Know Your Role In WoW . . . But do It "Wrong."

Shammy Tank, Mage tank, Melee Lock, Regen beasts.
These are some terms that you may or may not be familiar with if you've been playing WoW for any length of time. I know a lot of people like finding ways to work outside a paradigm and succeed. sometimes that's the whole thrill is the attempt. That ability to be outside the box and try and find a unique way to use "set" rules.
Finding like minded mavericks might be fun, but they often don't have the research and knowledge to inform the strategies. This is frustrating, as well as most others who follow the "norm" roles don't have the patience or care to listen to an alternative.
Specifically, in WoW, there are one of three "roles" that a player falls into if they choose to group. Tank, which is the heavy damage taker, the guy the big baddy wails on while the rest of the group does other things. Heals, guess what he does . . . makes sure the guy Tanking stays up and also heals the other guys. DPS, literally "Damage Per Second" but has become a catchall term for any player who is not performing the first two roles.

From THIS SOURCE

As I'm sure most of you know, depending on what class you choose to play they have the ability to ONLY fill certain roles as defined by their talent specializations. Example: Paladin's can tank, heal or dps because their specializations are named "Holy" for healing, "Protection" for tanking, and "Retribution" for dps. Warriors can only Tank or dps, their Specs include "Protection," "Fury," & "Arms."
HOWEVER! There are some of us that wish to try the weird and wonderful. I'm sure many of you have heard me call my own toon "Termenus, The Incredible Tanking Mage" and my ol' buddy Necrus, who was once a Fury Spec'd-Titan's Grasp Tank, and our even OLDER comrade from the Cutthroats who was our Shammy Off-tank( the backup/secondary/tank who picks up any additional enemies). There was even this warlock who I once met that told me he was a melee lock. These are of course just actual players I have met. Many times there's a conversation about other alternatives, like Hunter Tanks (when Survival spec was heavy into the hunter's . . . survivability), Priest Tanks who stack stam, armor enhancements, mitigation specs as well as heavy heals. OR even the idea of stacking spirit on any character in such a way that your regen is ridiculous. Is it possible to give yourself such regen that your bar ticks right back every time you get hit? No idea, haven't looked it up. But the IDEA . . isn't it worth wondering? I mean, I get giddy whenever I start casting so fast the Global Cool Down stops me from casting any faster, I couldn't imagine being able to walk through combats like I was MuthaFuckin Wolverine!

Can it be done at hi end? I don't think so due to the fierce pigeon holing done by specs, gear, and the fights of instances-and-higher content. But I always have hope for leveling, especially with all the nerfs that have been done over the years, maybe even in max level instances/Heroics due to access to better gear.
One last thing though, this only applies to "at level" instanceing/partying. I consider it a "run through" or even "Cheating" if your more than 5 levels out of the encounter's suggested level or have gear that is more than like 50ish higher a gear score than the average blue/starter epic at that level range. To me, it's not only the idea of "alternative role filling" it should not be a cakewalk either.

I'm sure there are countless more "alt specs" out there. Maybe you've tried some of them? I know I would love to have enough time to not only play WoW as much as I used to but find other crazy people who play about the same time I do to try and gear up and ATTEMPT some of these crazy things. ah well. Later H47ites!

Know Your Role . . . in WoW: DPS

L2DPS, when your tank is not cookie cutter spec, when your healer isn't geared, why dps SHOULDN'T be a dime a dozen!

Hello again WoW enthusiasts. Termenus, your friendly neighborhood frostie mage-tank, here once more. Today I come to talk to you about something other than my love of frost, my hatred of A-holes, nor how there should be an "of Stonard" title for the number of times my raid members took my port without looking where they're clicking.

No. Today is for people who suck at dps. No, not people who have low damage or slow "deeps" as the kids have been using colloquially. T3h sk1llz, if you will. I have been dps from day one and although I am making forays into tanking and healing, my first toon was a hunter. You want to talk about managing aggroe, talk to a hunter player from pre-BC/post -mob stats- wow. (in early WoW your pet had the same stats as the mob you tamed, effectively having an equiv level mob for help, they fixed that later) You had to pay attention to your pets aggroe and how fast you were shooting, what crits you would hit. Have you ever heard of the "two growl/sunder rule" ? I sure have.

My entire "High End/Hard Core" career has been as a frost mage and for good reason. When I first rolled a mage (early/pre-BC) I recognized them as a fun nuke with a low aggroe rotation. This was a bonus to me as I had been an aggroe magnet on my hunter numerous times in old 5-mans. I had heard numerous horror stories of dps over-aggroeing and pulling the mob, getting mass healed by the healer, getting squished because you're not the friggin tank, then getting the healer killed . . . WIPE! I felt, as a vital part of a combat unit, that this was part of the job and managment of this sort of thing was necessary.

ITS NOT THAT HARD PEOPLE!!!

When I first started raiding we had the 3 second dps lag. As soon as the tank would pull, heals would keep em up, they would get aggroe (back when 25-mans meant 3+ tanks), then after 3 full seconds raid leaders would call for dps, and they would start in. Many of us who new each other very well, and were fairly high crit dps, would even start out slow before really laying into the boss. Personally, I would wand 3 times, frostbolt 3 times THEN I would pop CD's and roll on up the damage meter.

This was during BC when tanking was a bit different mechanic and too many crits meant aggro for you and your closest friends. Sylvanis forbid you got a string of 3 or more crits, the boss would turn, stomp you down and then move on to your closest relatives and ask them "why, dear Arthas, why would you crit that much in a raid situation, did he think he was in PvP? How did you raise this child?!" And then stomp them into a gooey pulp.

Now I will be the first to admit (when asked directly, no need to tip my hand) that my dps is not as high as other equivalently geared mages (fire & arcane are still higher output) BUT! I have been doing high end content with my guild for almost something like two years now and I am always a welcome raider, from fellow dps up to our GM. Why? Cause I know my class, I know my spec, I know the fights, I listen, and I know how to manage my aggroe. Whenever I mage tank, it's by choice, or someone else missed something.
More so now then ever before any idiot can power level to 80, farm gear for raiding up to the highest content, and go apeshit when the boss is pulled.
Most dps I encounter lately don't have any indication of letting the tank get aggroe. Due to the changes made by blizzard all the the new tank specs allow mediocre tanks to hold mobs while high damage output goes crazy.
That's nice and all, but dps needs to go go the other way. Many of us like to play in weird and different ways we should strive to excel in our roles, regardless of spec. When tanks and healers don't follow the standard specs groups bemoan them and drop them, if dps is poor they just let the other Dps pick up the slack. Ooh, sure, there are 2 more in the party and there are hundreds more waiting to get in. I call bullshit.
No, what I just said was true, but good dps know how to wait to let a tank gain threat before attacking. This allows the healer some time to get the rhythm of the pull and hopefully the dps wont take any excess damage. Or if the healer is the weak role, same. So many of us are so concerned with damage output optimization, proper rotation, and jumping to the top of the recount meter. That's nice and all, to have a huge epeen/wow-wang and to watch those crit numbers roll up the screen. BUT, to me these Are the sings of someone who has gear and a spec. Woohoo, you found Elitist Jerks and made it to 80.

Now really impress me. Play your role with class. Help your tank and heals. I like to use the joke "healbot" and "shieldbot/meatshield." But most of these digs are in jest and with comradeship. Lets stop being dpsbots and start being excellent damage roles. Enrage timers make us necessary but strategy fights require us to be superb, and very few fights are Patchwerk.


Sincerely,
Termenus; Lord Of Ancient Sin - Cenarius, Mage of the Grave Chill, Frost Imp, Mage Tank Extraordinare, Crusader, Ambassador, "of Stonard," Shadoweave Tailor, Goblin Engineer