Simple questions. Simple answers. Complex questions. Flow charts.

[K9]

You can get furious gear for Triumph Badges since 3.3, that's ilvl 232 gear. Relentless gear is ilvl 251, but I don't think it will go to Frost Emblems immediately. ilvl 251 offset items (boots, belts, bracers, rings etc) should go to honour though next week. I'm not 100% certain though, blizzard has been fairly inconsistent with how and when they distribute PvP gear in the past.

[Nebu]

Next stupid question then:  If I'm a pvp player with full honor/WG gear, what level of 5 and 10 man PvE content will I be able to competently attempt with that gear as a DPS (hunter on alliance, warlock on horde)?

[Rasix]

Since this is the "simple questions" thread, I'll ask a very simple question.  You guys talk about tier gear all the time.  Do you mean arena gear, honor gear, or what?   I've been playing this game off and on for years and I still have no idea what this T9 stuff refers to.

No laughing!

Tier 9 wil be mentioned a lot because it's what is most easily available.  You can purchase the whole suit of it outside at the Argent Tournament, whereas (correct me if I'm wrong) previous sets only had certain pieces available on the emblem vendors.  It's really nice to have this available for a non raider.

You can do the same with Frost emblemss and the entry level tier 10, but they're pretty expensive and would take a while to get for any non-raider.

Next stupid question then:  If I'm a pvp player with full honor/WG gear, what level of 5 and 10 man PvE content will I be able to competently attempt with that gear as a DPS (hunter on alliance, warlock on horde)?

Any 5 man outside of Heroic Halls of Reflection you're probably fine in.  As far as 10 man raids, you may be somewhat behind the curve because at the very least you may have issues with the hit cap.  All of the stam and resilience you're getting on that pvp gear is taking away from more desirable pve stats.  But, this won't affect you much in the 5 mans outside of that single instance.

[K9]

Next stupid question then:  If I'm a pvp player with full honor/WG gear, what level of 5 and 10 man PvE content will I be able to competently attempt with that gear as a DPS (hunter on alliance, warlock on horde)?

You should give the random heroic finder a try. You can't be worse than most of the DPS I end up being grouped with.

[Nebu]

You should give the random heroic finder a try. You can't be worse than most of the DPS I end up being grouped with.

Don't bet on it.  One of my problems is that I'm used to playing only solo.  I have little to no understanding of how my class works when grouped.  My fear is a) getting grouped with people wasting my time or b) wasting the time of people that know what they're doing.  I guess I should just dive in and see how it goes.  One of the reasons that I started leveling a warlock was that it appeared to be a class with some of the least responsibility when it came to grouping.  My hunter has to debuff and cc a bit and that can require knowledge of encounters that I just don't have. 

[Draegan]

There is no need for debuffing or CCing in 5 mans.  Just pew pew and loot.  Give it a shot, You can do a dungeon inside 30 minutes.

[Selby]

b) wasting the time of people that know what they're doing.

As a chain-heroic'er for the badges, I can tell you I really don't care what you do as long as we get the heroic done in 20-25m.  If your DPS is sub 900 or in the 400-500 range, people will give you shit, but a hunter with auto-shot can do more than that.  I was tossed in a heroic twice last night with a tank with under 24k health.  Most people would have been a dick and bailed right away, but I didn't care and just healed like mad to keep him alive as best as I could and we still got the instances done relatively quickly.  DPS doesn't waste people's time anywhere near as much as a bad or stupid tank or healer can.

As far as warlocks go, they may seem like no group responsibility, but people like to see big DPS numbers from them.  I ran with one yesterday pulling (get this) 450 DPS per fight.  I don't know what the hell he was doing, but the tank was ridiculing him the entire time over it and his response was "my guild doesn't have a problem with my numbers."  But said warlock didn't get kicked, just got dragged along with the rest of the group.

That said, get in the random dungeon finder and pull 1500-2000 DPS and no one will care outside of places like H-HoR (the Pit of Saron and Forge of Souls may care slightly too, but Halls of Reflection is just plain nasty).  People are much more likely to be vocal about gear and and performance of a tank or a healer than you unless you do stupid things like stand in stuff you aren't supposed to or pull mobs that the tank hasn't gotten to yet, which you don't do ;-)

[Nebu]

That said, get in the random dungeon finder and pull 1500-2000 DPS and no one will care outside of places like H-HoR (the Pit of Saron and Forge of Souls may care slightly too, but Halls of Reflection is just plain nasty).

Thanks for the encouragement.  Is there a way to avoid HoR or do I just leave the group if that one should happen to come up?

[Selby]

Thanks for the encouragement.  Is there a way to avoid HoR or do I just leave the group if that one should happen to come up?

Unless your gearscore rating is above around 4200-4300 (wow-heroes of around 2350 or so) you can't even randomly queue for it so you won't get tossed into it.  And once again, if you have a super group with you, it's easy to clear even with 4 people and 1 who is new.

[Simond]

I'd like to raid, but I'm going to have to PUG it.  So T9 Gloves and shoulders then?  I thought as much.

Edit:
Why the T9 ones instead of these: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47696

Nevermind, check rawr stuff.

edit2:
I'm also running an Unholy aoe spec.. no reaping.  Hows blood these days? Better for my gear level?

Edit3:
Moar upgrades for me.  2pc T9 now.  I'm thinking my next upgrade via Triumph badges will be my chest piece.

About the only tiered armour slot you should consider replacing is the BP (because it's a little on the mediocre side) - either for T10, the non-set analogue to T10 or the Titanium Razorplate. Other than that, you really don't want to break the T9 DPS 4-piece bonus until you're raiding Icecrown or similar. Yes, it's genuinely that good.

[Arrrgh]

Next stupid question then:  If I'm a pvp player with full honor/WG gear, what level of 5 and 10 man PvE content will I be able to competently attempt with that gear as a DPS (hunter on alliance, warlock on horde)?

The sekret for locks in a 5man is seed, tab, seed, tab, seed, tab....

Then you get to see if your tank is any good at holding agro.

[Nebu]

The sekret for locks in a 5man is seed, tab, seed, tab, seed, tab....

Then you get to see if your tank is any good at holding agro.

I'm probably going to start with my hunter.  I figure I'll just assist the tank at first and go through a standard survival rotation (though I've been playing marksman spec a lot lately).

[Selby]

I figure I'll just assist the tank at first and go through a standard survival rotation

Pretty much what you should do!  Really, give yourself more credit.  We love to tell horror stories of fail PUGs, but very rarely does it involve DPS unless they are just flat out BAD or seriously mouthing off to the rest of us.  Get in, learn a few fights and watch the rest of the group stomp the mobs to the ground before you have time to think ;-)

[Lantyssa]

You'll be fine in full PvP gear.  If you're really worried you can queue yourself for non-heroics to learn the dungeons a bit, then switch to heroics.  Now I had the advantage of leaning on guildies to assuage my fears, but I used partial PvP sets to boost my quest-level gear, and that made a big difference.

The other nice thing is that there isn't a lot of competition for gear.  If you see something which is an improvement, you'll likely get it.  (May or may not apply to high-end dungeons, but the system won't be queuing you for those until your gear is better.)

[Gobbeldygook]

Never, ever queue for normals as an 80.  You only get horrible players, vs heroics where the other guys in your group are as likely to be in full ICC as they are to be in blues and capable of carrying you.

[Sheepherder]

Nebu, you have to fuck up bad to have the people here complain.

Also, that will get you through a heroic.

Also, need more axe skill, still getting glancing blows on an 80.

[SurfD]

Thanks for the encouragement.  Is there a way to avoid HoR or do I just leave the group if that one should happen to come up?

Unless your gearscore rating is above around 4200-4300 (wow-heroes of around 2350 or so) you can't even randomly queue for it so you won't get tossed into it.  And once again, if you have a super group with you, it's easy to clear even with 4 people and 1 who is new.

The only surefire way to make sure you never get queued for HoR is to make sure you never successfully complete Pit of Saron.  The second and third of the new 5 mans require you to have done the previous one in order to unlock the next one, so if you never run the Pit, you have a 100% chance of never getting queued for HoR.

Another option is to run HoR once, and then extend your lock out on it every day.  The dungeon finder will attempt to always assign you a group for a dungeon you are NOT locked to before assigning you one you ARE locked to, so that would at least soemwhat reduce your chances of getting into a HoR group.

[apocrypha]

Never, ever queue for normals as an 80.  You only get horrible players, vs heroics where the other guys in your group are as likely to be in full ICC as they are to be in blues and capable of carrying you.

Having exactly the opposite experience in my battlegroup. Done some normal randoms with 80 pally in "learning how to prot" trials and with my 78 frost mage, and had awesome groups with nice people.

Done roughly 17 bazillion random heroics as enhance shaman, resto shaman and holy pally and had waaaaaay more awful groups full of raging cockends.

Maybe it's a Euro thing.

[K9]

Votekicked my first PuG player today; some lock doing 600 DPS in Nexus. As Disc I can do 1300 DPS in most easy heroics just by spamming mind sear alone, and I'm still healing. When I told him to buck his DPS up he said he was on the phone. Undergeared people I'm fine with, some of them are terrible, but a fair few try hard. Lazy people I have no tolerance for.

[Jayce]

Conundrum:

I love to tank, so I've been doing specifically that in heroics since hitting level 80 on my warrior, and my gear is getting pretty decent. I'm pushing 30k health unbuffed.  I have only three kills left for my Glory of the Hero achievement.  They are Sartharion, Malygos and Kel'Thuzad.  Of course, the raids.  (I'd also like to experience the level 80 Ony at some point).

Now there are PUG raids taking place all the time for these, so I should be able to get into one.  Problem: my dps gear is in the gutter. I have a few epics, but some quest greens and other stuff.  It's also ungemmed and unenchanted.  I only really use it occasionally for questing.

Finally, the question: do I read, study, watch videos and otherwise cram for tanking the raids (on my first go) or do I work up my dps gear?  On the one hand, I can probably technically tank those raids after a few more upgrades, but a) slots for tanks are limited in raids and b) I don't want to be failtank due to inexperience combined with marginal gear and the unpredictability of a PUG.  On the other hand, grinding up some dps gear isn't my idea of a good time, let alone dropping the gold to make it good, but on the gripping hand it would let me relax a bit and maybe even dps some heroics.

Is it ridiculous to even try tanking them as a first experience? If not, what's a good benchmark for health/stam/avoidance?

[Ingmar]

If you're nearing 30k unbuffed you're overgeared for tanking those fights frankly. The first time I did all of those I am sure I wasn't near that total.

[Xanthippe]

Noob paladin here, still leveling up.  I leveled her to 70 under the old paladin rules, then abandoned her almost immediately.  So I have a few questions.

One spec is ret.  Ret's fun and powerful, no doubt.  Seems face-smashingly easy to do top dps in random pugs (for the two dungeons I've been in).

I've been trying out a protection spec lately, in leveling and AV.  I am still trying to get the hang of things.  What are and when do I use my "oh shit" buttons?  I am competent enough to bubble myself, but I always fumble when it comes to helping out somebody else.  Say in AV, just to keep it easy.  What do I hit when somebody's going down?

[caladein]

In terms of your gear, you're fine.  Nothing in Naxx his particularly hard.  Malygos and Sarth are pains in the ass, but I imagine doing it normally with today's gear shouldn't be any worse than Naxx.

Everyone's got to start tanking raids sometime.  I started off in ICC-10.  Admittedly, off-tanking the first wing mostly involves standing still and getting punched in the face, but it wasn't so bad.

[caladein]

I've been trying out a protection spec lately, in leveling and AV.  I am still trying to get the hang of things.  What are and when do I use my "oh shit" buttons?  I am competent enough to bubble myself, but I always fumble when it comes to helping out somebody else.  Say in AV, just to keep it easy.  What do I hit when somebody's going down?

If you like the person: Lay on Hands.

If they're getting beat on by melee: Hand of Protection

If they're getting chain-snared and are willing to run away: Hand of Freedom

If you're both getting beat on: Divine Shield + Hand of Sacrifice

Divine Sacrifice is nice in parties, but I'm not sure it'd get much use in a big raid like AV.  If you're spec'd into Divine Guardian though, it's almost always the spell I cast after bubbling.

[JWIV]

So this is sorta embarrassing  but for whatever reason healing Pit of Sauron's boss fights is giving me a fucking fit.  I can facerolll everything else (including Forge).  I don't suppose there are any useful hints or is it just a straight up matter of tweaking out some of my gear a bit more (and yeah, I know the boots have got to go - I'm still working on rep for boots and enchants)

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Cenarion+Circle&cn=Ygg

[apocrypha]

So this is sorta embarrassing  but for whatever reason healing Pit of Sauron's boss fights is giving me a fucking fit.  I can facerolll everything else (including Forge).  I don't suppose there are any useful hints or is it just a straight up matter of tweaking out some of my gear a bit more (and yeah, I know the boots have got to go - I'm still working on rep for boots and enchants)

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Cenarion+Circle&cn=Ygg

Pit of Saron is easy to heal IF your group know the fights and a total nightmare if they don't. They're very, very much about situational awareness and high mobility - both the healer and the rest of the group have to keep moving but keep the distances between them right. Too close or too spread out and you're fucked.

For Garfrost the main thing the group have to do is hide behind the rocks occasionally to let the debuff drop. Once people are getting that debuff stacked over 10 then there's little you can do. Frost resist totem will help a bit but not a vast amount. You're gonna have to do a lot of group chasing, which means re-dropping totem sets a lot too, because people have to dodge rocks thrown at them. The group have to take all the adds that pull with Garfrost out too - they should be 1st priority.

Ick/Krick are pretty easy - everyone has to move around a LOT. Keep out of the green shit, run away from poison nova, run away if you're pursued. The tricky bit is the barrage of purple domes. Everyone's gotta keep moving but they've also got to avoid the purple domes that everyone else leaves as they run around. It's a dance basically and either people get it or they die. As with Garfrost at the end of the day if a DPS or two die then so be it. Concentrate on yourself and the tank first!

Tyrannus is easy imo, nothing special for a healer at all except to, again, keep moving to avoid the ice blast things.

Your gear is certainly good enough for it, no doubt, it's just a question of everyone in the group being familiar with the fights really. I actually think the hardest part of PoS as a healer is the groups of mobs on the slope up towards the ice tunnel after Ick/Krick. If they aren't getting interrupted enough then the damage output is horrendous, and very few people seem to know how to interrupt in pugs :(

[caladein]

Healing PoS is all about the rest of your party not screwing up.

Forgemaster Garfrost: Frost Resistance Totem (or Aura) mostly trivializes the fight.  If it's down, it's mostly on the DPS to not get hit by boulders and get the debuff off of them if they don't get resists.  It's basically impossible to heal through a full group with 7-10+ stacks on them for long, even in the best gear.

Ick & Krick:  All on people not getting hit by the Nova, or Mines, or during the pursuit phase.  If people are getting beaned by the Nova, I'd drop a Cleansing Totem just in case.

Scourgelord Tyrannus:  Again, Frost Resistance Totem is your friend when dealing with DPS getting beaned by Rimefang.  As a healer it's mostly triage work if the tank kites Tyrannus over ice patches during the enrage, the DPS don't stay clumped together when they get Rimefang's mark on them, and no one forgets what Overlord's Brand does.

And I second the trash before the cave as the worst part of that instance, as a tank or a healer.

[Zetor]

Most things have been covered; all I'd add is that for Tyranus, don't stand near the cave, or you can randomly eat 32k shadowbolts. That's not too pleasant. Another thing for Ick is to use instant ghost wolf when he pursues, it'll let you get away quicker.

About trash: the hardest part of the instance is indeed the two groups of caster-heavy mobs on the hill. Cleansing totem + grounding totem whenever it's up + wind shear is pretty good for those two packs to prevent damage / position mobs; you can also hex the humanoid caster as a ghetto interrupt or even a cc [if the tank los pulls]. A quick wind shear on a mob when it starts hellfiring the group saves a LOT of damage. Of course if the tank's undergeared, you probably won't be able to spare the GCDs on tricks like this.

[K9]

So this is sorta embarrassing  but for whatever reason healing Pit of Sauron's boss fights is giving me a fucking fit.  I can facerolll everything else (including Forge).  I don't suppose there are any useful hints or is it just a straight up matter of tweaking out some of my gear a bit more (and yeah, I know the boots have got to go - I'm still working on rep for boots and enchants)

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Cenarion+Circle&cn=Ygg

Your gear is missing a LOT of gems and enchants.

Enchants: Head, Shoulder, Back, Chest, Wrist, Legs, Boots, Weapon and Shield missing
Gems: Back and Waist (Also missing eternal belt buckle)

Head enchant you can get from Wyrmrest as you are exalted, shoulder is more of an issue since you haven't even interacted with anyone from Sons of Hodir by the looks of things; but it's not the biggest enchant.

From enchants alone (-shoulders) you would net 173 spellpower, 23 haste, 35 int, 55 stamina, +8% runspeed and 5mp5

Gems would add more haste and SP. Healing is always a balance between keeping your mana up, and then once you can sustain a level of casting, boosting your throughput. As a resto shaman you want to stack haste like crazy (I'm at around 900 haste unbuffed on Nerfed), but not at the cost of being incapable of sustaining your casting.

For gear improvements I'd suggest you get Talisman of Resurgence next to replace your Winged Talisman, then get the EoV Back. I'd also reccomend dropping your glyph of water mastery for glyph of earthshield; ES is a must-have glyph. If you need more mana regen stack Int gems rather than MP5 gems, you'll get better returns that way.

Otherwise I'd echo what the others have said; PoS is by and large an exercise in your DPS not standing in stuff.

[JWIV]

So this is sorta embarrassing  but for whatever reason healing Pit of Sauron's boss fights is giving me a fucking fit.  I can facerolll everything else (including Forge).  I don't suppose there are any useful hints or is it just a straight up matter of tweaking out some of my gear a bit more (and yeah, I know the boots have got to go - I'm still working on rep for boots and enchants)

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Cenarion+Circle&cn=Ygg

Your gear is missing a LOT of gems and enchants.

Enchants: Head, Shoulder, Back, Chest, Wrist, Legs, Boots, Weapon and Shield missing
Gems: Back and Waist (Also missing eternal belt buckle)

Head enchant you can get from Wyrmrest as you are exalted, shoulder is more of an issue since you haven't even interacted with anyone from Sons of Hodir by the looks of things; but it's not the biggest enchant.

From enchants alone (-shoulders) you would net 173 spellpower, 23 haste, 35 int, 55 stamina, +8% runspeed and 5mp5

Gems would add more haste and SP. Healing is always a balance between keeping your mana up, and then once you can sustain a level of casting, boosting your throughput. As a resto shaman you want to stack haste like crazy (I'm at around 900 haste unbuffed on Nerfed), but not at the cost of being incapable of sustaining your casting.

For gear improvements I'd suggest you get Talisman of Resurgence next to replace your Winged Talisman, then get the EoV Back. I'd also reccomend dropping your glyph of water mastery for glyph of earthshield; ES is a must-have glyph. If you need more mana regen stack Int gems rather than MP5 gems, you'll get better returns that way.

Otherwise I'd echo what the others have said; PoS is by and large an exercise in your DPS not standing in stuff.

Yah, the enchants are mostly a matter of me not wanting to waste mats on shit I'm trying to replace quickly and then forgetting to tell an enchanter buddy of mine what I'm looking for when I do get a new piece of gear.

 I was dicking off and working on the other easier factions first (and getting gear that was actually worth putting the enchant on) before tackling Sons of Hodir - especially since I'm going through it right now with my tank.

I had never even heard of the eternal belt buckle, so that's a definite must buy on the shopping list.

Originally, mana was an issue, but since most days I'm sitting about about 3/4's at worst, losing a bit of mana regen for a slightly larger error of margin on the tank sounds like a fantastic plan.    I'm tapped out on badges again (just bought the Egg last night),  but another few days should net the next talisman easy enough.

Thanks everyone for the advice!

[Jayce]

You can reasonably do Sons of Hodir from neutral to exalted in one afternoon now. I think it took me 2-3 days playing casually.  

One quest chain, and you're Friendly I think, and then once you do all the one-time quest you're Honored, then the relics are 650 a turn in and buyable on the AH.  You can usually cover the cost of relics by the gold gotten from the quest chain, so it ends up a wash, at worst.

edit: Also, blue gems in T9?  I usually drop the gold for epic gems for epic gear, let alone T9.

[JWIV]

You can reasonably do Sons of Hodir from neutral to exalted in one afternoon now. I think it took me 2-3 days playing casually.  

One quest chain, and you're Friendly I think, and then once you do all the one-time quest you're Honored, then the relics are 650 a turn in and buyable on the AH.  You can usually cover the cost of relics by the gold gotten from the quest chain, so it ends up a wash, at worst.

edit: Also, blue gems in T9?  I usually drop the gold for epic gems for epic gear, let alone T9.

It's called being broke and not having the cash to drop on the epics right now. They'll get swapped out for the purple upgrades as cash allows (which is to say when I go back to a few zones and do quest chains)

[Lt.Dan]

It's interesting to me to see other people suffering from tanking anxiety (tank-xiety  ).  Wondering if they're ready for certain instances, are they geared enough, do they know fights.  It's the responsible side of being new to tanking and wanting to do a good job (as opposed to the bad tank experience).  It's quite clear that there's more to tanking than having the gear - you need to know the fights and you're a lightning rod for any wipes.

I'm just wondering what's going to happen if Blizzard executes on their intention to make it easier to tank.  There have been blue posts talking about having an Arms warrior slap on a shield and be able to tank 5 mans.  I can't see this working unless they're talking about Cataclysm 5-mans being facerollable on normal difficulty.

Not really a game question; more a potification.

[Paelos]

Good tanking is a mindset, aptitude for the game, and confidence. Gear comes from having those things. Too many tanks have confidence, and just think the rest is useless, so they fail horribly when dealing with others. It's the same as good dps or good healing for that matter. The only difference is that tanks have to handle putting their asses on line in front of a bunch of people in a very obvious fashion. No meters, no digging deeper, none of that. If you have a shitty tank you'll know it within 20 seconds. I can't say that about anything else unless I'm looking at a bunch of screaming mods.

[WindupAtheist]

I want one button that will cast A, unless it's on cooldown, in which case it will cast B instead. Apparently WoW thinks this is cheating and won't let me do it with a macro. Is there an addon that gets around this, or do I have to just use an external macro program to simulate mashing several hotkeys at once?