The State of the Kadomi
It’s been over a month since I last posted in early February. After that post, something happened that I had not forseen, a combination of burnout both as protection warrior and as blogger. My original vision for this blog was to post and share my experiences as a protection warrior in a casual WoW environment, who happens to play a role that is traditionally male-dominated, more than any other role in World of Warcraft. But when I started to not enjoy that particular role anymore, I lost my drive to post. I did not stop playing Kadomi, but I often phased her out, focusing more on my other beloved orc girl, my resto shaman.
Things I have done since I last posted:
- leveled a mage from 54 to 80, getting her fully geared in ToC-10 gear in alt runs – never has leveling and getting geared for raiding been as easy as today. I was practically able to buy my first piece of T9 the moment I hit 80. But I learned a valuable lesson. DPS isn’t anywhere as easy as it looks like, and to contribute fully it still takes skill. My DPS instincts are somewhat lacking, so it’s an interesting experiment.
- ran VoA-10 and 25 just about every week on my shaman, and VoA-10 on Kadomi – my shaman got her T10 kilt off Toravon-10, which made me very happy, because 2pc T10 for resto shamans is hot! Also, it gave me an opportunity to have spectral shoveltusks, who doesn’t love that? Kadomi has been less lucky, because I only got the DPS legs from Toravon? Is this a sign? But no, it can’t be. Prot warrior for life, yo!
- started Ulduar hardmodes – it’s long been my dream to go back to my favorite WotLK raid instance and try hardmodes. Sure, we outgear them like crazy now. But they’re still fun! So far we have gotten Heartbreaker, I choose you, Steelbreaker, I could say that this cache was rare and Lose your illusion. This ‘only’ leaves Freya and Mimiron hard-modes for Algalon. I am looking forward to going back and trying. I had a blast. I did go as healer, and actually scored an upgrade from Hodir hardmode. I had never seen Ice Layered Barrier before, it’s a sweet piece of gear that is replacing gear I got from ToC-10. Crazy world.
- being 5/12 in ICC-10 – Icecrown is going somewhat strangely for us. We’ve only made it to Rotface once, and we got him to 4% on our first night. But we haven’t been able to get back to him, because we are really suffering from lack of sign-ups. Our staple healers are all MIA due to heavy attack of RL, our heavy hitter DPS was not around either. We are struggling far more in there than we really should, which is very disheartening. But we’ll keep at it. Not everyone needs to kill Arthas already, Cataclysm is far away.
- finally started leveling my alliance paladin again – Please meet Leala. She is a paladin, and she tanks like a girl. I think this was one of the hardest things for me to do in my time in WoW. I am such a proud defender of the warrior class, but something in me just broke. Months ago someone sent me an e-mail that they thought I should try a protection paladin because they felt I would have a lot to give to the world if I experienced that tanking style. So I sent the girl heirlooms, leveled her from 67 to 70 and went dual spec on her. My first week was spent panicking. She had barely 10k health unbuffed, not even def-capped for level 70, just a set of Cobalt gear and a crappy stamina/expertise sword I got as a quest reward. But I went ahead, and tanked and was flabbergasted. 5-man tanking as paladin is such a different experience from warrior tanking for me. It basically feels like relaxed, easy-going tanking in slow motion. Nothing could go possibly wrong. The only concern is mana. Where as warrior I still feel compelled to mark a kill order, it feels like it doesn’t matter. DPS not on my focus target? Eh, they’ll stay on me anyhow. My paladin is now almost 76, and I have tanked everything through VH. This makes me think I might want to give those other two classes a shot as well. My druid is languishing at 71, and I could easily go feral on her. I was a feral druid in TBC, and druids at the time felt very similar to how warriors play. My DK is only logged on for cutting gems, and I could grind some T9 tanking gear for her. But I don’t know about that yet, because I know DKs still get a lot of crap in PUGs. We shall see.
- trying to learn how not to be an officer – yeah yeah, I stepped down a while ago, as a combination of too much drama regarding a guild we used to be friends with, and general burnout. I just fear I am totally unable to let go. I still lead raids, I set up raid groups for the weekly quest every week, and I am dying to get things done, when it’s not really my job anymore. So either I will learn to let go, which would be awesome, or I might beg for them to take me back.
- learning how to play without my SO – my partner decided to call it quits with WoW in February. We had played WoW together since September 2005, and we were officers together from summer 2006 until she stepped down last year. Our Yogg-Saron kill was her last raid. Funny how something like this matters, but it does. The game has lost some of its shine, even though I still play a lot and we sometimes even butt heads because she’s bored when I raid. It was the two of us who busted our asses to make DotH start raiding in TBC. She inspired me to be a healer to heal her druid. I miss playing with. I miss talking about the game with her. I miss her min-maxing on her warlock when WoW was not boring to her. I wish there was a way I could magically find her some fun activity in WoW again. I miss you, Q.
So there you have it, the digest version. If you want to hear a lot of blabbering, you should follow me on Twitter. I should warn you all, I can get very ranting there. My guild has had some minor amounts of drama lately, usually caused by my German raging. 
I also have a Formspring set up, a way that you can ask me anything, anonymously or not, and in the next couple of days I will go through my queue of questions I still have up. Feel free to ask me more!
Tomorrow, I will post about my impressions as tank in ICC-10, up to Festergut. It’s going to be a rant, be warned, but maybe that’ll entertain some of you.
A special thanks to all the concerned commenters and readers who sent e-mail. I am still here, and it feels good that I was missed. I am here to stay. Prot warrior for life!
I’ve been leveling my dk by tanking and haven’t seen any dk-hate. I suspect that if you show yourself to know what you’re doing you win people over pretty quick. And by know-what-you’re-doing I don’t mean ability rotations or what not, but rather, the flow of tanking, the situational awareness that all tanks need.
I went to dk tanking from pally tanking and have really been enjoying the wide range of tools available to dks.
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Really glad to hear that you’re having fun! I was a bit worried.
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I actually haven’t heard a single bad comment from tanking on my DK since I started tanking with him at 60. I hit 80 last night, so maybe I’ll catch some crap in Heroics, but I doubt it.
Go for a Frost spec so that you know you have all the tools you need and be sure to start with the Holy Trinity (5/5/5) for your defensive talents. It’s easier than you’d think, especially if you’re used to tanking on a warrior and/or paladin. Oh, and remember that D&D is a waste of time for Frost. Howling Blast + Blood Boil = aggro.
.-= Psynister´s last blog ..Weekend PUG Report: Three Stooges and a Dwarf =-.
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Love the post!
I know what you mean. Protwarr tanking for me right now is like a half empty jar of peanut butter that has been in the cupboard too long; I know I should do something with it, but it seems stale and doesn’t hit the spot anyways. Not that my gear is maxxed at all, I still have, erm, a few level 200 pieces. I just don’t have that “Umph” for it right now. Hopefully it will come back, most likely for Cataclysm. In the meantime there’s always Champions of Norrath for PS2 lol.
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I was glad to see an updated post from you. I always enjoyed reading your blog. I no longer play my prot warrior but liked to see the game through the eyes of someone who played that toon. Hopefully you get your “mojo” back and your SO comes back and plays again.
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Kadomi, thanks for writing. I don’t care what you say, just keep saying something. You’re one of the reasons I started blogging (you, BRK, others), so just keep on it. I check your site every other day, so don’t think that you’re forgotten.
Oh, and sell the ports on that mage like crazy. 10g each is easy money. And keep her guildless to sign charters. (Sorry, I just can’t turn the gold making off sometimes.)
.-= Bigjimm´s last blog ..3.3.3 Frozen Orbs, 3.3.3 Price Predictions, and a currency rant =-.
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G’day Kadomi,
I’ll try not to reiterate what has been said, but I truly only read two tanking blogs: this and Tanking Tips. I’ve missed your writing, and the unique way that you look/talk/type about things.
Burnout – it happens. I gave the game away in Nov, but picked in up again in Jan, and have now put it down again (don’t ask me for how long though). With everything that Blizz has done over the six months or so, it feels like I can do that now. Makes for a much more relaxed warrior, and way less aggro from the wife. That said, a lot of my mates have moved away from the game so for me it really is now just a log-on, log-off experience. Not quite as serious as a partner dropping the subscription, but as you say, it really does take the shine off the game a bit.
I’d say keep writing, but only if you’re enjoying it…..it still wont stop me checking every day though
Take it easy mate
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I really hoped that you werent suffering from the burnout that seems to have struck so many old players in WoW. I just want to say that I really enjoyed reading your blog. Being a prot warrior and offtank in a 25 man raiding guild I have felt we got 2 or 3 things in common
I played with the thought of changing my tank toon aswell given that being a prot warrior nowaday just feels like a lot of hard work without any awards coming our way. The problem is that I love my warrior and I cant imagine to not raid with her.
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Hey Kadomi,
Good to read about you again and thanks for the explanation about your situation. Now I totally understand why you don’t post as often anymore.
I know the feeling of the SO dropping WoW. My GF and I have been playing for months and months now.. (think it’ll be about 3 years soon).
WoW is nice, but it’s better when you share it with somebody you deeply love.
About the other classes. I have been working on the other tank classes for some time and only recently achieved Crit-immunity with the 4 of em! (Paladin was a bitch to reach 535.. DK not so tough tbh)
I like all three of em more then expected.. but still feel handicapped when not playing ye ol’ Prot-Warr…
Hope you get your feeling with Kadomi again soon and want to write about it again!
~Baruti.
“Prot-for-life”
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Haha, I felt the same way tanking on my paladin after leveling my druid through vanilla instance grinding as a bear. I’m not sure when mana stops being a huge issue for paladins on single targets/small groups, but trash is easy enough as long as you can pull like crazy. And, level a bear! They’re super fun. Threat as a bear on bosses is bad and has proven difficult for me, but trash I just run around spamming maul/swipe and giggle at all the blood gushing out.
/hugs about Q not playing anymore. My boyfriend took a break for a month right after he had to go home from visiting over Christmas, until he came back to live with me, so I know it really sucks sometimes.
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Glad to have you back again Kadomi, I too have missed your ravings.
Leveling my own Pally at the moment, as my warrior is parked for the time being. I am finding it fun and will look forward to tanking my way through Northrend.
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Welcome! It’s great to see you back and about pally tanking? I tanked a 5-man on my friends pally and yeah i actually did feel relaxed! It feels like i pressed 2-3 buttons the whole time though which got a little boring…. For now i think ill stick to warrior tanking xD. Again its good to see you back!
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Very good, you’re like the only girl I know of that plays wow and is pro enough to play a prot warr. You should try out frost dk tanking, Im actually working on a guide since I’ve been doing it for awhile now I’ll share some of the things I’ve discovered.
First off Don’t get morbidy you do not rely on DnD as a frost dk.
So as a frost dk You have multiple ways to pull and they all have decently large cds, so you must juggle between your pulling styles, meaning frost dks are the only class that constantly has to change the way they pull, let me explaine a bit.
You have a priority system for pulling, it goes like Hungering Cold >DnD>deathchill>Skull
Let me break down the basic pulls.
Hungering Cold: A personal favorite of mine so I choose to prioritize it above dnd, a common misconception about this spell is that it’s an oh SH*T button but it’s actually more similiar to a warrior’s shockwave, read it carefully, it applies frost fever to all the targets within range, the only disease you need up at all times for aoe tanking as a frost dk is frost fever, howling blast is garbage without it. Basically you’re going to round up all the mobs, use hungering cold to apply frost fever, bust the mobs out of the ice with BB then follow up with howling blast.
DND:The most common pull and a crutch for beginner dk tanks, just drop it down and use a glyphed howling blast to apply frost fever.
Deathchill: This guarantees a crit on howling blast making it nearly as effective as it would be if frost fever were up, just pop this cd round up the mobs and use howling blast.
Skull Pull:This is a last resort and should only be used if you somehow manage to put your other pullers on cd, simply skull a mob, pull the wave by using Icy touch on the skulled mob, then use howling blast, this will generate enough threat on all mobs for the healer not to pull, and a secure amount of threat on the skull.
There you have it, think of killing machine as a wild card if it happens to proc near the end of a wave, just go ahead and pull the next wave without hitting any pull cds if it’s up.
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Tanking just isn’t tanking if it’s not with a warrior. I tanked with all the other classes and have since lost respect for them after tanking as a warrior. It’s a much more interactive experience as a warrior than any other class.
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Night-elf warrior tank here….
I just read about playing together. I had the same problem with playing someone so i understand your feelings. Now i’m playing on my own and read a lot of you on the site here. Thx for the tips for the gear. I used a lot of it.
greetzzz
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