How do I tank?

A spin on the meme that spread through healer blogs like wildfire last week, this survey is a brain child of The Renaissance Man of The Children of Wrath. These are great questions, and I hope my answers weren’t too brief. Hopefully this will catch on as much as the healing incarnation did.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary tank?

Rhidach, Paladin, Protection.

What is your usual tanking environment?

Usually ToC-25, 10, and 10 heroic. We’ve been working on 25 heroic, but that’s a work in progress for sure.

What is your favorite encounter to tank, and why?

My favorite encounter right now is offtanking Anub10 heroic. It requires so much attention to detail it’s nuts: you have to contribute as much dps to Anub as you can swing, while being aware of when the Burrowers come up so you can nab them before they eat a healer, then you need to position them quickly and efficiently, get them burnt down by the dps, and then be ready to pick up and drag off the next pair. Then, once you hit phase 3 you need to juggle pouring damage into Anub while being prepared for adds to come up. And the entire time your eyes are darting back and forth watching for when the Burrowers turn to cast Shadow Strike so you can squeeze off an interrupt.

I’d probably enjoy the encounter a lot less if we couldn’t down it. But as is it’s pure, stressful bliss.

What is your least favorite encounter to tank, and why?

Thorim25 I think will always stick with me as one of my least favorite encounters. The arena is unadulterated mayhem and was hell to deal with when we were progressing through it. Not because it was hard but just the stress of having to constantly pivot around and hit various guys with taunts of shield tosses, or judgements, and being sure to consecrate at the right time to have maximum effect and making sure I was facing the mobs in a way to maximize my HotR bounces. Madness! One of my healing friends and I used to spend the wind up to the encounter whispering back and forth how much we hated the encounter.

What do you think is the biggest strength of your class, and why?

We’re pretty hard to kill. Between AD, our Guardian Spirit effect, LoH, DP, etc., I tend to be the last one standing during any wipe.

What do you think is the biggest weakness of your class, and why?

A lot of Paladin tanking is too passive. We have a set rotation that could (if you were bad/a robot) macro’d to two buttons, our biggest cooldown is a passive effect… I hate it when other tanks accuse us of facerolling, but honestly, sometimes it feels like it. I wish our abilities were more proc-dependent, or that we had something similar to Revenge or Rune Strike. I want a little challenge in our “quality of life”.

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel is the best tanking assignment for you?

Add management. The system the other MT and I have set up right now is he has the privilege of standing there and getting punched in the face by the boss, while yelling our various things dps should already be paying attention to, while I get to run around like a maniac and keep adds under control. Adds can be a hard thing to master–in the hands of the wrong person they can go wild and kill off your healers–so it’s important that they are taken care of correctly. I feel like I excel best in those situations.

What tanking class do you enjoy tanking with the most?

Alas, I’ve only tanked on a Paladin (my only 80). I therefore have a very limited pool of experience to draw from.

What tanking class do you enjoy tanking with the least?

See previous question.

What is your worst habit as a tank?

If you asked me two weeks ago I would have said clicking. I used to not have Judgement bound to any key and I think that majorly affected my tps and my performance. I’m happy to say I’ve since rectified that, but it’s very embarrassing it took me this long.

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while tanking?

People not paying attention to stupid stuff. For example, during Jaraxxus when a melee gets Legion Flames and doesn’t notice and drops it right in the middle of the melee pack. I understand wanting to maximize your rotation for the best dps possible, but I can’t fathom zoning in/out that much that you tunnel vision and miss warnings. Or people dying because they stood in a void zone for too long. I guess that’s why DBM/BigWigs/etc. have added screen flashes to catch people’s attention.

Do you feel your class/spec is balanced with respect to the other tanking classes?

No. I think we’re probably more powerful than we should be at the moment. As guilty as feel about it, I remember the dark days when Paladins were the worst and squishiest of the four tanks, and I have no wish to go back to those days.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a tank?

World of Logs, TankadinTPS, Recount’s Deaths tab. One of the great things about tanking though is you need few tools to judge your performance. It’s usually a binary question of if you’re alive or not.

What do you think is the biggest misconception that people have with your tanking class?

It’s easy mode. While Paladins in general tend to require less effort (we have no equivalent of Revenge/Rune Strike, like I mentioned) to tank successfully, any form of tanking is still pretty hard. With Paladin tanking it may be easy to be mediocre, but the spec is difficult to master.

What do you think is the toughest thing for new players of your class to learn about tanking?

There’s more to Paladin tanking than just standing there and hitting two buttons. We have lots of utilities that we need to learn how to toss out effectively to maximize the potential of our class. Your various Hand spells are there for a reason, use them!

If someone were to evaluate your tanking ability via tools like fraps, recount, and World of Logs, what tendencies would they notice?

I’m really bad about sticking to the strict 969 rotation. I tend to run around a lot and lose my place. I’m a very active tank.

Stamina or Avoidance, and why?

Stamina, no contest (sadly). I’ve written about this extensively, but the cliff notes version is Avoidance is, when you boil it down, RNG. You can’t depend on RNG to save your life, you need to be ready to take an unfortunate string of big hits. Only stam can give us this security. Moreover, we get more than enough avoidance by default from our gear, we don’t need to go the extra mile and gem/enchant for it when we’re just pouring ipoints down the gaping maw of diminishing returns.

Which tanking class do you understand the least?

Warrior tanking. I don’t think I have the digital dexterity to constantly hammer a button mapped to Heroic Strike. (I kid!) Honestly, they seem to require the most attention to play even satisfactorily. I can’t imagine the dedication and fortitude it takes to be a grade-A Warrior tank.

What addons or macros do you currently use to aid you in tanking?

I use Recount to find out what I die to, Pitbull to make my unitframes clear and easy to read and to place them optimally, and Bartender to keybind all my abilities to make my reaction times as short as possible.

Do you strive for a balance in tanking stats, or do you stack some higher than others, and why?

I try not to enchant or gem for avoidance unless I absolutely have to (match color for metas, or the avoidance enchant is much better than straight stamina), and even then I tend to favor agility over parry/dodge because you get threat and mitigation in exchange for a little less avoidance.

To help the survey along a bit, here are some tags for folks (that weren’t initially tagged) I’d like to hear answers from:

• Wrathy of Avenging Wrathy
• Adgamorix of Divine Plea
• Amber of I Like Bubbles (you tank sometimes!)

Those last two did the healer one, but I know they are itching for another survey to fill out.

When am I supposed to leave the podium crying?

Siha at Banana Shoulders was exceedingly kind enough to name me as one of the seven bloggers she wanted to pass the Honest Scrap blog award on to. I’m touched, and I refuse to mar such an auspicious event by taking to long at the podium to deliver my thank you spee–and I ramble.

I’m informed there are rules aside from collecting the generous prize mone–oh right, no money. Hrm.

1. When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.
2. Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

Here are the next victims as this meme-award spreads:

• A Touch of Arcane, where Dreaming has been writing very interesting posts about what’s going on in the PTR.
• Honor’s Code, a prot pally blog that I read avidly and first inspired me to start my own tankadin corner.
• Valor… Paladin… Palordin? a great tankadin blog run by Aureilie, who I wished would post more often.
• Pink Raid Frames, and each Pally there will share it I suppose, but Doxa gets to keep it on his mantle at home.
• Sacred Duty, run by Galyan, who had the dubious honor of making it so I’m not the newest tankadin blog on the ‘nets!
• Paladin Smash! another great new prot pally blog that I enjoy reading.
• Hardcore Casual who has great posts both on and off topic for WoW.

Lastly, the half version of that Facebook meme I managed to avoid for so long. Bah.

1. I’m a deeply skeptical person, to the extent that I don’t believe in just about anything. For example, I don’t believe in jinxes, luck, ghosts, etc. Likewise I’m also an atheist (last time I’ll ever mention that on that blog). Sometimes I feel like I’m missing out on little joys in life, but then there are other times I’m comforted by knowing I have as much control over my fate as chance will give me.
2. My parents have a dog that they got from a rescue program and for some reason the stupid thing hates me. Whenever I go to visit she’ll greet me with growls and barks… which she does to nothing else, not even strangers. In response I’ve started giving her treats when she calms down to, you know, buy her love. As a result, once she’s calmed down from “greeting me,” whenever I turn around she sneaks up and sniffs my legs. I think she assumes I keep food in my pockets.
3. Stupidest thing I ever did: while in college I was late to get to the train station down the street from my house. Rather than miss the train and be late for an exam I rolled under the train while it was stopped on the platform. The conductor saw me and kicked me off. Obviously, I missed my exam anyway.
4. I had a Zune once, which I enjoyed only for the counter-cultural aspect of it. I have an iPod Touch now which I can’t ever put down.
5. My dream job is to be a special agent at the FBI.
6. In college I used to stay up until 3 o’clock in the morning to watch M*A*S*H reruns. I regret nothing.
7. I live 10 minutes outside of Boston and yet I have a very weak to nonexistent Boston accent. This distresses me greatly as you’d imagine. There’s a guy in my guild from Providence, RI and he has the worst Boston accent ever. I don’t know how. I envy him.
8. When my dad was teaching me how to drive I accidentally accelerated and drove his truck into a snowbank (which we found out a few months later nuked the air conditioning). He refuses to this day to let me drive a car he’s in.
9. I sing along to the radio a lot while driving. I put my hand in front of my mouth while doing so because I’m embarrassed that another driver might see me.
10. I eat croutons as a snack.

Phew! Done.

A tank by any other name would smell

I was tagged by Samodean for a fun little meme going around asking where my characters’ names come from. My main’s name is, of course, Rhidach, which is (according to the Irish-English Oxford dictionary on my bookcase) the Irish Gaelic word for “knight”. I’ve been using it for years for various RPGs.

Fun fact: Google “Rhidach” and every result will involve yours truly in some way.

Other character names include:

• My original main, Rhidak the Troll Hunter, with no explanation necessary.
• Draikh the bank alt, whose name is just gibberish that sounds like “drake” when pronounced.
• Edainn the Mage, whose name is kind of based off the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, Dun Eideann. I spelled it incorrectly, though.
• Bhruin the Druid, who was going to be a bear tank (named after mah boys, the Boston Bruins).

As for tagging… I choose Galyan :P

And me these questions seven… that doesn’t rhyme…

So I was tagged-but-not-really by Anea (more like commanded, by virtue of reading her blog) to participate in this meme. I apologize if this is too arpeeish.

1. What is your name, and where did it come from??

My name is just Rhidach. I prefer not to speak my family name these days, after the befoulment of Quel’Thalas. My name is Thalassian for “Elf-under-arms”. Fitting, I suppose.

2. How old are you, and what is your birthday?

I am 65 seasons of age. Which may be surprising to the mortal races, but makes me barely an adult.

3. Are you in love, and with whom?

I have no time for love.

4. What is your favorite mount, and why?

My trusty Warstrider has borne me into battle with Scourge scum many a time. He is my unwavering companion and I would trade him for no other steed, be it the equines of my order, or some… ugh… Kodo.

5. Do you prefer a certian type of Azerothonian meal, and where do you get it from?

Dragonfin Filet, perfectly cooked over an open flame, and best prepared after being plucked from the frozen waters of Northrend. I make it myself over a fire oft prepared in the bowels of some dark place for a quick boost to my fighting spirits and strength.

6. You know those giant mushrooms in Zangarmarsh? What is your theory on how they came to be, and why they are so huge?

Fel magic perhaps? Alien biology? Who knows? Such an odd question to be asked.

7. If you saw the Lich King walking towards you, what would you do?

Gut the bastard or die trying.

6×6

I was tagged by Samodean at Hardcore Casual to do the sixth screenshot from the sixth folder meme (again with the memes!). Here’s mine:

Ah, my army of Glacier Penguins. Today Icecrown, tomorrow the World… or at least the colder parts of it.

It’s a small Azeroth, after all (or, fountain coin for your thoughts?)

My buddy Palehoof started quite the meme today when he grabbed a meme from the ‘Hoof realm forums and posted it on the general forums. Pale asked everyone:

[I]f someone caught your coin from the fountain in Dalaran, what would it say on it?

I jokingly replied to the thread “I wish, I wish I didn’t kill that fish” (oh, The Simpsons). If you asked my character though, he’d probably say something very Paladin-y, like “For the war dead of Quel’Thalas” or “I will fight the Scourge until it ends me.” Something heroic and foreshadowing his eventual evisceration at the hands of some raid boss.

I’m not really an RPer, but there’s something to be said for those little flairs that give your character a little life. For that reason I always wear the Argent Dawn tabard on Rhidach, as well as carry Uther’s coin (technically he touched it once, right?) in my inventory.

Anyways, great discussion idea Pale!