Shadowfang Keep, Blackfathom Deeps, & Wailing Caverns
I only had time for three runs. Interestingly, they were each instances Cordolvar hadn’t run yet.
Quick Stats
| Since Last Update | Total | |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 1 | 2 |
| Dungeons Tanked | 3 | 8 |
| Levels Gained | 4 | 24 |
Shadowfang Keep
First up was Shadowfang Keep, for which I had my notes out and ready, but really didn’t need. I did die once during Commander Springvale, but the group was able to finish the encounter without wiping. I asked in /group if I had messed something up, and received a “not that I noticed” from one of the DPS party members. The healer remained silent. So I guess I’ll chalk that one up to the healer having fallen asleep.
I didn’t lead the group through the whole instance, but I recognized enough of the twists and turns that when I wasn’t leading, I already knew which way we were going.
One of the DPS party members really liked to get out there and pull, which just made my job harder, as the groups of mobs would then often get split up. In order to get them back together and on me, I’d have to turn around and/or reposition. So instead of a nice clean Charge followed by Thunder Clap, I often had to Charge, turn around, Taunt or Heroic Throw the one stray mob, re-position, then Thunder Clap. I suspect this DPS party member might have thought he or she was speeding things up, but I’d wager it was a wash. Keeping the mobs grouped together makes AoE more effective for everyone in the party. Sure, I could have asked him or her to stop in /group, but it doesn’t seem worth the risk of a group member going toxic versus just dealing with the crappy pulls.
I advanced to level 22, and gained the Revenge spell.
Blackfathom Deeps
While I had a pretty good handle on the layout of SFK, I was completely lost in BFD. Luckily others in the group had a good handle on it. I forgot to pull up my notes, so I just tanked with my basic tanking rules:
- Never turn your back to a mob.
- Face the mob away from the group.
- Don’t stand in the fire (or whirlwind or ice or lava, etc).
I reacted too slowly to Thruk’s Fillet Of Flesh, but luckily my healer wasn’t even phased. The other melee did back out, but I noticed too late. So I can add “keep an eye on the melee” to my situational awareness checklist.
Wailing Caverns
This was a long one, with lots of bosses. It was generally boring, since a handful of the bosses have the same abilities. Our poor lone melee DPS was hit with sleep spells at least once on every druid boss. I would have been fuming. I was pleased that the group was willing to do Mutanus The Devourer too, since he’s an optional fight, and you have to escort an NPC to start the fight (i.e. it takes a while). However, the gear in WC was pretty good. I didn’t get anything better than my heirlooms, but man, if you don’t have heirlooms, definitely run WC for gear.
As in BFD, I would have likely been lost in this instance without the group to show me the way. I had a map ready, but didn’t use it, I just followed the group. I did notice that the order in which we fought the bosses was different from what I had expected from looking at the map.
Random Notes
- 👍 I managed to upgrade my boots and belt.
- 👎 My gloves still suck.
- 👍 Stockades is now in my list of eligible random dungeons.
- 👎 Revenge costs a lot of rage. I’m going to try to use it only when a) it procs and therefore has no cost, or b) when I have three ore more targets in range.
- Dungeons, like zones, now scale in level, so Cordolvar could be running Deadmines (or any other dungeon he qualifies for) up until level 60. I’m not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, it will give me a chance to learn them better. On the other hand, some dungeons are more boring than others.
- Threat is not an issue. At all. Not even a little bit.
- The random dungeon finder queue is practically instantaneous. I haven’t had to wait more than ten seconds.
UI Modifications
I added two Weak Auras:
- A texture when I’m below 70% Health and Shield Block is up.
- A texture when I’m below 80% Health and Victory Rush is up.
So far they’re working well.
I had to manually disable threat warnings in Omen, because their automatic disabling of said warnings trigger based on being in Defensive Stance, which I won’t receive for another forty or so levels. I made a profile, named “low-level tank” for this purpose, so that I won’t accidentally use a profile with the warnings disabled on one of my other characters.