Deme Does Crotch ... Watching

This weekend saw me take on tanking in a more concerted effort. On Friday night I realised I’d actually got a full tank set of gear. That was a bit of a shock! It means I’ve now got to enchant and gem the lot and get the stats sorted.

In an attempt to prevent other nooby tanks from making the same mistake I repeated on the weekend, here’s a little checklist to use before you start whacking anything.

Have I changed into tank gear?
Check 

Have I changed to Frost talents?
Check

Have I put on FROST presence?
No? Numpty.

I’d also add
- Chug a defence potion if you need it, which currently Deme does.

I got a great group to run me through my first HC as a tank, comprising of two droods, one a bear in off spec and one healing, another DK whose main spec is tank and A N Other. I’m sorry my dear guildie, I’ve forgotten, needless to say all these guys are well-geared and could romp through HCs in 15 minutes max. With this make up, we went for the random. Silent prayers for anything but the ICC 3 or HoS. FoS pops up. *eeek* goes my brain. Group tells me I’ll be fine. I mark up the first two mobs and off we go. Hmm, aggro isn’t great, but I hold them and they die. Then I remember. FROST presence. FFS. What a numpty.

I’ve watched one particular DK tank run HCs and unless the healer needs mana, he doesn’t stop. I wouldn’t say chain pulling per se, but certainly moving fast. I guess because I’ve seen him do this so often, it’s rubbed off on me. I’ve been spoilt too, the group I was running with know who to hit first so marking was a little pointless and I didn’t bother.

Gathering the groups up and holding aggro was fine. Crotch-watching is a suitable description of tanking and for my particular style, I like all the mobs in a group in a semi-circle in front of me. This means I DG those ranged casters in. Is that wrong? Erm, not sure, but it feels a lot more comfortable when I can see them all glaring at me and not have one off to the side.

We pass through a few mobs and get up to James Brown. I mean Bronjam. *phew* Take a deep breath. My first HC boss as a tank. Quick catch up with the group to make sure I understand what I have to do, turns out I do. Confidence rises a little. The encounter starts and all is well. Corrupted Soul goes up and I begin to move him, I honestly can’t say if he got the soul or not because I wasn’t watching his HP, I was too busy popping all my abilities to make sure he keep hitting me whilst I wandered round the outside of the room. The second phase, where we all give him a nice hug in the middle went off without a hitch. Hoorah!

I take a deep breath and pause to savour the moment.

Then we press on and get to the Devourer of Souls. Now, I'm sorry, but did Blizz get a bit camped up when they created the bosses in ICC? I mean this guy sounds like as camp as a row of tents, then there's Marrowgar's cry of "Boooone Stooooorrrrrm". I mean come on.

Anyway, Devourer of Souls. Yeah. Not gunna lie, I died. No idea how because it wasn't down to the healer. Let's not dwell on that though. We got through and I'd tanked it. Hoorah!

I finished off the weekend tanking 4 more HCs. My least favourite being Culling of Stratholme. As a nooby tank running backwards and forwards and running the undead gauntlet I found tough. I hit up ToC too, which isn't up my list of favourites, but hey we got through it. My two favourites to tank have been Azjol Nerub and Utgarde Keep. I love UK on normal to tank so I was chuffed when it popped up on the random. I also enjoy AN. Anooooob gets pwned. Me likely.

I guess now I've actually got the gear and had a bit of practice I'd better give you lot some kind of spec and stats post right? Ok, I'll do my best for the next post.

According to guildies I'll be tanking Naxx this weekend. pfft.

Unholy DK DPS Stats, Gems and Enchants

Edit - Jan 2013 - This post dates back to Feb 2010 - That's almost 3 YEARS OLD. I'll do an up to date version soon but in the mean time go to Icy Veins. 

A few weeks back I wrote a DK DPS blog for the best unholy spec in 3.3. It seems logical to compliment this with a blog about which stats to stack, the best gems to drop in those pretty slots and the enchants to charm your gear into eeking out the best results for you. Now bare in mind this is just a guide, but it's serving me well in ICC 10 (occassionally in 25) so there's no reason it can't do the same for you. If you're lucky enough to be in the hard modes though this won't be for you. I'm not that great. Yet.



Stats
Let's start with the stats. As damage dealers, your key role is to hit stuff, if you ain't hitting it, it's not going down. For. A. Very. Long. Time. Hence, hit rating is one of the highest priorities. For DPS specced DKs, you want to look for 8% to reach your hit cap. That's about 262 rating. Right now, Deme is well over the hit cap and this is something I'll be looking to sort with some dungeon grinding to buy some gems with emblems.

I say that hit rating is one of the highest priorities because it's pretty much on a par with strength. Like warriors our attack power increases 2:1 per strength point and attack power comes in very handy on a fistful of our attacks. You can't over stack strength and we'll come on to how get more of it in the gemming section.

Now, recently, the next stat you decide to stack has slightly switched depending on the content you are running. Enjoying ICC? Stack ArP (that's Armour Penetration - I always forget what it stands for), if you're running older content, go for crit rating here. Then, which ever one you didn't stack first, you can stack next. Let's make that a little clearer.

Running TotC (or older) = Hit > Strength > Crit > ArP
Running ICC = Hit > Strength > ArP > Crit

Following those first 4 stats, it's equal placing for haste and expertise with agility last. Agility isn't a fabulous stat for DKs as a rule so don't worry about it, if you happen to have some, good for you.

GemsOk, confession time. At the time of writing, Deme's gems are pretty sucky. I'm saying this upfront because I've learnt whilst writing this post that I'd been playing around with stuff and I'd made a mess. I'm sorry mum, I promise to head off immediately and spend all those EoTs on new gems. Instead of that new tank set. Essentially I have the wrong meta, and a couple of Ametrine's of the wrong sort.

Basically, for DK DPS, go for Bold Cardinal Ruby or Inscribed Ametrine. These are both strength based gems and the only time you'd think of using another one is if you're not at hit cap. Check out the gems page on WoWWiki for a full listing of all the gems available by colour and stats. Very handy.

Now onto that shameful Meta gem. Now I've read the bits at Elitist Jerks and they recommend the Chaotic Skyflare Diamond or Relentless Earthsiege Diamond. Neither of which Deme is using. More to do with me not reading things on time than anything else. But! Ah ha! She does have the Nightmare Tear in place so that's one thing to tick off, but boy have I messed her up. Now EJ do a great job with all the maths and kudos to you if you can understand it all, but I'm too tired to take it all in so the above is the plan I'll be following with Deme. I'll let you know how I get on.

EnchantsWhat little pieces of magic are going to help you eek out a for more killer points on that vanity dial Recount? You remember grinding all that rep don't you? So you could get all the best enchants?? Well this was why.
Head - Arcanum of Torment - you'll need exalted with Knights of Ebon Hold in Icecrown. These are your brothers and sisters, you should know them! Go see Duchess Mynx in the Shadow Vault.Shoulders - Master's Inscription of the Axe - what's that? Not a Scribe? Oh well sorry you'll have to take Greater Inscription of the Axe then from those Sons of Hodir. Deme has yet to get exalted with them simply because she's never had to.Chest - Powerful Stats - find a friendly enchanter and get him/her to "buff" your chest. Accept no substitutes.Cloak - Greater Speed - remember your stats? Agility was last so grab some haste and make it snappy.Bracers - Greater Assault - 50 AP, simples.Gloves - I can haz more hit cap? Sure you can, whack yourself a Precision enchant if your still looking to hit that magic level. If not, get some Major Strength, another one Deme needs to sort out.Legs - flash those sexy legs at a leatherworker for some Icescale Leg Armour. It's your only option.Boots - Again you add some hit cap here with Icewalker or go for Greater Assault if you've already got your hit sorted.

Remember, every time you upgrade, you need to enchant and gem again. It helps to have a list of all the mats you need for your enchants handy.

Next time, I'll attempt a gear guide, not a BiS, but a "get from dinging 80 to raiding fast" kind of gear guide. Or maybe I won't. We'll see what WoW throws up as ideas.

Suffer Well!

Deme the Doofus.

Further Reading
Elitist Jerks - should be your go to spot, even if you can't understand 1/2 of it, if you get 1 new thing there each time you read, you'll grow as a player. For Unholy DPS, this page is especially great.

Deme the DK in ICC (and the loot therein)

Last week I posted on Unholy Spec for DPS since 3.3 and stated that if you have no ICC 10 man loot (or above) then you and I were in the same boat. Within hours I was made a total fraud. Thanks to Verde I was invited to a guild run of The Lower Spire and would you believe it, Lord Marrowgar dropped this beauty for me.

To say I am a lucky girl is a bit of an understatement. I was a guest at the raid, but as the only DPS plate wearer I was granted the loot. Generousity gone mad some may say? I say possibly, but I'm grateful and I didn't roll before being informed I could. So lucky me.

I figured since I'd now got some loot, and been through a bit of ICC (up to the Gunship Battle) I'd pontificate on the experience, but truth be told I was too busy hitting stuff, running out of/away from fire and concentrating on jumping/landing on the boat that I wasn't paying much attention to anything else. If you want loot tables try the usual suspects, there are people out there who've already done it far better than I can.

What I will say is, for those who haven't ventured into ICC yet, Lord Marrowgar is the first boss in The Lower Spire. The best piece of advice I heard about this chap was "He looks far more intimidating than he is". He's a big boney whirling dervish who is all flap and no function. Stay out the fire, hit down the spikes and let the tanks get aggro after each Bone Storm cycle and you should be fine.

Lady Deathwhisper was a heap of fun. Namely because our esteemed hunter pushed the wrong button and pulled her whilst the other guys were leading me through the strat. So we began and I did my best. And you know what, we one shotted her! Not bad! I'd mentioned to the guys that with the spell/physical damage make up of a DK, and being in unholy spec, I was probably going to be about as much use as a chocolate teapot but as the end result shows, it didn't seem to matter. Good Times.

We didn't have time to get to Saurfang that night, but we did do the gunship battle. I did think I was going to jump and land where the tank was, or worse jump and miss. This meant I was a little slow getting my jump going. I also was so focussed on whacking the adds on the ally ship that on the first go I didn't hear "Bring out the Battle Mage". Second time round it was great fun! Like the Flame Leviathan fight I love the different dynamic that this fight offers to the game and it makes me wonder how the horde/alliance "peace pact" will hold out. Which we know it won't. I can't ever see Garrosh and Varian sitting down to a cup of tea and a slice of cake.


"Lucky" Deme