Author: 
Whew. I do not recommend leaving the weekly raid until the last possible day for, oh, three of your toons. While I did Madrana’s on Wednesday or something, Kurn, the shammy and the mage were all done in the last 24 hours. Stupid Patchwerk. Well, at least it wasn’t Flame Leviathan, right?
Anyways, on to the search terms that led people here and my responses to them!
1) “rotface mutated infection discipline shields”
Uh, definitely a good call, in my opinion. The mutated infection target gets a debuff that causes damage every second for 12 seconds. Ow. As the person who usually heals the infected people with a beacon on the tank, let me tell you, I APPRECIATE you shielding the infected people. :)
2) “anub togc heroic cleansing totems”
Useless, sorry. The debuffs on your add tank aren’t dispellable by regular abilities or by cleansing totems. Better to use Nature Resistance totem or Aspect of the Wild. Having said that, we got TOGC 25 Anub to 10% tonight. I tell you, I’ll be psyched to bury that bastard for good.
3) “how does a warrior tank heroic hor”
Hello, Mr. or Ms. Prot Warrior. Thanks for stopping by. It’s true, you have a more difficult job in Heroic Halls of Reflection than the other three tanking classes do. You also have Spell Reflection, which can also be glyphed and talented. So I’d recommend at least the glyph, if not the full 2/2 talent points in there.
You also have Vigilance. Use it on your healer.
Probably the best way for you to do HoR is out in the open. You’ll have room to maneuver, you’ll be able to Charge to Phantom Mages, you’ll be able to see what you’re doing so you can effectively use Thunderclap and Shockwave. For you guys, I HIGHLY recommend the following kill order, which I would then communicate to the group before the start of the event:
– Phantom Mage. Kill it. Kill it dead. The flamestrikes, the frostbolts, fireballs and chains of ice all suck a lot for you. So burn it, or keep it CCed via shackle/turn undead/freezing trap.
– Ghostly Priest. They heal. Kill them! Interrupt casts!
– Spectral Footman. You can actually leave these ’till last, but you MUST maintain aggro on these guys. They shield bash.
– Shadowy Mercenary. Their shadowstep sucks and their poisons are evil. Still, if you have Vigilance on your healer, you should be able to taunt back quickly. Be ready! They can also incapacitate a member of your party for a couple of seconds, so be ready to pop a CD if it’s the healer.
– Tortured Rifleman. Really not too bad, if a bit annoying. CC if possible, otherwise, just grab aggro on them now and again.
Cleave, Shockwave, Thunderclap, these will all be KEY for you to successfully do this. You’ll also want to be hyper-aware of what adds are up and where they’re positioned.
4) “devo or retri aura for 5 man heroics”
Depends on who’s in your group and what spec you are. I’m going to guess you’re a prot pally with 3/3 improved devotion aura. Basically, your extra +healing is a waste if your healer is a tree, but since it’s available in every aura (like ret’s Swift Retribution), that doesn’t really help the issue. Honestly, if you have a shammy with Stoneskin totem or a druid who’s buffed you with Mark of the Wild and you feel like you’re having aggro issues, Retribution is the way to go. If you have a crapton of armor anyways, go Retribution aura for extra threat. If you’re not getting hit hard enough to require enough healing for Spiritual Attunement to keep you topped off in terms of mana, go Retribution aura. Otherwise, stick with devo.
5) “dodge chance to tank 10m icc paladin”
Ugh, ugh, ugh. Thanks to Chill of the Throne, you lose 20% dodge. Which sucks. I’d say that, depending on your gear and such, probably 7%ish (after taking the debuff into consideration) would be a minimum. Just my guess, though.
6) “healing forge of souls shammy”
Hey, I actually know how to do this! Okay, so here’s the deal… Tremor totem on the first boss. Pop hero right off the bat on the second boss. Apart from that, it works like most any other instance — keep your tank up, hope there’s not 3 hunters spread out in 3 corners of any room so that chains don’t hit them and make use of Riptide/Healing Wave/Healing Wave if you have to. There’s nothing wrong with using your whole mana bar on one boss fight or half of it on one trash pull. The important thing is keeping people up.
For some reason, I almost always die on the last boss, thanks to idiots not knowing the following:
– stop DPS when mirror is cast on a player, because that damage gets cast on the targetted player!
– don’t stand in purple circles
– don’t stand there letting ghosts whack on you
– don’t stand in front of the boss when the purple beam is active.
If your group is dying due to any of those issues, not your fault, shammy. Not your fault.
7) “strength stamina gem vs agility stamina paladin”
Let’s be clear about this. Strength, without talents or anything, gives a paladin 2 attack power per point of strength. Agility gives paladins armor, dodge and crit. Strength should always win out over pure agility. Apart from anything else, Divine Strength gives you 15% extra strength, so if you have 100 strength, that bumps up to 115 strength via that talent and no kings or anything. Then kings comes into the mix and adds 10%. That’s another 11-12 strength. So instead of 100 strength, you now have 126 strength. That means you went from 200 AP to 252 AP. That’s pretty significant. And a lot better choice than, say, 100 agility.
8) “tank guide don’t let the healer die”
Mr. or Ms. Tank, I love you. Thank you. That said, sometimes your healer will die despite your best efforts. Sometimes it’ll even be their fault. But most of the time, it’s going to be yours.
In order to minimize that, here are some tips:
a) Be familiar with the fight. If there are adds that spawn, know that they will charge the healer as soon as they spawn, due to healing aggro. Be ready to pick them up.
b) Be aware of your current surroundings. Change your camera angle to watch the healer so you can taunt quickly if needed.
c) Don’t let that one mob go wail on the healer. Seriously. You’re tanking. Hold them. Don’t let five go running off as you tank one, don’t let one go running off as you tank five.
d) Interrupt spellcasts. Sometimes your healer can be targetted by spells that will result in them dying. So interrupt when you can. Also know what to interrupt. Interrupting heals takes priority over everything, with mind controls a close second. Offensive spells come last, but should still be interrupted.
Apart from doing what you can to prevent something from beating on your healer, there’s not a lot I can tell you. Some healers are just dumb, though, and will stand in fire/void zones/poisons regardless.
9) “why cant pugs do ony”
I laughed out loud at this one. Thing is, they can, but the organization and execution of most pug raids is, well, lacking. Or laughable, if it exists. Apparently, it’s super-hard to do basic healing/DPS/tanking assignments. :P If you find yourself in a fail Ony pug, try to organize your fellow whatever you are. If you’re a healer, help organize healing. Tank? Figure out who’s got Ony, who’s got whelps, who’s got the add. This kind of help really makes a difference.
10) “blood prince council exploit”
Sorry buddy, but:
a) I don’t know of any Blood Prince Council exploit
b) I don’t believe in exploits. I mean, obviously they exist, but I do whatever I can to not make use of them. CHEATING IS BAD, OKAY?
Besides, Blood Prince Council? NOT a hard fight. Just spread out, keep the orb thing in the air, heal your tanks, kill the active target. Bam.
Okay, that’s it for the Q&A for this week. Coming up later this week, ICC strats! Stay tuned.
