The Fall of the Lich King

First of all I must say that I really do love the new dungeon finder tool, very fast. Unfortunately it has not eliminated the term PUG. Now I am by no means the greatest tank in the world as I am still learning to play one. But heroic CoS is by no means a difficult run, in fact it kind of bored me. But I have to run what the dungeon finder gives us. But back to my point, as both two of my guildies and I quickly found out the ease of getting a group together doesn't mean that the PUG players are going to be any more happy or in this case less ignorant then the rest. And this one Paladin healer we picked up was no exception.

As a rule when I play a DPS, I follow 2 rules, don't die if i don't have to (get out of the fire and pop cooldowns) and don't make the tank and healers job any harder then it has to be. So as a tank whos job is to hold aggro and and let the DPS bring down the pain, and move on to the next pull. If said tank were to loot some corpse for literally 3 secs, look to his map and see the 2 pugs, 1 being a healer, rushing forward and pulling the next wave of mobs before I'm literally within 100 yards is a bit much. Luckily for them I'm a warrior and can close the gap pretty quickly. But it does not exclude them from the rules of, stay alive, let the tank pull does it ? No it doesn't.

Now that I ranted enough about that, on to the finer things in 3.3. Loot, wonderful epic loot. It drops in the new instances and by the plenty. In the 3 instances I ran, 1 of each in the new 5 man stuff, I got an upgrade or 2 from each one. And I only ran 3 so far, just to complete the attunment quests. Four of them as my main the tank. And once with my dps DK. I've picked up ilvl 219 tank mace, chest and belt. The DK got nothing so far. Boo.

The Forge of Souls

Probably my least favorite of the 3 new 5mans. Mostly because the bosses seemed sorta BLAH. and also just seemed like more of the same. As a tank I rate this one as least difficult.

The Pit of Saron

The most fun of the 3 new 5mans. Simply from a tanking perspective of course. Very wide open and full interesting pulls. Sneaky Geists everywhere. Grrr. And I do believe it was the one with the ability to mount up. Bosses were better then the FoS.

The Hall of Reflection

Hands down the most OMFG were doing what right now 5man of the bunch and also the toughest bosses as well. The knights were tough with all the waves of trash before you faced both of them. And the meeting of the Lich King was shall I say very slowmo Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, run from the huge rolling rock of DEATH feel to it. And man was the trash able to jump. Supa Ghouls. :)

Oh Yes, Its Coming

The grind is fast approaching, and with it comes needed rep, emblems and cash for gem/enchants. This will all have one result, new content.

My guild is just 1 week shy of being done with Naxx from a gear perspective. Most of us are past the gear level required to bother running that raid. Most of us agree its time to start on Ulduar and maybe even jump to 10-man ToC for phat loots. With 3.3 around the corner we need to be working on the 5-man Ice Crown instances (like ToC 5man, was to get into Naxx) in preparation to get into 10 man ICC.

With all that in mind from a tanking perspective I think I need to start watching video on some of the encounters before its time for me to start flailing around on the trash and add from whatever bosses we first come across. From what I read 10 man Ulduar is the harder of the 2 most recent raids for a guild to wrap their heads around, yet it is older content then ToC. A little odd for a patch right before the find push to take down Arthas aka the Lich King. But with anything new comes confusion, many wipes (haha see what i did there, many whelps ?!?) and big repair bills as we all learn the fights.

I myself have been dying to go into Ulduar because it to me seems like a big place and I would rather see the inside of that before we see ToC 10-man, simply because of the order the content was released. I never got to do a since raid in either the classic or TBC eras of content as I was late to the punch with getting into the game. At that point I was lvl 70 in like March or April of 2008 and was never really able to do even 5-man content due to a poor schedule at work. So I won't be letting that happen again.

Tanking Aint Easy

So it has been a while since my last update with lots to share of course.

Over the last 6 weeks or so I have been either raiding Naxx as my DK and more recently my recent to 80 Warrior. Naxx is a challenging instance to a new tank I must say. I've done more quarters as an off tank then I have as a DPS so I have a decent understanding of most of the boss fights and think I really only struggle with AoE on the Warrior.

I do have alot more fun on bosses with the warrior, because the rotation is more reactive and less wait for cool downs. Basically in my own opinion I do believe a warrior is a better tank over all then a DK, simply because of the versatility. With the exception of the AoE group threat I'm struggling with on the Warrior, I just have so many different tricks up my sleeve. We got sunders on the mobs for reducing armor to increase dps of fellow melee dps'ers. We got a few different stuns coming from Shockwave, Concussive Blow etc, making the mobs stop whalen on me while I gain a pile of threat on them, 20 sec cool down on that. Plus we got a few taunts. Taunt obviously, Mocking Blow for an melee range taunt as well as my favorite with Challenging Roar, that I believe taunts everything in either a 10 or 20 yard range. Very handy after I was rooted or stunned to get those mobs back. I think a Warrior is the best with interrupts as well. I forget the names of them already, but one is Shield Bash. I think our Pallys lack this.

We have no other DK or Druid tanks. Just my DK and Warrior at present. But I am alright without competition. I enjoy tanking more then dps'ing. So I am cool right now with not having to worry about losing my job.

I Can say for sure that I need to learn how to handle targeting better, runners heading for the dps and healers are tricky. Tho I can see them running if there is alot of trash mobs around the targeting is a tad bit tricky cause I have to click on there nameplate. I have an add-on called Tidy Plates that does a good job of showing threat by color, with either a DPS or tank setting. So I can clearly see whos running, but amongst the clutter of them becomes difficult. But I guess its all a matter of practice and maybe I have to learn to tab target *sigh*.

I also have plans to bring up a Druid to tank as well. But with no plans to bring up a Paladin just yet, as my guild is chalk full of them. Two of them being our guilds main tanks. So a Druid is the next logical choice, but I think I will wait for Cataclysm and roll a Druid. Worgan of course. He will be my leather worker / skinner just cause they can't use anything above leather. Which could also benefit a Rogue, should I ever make one.

But to try and get back to raiding, which is what I wanted to do with WoW in the first place. Naxx is an interesting animal, 4 quarters and then 2 end bosses. The spider wing is a breeze and blind one armed monkey can do this just his face to mash the keyboard. I don't know the names of the quarters. But the hardest for our guild and myself is the quarter with the Safety dance. God I hate that wing as lag is a major factor in there and I seem to never be in the right quarter. I'm aiming to get through that cause that is my main downfall it seems, just can't just where the line that separates the quarters are. Blah. The Military quarter with the death knights and the guys with the to adds you control with those crystals is pretty fun. I like when then make us use different mechanics during a fight. Except Oculus, f%^& that place. We have yet to down K'T and thou I have my suspicions as to why we have not been able to get past him for the 2nd week in a row, I'm sure we will be able to get past him once we get the ice block situation sorted out.

But in conclusion I like Naxx but would rather gear up and get onto newer content. Course my gear aint ready for anything above Naxx and I think my skills need improvements. Of course I'm sure my guildies will tell me what I'm doing wrong, that i know the loud mouth bastards.

~ Kin

WC Done and Done

Well finally got my first attempt at tanking, by running WC with a few guildies. It did take a few attempts to run it due to my power supply kicking the bucket the night before the run and the following week there was a power outage due to a mild tropical storm stopping 2 other in the run from attending. But all in all it was a good run.
My only complaint was my own fault. As a famous Demon Hunter once said I "...WAS NOT PREPARED." Spent way too much time leveling my DK main on the server and forgot to setup my lowbie Warrior's action bars and macros, glyphs and even just to do some testing. I basically had to figure out my pulls and abilities on the fly. There weren't even any deaths :) But if I had to rate my performance it was definitely a 6 out of 10. Just way too many "OH F#%$" moments as I wasn't ready or had rage issues with each group pull. I know I was doing something wrong and didn't have any time to organize myself.

~ Kin

Hello, my name is Kintoro...

...and I am an alt-aholic. Have been for way 2 years now and you all are going to me my group meeting.

I really do not know why I enjoy rolling alt after alt and not concentrating on just 1 (or to push it) like 2 toons but I seem to be leveling around 5 toons at the same time at any given time. HELP ME ! Or at least someone tell me why it is so hard to stop this addiction and get my main to lvl 80. Its been like 4 months since I last paid any attention to my main Kintoro. He's lvl 77 and sitting in Grizzly Hills and I bet he's frozen in place with all that plate on. Brrrrrr.

Moving on, I rolled a NE Hunter and Draenei Shaman, both lvl 11 I think. And I'm enjoying the road travelled with them both. The Hunter is much more enjoyable now that I got my pet Nibbles (don't judge me) as there are less deaths from accidentally pulling more then 1 mob and getting melee'd to death.

And as for the Shaman I'm pretty sure this is the highest level one that I have ever rolled. I have lost interest in them after maybe the first 6 levels normally. But at lvl 10 I got the lightning shield and flametongue weapon buff and things are dying with more haste causing an ear to ear smile.

Well this is all for now as my addiction is calling and I don't want to leave them alone for toon long in the hostile world of Azeroth.

~ Kin

Last 2 Levels then Northrend

Howdy all. Been busy running through Outland on a mad rush to see some Northrend content on a second toon. I only managed to reach lvl 77 on my Tauren Warrior. And after completing (with achievements) the Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra starting zones and I believe Dragonblight, he is currently in limbo in Grizzly Hills. I do believe he will remain there until I decide if it will be him or one (haven't decided on the Ally or Horde) of my Death Knights which are both at lvl 66 will turn into the main I use from here on out.
There have been a few notable nerfs to the warrior class on the PTR for patch 3.1.2, tho I have not actually tested, I have read are sorta significant in hindering the Fury tree which I am currently leveling in. I have never been a big fan of the Arms tree other then picking up Deep Wounds for my Fury spec. Well with the exception of loving Bladestorm in PvP since WotLK has launched. Its got me pretty bummed out cause up until that point I was thinking about making him my primary tanking class to try and learn on. But with that damn 10% damage penalty on Titan's Grip I've lost interest again. I never liked the miss penalty on previous iterations of TG and it just ruins the warrior for me all over again, forcing me back into the dark arms of my DK.
Oh how i love thy Death Knight, able to kick ass in any spec. Blood being the most fun for me with the self healing aspect of the build reducing most down times to nearly zero. I've been just plowing through the Outland stuff like a mad man in about 2 or 3 weeks since i first rolled my 2nd DK on the Alliance side just to see how the changes in 3.1 affected the play style of mine i loved so much. Though they aren't as unstoppable as they were pre-3.1 they are probably the best class for me to learn to tank on. Unless of course someone can point me elsewhere cause i do have a Druid at lvl 40 that i do like leveling as well, but it is gonna take some time to pull me away from my DK <3
That's all for now. Peace out.

~ Kin

This Blogs Purpose

Hello all,
Slippy here, starting my first blog about my adventures in World of Warcraft.

But first a little bit about myself. I'm a 26 (nearly 27) yr old tech agent from Nova Scotia, Canada. Been doing that job for about 7 years now cause I lack motivation to do anything else. More on that as I randomly complain about call centers in future posts. I do not have any literary degrees so bare with me on my spelling and grammer.

Okay back to the topic of WoW. I play on 2 servers at present. Earthen Ring (RP PvE) and Bloodhoof (PvE), basically Horde and Alliance. So i'm not bias just in between my focus at this time.

My often played toons on Earthen Ring include:

• Kintoro - lvl 77 Tauren Warrior
• Paryah - lvl 66 Orc Death Knight
• Hynata - lvl 40 Tauren Druid
• Padraige - lvl 21 BE Paladin

My only toons on Bloofhoof include:

• Kintoya - lvl 23 NE Druid
• Akumaru - lvl 66 Draenei Death Knight
• Kintosa - lvl 17 NE Hunter
• Kintina - lvl 16 Draenei Shaman

So as you can all and note by the title of this Blog I wanna tank and I enjoy melee classes. Tho I have absolutely no experience in tanking I am gonna try. Just need to get my toons to near end game and see if any guildies are willing to put up with repair bills til I understand my roles. Cause I also have not decided on which of the 4 tanking classes would be my primary focas.
So as a final thought "Come one come all" and please feel free to lay on some advice and pring up my visits haha.

~ Kin