My first week in 3.3
So just about a week ago the long anticipated content patch dropped for WoW, supposedly the last one before Cataclysm. Which I can’t quite believe because that would mean either a) Cataclysm is really further along than anyone’s led to believe or b) there is much boredom ahead of us in the WoW.
For someone as burnt out as me, 3.3 is a breath of fresh air, but I do have my concerns. As just about everyone, I have dived into the LFD tool. Since Wednesday, I have been able to buy the 75 emblem Headplate of the Honorbound and the 50 emblem Glyph of Indomitability. Average waiting time in queue for me as tank: about 10 seconds. Regardless of time of day. The time of day thing is of huge importance to me as European on a US server. In the past I was always limited by my timezone and was never able to find groups before 9 pm my time. This is pretty amazing. But I am not fully sold on tanking for full PUGs. Not 100%. Mostly because apparently some people are not happy about my pace. Now, I am a chain puller. I move from group to group as quickly as possible. I will only briefly stop if mana seems low on a healer. But apparently that’s not fast enough for some. One priest actually dropped group at the second boss in Gundrak. The expectations are a bit stressful. But it depends on the group. One run we actually 4-manned, HoL. A rogue was practically afk the whole run, providing a total of 7% to the group’s damage. Just a couple pulls before Loken we finally had enough and voted to kick him.
Really, it’s not been bad at all, but being the PUG tank is more stressful than healing or DPS. Then, I am a funny girl. I got majorly upset by a run that was actually full guild, with some of our newer 80s (though one of them isn’t new). I came out on top damage-wise and that just pisses me off. We missed the CoS timer by a minute. It’s been many months since I last missed the timer, so I was really cranky about that. It wouldn’t have bothered me at all if it was a PUG, but that it was a guild run, that really annoyed me so much.
In the same time that I managed to get all those sweet pieces of tanking gear with emblems, I also managed to run enough instances with my shaman and my DK to buy T9 gloves and shoulders for the shaman and T9 pants for the DK. I really do not ever get to play my DK much at all, and who previously took DKs into a PUG on my server? No one. Now I get groups within 10 minutes and it’s awesome fun. I can go farm stuff and have instances pop up for a break. I love it.
I mentioned concerns up there, and I do have those. First, I am wondering what this will do to a guild like mine. We’re a social bunch, but since 3.3 hit, you look into who’s on and see 8-15 names on in my normal hours, and just about everyone is in a different instance. Very few questions in gchat if people want to group up for instances. Not anymore. Not when it’s so easy to just dive into any heroic. Spinks posted about the changing role of guilds in WoW, and I see her point, but I do worry. As officers we are now setting up one day during the week when it’s all guild runs all the time. We’ll see how that goes.
My second concern is that we’ll all blow through heroics for hours and hours now, but what when you are swimming in Emblems of Triumph? At the end of 3.2 I had 142 Emblems of Conquest on Kadomi, and just about zero desire to tank heroics. Instead, I ran them with my shaman, in order to gear her up. But at the accelerated rate of emblems from the random dungeons, I predict I will be done with Triumph gear in just a couple weeks. And then? It’s not like you can run WotLK heroics for the entertainment factor. Once you’re in any badge gear, all of them are frighteningly trivial. I am leaving out the 3 new ones, I hear Halls of Reflection puts the same terror into people’s heart as Magister’s Terrace did at the time. The rest? I was shocked to see how badly Oculus has been nerfed. You just look at trash sideways and they fall over dead. Everything was ridiculously easy. I have no answer to this, but I expect a sharp drop in heroics popularity soon. Unless everyone and their brother levels yet more alts.
As far as raiding goes, we’re holding out. Despite the allure of ICC, we’re continuing to get more gear on people. Because we focused on clearing Ulduar first (which I am glad we did), our average raider gear-level is more 219, not so much 232. This weekend we had our 3rd TotC clear, and the first one where I felt how easy it is. ToC and Onyxia done in 1.5 hours. We one-shot the Twins easily despite missing the interrupt twice. Nuff said. Icecrown Citadel, we’ll come for you in January 2010. The girls will be rolling in, ready to kick ass and take names. Soon.
So share, what’s up with you guys? How’s your tanking in PUGs been? 
The one random I’ve run on Linedan so far, I had a DK who was griping that I wasn’t chainpulling fast enough. So he started pulling. Ugh. And personally, any non-tank DK who starts dropping Army of the Taunt anywhere other than a raid boss needs a steel-toed hoof up the…anyway.
I have run (on my dwarf hunter) with two tanks who literally never stopped. They didn’t even LOOT. The second the last mob of a group, or a boss, hit zero health, they were off in search of the next one, caster mana be damned. I got really good at toggling back and forth between Viper and Dragonhawk to try and keep at least some mana up.
I’ve only run the new 5-mans on normal, but I’ll say this. They are fantastic, but they are hard. Forge of Souls isn’t too bad. Pit of Saron has some tough spots but is generally my favorite of the three because of the NPC interaction (you end up with a friendly army of Horde slaves that you’ve freed covering your back on the last boss, it’s pretty cool). Halls of Reflection is BRUTAL. It’s a great instance, it’s beautiful, it’s well-done, and it’ll get your heart pounding. But make no mistake, especially as a warrior tank, it is very hard.
.-= Linedan´s last blog ..Cross-server PUG culture shock =-.
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Well it’s good to know its not just us who seem to lose healers due to fast pulling lol
I’ve been teaming up with my boyfriend tanking and on my boomkin, and we’ve had a healer quit as well. Didn’t say a word, we just assume he was going to fast for them.
Good to hear that you’ve been getting some gear from badges, I’ve been doing the same for my druid who has been severely undergeared for a long time.
.-= Heather´s last blog ..3.3 Thoughts =-.
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Kadomi Reply:
December 14th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Actually the priest left because I was too slow! Go figure. :O
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I haven’t done any pug tanking on my warrior (far too terrified for that haha – though if I had a real crap tank in my group I would volunteer to take over) but I have on my paladin. So far it has gone really well. All of my pugs have been great, which makes me worried for the one that will Ruin Everything.
Yesterday I even joined a pug for Heroic Forge of Souls, and the group was so good we went on to clear both Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection – our tank was a warrior tank, so Halls of Reflection took some doing to get it cleared, but I was pleasantly surprised!
I definitely have noticed that guild groups can be a little more difficult – it isn’t an issue of not wanting to do guild groups (unless that person is on a quest to get their pug pet), but if you log on and no one else wants to run an instance, you can get in a pug within minutes – and then when the next person logs on, everyone is either uninterested or already in a pug, and it goes on. That was my experience yesterday at least. Time will tell
Personally I am especially excited because I was never one to run instances back to back until I had every piece of emblem gear I could possibly need, and whenever I logged on my paladin it was difficult to get groups even as a tank sometimes. So now when I do want to go, I know I can be in a group within seconds and I can (hopefully) get it over with really quickly, instead of wasting 20 minutes in LFG before deciding I should log off and do something else.
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I bet a good 15 minutes of your 1.5 hour Ony/ToC kill was travelling between instances and taking a beer break between Ony and ToC…
.-= Everblue´s last blog ..End game =-.
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Kadomi Reply:
December 14th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
There was some traveling involved.
We’re slow about ToC. We’ve wiped in there for 3 hours at times, without clearing, I shamefully have to admit. So this 1.5 hours clear is huge to me.
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I have run Hall of Reflection 3 times, killed one boss once…if another healer I have with me says, this is really hard for a warrior tank…ahhhh…
But ya its scary.
.-= RJK´s last blog ..LFG & The Annual Christmas Play =-.
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In Halls of Reflection, have everyone in the group stand on the right or left side of the room, behind the bump outs in the walls where the bosses spawn from. The instance is set up so that you can hide out of the line of sight of casters. The tank then just brings the mobs into these holes (where the first two bosses are) and they’re killed there. It prevents any unfortunate issues with healers/dps getting aggro on ranged mobs.
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It’s been pretty amazing although I’m a little less excited about getting Halls of Reflection now. Not because I can’t do it, but because it’s pretty hit or miss on whether the rest of the group can. It seems to always go pretty smoothly as long as I take one of the guild healers along.
It’s funny that you’ve been given grief for not pulling fast enough. I’ve had quite the opposite happen with a healer intentionally letting me die for pulling to fast. Suffice to say, I dropped that pug and found a new group for the next run. (If it wouldn’t have been Pit of Saron, I doubt I’d have even finished the run)
I think we can all agree though that we’re very quickly learning what the loading screens mean and we all cheer whenever Violet Hold pops up
.-= Veneretio´s last blog ..A Quick Tanking Guide to Day 1 in ICC10 =-.
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Let me just say that I will always, always, always prefer guild groups to PUGs. I really haven’t run anything since the patch but when I do, I definitely ask guildies first. I like to get as many as possible before finding PUGs. It’s a shame that so many in the guild are just jumping into the LFG tool before asking guildies. Maybe we’re just an impatient bunch.
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I feel like the subject of some sort of behavior experiment. I desperately need the triumphs on my paladin tank, but at the same time every single PuG I’ve been in so far has been a nightmare of some stripe or another. DPS eager to show off how hard they can burn on trash, DPS pulling for me, and it threw me in Halls of Reflection twice yesterday, which I had never done before and which was… yeah. It would have been hard enough if the DPS HAD understood the concepts of kill order and crowd control.
Now even looking at the thing makes me twitch, but I still need those triumphs just as badly as before…
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[...] What communication? Tsk, we need no communication! I think Larísa said it better than me, and Kadomi offers a tank’s perspective on [...]
We worked on Lord Marrowgar all of our first night this week, and part of our second (after clearing ToC). And let me just say, the 10-man nerf he got this morning is completely deserved. Most of our guild has pulled together a good chunk of 232 gear, particularly tanks and healers, but we were getting our butts handed to us. The second night we traded a DPS for a third healer–first time since our early Naxx runs that we’ve felt like it was absolutely crucial. (We’ve run with three heals more recently when that’s who’s on, and it’s been nice in some parts of Ulduar and for the first kill of the new Ony, but we haven’t been dependent on it.) And then of course one of the healers would always go on the bone spikes. Our best attempt got Marrowgar down to about 44%, but by that point the healers were all oom. So don’t worry that you didn’t take him on this week!
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I know the feeling about Heroics being trivial.
I’ve been having that feeling for months now. (and I am not even that good geared)
I love how easy it is to get ready for a heroic (really, just a few seconds waiting (minutes tops) instead of 15 to sometimes even 30 minutes) But I can’t shake the feeling I am chain running them for badges (even the drops are mostly useless to even the newest 80!)
I’ll prolly get bored really really fast, but for now, I enjoy my time in game again.. (haven’t had a real reason to play since CoD6 hit the stores tbh)
Let hope it’ll last a bit!
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I think there are 2 things that are going to change a lot in WoW with this patch.
1- It is no longer possible to have 1 character in this game. you need at least 2 and even more to stay interested and have something to do.
2- Guilds are for raids and chat now. Sure right now things are quite but once everyone has gorged they will come back.
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Kadomi Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
This I agree with. I have already been splitting time between 3 of my 80s. The long-term goals of TBC (slow rep-grinds, attunements) have been replaced with shorter content bites. It’s a fun time for playing alts, but I really wouldn’t mind one big time-sink to dedicate my efforts to.
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I ran HoR with my warrior tank with no difficulty.
People mention the initial waves as challenging, but they’re not so bad. Vigilance you’re healer if your in doubt.
I found the final part more of a close thing because i was waiting for the waves to get to us. Turns out it pays to be aggressive and grab them early so DPS can have more uptime.
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Hey Kadomi!
Myself being in a hardcore raiding guild (Mythology of Fizzcrank), we were excited to jump into Icecrown the night it came out. Groups went in to clear the 5 mans, and were delighted at the Battered Hilt drops for their new 251 weapons. The night of the 8th, we prepared to storm the castle, and sent in 3 10 mans of our best geared people into ICC.
Two of the three downed Lord Marrowgar, and got hung up on Lady Deathwhisper, but one of our groups got all the way past the gunship battle to Deathbringer Saurfang. The fights are well put together, balanced, and above all, difficult, even for our 245-geared guild.
By the end of the week however, all of our 10 mans and our 25 man downed Saurfang, netting us first on our faction to down 25 man. =]
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Kadomi Reply:
December 16th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Grats, that must have felt good.
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A healer’s perspective!
I’m geared enough to handle any tank chain pulling. I don’t necessarily like it, because what’s the rush? Tell me a joke or comment on the creepy decor while I loot the boss instead of running off. But oh well. I do find it uncomfortable and a bit frustrating when I get into a group and no one says hello or even speaks (particularly if they are from the same guild and I’m the only PuG).
This happened the other day. The tank chain pulled the entire instance, moving on to the next mob or boss before the last one was dead. They were all clearly geared and my mana was fine, but honestly my brain wasn’t.
I need a few seconds to take a sip of real water, reply to an insistent guild question with a yes/no, or get my cat off the desk. And a hello would be nice. We are strangers, afterall.
On the final Gundrak boss, I finally had to type a quick response to someone who had been repeatedly trying to ask me something. One of the DPS bit the dust and the group from Greymane server felt free to insult me about it. Don’t ask me “Never done this before, nub?” unless you’ve got a healer back home willing to rez your furry bear ass up off the floor.
Be nice to your healers and your pugs, especially if they are solo in your partial guild Heroic. You are representing your server and guild. This goes for healers too.
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Me and a buddy have tank/heal combos. And we are too impatient to wait very long on our dps/dps(heals) combo for a tank to magically appear out of the LFG. So we browbeat some known tank to tank for us. So…. trusting the LFG to find me a tank doesn’t exist in my world, not really.
.-= Lheaf´s last blog ..New Content agony =-.
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Hi Kadomi.
And here i thought i was being slow chain pulling, but im glad to see other people are getting the same, and its not just me. I have had good comments on my tanking and folks faith restored in pugs. Have you noticed its alway one player asking to hurry up all the time. And the not looting? Its a weird new thing to get used to, but ideally i like to stick to guild random heroics. PuG’s if i have to…with a deep breath
.-= Nadiastorm´s last blog ..Patch 3.3 & Xmas =-.
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My Experience tanking has not bee that bad. I actually had some fun with it and got my perky pug
even put a little post together, let me know what you think!
.-= logtar´s last blog ..LFG Tips =-.
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I didn’t have any bad experience with PUG’s in the new lfg system. Maybe I am just lucky, we wizzed through a lot of instances.
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Just wanted to say hi !
I’m enjoying 3.3 a lot
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Not being in the in-crowd in my guild, I got guild runs maybe once a month. So I’m definitely liking the RLFG. I just hope folks don’t get tired of it and it goes back to begging for guild crumbs.
OTOH, I have had some crazy pugs so far… pally healer bitching the whole time that warrior tank wasn’t going fast enough; totally silent groups; too many vote to kicks; no stopping to loot, etc. But some have also been geared and great. And waaaaay faster to get groups than the old LFG.
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