A-o-R: !BugGrabber (& BugSack)

I'm trying to post these addon posts in alphabetical order, but for some reason my alphabetical list keeps changing. Silly windows. Ah well, it's good enough I suppose.

This time we'll look at a small but significant addon called !BugGrabber which combined with the addon BugSack will help you keep your game free from error messages.

!BugGrabber & BugSack
Category - Gaming Utility
Necessity Level - Depending
Class/Role - Any

The necessity of these two addons totally depends on how many addons you use. When you use many addons they tend to clash with eachother and the game sooner or later, no matter if you update them frequently. That's just what hobby-made addons do. This results in a whole lot of error messages, especially just after patchdays when alot of addons become outdated. Those error messages usually turn up smack in the middle of the screen. I love it when someone goes "everytime I press this button I get a huge error message in the middle of the screen", while raiding. There is a reason for this of course, an error means there is something wrong and you should know about it so that you can fix it. It might interfer with your gaming.

Woot, I have an error! (It's the little red sack in the top left corner)

Thing is, most errors are very minor and you won't notice them while playing at all. And even if you might want to know about them, you don't want to have them in your face every other second. Ok, you -know- something is wrong, thank you very much.

!BugGrabber does the first part of two things. It simply removes the error messages from the middle of the screen and hide them. If you're happy with that, you don't need anything else. But with an addon like BugSack you get all your errors in one place, that isn't your face. BugSack will do the second thing and place them where you can look at them easily (a little icon around your minimap usually). Therefore these addons combine greatly together to help you manage your error messages (you can't really use BugSack without BugGrabber). BugGrabber will actually allow you to look at your errors by itself through a /command, but BugSack does it in a better way with a proper interface.

So if you use alot of addons this could really help you out to save some of that nerdrage for where it's really needed instead, like for shamans that gear spirit. These addons are still updated continuously (just some weeks ago when writing this) and have never stopped working for me.

And you can find them here; BugGrabber & BugSack.

Retridins make better tanks

Some people seem to think that being a tank is about having the right kind of gear and having the right kind of spec. That isn't what tanking is about at all. Tanking is about being able to take The Damage and keep The Aggro. As long as you can do that you count as a tank, no matter what gear or spec or class you happen to have. This is the reason some classes that usually never go as tanks can tank on occassion, like hunters, warlocks and shamans.

Of course at endgame taking damage and keeping aggro often equals having a certain spec and gear, which is why people confuse the two. Later on the tank trees will offer a set of damage reduction skills that will be necessary to survive. But until then, you are free to experiment and might in fact find better solutions than if you had gone the conventional way.

One such solution is the Retridin Tank. Here are six good reason why a retridin makes a better tank than the conventional prot-spec.

1. Double the threat
At level 20, retridins can spec into Seal of Command. Since they changed it, it now hits two targets instead of one, effectively making it like a glyphed maul or sunder armor. But it's better since it hits two targets on every swing, and not only when using a certain skill. Awesome to keep aggro on multiple mobs without having to spend all mana on consecration all the time.

2. Never oom
At the same level, 20, you can glyph Seal of Command. That means you will get 8% of your base mana each time you use a judgement, and if you combine that with judgement of wisdom one of the biggest problem of being a lowbie protadin - constantly ooming - has been solved. When tanking as a retridin you'll only have to drink after dying.

3. Less mana breaks = faster instancing
One of the biggest issues of lowbie tanking overall isn't just that you might oom, but that every other caster in your group does. With talents like Judgement of the Wise this will be way less of an issue since everytime you judge you'll replenish everyone in the party, this will also increase your own mana regen even further.

4. Ranged cc
As a protadin you have no cc whatsoever and will have to rely on your party members to take care of it. And we all know rule #1 of tanking is to never rely on anyone to do anything outside the basics. As a prot you'll have one tool only (before level 50) to keep aggro on ranged mobs, Hand of Reckoning. As a retridin you'll also be able to cc ranged mobs when needed. Any tank loves to be able to cc.

5. Instants R us
Speaking of ranged threat, with Art of War you'll be able to use instant exorcisms to get threat on mobs that are too far away, or as a strong pulling tool. Any way you care to use it, you'll love the fact that you have it, since not only does it great threat, it also does great damage. And if things go really wrong you can use your Art of War procs to cast instant heals on yourself. What tank wouldn't love to be able to do that?

6. All the little things
There are several other talents in the ret-tree that are good for tanking, such as Vindication which lowers the attack powers of mobs (and thus the damage you take) and Pursuit of Justice which increases your run speed. Perfect for catching up with whatever it is that you need to catch up with, but as a tank that will be needed more often that you think. Also Divine Storm is about as good as Hammer of Justice since it hits the same amount of targets, but also heals (but deals a little less damage with a onehander). Oh and yeah, Deflection is in the ret-tree. Many of these talents are such that prot-paladins pick once they're done in the protection tree.

So if you intend to level a paladin, I definitely recommend going ret. That means you'll be able to quest in a good pace, and you only have to grab a shield to make a good tank (although preferrably you get other pieces that suit tanking as well, like something with stamina). I'm guessing a ret-tank has no problem tanking instances at all up until level 60, and perhaps not even until level 70, before prot actually gets the upper hand with all the damage reduction talents that will be more and more needed.

How to! Warrior Tank - Level 80 - Gear

UPDATE 24/10: Justice Points loot added. T9 replaced with T10 since you'd probably rather get T10 for your JP now. Outdated sections updated to 4.0.

One of the first things to deal with and put some real thought into is "what gear am I going to get when I ding 80?". Reality is that there has never before been as easy to get good gear as it is today. And with good gear I mean "gear as good as those that raid often". Raiders used to have access to gear that the casual gamer could only dream about. Since Vanilla, pvp-gear has also become one of the best gears in the game and although it aint as good as it was during BC, it is still the best way to get really high gearscore (which is most important, right?).

Although it is true that pvp-gear still offers a good option to the pve-gear, even for those that intend to only pve, I won't write much about it. I don't pvp at all and honestly don't know much about it, all I do know is that even for a tank there are some nice items to be had there. This is because pvp-items usually have alot of two stats; stamina and resilience, both of which are really nice for a pve-tank.

So speaking of stats and speaking of the great supply of gear options given to you when dinging 80, the final choices are mostly based on whether you have alot of money or not. Because if you do, there are a big amount of nice craftables to be had. If you don't, you'll have to get most of your gear through grinding emblems instead. But either way you'll end up with a nice gear, and like I said yesterday - to do heroics you really don't need much. The amount of money you have will instead determine how fast you can start doing raids.

But no matter if you're rich or not, you should look for the same kind of upgrades you always have - stamina stamina stamina. Now it will also be important to get the right amount of defense, which is 535 for tanking heroics and 540 for tanking raids. That amount will make you crit immune by any mob in the instance/raid, which is crucial (especially when raiding). UPDATE 24/10: As of patch 4.0 defense no longer exists, so no need to bother about that anymore! So those are the thumb rules;
- You can never have too much stamina
- Get at least 535 defense (and at least 540 if you want to tank a raid)
- Any other stats are secondary to stamina, but it's nice with hit and expertise too of course.
- Even if you gain stamina on an item, it has to be proportionate to any amount of avoidance that you lose.

It's hard to say how much hp avoidance is worth, since it depends on how much hp and avoidance you already have, and what kind of mobs you're going to fight. But remember that hp is a definite way to survive incoming damage attacks while avoidance only gives a chance to survive incoming attacks. People call it "Effective" vs "ineffective health". Avoidance is ineffective because as long as you don't have 100% of it, there is always a chance it won't help you at all. Avoidance also only helps against physical attacks, whereas hp helps against any attacks (though death knights have talents that convert avoidance to magic avoidance I think).

Emblems
There are, like mentioned, alot of different ways to get good gear when you ding 80. Most of it will probably come from emblems, namely emblems of triumph and frost. If you've done nothing but instances since you dinged 68, you'll have a nice bunch of Triumphs to grab some good t9 pieces at level 80. Problem is, you only get 2 Triumphs a day when doing a random normal instance, and if your tank is your main, or you have some other reason to want to level it faster than that, you probably won't have much emblems at 80. Time wasn't an issue for, and I had about 130 emblems when I dinged (that means I did more than 60 instances between 68-80!). Don't worry though, getting emblems is really easy at level 80, especially for a tank! Even with really bad gear you will instantly get groups. And remember that the gear you have is what everyone had before Ulduar, ToC and ICC, so most of the heroics are actually designed around your gear level. With 130 emblems I could take three t9 pieces (30+30+50), which got me off to a nice start.
There are, like mentioned, alot of different ways to get good gear when you ding 80. Most of it will probably come from Justice Points (JP). Getting JP at level 80 is really easy. Even with bad gear you instantly get groups as a tank, and remember that the gear you have is what everyone else had before Ulduar, ToC and ICC so most heroics are actually designed around your level gear.

You can also buy offset pieces with emblems however, and they are in fact of a higher ilevel. Which isn't the same as they being better, since tier has set bonuses which could be good. The offset gear is also alot more expensive than the t9 pieces. The offset gear usually costs the same as t10 pieces.

Setbonuses for t9 warrior protection are 2 sec reduced cooldown on taunt for two pieces and 10 sec reduced cooldown on Shield Block for four pieces. Those are decent bonuses, and I think going for t9 where you can is better than going for offset. Setbonues for t10 warrior protection are 20% more damage with Shield Slam and Shockwave for two pieces and using your Battle Shout or Commanding Shout gives you a protective shield absorbing damage equal to 20% of your maximum health for four pieces. These are really great set bonues and definitely something worth getting.

Craftables
Some craftables are worth getting, some aren't. If you have alot of money I recommend getting both 245 crafteds and both 264 crafteds of course, especially as a started to have an easier time farming heroics for JP. The 245 crafteds are Saronite Swordbreakers (bracers), which cost about 1500g to make, and Breastplate of the White Knight (chest) which costs about 2000g to make. The 264 craftables are Boots of Kingly Upheaval (boots) which cost about 3500g to make and Pillars of Might (legs) which cost about 5500g to make (with the current prices on mats on some different servers that I play on).

There are also less good craftables, that still might be worth the money if you find them cheap on AH. Those are the ilevel 200 craftables; Titansteel Shield Wall (shield, there are nice shields to be had from other places though, so unless you find it really cheap it aint worth it), Tempered Titansteel Treads (boots) and Tempered Titansteel Helm (head) which all cost about 200g to make. They can be a fairly cheap way to boost some bad piece in your gear, and especially give you more hp fast.

Indestructible Plate Girdle (belt) is an ilevel 226 item which costs about 800g to make, and is worth it if you have alot of money. Otherwise there is a nice belt to get from JP with the same ilevel, Shieldwarder Girdle, but rather costly for its ilvl.

Instances
All the old heroics drop epics from the final boss with ilevel 200 gear. However, if you want to find good gear fast, I recommend going for ToC and ICC normals. Even though they are normals they will drop good loot, and best of all, they're grindable. It is a great way to get good loot fast, and ToC normal has for example one of the best tanking trinkets in the game.

So let's make a little list of the items to be on the look for when dinging 80. I'll keep it to epic gear to not make the list overwhelming.

Name (source, ilvl)

Head
- Tempered Saronite Helm (craftable, 200)
- Helm of the Crestfallen Challenger (ToC hc, 219)
- Second Helm of the Executioner (HoR hc, 232)
- Headplate of the Honorbound (935 JP, 245)
- Ymirjar Lord's Greathelm (t10, 1100 JP, 251)

Neck
- The Warlords Depravity (ToC hc, 219)
- Shard of the Crystal Forest (405 JP, 226)
- Fossilized Ammonite Choker (HoR hc, 232)

Shoulders
- Regal Auros Shoulderplates (ToC hc, 219)
- Shoulderplates of Frozen Blood (PoS hc, 232)
- Shoulderplates of Enduring Order (591 JP, 245)
- Ymirjar Lord's Pauldrons (t10, 695 JP, 251)

Back
- Durable Nerubhide Cape (craftable, 200)
- Platinum Mesh Cloak (347 JP, 213)
- Eerie Runeblade Polisher (HoR N, 219)
- Sentinel Winter's Cloak (579 JP, 264)

Chest
- Scourgelord's Frigid Chestplate (PoS N, 219)
- Icebane Bronze Cuirass (PoS hc, 232)
- Breastplate of the White Knight (craftable, 245)
- Ymirjar Lord's Breastplate (t10, 1100 JP, 251)
- Cataclysmic Chestguard (1100 JP, 264)

Bracers
- Bracers of the Herald (OK hc, 200)
- Saronite Swordbreakers (craftable, 245)

Gloves
- Horn-Tipped Gauntlets (Gundrak hc, 200)
- Mercy's Hold (ToC N, 200)
- Crystalline Citadel Gauntlets (HoR N, 219)
- Gauntlets of the Royal Watch (487 JP, 226)
- Ymirjar Lord's Handguards (t10, 695 JP, 251)
- Gauntlet's of the Kraken (696 JP, 264)

Belt
- Ancient Aligned Girdle (AN hc, 200)
- Girdle of the Pallid Knight (ToC N, 200)
- Indestructible Plate Girdle (craftable, 226)
- Shieldwarder Girdle (487 JP, 226)
- Verdigris Chain Belt (695 JP, 264)

Legs
- Bolstered Legplates (VH hc, 200)
- Legplates of Abandoned Fealty (ToC N, 200)
- Legplates of Frozen Granite (FoS N, 219)
- Wyrmguard Legplates (770 JP, 226)
- Ymirjar Lord's Legguards (t10, 1100 JP, 251)
- Pillars of Might (craftable, 264)

Boots
- Boots of Heartfelt Repentance (ToC N, 200)
- Tempered Titansteel Treads (craftable, 200)
- Kyzoc's Ground Stompers (417 JP, 213)
- Sollerets of Suffering (FoS N, 219)
- Spiked Deathdealers (craftable, 226)
- Black Spire Sabatons (FoS hc, 232)
- Boots of Kingly Upheaval (craftable, 264)

Shields
- Royal Crest of Lordaeron (CoS hc, 200)
- Titansteel Shield Wall (craftable, 200)
- Splintered Door of the Citadel (HoR N, 219)
UPDATE 19/10 - Wrathful Gladiator's Shield Wall (70 Honor Points, 270) I haven't listed any other pvp-gear, but since this shields honor point cost must be bugged I recommend getting it asap as it is a great tank shield practically free.

Rings
- Keystone Great-Ring (DTK hc, 200)
- Mark of the Relentless (ToC hc, 219)
- Clutch of Fortification (492 JP, 245)

Trinkets
- The Black Heart (ToC N, 200)
- Ick's Rotting Thumb (PoS hc, 232)
- Glyph of Indomitability (591 JP, 245)
- Purified Lunar Dust (695 JP, 264)

Ranged
- Blades of the Sable Cross (295 JP, 245)

Weapon
- Red Sword of Courage (UP hc, 200)
- Lucky Old Sun (FoS N, 219)
- Peacekeeper's Blade (ToC hc, 219)
- Falric's Wrist-Chopper (HoR hc, 232)
- Rimefang's Claw (PoS hc, 232)

Phew, that took a while (thanks wowhead again)! As we can see, some item slots have lots of options, while others only have one. So start collecting, coz that's what I'm going to do. Next time I'll talk about different specs! See yas.

How to! Warrior Tank - Level 80 - Instances

Today I thought I'd go through the final instances. And they aint few. I won't mention gear this time though since I'll make a special post about that instead. For once there is much to say about gear so it deserves some special attention.
We did Halls of Stone and Gundrak last time, so that means we have seven (EDIT: eight) instances to finish off today, to round it all up! Better get started right away.

Culling of Stratholme
Like I mentioned last time, CoS used to be the suckiest instance you could get before they finally got around and changed it. Nowadays it is pretty straightforward and easy, although people still usually don't like it since it's difficult to speed things up in any instance where you have to fight waves of things (like Violet Hold and Halls of Reflection also). But even so you'll get it done fairly fast and it gives a nice amount of emblems (which is nice, if that's what you're after), a max of 5 (plus 2 for the instance).
- If you're badly geared you might want to keep an eye out for the poison debuff that some of the Nerubar mobs do (called Hemotoxin). Although it deals 15% of max health every 2 seconds, and therefore is as dangerous to a well geared tank as a badly geared tank, you'll usually be in more trouble having this on you if you have bad gear because of all the other damage you'll take.
- The only place that might be slightly tricky is probably the gauntlet towards the end. Don't mind the little zombies, anyone (even the healer) can handle those. Using an addon that helps you find the elites among all the non-elites is very good here (something like Tidy Plates, but I'll get into that too in another post).
- There is an extra boss in the end just before the final boss, which you can get to if you make the time limit. With any kind of group that hasn't got sawdust instead of brains, that shouldn't be a problem. It will give you an extra emblem and a flying mount, yay.
- The final boss does a frontal cone effect, so the first thing you should do is make him face away from the rest of the group.

No, this has nothing to do with CoS or Oculus

Oculus
Oculus, oh Oculus. I've already made an entire post on whether or not Oculus sucks really bad, so I probably don't have to tell you again what I feel about it. By reading that post you'll also get a general idea about what to think about, but I'll say it again just in case.
- Rather kill too many dragons than too few! Trying to kill them while dismounted isn't going to be easy as they have alot of hp and are... well up in the air.
- Make sure whoever picks the green dragon know what the heck he is doing. I've been in one group too many where that guy alone made the entire group wipe. "Heal, what is that?"


Halls of Lightning
Although Halls of Lightning is rather long, I still actually enjoy it alot. It has a nice diversity in mobs and offers at least some difficulty when tanking.
- If your gear sucks, try not to get the first boss when he is charged. A good healer could probably still keep you up, but getting him without the charge is easy. And if you like you can skip that boss alltogether actually.
- The Slags just after the first boss just keep respawning so you have to simply run through to the other side. When you've collected all make sure you don't run too far up the stairs, because that will make you pull an extra group (make sure no one else in your party does this mistake either). The Slags explode on death, so if yet again, if you have bad gear you'll probably want to pop some cooldown to survive it.
- In the room with the colonnade of Ymirjars along the wall, you will have to do some advanced pick up tanking (for once). The Ymirjars will release from different directions, and you'll have to use all and any skill you can to make sure they run to you. Taunt one, Heroic Throw another and clap the rest. They fear too, so keep Berserker Rage under your finger.
- The room after the third boss (Ionar) is probably among the trickier in all heroics. If you're careful, the pulls don't have to be a problem. The mobs have some nasty tricks up their sleeves though, so look out for sleeps, whirlwinds, charges and poisons that could overwhelm the healer. Cooldowns could be necessary. And yet again, careful with the pulling.


Forge of Souls
The first of the three ICC instances, it's short and neat. All the ICC instances are more difficult than the "old" heroics, but hopefully the LFG-tool won't throw you into them until your gear is ready for it (although I did get into FoS the other day with less than 3500 gs). The first time you do the ICC instances they have to be done in a special order, starting with FoS. That means you can't get PoS or HoR until you've done FoS at least once. You get a quest by Sylvanas who stands at the entrance of FoS. Take it as it gives some extra frost emblems, and will lead you on to other quests in the other ICC instances.
- The mobs in FoS are nasty! The adepts are ranged, so try to collect the rest of the mob-group by them or bash the adepts into getting to you (or Heroic Throw something in their face). Some groups have several casters which make tanking them rather tricky. Like mentioned, make full use of Bash and Heroic Throw and for the love of the Spagettimonster, don't forget your Spell Reflect. If you charge in and use it immediately, you might even reflect several spells (as they are cast smultaneously by the mobs).
- If the dps in your group sucks, you might need to kite the first boss when he does his Corrupt Soul. If the Corrupt Soul reaches him, he receives 240k health (heroic).
- The final boss, Devourer of Souls, does a Phantom Blast. As a warrior you can both Bash it and Spell Reflect it which means you should be able to avoid all of his casts. And that is good as they do alot of damage (approx 12k damage).

Pit of Saron
The second ICC instance is also the largest ICC instance. One usually goes the right way, but you can do it from any direction. PoS is, just as the other ICC instances, a rather tricky place. Especially when compared to the old heroics. You'll have to look where you go so you don't accidentally pull something, as it is very easily done in this instance.
- Just after the second boss, if you take the normal route (Ick), you will run up a slope with some really nasty mob groups. First out are two packs of undead Ymirjars. Three of five in each group are casters, so yet again you have to make full use of your bashes, spell reflects and heroics throws. And these really hurt, but that's the healers problem, innit ;) After those groups are two groups of skeletons, with two casters in each. Those casters will do a Freezing Circle which you should get out of asap.
- The final boss, Scourgelord Tyrannus, will go into berserker mode for a few seconds every once in a while. If you tank him with your back against an ice patch (not on the ice patch though), he will knock you over it just before going apeshit. When running after you he will have to cross the icepatch and thus be slowed, and allow you to kite him for the short duration needed. This is good since he hits quite hard when he is enraged.

Halls of Reflection
Ah this part is easy since I've already made a post about it!

So that's all the instances we had left (bet I've forgotten about one...). Next time I thought we'd look into what gear to collect as a newly dinged 80!

EDIT (16/7): Hah, I did forget about one! ToC of course.
Trial of the Champion
ToC is nice since just like the raid Trial of the Champion (which is played in the same environment), there are no trash mobs. I think this was an experiment on Blizzards behalf, seeing what we'd like about an instance/raid completely without trash, since trash has been something player have been whining about for years. This is still the only instance without trash however, so whatever results Blizzard got, they weren't all good. It's an interesting idea, but I think making too many instances this way would make WoW feel even more of the loot-piñata that it already is.
- The Jousting part is fairly easy, even if you've never done jousting before (I hadn't the first time I did ToC). Just remember to keep track of your pets hp (whether it be a dog or horse) and switch before it dies. Being dismounted while jousting usually results in death.
- The first three bosses are a random pick of five possible. A hunter, a shaman healer, a mage, a rogue and a warrior. Out of these, the rogue and the warrior are by far the most annoying. I'd even say the shaman healer is the least annoying. People usually prefer to kill him first, because he is a healer, but I like to kill the warrior/rogue first if I've got any of them.
- For the second boss you can either get Eidric (paladin) or Paletress (priest). When killing the mob packs before engaging the boss, don't pull too many. The Argent Priestess mind controls, so if you're engaged in battle to many of them, many in your party might be mc'd. And since rule #1 of tanking is to never assume people in your party know what to do, only take on as many as you think you can interrupt yourself.
- The final boss is mostly a problem for the healer to handle. He summons a ghoul in the first phase which you should tank, and alot of smaller ghouls in the second phase which you can try to tank.

How to! Warrior Tank - Level 80

Ding! I've finally dinged 80 at approximately one weeks playtime and two days short of 6 months real time. This final post probably won't be final at all, and in any case I'm going to make several posts of what to do when turning level 80. What gear to look for, the final instances and how to spec if you prefer to tank instances or raid. And maybe some other stuff if I come to think of it. Unfortunately today, since it deserves more time than I have today.

When I first started out with this project, and like I said it aint all done yet, I was really looking forward to it. And I have to say, it has been a hell of a lot of fun tanking my way from level 1 (well 15 really) to 80. The rewards have generally been greater than the drawbacks (instant instances being among the best things), and I can only recommend anyone seeking something new and interesting to do to try this! The increase in difficulty is very well balanced, just as you think you're about to have some trouble you get some new cool skill to counter any doubts. Trying to get the hang of warrior tanking at a high level is probably discouraging (it was to me anyway), so doing it from scratch is really the best and most fun way (at least I think so) to do it. And you'll definitely be awesome in the end, if you follow my little guide ;)

Once at 80 you'll fall all the way down the suck-bin. Everyone has awesome gear and you'll probably be around 3000 gs, which everyone will laugh at. Trust me they do. But you must also trust me when I say that gear really isn't much of a problem to tank properly. Unless the healer also happens to be really badly geared and/or you do bad pulls (or someone else in the group does of course), there won't be a problem. I have already tanked some heroics in my 3k gs gear and had no trouble at all, even when I've had 6k gs dps in the same group. Sure you'll lose some aggro once in a while, just taunt it back or remember that they're probably as capable to take a blow as you are at the moment.

To find all my other posts in this matter, simply search for "how to" or anything else in the title in the search area. That should work. Or follow the tags.

Warrior tanking is tricky, but extremely rewarding. Thanks to the fact that you get thunder clap so early in the game, and it happens to be about your best tanking tool, you shouldn't have much trouble keeping threat at any level. Just clap clap clap, tab around and throw some punches. I'll talk more about specs, skills and glyphs in another post (probably tomorrow).

Until then, take a look at my handmade and extremely beautiful collage. Maybe I have to start out with a new warrior now...