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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Tanks
by Michael Sacco 
May 1st 2011 at 12:00PM
I'm tired. I've been tanking all weekend. Let's do this Queue so I can sleep and do it all over again tomorrow.
Crispn asked:
Is it me or are the new Zandalari fights way too healing intensive? The eagle boss in Zul'Aman for example, I had 17.8k hps that fight, just to keep us alive. This is a little much, no?
While the new instances are definitely on a higher difficulty level than current heroics and they do require more healing output, most fights are types of brain checks as opposed to heal checks (Nalorakk and Halazzi excepted). For Akil'zon, as I discovered tanking the place yesterday, he only gives one person the Static Disruption debuff at a time, but it'll chain to people who're within 12 yards of his target. So if everyone is spaced out 12 yards, only one person will get hit with it, guaranteed. You then have until the next Electrical Storm phase (or until it expires) to deal with the debuff.
Also, though this has nothing to do with healing, you can melee, stun, and slow the white eagles.
Draol asked:
Is there a particular reason they stopped implementing Dungeon Sets? There were 1 & 2 during Vanilla, and it carried on into BC with Dungeon Set 3, but when Wrath came around they were nowhere to be seen.
Was there a special reason, or did Blizzard just think it was unnecessary?
I can't speak for Blizzard, but nowadays you already have all the elements of dungeon sets in the cohesive art styles of heroic, rep, and point vendor gear at the same item level. The only thing missing is the set bonus, and I think that might be the reason why you don't see named dungeon sets now, actually. Set bonuses encourage people to keep their set pieces together when, nowadays, pre-raid gear is intended to be a stepping stone to the next level of gear, a this'll do for now kind of thing. Besides, jealousy is a pretty good motivator to get better gear. "Aw man, I want a set bonus too!"
Mayanvampire asked:
In vash'jr, one of the shaman mentions that there is a fifth element, which allows shamans to connect with the creatures of the land, and maybe nature, are there life elementals? if so, could there be a life elemental lord?
Commenter Jormund Fenris sums up the fifth element for those who don't closely follow lore:
If you're looking for a life elemental, the closest thing would probably be any of the giant plants you see in various zones or on bosses like Freya and Ammunae. As for an elemental lord of the wilds, well, we don't know for sure, but there sure are a lot of demigods (especially night elf demigods) that could fill that role, such as Aessina."Spirit of the Wilds. The essentials is that shamans primarily use the first four elements, and very rarily the fifth. In contrast, druids focus entirely on the fifth and disregard the other four. The only shaman spell of the fifth element in-game is Ancestral Spirit, the shammie-ressurection spell."
Metzganator asked:
Did the feature to reorder your characters on the loggin screen come in 4.1? if so how do i access it?
Blizzard recently stated in its UI Q&A that it's slated for arrival in 4.2.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!
Filed under: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 7)
Schadenfreude May 1st 2011 7:07PM
Do Akil'zon with two healers, it is complete cheese.
Bikhai May 1st 2011 8:01PM
Similar experience here. I tried healing it as a disc priest day before yesterday (Bouclier on Black Dragonflight if you want to armory and tell me how bad I am). We had 2 melee dps all pulling over 10k dps, and I was pulling around 11k hps. Closest we got was ~25% with me OOM. Ended up having a guildie resto druid take my place and me switching to tank. Even then the druid had to pull 17.7k HPS, and we still almost had multiple people die. There's no reason a 5-man boss should ever require more HPS than raid bosses half a tier above them.
They need to do one of a few things to this fight:
1) Increase the hit box so melee can spread out better
2) Decrease frequency or damage of Static Disruption
3) Make Static Disruption target only ranged classes
4) Anything else that makes the incoming damage healable for groups with more than 1 melee.
flawless May 2nd 2011 10:24AM
Have everyone use AOE abilities when the birds are coming down, to kill a few off. Every little helps.
Shinae May 2nd 2011 1:00PM
I wiped to the eagle boss several times yesterday while I was healing my guild's run as my priest. Dispelling made me OOM. I pointed out that all the debuff says it is is an increase to nature damage taken, so I should only have to worry about dispelling the tank. So the hunter used Aspect of the Wild for nature resistance, and it became so much easier to heal!
That would also explain why it was also easier to heal on my shaman with her healing totem glyphed for resistance.
Matthew May 2nd 2011 2:59PM
OMG thanks for posting. I really was being raked over the coals by the pugs in the group, a huntard called me fail, and my tank (a nice guy) said I needed more mastery as a Shaman to heal that.
Yes, has been trying.
Irin May 1st 2011 12:13PM
So, I'm losing my nerve as a tank. In guild groups and raids I'm fine. However, since circumstances in real life kept me from WoW during the early months of the xpac I'm sometimes lost dealing with bosses and CCed mobs, etc.
My question: When your nerves are getting frayed, and when the friends list and guild roster are looking empty, how do you give yourself that boost of confidence needed to get back out there?
Necromann May 1st 2011 12:15PM
Either take a short wow break or roll another toon for awhile.
Irin May 1st 2011 12:33PM
I've been playing with other toons honestly since my RL-forced break from WoW. But when going back to the main it doesn't seem to help.
I really hope the impatience and negativity is not a trend within the greater community. Part of the game's growth relies on the anonymous community respecting one another when placed in the random groups.
Ozzard May 1st 2011 12:46PM
I have the same issue. I choose to tank something well below my level and ease back up to it. I'm geared for heroics, but might choose a normal Stonecore run.
Namy May 1st 2011 1:32PM
I think you'll feel more confident as you get to know each fight. I suppose trying to learn boss mechanics as a tank whilst in a pug is a massively daunting prospect! Try to get as many guild or friend runs in as you can then as you become more comfortable with the fights you'll feel more confident to PUG :)
If you dont have that option then I guess go for the PUGS and dont feel too bad when you get the one idiot who has no patience. You're the tank rem, don't take any crap! Don't be afraid at the beginning to ask for help or guidance. People prefer that to some tank who just runs headlong into mobs with no clue :) Also ppl seem to assume that tanks all magically have the knowledge they need for every HC so you'll need to tell them if you don't. I find that quite a few ppl like to boss the tank around anyway so they might actually enjoy helping you lol. Or maybe that's just me? ; )
So good luck! Don't be put off by bad PUG experiences. There will be bad groups without a doubt but don't let them get to you. There are many nice ones out there waiting for you too :)
Kaphik May 1st 2011 1:35PM
I'd run as dps until you feel comfortable enough in the instances to tank them. That's what I did this week with ZG/ZA, or running as a healer now I feel I know them enough to go with a full pug, as a tank.
Sally Bowls May 1st 2011 1:41PM
The secret is to realize that you don't want to do Cataclysm raids.
Then there is no reason for the horrible rep grinds or heroics.
Just play some alts and wait for the next expansion (or SWTOR)
Skarn May 1st 2011 3:52PM
@Sally
What's so bad about the reputation grinds?
I've seen this complaint before and I don't understand it. As far as I can tell, the reputations in Cata work exactly like the ones in Wrath. Why was the tabard system fine for Wrath, but bad for Cata? Is it just because you can't chain run 6 Heroics in an hour?
Reputations have always been a grind, but these seems fine to me. Most of them you can get very high just by questing in the new zones. Therazane you don't even need to set foot in a dungeon at all to get Exalted. Earthen Ring is a bit low on the quest rep though.
DarkWalker May 1st 2011 5:58PM
I didn't. Which is why I'm not playing WoW.
BTW, to clarify: it's not that I don't have confidence on my tanking abilities. I don't trust the LFD tool to put together a group capable of minimally handling a heroic run. Until the time I can trust that any LFD-formed group can get any heroic down 95% of the time in 30 minutes or less, I'll not even consider returning to WoW; I'll be instead happily playing other MMOs where the developers take into consideration players have a life outside the game.
Shinae May 2nd 2011 12:34PM
http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/04/12/breakfast-topic-have-you-ever-lost-your-nerve/
I've gotten good at tanking, but not without a lot of trial and error, and more error. Personally, I'd rather learn and mess up in front of total strangers than embarrass myself in front of my guildies. If people think I'm taking too long they can just leave.
For marking trash mobs, it helps to use a raid icon addon so that you don't have to fiddle with the default drop-down menu. Prioritize casters (those with mana bars) for crowd-control. If you don't have CC, which is rare, then make the casters the first-kill target. Use WoWpedia.org to read up on boss mechanics. Some bosses require a lot of movement because you have to get out of bad ground effects, so get to know your straife keys so you can move quickly without turning your back on the boss.
Good luck!
Tolsimir May 1st 2011 12:14PM
Just wondering if Blizzard was planning to implement a way to queue for both the new and old random heroics (i.e. cata original heroics and rise of the zandalari) at the same time. I'd like to queue for all available options at once.
Jabadabadana May 1st 2011 12:16PM
Shamblers are life elementals.
Also, despite many of the troll fights being brain checks... there is a significant heal check.
These fights appeared to be tuned to raiders who need supplemental gear that isn't dropping from raids, as opposed to sub-raid ilevel gear designed to help newer toons get geared for raids.
I would seriously challenge someone to try putting a group together of ilevel 346(min requirement) characters to actually complete one of the new dungeons. (might be doable... but I'd want a wipe count)
@angus I've seen healer come up, but it doesn't stay up long.
Throm May 1st 2011 12:19PM
So, why did they remove the Worgen /roar sounds?
MusedMoose May 1st 2011 12:40PM
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/172336/why-arent-worgen-making-sounds-when--roaring
There was a sound bug with worgen and goblins, so the roar sounds were taken out. But they'll get put back in, and hopefully, everyone will get a roar sound!
I'm totally going to macro /roar into my gnome's spells for PvP.
Udderpowered May 1st 2011 12:55PM
This may be unrelated, but during the DK questline there's the part when you're killing scarlets on a frost wyrm vehicle, during that you're meant to be making the roaring animation repeatedly, but without sound. When I did it on a goblin pre-4.1 it did play the sound, loudly, constantly, for the whole quest. I guess /roar might work slightly differently for the new races?