Warrior Hit Rating

First off, I want to apologize to two DPS warriors in my guild. Last night in a Zul'Aman run I was musing on the lack of hit rating on both Schaden and Atalex. It seemed intuitive to me that since "white attacks" were counting for about 30-40% of their damage that they should want to do everything in their power to make those attacks not miss.

I promised to do some research and call them out by name if they were wrong in insisting that capping their special attacks at 142 hit rating was enough. I was so sure I was going to be vindicated and belittle them. It turns out, I'm the one that is belittled. I consulted Elitist Jerks and looked on the DPS Warrior Compendium. It turns out that Hit Rating is very important up to 142, which is the soft hit cap. At the soft hit cap, special attacks (i.e., Yellow Damage) no longer misses. Once a DPS warrior hits that cap, other statistics become more important including dodge, Armor Penetration, and others.

I'm apologizing to both Atalex and Schaden. I was wrong. You guys rock on DPS. Keep it up and be sure to make fun of me.

Tank School - Mob positioning 101

The best questions seem to come up when someone says to you, "Hey I just started a new (insert class). He's level 10. What gear should I look for and what skills should I take?"

While my favorite answer to most questions is "It depends," that doesn't really apply here. For any level 10 you should look for gear that is green. Beyond that avoid intellect if you don't have mana, and avoid agility if you primarily cast spells. Other than that, itemization isn't going to matter.

However, this did prompt a discussion that is worthwhile. A primary skill for any tank of any type is to be able to position a mob where you want it. Luckily you don't have to be level 70 and dressed in full epics to practice this.

Step 1: The Kite
Pick a place and kill some mobs. Only instead of fighting them where they stand, choose where you will kill them. A prominent rock, fallen tree, or dilapidated wagon work well for this selection. Now kill everything in the area, but not more than a few steps from your landmark. Do it with single mobs at first, then pull more. Pull as many as you can handle comfortably.

Step 2: Those Pesky Casters
Then find a similar (or the same) place and pull casters in the area to it. Casters are harder because you will need to interrupt their casts somehow or go out of line of sight. But its doable. Practice, practice, practice.

Step 3: C'mon Baby, Do the Twist
Now train (or kite) mobs to your chosen place. And this time position the odd kills (#1, #3, #5, etc) FACING TOWARD your landmark. Kill the evens, FACING AWAY FROM your landmark. Repeat until you can do this reliably.

Accomplished players know why I've asked you to do this things. There are a number of times in instances, where some one will ask a tank to tank this "right by the fire" or to "make sure he's not facing the party." The thing you absolutely do not want to do is learn those skills for the first time when someone asks. If you routinely practice these skills every few levels as you are coming up, it'll all be second nature.

Extra Points for the Advanced Student:
Just because this post is (ostensibly) about tanking & warriors doesn't mean you can't use it for your own class. Casters could try fights with less than full mana or by keeping an additional mob crowd controlled the whole time. Hunters could keep two mobs in combat, one who is being kited or chain trapped. Warlocks could perform similar things with a less favored minion. The important thing is you're using your skills in ways that help you later. And that you're remaining situationally aware.

PVP Tips & Tricks - Warriors

Today I’m finalizing a new mini-series of PVP from the viewpoint of the Marksman Hunter. I’ll cover each class and what you should look for each of them to do. We finish today with Warriors.

Warriors

Wow these dudes are hard to kill! Warriors just wind up having tons of hit points and lots of armor. The most successful I’ve been in dealing with them was killing them while they were focused on someone else. I keep my range and keep plugging away.

What to Watch for:

• Charge (and Intercept) Stun can be removed with your trinket.
• Warriors seem most susceptible of melee classes to being kited. Use your movement impairing abilities (Wing Clip, Frost Trap, Scatter Shot, Concussive Shot) to kite them.
• Serpent Sting will do continuous damage to them. Scorpid Sting will lower their chance to hit (and thus crit).
• Warriors are the most likely of melee classes to fall for a Feign.
• Warriors that are being healed should have an aimed shot applied.
• If you’re a dwarf, use Stone Form to stop damage from big bleeds.
• At all costs, stay above 20% health. Going under 20% puts you in execute range.
• If you're not using your traps to kite, Snake Trap may be quite effective against them.

That'll be 600 Gold Pieces

So, somehow I got the strange idea in my head that I should respec my warrior (some would say "Level 70 Banktoon" to protection and actually do something with him again. This idea was pitched at me Friday night. The offer was made to help me run some five mans to get some of the needed gear. This shady person (*cough* Owaru *cough*) also offered to help donate Felsteel for the three piece set for tanking.

So, bright and early Saturday morning, I found a tanking build I thought I could live with and checked my stocks of fel iron bars and eternium bars, smelted it up into felsteel and sent it off to Owaru. I gemmed up a few things, took stock of my lacking enchants, and looked at some things to run.

We started off in Steamvaults. Group: Brehm tanking, enhancement shaman, Owaru's mage, Owaru's lovely and talented wife's hunter (he's a damned lucky man), and Boon healing. There were a couple of dicey moments with big groups. Apparently multi-mob tanking for warriors hasn't gotten better :o) In the end, though, we made it through wipe free. Final boss dropped the warrior chest piece. Woot.

We then decided to head off to Arcatraz (Shaman still needed Kara frags). Unfortunately, our hunter, the ever popular Neshura, had to go and we began to PUG members. It's somewhere after the last fragment and the two funniest bosses in the game that a PUG Shadow Priest showed me that some folks never learn "When you get aggro run TOWARD the tank, not AWAY!"

We changed up the lineup a few more times, finally finishing with 2 mages, paladin healing, warlock and yours truly tanking. We actually wiped twice on the Gargantuan Abyssals because of some miscommunication. But in the end ANOTHER warrior Dungeon Set 3 piece was dropped, so I think the WoW gods were smiling.

Quickly on Sunday morning, I strapped on a two hander and headed out to finish some quests in Shadowmoon. After all that gemming, I am a little cash poor. I will have the bulk of the mats I need to get enchanted though, so I'm good. Although another lesson I'd almost forgotten was also hammered home-"Watching a prot warrior grind is like watching two old people have sex...kinda slow and not very interesting."

I know he's not ready to tank Karazhan, but he is pretty good for most of the five mans. And rep is what he needs more than anything.