Icecrown Citadel: Avoidance vs EH

First of all, happy new year and happy birthdays to... well... you know who you are.

I know that I really should be discussing the new 3.3 changes since I haven't already done that, but lets do something a little more in-depth this time: Avoidance or EH in ICC?

As you all may or may not know, avoidance tanks suffered heavily in Sunwell back in TBC, mainly because any major gear change from EH to avoidance caused a tank to fall below the EH requirements of the fights. Bosses in Sunwell Plateau didn't hit often, but they did hit very hard.

Now, in ICC, as part of their "new boss design" strategy, Blizzard has come up with bosses that hit less hard, but hit more often. In lieu of this, the EH requirements of ICC-10 are vastly lower than those of ToGC-10. What this simply means is that if this expected trend continues, I would assume that avoidance tanks would be king in ICC. Of course, this is all speculation, without even seeing what ICC hard mode looks like yet. But this shift away from hard hitting bosses has left me very happy, in the sense that I hated tanking those fights where "if you don't press it, you die." It didn't feel dynamic or fun to tank them.

As an example, Lord Marrowgar melee's for significantly less than Anub'arak in ToGC, but has a nasty spike damage that needs to be reacted to. It won't kill a tank instantly, but the next two attacks will be fatal. Here's the crutch: Instead of having the next 18k swing by the boss be fatal, they instead allowed the boss to hit twice for 9k each. Yes, the DPS done by the boss will probably be the same in the two scenarios, but there is always more room to react to two hits instead of one. There's also a higher probability that either of those two hits will be mitigated or avoided, thus, again, giving healers more room to react, rather than a one-hit do-or-die situation. Even on Saurfang at Frenzy phase (sub-30%), my HP barely spiked below half while in my avoidance set.

It looks like we will have to see what the second wing of ICC turns out to be like (which is next week). I am looking forward to it.

M.I.A.

Yes I know I was MIA for quite a while, but... just to share a little surprise with you, this is what my guild and I have been doing these past weeks:

Edit: Instead of a link to the video, I have uploaded the whole video here. Enjoy :)

Edit on the edit: I've posted back the link here in case you people want a larger view.

I have 80% avoidance

Just an hour or so ago, I heard someone LF main tank for VoA10, so I brought S, since she was the only warrior still not saved yet, in the quest for that elusive 4T8 Protection set. Surprisingly, offtank was a warrior with some pieces of gear that were of higher ilvl than mine, but with questionable gem choices, and in some instances, not enchanted. Should be easy enough, I thought.

A couple of attempts into Koralon, (and even on the trash before that), I realised that the only warrior debuffs on the boss were mine, save Sunder. We had 3 healers, but two of them were averaging 1.5k to 2k HPS - rather weak. On the 2nd attempt, this offtank moved too quickly out of the fire on the ground, only to kill me, because Koralon happened to be casting Meteor Fists at the exact same moment. After we all run back, he asks to main tank, and here's what he says:

And here's what I say:

Wow. Are you actually as stupid as you look? Block was not, is not, and never will be, avoidance. Where did you learn your English?

Avoidance: -noun. the act of avoiding or keeping away from.

In short, it is the ability to TOTALLY avoid an attack. As I have already mentioned, block is a MITIGATION stat. Score one in the win column for me.

But surprisingly, we manage to clear, because all the healers are putting out a combined of 10k HPS this time. On a closer look at recount, however...

Nicely done! Top skill is Devastate, Heroic Strike is 3rd, and only one Thunder Clap. Nice tanking! -endsarcasm-

Compare to my parse on Emalon himself:

I think the screenshots speak for themselves.

Now look at his parse while tanking Emalon's adds:

Top damage ability... is Melee!? Full of win.

People, if you have no idea what the fock you are talking about, and no idea how your class mechanics work, please dont freaking embarass yourself in public. The warrior community is better off without you, seriously.

More tidbits

Since I've been asked, I thought I'd put these two up.

This is a link to the site on how fast both dodge and parry diminish, you can draw your own conclusions here: http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f63/40003-diminishing-returns-avoidance.html.

This is the link to the site on which bosses currently have parry haste enabled:

http://maintankadin.failsafedesign.com/forum/index.php?rb_v=viewtopic&p=490560

A common enchant

Everytime I see a tank sporting Armsman, which is like 99% of the people on my server, I always end up shaking my head in disbelief. Let's look at the enchant more carefully, shall we?

Enchant Gloves - Armsman 5 sec cast
Permanently enchant gloves to increase threat caused by 2% and increase parry rating by 10. Requires a level 60 or higher item.

Now, 10 parry rating is roughly 0.22% parry, but when you factor in diminishing returns, its true value would be something closer to 0.1% parry. But I'm sure that's not why most tanks pick it up. They are enthralled by the 2% threat increase. Now, think about it carefully. On a 7 minute boss fight, an average tank can put out 2 million threat. 2% of that is 40,000 threat. That's barely more than 2 Shield Slams + autoattacks + 3 or 4 Heroic Strikes. Not convinced? Let's analyse what happens in a heroic. On average, mobs in heroic instances die before the tank has 50k threat. 2% of 50k, therefore, would be 1000 threat. That's even less than one Devastate!

Comparing to other alternatives - Heavy Borean Armor Kit for Effective Health and Precise Strikes and Expertise for threat; 18 Stam equates to roughly 210 HP with Vitality and Blessing of Kings, and you already know how good hit and expertise are for threat, and in expertise's case, survivability.

Need I say anymore?

More aggro, part 2

As an update on the previous post, I now present to you the fact that it is also fully possible to hold the DPS of the same T9.25 arcane mage, doing 6.4k DPS and only 20% threat reduction, while only putting out ~1.8k DPS and with no vigilance, tested and proven by yours truly on Wednesday.

As a side update, I bought a new PC about a month ago, and the 25-man experience is amazing, for want of a better word. Haven't been doing too much of them due to a busy schedule, but being able to maintain 20 FPS during the Faction Champions in T0C25 while running at a 12x9 resolution with maxed settings is incredible, and so is having 40 FPS in 25man Onyxia with 40 whelps being AoE'd at the same time.

As an addendum to the side update, I quite possibly had my finest moment last night in ToC25 (not a PuG). Situation: Anub'arak, people were buffing and the raid was in the process of swapping a member. Some hunter managed to aggro the boss with his pet, killing the pet and a priest in the process. While everyone was still sleeping, yours truly charged in, picked up the boss, and tanked it. We wiped in the end though, because the first 2 adds that spawned managed to kill 3 or 4 healers, and subsequently killed the 2 ilvl245 tanks who were still sleeping. In the end, we managed to get the boss to burrow, but because of the lack of healers, the 3rd add I picked up killed me and we wiped. One of my finest moments, I must say~

How to Teach DPS who the Tank *IS*

Garona is down, and I am amusing myself with forum posts. This caught my eye:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21042555646&sid=1&pageNo=1

Basically, this is an argument about a tank not being able to hold a DPSer's aggro in a heroic, and the various people inside are trying to put forth their arguments about who is in the wrong and so on and so forth. Read the whole thread before reading on if you haven't already done so.

Now, assuming you already read it all, you will have seen that there are 2 differing opinions on the topic:

(A) It's the tank's fault for not being able to hold aggro

(B) It's the DPSer's fault for not lightening back

As you all might or might not already know, I strongly reside in camp (A).

DISCLAIMER: WHAT I AM ABOUT TO SAY HOLDS TRUE FOR WARRIORS. IT MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT HOLD TRUE FOR DKs, PALLIES, AND DRUIDS.

As I was saying, I pride myself on being an aggro monster when tanking on any warrior. I might not mark mobs any more, but this does not mean I intentionally let people die if their aggro, and hence DPS, is that high.

Sure, you might still be marking your mobs, and that idiot DPS refuses to follow the focus-fire order. Give him a couple of warnings, then boot him if you wish. BUT IS IT REALLY TOTALLY HIS FAULT?

It is YOUR job as a tank to keep the attention of hostile monsters. Just because one party member isn't following instructions doesn't mean you should stoop to his level and let the situation deteriorate. Once you see that happening, immediately stack threat on the mob that the rogue DPS is beating on. It IS part and parcel of a tank's job (see Adaptability here). If you are simply so stubborn and refuse to adapt to the situation, you might as well quit tanking.

Of course, this does not mean that you have to always share the blame. Sometimes your gear is really so bad that the rogue DPS will over-aggro you. In that case, you have my support in booting him if you already warned him and tried to take corrective actions. BUT, and I MUST stress this, it is totally and completely possible to hold the aggro of a DPSer who is more than one tier of gear above yours, if you have a decent block value (~1200-1300) and decent attack power (~3k).

I have held the 13k DPS of an arcane mage decked out in T9.25 with only 20% threat reduction + vigilance on the Twin Valkyr's in ToC10, wearing only average ilvl 226 gear. I have held the 5k DPS of a marksman hunter in heroics way before the block value buff, with only ~900 block value and with mostly ilvl 200 epics. Heck, I've held Z's mage's aggro doing 6k TPS without a single point of threat reduction in heroics without marking a single mob while holding the aggro of other DPSers. I have managed to overtake the main tank's threat in raids while offtanking and receiving only minimal environmental damage (and those were fairly good tanks too).

Gentlemen (and ladies), do not tell me it cannot be done because it can be done and I have done it. Yes, I did not say it was easy. But, if I can do it, so can you. You, as a tank, are supposed to be doing everything you can so that your raid DPS can unload. If you have not done everything in your power to make it so, you have failed as a tank, and obviously still have a lot of room for improvement.

Edit: To the level 24 mage, Wobble, and his "arguments" and the people who agree with him and the people whom he supports, you can take your arguments and stuff it.

Edit on the edit: To quote Zangetzu, one of the posters in that thread:

"I try to save dps who pull from me when tanking, no matter what kind of stupid reasons exist for it. I don't have any kind of stupid - you pull it you taunt it policy. I'm here to tank, and i'll protect the group any way I can."

That's exactly who I am. I'll still try to kill you if you're silly though :P, like B.

Edit on the edit on the edit: Open for discussion.