The Classic group met up again yesterday and we started by riding to the Blood Furnace and getting a 61 pickup Mage. I was tanking and it all seemed to go wrong, everyone got aggro left and right, it was struggle, and it wasn’t a lot of fun. The run felt slow, but we made it through with either no deaths or one ankh (damn those Enhancement Shamans) until the last boss, where everyone had forgotten the AoE mechanic. We handed in our quests and looked for another PUG for a second run. It was a little weird, there was another tank+healer duo looking for 3 DPS for Blood Furnace in LFG and a few more groups that were mostly looking for DPS. Then I saw this “LF healer and 3 DPS for BF”, so.. well, a single tank? I invited him and equipped my fancy Polearm from Ramparts and off we went. The 61 Warrior was in mostly MC Epics. It started pretty much ok, pulling a lot faster (surely not his first run) and he was holding aggro just fine. There were a few sketchy pulls and at some point we wiped due to a double pull. The he was repeatedly asking for Windfury, which was kinda cool for my Arms Warrior but our Shammy said he wasn’t a fan and he also died twice more to overaggro. But we finished the instance without further wipes and the tank went on his way. So while I was pretty happy about the tank, my group wasn’t. They said they greatly prefer slower pulls and a slower instance rum and not wiping over quicker completion with deaths. I guess I agree so next time we’ll be searching for primarily a DPS and only if we can’t get one trying to get a tank, but usually this is not a problem anyway. So it seems despite tanking feeling bad it at least wasn’t so horrible that they prefer to pug a tank who might ignore their mana. I’m reasonably confident I can believe them and they’re not saying it to be nice. But damn, those Windfury two-hand execute crits, I’m gonna miss them…
After that we circled Umbrafen Lake for around 90 minutes, knocking all adjacent quests except the Naga Claws, then handed in (to end up at 63.25) and wanted to call it a night, but after porting to Orgrimmar ended up doing various things like professions while chatting along. I used up some of my Thorium, then crafted an Arcanite Rod with the Arcanite someone had just transmuted, then flew to Gadgetzan, bought the Imperial Plate Bracers recipe, used up all my remaining Thorium, then we plundered the AH of all cheap-ish Thorium, I smelted it with my 52 Rogue (yay, 251 -> 281 Mining for free), then finished up the grind to Blacksmithing 300 on the Warrior, and our Shaman then promptly disenchanting them again. So I just need to go to Thrallmar to learn the new Recipes now and start using the Fel Iron we collected. A pretty good synergy of Professions in our small group.
Now if only I’d remember to make some screenshots…
Uh…. The Shammy was not a fan of Windfury?
Is that Shammy nuts?
If the tank is a Warrior, the Shammy uses Windfury. If it’s a Bear, the Shammy uses Grace of Air because a Bear doesn’t have weapons. If it’s a Pally, the Shammy uses Wrath of Air, because the Pally needs spellpower to help keep aggro. I mean, it’s pretty straightforward.
The tank was well within their rights to request Windfury, because it helps them get and maintain aggro. Now, what they do with it is up to them, but the point is to give the tank the best chance at success.
Sorry, got off on a tangent there.
The Shammy was using WF on his Main Hand and (that matches my knowledge, but I might be wrong here as well) so the WF totem is useless for him, so he usually uses the Agi totem (or Strength?).
Also I might have not conveyed the tone correctly, of course it’s within his right to ask for WF, but not shout at people, and by repeatedly I meant “spamming it several times during a single pull”. And aggro wasn’t a problem at all, but I see your point. Maybe I should ask for it when I tank, because I’m the one with aggro issues 😛
Now that changes things a bit.
I was under the impression that it was a request, not a demand. There’s a certain amount of etiquette involved here.
Also why we’re not actively trying to be terrible casuals, now I’m kinda intrigued of how much of a percentage gain this choice of WF for the tank (in a normal leveling dungeon) over the personal gain for the Shaman’s DPS is, because I’m not sure it really matters here (even if it goes against common “this is how you play” knowledge).
There’s a time and place for min-maxing (3 of us 4 will be raiding Heroic in retail after we clear normal) and there’s a 4 man group suboptimally questing together and doing every dungeon once or twice, while picking up a 5th to not having to 4man it (because we’re lazy and don’t want to waste time). If we even make it to 70, and if we even manage to try Heroic 5mans before running out of steam… I guess we won’t be raiding, and as long as we’re not wiping, I stand 100% behind my Shaman to play how he prefers, right now it definitely seems good enough 😉