Unholy Forgiveness

Well it was bound to happen. I love PvP, but I was getting tired of entering BGs on my DK with either his Tank or DPS spec and either wearing my tank or PvP gear.

With my tank gear, I was having fun. It would take more than 3 hordies to kill me but I could not burn them down fast enough to make a difference or if I could burn them down (ie: have no heals) it would take a bit of time.

With my PvP gear, I had no survivability to even hit things since my DPS spec was built around killing not surviving.

Now since I turned 80 I have been collecting PvP gear since I do well...PvP and right about now I'm in full Furious with maybe 1 or 2 Relentless pieces. I went ahead and
So I researched, since it's one of the good things I can do. Guess what I found?

Unholy tree tops the PvP meter for DKs.

Now, now. I did already know this, but Unholy just doesn't sound all that appealing to me. I mean of course you get a ghoul pet and a gargoyle to some but Blood has the Dancing Rune Weapon, which is awesome! (Needs buffed though, I think) and Frost has the nice frosty AE plus the crazy, insane Hungering Cold that freezes your enemies in place. (I loved popping that in a large group of Hordies.)

But it all comes down to burst and survival. So I researched the top arena DKs. Found a nice Unholy spec to replace my DPS spec and BOOM!! Instant top of the chart Killing Blows in all my BGs. Topping the Damage Done chart, and rarely dying!! I found that I have this habit of treating my BG or Arena fights as a tank fight and just tanking the opposing team and for some reason it works for me. The fights are all real fast paced and I love it. Also turns out that if I PvP right before raid, everything in raid seems slower and more easily adapted to than before. Before it was ''OMG!!! Many Whelps!! Handle it!!'' Now it's ''50 dkp minus to al the DPS!! You're moving to slow! I have the adds already!! Kill Them!!''

Anyways back to the issue at hand, I have to say I was impressed. I had put it off so long but now I really love the Unholy tree and the spec I use for PvP and Arenas. Every hordie class seems to fall, groveling and begging for mercy, for which I give none!! Well maybe not every class but Mages and Trees are definitely not on my ''Cannot Kill, Ever'' List. I have their number now. But a few still have mine.

So now I beg of the DKs out there to bless me with their Unholy Forgiveness for I knew not what I did not understand. And if you were like me, give Unholy a chance, and you will never regret it.

Now to find some more Hordies!! For Wrynn! For the Alliance!! For Blood and Honor!!

Go out and 'Find your Friend'!!

Incoming!!

It seems that's what I keep thinking to myself lately. Ever since my last post things have been zooming at my head and I was ducking and weaving, trying to dodge, it would seem those little wooden dummies used in martial arts. Boy, are my shins bruised.

Between work and life issues, everything was just plain busy for a bit. Summer has come and with new possibilities and free time. Though I am still strapped for cash. Being an Adult, sucks!! This is the part of life my mom never told me about and I am pretty sure it was her way of getting back at me for everything I did when I was growing up. Well, she got me good, yes, she did.

In the coming months I hope to finish off my tanking articles and start some fresh stuff. Bear with as I update the site and get my blogs rolling again. I also have some great ideas coming up.

You see....**pst! I have been playing with Fraps on WoW**. Some interesting videos might pop up. Be on the look out.

And as I always like to do, Make Friends of those NPCs!!! Peace out!!

Love is in the Air

Wow! What a week!

I have been super busy and I have not found any time to place the finishing touches on my Death Knight Tanking Part 2 article so I figure I better post something for this week.

It has been a pretty long week but I am glad the weekend is almost here as well as my 6 year Anniversary with my first and only and lovely wife.

Valentine's Day was never a favorite of mine but since I met and married my wife, it has new meaning behind it. My wife and I decided to get married on V-Day 2004 and boy, was she gorgeous walking down that aisle. I swear time stopped as well as my heart when I saw her in that wedding gown. No one could beat me in the overwhelming flood of emotions that surged my chest. I was so close to breaking down right there at the altar, thanking God for such a wonderful person to join with and share my life with.

So now 6 years later coming up on our Anniversary, I can't help think that all through those years when we've had our ups and downs. I can't really ever boast of a major fight between us. There has been disagreement where I would act mad at her but it never lasted long. Most if not all of my being mad or upset with her, have all been mostly an act and when she reads this all my secrets will be out....so.....sshhhh....you didn't hear this from me. (You ever make up with your sweetie after a fight? So now you know why I act mad.)

Every time I look at her, whatever may be going on, all is lost on me. I look at her and think, she married me, not the guy down the street, not the guy she had a crush on when she was a teenager but me, the poor, not all that handsome guy, who is still trying to find a career, that plays a game on a computer and researches the most weirdest things. Why would she do that? Definitely wasn't for the money or the easy life she would have.

Love.

That's all there is to it. Everyone has someone that will love them unconditionally. So go find that one person, or if you have them already....well what are you doing here for?! Go give them a hug and tell them you love them, instead of reading this silly blog!!!

That and she told me that I make her Laugh. :)

Death Knight Tanking Part 1: Rotations

Well here we are another week and another blog that no one will read. That is all based on my comment section but what are friends for if not to drag you down into the dirt and let you know your doing a crappy job by not posting in the comments? Pssh...friends...who needs them when I have you?

Let's get started, shall we?

Now provided you have a great spec for tanking and your gear is good meaning you have all the stats you need whether it be Defense, Hit, Expertise, Stamina, etc. We will be starting a hopefully several article series for tanking. Mostly focusing on tanking rotations, positioning, strats, etc for both Blood and Frost specced tanks.

Today we will focus on rotations. The following are a list of abilities that I will use two to three letter abbreviations for:

PS > Plague Strike
IT > Icy Touch
BB > Blood Boil
Pes > Pestilence
HB > Howling Blast
HC > Hungering Cold
FS > Frost Strike
DS > Death Strike
OB > Obliterate
HS > Heart Strike
BS > Blood Strike
DnD > Death and Decay
BT > Blood Tap
ERW > Empower Rune Weapon
DC > Death Coil
RS > Rune Strike

HoW > Horn of Winter

Blood Tank Single Target Rotation should consist of:
HoW > IT > PS > HS > HS > DS> DC > DS > HS >HS > HS > HS > DC

Following this while refreshing IT and PS whenever your diseases fall off will pull max threat from your target. Using Blood Tap generously to ensure a smooth rotation, due to the Rune cooldowns.

Now you should notice that I did not include Rune Strike in this rotation even though it is our highest threat inducer. I did it for one reason and one reason only. You should have Rune Strike macro'd to at least four other abilities. For tanking they should be macro'd to IT, PS, DS and HS(Blood Strike if your Frost Spec).

I use the following format macro:

#showtooltip
/cast someAbility
/cast Rune Strike

Some people may notice that I did not use an '!' before Rune Strike, like so: /cast !Rune Strike
This was so as not to toggle an ability off, since Rune Strike is used on the next melee attack, many thought the ability could be stopped before use. At the moment you cannot stop Rune Strike once you activate it unless your target dies or you stop attacking. So no '!' is needed in the macro. The one other macro I use for Runestrike is for IT and PS:

#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Icy Touch, Plague Strike
/cast Rune Strike

This is to save bar space and since IT and PS should only be used to refresh diseases it makes for a good use one multi-tap button.

Now if you happen to be Runic Power starved, only macro Rune Strike to Plague Strike and Icy Touch. You want to make sure you have enough Runic Power in case to you need to pop cooldowns such as Icebound Fortitude and Anti-Magic Shell.

If you happen to have too much Runic Power feel free to throw in Death Coil as your Runic dump.

Blood Tank Multi-Target Rotation should consist of:
HoW > DnD > IT > PS > Pes > DS > DS > BB > BB > BB > BB > etc.

Following this while refreshing your diseases and DnD should allow for maximum threat. If you can, throwing in Heart Strikes will definitely help since HS hits 2 targets.

Frost Tank Single Target Rotation should consist of:

HoW > IT > PS > BS > BS > OB > OB > FS > FS > BS > BS

Following this and refreshing your diseases and with Killing Machine procs (if your specc'd) should allow max threat. Throwing in Howling Blast if specc'd would be fine as well.

Frost Tank Multi-Target Rotation should consist of:
HoW > HB > PS > Pest > BS > BB > BB > HB > BS > BS > BB > BB

Refreshing your diseases and adding DnD would just increase your threat further. You should notice that I did not include Icy Touch into this rotation. This rotation is based around you being specc'd into Howling Blast. Meaning if your specc'd with HB, you should have the Glyph of Howling Blast, which states that any target hit with Howling Blast will be affected by Frost Fever, thus saving you a Frost Rune and a global cooldown.

Author's Notes
When I state 'refreshing your diseases', this implies two things. One: your making sure that your diseases are taking their full time to tick and Two: that Pestilence is being used for Multi-Target groups.

All of these rotations are on a situational basis, meaning sometimes you don't have time to punch all those buttons in that order, and all the rotations can be shuffled to your preference. In a Patchwerk type of battle, I found that the Single target rotations are the simplest, most effective means of threat gathering. In a mob type fight, such as ICC trash before Lord Marrowgar, I have found the above Multi-Target rotations to be the most effective.

Final Note: Due to time restraints, I will not be linking to wowhead.com with mouseover pop-ups. Instead just know that I use wowhead.com and feel free to have a second browser open to wowhead.com for reference.

I'm Back!

Due to time restraints this week and some unfortunate family medical concerns from this past weekend, I was unable to place the final finishing paragraphs on my tanking strat article. So today I will be making a short post about nothing specific.

Lately I have been feeling great pressure playing my DK, my Rogue, Redyps and my Warlock, Redfyre. I have only been on my DK for raids over the past couple weekends and of course, for my Daily Random Heroic. Redyps and Redfyre have only been logged on when I need something specific from their inventories or professions.

I have actually felt somewhat burnt out, but for some reason I was still researching and studying my DK so as to further his skills. But people in my guild and raid group knew I wasn't myself. I was getting irritable in raid. People weren't performing that way I wanted them to. I wasn't performing the way I wanted to. I stopped thinking of scenarios to different bosses. I stopped being creative with my abilities, with my tanking. I was on autopilot tanking.

These past couple weeks I have been leveling my Hunter, Redblud, and my Druid, Redwulf. Mainly through instances with a couple of guildies who were running the Recruit-A-Friend, who were mainly running through instances with no or little questing but since I wasn't a RaF toon, I was definitely questing more to keep up which has worked out so far for my hunter who is now level 71.

My guildies went ahead and made another set of toons and now my Druid, Redwulf has been keeping pace with them.

It's been nice playing these newish toons of mine and giving me a break from the 'grownups'. They are also planning on making another set of toons after the current set hits 60 so I went ahead and made another toon, a Warrior named Redrayge to prep and get ready for the next set.

All in all it has been fun, but I was still feeling the crushing burden of being run down and I didn't know why. I have thought on it and thought on it. Still nothing, then last night I got tired fast after work. I got home made dinner for my wife, my cousin and myself, got on WoW and played two instances, one on my DK and one on my warlock. After the second instance I knew I was crashing. I went to bed, my wife came with me.

Now normally I go to bed on a weekday(workday) at 12midnight or 1am. Last night I hit my pillow at 8-8:30pm. I wasn't feeling sick but just dragged-through-the-mud tired. I awoke early this morning at 5am, about two and half hours before my alarm would go off, wide awake. So I figured I would take a shower and maybe finally alter my jeans to keep from dragging the ground under my boots. (And Yes....I know how to sew....sewing machines are for suckers. Here is where all the ladies say, 'OMG! He can cook and sew!'(I'm sorry, Ladies. I'm already taken and there is no way you can beat my wife in looks.))

Well after my shower and altering my jeans, I figured I would do some WoW.com surfing. I hit to site only to find an article on Invincible. I click the links and somehow ended up on the Battlecry Mosaic site and found the 'Invincible' song that was currently unlocked. I listened to it and let me tell you. If you want my attention give me a good song to listen to. Songs get my attention, having grown up musically and trying to go through college as a music major until my college loans got to be too much for me. Music speaks to me. And this song spoke volumns.

I don't know if it was the music, or the sleep but I was feeling my old self again. I want to play all my toons. I want to try and be the best at what my toons do. My old self was bubbling to the surface. The self that was confident, the self that could stir my abilities to perform differently, the self that could have fun!!

Man!!! I cannot wait to get home tonight! What fun I will be having after work!!

Where is your fun self?

Death Knight is the RoaDK to Awesomeness

I never know how to start these articles of RoaDK so listen to the video above while you read today.

Another raiding weekend has passed and at least another boss was downed. While we didnt make a lot of progress in 25 man we gave several good attempts on Rotface and if we can clean up our kiting of the oozes then we can get him down. We gave a try or two on Festergut but still seems like a DPS race and we seem to be lacking there, for now anyway.

10 man had a lot more promise this week. We were able to finally get Rotface down. It was close, oh, so very close, with myself as the Big Ooze kiter I went down near the end of the fight due to the building of a second big ooze in my kite path. With me down and the big ooze going crazy with power we ended up killing Rotface but only with two or three people alive. This week I feel that we can get him down cleaner.

Since both Festergut and Rotface were down, their door valves were active and we were allowed to used these to open up Professor Putricide's door and enter his Laboratory of Horror and Fun.

On the way to his door we took down a couple respawns and trap trash. Standing there in front of the hallway, we watched as the doors filled with Festergut's gas and Rotface's slime causing the doors to open and we entered unsuspectingly into that hallway. I say unsuspectingly because the way was open with no trash but as soon as we stepped in the doors closed and in jumped Flesh-eating Insects! No tab targetting and having a hard time to mouse click them we just had to use AE damage to take them down. It wasn't that hard but a good surprise and of course some of the ladies in my group were kinda screaming. It was pretty funny.

We gave Prof. Putricide a good three tries before calling it for the night. We were unable to get him into second phase but we had a fun time and of course I was the sexy OT Abomination, eating away at that slime. Yum!

After 25 man ICC on Sunday our group went back and we gave him another 5 attempts and were able to get him into second phase. At one point we were almost at the third phase but didnt quite make it.

Some people had to go and we felt that getting a new person in and with only two attemps left, it would take too long for them to get adjusted and for us to teach them what they needed to do, so we decided to call it for the weekend.

Overall it was a great weekend.

Keep your eye out for the next article. I will be going over DK tanking strategies, which abilities to use for both AE tanking or Single-target tanking, and which abilities should always or never be used, this will include a good rotation for either spec. I will be placing emphasis on both Blood tanking and Frost tanking in particular and with a minor glancing of Unholy, since this spec is not one I research, so most of that info will be second hand. Enjoy your week!

Puppy Pound

Another week, another challenge! And no, I am not hurting any puppies. Have you seen the video above. Cutest little furry bastards EVAR!

This past weekend was the first weekend of Icecrown Citadel: The Plagueworks Wing, featuring the two new abomination models of Festergut and Rotface and their very senile father, Professor Putricide, who to me sounds ridiculously similar to Professor Farnsworth.

Now to get a longer raid time for ICC 25 man we switched our raiding schedule around so that we were 10 manning on Saturday and 25 manning on Sunday. Saturday went really well boss-wise until we met Rotface. We wiped several times on him, but every time getting him closer and closer. 25 man consisted of us killing the first 4 bosses but unforntunately it definitely seems like a DPS gear check on Festergut and we were unable to take him down but we did make the Enrage timer which is good. So we put notice on Rotface for 10 man this next weekend and Festergut on 25 man for hopefully this next weekend as well.

But I am not here to talk about them. I am here because of two mobs that were placed in this new wing in the halls before each Festergut and Rotface. Yes, that's right. I'm talking about Stinky and Precious. These two look and play just like Gluth does, except one is smelly and likes to ooze green clouds at everyone all the time and the other likes to play with zombies.

The one thing I did notice was that Precious has a buff of a 1st Place ribbon on her and that made me wonder when these guys found the time to have a dog show if they are continually trying to kill every living thing! Wait! Maybe that's why this wing was closed down for those 28 days before opening! They had the who's who of the Evil lore dudes parading their pretty pups around and judging the best one. Which begs the question that if Precious won, who was last place? My vote is on Kael'thus.

But I'm begging the pooch here...hehe....begging......ahem...nevermind.

Now I liked the Gluth encounter in Naxx and was quite happy with the placement of Stinky and Precious in ICC. Both Gluth and the Abom-pups have similar abilities, such as Decimate and the stacking debuff called Mortal Wound that reduces healing. The differences lie in the stacking of that debuff, which stacks faster and can easily get to 10 stacks which reduces the healing on the tank completely. So two tanks are definitely needed.

Both Stinky and Precious do another ability, just not the same one. Stinky has flatulence issues and constantly pulses out an AoE called Plague Stench. Coupled with Decimate, this could definitely cause a raid wipe. And with us it did. Decimate followed by a pulse equals dead DPS and healers. But we got back up and took him out the 2nd time.

Precious, like I said earlier, likes to play with her food and has the ability to summon ghouls, which require immediate AoE to start taking out as many as possible. Now these ghouls do not heal Precious thankfully, but the tanks that are tanking Precious should not be tanking the adds as they also place a stacking debuff on their targets. I seem to remember getting her down the first time but it could have been the second time but I could be getting my 10 and 25 man mixed up.

Now after killing Stinky, Festergut speaks up and yells at us about killing his pup so while fighting Precious, I told myself that I would die laughing if Rotface pops in spouting, 'Preciousss, my Precioussssss.' *gollum, gollum.* Alas! he did not. Would have been hilarious though. Too bad.

All in all, it was a fun weekend of new sights, especially since Slime Frogger in Naxx was moved to this new wing in the form of Frost-Fire Frogger. Blizzard is tricksy, yess preciousss, very tricksy. *gollum, gollum.* About 4 people bit the dust walking into those traps after zoning in. The good news is that you can send one person good at frogger in to activate the Frost Rune teleporter for those of you who can never make it.

Have a great week and I will see, well write again next week!