Sunday, December 2, 2007

Geared up for Kara?

I have found many tank who THINK they are geared for Kara are often mistaken. Here is a basic rundown of what you need and where to get it. First and foremost you need to be uncrittable. Uncrittable= +490 defense rating. This is one of the few non-negotiables for Kara. You can get buy with less then desired health, but you need to be uncrittable. Adding points into Defense skill in the prot tree helps things quite a bit.

This will take time and effort to pull off! Still, makes you pretty desirable for ANY group.....even heroics!

Here are a few options in regards to gemming items with + Defense Rating (DR).
Scroll down to the bottom of this page for information on +DR gems

Glyph of the Defender is an enchant offered from the Keepers of Time and provides +16 DR and +17 dodge rating to your helm
Great Helm of the Unbreakable provides +30 DR and drops from the first boss in Shattered Halls
Platinum Shield of the Valorous offers +24 DR. This drops off the first boss in Shadow Labs
Adamantine Figurine offers +32 DR. This drops from the second boss in Shadow Labs.
Figurine of the Colossus has +0 DR, but is a nice piece to round things off. It drops the last boss in Shattered Halls
Sha'tari Vindicator's Waistguard offers 20 DR
Obsidian Clodstompers offers +0 DR, but has two yellow sockets for a possible +16 DR. These drop from the second boss in Botanica
Shoulderguards of the Bold offers +17 DR with a yellow socket to add +8 DR. These drop from Murmur in Shadow Labs and Warlord Kalithresh in Steamvaults
Breastplate of the Bold has +19 DR. This drops from Harbring Skyriss in Arcatraz
Vindicator's Hauberk is another nice chest piece with a whopping +46 DR!
Inscription of Warding offers a little dodge rating if you are honored with Aldor
Inscription of the Knight offers +13 DR and is an inscriptions from the Scryer faction
Timewarden's Leggings has +18 DR and are a Rep reward from the Keepers of Time
Burnoose of Shifting Ages offer +26 DR. This drops from the first boss in Black Morass (Dark Portal)
Protector's Mark of Redemption offers +26 DR. You get this item from a quest The Path Of Conquest and is for both Horde and Alliance.
Felsteel Gloves offer +25 DR. These are crafted and pretty easy to get.

This will get you up to 261 DR not including any gems or enchants. Granted, I am missing a neckpiece, weapon, gun, and additional ring from this equation. I apologize, but I don't have the items to display anymore. If you find em let me know so I can update this entry!

The other thing you will want for Kara is a minimum of 11,000 life. The items listed above should cover quite a bit of that area. You will need to invest in a few enchants and lots of Solid Star of Elune to cover the missing ground.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

The tank in me....and the DPS monger in me

I love being a meatshield....I really really do, but there are times when I just want to kill things....and kill them quickly! I have been doing some reading and research on what I need to go Fury spec and kick ass with it. I learned one universal mistake that most warriors make- Lack of hit rating. Seems like a bit of common sense, but think about it. You can have all the attack power in the world and still be useless cause you can't hit a damned thing.

Anyways I figured since I did some research I should share the information. To become RELATIVELY unhittable you will want to get around +150 to hit rating. You are still likely to miss sometimes, but its a fine start. To hit a 72 elite mob every time (well, 97.2%, I think) you will need a total of +192 to hit rating. Note: This is only for the main hand. To get the off-hand to hit this often you need +412 to hit rating. Personally, my offhand isn't THAT important. Here is the breakdown of how you are going to get to this wonderful +192 to hit rating.

There are a couple of easy things. The easiest is to put 3 points into precision.
3 points into precision = +48 to hit rating
Nice start wouldn't you say? You have already hit 1/4 of your desired hit rating!
Steelhawk Crossbow from Attumen- This one is a bit tricky because hunters SHOULD get priority. If they do not have the bow you shouldn't be grabbing it. Still, that's some nice hit rating
Poison vial from Romulo and Juliet = +35 to hit rating
Ragesteel shoulders = +9 to hit rating or +25 to hit rating depending on what you use the sockets for
Ragesteel Gloves = +20 hit rating as a set bonus

This covers 128/150 required to go fury spec and truly be effective. The remaining +22 to hit rating should be easy to acquire through gems and enchants. I am not sure how other guilds run Kara, but mine has found a very nice place for a solid Fury or Arms OT with tanking gear as well.

Another thing to consider when going Fury is your crit rating. This is especially important if you are relying on Rampage....which you should be if your Fury. +250 attack is so very very nice. My goal is to get my hit rating high enough to be effective without losing the crit strike rating. This is not to be confused with throwing points into agility!
Agility is bad for a warrior! Don't avoid it like the plague, but I wouldn't go to an instance for plate with +agi on it. I would go specifically for +crit whenever possible. This leaves a much greater chance that other, more important, stats are left intact. Stam or strength > Agility

As a Fury warrior you are concerned with attack power, crit strike, and hit rating. I am not sure, but I don't believe hit rating is dependant on any stat. However, attack power and crit strike are.
1 strength = 2 attack power
1 agility= .17% to crit

There are a few good items out there that can help out quite a bit for crit. IE: I have the Stellaris from Mechanar (its not heroic so you should go get it) which has agility on it. Well, considering the DPS it does it makes a nice little fit. I get the DPS I want and gives me a bit of a boost in my crit rating. Thus more options for other slots and gems.

One last note: This does require a bit of raiding and some items have a lower drop rate. In particular, the Poison Vile from Romeo and Juliet.
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Friday, November 23, 2007

Back to Kara

I know I know....I haven't been updating this thing worth a damn...its cause I'm lazy....and the wife wants more while in school. It will get better....I hope....anyways....

We hit Kara on Tuesday and hate the most wonderful time. Personally, I kinda snapped about a few things when I went in there. I got tired of taking so freaking long to do the basic things we have done a thousand times before. Fortunately, Dezzi was the raid leader and thus I got raid assist. It tooks us 3o minutes to down Attumen and ready to kill Moroes. Mark em up and put em out. Our priests were on the ball with shackles and the communication was awesome. The only reason it took us so damn long on Moroes is because we had a DC and had to fill the spot. I think I am going to ask to be raid assist on raid assist. Lite (our GM) even said I kicked butt on the pulls and the speed. I am working on memorizing the boss fights so I can lead the raid entirely. I don't want any of the admin responsibilities, but I want to be consistantly downing beyond Moroes. If I could get to Prince every Tuesday it would be time well spent. Heck, once everyone knows the fights we can do some options bosses while we are at it! It may seem far fetched, but it seems our guild has become seasoned enough to get to Prince and beyond.

We took down everyone until Prince.....I freaking hate Prince. Our OT disconnected and I suddenly became the new OT while our GM came in with his warrior and thus he was the new MT. As a result you had a prot warrior trying to do DPS. It did not end well. We got Prince down to 1%! One freaking percent!!! Grr! After four wipes we called it. Nonetheless, we got to Prince in one night and almost downed em. Not bad considering.

Attumen dropped a nice little bow for our OT Lozt since he is Arms right now.
Moroes was kind enough to drop our belt...Thank you Moroes.
Romeo and Juliet dropped the Poison Vial and pally book.
Aran dropped some clothy gear.
Chess dropped more crappy gear not including my King's Defender! I wantz it!
and that was it.

I only need about 8 more honor badges until I can get my shield. I have a nice one now, but an upgrade is definitely in order. Once that nice little piece is ascertained I reckon the Mask of Determination will be next....we shall see though

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Effing Kara

I wanted to kill someone during our Kara run on Tuesday. The run itself wasn't half bad at all. Heck, I saw Curator, Chess, and Aran for the first time! Our leader made a mistake with Opera, but nothing special though very time consuming.

BTW- Since we are on this topix- DO NOT bypass Moroes to go straight to Opera....it won't end well.

It was the effing warlock that pissed me off! I login and jump on vent and hit Kara BARELY in time to start the raid....well when it was scheduled anyways. We ended up downing things about 8:30 (half hour after we are scheduled to start). Anyways- Some guy is being obnoxious on vent- Not rude, just obnoxious. I talk about summoning people so we can get the show on the road. He immediately asks who it is and I let em know I am the MT. He asks my RL name....why I do not know. Not that's uber private info, but I don't really give out my RL name. I told him it was none of his damned business.....and from here it all goes downhill.

We finally start pulling....the warlock starts pulling rather. I didn't realize who was pulling just that it wasn't me. So Lleu sends me a tell letting me know who it is. I state rather calmly to stop pulling. Well, I thought I was rather calm, but I was mad which pretty much screws up the idea that I was nice. Either way I made it clear that he needs to stop pulling mobs. He doesn't listen to me for whatever reason. I ask again....I think I have reached ass mode at this point. He CONTINUES to pull! I have had enough at this point- I can't tank the mobs if they a running rampant because no one is talking and I am not pulling. So I decide to take a simple stand- Either he can stop pulling or he can find himself another MT. I want Kara, but I am not about to deal with some jackoff and have a bad night.

Whatever happened after that worked out well. He quit pulling and we started tearing through Karazhan! I got absolutely nothing, but greatly enjoyed the content and play of it all. I reckon this Tuesday we should be able to do a full clear...Wish us luck

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Heroic Mech...actually profitable

I am going to spare you the gory details of the worst rogue EVER name LanPartyCo. I am not going to tell you about how he could barely get above our Shadow Priest on threat even though he was pretty much EPICED OUT!!! No....I do not want to relive that horror.

Instead I will mention the good news! And that is DeathByOrc got some gear! Woot! I didn't get the Sun Eater like I wanted, but that's OK. I got a nice little tanking gem though!


Just after I got the Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden too! It worked out pretty darn well for me! I am not sure what I am going to put in the remaing yellow slot. I was actually thinking of popping in a +8 to hit rating gem in the slot. I know it sounds odd, but the higher my hit rating the more I hit, the more I hit the more rage I get, the more rage I have the more I can spam aggro building abilities! I have already topped my Defense rating to be uncritable, but I know it also counts for block, dodge, and parry.....We shall see...

The great news is that I got Vanguishers Legplate...not sure I entered the right name....the epic plate legs that drop from Calculator in Heroic Mech...

This is yet ANOTHER piece of my DPS gear! I am slowly building a nice little set for when I change to fury...and I heart fury!

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Kara equals moving up in the world

I got some new gloves from Maiden! Ok- That's the good news, but lets go through the Kara run....otherwise this blog would just suck.

Savage Desire was set to run the raid a 8 O'clock.....we started at nine cause an officer was trying to get two raids going at once. That's OK...its for the guild...still sucks....

So we finally get in at nine and I am informed that I am the MT....this is my second time in Kara....and I am the MT....Yeehaw! At this point I am pretty proud of myself because I have shown myself competent enough to be a solid meatshield!

So we rip through the guys to Attumen! Attumen comes out ready to kill!....and the meatshield didn't catch him in time...but we all lived! Once I finally grabbed Attumen it was all downhill from there. By the time everyone was ready to Attumen (before he mounts up) I had more aggro then they could ever pull off of me. Our entire DPS group just unloaded on him...and HARD! He mounts up and drops to his death.

Next up- Moroes- I hate Moroes....not really....I like em a lot. Everyone ELSE hate Moroes...depending on the group. Moroes didn't go quite as well, but very well nonetheless. We got the WORST group you can for Moroes (MS Warrior, Holy Pally, Shadow Priest..I forgot the last one). The first time Dezzi, our main healer, died and we reset it. Not a big deal and Dezzi is up and running after a quick rez. Our raid leader takes an interesting approach at this point- Down the healer and priest and then shackle the last two, down Moroes while the other two are shackled and then unleash on them when Moroes is down. It worked well. Second shot for Moroes- Not bad considering the luck we had with the party.

Next up- Opera! We got the Big Bad Wolf- This had to be the most fun I have ever had in an instance. First time we wipe the entire raid. That's OK- Everyone is laughing at the meatshield cause he was little red riding hood when he died....
Second time- Took him down with only a little trouble. We had to pop a Battle Rez on our guy, but all in all he went down pretty well. I must admit...part of me is glad things are going well, but NO warrior gear...makes me sad.

We decide to make a quick jump to Maiden before we call it a night. Maiden somehow manages to whoop our ass. We run in with brief- Here it goes speech. After tanking her ass for about a minute I drop...and hard. The OT jumps in to take my place and does a damn fine job of doing so. Since the raid didn't stay in front of the pillars our healers couldn't get to them and we wiped. We laugh it off cause Maiden has become so easy for us. We jump right back in and the meatshield dies again after a few minutes...WTF?! Meatshield is confused why he is dead....again. Fortunately we downed Maiden the second time....by the skin of our teeth. Our hunter, Lleu, managed to get his VERY last shot to down Maiden for the team! Lucky, lucky, shot.....but she was dead.

Much to my surprise the gloves drop off Maiden! I pass cause I think I have decent gloves to begin with...the my guildies point out that I am a n00b and give me the gloves. Not just any glvoes Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden I now have a SOLID set of DPS gloves AND tanking gloves! First thing the Meatshield did was get the Enchant gloves- Threat on my brand new spiffy gloves!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Karazhan?!?!

I finally got into Kara!!

Holy macaroni it was fun too! The BigRedCow's guild needed an OT and I was just the Meatshield for the job. I walked into Kara with almost nothing....not sharpening stones, no health pots, 4 bandages, and no flasks. To top it off, my jitter bugs were in full force. Never been in ANY kind of raid before and it was my friends guild! Oh noes.....can't look like a n00b....resist n00b temptations (that's what I keep telling myself)! Oh and our MT is slow in getting to us so we clear all the way to Midnight and Attumen with me as the MT.

It was very very fun for the most part. Being a raid n00b I quickly realized the different complexities with the boss fights. They like to do funny and odd things like mount up at 25% health....cause you see that everyday.....(use your sarcasm meter) =P

We took down Midnight, Moroes, and Maiden last night and I got the Barbed Choker Of Discipline! The guild continued on, but it was late and the time for bed had come. Stupid RL responsibilities

I guess I did pretty well cause I had the GM and Officer asking me to join the guild. Actually, the boss lady said I impressed her and that I need to join the guild. I really wanted to, but have a lot of other obligation throughout the week. I know I know.....WoW takes precedence over any real life obligation....but my wife would kill me

Death by wife= No more WoW.....ever.....

It worked out well though. I told the GM and Officer of my obligations and they are willing to work with me. So I changed guilds to Savage Desire! They welcomed be with open arms and I was instantly the OT for Raid group two! Woot!

Thank you SD for the opportunity and we shall have fun with the killing!....and me getting beat on =P