A-o-R: AtlasLoot Enhanced

AtlasLoot Enhanced
Category - Loot mod
Necessity Level - Medium
Class/Role - Any

AtlasLoot is an addon that does alot of things. Most of them involve being able to look at loot. Loot that drops in instances, is bought by emblems, or is crafted by a profession, to mention a few options. To explain everything it does would take forever, but in short it answers just about any question you might have about loot. Questions like;

- What mats do I need to craft that item?
- Does that boss drop any nice loot?
- How many emblems does that item cost?
- What bonuses was there in that tier set?
- What do I get when I am exalted with that faction?
- How do I look in that item?

There are even some features that I've never used, like being able to display dkp-values for items (as set by your guild) and being able to bind "quick-buttons" to certain items to access them more easily.

The ui for Atlasloot is very user friendly, with a search window that will allow you to use keywords to search for any items and some easy to understand drop down menus to search for things "manually". I simply love this addon. I'm one of those people who check gear drops constantly, like when doing raids or instances, or to check what would be a nice upgrade next. I couldn't imagine playing without this addon, although it's not really necessary per se. It's just a damn nice addon if you want to be able to look at gear. There are several reasons why you should have this addon even if you don't like to look at gear though. If you ever want something crafted, you should know what mats are needed and have them ready. People hate it when you ask them "what mats is it?" and then take forever getting them. I also think that anyone who raids should be aware of what gear he needs and wants before he enters the raid. People hate it when you go "I don't know if this is an upgrade..." and then take forever deciding it (there are other addons that I will talk about that will help you with this issue further).

Loot is one of the major things that WoW revolves around. No matter if you're a loot whore or not, you will be affected by loot (maybe not if you're a hunter), so being able to have a full overview to quickly check whatever you might need to check will most likely be very handy. Unless you play WoW very rarely (and I doubt you do if you read this blog) I strongly recommend this addon.

The only drawback of AtlasLoot is that it takes alot of space. Fortunately it comes in modules, which means you can choose not to be able to look at vanilla/bc/crafting etc loot if you don't want to. AtlasLoot only takes as much room as you need it to and doesn't force information on your that you're not interested in.

I could show you some nice pictures, but they'd be just the same as the ones over at wowinterface.com, so go check them out there!

10 signs you should leave a raid

Have you ever been in a PuG raid where everything goes shit and thought "there were signs of this, why didn't I react sooner!".

Yes, there are signs. Signs that scream "this is surely going to fail!" and we always think "naaah, it's probably just an honest mistake, that warrior has gemmed spirit because...". Well there's no excuse for that really. But for some reason we tend to stick with something, unless it really really fails at once.

I'm not trying to promote ditching something as soon as there is a wipe, or someone dies, like some people do. But some things are just too horrible to ignore, and if you want to spare yourself the frustration and ruined evening, you should go with your gut feeling that says... "Get out of here... while you still can".

Here is a list of things to look out for. If you have anything on this list in your raid, you should be very cautious. If you're lucky it's an isolated incident and you can just fix the problem. If you're unlucky and have more than one of these in your raid, you seriously should think about "disconnecting".

1. The hunter says he is a "melee-hunter".

2. Raidleader doesn't know how to turn of caps.

3. Main tank says "mom says it's dinner soon".

4. People try to lose aggro by running away from the tank.

5. The paladins use only minor blessings.

6. The main tank uses BoA-gear.

7. The raid leader says "this is an rp-raid".

8. The tank healer says "I have really bad lags".

9. The raid leader isn't part of a guild.

10. More than half the raid use "Jenkins" title.

And there are tons more, so I'll surely make another list later. Can you think of any more sure signs that a raid is going to fail?

Where's the love?

Seriously, and I've said this before, there isn't enough love in WoW!

We bash eachother as soon as something bad happens, but how often do we praise eachother when we do something great? We don't, because even though we don't expect people to do great, we demand they do. It's like we're supposed to be on the awesome end of the scale, or we're bad people.
bad-------------------average--------------awesome

But most people are at average, that's why it's called average. So when someone does awesome dps, awesome healing or awesome tanking, why don't we just say so? It seems like we think that since he's doing it, it must be easy. But one should really think "would I do this as good?". And if yes one would know how difficult (or not) it might be, and if praised is warranted.

I want to think that I do. I hope I do.
Because I know I take critic rather hard. If someone complains about my tanking I don't tank for days. So how happy do you think I get when I get something like this?

Yeah, he's talking to me!

The guy liked what I was doing and said so. It will keep me happy for at least a month.

Funny thing is, when I tank as good on my other tank that has way better gear, or when Love is tanking who has even better gear than that, we never get recognition like this. I think that since my gear sucks (I have 4100gs right now), people expect me to really stink at what I do. But for heroics my gear is just fine, and I do have some experience in tanking by now. They just get so surprised they have to tell me I'm doing a good job (this isn't the only time it's happened).

And even though it might seem like I'm just blowing my own horn (and yeah, that mainly what I'm trying to do ;) ), my point is that anyone who's doing a nice job deserves to get comments like this. Not just my crap-ass geared tank.

So, more love to the people.

How to! Warrior Tank - Level 80 - Glyphs

As a finisher on yesterdays post let's look at some nice glyphs for tanking raids and instances.

The thing about glyphs are that many of them usually are pretty good, but since you're only able to use 3 major and 3 minor, there are some that have to be discarded because they're simply not good enough.

First out the Majors

Glyph of Devastate vs Sunder Armor
These two glyphs are good examples of a raid vs instance glyph. Glyph of Devastate will apply two sunder armor stacks with one Devastate, which means you'll get faster threat on one target. Glyph of Sunder Armor will apply Sunder Armor on two targets at once, which means you'll get better aggro on several targets at once. It is probably quite obvious which glyph suits which raid setting, but I'll tell you just in case - Glyph Devastate is for raiding, and Glyph of Sunder Armor is for instancing, and I recommend having at least one of these. As with many other things, the raid glyph works better in instances than the instance glyph works well in raids.

Glyph of Shield Wall & Last Stand
Definitely raid glyphs. But wait, Glyph of Shield Wall makes Shield Wall reduce damage by 40% instead of 60%, that can't be good? It will however actually increase your overall damage reduction, since it also reduces cooldown on Shield Wall by half (if you've already got Improved Disciplines), which is more than the damage reduction reduction (sounds weird). And evenso, being able to use Shield Wall twice as often makes it less sensitive to exact timing and therefore easier to use. Just as with Glyph of Shield Wall this glyph will increase your survivability. If you intend to raid I strongly recommend these glyphs. They're not particularly necessary if you don't raid though.

Glyph of Shockwave
The whole thing about Shockwave is that it does aoe damage and also stuns, properties that are less valuable in raids. Therefore this isn't a raid glyph, but definitely very useful for when doing instances.

So Majors for raiding should focus on the damage reduce glyphs - Glyph of Shield Wall and Glyph of Last Stand, and to top it off, a nice threat glyph with Glyph of Devastate.

Majors for Instancing could focus more on the threat and less on the damage reduce skills. Glyph of Shockwave, Glyph of Sunder Armor are a good pair. Final glyph could be anything you like, but I'd probably go with Glyph of Devastate.

Over to the Minors
The minors are more about utility and none is crucial for raiding or instancing. One glyph I think is really nice whether you'll mainly raid or do instances is Glyph of Command. Since Commanding shout gives alot of hp, not having to think about it while fighting (and accidentally forget about it mid fight) is really nice. Other nice minor glyphs are Glyph of Thunder Clap, Glyph of Charge and Glyph of Bloodrage. So go with Command and grab two of the other three and you're set!

That's it about glyphs today, it's a short post partially due to the fact that I'm in the middle of a raid at the moment, and partially since there just isn't much more to say about glyphs :D

But woot, that might actually mean that my project is over, finito, finished. As far as I can remember I've said everything I wanted to say about warrior tanking. Luckily, things always change in WoW, and there will always be something more to say. So don't worry, my warrior tank won't disappear completely. She'll do her instances, hopefully get some nice gear, do raids, and nerdrage over people who can't behave. So thanks for this!

Maybe I'll have to start another project now...

How to! Warrior Tank - Level 80 - Talents

One might not think that there is any difference between tanking instances and raids, beside the mobs hurting more. But because the mobs hit so much harder it makes some talents and glyphs more usable, even necessary to use, compared to when tanking instances. Remember what I said about tanking? It's about being able to take the damage and keep the aggro. As your gear gets better and better, so does your capability to take damage of course. For all heroics currently out there, a gear set of about 4500 gs is enough as long as your healer is alert. For the latest raids however, ICC and RS, you'll most likely have to use something other than just your gear to be able to take the damage. The reason for this is simple, raid bosses often use special skills to do extra much damage, especially designed for you and others in your raid to have to use cooldowns with proper timing. It is what make them tougher than instances.

Some skills are baseline, like Shield Wall, other skills are talented, like Last Stand and Vigilance. Some skills are for taking damage, some skills are for keeping aggro. How necessary each skill is depends on what you want to do. So let's look at the differences between raid tanking and instance tanking.

Instances, meaning heroics, are mostly about being able to keep aoe threat. Not only are most packs in heroics consisting of several mobs, most people will expect you to do fast and smooth pulling. If your gear is decent, taking damage will be less of an issue, and you should therefore focus on talents and glyphs that will help you with threat on several targets.

Raid tanking is mostly about having cooldowns to use when things heat up. Seriously, most of the time you just stand around staring at the boss, what makes raid tanking even slightly difficult is knowing when to use the proper cooldowns (there are always exceptions of course). Therefore you should focus on getting talents and glyphs that will help you with taking more damage. It might sound easy enough, but there are some debatable areas here.

Leave Cleave Alone
One of the biggest debates regarding instance-tanking is whether you should use cleave or not. The idea goes that when using Cleave instead of Heroic Strike, you'll hit three targets at once, thus making three time the threat for the same cost! That's not entirely true of course. Although both Cleave and Heroic Strike are onswing-skills, aka used in the same way, they work rather differently.

If speccing into Puncture, Cleave costs 17 rage (plus the rage you "lose" from using your swing on a special attack, which isn't an issue really if you're tanking). To get the most from those 17 rage you should also spec into the third tree in fury, Improved Cleave which increases damage on Cleave with 120% (there is also Incite, which buffs both Cleave and Heroic Strike). One probably wouldn't spec that far into Fury for any other reason, which means Cleave costs some talentpoints to optimize. Cleave does hit three target at once, which is three times as many as Heroic Strike of course. Cleave has no special modifier for threat however, so it doesn't do extra threat like Heroic Strike does.

Heroic Strike also needs talents to be optimized. Most people spec Improved Heroic Strike if they tank with Heroic Strike, but if rage isn't an issue you don't have to (unlike with Cleave). So if speccing into Puncture, Heroic Strike costs 12 rage, down to 9 rage with Improved Heroic Strike. It only hits one target, but instead it does so with extra threat. So the question is really, does one want low threat on three targets at once, or high threat on one target at a time?

It might be obvious which side I'm on. Personally, I don't think Cleave is worth the hassle. Since Cleave doesn't make alot of threat, it is meant to be used as a fast aoe-mob-gathering-threat. Some people seem to think that using Cleave will save us from having to retargetting constantly. Thing is, we already have such tools that do their job just fine if we know how to use them - Thunder Clap (especially this), Shockwave and Demoralizing Shout. The issue rarely is about keeping aggro from aoe damage, but from point damage on different targets.

Say you're fighting four mobs and the mage does aoe, the rogue nukes target A and the warrior nukes target B and does some aoe. Keeping aoe threat here won't be the big issue, trying to keep aggro from target A and B being nuked will be. Cleave won't help you with that, at all. Heroic Strike on the other hand will (and Shield Slam, Revenge of course). What you have to do in this situation is shield slamming and revenging different targets, while keeping thunder claps and heroic strikes rolling. If you want to avoid having to retarget you've chosen the wrong tank class. One of the charms of warrior tanking is optimizing your rotation based on what you're fighting. So leave Cleave.

Deep Wounds
Some tanks go deep into arms and spec Deep Wounds (pun intended). Yet again the main reason is for getting better threat. Yet again however, I don't think it's worth all those talents. Unless you have really big issues keeping aggro you shouldn't have to spec this. When doing instances mobs die too fast anyway for you to have to use more than what I've already talked about - Thunder Clap, Shockwave and Demo shout. When doing raids you'll hopefully have a bunch of competent threat transferrers aka hunters and rogues to help you with aggro. Also people tend to mind their aggro more if they know they'll be one shot and maybe even wipe the entire raid if they accidentally pull it from the tank. Being able to keep high aggro is more important than it sounds, since whatever threat you're able to push out sets the limit for how much damage (threat) the dps can push out. More aggro = more damage = good. I am sure I have mentioned this before. I don't think that Deep Wounds will make that much of a difference though that it's worth all those talents, since I think having good threat is mostly about using a good rotation, and having a good amount of hit and expertise at that.

Concussion Blow
Some talents are nearly worthless in raids, but more useful in instances, and vice versa. Of course, there is nearly always trash to be dealt with in raids, and situations in instances where you need a talent more often used in raids, but overall it is like I've already said - instance = keeping aggro and raid = taking damage.

One of these talents is Concussion Blow. It is basically useless when fighting raid bosses since they're never stunnable and as far as I know CB doesn't work as an interrupt either. The only reason you'd want it for raiding is to get down to Vigilance, which I know alot of raid tanks don't spec either. I like it however since the 10% threat transfer is pretty great no matter if you're instancing or raiding. So even if Concussion Blow isn't any good for raiding I still think it's worth it to get to Vigilance. For instancing Concussion Blow is a neat tool, and definitely worth one tp.

Iron Will
Iron Will is a talent that, contrary to unpopular beliefs, is more useful for instances than raiding. You'll rarely be stunned or charmed when doing raids, this does however occur rather often when doing instances. Often enough to be necessary? No, I don't think so, but it isn't a totally bad talent. For instancing. So if you're really annoyed with being stunned this might be something for you.

Improved Disciplines
Reducing the cooldown on Shield Wall (because that is what matters here) won't be necessary when tanking instances. You rarely use Shield Wall unless something in your party sucks, whether it is you, your gear, someone else or someone elses gear. Hopefully those issues are transient. When tanking raids however, reducing the cooldown on Shield Wall equals to you being able to take alot more damage. Reducing the cooldown by 1 minute means that it becomes 20% better, which actually is pretty awesome.

Spare Talent Points
Most tanks grab some points in the fury tree for some extra threat. Even if you don't go all the way down to Cleave, you'll have points to spend in Armored to the Teeth, and maybe some points for Cruelty. When having taken all the talents that you actually need, you'll be left with some extra tp's that you can place anywhere. AttT and Cruelty are simply two talents that are pretty worth placing those spare talents points into.

I think I've covered most question marks that might rise when trying to spec for raid tanking and instance tanking. Thing is that even if you're pretty set on instance tanking, chances are high that you'll do some raid tanking as well, like VoA. Therefore, unless you're dead sure you won't do any raid, having some raid talents are worth carrying around. Raid talents in instances are more useful than instance talents in raids after all.

Here is an example of a spec that works well for both raid tanking and instance tanking.
If you never ever gonna raid, you can place the talents in Improved Disciplines into Cruelty and Improved Demoralizing Shout instead.

Next time (which might be tomorrow, maybe another day) I'll get into what glyphs to use depending on tank setting. I had intended to do it today, but as always I write more than I think I will... No more time!