Spell Hit vs. Spell Penetration

Once again, we apologize for the temporary lapse in service. We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

Spell Hit and Spell Penetration -- what's the difference? On the surface, they both seem to decrease the chance for your spells to be resisted. So what makes them different?

The fact that they do the same thing (more or less) in different ways.

Let's take a look at Spell Hit (SH) first. The more SH you have, the less your spells are likely to be resisted. Unfortunately, this is capped at 99% (according to WoWWiki), which means that there is always a 1% chance that your spell will be resisted. We're not going to go into the actual mechanics of SH here -- this post is just about the difference between SH and SP (Spell Penetration).

Now let's look at SP. Spell Penetration reduces the target's resistance to your spells. Sounds an awful lot like SH, no? Maybe. But it's not reducing the target's chance to resist your spells, it's reducing your target's resistance. You know, that stat that can be buffed with various types of resist gear, Paladin auras, Mark of the Wild, etc. This is where SP differs from SH -- it only works on targets that have resistances, and won't reduce resistance below zero (again, according to WoWWiki).

This means that if you're a Frost Mage with 70 spell penetration facing off against a Paladin with Frost Resist Aura up, you're essentially negating his Aura when using your frost spells.

You can get your SP stat up with gear, enchants and gems. It's important to note that if your target's resistance is zero, your SP stat is wasted, so make sure you don't neglect your other stats in favor of Spell Penetration!

Hunter Shot Timers

We've been advising a friend of ours recently about how to play a Hunter.

We've shown him a couple of macros, talked about specs and answered some pet related questions, but haven't really gotten into the nuance of DPSing as a Hunter.

And yes, there are different ways to DPS, and they're not all equal.

But to really explain how to be the most effective, one must understand the secret, invisible world of swing / shot timers. A shot timer (we'll call it the Autoshot timer) measures the time in-between autoshots. Think of the timer as another casting bar, filling up -- when it's filled up, the shot is fired. It's easiest to think of this visually, and there are even a few addons that do provide a graphical representation of the autoshot timer (more on this later).

Let's try an example: there is a 2 second timer on your autoshot. If the timer is almost full and you begin to fire an Aimed Shot, the timer on Autoshot stops. Once Aimed Shot is fired, it starts again from the beginning, meaning that there is a full 2 seconds before your next autoshot.

Now let's look at the same example using a different ability: Instead of using Aimed Shot, you use Steady Shot. Steady Shot does not halt the autoshot timer, so if you start casting Steady Shot at the same time the Autoshot timer starts, .5 seconds after Steady Shot is fired you'll follow up with Autoshot. Essentially you've fired 2 shots in the same amount of time it would take to just shoot Autoshot. And since Steady Shot has no cooldown, you can do this indefinitely (mana permitting) so long as it's timed properly.

We recommend using BigTrouble, an addon that provides a graphical autoshot timer, so that you make sure Steady Shot finishes casting before Autoshot's timer is up.

Our opening attack pattern (if we're not worried about mana) looks like this:

• Send in the pet and open with Aimed Shot
• Use an appropriate Sting or Mend Pet
• Wait for first autoshot
• Start Steady Shot as the 2nd autoshot timer starts

It's important to note that if you're trying to maximize DPS, you do not want to still be casting Steady Shot if the Autoshot timer is full. Anytime you use an ability which delays the firing of Autoshot when the timer is full is called "clipping," and it is detrimental to your DPS. You want that Autoshot to fire as soon as it is available, so if you notice the timer is almost full, hold off on using an another ability, like Arcane Shot -- even though it is instant, it (and Autoshot) are still subject to the Global Cooldown, and you could end up clipping.

Once you get comfortable with the timer, you can really open up and maximize your DPS, and incorporate the rest of your shots into the rotation when possible.

Threat Mechanics: Basics

Considering that we discussed tanking not too long ago, it seems a good idea to talk about the actual mechanics of threat. We still see a lot of players out there that either don't know how it works, or are misinformed on how it works, so we hope that this will make it clear.

Let's start with WoWWiki's definition of Threat:

Threat is a measure of an NPC's aggression towards a player. Each NPC has a threat table, and the character at the top of the list is usually the target of its aggression. In-game, this is known as having Aggro from that particular NPC. The NPC will attack that character if possible, unless another character manages to change the NPC's target.

Fairly simple, eh? Anytime you do something a hostile NPC doesn't like, you build more threat on that NPC's threat list. Whoever is at the top of the list (generally) has Aggro, and will be attacked by the NPC. There are exceptions, but generally that's the rule.

So what causes threat? Many things. Without taking into consideration threat multipliers (like a Warrior in defensive stance), here's a basic list:

• Causing damage. This has been normalized, so 1 point of damage = 1 point of threat.
• Buffs / Debuffs
• Power Gains (e.g. health/mana/rage potions)
• Healing. Generally this is .5 point of threat per 1 point healed.
• Any abilities that generate additional threat beyond the damage / debuff they cause (e.g. Searing Pain for Warlocks)

The amount of threat generated from these abilities is subject to multipliers and talents / skills that reduce threat. For instance, tanking classes have talents to boost threat generation (Defiance / Defensive stance for warriors, Righteous Fury for paladins), and DPS / healing classes have talents and skills to lessen their threat generation (Fade, Feint, Elemental Precision, etc).

Also, certain buffs may decrease threat generation, like a Paladin's Blessing of Salvation.


Pulling Aggro
This is all well and good, but what happens in a group when a DPS class "pulls" aggro off the tank?

First of all, it's not as simple as one might think -- in a given fight, if a Warrior's current threat is 1000, and a Rogue's is 1050, one would assume that the rogue has aggro. However, this is not necessarily the case. The Warrior grabbed initial aggro and still has the mob's attention, even though the Rogue's total threat is higher. What gives?

NPCs generally don't change their target unless they have good reason. If the tank were to die, get knocked back, become incapacitated, or someone generated so much extra threat that the mob just couldn't ignore them, the NPC would switch targets. So how much extra threat do you have to generate to pull aggro? Well, it depends on your range to the NPC.

If you're within melee range, you have to generate 10% more threat than the current target to pull aggro. If you're outside of melee range, you have to generate 30% more. In the situation above, if the tank still had 1000 threat but the rogue suddenly shot up to 1100, the rogue would pull aggro. A ranged DPS class could generate up to 1300 threat without pulling aggro in this same situation.

It should be noted that although I'm using static numbers in the above example, your threat will climb constantly throughout the fight if you're attacking, healing, or buffing / debuffing.

(Note: Thanks to Karthis for helping me clarify the above example, I have rewritten it to better convey the information.)

So what happens when the tank loses aggro?


Getting Aggro Back
Tanking classes have a few skills to get aggro back when it's pulled by someone else, but how these abilities actually work is somewhat of a mystery to most players.

The one that's most often employed is what we'll refer to generally as "Taunt." Technically speaking, it's only called Taunt for warriors -- for druids, it's Growl, and for paladins, it's Righteous Defense -- but the basic effect is the same: the mob stops attacking its current target and returns to the tank. It can be resisted, and some mobs are immune to taunt, but let's assume for our explanation that it works.

Let's refer to WoWWiki again:

[When a tank taunts, three things happen:]

1. A short-lived debuff is applied to the mob, which forces it to attack the taunting character.
2. The Threat level of the character who used the taunting ability is immediately raised to be equal to the Threat level of whoever currently has aggro, if the taunting character's Threat is lower.
3. The taunting character gains aggro.

Of these three things, number 2 is an important one to note. Taunt has no inherent threat generation -- meaning if you use it while the mob is already attacking you, you've essentially wasted a cooldown. Make sure to save Taunt for situations where you need to pull aggro when the mob is attacking someone else.

For warriors and druids, there are a few other skills available to pull aggro: warriors have Mocking Blow and Challenging Shout, and druids have Challenging Roar. Let's examine how they work.

Mocking Blow forces the target to focus on the tank, and Challenging Shout / Roar force all nearby mobs to focus on the tank for 6 seconds.

Mocking Blow and Challenging Shout / Roar do adhere to item #1 above -- any mob affected will focus their attacks on the person using the ability -- but unlike Taunt, there is no "threat matching," (#2 above) and Shout / Roar don't actually generate any threat, so after the effect has worn off, the mob will resume attacking whoever is at the top of their threat list! Mocking Blow does generate a pre-defined amount of threat, making it slightly more useful in regaining aggro.

There are times when these abilities are useful to a tank, but in our opinion it is preferable for all DPS to manage their threat generation, and let the tank save these abilities for emergencies.


Other types of Taunt
A taunt by any other name would smell as sweet.

OK, so maybe Juliet was talking about Romeo and not about the other types of "Taunt" abilities out there, but it seemed to fit and we like Shakespeare, so there.

Anyway, there are a couple of abilities in the game that look like Taunt, but don't act like Taunt, so they're worth mentioning just to clarify: a hunter pet's Growl, and a warlock Voidwalker's Torment.

These abilities do not act like Taunt. They are merely abilities which generate a high amount of threat each time they're used. So unlike a tank's taunt, which generates no threat of its own and thus should not be used if the tank is being targeted, Growl and Torment can be used as often as they are available to help the pet hold aggro.


So there we have it -- a basic look at threat mechanics. We might go deeper into the actual math at some point, but this overview should help to educate those out there interested in how threat works.

How to Play Your Class in a Group, Part III: Healers

In the last installment of our continuing series on how to play your class in a group, we discussed Tanks. We highly recommend reading it, even if you don't play a tank class.

Why?

For the same reason we recommend you read this article on healers -- it is useful to know what your party members are capable of. Each of the tank classes does the same job in a different way, and the same goes for the healing classes. Every class with a healing spell is capable of healing, but they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

We're going to start with the Paladin class, as it's the one we have the most experience with -- followed by the Shaman. After that, we'll get into Priests and Druids. This may be a lengthy read, so we recommend that you grab a snack and something to drink. Go ahead, we'll wait.


General Notes on Healers
What we said above is true -- all healers can heal. How well they heal depends mostly on their spec, and is reinforced by their gear. But not all healers operate in the same way, so as an overview, we'll give you a couple of quick notes to help bring you up to speed.

Paladins
Strengths:

• Extremely Mana Efficient
• Extremely durable
• Concentration Aura
  
• Wipe protection with Divine Intervention

Weaknesses:

• Only 2 Healing Spells
• No HoT
• No group heal
• Dependant on MP/5 over Spirit
  

Shaman
Strengths:

• Very durable due to shield
• Several healing spells
• Earth Shield
• Wipe protection with Reincarnation
• Totems
• Nature's Swiftness
  

Weaknesses:

• No true HoT
• Dependant on MP/5 over Spirit
• Totems

Priests
Strengths:

• Widest array of healing spells in the game
• Utility spells
• Fear Ward (Alliance only for now, sorry Hordies)

Weaknesses:

• Not all spells are mana efficient
• Cloth armor
• No wipe prevention

Druids
Strengths:

• Large array of healing spells / HoTs
• Innervate
  
• Swiftmend
• Nature's Swiftness
  
• Battle Rez
  

Weaknesses:

• Leather armor
• No regular rez spell
• Group heal on long cooldown

Technique
Time to get into the real how-to of healing for each of these classes, as the methods they each use vary.

Paladins
Pros:
Extremely durable, and impossible to pushback healing spells with Concentration Aura and the proper talents, a Paladin has two choices when it comes to healing spells -- Flash of Light and Holy Light. Flash of Light is mana efficient, but heals much less than Holy Light. Holy Light is a longer cast, but has additional to-crit talents that help with its mana efficiency.

If you're going to be healing, you generally want to have Blessing of Light on your party, unless you're the only Paladin (Blessing of Light increases healing received by Flash of Light and Holy Light). At the least, you should have it up on the tank.

The Illumination talent refunds 60% of the mana cost of the healing spell when it crits. This used to be 100%, and as a result Paladins are no longer stacking spell crit over everything else. Many favor MP/5 to conserve mana.
If things go badly in a group, Paladins can use Divine Intervention on another class with rez capability in order to prevent a wipe.

Cons:
There are some drawbacks to healing with a Paladin, however. Because they lack a HoT, they must usually spam Flash of Light on damaged targets -- this keeps most Paladins from regenerating mana via the 5SR (5 second rule), and as such get very little out of spirit (and thus, talents like a Druid's Innervate), so they must depend on gear with MP/5 on it. Additionally, Paladins have no group heal, so groups must be mindful of this if the tank is requiring much of the Paladin's attention.

Summary: Use Flash of Light as your heal of choice, save Holy Light for emergencies. Keep Blessing of Light up on the tank. Focus on +healing, spell crit and MP/5 gear.

Edit: Gwaendar has mentioned Holy Shock in the comments, and that it can be used as an instant heal in emergencies, so we are mentioning it for completeness. However, we really can't recommend using it in this way -- it heals for very little (the most it could heal for with our 1400 healing is 1176), but more importantly trips the global cooldown, preventing you from casting any other heal for 1.5 seconds. If you absolutely must use it, don't use it on a target taking consistent damage (like a tank)... if the health is so low you need it, you're better off throwing a Flash of Light, which would heal for more.


Shaman
Pros:
Although almost as durable as a Paladin due to mail armor and shields, Shaman have a few more options when it comes to healing. Besides Healing Wave and Lesser Healing Wave (their slow, beefy heal and faster, less efficient heal), Restoration spec Shaman receive Earth Shield, which acts similar to a HoT if used on a tank. They can also drop a Healing Stream totem, which takes a fair amount of +healing, and heals the party for a decent amount over time, albeit in small increments.

Shaman also have a group heal called Chain Heal, which hits up to 3 targets and has a large HPM (Health per Mana) ratio. Additionally, they have a skill called Nature's Swiftness, which allows them to make their next spell an instant cast -- highly useful for throwing out a big heal quickly. Finally, Shaman can Reincarnate to prevent a wipe.

Cons:
Shaman, just like Paladins, have no true HoT spell. Their totems can be destroyed (or players can wander outside their area of effect). They also tend to be more dependent on MP/5 over spirit for mana regeneration.

Summary: Use Earth Shield on the tank, Chain Heal on melee fighters (or grouped players) for maximum effectiveness, use Healing Stream totem when possible, Nature's Swiftness in emergencies, and keep in mind that unlike Paladins, the slower heals are more efficient than the fast ones.


Priests
Pros:
Priests have a heal for almost every occasion. Small ones, large ones, fast ones, group ones, ones that heal the target and the healer, ones that heal over time, ones that bounce around, and one that's not really a heal at all.

Just like with Shaman, the slower heals are more efficient. A common technique is to drop a big heal and follow it up with a Renew (HoT), in order to regen mana via the 5SR. Priests regen more mana based on Spirit than any other class, and as such, many try to keep from casting as much as they can.

Dwarven and Draenei priests also enjoy the benefit of one of the most useful spells in the game -- Fear Ward. Additionally, they have an instant heal of sorts -- Power Word: Shield. Its use is hotly debated amongst priests (mostly because of its poor scaling with +healing and the mana cost), but it is one of the only instant cast heals in the game.

Cons:
As they can only wear cloth armor, priests are not as durable as a Shaman or a Paladin. Because not all of their spells are mana efficient, a Priest must learn to use the appropriate spell for the job and try to avoid casting to regenerate mana -- quite a contrast from Shaman and Paladins, who spend much of their time spamming heals. Additionally, priests have no way to save a group from wiping.

Summary: Use big, mana efficient heals when possible. Use a HoT if your target is taking constant damage. Use group heals / PW:S when appropriate, and try to spend as much time in the 5SR as you can.


Druids
Pros:
Druids have a mix of direct heals and HoTs at their disposal. They have a large, slow heal that takes 100% of their +healing, a faster heal that's half direct and half HoT, 2 instant cast HoTs, and 1 powerful group heal that's on a 10m cooldown.

They also have Innervate, a skill that increases mana regeneration (based on Spirit) on the target. Since, like Priests, they try to stay outside the 5SR as often as possible to regen mana while their HoTs are ticking, they gain a greater benefit from spirit (and Innervate) than Shaman or Paladins do.

Like a Shaman, they have the Nature's Swiftness talent in their Resto tree. Unlike a Shaman, they have access to another instant cast heal -- Swiftmend, and it consumes a Druid HoT and it heals the target for the amount the HoT would've healed over time. Additionally, they have a "battle rez" skill called Rebirth. It has a long cooldown, but it is the only rez that can be used in combat as well as out.

Cons:
Druids wear leather, which makes them only slightly less squishy than cloth wearing classes. While they may be durable in bear form, they can't heal in bear form so tanks / CC classes will have to keep mobs off the healing Druid.
Their only rez skill is on a long cooldown; even though it can be used in battle, it's a pain since without a rez, if someone dies on a pull they're running back.
The group heal, Tranquility, may be strong, but it's on a long cooldown and the Druid must channel the spell for the duration (unless Clearcasting has procced from Omen of Clarity).

Summary: Similar to a Priest, a Druid healer should drop their big heals and follow up with HoTs before taking a break to try and regen mana. If using Tree of Life form, keep in mind that you will only be able to use your HoT spells (although they will use less mana).


Final Recommendations
Whew! That was a lot of information and we barely scratched the surface! We're hoping that if you knew nothing before about how different healers did their thing, you've got a better idea now, even if you're not an expert.

If you're trying to decide whether or not you'd like to play a healer, or can't figure out which one you want to be, we suggest taking a look at these excellent blogs for more in-depth information:

• Paladin: The Holy Light
• Paladin: Blessing of Kings
• Shaman: Totems-R-Us
• Priest: Egotistical Priest
• Priest: The Holy Light (same name, different blog)
• Druid: Resto4Life

That's all for now, folks -- we don't have a 4th installment for this series in mind at the moment, but something could come up. We would like to go back and rewrite Part I to update it with more current information... we'll let you know when we do.

How to Play Your Class in a Group, Part II: Tanks

Update: Thanks to Karthis, we've added new information on Druid tanking.
We've been meaning to write this for awhile (almost since the start of our blog way back when), but for some reason we've never gotten around to it. If you haven't read Part I (and it was awhile ago, so we can't blame you), please do -- it discusses basics and what you should do if you're a DPS class.

Though this is primarily aimed at people who haven't grouped that much or are new to the game (or their class), we hope that some veterans will find some useful info here as well. Let's get to it.


Tanks
A tank's job is to take the damage and hold the attention of any non-CC'd mob, so that DPS can burn them down one at a time. This also lets the healer focus primarily on you, which makes for a much easier job for the healer and helps conserves mana (a big plus on longer fights).
In the game as it exists currently, there are 3 valid tanking classes, each with a different skills, strengths, and weaknesses. Unfortunately, we're not that up on Druid tanking so we're going to focus primarily on Warriors and Paladins.

Warriors:
We're not going to talk about gear or stats as much as technique -- if you want a list of starter gear (pre-Kara), there's a great list in this thread on Tankspot.

Stats:

• Aim for 490 defense to minimize crit chance against you.
• Once you hit 490, pick up as much armor and avoidance (dodge, parry) as you can. Don't worry overmuch about block, as many of the pieces you'll pick up have block.
• 12k armor, 11-12k health and around 30% combined dodge / parry is a good target to shoot for when gearing up.

Technique:
Your job is to take damage, true -- but your job is also to mitigate that damage whenever possible through blocking, dodging, or parrying. When you take less damage you live longer, you're easier to heal, and you can focus on threat generation. Below are our tanking recommendations.

• Revenge. Revenge is still the king of threat generation, but it has a 6 sec CD and can only be used after a block, dodge or parry. You can almost always reliably force a revenge by using Shield Block, and you should always use Revenge when it's up, as it costs very little rage and generates a lot of threat.
• Shield Block. Increases your chance to block 1 attack by 75% for 5 seconds. With talents, you can increase the number of blocks to 2, and the duration to 6 seconds. Block partially mitigates incoming damage, and will make Revenge available. Use Shield Block whenever you can.
• Sunder Armor. Stacks 5 times, reduces target armor and causes a lot of threat. Once you have all 5 stacks you'll want to only refresh Sunder Armor, not spam it. It lasts for 30 seconds, so you should have plenty of opportunity to do so.
• Devastate. If you're full protection, you likely have this talent. It's an instant attack that causes 50% weapon damage + 35 for each application of Sunder Armor on the target. It also refreshes your Sunder Armor, so once you've got the full 5 stack, we recommend using this instead.
• Shield Slam. Causes a high amount of threat, does good damage, has a 50% chance of removing a magic effect from the target and has a 6 second CD. If you're specced into protection, definitely pick this up on your way to Devastate, and use it often.
• Heroic Strike. There are some fights where you'll have so much rage that your rage bar is just full. Heroic Strike causes a good deal of threat and does extra damage, so if you find that rage is not a problem, you should always have this queued up.
  
• Shield Bash. Often overlooked, this ability will interrupt spellcasting but causes a fair amount of threat, almost as much as Sunder Armor.
  
• Thunder Clap. This was buffed to cause more threat recently -- it slows the attacking speed of the mobs affected by 10% (20% with talents) and hits up to 4 targets. Don't use this around CC'd mobs, but if you have to hold aggro on multiple targets, this is a good way to do it.

Let's sum this up: Shield Slam to grab initital aggro / generate additional threat when needed, Shield Block up whenever you can, Revenge whenever you can, keep 5 stacks of Sunder Armor up on the target (and keep it refreshed with Devastate), Heroic Strike, and Shield Bash liberally to spend excess rage, and Thunder Clap if you're tanking multiple mobs.

If you're tanking more than 1 target at a time, don't depend solely on Thunder Clap to hold aggro, especially if your DPS has trouble focusing on one target at a time. Use Sunder Armor and Shield Slam to help hold aggro -- these are instant attacks that generate good threat.


Paladins:
Many of the stats required for Protection paladins are similar to warriors. Focus on 490 defense, get as much health and dodge/parry as you can, and pick up a fast tanking weapon that has stamina and spelldamage on it (a weapon with a good amount of spelldamage is often all you need, allowing you to focus the rest of your gear slots on mitigation -- the Continuum Blade is a good weapon to pick up, and fairly easy to get).

Though there are still problems with itemization for Paladin tanks, and they have less base health than Warriors or Druids, they are unmatched in holding aggro on multiple targets and can provide a lot of frontloaded threat, so full DPS can start almost from the very beginning of a fight.
Almost the opposite of Warriors, who use a lot of offensive abilities to generate threat, Paladin threat generation is based on reactive holy damage, and many of their abilities reflect that. Though we're focusing mainly on technique, there are a few essential talents in this list that should be picked up for tanking.

• Improved Righteous Fury. You take 6% less damage, and your holy damage now causes a total of 90% additional threat instead of 60%.
  
• Avenger's Shield. Sometimes called the Captain America shield. Causes holy damage, and is used to pull up to 3 mobs. Great for frontloaded threat and has a 30 yard range.
• Retribution Aura. Every time a mob hits you, it gets hit with holy damage and generates more threat for you. Most of the time, this is the aura you'll use when tanking.
• Blessing of Sanctuary. Every time you block, you cause holy damage.
• Holy Shield. Similar to a warrior's Shield Block. Increases chance to block by 30% for 10 sec, has 4 charges and causes a mess of Holy Damage when you block. Also, damage caused by Holy Shield generates an additional 35% threat. A new talent, Improved Holy Shield, increases the damage caused by HS and gives you another 4 charges (for a total of 8). Use this as often as you can.
  
• Seal / Judgement of Righteousness. This is the seal you should be using when tanking. It causes holy damage with each attack, and with a fast tanking weapon (1.8 or so) is a good threat generator. Judge it for even more threat.
• Consecrate. Fantastic for holding multiple mobs. A holy damage AoE that lasts 8 seconds. Use this whenever you can (even downranked it causes good threat), but be careful not to use it around CC'd mobs.

Summation: Use Avenger's Shield to pull when possible, Consecrate multiple mobs, use Holy Shield whenever available, and use SoR/JoR to generate additional threat. Remember to judge a different seal (Light, Wisdom, Crusader, etc) as the circumstances dictate, but make sure to keep SoR up.
At this point, we really can't recommend using Seal of Vengeance for tanking, as it's just not reliable enough at the weapon speeds you should be using (~1.8). The next patch may change this, but we'll see.


Druids:
We have no practical experience with Druid tanking, so most of this is based on our technical knowledge and observation.
Druid tanks (bear form) have more armor and health than a comparably equipped Warrior or Paladin -- presumably, this is to make up for the loss of block and parry. They mitigate damage through their high health / armor and dodge. They do need to pick up +defense gear in order to help minimize incoming critical hits, but due to certain talents (if properly specced), they do not have to pick up the 490 defense required by Warriors and Paladins. Instead, they should focus on maximizing armor, health and dodge.

We would love if a feral druid would send us an email schooling us on the best way to tank as a Druid, so that we can fully complete this article. If any outstanding druid tanks are out there, please write us -- our druid is still just a baby.

Update: Thanks to Karthis, we're now pretty up to speed on Druid tanking. We've listed his recommendations below.

Stats:

• Get 415 defense ASAP to render yourself crit immune (assuming 3/3 in Survival of the Fittest)


• Aim for (self-buffed) minimums of 20k armor, 12-13k health, and 30% dodge when gearing up.

Technique:

Much like warrior tanking, you're looking to soak up damage and keep the enemy focused solely on you. Unlike the warrior, who has block, parry, and dodge, you only have dodge as a damage avoidance mechanism, so be sure to pay that stat some extra attention. Skills you will use are:

• Lacerate. Stacks 5 times, causes the target to bleed and causes a lot of threat. Since you have fewer skills in your toolbox than a warrior, this attack will be your default action even when the full 5 stacks are already in place. (It still adds additional threat each time you apply it).
  
• Mangle. Quick high damage technique that also applies a debuff that makes bleed effects 30% more potent. Since lacerate is a bleed effect, you will want to use this whenever it becomes available (every 6s).
• Bash. A 4s stun (5 with talents). Useful to give the healers a breather.
• Frenzied Regeneration. A heal-over-time skill that trades 10 rage for 250 health once per second for 10 seconds. Only use if you have solid aggro - and usually only in a boss fight to give the healers some wiggle room. The healing does generate threat, so the rage isn't wasted in that regard.
• Demoralizing Roar. Reduces all surrounding enemies' attack power by 240. Less attack power equals less damage taken, so try to keep this effect active.
• Swipe. Hits up to 3 enemies causing a decent amount of threat. When tanking multiple enemies, this will serve as part of your arsenal. (It will not completely hold the extra mobs though - apply the odd lacerate to keep them all glued to you.)
  
• Faerie Fire. Your all-round pulling spell. An insta-pull that also generates some threat as well.
• Enrage. Generates 20 rage in 10s while reducing your armor. Use approximately 9s before a pull to get all the benefits and none of the side effects.
  

To sum it up, pull the enemy (see here for pulling), and when it arrives nail it with a Mangle and then start cranking out the Lacerates. Once you have solid aggro, take a second to apply Demoralizing Roar. If you're taking a lot of damage, consider Bash and / or Frenzied Regeneration to help the healers out.

Thanks for the lesson on Druid tanking, Karthis!


Stay tuned for Part III: Healers, coming this Monday (hopefully).

Apology

Wow. Almost 2 weeks have gone by without a post here.

It's not intentional, let us assure you. We've been quite busy with work, and most of our blog time has been taken by WoW Insider, so until things quiet down a bit, we're going to adopt a 2 day per week update schedule.

Look for new posts here on Mondays and Fridays until further notice. And no, this doesn't count as today's post -- we'll have something up later.

Another round of Updates

Time for a character progress update!

Here's where we're at:

Eldragonia is creeping up on 70 and just finished the Cipher of Damnation quest chain, so we're now the proud owners of one of the most awesome looking bows we've seen: [Lohn'goron, Bow of the Torn-heart].

Foederis ran Kara again last night (at least up to Curator, as we got a late start) - we were hoping for some better drops, as we're sick of seeing the Emerald Ripper drop every time we don't go to Kara with our rogue, but we were out of luck until the Opera event, where The Big Bad Wolf saw fit to give us a new cape: [Red Riding Hood's Cloak].

We finally just broke down and spent the money to level Alechka's Jewelcrafting past 300, as she's been way overdue. Once we hit 300 it was quite easy as we had a small stock of green uncut gems to level her with, so she's sitting at 332 now. We wish that cut gems can stack the same way the uncut ones do, but we can't do anything about that.


Eldra's probably going to hit 70 later today, at which point we can finish up Alechka before moving on to Val. We're thinking that going back to Azeroth for a little break after so much time in Outland will be nice.