Hiatus of a sort.

I haven't posted on this blog for a bit, and I don't know if I will much in the future. Simply put, Ulu hasn't raided since September and he probably won't be raiding again in the future. I've set up a new blog to follow Graysun's exploits as I master the fine art of DK DPS. If you're interested, it can be found here:

Shadows & Dust

Thanks to everyone who has read or commented on this thing over the last three years!

Sick of 'See You In The Cataclysm'

In many ways, I curse Blizzard for ever announcing the forthcoming Cataclysm expansion before Icecrown even hit the PTR. In many ways it gave people the perfect "jumping off" point. The figure raiding doesn't matter when they can see the reset button coming in less than a year.

Anyway, Smart Casual's been hit by a rash of them recently. Lots of folks getting tired and wanting to leave for a while, each saying they'll be back when the expansion comes round. In all case, I'm left in two minds. On one hand, they're friends, people I would happily choose to play with. On the other, in order to keep raiding in the here and now, I'm forced to replace them, and whilst I may not always be crazy about the folks who do replace them, it's not like I'll be able to turn around to them in six months and say "sorry, but it's time to make way for the guy you replaced."

If you're gonna quit, quit, but don't say "see ya in the next expansion" like I'm supposed to hold a door open for you.

There's "Retirement" and there's "Retirement".

I'm on a break from Ulu. I log him in once a day to do Jewelcrafting quests and to use his Titansteel cooldown. Once a week, I'll go do Wintergrasp with him to get honor which I can then turn into epic gems. I'm not exactly bored with him, but I'm kinda tired of tanking, having done it for two and a half years now, and whilst it's pretty functional, I find Ret to be fairly unfulfilling as a DPS spec.

I've taken time off from raiding to work on Graysun, my Death Knight. When last we left him, he was an alt tank for Naxx runs and the occasional heroic a guildie wanted to go to after Ulu got saved. Both his specs were Unholy, using a 2-hander and he just felt like Ulu but less in most respects.

That said, I was looking for a DPSer to have fun with, and it was either work on Graysun, or level Wulfsblood. I tried the latter for a couple of days, but I just found it too annoying. Pet management's become too much of a chore in WotLK, and going through the WotLK content for the third time didn't appeal. Besides, Gray was semi-geared, and had a tanking spec to boot, so finding PuGs would be easier.

To get him out of the "he's just like Ulu" funk, I decided to try a 0/53/18 Frost Dual Wield spec. I figured since Smart Casual didn't have any fulltime Rogues, Enhancement Shamans or DW Death Knights, someone should be around to pick up all the one-handers that dropped. And that someone might as well be Gray.

I spent the last fortnight running every heroic and Trial of the Champion I could with him in order to get his gear to a level I'd consider "acceptable". Last night I took him into Ulduar 10, and his DPS aquitted itself nicely against the other, better geared members of the guild, which was good to see. After this week, I'll be in Australia for three weeks, but hopefully after that, I'll be able to use Gray as my main raiding toon.

PuG Justice

Oh hai!

Haven't updated this thing in a while. I've been on a break from raiding since the summer well and truly burned me out. On top of that, playing a Paladin constantly for the last couple of years was starting to bore me, so I decided to focus on my Death Knight, Graysun for a bit.

More on that in another post (maybe). In the process of gearing up Gray, I've been getting my ass in every heroic PuG I can get. Some have been awesome, some have been painful, but none annoyed me as much as one I went on on Saturday night.

It was to Nexus. The group was a Feral Druid tank, a Boomkin, a Shadow Priest, Gray and a Shaman Healer. I figured it would be an easy five badges and best of all, Gray wouldn't have to tank. We kill one mob, and the Shaman leaves the party. No words, just leaves the party and hearths out. That's pretty much the end of that PuG.

The next day, one of our priests asks for a Tank to do the daily heroic. Gray's already saved, so I pull Ulu out of mothballs and everybody's chuffed to see a Tank with 34k health join the party. Then I notice the healer is the same Shaman as bailed on the group last night. I have a quick chat in guild with my Priest buddy and explain the situation. I then confront the Shaman about the pug they bailed on without a word. They're relatively unrepentant, said they had to eat and didn't have time to explain (bullshit, if you've got time to hearth, you've got time to say "sorry, I've got to go now".) I say I don't want to group with them, and we proceed to punt them from the group. Priest buddy offers to heal, but we manage to get another healer from /LFG, so no need and the rest of the run goes without a hitch, despite the Shaman whispering me every couple of minutes with apologies and asking to be allowed back into the group.

Ultimately, the ability to deliver pug justice was worth the run in and of itself. If you have to bail on a group, have the decency to explain yourself. I am a vindictive bastard and I will punish you if I can.

Block Rating, more like Suck Rating!

If there's one question doing the rounds at Maintankadin at the moment that makes me especially sad it's the perennial "Is my Block % too low?"

The answer is simply this: no, never.

I can't blame the players. A disproportionately high amount of Naxx and even Ulduar gear has this crap stat on it, especially our Tier 7 and Tier 8 sets. If you started tanking to get your guild through Ulduar in a set made from Naxx25 cast-offs, then you'd end up thinking it's a useful stat, especially when you see that several of your prot talents play off blocks.

Block Rating has, (or rather, had) a place. For Heroics and Tier 7 content, getting your Block, Parry, Dodge and miss chance to add up to 102.4% guarantees you significant damage mitigation. But really, if you're going to MT anything past Naxx, then drop the block first chance you get. Even with the increase to Block Value on items in 3.2, it's still better to avoid one hit than block two-three.

With Ulu currently, I have replaced every piece of Block Rating gear on him, except his T8 shoulders and helm, and the first chance I get, they'll be gone as well. Getting high avoidance and enough health to survive reasonable damage are always my priorities. Block Rating is something I'll take if I really have no better option.