Big News Of The Week
Everyone Is Talking LFG
The surprise of the holiday season has taken the WoW community into a level of play and discussion that we never anticipated. The cross-realm Looking For Group system launched with patch 3.3 only two weeks ago today has generated more interest and chatter than anything Blizzard has added to the game in years.
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
My Kingdom For A Tank!
If there is only one thing that the new cross-realm Looking For Group system has taught us, it is this: There are not as many tanks playing WoW as we wish there were. A DPS character who joins LFG is waiting on a healer and a tank. A healer who joins LFG is waiting on a tank to come along. A tank… waits for no one.
Icecrown Citadel Is Slow Mode
If you’ve not yet gotten your raid team in to Icecrown Citadel, it looks like there is no important rush. According to every rumor we can lay hands on, the next wing of ICC will not open until at least Jan. 7. That means a full four weeks of clearing (or trials at clearing) the first wing of the place, with its four epic boss fights, before you even have a chance to continue.
Town Cryer
Anglachel of the Mug’thol server writes: I recently heard the episode where Randy made the claim that he didn’t know anyone who played a Death Knight tank as their main character, and seeing as I do just that, I thought I’d let you all know that such a thing does indeed exist. Death Knights as a whole seem to be rather hated by the other classes, but I find that for the most part tanks are so hard to come by that they’re loved no matter their class. Besides, no one holds AoE aggro quite like an unholy DK tank, and there’s something distinctly badass about standing toe to toe with a boss like Onyxia and beating on her with a giant two handed weapon. What makes a good DK tank and why do people hate Death Knights?
Drop Of The Week
Your User Interface Is Showing
![WoWScrnShot_122109_191405[1]](http://www.myextralife.com/wow/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/WoWScrnShot_122109_1914051.jpg "WoWScrnShot_122109_191405[1]")
A long-time regular poster in The Instance forums named Cyan made a splash a couple of weeks ago with the revelation that he decided to put a lot of effort into producing what has become one of the best-looking UI setups we’ve ever laid eyes on. He’s calling it Coehl UI, and we can’t just keep it to ourselves and the few people who have stumbled across it in a thread in our forums. This thing looks sharp.
Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz and the outstanding Instance Community.
Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.
The song featured at the end of the episode is called Epic Winter Veil Fail. The file, other WoW related songs and the Super Number One podcast can be found at supernumberone.libsyn.com.
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The MP3 File
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The song featured at the end of the episode is called Epic Winter Veil Fail. The file, other WoW related songs and the Super Number One podcast can be found at supernumberone.libsyn.com.
Hi
Im playing a pally tank on Dreadmaul, Im from Singapore
. you guys mention in the show that tanks are very little tanks in the game. Im from Singapore 
This is especially telling when you use the LFG function. I have no probs at all using the LFG as a tank.
Almost no queque time at all. However, it is quite a prob when i am looking for raid grps. I am geared enough to tank anything however there is just very little slots available for tanks sometimes.
A 25 man raid grp needs 5 Heals, 18 DPS and 2 Tanks.
A 10 man raid grp needs 3 Heals, 5 and 2 tanks
So tons of DPS are needed. too many tanks and they will get left out when raiding.
of course now with duel spec, they can dps for raids. But it will get so much harder to gear up that way.
Well some of my thoughts
Opps sry for the double post of ” Im from Singapore” lol
I would like to comment on one thing regarding prot warriors in pvp – arenas specifically.
If you play competitive arena, or read any arena based forums, such as arena junkies, you will find that prot warriors are one of the most OP class/specs at the moment in 3v3 bracket.
A properly geared prot pvp dmg can do INSANE amount of dmg – they will even out dps an arms warrior. If you get the gearing the way it’s supposed to be done you can land shield slam crits for 10-13k. This insane dmg, in conjunction with a prot warriors ability to lock someone down through use of stuns for inifinty, and with their superior survivability, makes them one of the most valuable spec/class for 3v3s. Pally, hunter, prot warrior is especially OP at the moment.
Re: the LFG system. Best advice: queue with a buddy that’s a tank, or be a tank and queue with a buddy that’s a DPS. Even with a mediocre healer, a tank and 1 good DPS will be able to carry 99% of heroic groups through. And it lets you both laugh over vent about how it’s even remotely possible for a level 80 to only be pulling 800 dps.
Randy asked in the show what addons help you to know when you lose threat on a target while tanking. Well I use TidyPlates for that. Any mobs that I lose aggro on will have a significantly larger Health Plate than the mobs that I am still tanking.
I’m sorry, but the UI looks very generic and awful. There are hundreds UI’s that use the same layout (fonts, frames, buttons, etc.). The only clean and thought-through UI I’d ever came across is the default one. Yes, it’s not the most practical one, but it can become one by adding some addons that improve it, but not replace completely.
My 5 cents.
Regarding the Prot Warriors in Arena and BG, they’re not OP, they’re fine and they have a very unique role to play – they basicaly tank the oponents, interuppting and putting pressure on them.
The Coehl UI is very nice despite what those stubborn default UI users say.
So far I haven’t run into too many people with gear undeserving of being in a certain instance (mainly FoS, PoS, HoR, the new ones)… but according to Blizzard, they take *all* the gear in your bags into account when determining if they should be eligible for the instances.
This is where you run into issues every once in a while when you get some guy who has queued as a tank, say, in order to avoid the long queue. They may have fantastic gear for DPS, but their tank set could be lacking and still allow them to join (ignoring the cases where they don’t have a tank set at all).
This has happened a couple times so far.
The other thing I’ve seen is people just running as an offspec so they feel better rolling on gear for it…
There’s a time and a place for being undergeared for an instance… trying to tank ICC 5-mans with a 2500 gearscore doesn’t rank up on the list.
Loved the tank talk this week, nice job.
Randy and Ravanna dating? never heard such worship of another player..
Ammunition will become an equipable item, and will no longer be consumable. More details on that later!
http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/cataclysm-stats-changes-masteries-terrain-phasing/
Great episode this week, ravanna was funny, and the winter veil song at the end was amazing
RE: yesnsei – yes they do have a unique roll to play; stunning and interrupting, which they can do infinitely, and ontop of that they can shield slam for 12k. I’ve done it on my warrior in arenas vs. people with 900+ resil. There are videos on youtube of blue geared prot warriors, who dont even know what they are doing, shield slamming for 9k. This is what makes them OP
go ask around on arenajunkies, or any competitive arena player
What were the iphone games again? I’ve not managed to find them via the normal methods..
Regarding the issue of tanks in the new Dungeon Finder.
I am currently leveling a level 61 resto druid and have been doing nothing but dungeons since level 15. My experience so far is that in the level 30-50 range most tanks are not really a tank and dupe the LFG system to get a quick group. Most of them have no tanking spec, wield 2H weapons and their technique is often limited to beating on one mob only.
After level 50 this abuse becomes less widespread, perhaps because the incoming damage and loss of agro is just too much for healers to put up with. Or perhaps because dungeons start to feature more and more ranged mobs, causing an early wipe when a tank does not know what he is doing.
At 55 you will start seeing Death Knights pop up in your random groups and often these claim they can tank. I have been with three dozen of these DK tanks and so far only one knew his job (and was patient, leading and communicative with the group, a rare quality in general).
I don’t know what will happen after 60, but I reckon basic tanking skills are a requirement one cannot get around as one heads for harder dungeons. That would make it all good, but so far the system is open to abuse and is abused as such. I might be biased, though, in the position of dedicated healer and coming from a Protection Warrior main, tanking for a year.
I forgot to add: I agree with Ravanna that the best way to learn tanking is by using the Dungeon Finder. Beside many opportunists I have met quite a few players who are trying to learn the ropes. Instead of branding them inadequate right away, I do take the time to share some of my techniques as well as getting reminded of a few my own tanking weaknesses (like breaking LoS).
Who knows. These players may look at me and say I am a newb healer.
I played a tank, but stopped after a while because of the pressure. If you make even one small mistake, then you take alot of crap from the rest of the group. Also the other thing that made me hate making my tank (but i stuck through it anyway) was the whole 540 defense cap thing…great show guys, keep it up.
To TANK or not to TANK … I’m a paladin. A holy paladin. I levelled as holy. I’ve dabbled as a tank and as ret (respeccing back to holy when I finished). BUT found it just too hard. Now we have dual specs. Great! BUT there’s a problem. As holy it takes a long time to kill. As Tank it takes a long time to kill. As holy you need special gear. As a Tank you need special gear. So … I chose to dual spec as Holy and Retrib. I use Ret for dailys, etc. I use Holy for instances. NOT tank. It’s just too hard to learn / get special gear as a tank. I don’t have the time to do this.
Until Blizzard does something about this then … the shortage will remain.
@ spookdya: http://blue.mmo-champion.com/28/22418971750-prot-warriors.html
@Yensei
seriously, ghostcrawler is your reference? please find a post from people that actually play arenas, not from a developer who probably doesn’t even play the game (which is true for a majority of the blizzard devs)
Here, I found it for you: http://www.arenajunkies.com/showthread.php?t=143402
here is more: http://www.arenajunkies.com/showthread.php?t=141557
http://www.arenajunkies.com/showthread.php?t=143104
http://www.arenajunkies.com/showthread.php?t=141114
Please tell me I won’t be playing THIS version of WoW in 2030. I know it’s a revenue stream, but I hope Blizzard won’t put off a WoW sequel for decades…
Ive been a Pally tank and Dk tank, Ive stopped playing WOW about half a year ago, since i thought(knew) that my chosen char (DK tank) prolly would not become any better in Dmg mitigation or get an aggro increaser, and it was extremly hard to get a group as DK tank, every one wanted someone else that could keep aggro better then the DK.
I’ll have to say as DK tank you have no aggro compared to a pally tank, as pally tank its extremly easy to keep aggro and the Dk tank is the directly opposite, as long as you have ok gear. I kinda think that a pally tank would tank better then a DK tank any day of the year in the same gear. But well its been along time since i played wow last and i have no intent of comming back to that game.
I agree with hynch, Tidy Plates is WAY cool for tanking. I pretty much use that and macros. Did you see the beta version? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90gPjODZlrA Threat on nameplates (yes, I know Aloft has it, too… but it’s a pain in the rump)… I can dump Omen, woo!
I wish I had a black box for tanking. That would help I could actually reply to half the tank blame I get when I’m working my butt off to keep the group alive.
I just finished leveling my 80 tankadin and I can tell you a few things that made me ask, “Why waste my time?”
1) it’s difficult to find good tanking gear.
2) high expectations from instance pugs
Few PUGs will tolerate a newbie tank. And for the newbie, every mistake you make risks wiping the group. Not having a high-enough defense rating can wipe the group. Not being able to hold aggro can wipe the group. Next thing you know, everyone is bad-talking you, you lose confidence, and you return to your gnome warrior where the jeers are more bearable.
It’s easier to be a newbie DPS because other members can pick-up the slack. There’s only one tank. There’s only one healer. Both those roles get a lot of criticism which is difficult for new kids.
I finally got around to listening to this podcast and heard “One day we’ll miss it (meeting stones).” On that note – does anyone remember having to find an “Imp Sap Rogue” and does anyone miss that?
Seriously, a complete rip off of Caith UI v14 which has been out for at least 6 months. This UI is not original and I’m disgusted that you think it is.