Vanilla Tanking

Ding! So me and the wife hit 16 and decided we're good enough to try out Ragefire Chasm. Now keep in mind I am an Alliance reroll, so am totally clueless about this lowbie instance, but I suspected it to be a breeze. Five minutes later using the LFG function and we have a few group ready to kick some major butt cheeks (never had a group form so quick, I love this server!). This will be a piece of p!ss I tell myself, how hard can it be. Then I realize I've not got my abilities macro'd to stances, and thats just the start of it. Doh!

Granted I am low level on his toon, so should have expected some bumps in the road, but after playing a 70 for so long, you forget how easy you actually have it. Body pulls for the whole run cause I have no arrows (just a silly bow for the + to 1 stat), charge doesn't generate enough rage to effectively use to then Thunderclap then jump to Defensive stance, so I just trot in like a sad little Tauren with my low 1h Axe skill, and finally the worst of it all, I'm sitting there for a clear 15 seconds, before I've built enough rage to sunder or Tclap. I mean seriously, I'm there doing my few swings, leveling my Axe skill hoping to dear god the Hunter's pet's growl is off, and wishing I had intervene to chase the loose mobs.

Ok it wasn't as bad as I'm making it out to be, yeah all I have said is true, but the run went smooth with no deaths, just a rude awakening to me of how fun this will be once again. Oh and who ever designed the pulls with 3 out of the 5 mobs to spam knockdown every 5 seconds... /rude

To quote Illidan "You are not prepared" and I wasn't. Time to get my macro's off Dakeyras...

- Ragnovar

New Beginnings

After some new changes within my guild, and the lacking activity on Tortheldrin, my wife and I, after a bit of discussion, have decided to move on from our realm and guild to reroll to a new server. Leaving our numerous characters, alts and friends behind, we look to the future as we try out the other side of WoW as members of the Horde, as well as on a server with more than 40 people on at one time...

While I no longer will be playing Dakeyras, I will continue the blog following my steps as Ragnovar my Tauren Warrior (always wanted a Tauren tank! ... that and a raptor) and his gradual progression to 70, leveling as Protection spec along with my wife's new Paladin. I plan to continue following the tanking scene and my favorite blogs, and offer my 2 pence on various topics as well as recounting past adventures on my my first love, Dakeyras.

For those of you who are interested, we are moving to Spinebreaker, so if you find your self on that server, send me a shout on Ragnovar.

- Ragnovar

Argh... Gem-tastic.

Note to self: Check for food buffs before deciding to re-gem your gear. WTB Rigid Dawnstones.

- Dakeyras

Pauldrons please...

So it's sort of become a bit of a running joke in Zodiac about my shoulders, but lady luck is yet to award me with an upgrade in that area... atleast one that I would accept that is.

From day uno, since getting into tanking, there is a serious lack of good tanking shoulders in the game, in my opinion. I think, like most people (tank or not), I started with the [Warchief's Mantle] from a Caverns of Time quest chain at around level 66 or so, and man are they ugly. You can point them out a mile off, if you see someone with them on its like "oh.. I remember those CoT shoulders" and your heart goes out to the poor soul (bad enough when paired with the yellow Felsteel set). But the looks (and stats) from there don't much improve. Back during the old Karazhan attunement process, Shadow Labyrinth's was a popular instance for Pugs and guild runs alike, so much that I'm nearly exalt from regular runs alone, and haven't been to the place since the attunement requirement was removed. So it was only time till I got the Dungeon Set 3 shoulders [Shoulderguards of the Bold] which I picked it just for the giggles of having the come D3 set alone (again, uggggggly!).

Cutting to the chase, there are (including the above) a total of 5 choices of shoulders before you get into the serious tier stuff:

• [Warchief's Mantle] - Caverns of Time quest.
  
• [Shoulderguards of the Bold] - Murmur, Shadow Labs.
  
• [Fanblade Pauldrons] - Shirrak, Auchenai Crypts (Heroic).
  
• [Spaulders of Dementia] - Talon King Ikiss, Sethekk Halls (Heroic).
  
• [Mantle of Abrahmis] - Netherspite, Karazhan.

The stats on most of them are pretty average with their level, and the Warchief's is probably the best bet for any new tank time/effort-wise should have at the very least. But other than the defense rating being the only stand out stat, I out right refuse to wear any of those pauldrons when [Gladiator's Plate Shoulders] are so easily accessible to anyone. Like a crazy elderly women and her cats, some see me as the crazy tank with the S1 shoulders jacked with stamina gems, but those beauties have taken me so far, I really can't see why I would trade them out, even comparable to T4 ones, my heart still says S1 shoulders.

Yet now my guild has convinced me we will soon be onto Void Reaver and I can look forward to the T5 [Destroyer Shoulderguards], am thinking I would get them on sympathy DKP if there is such a thing.

But for now, I'll have to keep my chin up and ignore all the little jokes at my shoulder's expense, while I gem up my new S2 tanking shoulders.

- Dakeyras

Second Coming

With a long hiatus from the game, and a bit of a disastrous breaking up with my gaming community I had been a member of for a long long time, I have returned to WoW in the last month or so to a lot of changes, as well as guild-less, with very few friends left on my realm.

Being back for a month or so now, I've kicked Dakeyras into shape, revamping 90% of his equipment and finding a new home and enjoying new content I never thought I'd see. Recently after browsing one of my beloved tanking blogs I regularly visit, and actually seeing a link from their blog to mine, I decided to re-launch my Memoirs.

Before my originally withdraw from the game, I was unhappy with the way my blog was going, and at the time removed all of my past posts, which looking back on now was probably a good idea. So with a fresh start, and many ideas bubbling around noggin' I'll leave you with the news that the rebirth is coming, and hope the few of you who did read my blogs can give me your trust once again for the second coming. Thank you.

- Dakeyras