What’s up with skipping bosses in Old Kingdom? I’ve seen the mushroom dude skipped a couple times, but lately people are skipping nearly all of them. Groups seem to only do the vampirical fire orb boss and the last boss. That’s three badges you’re intentionally skipping! To that I say “double yoo tee eff?”
That’s three badges people! What… why… I don’t get it! If you’re only after the frost badges, that makes sense. I guess being the tank or healer, with your instant queues, skipping a boss here and there doesn’t really matter at all. But when you’re a DPS looking at ten minute queue times, at least, skipping a boss here and there that would take a minute to three minutes to kill is really painful.
So here’s to you, boss skipping tanks: you suck and I hate you.
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My ret paladin is equipped with Quel’delar with furious and relentless gladiator gear in almost every slot. My mage is full furious head to toe with a 251 weapon from ICC. In both cases, it’s rare to even see another player on Horde with gear approaching my own.
Imagine showing up in a random battleground. It becomes swiftly apparent that you are, by far, the best geared person in there. You’ll see one or two pieces of furious gear kicking around here and there, and the highest iLevel weapon you can see is 219. You look around, and you know, you fundamentally know, your gear is way beyond any of these people.
That feeling is… very strange. It isn’t really a good feeling either, it’s just… strange.
I’ll try and illustrate what I mean. I spot a rogue, so I put Living Bomb on him, then scorch him twice as he’s running towards me. Both scorch’s crit, so I throw Pyroblast at him, which also crits, killing him. Four global cooldowns. Dead rogue.
And I’m standing there, thinking: “is that it?”
On my ret paladin, I spot a resto druid. Only 21k hitpoints, so I figure it’s a bit squishy. Can’t let it go unmolested, so I run up to it, judge it, crusader strike, then… it’s dead. Judgement, autoattack, crusader strike flat out killed it. It took absolutely no effort.
It’s reached the point where I can often carry the entire horde team, by myself. Decessus (my death knight friend) runs into the same thing all the time. When you have two flag caps, five flag returns, are number one for damage dealt, killing blows, honorable kills and healing done… something is very wrong.
It isn’t a good feeling. Effortlessly stomping all over everything, only dying when you are completely out of cooldowns and fighting 5 or more people at once… maybe this is why the high end PvPers avoid battlegrounds more often than not. There’s no challenge.
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Changing gears a bit, why is it that people with arena titles (Rival, Duelist, etc) are almost always absolute rubbish at BGs? More often than not, when I see an arena title, that player is simply going to flat out suck.
They may be good at killing other players, but when it comes to BG objectives… there’s just no hope for them. Then, when we start losing, they begin the caterwauling in bg chat that they are awesome, and everyone else sucks and is terrible, and any criticism of them is simply met with “lol nice gear”.
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There are a lot of bear tanks in LFG. I have almost never played with a bear tank before. There was one back in TBC that I raided with… but other than that? Never grouped with a bear tank.
But now? Literally every other instance is a bear tank, with the other half evenly split between warrior tanks and DK tanks. And all of them are actually pretty awesome. I have yet to group with a fail tank. Sometimes you get a tank with 200 epics and I have to ease off the DPS throttle a bit, but overall there are a lot of good tanks out there.
There just aren’t any paladin tanks.
Not one.
It’s eerie. Where the crap did all these bears come from? Have they always been there? Are there just zero bear tanks on Duskwood? That latter could be it. Every bear tank I’ve ran with have all been from different servers. Maybe there just isn’t any on mine.
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Running the new 5-mans is actually more fun as a ret paladin than as a mage. Mostly it’s because I can’t do anything CC wise as a mage, but as a ret paladin… those new instances are my bitch. Repentance one, fear another, stunlock a caster, the whole time Seal of Cleave Command running…
Le sigh. Why can’t I polymorph undead again? Or dragons? I am a master of the arcane, I can control time itself, yet I can’t turn a level 4 skeleton into a turtle. What the hell?
Fear not, loyal readers. I will never switch to ret paladin full time, largely because I basically despise playing one in a raid setting. There is no sense of rhyme or reason to a ret paladin’s DPS “rotation”. There is no rhythm, there is no rotation, there’s barely even a set of priorities. You have six buttons with various cooldowns that brutally conflict with each other. Having spaces where you have nothing to push for three seconds is common. Having three abilities all come off cooldown together happens about every twenty seconds.
It’s incredibly annoying.
Screw ret paladins. Mages rule.
Where do Japanese Mandarin Oranges come in?
Well, the the reason you can be in good gear (furious main and relent off), is because the GOOD PvPers are doing arena, not grinding last season’s welfare epics.
ooo
Question not the mage, he will polymorph you…unless you are undead or something other than what can be polymorphed.
Also, the only bosses I lack to getting the Hero achievement in Northrend are the 3 bosses we skipped in OK and Oculus.
I was like wait there was more bosses when I first ran this back in the day.
Got into a group that was already underway in Halls of Stone. They’re heading to the Brann event. Any bosses down “Nope.”
We get Brann out of there and they follow to the “last” guy. We kill him, tank leaves. WTF? “Oh, we voted to only do last boss.” Fuck you all very much. Now I know why you were short a DPS.
I have yet to see a bear tank but I have run with some awesome pally tanks.
I want to be in your battlegroup. I would love to get grouped with some people that actually know what to do so I can learn. I’ve got it down that fighting midfield in WSG is bad, but the rest just seems to be a frenzy of people flying around with no cohesive effort or objective.
Old Kingdom is a hateful instance, and I want to get out of it as soon as possible. Did not know you could skip Elder Nadox, who is the worst, thanks to needing a superhuman tank (I’m not) or DPS who is on the ball (I’m glaring at you) to keep the adds off the healer.
If you absolutely, positively must PuG this stuff, you’re going to have to live with what you get. If you’re seriously about the badges, find a friendly tank and healer (or a whole group) and use the random feature. Doesn’t have to be a PuG.
I haven’t been in AK recently, but if people are skipping bosses I’d guess it’s more because of the trash than the bosses themselves. That stuff can be a bitch.
Lol, I just 30 min ago tanked that instance and went straight for the final boss. Reason? Well, I only need frost badges and cbb to do more then needed. Maybe if someone had asked I would have gone. But hell, we went from start to finish in 11 minutes. Lol chainpulling ftw.
As a boss-skipping paladin tank, I accept your WTF with a warm heart and a smile.
But Nyctef is right, the trash is the real reason. If I have a good healer watchin’ my back, I grab EVERY trash mob I can see.
Like in Halls of Stone, the first hallway after the first circle, I’ll grab all 9 of the iron dwarves, the construct, and the 3 or 4 shardlings, then the trash up to the Gruul boss I try to grab in two pulls total.
God I love paladin tanking.
I wouldn’t have minded skipping if they had told me. But to vote on it before the rep arrives and then keep mum about it? I felt cheated. If they had said, “Hey, speed run, just killing last boss,” I wouldn’t have minded. It was a courtesy issue.
Skipping bosses? Hunters never have that problem what with the new MD and all
I’ve only skipped the ‘shroom boss once. I think it’s the fact that you have to arse your way through so much trash to get to bosses that it just feels good to not be in OK. I dislike that instance. A lot.
My weirdest grouping has been while on my mage: 3 pallies (tank, healer, dps) and shadow priest.
While on my druid tank I did have a mage initiate the pull (actually, that was in OK as well). I dislike impatience. If it’s a quick run while I’m on my mage, I’ll keep up. But if I’m tanking, I still try to go quick, but I go at my pace. I don’t leave folk behind.
Now the next person who does that when I’m tanking I will let die. Just sayin’.
Because OK is the second worst instance in the game? Occulus being the first, of course.
Occulus rocks now!
My drake has almost 123k life and we were able to 4-man the last boss since one of our party members had DC issues in the instance.
Presumably, you’re only counting level 80 dungeons, because I can think of some that are worse.
Gnomer.
BRD.
lbrs.
Weeee!
because i’m drowning in emblems of triumph, i’m still getting them in raids and all the gear i want is in the T10 range? i don’t mind healing all the way if the others want the bosses, but if i was grouped with friends and they didn’t want to, the puggies could find themselves another healer, because i’ve done those instances so many times i’m sick. and even with good tank, healer and dps old kingdom is still a horribly ugly place and i’d rather get out as soon as possible.
oh, and on my server (alonsus-eu) everyone and their dog has a pally tank (even i’m leveling one). bears are very very rare and seemed extinct for a long while…
Yeah, you’re the type of mage that pwns my poor 3.5GS rogue in 4/5 deadly gear with a quick scorch combo…
I’m gonna go to my mage and try it out now, hehe
Just wanted to share my experience of LFG, on my main Adsski on Steamwheedle Cartel I play a resto druid. Grouping is very quick and easy but my experience differs from yours in several respects.
Firstly Bear tanks are a rarity in our battlegroup, it’s my off spec and we have another in our guild (also off spec), but i haven’t had a single one join me in LFG yet, whereas Pally’s and Warriors are still the tanks of choice and frankly most of them have been very well geared and plain awsome.
Also, in contrast to others experience every group i’ve joined so far has cleared all the bosses on the chosen instance.
And I have to say the new 5 mans in icecrown rock, HoR was so intense the first time and a real gear / skill check for all involved.
Skipping bosses stinks!
I might not have need for badges for my main, but there are many other uses for those still.
If I had to que forever to get in, while trying to gear a freshly dinged toon, and then only get one or two badges … Miffed is not the word I am looking for.
But, I do not have to que since I am playing my tank at the moment – which leads me to comment on the dps-pulling previously mentioned in the comments.
I am done warning them before the instance starts, I just let them die and /w the healer not to ress them.
I am overgeared for HC’s like many other, I keep as high a pace as the healer can handle – DON’T pull, just don’t.
Why am I supposed to be working overtime, when we should just be cruising through at high speed?
I’ve been living in the new 5-mans, and I’m always telling the tank to grab as many as he’s comfortable with. Generally I’m DPS # 3.5, since Earth Shield will keep up with most incoming damage and I can happily Lava Burst – Chain Lightning away.
Twenty minutes for Pit of Saron, Twenty for Forge of Souls. HoR you are more or less regulated to a twenty-thirty minute run because of mob spawn times, but good dps can speed it up quite a bit.
I dislike skipping bosses. If it’s in there and drops badges I’d like to see it dead.
Question on Pit of Saron: Could you theoretically kite the second boss through the cavern and onto Tyrannus’ platform? Those mobs don’t spawn on the slope until Krick bites it, so it would shave another seven minutes off the run if you could. He must be leashed to that area, like the final boss of Forge of Souls.
I’m the opposite as far as Bear tanks I haven’t seen one yet, but have seen about 90% Palidan tanks. I have been quite impressed with the PUG tanks so far.
im a pally tank! lol i wouldnt say im amazing at playing one but im decent enoguh i would say. maybe ill get lucky enough to get a group with you in the 5-man heroics or something idk le sigh neways… where did the title Japanese manderins oranges come from? 8S
I was in a group that only cleared the bosses necessary to get to the final boss, but it wasn’t an issue. Why?
The healer would immediately queue the group for a new dungeon. That way the DPS didn’t have to wait for another queue.
Worked out pretty well, I think. If you’re a tank or healer (and have group lead), if you skip bosses and plan on doing another instance, bring the dps with you (assuming they weren’t sub 2k).
Sub 2k dps is fine for for all but the 3.2 – 3.3 heroics. Just takes a tad longer, that’s all.
You see a lot of bear tanks now probably because it’s not their main spec and get the tank off to get badges or just for fun.
I know this because of my guild. I’ve been always a bear tank but i had to get the boomkin to raiding and now my bear is off :S
I’m a level 73 bear tank with about 6 Emblems that still say “Requires level 80″
I very rarely seen Druid tanks.
Of course, since 50% or more of my PUG time is me as a tank, I guess I’m not really a good point of reference.
On the PvP gear stuff… I have nearly 300 Triumph Badges now and have considered buying the Furious gear. I mean… not like I’m using them for anything else. Sadly, me best weapon is the 232 polearm from one of the new heroics. As a Ret Paladin I really have a hard time using something with Agility… it just feels dirty.
My own mage is lvl 77 and im working on geting him to 80 asap, just for my own info what can i reasonably expect in terms of dps when newly 80 and again after gearing in the ilvl200′s from normal dungeons / heroics. And again in the 219′s and 232′s from the 3.2 and 3.3 5 mans.
At present i’m pulling about 1k dps whilst questing in my blues and between 1.1 and 1.4k in the 5 mans i can group for.
Thanks
I skipped 2 bosses on OK the other day, but only because I was already propping up an undergeared guildie tanking and the DPS had proven adept at walking into pats. It was 11:50 at night and I’d died 3 times.
…otherwise, yeah. OMNOMNOM badges, GO!
Mages do rule, and I do have a pally as well. Is that a rule, if you play a main mage, you need a pally alt?
The Battlegrounds thing is the reason I cannot WAIT for rated BGs. I’m not the biggest fan of Arenas, but being able to get the good PvP gear from BGs, and earn points for them? Yes Please! I’m hoping it changes the whole BGs are suckfest at 80 thing.
Hm, that’s weird … I think my guild has more bears than any other tanks. Heck, almost every time I’ve run ToC10, it’s been with double bears tanking.
I tanked OK the other night. It never occurred to me to skip bosses. I was aware that it could be done in HoS, but I think I’ve only been in one group that did that (and those were all guildies).
I see bear tanks all the time.
Mostly because one is usually in the middle of my screen. Being able to chain heroics with a 3 second wait time between ‘em is awfully addicting.
But when I run heroics on my poor unloved mage, it’s usually some boring plate-wearer.
Still, I’m surprised at the numbers. Bears are supposed to be the least-played tank out there, due to a combination of gear overlaps with Rogues and cats, the inability to effortlessly hold AoE aggro like Paladins or Death Knights and faceroll through instances without spamming Swipe, demands to respec resto, questionable itemization (a lot of BiS bear pieces, or 2nd-BiS, have parry and block on them), and rather static animations. Maybe the ease with which tanks can run PuGs now really has convinced people to respec lolbare for a couple hundred quick badges.
Laughing… so… hard… <3
My mage is the same way with the gear gap in bg’s and feeling like I’m personally winning the bg for our teams due to my gear and not being an idiot.
However, with the being able to spam run heroic things, I’d imagine you could get decked in full furious gear from triumph badges in a week or so…maybe we’ll see a change from this gear gap in bg’s in a short time.
Have to wait and see….
The bear tanks ate all the paladin tanks. That’s where they went. ^_^
I’m curious, how’d you get your Battered Hilt? And what did you think of the quest chain?
I woke up this morning, and suddenly all the other mages in my guild are telling me they’re stacking crit. None of them are fire or frostfire. They’re even claiming research on EJ and rawr. Did something happen overnight, or am I going crazy here? Could you please provide a link for me to show them they are the crazy ones?
http://elitistjerks.com/f75/t42876-arcane_thread/p131/#post1494022
Page 131 in the Arcane thread: “No arcane mage will ever gear crit superior to haste.”
Your other mages are huffing paint thinner.
In my battlegroup (Stormstrike) I am getting nothing BUT pally tanks in LFG.
Provided I can get a group. DPS are a dime a gross.
Your experience couldn’t be more different from mine…apart from the occasional wet behind the ears 80, everyone has full furious in BGs. A few days of random hcs can sort that.
Only exception is rogues, and some hunters, who bg in full pve gear and annoyingly do just fine. If I went in in just my pve gear I get roflstomped as soon as Somone looks at me…until then it’s fun though.
Heads up also…got the Nibelung staff from icc 25 and wanted to know your thoughts? Total rng staff I advise against droppiing 100 crit & haste for it like I did.
I’m one of those OK boss-skipping tanks, although I ask first. I just want my two Emblems of Frost, asap. If someone wants to do the other bosses, that’s fine and I won’t protest, but I prefer a quick run.
my tank hit 80 the day 3.3 dropped and it hasnt seen the mushroom guy or the caster lady in OK. no group will let me tank those directions its always gogo to last boss nao! i want badges and the experience of tanking them, but ive never run into a single PUGger who would put up with 5 extra mins in that instance.
Keen to hear your podcast once it’s out. Have you thought about podcasting with another wow/mage/pvp blogger?
Speaking for myself, my bear tank came from dual spec. I’m a resto-druid. Once dual spec came around I picked up a bear tank spec. I mostly did it for two reasons.
1) restro druids can’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag so any sort of feral spec would have been better for dailies.
2) tanking is a nice break from healing and dps are a dime a dozen, so bear tank it was.
I haven’t seen anybody skip a boss yet.
With my mage, I’ve polymorphed a few mobs these days. I got in a FoS run where the tank kept missing a caster in the back when pulling. I sheeped it. We hit the win button. What’s not to luv? Okay, can’t sheep the undead guys but still, I’ve CC’d more lately.
Why do arena guys suck at BGs? I’d have to guess they have the wrong idea about what is going on. Arena teams usually have a plan and support each other in carrying out that plan. Throw them in a BG by themselves and there is no plan. So they get pwned because they think they’re going to get support from complete strangers and that support never arrives.
@tkc about the arena/BG thing — Sounds possible, and it would explain why they end up complaining so much when a plan doesn’t come together! I think you’re on to something.