Sunday, November 14, 2010

Sad Faice =(

Sadly all good things come to end, even more sadly this didn't even grow into a good thing. I don't really think I'm cut out for the whole blogging thing. I've been reading a lot of other blogs and see how much effort they put into their posts and I think I've only put that much effort into my lists. It's been hard to come up with ideas and topics to talk about, but mainly it's just not that fun. I had originally planned on making this a joint experience with blogging and youtube videos, but I don't think I can do both and I'm much more interested in videos.

Sorry if I did have any "fans" out there, but I'm not going away for good. I'll be back for Cataclysm making youtube videos of some kind.

Oh and another reason is because my guild already has one of the best druid tanks I've ever seen. He's what got me interested in tanking in the first place. There is no way I'd be able to raid with them come cataclysm if I'm trying to tank as well. I'll hopefully be able to grab a spot as a healer or DPS and whatever it is I'll be able to talk about it.

I'm staying on MMO-Champion forums and I'll keep my lists updated there, but this site is going to be a dud after this post. Always remember if times get hard, Just Bear with it!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Off Spec Schmoff Spec

Ok, I have had a dilemma with my offspec recently. I've jumped between Cat, moonkin, and tree more times than they have nerfed paladins. I feel like it should be easy to make this decision!

I should go Cat because the gear is the same!...but the gems are different
I should go Tree because it's fun!...But when will a group not need a tank and need another healer?
I'll go Boomkin and kill everything! But I suck at caster DPS

So I thought long an hard about it. It took me awhile to get a good grasp on what I was thinking. I eventually came to a conclusion.

All of them.

It decided I would make a set for each spec and play them all. This way I will never get extremely bored of one thing and it keeps more interested in the game. I saw a quote somewhere that I feel every druid should live by.

"Why am I a druid? So that I can let any person in the raid know that I'm only 5 seconds away from being better at their job than they are"

Perfection never sounded so cool.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Apologies!

Alright, Since I notice a lot of people are coming to this site now I should probably warn everyone that I am a very bad web designer. I am trying my best to come up with some design scheme that doesn't hurt my eyes, blends fluidly, and looks nice. I still don't think I have come up with a decent design and I'm just wanting to apologize for all the sudden changes. If you have any suggestions let me know!

I'd also like to know if anyone would interested in a few additions to the site. Just leave a comment on what you'd like to see or not see here.

Videos?
Forums?
Something else?!

One last thing, I don't know when this is going to happen, but if I can persuade my friend to help me with this project I may be able to create a website that does something nifty. I can't tell you what it is yet, however I can say it's Wow-related and not druid specific. I do believe it will change the world...of warcraft as we know it. So you'll just have to stick around to see what it is =)

/update

EDIT: Just noticed I broke tooltips while I was editting the site, sorry for that too! Fix't

Monday, November 8, 2010

Best in Slot list Bear tanking for Cataclysm

 This is the Best in slot list for the first tier of raiding in cataclysm. Items are subject to change, but for the most part this is what you'll be wearing.

HEAD
1. [Stormrider's Headpiece]
2. [Tsanga's Helm]

NECK
1. [Necklace of Strife]

SHOULDER
1. [Stormrider's Spaulders]

CLOAK
1. [Cloak of Biting Chill]

CHEST
1. [Sark of the Unwatched]

WRIST
1.[Parasitic Bands]

HANDS
1. [Stormrider's Grips]
2. [Double Attack Handguards]

WAIST
1. [Belt of the Fallen Brood]
2. [Wind Stalker Belt] (Best Random Enhancement would be Crit and Mastery)

LEGS
1. [Stormrider's Legguards]

FEET
1. [Storm Rider's Boots]

RINGS
1. [Dargonax's Signet] (Yes it has STR, but it also has Crit/Mastery and the only ring with a socket so far)
2. [Lightning Conductor Band]
3. [Mistral Circle] (There are 5 rings with random enhancements and the one that gives Agil/Stam/Crit/Mast might be better than the Dargonax's Signet)

TRINKETS
1. [Vial of Stolen Memories]
2. [Essence of the Cyclone] (Threat)
3. [Symbiotic Worm] (Survivability)

WEAPONS
1. [Malevolence] (Totally itemized for bear tanking, but of course hunter's will try and take it ala Journey's End)

RELIC
1. [Vicious Gladiator's Relic of Triumph]

Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Nerf Stick!

Here are a few recent blue posts:
  • "Savage Defense is massively overpowered on beta and has been dealt with accordingly. Many of the reports of beta raid bosses two-shotting tanks were because that was how much damage the bosses needed to do in order to challenge Feral tanks. With less damage absorbed, the boss damage can be adjusted downwards. We've reduced the multiplier for attack power on the absorption effect (from 65% to 35%, still modified by mastery) and it no longer procs from periodic critical hits." 
  • Survival Instincts -- Damage reduction changed from 60% to 50%. Cooldown reduced from 5 minutes to 2 minutes. Duration still 12 seconds. 
  • Bear Form -- Stamina bonus lowered from 20% to 10% and Heart of the Wild health bonus from 10% to 6%. Bear health should be close to plate tank health with this change.

    What does this mean? Probably nothing. I knew tanks would end up a lot more symmetrical before Cataclysm rolled around, but I was going to assume they would buff the other tanks to the level of where druids were. Instead it's the other way around and that just means we actually have a pretty hard job on our hands. I'll list a few ways I hope to be challenged by...

    A boss enrages for 15 seconds and casts 3 fireballs that would normally do enough damage to kill us. We have to proc our "survival shield wall" right before the first one finishes casting or else we die and the raid wipes.


    Some mechanic throws the tank in the air high enough to if he's not an engineer a mage/priest needs to save him with slow fall.


    Less taunt back and forth bosses. Unless during the downtime the tank gets to do something interesting such a small gauntlet/debuff cleansing triathlon.


    Giant ground stomps that we get to use stampeding roar for! - Literally going to be my favorite ability.


    So yeah! I am very excited about cataclysm still and I have no worries about these nerfs and if you are a true druid at heart you'll be honest with yourself and know that we sort of needed it.

    Wednesday, October 27, 2010

    Pre-heroic Bear tanking list

     IMPORTANT: I'm currently an author on www.warcraftprofessional.com if you like my articles come on over for more updated articles and a much better site atmosphere.

    Alright bear druids here is a list of bear tanking gear that you should use before tanking heroics. I am not on the beta, but I searched through all the data that the beta has to offer and mainly used Wowhead.

    The numbers correlate with the best. Number 1 is the best item pre-heroics.

    KEY
    C = Crafted
    Q = Quest
    N = Normal Dungeon
    R = Reputation
    JP = Justice Points
    PvP = PvP/Honor/Arena

    HEAD
    1. [Mask of Vines] (JP)
    2. [Helm of Secret Knowledge] (Q)

    NECK
    1. [Entwined Elementium Choker] (C)
    2. [Acorn of the Daughter Tree] (R)

    SHOULDER
    1. [Embrace of the Night](JP)

    CLOAK
    1. [Razor-Edged Cloak] (C)
    2. [Twilight Dragonscale Cloak] (C)

    CHEST
    1. [Darkbrand Chestguard] (C)

    WRIST
    1. [Poison Fang Bracers] (N)
    2. [Bloodied Leather Bracers] (C)

    HANDS
    1. [Liar's Handwraps] (R)
    2. [Sticky Fingers] (JP)
    3. [Thartuk's Inimitable Gauntlets] (N?)

    WAIST
    1. [Sash of Musing] (JP)
    2. [Quicksand Belt] (R)
    3. [Red Beam Cord] (N)

    LEGS
    1. [Leggings of the Impenitent]/[Swiftflight Leggings] (R)
    2. [Leggings of Fragmented Hope] (Q)

    FEET
    1. [Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Boots of Cruelty] (PvP)
    2. [Bloodied Leather Boots] (C)
    3. [Crafty's Gaiters] (N)

    RINGS
    1. [Elementium Destroyer's Ring] (C)
    2. [Terrath's Signet of Balance] (R)
    3. [Ring of Blinding Stars] (N)
    4. [Ring of Dun Algaz] (N)

    TRINKETS
    1. [Lifebound Alchemist Stone] *Alchemists only*
    2. [Figurine - Earthen Guardian] (C) *JC ONLY and currently not unique so stack em*
    3. [Mirror of Broken Images]/[Mirror of Broken Images] (R)

    WEAPON
    1. [Elementium Poleaxe] (C)
    2. [Staff of Draconic Pacification] (Q)

    RELIC
    1. [Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Relic of Triumph] (PvP)
    2. [Silver Inlaid Leaf] (C) *Inscription only*
    3. [Exhausted Flashgrowth Mote]

    Tuesday, October 26, 2010

    Reforge it like a boss

    Alright I'm still new to this whole blogging thing, but I'm going to go ahead and lay down a quick post on what you should be doing with reforging.

    If you're starting out you probably want to avoid reforging too much too quicky. I'd say for every piece of armor over 200 you should reforge all the haste into mastery. That will get you started. When you get up to the higher gear pieces like at least 4 set T10, then you might as well shift all your crit into mastery as well.

    Mastery for bear druids is huge. Right now it works as improving Savage defense.

    Savage Defense: Crits have a 50% chance to cause you to gain a bubble-like effect that absorbs damage equal to X% of your attack power. Mastery improves X. 

    So what starts out being 65% of your base attack power can be turned into 100%+.

    Well geez Claw that doesn't seem like it does too much

    AHA! But here's another ability that all tanks got in patch 4.0.1

    Vengeance: Everytime someone damages you, 5% of the damage will be turned into attack power for you.(Up to 10% of your maximum health pool)

    Whaaaaaat that's crazy talk!

    Exactly, So let's look at an example in ICC
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I have 7k AP in bear form in ICC
    115% savage defense through mastery
    85k base health

    ME(I'm a bear)   Angry mob(He gon kill me)

    ME            Angry mob
    85k health            40k swing
    45k health                  ---               I just gained 2250 AP and the healers healed me up.
    85k health            40k swing
    45k health                  ---               I just gained another 2250 AP the healers healed me up and I crit!
    85k health            40k swing      
    62k health

    The math behind it was: 11500 AP * 1.15  = 13225 * 0.30(ICC absorb buff) = 17193

    So yes, that's not the highest it will go, but it's average. The max AP I can get is 16500 so if you'd like to do the math yourself just use this formula.

    (Your AP + Vengence AP) * (Savage Defense in decimal form) = Y(savage defense bubble)

    If you're in ICC then: Y * 0.30 = Z(New Savage defense bubble)

    Now the neat thing about this, is that with Frenzied Regeneration you get 30% more health. That means more attack power through vengeance and thus more mitigation. Frenzied regeneration just gives so many different buffs it's crazy. You get 30% more health, more healing done to you, more attack power through vengeance, and more mitigation through Savage defense. 

    Well as I look back on this post I can see that it was not short. I apologize and I'll try to make shorter posts from now on. If anyone has any suggestions for what they'd like me to talk about go ahead and leave a comment. I'll try my best to reply to everyone. 

    P.S. I'm not using some hidden color key with all the colors, I just don't want the post to look bland and stupid. Although once in awhile I will match colors for certain things like the formula and the color of the health.

    Saturday, October 23, 2010

    Getting started!

    So, you just bought World of Warcraft, leveled a druid, and have chosen the role of defending your allies. Congratulations! Over the span of many months(Or however long it takes you to read this) I will try to unveil the secrets of the Druid class. I will delve into the many different talents, glyphs, abilities, and even names that you can choose for your Druid.

    At this point I am going to assume you are a level 80 Druid, but even if you are an experienced Druid tank, the 4.0.1 patch can be very intimidating to some players.So before we begin let's start off with some benefits to being a Druid tank.

    Druid Tanking Benefits:
    • Instance queues are instant
    • You provide valuable raid buffs
    • Leader of the pack(5% Critical strike bonus)
    • Mangle Debuff(30% additional damage done by bleed effects)
    • Shredded Wounds(20% less attack speed and 50% less movement speed)
    • Leader of the Pack heals people
    • When you get geared enough you can solo heroic instances
    • You are a god damn bear
    • Everyone loves you
    So you have now chosen the Feral tree.Let's choose a "build" that will allow you to tank effectively in most situations.

    TALENTS

    Primary level 80 build: (0/33/3)
    Level 80 T10 Build: (0/33/3)
    Level 85 Build: (0/32/9)

    These builds are all very similar, they skip the talents that are only useful for cat form in the feral tree and depending on your gear and level they will vary. The main reason the T10 build picks up both of the enrage talents are because the 4 set T10 bonus allows enrage to no longer reduce your armor by a certain percentage, and on top of that it DECREASES damage taken by 12% which is almost like another barkskin! I'll go more into detail with that, but you'll hardly use enrage during combat unless you have the 4 piece T10 so I suggest sticking with the primary build for now. The level 85 build has more points that allow you to access the second tier of the resto tree for better magical mitigation and threat generation.

    GLYPHS

    Prime glyphs: Mangle, Berserk, Lacerate
    Why? 
    • Mangle is your hardest hitting ability so you should let it hit harder. 
    • Berserk puts your mangle off cooldown so with this glyph you get an extra 5 instant mangles every time you berserk.
    • Lacerate is your second biggest threat ability and it's really your only other option.

    Major glyphs: Maul, Frenzied Regeneration, Your choice!
     Why?
    • Maul allows you to more effectively AoE tank
    • Frenzied Regeneration turns a nifty effect into one of your most important cooldowns
    • You can choose whatever you want for your third glyph, but I suggest it be something practical. 
      1. Faerie Fire allows you to pull the mob from further away
      2. Battle Rez is good if you are an offtank and one of the only druids in the raid
      3. Feral Charge is great for fights with a lot of movement
      4. Thorns is absolutely great for running heroics with trash pulls that are very close to one another.
    Minor glyphs: Challenging roar, Dash, and Unburdened Rebirth
    Why?

    These are your minor glyphs they all hold very little merit and it's totally personal preference, but you are reading a blog so I thought I'd tell you my opinion and what my glyphs were.


    ABILITIES

    Mangle: You're primary ability. Use it whenever it's off cooldown, when berserk pops, or when you are using the cooldown berserk.

    Berserk (Proc): This is a talented ability from the talent "Berserk" It resets the cooldown of mangle and allows you to use it rage free, but is not to be mistaken with Berserk(Cooldown)

    Berserk(Cooldown): This is a talented ability at the end of the feral tree. When you use this cooldown you're priority will be to spam mangle as often as possible. The perfect time to pop this cooldown is when you have the pulverize buff and lacerate is stacked on the boss three times. Sometimes this can be used to start off a boss, but if at all possible try and hold out for the ideal situation.

    Pulverize(Attack): This is a talented ability that does damage based on how many lacerate stacks are on the boss, It consumes the stacks in the process and gives you a buff that increases your crit by 3% per stack for X amount of time. X being 10 seconds + (how ever many points you have in endless carnage)*4

    Maul: This ability is new to many bear tanks. Before patch 4.0.1 bears never even used maul as it's own button, they just macro'd it to every single keybinding and let it do it's thing. In patch 4.0.1 you can still do this, but it now costs 30 rage and if you don't know what you're doing or aren't in the right situation you will be rage starved. It also doesn't do as much damage as mangle. I suggest using this 90% of the time, but make sure you prioritize keeping you're pulverize buff up, mangle off cooldown, and lacerate stacked to three times.

    Swipe: This ability is your prime AoE ability. If there are more than 3-4 mobs go ahead and spam swipe and maul and when you hit 81 throw thrash in there as well. I don't suggest using this ability on single target, but if you have the extra rage and you can afford it, go ahead and do it.

    Faerie Fire(Feral): This ability is your ranged pull, sunder armor, 0 rage cost, filler ability that can be useful all the time. Be sure to use this ability if you are out of rage and/or everything else is on cooldown.



    NAMES

    Now in order to solidify you're role as a tank you're going to need to choose a name that strikes fear into the heart of your enemies and with the new name changing feature you can easily choose one of these awesome names I have created for you!

    All of these are super original and they should not be taken on any server.

    I may or may not be sarcastic.

    ALL BEARS:
    Fluffybear
    Mrcuddles
    Imabear
    Bearywhite
    Drewbeary
    Growlicious
    Clawtrocity
    Bearamanjaro
    Maulpocalypse
    WillFeral
    Pulverizzle
    Clawsterfobic


    RACE SPECIFIC:
    Moo(anything)
    Elfbearcat
    BobMauly(Troll)
    WorgenDruid(I literally could not think of anything)

    Alright well that's it for now be sure to stay tuned for plenty of information as well as some videos. I'm looking for all kinds of feedback as long as it's somewhat constructive.

    And always remember that if times get hard, just bear with it! SEE YA