A Hunter's Story

Hmm, so I thought I had posted that we had family in town for a week so i wouldn’t be posting during then… But apparently not… Soooo, that’s where I’ve been. Well, that and then not playing a whole lot, so not a lot of content for here. It’s summer, I’m busy, and things are kinda crazy in the office. 2 Associate Vice Presidents and 1 Assistant Director resigned in the last 2 weeks, and there’s at least 3 more planning to leave soon too. Yeah, it’s crazy. So if I don’t post for a while, now you know why. And if you check back in a week and there’s 7 posts… Well, at least it’ll be a surprise! Lol.

Ok, so I’ve been in ICC quite a few times, but interestingly enough, I hadn’t downed Rotface (on 10 man) until last night. Done him on 25, done him on my healer, but never on my main on 10 man. Well, tried, but never succeeded. So I find it interesting, ironic, and funny that what do we do differently to make it work? Have the Hunter tank!

Now, these tips will probably help other tanks too, but I figure I just have to share as a reminder that yes, Hunters can DPS. Yes, Hunters can Heal (well, ok, never done a raid as a healer, but we can at least tank-heal things where our pet is tanking! lol). And yes, Hunters can Tank. HUNTERS FTW! Haha.

Ok, now the actual details, before someone thinks I mean that a hunter can run up and Mele Tank the Lich King. So I was actually in a good PuG. Run with these guys before, and this time happened to be on 10-man. Actually, we started one night, wiped on Rot a couple times, called it a night, and scheduled to go back in and try again later. So we did. Part of the problem was that neither of our tanks had ever succeeded in off-tanking Rot. So those of us who had seen it done were offering pointers, and no one really minded wiping because they were learning. They were listening and learning (such a different dynamic than the other day!). So we tried a number of times. Then we decided to change it up and I’d try tanking. Well, kite-tanking. And on our first try, we got down to the dreaded 0% wipe. Yes, Rot had less than 60k health left when the last person died. ZOMG! So then next try we had a healer DC, then another random prob, and then we successfully downed him. Yay us! Hunter tank FTW!

Soooooo onto the how. It’s actually pretty simple, and very reminiscent of Nax. Basically, it’s a combination of Distracting Shot, Disengage, Frost Trap, and strafing. So basically, the tank in plate armor keeps Rot’s attention in a simple Tank & Spank. The tank in mail armor starts off as DPS. As the fight goes on, Rot will create a small ooze. Whoever gets it runs out near (NOT ON TOP OF) the Hunter. When the next person gets a small ooze on them, they run out and merge it with the other one. They create a Large Ooze. At this point, the Hunter uses DS to get the Large Ooze on him/her. They then just kite it around the outer edge of the room. AotW will help mitigate the dmg of the green circles of death on the floor, but avoid them when possible to help the healer. Remember though – healers can heal you through the green circle of death. They can’t heal you if the Large Ooze hits you. Quite simply, the Large Ooze will kill you if it catches up. This is also why you need to have it merge near, not on top of, you. In one of our pulls, it merged almost directly on top of me, so when he went after me he killed me dead real quick. Where as sometimes when kiting, I had to run through the green goo. My health got low and I had to pop a health pot, but I lived. So word of advice – avoid the green goo of death on the floor, but avoid the large ooze more.

That’s really all there is to it. When I had the opportunity, I threw some extra DPS on Rot, but mostly just kited the ooze. Eventually it breaks apart, and periodically a new one will spawn. So don’t stand near Rot when it breaks up, and if a new one appears, grab it. If the ooze is getting too close, use Disengage to get away. Drop Frost traps to slow it down (well, I don’t know if it actually does, but it makes you feel better at least, lol). And that’s basically it.

So for that first wipe we had when I was tanking, it was all just bad coincidence. Somehow, our ooze just broke up, but then 2 new ones spawned at the same time that green goo came out. So I was standing in an area that was clear, saw an ooze pop up and grabbed its agro. Of course, that was the same time the goo appeared underneath me, and the other ooze appeared on the opposite side of the one I had. So it cut through the group as I tried to side-step in order to get a clear shot at the other one, and the heals just had no chance to keep up on either the group or I. So once I went down the 2 oozies went amuck and decimated the group. Still not really sure how we had the 2 pop up so close together, but seriously – less than 60k health! And no, 2 large oozies is not the end of the world. On our successful attempt, at one point the second ooze came up. Everyone’s initial reaction over vent was “Oh no, we’re gonna wipe” basically. Then those comments were followed by “Oh, nevermind, he’s got both of them!” because I quickly and calmly picked up the second one and kited it as well. The first one soon after broke up and I was back to kiting just one. No biggie, lol.

So anyway, I hope that helps people tanking on Rot. It’s not that it’s really hard to do, you just have to nail 2 things. 1 – land the taunt. 2 – don’t get hit. And that goes for whomever is tanking the oozies, whether Hunter or other. And no, you cannot taunt the little oozies. Don’t even waste the GCD on them. Just wait until it combines with another and forms a large ooze. Then taunt the large one. And all the while? Let your pet stack some nice deeps on Rot! Might as well give him as much damage as he’s giving out, right? Hunter tank ftw – we tank and dps at the same time! Lol.

See! Occasionally Bliz does listen to us! Guess that’s what happens when their player base of a few Million players “march” on their HQ… lol. Told you there was no reason to worry yet!

Why am I not that worried about RealID on the Forums? First, because it’s not implemented yet, which means it still has great potential for change. For example, Bliz realized how stupid it was for them to post the real names of their own employees, so they retracted that part of it. I mean, the forums are a huge group of computer-savvy people, and it’s open to the public. Plus it’s already prime target area for hackers. So why wouldn’t you expect them to, just for fun, find the real life poster and start sending them stalker videos, pictures of their houses, and everything else that says “if we want to mess with you, we can. especially now we know your name!”

So if Bliz realized that they needed to protect the identity of their staff, then there’s still time for them to realize that they should also respect (and protect) the privacy of their customers.

But here’s the second reason. I don’t have to post in the forums. In fact, I rarely do. And if Bliz went and made it retroactive…? I’d delete my old posts. I don’t have to post, so I don’t have to worry about my name appearing on there.

So why would I delete my posts and refrain from posting anything new? Because in the WoW world, I go there as Xanther (or my various character names associated with this identity). I don’t go there with my real name out in front. There are just too many things that could go wrong / be a pain, by directly, publicly associating my WoW identity with my RL one on the web. No, it’s not because I go around doing things I wouldn’t want other people to know about me (like flaming or trolling forums, creating a bad name for myself, or any number of things). I try to be more of the “do unto others…” type of person. But it’s just because I choose to keep the two separate. When someone searches for my real name, I want the things that come up to come up (well, not everything, but at least it’s all associated with me in RL). I don’t want WoW to be on the top of the list.

I mean, I’d be fine if I had to post under the same name every time, and was able to use a screen name (aka Xanther). Or if you had to get the character you’re posting under to a certain level (so people don’t just create level 1′s and troll the forums), or any number of other things. But I don’t think it should automatically, and without option, be associated to your real name. Regardless, it’s my choice to post or not under that real name, and I choose not to. So there’s still a choice. Of course, it’s all subject to change anyway. Who knows, maybe this will mean Bliz finally goes away from using our email addresses as usernames and will let us get back to using a username to login… For security reasons alone they should make that step! But anyway. It’s still subject to change. And if we really don’t like it? We can just stop giving them our money. Either way, at this point… I have no Real(ID) Worries.

No, not going to talk about RealID on the forums. Everyone else is doing that today (and rightfully so, but I’ll save that for later!).

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -Albert Einstein

So, this is on people not using the apparently uncommon common sense, or that other thing called Logic. This is actually something that annoys me everywhere, but last night kinda ticked me off.

I got into a pug for RS. It was mostly a guild run, and they only really had Halion left. So I come in, having never done the boss before, being a pug, and figure I’ll follow directions and do as directed. Was a decent enough group for the most part, and people were learning, so I certainly didn’t mind wiping a few times. But what annoyed me a little bit was that we were doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results, but getting the same wipe each time. So I looked at it from a new angle and realized one of our problems.

Now bear with my pathetic illustrations, hopefully they’ll make sense. Blue = Halion. Green is the circle you must stay within – if he gets pulled outside the circle, he resets. Green is basically safe area. Red is his cleave, his breath, or his tail lash since he’s a dragon. Basically dead zones that you don’t want to go into at all (except the MT, of course). Again, this leaves green as safe zones.

So our tank pulls him, and puts his head towards the edge of the circle and his tail in the center. Which sets up the fight as such:

Now add in his next mechanic, where he sets someone on fire. The longer they have it on them, the more charges you get. When it’s finally dispelled, it creates an additional flaming circle of death, proportionate to the number of stacks you had on you… (plus it gives a knockback to anyone too close to you, which typically tosses them towards a death zone, but that’s minor compared to the other things going on). So experienced group – small circles of death. Inexperienced group like this one? larger circles. Also, experienced group – the circles are out on the edges of the safe zone. Inexperienced they end up closer to the center of where everyone is standing. Note – I’m not knocking the group for this – it’s pretty standard with any new group in a new dungeon with very little experience. It’s called a learning curve, lol. Anyway, so as these new circles of death start showing up, the raid begins to look like this:



Anyone seeing the problem yet? Where to stand?! You can’t go in the safe area behind his tail (far enough to not get swiped) because that’s too far of a range to hit him, or you’ll be too close and get swiped. You can’t stand up by his head because of the cleaves. And now, you can’t stand on the sides because of the fire circles. And it’s particularly hard on Hunters because we need to stay a minimum range from him, otherwise we aren’t effective at all since we can’t shoot. No wonder we kept wiping! Here, let me add the Hunter dead zone just for the visual. Especially since 2 out of the 10 in the group were Hunters:



So anyway, up to this point, everything is understandable. You have to go through these fights in order to figure out what works, what doesn’t, how to make it easier, and so on. So after a couple of wipes, I suggest that instead of the tank running in with the group and then pulling, turning 90 degrees, and dragging him back to the edge of the circle, I suggest 2 things:

1. Tank runs in from a spot on the circle 90 degrees from the rest of the group. No turning necessary, everyone’s faster to get in on DPS and heals, and the whole thing engages easier.
2. Tank him in the center. Frees up a lot more room to maneuver, a lot more safe zone (that you can DPS from). In fact, here’s the same drawing as above, but with my suggestion:

Notice how much more safe green zone there is? I didn’t even move the fire circles, but with more green room there’s an ability to move those farther out, which further gives safe fighting green zone! Even if this wasn’t logic, but a simple suggestion that had some possibility for success, it would still be worth trying at least once, right?

No.

Our MT has already done this successfully on 25 man once. Therefore he’s an expert. His way or the highway. Nevermind that his way has just failed 4 or 5 times in a row, and we’re still only barely hitting Phase III. Nope, he’s an expert and suggestions with logic, or even baseless suggestions aren’t allowed because he’s done it on 25.

So that’s where I ended up getting so frustrated with the group. Which was ok because it broke up for the night at that point anyway. But what annoyed me so much was that they didn’t even consider the suggestion. I would have been fine with “When we tried that on 25 man it was actually harder because of A, B and C.” or “We’ll try that next, I want to give this method another shot” or any number of responses. But “No, our tank has done it on 25 – he knows what he’s doing” is the same thing as saying “Because I said so”. Somehow I’m guessing that the raider saying the tank’s done it on 25 is a parent, and he uses “Because I said so” all the time.

I hate that response. I mean, it’s fine if it’s coming from someone I trust, because I know that they have a valid reason, and not only that, but I expect that they’re waiting for us to do it their way and for me to see and understand why their way was effective. But in this situation where I don’t know the guy? Where obviously this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing or we wouldn’t have just wiped so many times? Hell, I would’ve even been ok with a response of “I’m sorry, for our raids we ONLY do what XYZ says. We don’t listen to suggestions or input on wipes, we just do what XYZ says, even if it means we never down the boss because we wipe due to the same reason over and over.” Then I would’ve at least known not to bother making any suggestions.

It was the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results… But really, the thing that annoyed me most was “He’s done it (once) on 25 – he knows what he’s doing”. I’m sorry, but just because the stars aligned and you luckily managed to down a boss does not mean you are an expert. Consider Heroic Dungeons – lots of people can do them pretty quick and easy on a guild run. But throw them in a PuG with lower gear quality and less skill? They won’t be as successful. And besides, if we’ve just proven 4 or 5 times in a row that you don’t know what you’re doing, how are you still the expert? Makes we want to strangle people and knock some sense into them!

So anyway, no I’m not annoyed that I got saved to a raid and didn’t down any bosses. I knew that was a possibility (probability) when I hit “Yes” upon entering the dungeon. What annoys me is when people are experts because they’ve done something once on 25 man, and when they won’t listen to any suggestions. Seriously, just listen to them. If they make sense, use them. If they don’t, don’t. But at a minimum, listen to the suggestion and consider it. Don’t assume the only one who understands raid mechanics is the guy whose done this particular raid once on 25 man knows everything and everyone else knows nothing. Maybe they have good ideas too.

Short post – was in middle of ICC-25, went to close a window and yeah, owch. One of those old wooden frame, heavy windows slammed down on my finger. I finished the raid, but my DPS did drop (warned the group). lol. Probably because I had it on ice, even though it was one of my mouse fingers. Well, that and it was broken. So now I’m finding how fun it is to sit at a keyboard and try typing w/ a broken finger.. Joy of joys.