Gearing Tank Useful?

[crowdx]

Hi all,
so pre Cataclysm, I for one geared my new lvl 80 tanks using the LFD tool and within a few days had a pretty decent tank. Is this worth considering now in Cataclysm or are the PuGs such a mess with the new CC mechanics that keeping the tank with your normal team will get the tank geared and also the rest of the team just as effectively?
Any ideas?

[Enoah35]

I have been doing some heroics on lfd for my tank. I managed to complete out of 10 runs 3. And one of them were with my friend + people who I know, and another run were with 4 people of the same guild, different server. All in all my success of LFD with 4 complete random people were 1 out of 8. Which is... quite bad.

[crowdx]

I have been doing some heroics on lfd for my tank. I managed to complete out of 10 runs 3. And one of them were with my friend + people who I know, and another run were with 4 people of the same guild, different server. All in all my success of LFD with 4 complete random people were 1 out of 8. Which is... quite bad.

I was afraid of that lol, I presume the average PuG is still an AoE fest which really will not cut it.
I suppose the question long term is how long it will be before Blizz nerfs the heroics to allow more pugs to clear them.

[Bigfish]

Probably about the time people start getting better gear and being better able to tackle his stuff.

[HPAVC]

I just do the next content the random dungeon tells me I can do.

Its always a balance of time versus money, gearing your tank makes everything so smooth.

[Starbuck_Jones]

Interesting... Ive been playing my paladin tank exclusively. Ive used the LFD tool and not had any problems with the pugs ive been in. There have been a few close calls with dps hitting random mobs instead of the one im tanking and getting killed, but that is their lesson to learn.

Healers I feel sorry for. Some of the bosses and trash just dish out the hurt like noobs standing in defile.

[olibri1]

I pug'ed a lot this weekend with my tank, healer, and dps separately just trying to gear up since I was struggling to do heroics solo (5-box). What I can say is that the PUGs are horrendously bad. Real obvious stuff was clearly beyond their capability. At this point I'm thinking that I'll work on killing some first/second heroic bosses on my own (as opposed to full clear) and get some crafted gear. At this point, unless you already know 4/5 of the group you're doing a heroic with, don't bother.

[Enoah35]

Well I have queued as a tank, healer and dps. So far here is my experience on both Normal/heroic in LFD.

Tank:

Well already explained that I have completed far less in pugs than I would want to. Too many people dpsing the wrong targets, breaking CCs (and sometimes breaking their own CC...). Queues are almost instant yes but so far 70% of my lfd has been half finished dungeon or in front of the first boss, followed by 1 wipe and everyone leaves. (Typical Wotlk genre people)

Healer:

Everything is quite hard. I am better geared now since I was fortunate with some loots from normal dungeons. It doesn't help when people doesn't use CC, and also doesn't help when they don't focus on the same target (longer time, more stress on my mana). Since I don't heal much in comparison to their ginormous health pool, struggling on spells to use on aoe fights.

DPS.

Now this is the fun part. I successfully "Joined" about 7 of them with 30-40min queue. But I never actually managed to "do" the dungeon itself cause the tank instant leaves when he see "Stonecore Heroic" or "Shadowfang Keep Heroic". Yes 7 out of 7 I had the group disband before I do anything. Joined as Destro warlock btw, so I could bring some decent CCs on the table, and interrupts using the felhunter.


All in all, cataclysm has created another type of group. "Guild run Only" group, which doesn't help the LFD system but I cannot blame them. Although I do find quite annoying people saying things are easy mode already. Well of course its easy mode if you are playing with 4 other people with brains. Doesn't take 3 expansions to understand that playing with people who know how to play makes things easier.

[zenga]

To give you an idea: i'm raidleader / gm of my guild, and we've cleared 11 out of 12 bosses on hardmode in icc. We raid 1-2 nights a week. Quite a few are ex-hardcore raiders holding server firsts who picked up the game again after a break, who have jobs, etc ... Not saying that we are top players, but we are at least decent, and most very experienced.

Anyways: those guys (non boxers) approach the current hc's the same way as we would approach a raid: vent communication, mark targets, 1 'leader' who assign targets and discusses tacts. And while I'm boxing I hear quite often on vent a 'fuck here' and 'fuck there', followed by a corpse run when they do hc's.

They refuse to join any lfd group as everyone of them has seen nothing but drama, even on the fairly easy bosses. Only exception is when a tank / healer from a decent guild tries to setup a hc run over trade. That's about your only chance to pug it successful.

[zenga]

On a sidenote: if you play solo now as a dps, your boxing background is a huuuuuuuuuuuuge benefit nowadays since as a boxer you understand the focus fire / assist system better than 90% of the playerbase.

[Toned]

I just grinded normals till all 5 had 329. Then I started
With the easy heroics bosses for JPs + Bought shields and belts
For all 5 with their 4k JPs from Wotlk.

Then I started doing SFK and BRC giving my tank
Priority on the chaos orbs. I farmed his 6 just waiting on
Truegold for the belt/shield. Already made the chest.

Also in this time I got dragonmaw revered tank helm + exalted boots.
Almost done with Hyjal for the tank cloak then on to Ramktan for the bracer.

Alchemy trink or Eng Helm is also helpful.

At this point grinding up a leatherworker for epic shaman pieces and finishing up the other 2 sham
Eng Helms / epic bs caster shields.

TLDR - Gear priority = tank then healer. Pug = no

[olibri1]

Toned, which ones do you consider to be the "easy heroics"?

[Toned]

I suggest stopping by the Strategies forum, but here's a quick run down.

Heroic Blackrock Caverns- Worst case Scenario: First boss get 70 JPs + some loot.
HBRC - First Boss - Easy
HBRC - Second Boss - Medium to Hard (once you get the beams down easy)
HBRC - Third - Hard (can skip)
HBRC - Fourth - Extremely Hard to 5 box (skip it)
HBRC - Fifth - Easy to Medium (once you understand the fight mechanics VERY EASY).

Heroic Shadow Fang Keep
HSFK - First Boss - Easy to Medium (Don't top off your group till just before Darkangel, Dispell, Interrupt)
HSFK - Second Boss - Easy - Kill the Adds
HSFK - Third Boss - Medium - Kill the Adds, Or to make him Easy pull to Courtyard... Can Skip
HSFK - Fourth Boss - Easy to Medium (Very easy when you get the fight down)... Strafe back and forth during Green Light Phase... DONT MOVE During Red Light... Dodge the Frost Shit.
HSFK - Fifth Boss - VERY EASY... Dodge the Pistol Barrage, Dispell the Debuff/Interrupt

Heroic Vortex Pinnacle - 1 Quick Boss + $$
HVP - First boss - Easy (Healer Intensive unless you have 4 shamans).
Bonus: Lots of Volatile Air for Professions / AHing.

Heroic DeadMines - 2 Quick Bosses
HDM - First Boss - Easy (just dodge the aoe beam).
HDM - Second Boss - Easy to Medium ( I think he's easy just lots of movement)
HDM - Third Boss - Haven't spent the time for a good strat... I just do the first 2 for the 140 JPs and loot.

Heroic Grim Batol - 1 Quick Boss
HGB - First Boss - Easy just kill the purple adds dodge the blitz/ground siege.
HGB - Second Boss - Pretty hard that shield hurts - Skip.


TLDR; Farm BRC and SFK for JPs and Chaos orbs. Snipe the other bosses if you need JPs.

This is a decent list I'll update the Dungeon & Raid strats as I do more. There are a couple that I haven't done that I'm sure can be 5boxed all the way through or atleast a few more boss snipes till you are geared.

[olibri1]

Thanks for the tips. I'll give that a try.

[Tyval]

Thanks for the list Toned,

Will be a big help when I get to the try heroics phase.