Changes...

I like this photo. I took it the day that Stormwind Harbor opened, not too long before all this Wrath madness began. It’s a picture of a simple kitty, lost in a world that’s rapidly changing. Hell, I don’t even look like that anymore. I confess that I miss the world of Burning Crusade, but I suppose it had gone as far as it could. And now, just as I’m feeling comfortable in the world of Wrath and waiting for Icecrown to open, I find my mind wandering to the next expansion, which seems to follow hot on the heels of the Lich King, no pun intended.

I was looking at some of the changes planned for Cataclysm, and I was surprised to find out that, among the other massive adjustments, Blizz will be changing zones forever.

Changing zones forever? As a guy who kept the furniture in his apartment in the same positions for about 5 years, change of this magnitude does not come without shock and a sense of unrecoverable loss.

So, I decided to take pictures of some of my favorite zones before they are altered forever, places that hold a special spot in my heart, places that others often neglect or avoid in their questing.

One of my favorite zones while leveling was, believe it or not, Desolace. I can still recall that trip though the tunnel to Stonetalon Mountains, wondering if I would suddenly get ganked by something (yeah, I was green for a while). I remember farming forever for Long Tail Feathers for the first item I ever actually lusted after, Fletcher’s Gloves. Alas, they’re not the same as they used to be, and Desolace won’t be either once the expansion hits. From the video, it looks like my favorite wasteland will be a wet and verdant area. We have enough of those. I like the rusty puddles and demons, thank you very much.

I love Desolace. The mining is good, it’s not crowded, and it’s a very peaceful, neutral-toned environment, not like the eye-burning riot of colors in Stranglethorn Vale. It's a serene place to me; the bland flatness of it invites contemplation. On this trip in, I got a bonus. I had never seen Giggler before, and I always love coming across a rare in the old world. All I looted was his image; hopefully, some hunter will come along and tame him, or some lowbie will get a nice item.

Another zone I really love is Tanaris. To me, a Dune fan, that expansive sea of sand riddled with scorpids and bandits is fascinating and inspiring. I love the mountains of sand and the bleached bones, and the zone’s music always puts me in a Zen state.

I thought that while I was in the neighborhood I should get a shot of pre-Cataclysm Uldum. I understand it will be opened in the expansion, and I wanted to preserve it for posterity before there are tons of folks dueling and summoning everywhere, getting tracks all over my nice clean desert. I don’t know why Blizz felt the need to put these elites in place, especially since the poor guys only have about 6k health.

From what I remember of the video, places like Darkshore and Ashenvale will be changed dramatically, and may not even belong to the night elves anymore. To me, that’s a travesty. Darkshore belongs to the night elves! It’s always night there, hence our real estate decisions! I remember getting tons of xp in Ashenvale on Rov one day, when I was home with a sinus infection. I love the soft purple lighting, the huge trees, and the relaxing, ethereal music.

I love this shot on the ferry, just as the sun is setting. One of the things that impressed me most about Azeroth when I first began playing is the environmental changes, something we don’t get in Outlands or Northrend. The sandstorms of Tanaris, the foggy or rainy mornings in Elwynn Forest, the moonrise over Aerie Peak—these things made WoW very inviting and immersive in the beginning. I remember that first sense of wonder when walking into Stormwind for the first time, past all the statues, and being in awe of how big they were, and that the hundreds of pixel figures bouncing around in the city were all people. It still amazes me when I think about it.

So, what is your favorite zone, and why? It can be any reason: good farming, unusual scenery, whatever you like. What zone(s) can you simply not stand, and why? Overpopulation? You've taken 100 alts through there and are sick of the place? Death knight infestation? What are those zones you love and love to hate?

Jealousy: You Haz It

A couple of months ago, I was heading into a local drugstore to get a prescription filled, and that’s when I saw the most beautiful woman. Even though I’m a married man, I couldn’t resist. I had to know more about her. So, I asked around and found out what I needed to know to take it to the next level. Two weeks later, we were riding to my place, and my wife had no idea. She’s come to grips with the situation; in fact, she and my new lady get along quite well.

Go ahead. It’s quite understandable to seethe with envy.

1. Know Your Numbers

Welcome to the first installment of my tanking guide! Let's jump right in and talk about a subject I'm still developing a tolerance for as an English teacher who plays WoW: numbers.

The tanking game is about numbers. I divide those numbers into two groups: hard and soft. The hard numbers are the must-have quotas before you even think of setting foot in a heroic or raid. The soft numbers are rough estimates, numbers that you should be at thereabouts before you go into heroics and raids.

The most important stat for any tank is defense. Defense reduces the chance of a critical strike (a crit) being made against you. Crits hit for more damage, are random, and can flatten a tank in a second. Gear, gems, and chants with defense can increase your defense rating to the point that a boss cannot crit you at all: you become uncrittable, a word that is music to a healer’s ears. The hard number for defense in Wrath is 540. This is the hard number for warriors, paladins, death knights, and druids without 3 points in Survival of the Fittest.

Thou shalt be uncrittable before thou enterest into a raid.
So let it be written. So let it be done.

Now, some folks will tell you that you need less defense to be uncrittable in heroics. I say go all the way, get uncrittable to anything, and that way you won’t have to scramble to get that last bit of defense when you get invited to that spur-of-the-moment Naxx run. And yes, I’m fully aware that Blizzard is kicking around the idea of removing defense as a necessary stat altogether in the next expansion, but that’s a long way off and things can change quickly.

Some people advocate temporary solutions for those who have not met the defense cap, such as the Elixir of Mighty Defense. To me, this is risky in the extreme. No healer is going to be very happy if you are relying on potions for the cap, and that potion runs out in the middle of a hard-hitting raid boss fight. You suddenly becoming crittable in front of XT or Sartharion is going to put undue stress on an already hard-working member of your group.

Is more defense after the cap worthless? No, it isn’t. Defense past the cap still provides dodge. It just becomes a stat you should no longer actively pursue, gemming and chanting and feverishly plotting gear around it. Furthermore, you should not turn down a piece of defense gear because you are capped—you never know when you might need it.

One trait of tanks is that they never throw gear away. Never. Some tanks (warriors and pallies mostly) have whole wardrobes based on a given stat: an avoidance set, a block set, a parry set, etc. Let’s say you get a nice new item with more parry, block, or whatever on it. But you put it on and your defense drops below the cap. What to do? Well, grab that old defense-heavy set of bracers or that cloak that you have stuck back in the bank and get back your cap. Or, swap around some gems or enchants to put you at the mark.

After defense, it’s important to build a tank-level stamina pool. Stamina enables you to take those big non-crit hits without dying; furthermore, it’s the first assessment others have of your fitness to tank. Make sure it’s at an acceptable level, or you may get benched or asked to leave groups due to potentially being too hard to heal. Aim for at least 28k health when beginning heroics. Here’s some basic starting-heroics-and-raids information on the different tank classes:

Death Knights, Paladins, and Warriors
540 defense, about 28k stam.
Total avoidance numbers (block, dodge and parry) should total 60% or higher
Note: Death Knights have no block, so they rely on high dodge, parry and health to help mitigate damage.

Druids
3 points in Survival of the Fittest or 540 defense, and about 28k stam.
Primary stats are stamina and agility.
Note: Druids cannot block or parry, so they rely on high armor, dodge and massive health to mitigate damage.

I’ll be honest, folks: I’m just getting into my warrior, and I know jack about death knights and paladins. I know the hard numbers, and that’s about it. I would suggest you hit more them-centric blogs and websites for the finer points of these classes.

Being a tank means balancing stats, not blindly pursuing one stat to the exclusion of all others. After hitting your hard numbers, you should concentrate on furthering the soft ones: stam, block, parry, dodge, etc. You’ll rarely find one piece of gear that is a boost for all of your stats, so you’ll constantly be trying to bring up one stat or have “too much” of another. As long as these stats are within tolerable limits for what you are doing, and you’re still meeting your hard numbers, it’s nothing to lose sleep over.

Further to this, there are other useful stats, such as hit rating and expertise. Hit rating improves your chances of actually making contact with your attacks against a boss. It’s hard to generate threat on a boss when none of your attacks are connecting but everyone else’s are. If you’re happy with everything else, see how you can work a little hit into your gear, but don’t go for the hit cap; that’s the hard number for DPS, not you. You want just enough hit to help you keep threat, about 6% according to fellow tanks. A lot of tanking gear in Wrath comes with some hit on it, and you can gem and enchant well for it if you can sacrifice other stats. Since this a soft number for us, feel free to potion and food buff for it.
Expertise decreases your chances of being dodged or parried. A dodged attack generates no threat, and parries send the next attack to you faster and harder, so expertise is a useful stat. The expertise cap is ridiculously high, so shoot for about 35 expertise to reasonably reduce the dodge and parry chance. Again, potion and food buff as needed.

What makes a tank a tank, beyond gear? His or her spec. For the original tank classes, there are definite spec choices that make one a tank. For pallies and warriors, speccing deeply into the Protection tree is it. For druids, making certain choices in the Feral tree does the trick. Blizzard designed death knights to be more flexible, capable of tanking with any of their talent tress, to varying degrees of effectiveness. It would be wise to consult death knight sites and blogs for more information on their particular needs.

Talent point choices can have subtle or drastic effects on one’s tanking, and tanks can have rather heated discussions with one another over the placement of one or two points. How did I learn to spec? Reading blogs, websites, and most of all, asking Yoda tanks about their specs! Look to the folks who are doing it right, Armory their specs, study them, and ask those tanks questions. Be aware that there are spec items that are almost compulsory (Heart of the Wild, Vitality), while others one can make personal decisions about based on playstyle (Improved Disarm, Brutal Impact)

Oh, and don’t spec a certain way just because your guild leader or some other pseudo-authority figure tells you that you should, not without some good evidence that you’ve made poor choices in your spec. You have to live with that spec; you have to play it every day, so do what makes you happy and comfortable. To my mind, spec is a deeply personal choice. As long as you are happy with it, and it enables you to do a good job, it doesn’t matter that you took 2 points in a talent where another tank only took one. As long as you’re not dying quickly, taking really spiky damage or causing your healer to have carpal tunnel syndrome from constantly spamming heals, tell ‘em to go to hell.

I mentioned that things can go sour. All tanks have what are known as “oh-crap” buttons, abilities with relatively long cooldowns that are used when they are in danger of dying for whatever reason. Some examples are Icebound Fortitude, Survival Instincts, and Last Stand. Remember that if you die, it will probably mean a wipe, so have these buttons handy, and don’t be afraid to use them in a dicey situation. Often the difference between a kill and a wipe can be your quick thinking and cool head when it all goes to hell.

Thanks for reading! Next time, I'll be discussing everyone's favorite topic: gear!