the Last Laugh be always your's in combat!!

Congratulations Bale! I salute you my friend and hope your Wall of Terror will always be ready to block us out of danger!

Feel free to visit our webforum, and if you think you have what it takes to be a Drood, apply to this great guild.

Tank&Stab - Go Deep on your DPS while Tanking

2009-02-27T11:10:00.005Z

As many tanks should know these days, one of the best form to translate your actions into fast and solid TPS (Threat per Second) is by deploying a nice ammount of damage onto your target. If it works for the slackers that wont take the time to check they're threat meter and make your life more difficult, why not use it in our own favour?
Recently i began studying the Talent Tree once again, trying to find a way to boost my damage output without endangering my avoidance base stats (talent-dependant). The words DEEP WOUNDS kept jumping into my eyes stabing me like little needles. I've came up with this pretty solid Protection Spec with Deep Wounds, that boosted my dps with a plus 600 unbuffed and almost 900 with raid buffs. My TPS has never been faster.

Some pointers to maximize your damage output while tanking or even on pve quests without having to change gear:

Revenge - I've seen a lot of tanks leaving the talent Improved Revenge behind saying something like "I dont need more stuns". If you look closely 2 points on Improved Revenge will boost your damage output on that ability in 20%. That's a LOT. Especially when Revenge has a threat tool is fundamental and there is no tank in the world that doesnt deploy it immediatly when available. If the target get's stunned by it... even better! Who will complain???

Now link this to the fact that with the Sword and Board talent, everytime you deal damage with Revenge you automaticly have 30% chance to refresh the cooldown on your Shield Slam....wich is your NUMBER 1 THREAT TOOL on your action bar with a fantastic damage output.

Now link that to the fact that if you happen to have Gag Order talent points spent, if you deploy a Shield Bashin the quick second before Shield Slam you wil have a 5 or 10% increase damage on it. Since TBC Shield Bash was abandoned has a massive threat tool and these days its only used as a caster silence ability. With the right rotation on your ability cycle you will be able to revive it. And i do loooooove to Bash!

With this Protection Spec with Deep Wounds, DEEP WOUNDS will always be present on your target dealing 48% of your weapon average damage. Do the math... with high crit chance on your main abilities as a tank, DEEP WOUNDS will be a constant presence boosting your damage and by relation enhancing your threat per second.

Give it a try and lemme know how it worked out!

Nadva laid an egg!

2008-12-19T10:59:00.005Z

Nadva, over The Spirit Beast Within, posted today a very nice "How to deal with Hunter's Traps for Dummies". I know that probably wont be fresh knowledge for many tanks out there, but there is nothing bad in reviewing the facts. Check it out here.

Exotic my Schmotic!!! Get that beast out of my face!!

2008-12-19T09:46:00.007Z

Dont get me wrong. I for one loved the fact that blizzard gave hunter's the oportunity to tame "exotic" creatures and beasts throughout the Beastmaster talent point. Seemed highly logical hence they're speciality. And watching a hunter with gigantic raptor or corehound beside him is nothing short then impressive. All is good, life is great and everyone was happy.

The first day i went to a instance with a BM hunter with the new talent tree and pet i couldnt have stressed more. In real life i spent the entire time in Berserk mode because of that pet!!! The very first victim of my rage was the so popular Core Hound.

OMG! Everytime he moved i felt like i had a Fel Reaver stalking me! It's steps sure sounded like one and the worst of it all, the screen couldnt stop shaking and trembling for every step he took. Engaging a multiple mob group meant everytime one was killed the hound would step back towards his master and back in to another mob atack. The results : Bum bum bum ...catchabum doublebum roar roar roard bum bum triplebum, making my ears bleed with that outrageous sound and my eyes cry from all that shaking.
Ohh...and by the way, if you are a really good hunter and the pet matters and it's really but really important for you to have a bloody Core Hound, be brave and get it like a man/woman: Get you ass in Molten Core and tame a Ancient Core Hound.

"Dude...you are always welcome to join me in a party or raid but leave that stinking beast at home!!!" Zee big bad orc has spoken.

But the worse was yet to come...

On another run the even more popular gigantic sized raptor from Un'Goro Crater: The Devilsaur. Although not so much noisy and without the shaking screen, the bloody lizzard filled my screen in combat. And im not even going to coment the proposterous size when it enrages. As a tank forget the mouse for a click distribution in a multi-mob combat. You can only click on one single thing....THAT STINKING BEAST. TAB key FTW.

But the one that really drove me off a cliff was the Sapphire Hive Queen. Besides it's oversize the fact that is a flying pet just made it worse. Always floating over my head and making that BzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz anoying sound. I had to ask the hunter to keep himself very much away from me when i was preparing the marks on the mobs. The only thing i had on my screen was that ugly ass wasp overing my head, blocking all my sight.

Im sure it wont take long for a hunter to be able to tame this little boy if this keep going...

Like i said in the very beginning...dont get me wrong, im happy for you guys. Really. But, to tank anything with those creatures running around, makes our job even more difficult!! Just go out and hunt for the Loque'nahak!! Now ...that's a PET!

Slad'ran ....YOU "SNAKING" BASTARD!! JUST DIE!

2008-12-16T11:20:00.017Z

I know the big bad-ass terror of all Northrend is Loken from Halls of Lightning. Its the boss that single-handed has killed more people in the past month. In Normal mode and in Heroic. But there is one wich stands has the victim of my pure and utmost hate: Slad'ran in Gundrak. Why?..

1st) I fucking hate snakes.
2nd) Wipe fest on 1st boss of a instance tends to be a turn down
3rd)Stand's in the way of the only epic-gloves for tanking found in a heroic instance
4th) One of the coolest named special in-instance achievement comes from killing this boss. And i so much wanted that achievement just for it! (Im also a movie geek)
Snakes. Why'd It Have To Be Snakes?...amazing reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones opens up a tomb discovering why the ground is "moving". Kudos blizz!

Ok i know what many of you will say. There's always the rep gloves from Kirin Tor or with enough Emblems of Valor you get the T7 gloves. All true, neverthelesse in the process of geting those there is nothing wrong in just trying to get the best of the game while in that work process.

I managed to wipe 10 times on this boss the past week with all sorts of different groups. At some point someone read that there was a "trick" (wich is a political correct name for EXPLOIT) to deal with the boss.
There is a pool of water right before the main hall where Slad'ran is. The trick was to keep ranged dps swiming in the water and fighting from there, while the tank would keep the boss at the entrance along with melee. That way when Slad'ran summons all those nasty adds (all sorts of snakes) that poisons everyone to the bone, the snakes would never reach the healer and the ranged dps. Aparently...snakes can't swim.
And so we tried it that way. One or two times. Just to notice that all of the sudden, blizz found out, that snakes SHOULD be able to swim. And now they do...

The better way to nuke that slippery bastard:
1) Leave all DPS and Melee at the top of the ramps close to the instance entrance.
2) Go down to the main room with your healer but leave him at middle journey
3) At Heroic Throw range pull the boss
4) Run Forest ...RUN! ... up the ramps you go and your healer on you back in case you need a quick heal. Be ready to deploy a taunt just in case.
5) Stop at the top of the ramp by the entrance and tank him there. DPS should be spread out and healer should move to your back.

Snakes still come but takes them longer to reach the party and have more ground to cover if everyone is spread out. Besides they can only get top ramp passing through you and there's nothing like a good Thunder Clap to keep them close to you and let some AOE dps do the job.
Doing it this way we not also droped the boss as we got the special named achievement and i couldn't be prouder!!!

Btw... as usual...the gloves didnt drop! Unlucky tank carries on...

Noob Treatment

2008-12-12T11:34:00.002Z

Since the release of WOLTK many things suffered a general reset. Stats, gear and the worse for me is the reset on the recognition that you actually know what you are doing. Experience isnt just a funny looking bar in the UI that grows everytime you kill a mob or deliver a quest. Experience its all about what you've been doing so far with yourself. And i mean Azeroth and Outlands age. With the exception of stupid nerds that buy accounts with a full grown toon with some respectable gear, people dont just land at level 70 or 80. It took time and a lot of work. Its to be expected from someone, lets say....me, that you can actually know something or two about the job you represent and have been representing since forever: The Tanking Job.

Ever since i reached 80, and for the record i never left the Protection build even in leveling, from time to time i get someone in a party that goes like: "Whats your defense?" "Is that your unbuffed Hp?" "Hows your gear?". What the hell?? If you know so much about what i should have why dont you go tank them yourself?

The toughest jobs in this game are as follows:
TANKING
HEALING

...expecting more? There is no more!!!

Nobody wants to tank because its too much responsabilty and a lot of hard work. You cant make that kick ass dps while in pve questing and requires a lot of effort and dedication to aquire the right gear. Not to mention the bloody repair bills that are always through the roof. Nobody wants it but everyone needs one. And instead of being content by the fact that a certain someone found a tank do ride into Utgarde Pinnacle for that special item you need, you go shooting all sorts of stupid ass questions about his job and worst of all, his inteligence about the class and job he or she represents. It's unrespectfull and its diminishing. Especially if you've been doing this since the hard days and main-tanked almost every instance and raid out there.

Healers and Tanks already have to put up with the blame factor for everything. Was a wipe? Tank didnt aggro enough, healer slacking, tank is undergeared, healer doesnt have enough mp5, etc etc etc. We do have to put up with this EVERYDAY constantly. And on top of that get a noob treatment?? Hell to that!!!

This post is a reminder to all dps'ers out there....Respect the player worship the bloody tank!

And do remember another thing: we are living a wow age where the player counts so much more then the class. Skills. And DPS is being called to responsability, to step up into a higher ground of responsability while raiding or simply running heroic instances. Dont slack and be the best you can be. Tanks and healer's cant save the day everyday.