Gearing 101

Well the last post was a little rant-y. Sorry folks, annoying day on the internet.

As something of a counterpoint to the last piece, I've assembled a little FAQ over on MainTankadin concerning some of the questions neophyte Tankadins ask again and again about their gear.

Here's the finished result. As I mention in the post, the whole thing is my opinion, a slightly more verbose regurgitation of the kind of advice I give to any new Tankadin, along with links to useful information on the subject.

Is Uncrushable/Uncrittable necessary? - A Word to the Neophyte Tankadin...

Yes it bloody well is!

If you're farming the content, maybe you can afford to be a bit sloppy, but for progression stuff (and this is the stuff you're wanting gear checks for, right?) then you need to do everything you can to prevent any random burst damage.

That is always the first concern of a good tank. And you're here because you want to be a good tank, right?

I don't care if leaving you slightly below the crit cap gives you another 500 health, it won't save your ass if that 4k boss hit becomes an 8k boss crit. Passive uncrittability (that's 490 Defense for raid bosses, 485 for everyone else) is so pathetically easy to get it shouldn't even be a question.

Uncrushability can take a bit more work, but it's equally worth it. And it can be disheartening to see all those raiding tanks with 15k+ health whilst you're struggling to break 12k health. However, it's when you have 12k health and trying to tank Prince Malechazzar that you really, desperately need to make sure he doesn't drop a nasty crush on your head.

If you just wanna have a massive health pool that looks impressive when people invite you to PuGs then ignore me. No, seriously, ignore me, ignore the rest of the voices that chant "490, 102.4%" like it's a mantra designed to bring forth some horrid, world-ending god. (and who knows, maybe it is.)

You are a precious and unique snowflake and you will do things your own way. In fact, who the hell do we think we are coming on here and telling you how to be an effective tank?

No raids = no updates.

Well, it's apparently been two weeks since I updated this thing. Time flies when you're not raiding that much I guess.

Yep, CD's 25-man raiding is officially sitting in the toilet, although we're doing things to move us out of that, but the rebuilding's going to be slow. I'm not sure if it's that important anymore since Blizzard seems to be doing it's darndest to get Wrath of the Lich King out before Thanksgiving/Christmas time.

At the moment, I honestly haven't been signing into WoW much, if at all. I have no tank equipment to grind for and whilst I could put some work into gathering more Retribution gear or levelling another alt, none of those options seem to be that appealing.

I briefly considered another Raid group, possibly even another server, but I rejected those notions. It's not going to be worth it for another 4-6 months of raiding. When WotLK comes around, the fact that any raid can be a 10-man raid will help stabilise my situation more. In fact, I have the overwhelming temptation to focus soley on 10-man content in WotLK.

Instead, I've been familiarising myself with the new 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons for a tabletop game me and some friends will eb playing. I've also been blasting through some of my neglected Computer RPGs (currently working through Neverwinter Nights 2 and I may soon work up the energy to try the frankly frighteningly open-ended Oblivion).

Ain't No Cure For The Summertime Blues

It must be summer, because CD's sufferring another membership crisis.

A bunch of our raiders have decided to go to another group. Others are giving up the game and some have just decided to go afk for two months.

This is nothing new, but I'm reminded of the old saying about the broom: change the head and handle enough times and it's not the same broom anymore. CD isn't the group of friends people imagine it to be. It's a tapestry of cliques held together by the promise of raid content. When that fails, they go elsewhere/

It'll probably be late July/early August at the earliest before we're able to field a 25-man again, assuming we get some promising candidates. And if Blizzard actually manage to get WotLK out in October/November then it'll effectively kill interest in raiding for a lot of folks. No point in working on it when it won't matter in three months.

At the moment it's taking me all my willpower just to log on and scrape together a group for ZA or Karazhan. I'm increasingly tempted to stop playing until WotLK. At least then I won't have to worry about getting 25 bodies together for a progression raid.

Look before you post

Well, I answered the a few posts in the Gear Check/Advice thread over at Maintankadin until the bile rose in my throat and a red mist descended over my eyes.

In the year I've been reading Maintankadin, the knowledge base has increased remarkably, with guides on gear progression, uncrushability and even gems and enchantments. Almost every silly, needy question has been answered there and the one that hasn't; "what level of gear do I need to tank x" has been answered over at Tankspot. These guides will answer 90% of the questions people seem to ask, with the rest being generic "rate my gear" threads which whilst banal are kinda acceptable.

Perhaps it's just me, but if I'm looking for information on uncrushability, I would immediately head for the big thread marked "Uncrushability Guide" rather than write a post saying "hay guyz, how iz I crushed?".

I suppose I shouldn't be too harsh. I can remember the bleak days before I discovered Maintankadin, and I was as lost and dazed as any of them when I first joined up. There is a lot of information to be assimilated and not everyone has the inclination to do so. Also, since most guilds and raidgroups will only have one or two Tankadins in them, it's hard to turn to someone in-game for informed advice or reassurance.

That said, it would be nice if people who see someone with the same problem as them would just read how they solved it, or comment there, rather than just throw out an extremely open-ended "rate my gear" thread. Specifics are your friends.