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[moojito]

Aye, having each continent with a clear progression path sounds really good. If you really hate one zone, there's an alternative over the water you can go to instead. Makes me sad that I have one of each class (apart from a shammy) at 70 or higher already! I might crank out another mage if they do (or have done) something about the lengthy drinking-related downtime. Aside from that, levelling as frost was a hoot.

 

[Dunlop]

Problem would be a lack of Emblems leveling up though, wouldn't it? For tanking gear.

I think so also, I leveled my priest about 90% through dungeons. I was insta killed a few times in my first heroic and this was a dungeon I was very familiar with and did not pull aggro (aoe dmg)

I couldnt image a tank being able to just instantly transition from normal -->heroic

 

[mclem]

It's actually easier to tank at 80 than while leveling, because a lot of times you will have an undergeared healer who can't pull you through etc. At 80, if you have a geared healer with you, it doesn't really matter.

That doesn't help if the healers you *do* get refuse to heal for you, though. I'd basically just say "keep trying until you get a healer/group who isn't a dick about things" - but then that's easy for me to say since I'm not in the position of having to do that.

 

[TimeKillr]

Doesn't Valen purify the Sunwell after you beat back Kil'jaeden? That was a pretty pimp scene. Plus, he is in an homage to A New Hope man!

I know I said I wouldn't bother trying anymore, but I tried another normal Utgarde Keep and same result. =/ I picked up the rest of the Cobalt Set, ready to tank. Was running through things faster than before, but I was kicked because the healer didn't want to heal someone just starting out. A new tank's greatest enemy is now the players who...demand tanks. =/

That's a shit healer then.

Seriously - when I heal, I don't give a shit if the tank's starting out. At least it gives me stuff to do other than throwing up a rejuv and spamming wild growth.

 

[borghe]

I'm really thinking they are going to remake a large chunk of the Old World in terms of geography landscape. First of all, it's cheap for the modelers. Deforming existing meshes is nothing, and we all know that Blizzard has an ABUNDANCE of artists for texturing. I really think most would view Cataclysm as a failure if there were a total of like a dozen zones from old WoW redone.. I also imagine that leveling will change drastically as a result. While the actual quests probably won't change for 80% of it (I actually think that's a pretty safe number) my guess is that in that 80% they will change frequency/quantities and locations to be more in line with BC and WotLK. Between leveling a DK and now leveling my first BC character (eh, so sue me) leveling a BE through the teens is a COMPLETELY different experience than vanilla wow. I do see them redoing the rest of vanilla wow like that now. When vanilla wow first launched, they had to give you days (weeks?) worth of content for playtime. At this point vanilla wow should be like a couple or a few days at most and the real content being BC, Northrend, and Cataclysm. Think about it.. the primary retail sales right now are either the 10 day trial or the Battlechest. It makes sense that they want to redo it to get people through vanilla wow quicker... and speeding up leveling and reducing downtime in general will just give people less time with their class. they need to make the zone-to-zone traffic more efficient also.

I am also guessing that you will get flying mounts by 40 and train in epic flying by 60.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

As for the question about Frost DKs in Cataclysm: They are just going to make Strength based 1Hers. Although, my personal thought was that you could just allow full runeforging of Agility --> Strength and you wouldn't have to make a full new item set.

As an enhancement shaman I find this change silly, since unless they change anything else, a strength 1 hander would only be good for one class. Much like rogues with daggers.

 

[mclem]

As an enhancement shaman I find this change silly, since unless they change anything else, a strength 1 hander would only be good for one class. Much like rogues with daggers.

Well, it's hardly conventional, but I'd love a strength 1h weapon for my heroic tanking set. They fit nicely for paladin or warrior tanks who aren't needed to tank for some portion of a fight (See Putricide-25, for instance) and so can up their DPS a little for that portion while staying in a tanking get-up.

 

[Yaweee]

Well, it's hardly conventional, but I'd love a strength 1h weapon for my heroic tanking set. They fit nicely for paladin or warrior tanks who aren't needed to tank for some portion of a fight (See Putricide-25, for instance) and so can up their DPS a little for that portion while staying in a tanking get-up.

Also for some PVP specs of Warriors and Paladins, where they want to deal some damage but have the benefit of a shield.

 

[moojito]

Maybe they'll add in some use for strength for enhancement. Or maybe, just like 1.5 speed 1 handers are no good for shammies, they'll just have the extra drop from some boss. Just like if a spellpower neck dropped from a boss it'd be no good for you, the strength axe will be no good.

There was mention a few posts back about how tricky it must be to go from normal -> heroic tanking. There's actually a huge amount of boe tanking stuff available if you have some gold or a lot of alts with professions. My most recent tank (a paladin) went into heroics straight away due to all the boe/crafted stuff I had waiting.

 

[Flib]

I think so also, I leveled my priest about 90% through dungeons. I was insta killed a few times in my first heroic and this was a dungeon I was very familiar with and did not pull aggro (aoe dmg)

I couldnt image a tank being able to just instantly transition from normal -->heroic

When we leveled to 80 at the beginning of WotLK, we only got emblems from heroics at 80, you can build a set through crafting, rep rewards and dungeon drops at 80.

One of the keys now is that when you do a heroic as dps at 80, most tanks won't need any of the tank gear so you should be able to roll on that. Plus you will be earning emblems out your ass.

 

[Entropia]

Your account will remain accessible for play until April 15, 2010 5:15:29 AM, when the remaining pre-paid time expires.

I'm quitting. After what just happened to me, fuck WoW.

 

[Dunlop]

When we leveled to 80 at the beginning of WotLK, we only got emblems from heroics at 80, you can build a set through crafting, rep rewards and dungeon drops at 80.

One of the keys now is that when you do a heroic as dps at 80, most tanks won't need any of the tank gear so you should be able to roll on that. Plus you will be earning emblems out your ass.

yeah, I had mentioned to start as DPS when first running heroics. It's true about the emblems, I think I had 2 pieces of my T9 set within 2 days of hitting 80

As for healers refusing to heal...wow Why bother even playing if you don't want it to be a little more challenging.

I had an issue last week, where the MT just kept pulling all the mobs and running out of LOS from me...the problem was he was losing aggro on some of them so I was trying to heal the DPS and then run out to throw him a heal, everyone in the group was complainging to he to which he reponded "it was fine". After about 5 mins half the party was wipped. I apologized to the rest of the group and left because my vote to kick went unanswered.

He started spamming me afterwars about what a shit healer I was. The sad thing is the dungeon was AN, which I could have healed drunk and blindfolded

 

[Kintaro]

When we leveled to 80 at the beginning of WotLK, we only got emblems from heroics at 80, you can build a set through crafting, rep rewards and dungeon drops at 80.

One of the keys now is that when you do a heroic as dps at 80, most tanks won't need any of the tank gear so you should be able to roll on that. Plus you will be earning emblems out your ass.

Well, I guess I can try to give that a shot. Knowing my luck though, I'll queue up as a DPS, then get bitched out that I don't have Prot specced as an alt (which would be Arms since I like to PvP). :lol

 

[Dunlop]

Well, I guess I can try to give that a shot. Knowing my luck though, I'll queue up as a DPS, then get bitched out that I don't have Prot specced as an alt (which would be Arms since I like to PvP). :lol

To risk sounding like a snooty shit.

I have never run a heroic where there has been a comment on a DPS spec or performance. If anything goes wrong it is the healer or MT's fault. I would periodically run DPS so I could just chillax.

the downside is the 15 minute wait to queue vs 1 min

Raiding is obviously a different story

 

[Milpool]

I've found that whenever I'm spamming for someone in a trade, adding "Tipping 20g" Is always a quick way to get tells

I'm not proud of the things I offered throughout the day... Luckily some dude offered to do it for free just as I was about to log, I tipped of course. There's also a few on the AH today -_-

Anyway, I dinged 80 a few days ago and am doing around 2k single target dps but I can't queue for heroics, is it something to do with heirloom gear being level 1 items? Because I have a few pieces inc my bow.

 

[FLEABttn]

I'm not proud of the things I offered throughout the day... Luckily some dude offered to do it for free just as I was about to log, I tipped of course. There's also a few on the AH today -_-

Anyway, I dinged 80 a few days ago and am doing around 2k single target dps but I can't queue for heroics, is it something to do with heirloom gear being level 1 items? Because I have a few pieces inc my bow.

Probably. I have a friend who had that problem, was wearing the mail heirloom chest on his hunter and couldn't queue for anything. Gave him a blue leather chest and it opened them up for him.

 

[moojito]

There's always a ton of blue level 80 mail stuff on the AH, and you should be able to pick up the engineering gun pretty cheap now, as well.

 

[Kintaro]

So, what's my best path here as a level 71 Warrior? Just keep on trucking through Wrath leveling while enjoying some PvP on the side (aka, getting my face kicked in for honor so I can gear up to compete)? Then, when I hit 80. Cash in on rep gear for DPS equip to run some instances while looking to pad out tanking gear? Then...hit up instances as said tank?

Oh yeah, I'm damn close to maxing out skinning...maybe I'll look into blacksmithing or jewelcrafting. I tried BSing once, wanted to kill myself around the thorium stage. =/

 

[Swag]

http://www.wow.com/2010/03/03/shifting-perspectives-tanks-and-the-barrier-to-entry/

This was a nice read, thanks for posting.

 

[Macattk15]

I'm quitting. After what just happened to me, fuck WoW.

Can't just say that without explanation!

 

[Mr Nash]

When I'm healing heroics, I only care if the tank is def capped. If he's still undergeared, the DPS can dial back their damage. Of course this rarely happens because a lot of people will be all "Look at my recount score! =D " Usually if the poor guy gets vote kicked, I'll leave the group too. It's funny, people are constantly whining and crying that there's a lack of tanks in the game atm, yet when someone comes along and tries to get a tank ready groups are all "You're undergeared, go home noob!" or something. Doesn't do much to help grow a pool of potential tanks. Sometimes I think about half of the WoW population should be sterilized for the good of the future. Arguably the stupidest, most unpleasant community in online gaming.

 

[thatbox]

As for healers refusing to heal...wow Why bother even playing if you don't want it to be a little more challenging.

I'm not trying to excuse anyone for being a dick, but a lot of the time this is just Blizzard's fault for making raiders do the heroic daily (by making them reward the Frost emblems they need for progression gear/crafting recipes/Shadow's Edge/etc.). Many of them don't want to do heroics anymore, don't care about the challenge of working through with new people, and just want to be in and out. Some heroics can be done in 8 minutes, which is almost as long as the RP at the start of Old Strat, which is why you'll often see people leaving immediately when that dungeon comes up. The last thing they want to do after a couple hours of wiping on The Lich King or whatever is wipe in a heroic, or be in there for 45 minutes when they just want to get to bed or get off the computer.

On the flip side, this provides a steady stream of well-geared people into the system, that, even if they don't really want to be there, help the whole thing move along faster in general.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

So, what's my best path here as a level 71 Warrior? Just keep on trucking through Wrath leveling while enjoying some PvP on the side (aka, getting my face kicked in for honor so I can gear up to compete)? Then, when I hit 80. Cash in on rep gear for DPS equip to run some instances while looking to pad out tanking gear? Then...hit up instances as said tank?

Oh yeah, I'm damn close to maxing out skinning...maybe I'll look into blacksmithing or jewelcrafting. I tried BSing once, wanted to kill myself around the thorium stage. =/

I'm currently trying to level BS on my DK at the moment. I really want to rip out my eyes. Takes so damn long.

 

[Cipherr]

It's actually easier to tank at 80 than while leveling, because a lot of times you will have an undergeared healer who can't pull you through etc. At 80, if you have a geared healer with you, it doesn't really matter.

http://www.wow.com/2010/03/03/shifting-perspectives-tanks-and-the-barrier-to-entry/

Wow I really hope the expansion eases that alot for new tanks. Far to many times Ive been running heroics and had some loudmouth dps start bitching about aggro and Ive had to jump to the tanks defense. Shit is ridiculous.

 

[Rapstah]

How can I get Exalted with Stormwind before level 40 (I'm a Draenei)? I'm currently at 14288/21000 revered and I've done basically every single quest in Elwynn, Westfall, Duskwood and Redridge and now I can't figure out any other major sources of reputation. I know I have two Stockades quest and at least one Deadmines quest undone, so that's at least 1500 rep.

 

[Angry Grimace]

How can I get Exalted with Stormwind before level 40 (I'm a Draenei)? I'm currently at 14288/21000 revered and I've done basically every single quest in Elwynn, Westfall, Duskwood and Redridge and now I can't figure out any other major sources of reputation. I know I have two Stockades quest and at least one Deadmines quest undone, so that's at least 1500 rep.

Can't you still buy rep from the cloth turn in guy? You mostly give him Runecloth which costs almost nothing because people farming the Baron's mount tend to have thousands of them.

 

[Rapstah]

Can't you still buy rep from the cloth turn in guy?

Additional Runecloth is a level 50 req quest. I've done all the ones up to my level. I really want to buy an epic horse as my first epic mount at 40 just because I hate Elekkkkkkks.

EDIT: What's the spillover rate for reputation you get for other main factions? I was thinking about doing the NE starting area as well and maybe follow up with some other low-level reputation rich areas.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Additional Runecloth is a level 50 req quest. I've done all the ones up to my level. I really want to buy an epic horse as my first epic mount at 40 just because I hate Elekkkkkkks.

psssshs. Epic mount at level 40. So spoiled.

 

[Rapstah]

psssshs. Epic mount at level 40. So spoiled.

Hey, I got the epic Warlock mount pre-BC on my main. That's in the past now (although I'll never forgive Blizzard for lowering the regular mount level to 20).

 

[joelseph]

I'm not trying to excuse anyone for being a dick, but a lot of the time this is just Blizzard's fault for making raiders do the heroic daily (by making them reward the Frost emblems they need for progression gear/crafting recipes/Shadow's Edge/etc.). Many of them don't want to do heroics anymore, don't care about the challenge of working through with new people, and just want to be in and out. Some heroics can be done in 8 minutes, which is almost as long as the RP at the start of Old Strat, which is why you'll often see people leaving immediately when that dungeon comes up. The last thing they want to do after a couple hours of wiping on The Lich King or whatever is wipe in a heroic, or be in there for 45 minutes when they just want to get to bed or get off the computer.

On the flip side, this provides a steady stream of well-geared people into the system, that, even if they don't really want to be there, help the whole thing move along faster in general.

I haven't done a heroic in weeks, fuck frost badges. I log in to raid, that's it. I love it.

Edit: I am Priest, I get burnt out so fast unless it is progression.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

Man, I haven't needed frost emblems in a couple weeks for tier 10, but I still love doing the daily heroic. Takes almost no time, and I get triumphs for gems and frosts for saronites

 

[FLEABttn]

Man, I haven't needed frost emblems in a couple weeks for tier 10, but I still love doing the daily heroic. Takes almost no time, and I get triumphs for gems and frosts for saronites

Lucky you. I already have 4/5 t10 but with how ridiculous some of the offset stuff is, on top of having shit luck with cloaks and trinkets, I'm looking at another 190 frost badges.

 

[J-Rzez]

Yeah, even the devs stated that the frost emblem grind was a little over the top. It's very-very tedious being the only way to score tier pieces. I mean, I guess there's a plus side knowing that you'll get said piece eventually, opposed to just having a token drop, but at the same time it's so time consuming. That's why they added in those ICC quests I firmly believe, along with already getting 2 a day from heroics and a weekly raid.

That said though, I'm nearing the end of my frost emblem grind. One off piece to go really. : /

 

[moojito]

With regards to the tanking while levelling in Cataclysm post, I think the bliz post recently asking (or stating, it seemed rhetorical) "is threat fun?" suggests that tanks might edge towards the paladin style "tanking button" ie righteous fury. The threat boost from these things (bear form, defensive stance, frost presence) will go through the roof and threat will just be a non issue.

 

[yacobod]

is threat really an issue for any tanking class?

its retarded easy to threat as a warrior, especially after the buff to devestate its pretty OP

 

[Dunlop]

I'm not trying to excuse anyone for being a dick, but a lot of the time this is just Blizzard's fault for making raiders do the heroic daily (by making them reward the Frost emblems they need for progression gear/crafting recipes/Shadow's Edge/etc.).

True, but also if you are at the uber elite raider status you should be able to easily keep an undergeared tank alive. I am nowhere near that status and all the heroics are a joke for me to heal with either me holy or disc spec. I mean the difference must be under 10mins for a "rough" run

 

[Tamanon]

is threat really an issue for any tanking class?

its retarded easy to threat as a warrior, especially after the buff to devestate its pretty OP

Druids have an issue with it, if only because their early threat generation takes a while to ramp up.

 

[Angry Grimace]

is threat really an issue for any tanking class?

its retarded easy to threat as a warrior, especially after the buff to devestate its pretty OP

I've gone over threat on a tank just DPSing once, and that was on Hodir when I specced Frost DK so my Frost Strikes were hitting for like 20K.

It's not threat capacity, it's that it's annoying to do AoE threat on a warrior compared to a paladin, which requires almost literally no effort since Paladins have a full on threat rotation.

 

[Bisnic]

Cairne has done shit
Velen purified the Sunwell, as someone said
Mekkatorque and Vol'Jin are gonna get theirs soon when they retake Gnomer/Echo Isles
The Blood Elf Guy.. uh?
Magni is brothers with Brann and Muradin
Tyrande will I'm sure be more active in Cataclysm with Malfurion returning from the Emerald Dream

About the Blood elf leader, he does take part of the Quel'delar sword questline when you go back to the Sunwell to give the legendary sword back to the elves(and failing to do so, it's funny to see him fly on the other side of the room when he tried to pick up the sword.)

 

[FLEABttn]

Yeah, even the devs stated that the frost emblem grind was a little over the top. It's very-very tedious being the only way to score tier pieces. I mean, I guess there's a plus side knowing that you'll get said piece eventually, opposed to just having a token drop, but at the same time it's so time consuming. That's why they added in those ICC quests I firmly believe, along with already getting 2 a day from heroics and a weekly raid.

That said though, I'm nearing the end of my frost emblem grind. One off piece to go really. : /

A little over the top is an understatement. If you got for the 5 pieces of main gear, (helm, shoulders, chest, hands, legs), the belt, the cloak, and the trinket, you're looking at 575 frost badges iirc. 288 days from grinding heroics alone. Even in a completely fictionalized world where the final bosses and VoA were available from day 1, you're doing full clears, and you're only doing 10 mans, you're getting only 40 badges a week, so you'd still be grinding heroics for about 100 days.

 

[Angry Grimace]

A little over the top is an understatement. If you got for the 5 pieces of main gear, (helm, shoulders, chest, hands, legs), the belt, the cloak, and the trinket, you're looking at 575 frost badges iirc. 288 days from grinding heroics alone. Even in a completely fictionalized world where the final bosses and VoA were available from day 1, you're doing full clears, and you're only doing 10 mans, you're getting only 40 badges a week, so you'd still be grinding heroics for about 100 days.

25m guilds tend to run 10m also, so it's more like 60 a week plus ~5 for the upcoming Ruby Sanctum, which I doubt I'll still be around for.

 

[J-Rzez]

25m guilds tend to run 10m also, so it's more like 60 a week plus ~5 for the upcoming Ruby Sanctum, which I doubt I'll still be around for.

I wonder if the new skill trees, stats and such will take place then as well. That maybe my last hurrah as well considering I'm not liking where they're taking things so far : /

is threat really an issue for any tanking class?

For wars and druids, yes if it's an AoE pack. You have to give them a little more time to build up hate. Otherwise Mages, Locks, DKs, and Hunters yank threat away from them with ease.

 

[FLEABttn]

25m guilds tend to run 10m also, so it's more like 60 a week plus ~5 for the upcoming Ruby Sanctum, which I doubt I'll still be around for.

Yeah, but I don't do 25 mans. So those aren't badges I get.

 

[arhra]

I wonder if the new skill trees, stats and such will take place then as well. That maybe my last hurrah as well considering I'm not liking where they're taking things so far : /

Ruby Sanctum is 3.3.5. New talents/stat changes/etc will be 4.0 (which probably won't hit until ~1 month before Cataclysm is released, going by TBC/WotLK; and even then it'll likely be a month or two behind the Cataclysm beta, so things will probably change again when it actually launches).

is threat really an issue for any tanking class?

As a ret paladin, on an aoe pull i can pull aggro with ease against just about any tank other than a paladin (with druids being next-best, then warriors, and DKs the worst). Heck, i can pull aggro on targets i'm not even directly attacking if the tank isn't great... Generally not a major issue in heroics though, since i can take a few hits and mobs die too quickly to kill me most of the time.

 

[Cipherr]

like 1500+ gold just for the gems needed to regem my hunter to all Arpen. I passed the passive threshold where it was a dps increase long ago but have been putting it off. Sucks.

 

[yacobod]

killed the lich king tonight in 25m, only took us an hour, cant say how much the 5% buff helped or not, but ppl finally werent dropping defile in raid and what not

glad we finally got it, was tired of wiping and watching that opening rp

 

[firex]

Wow I really hope the expansion eases that alot for new tanks. Far to many times Ive been running heroics and had some loudmouth dps start bitching about aggro and Ive had to jump to the tanks defense. Shit is ridiculous.

Tanking is going to be way easier in the expansion. No more defense gear/defense cap = easier to gear up which will make being a leveling tank a lot easier, or being a new heroic tank. The defense cap is so retarded right now anyway, and they proved they can make tank gear still interesting by giving different avoidance ratings instead.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I wonder if the new skill trees, stats and such will take place then as well. That maybe my last hurrah as well considering I'm not liking where they're taking things so far : /



For wars and druids, yes if it's an AoE pack. You have to give them a little more time to build up hate. Otherwise Mages, Locks, DKs, and Hunters yank threat away from them with ease.

The only mobs that this matters on die from said AoE in like 10 seconds though, which is why I'll drop Howling Blasts and D&Ds regardless of who's tanking in a shit faceroll heroic.

In raids, this isn't necessarily all that common since your group knows what to do and usually doesn't do stupid crap.

 

[border]

I'm an 80 DK with 80+ Frost Badges. What should I spend them on?

I don't run any raids other than the occaisional pug VOA/pug weekly, though I may want to start doing Icecrown in the coming months, if only to see the content a couple times -- mostly I'd just like to maximize my DPS in 5-mans.

Here's my current gear set:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Daggerspine&cn=Relak

I'm told that losing the T9 set bonus is not worth it until you have several pieces of T10, and I doubt I'll really be dedicated enough to get enough Frost badges for several pieces of T10. Should I just focus on maximizing gearscore, or should I go for some pieces that have less effect on gearscore but might have some nice buffs (264 trinket, 264 cape, 264 sigil)? Should I get a piece of T10 (or the 264 non-set items) and then buy the T9 shoulders so I can keep my set bonus? Suggestions welcome.

 

[Xabora]

Chest -> Gloves (VoA) -> Helm -> Shoulders -> Cape/Belt -> (If Unholy, Sigil) -> Cape/Belt -> Legs (VoA)

Should help.