[Sobeyet]

All the numbers are from the kill attempts unless otherwise noted.

Magmaw:

• Make sure you taunt after he pops up so he's not whacking people in the face
• Tclap / Demo uptime (64.3% / 63.9%) - You were mangled for 21.4% of the time, so that's not a bad uptime. You don't have to refresh it when his head is exposed since he doesn't do anything. But you should refresh it after he pops up since he clears debuffs between transitions.
• CD usage was better, including both the engy gloves and the trinket. In the future I'd try to line up enraged regen and last stand a little more, but you'll get more comfortable with the timings of the fights with more experience

Omnitron:

• Was a little ugly to start, but you were improving on the later attempts
• Tclap / Demo (36 / 32.5). Not good. What are you using to keep track of Demo Shout / Tclap uptime? If you're using default Blizz unit frames, you can make it a lot easier on yourself by tweaking your UI. Ditto for Rend, Power Generator (the double damage buff), and just about any debuff that's important in a fight.
• CDs usage not as good as Magmaw. Could be because there's quite a few things going on in that fight. What do you use to track CDs? The point of a good UI is to give you solid information as clearly as possible so you don't even have to think about it. That way you can worry about what's actually going on in a fight.

Maloriak:

• You did a good job in picking up the adds for the most part. I notice it's the only boss you've killed in BWD before last night so it reassures me a bit that you'll improve on the other fights with a few more reps.
• Tclap / Demo (82.1 / 25.4). Tclap's naturally going to be higher since you're AoE tanking. Really need to improve that Demo time though, you end up taking the most damage in the raid when all 9 adds are up. After you pick up the adds you don't really have to worry about threat, so make sure you keep them debuffed.
• Don't really need to pop CDs for tanking 3-6 adds, but I'd at least pop small CDs for 9 adds. Especially if you're tanking 9 adds during a red phase, since there's a lot of AoE damage going out. A tank should always be aware of incoming damage on the raid as well as himself - the less the healers are worrying about you, the more they can focus on the idiot DPS roasting in fire.

Atramedes:

• Not a particularly hard fight to tank, but your sound was under control for the most part
• Tclap / demo (37.7 / 20.7). He spends roughly 1/3 of the fight in the air. Atramedes hits like a chump, but less damage is less damage.
• A good time to pop CDs is right before Searing Flame.

Chimaeron:

• Break tanking isn't that tough, seemed like you were getting better toward the later attempts
• If you're having trouble seeing the double attack buff, again that can be remedied by tweaking your UI
• Don't really have to pop CDs for break tanking, still a good idea to do it during feuds
• Tclap / demo uptime isn't as relevant since Wrath was keeping it up.

General Stuff:

• Demo shout and Tclap uptime still need work.
• CD usage better in general, still could use improvement.
• Can you post a picture of your UI? What are you using in terms of target/raid/unit frames? I think setting up your UI to show buffs/debuffs/CDs/cast bars effectively will help.
• If you're not using TidyPlates, I'd highly recommend it.
• You could improve your initial TPS just by swapping around your priorities, you opened up with Rend a lot of the time. It might be because we told you to improve Rend uptime, don't worry about losing a few seconds during the pull. Having 1-2% less uptime isn't a big deal. Same goes for Tclap/Demo.
• The opening pull (single target):
  • Heroic Throw > Charge > (Berserker Rage + Shield Block) > Shield Slam > Revenge (if it's up from the bosses first swing) > Devastate > Rend > Tclap > Demo
  • Heroic Throw gives you a little damage to start
  • Charge gets you on the boss and gives you a little rage
  • Berserker Rage gives you another 5 rage with the glyph and doubles your initial rage generation when you need it the most. You shouldn't need to pop Enraged Regen in the first 30 secs of the pull, so it's safe to pop BR.
  • Shield Block to power up that first shield slam.
  • Both BR and SB should be popped as you're pulling him, since they don't burn GCDs. Can pop it before the Charge, whatever you're more comfortable with.
  • Open with SS since it's your highest threat ability.
  • Revenge may not be up on the second GCD of the pull, but if it is use it.
  • Usually you should Rend before Devastate, but you want to frontload your TPS on the pull so Devastate first. Especially since you want sunder stacks up asap, it'll only help your TPS and the physical DPS in the raid.
  • You don't have to tclap/demo immediately on the pull (since you want to maximize TPS), but you should apply it asap.
  • And obviously Heroic Strike as soon as you have the rage for it.
• If you're AoE tanking, obviously you want rend up for your tclap. Depending on how much snap aggro you need and how many mobs there are, pushing off rend until your second tclap isn't a big deal. If you're tab-targetting to evenly distribute threat make sure the mob you're targeting has rend before you tclap. For example, if you're already tanking 3 mobs on Maloriak and you're picking up another 3, you should tab back to one of the mobs that already have rend so you're not wasting a GCD.
• Overall button mashing is okay, could be a little cleaner but not bad for fights you haven't really seen. You seem to lose a little time after Revenge sometimes, could be your button placement. Want to be as close to the 1.5 sec mark as possible between each ability.

[Deceax]

Can we add a requirement in apps to see a screenshot of their raiding UI? Seems like it would be appropriate to see if keybinds look thought out, what kind of cd bars they are using, buff/debuff notification etc.

[Sobeyet]

Deceax, on 13 April 2011 - 12:33 PM, said:

Can we add a requirement in apps to see a screenshot of their raiding UI? Seems like it would be appropriate to see if keybinds look thought out, what kind of cd bars they are using, buff/debuff notification etc.

Done. Go get DBM noob.

[Deceax]

I have DXE. Does that count.

[Sobeyet]

Deceax, on 13 April 2011 - 01:40 PM, said:

I have DXE. Does that count.

It hasn't been updated in 5 months, so no.

[Barghast]

ui >.<

[Sobeyet]

So you're clicking Tclap/Demo and your CDs. Bind those bitches. Once you build up the muscle memory it'll be a lot easier to keep them up. If it takes a couple of raids to get used to, that's fine. Just do it now and start using it with everything you do - dailies, randoms, etc.

Get TidyPlates with the ThreatPlates addon, you'll love it.

Quartz wouldn't be my first choice for a debuff mod, but if it works for you that's fine. Just make sure you can see it properly without diverting your attention from the action too much.

[Barghast]

I have all my keys bound through CTRL, SHIFT, F-keys, etc. One of my better habits.

I agree that quartz isn't the best, what would you suggest?

I still appreciate all this help you guys are giving me. I only hope it works out to be as worthwhile to you as it is to me.

[Sobeyet]

Barghast, on 13 April 2011 - 02:32 PM, said:

I have all my keys bound through CTRL, SHIFT, F-keys, etc. One of my better habits.

Bindings not showing up on the bars then? As long as they're bound it's fine.

Barghast, on 13 April 2011 - 02:32 PM, said:

I agree that quartz isn't the best, what would you suggest?

It's very subjective, you can either:

• Display it attached to your target frames (like Shadowed Unit Frames)
• Have a separate bar (Satrina Buff Frames)
• Set up a visual notification (WeakAuras)
• Specific timer (TellMeWhen / NeedToKnow).

I mostly use 2-4 for different purposes. 2 for general buffs/debuffs (Did I get Fort before we pulled?); 3 for class specific notifications (Is Serpent Sting running out?); 4 for trinkets/CDs since I want to know down to tenths of a second if stuff is available.

For Chimaeron's Double Attack buff you could use SBF and make a bar where a big icon shows up letting you know when he has it; if the icon disappears, it's safe to taunt back, etc.

For tclap/demo a good one could be Weak Auras since the visual notification is easy to pick up and it doesn't really matter if there's 0.5 secs or 0.4 secs left on it. On my hunter I have green lines that fade out depending on how much time is left on Serpent Sting. If the lines are almost gone, then I know I better refresh soon. I'm at work so I can't post a screenshot, but it sort of looks like this (without the grayed out part, my lines just fade out):




I would also get grid if you don't already have it (not sure if you set it up to show only in raids) - good for keeping an eye on how the raid is doing.

As far as interrupts go, I find it helpful to have a big ass cast bar that goes across my screen, those 1.5 sec casts seems slower to me for whatever reason.

Barghast, on 13 April 2011 - 02:32 PM, said:

I still appreciate all this help you guys are giving me. I only hope it works out to be as worthwhile to you as it is to me.

I'm not entirely altruistic, if I didn't think you had value I wouldn't be spending this much time on you. Get gud or I'll be pissed.

[Barghast]

My Cooldowns are as follows:

Enraged Regeneration (regen 36% total health over 10 sec)
Last Stand (grants 30% max health for 20 sec)
Shield Wall (40% dmg reduction for 12 sec)
Dodge Trinket (1605 dodge rating for 20 sec)
Grounded Plasma Shield (absorbs 18k dmg for 8 seconds)
Quickflip Deflection Plates (1500 armor for 13 seconds)

I'm still unsure as to what order to pop these, which to save for emergencies, or whether to pop certain ones together (ex: LS and ER). I would prefer to know as much about this as possible and most of the information I've found isn't clear enough to me or is conflicting. I realise just how important cooldown management is and unfortunately I've never gotten into the habit of it.

[Stabandtwirl]

My UI is ugly, but it works, need to find a better binding for my shield bash, since moving from the rogue I've had to replace my gamepad I used and haven't completely gotten used to a regular keyboard, the mouse wheel is a pretty sweet idea, gonna try that tonight.



Also I wanted to add, my opening rotation is a bit different, I personally think it works better for me. After fishing forums, warrior threads, and playing with a spreadsheet a bit, I found that my best TPS rotations is something along the lines of a SS(SB up) -> Revenge if it's up -> Concussion Blow -> Shockwave, then go into a normal single target rotation.

Concussion Blow is the Highest TPS ability we have, when threat is a major issue use it on CD, it's crap for dps though, so if you have secure aggro on a mob, use higher dps abilities. Shockwave is also a very high TPS ability, and when you are pulling a boss backwards it has the added benefit of extra range. The downside to this rotation is that Sunder Armor takes slightly longer to apply, but the snap threat it creates is incredible.

I used the standard rotation for a while, but I had a lot of issues on pulls, especially if there was prepotting involved, now that I've started using this rotation, I've not had any threat issues.

[Sobeyet]

Should also consider length of the CDs:

• Enraged Regeneration (regen 36% total health over 10 sec) - 3 mins
• Last Stand (grants 30% max health for 20 sec) - 3 mins
• Shield Wall (40% dmg reduction for 12 sec) - 2 mins
• Dodge Trinket (1605 dodge rating for 20 sec) - 2 mins
• Grounded Plasma Shield (absorbs 18k dmg for 8 seconds) - 5 mins
• Quickflip Deflection Plates (1500 armor for 13 seconds) - 1 min

And don't forget about:

• Shield Block (25% to block for 10 secs) - 30 secs
• Charge - 15 secs
• Intercept - 30 secs
• Intervene - 30 secs
• Heroic Leap - 1 min

Generally speaking you pop SB on CD, but there are times when it would be better to delay it a few seconds - say a boss is casting and he's going to punch you right after. Also, mobility is the defining characteristic of the prot warrior so you should use these whenever you can - I've tanked with all 4 classes but I geared my warrior tank first just because I like zooming around the battlefield.

As far as which CDs to use and when, it really depends on the fight. As a tank you should know fight inside and out:

• What kind of damage is going out? An extra 1500 armor isn't going to do you much good if the boss is breathing fire on you.
• Does the damage tend to be spiky or constant? If they're spiky then you probably want to save CDs for those, if it's constant then you can just pop stuff as they come off CD.
• Is the damage more directed at you or the raid? Just because you're not taking much damage doesn't mean healers aren't struggling to keep everyone else up - if you can help them out somehow you should.
• How long do you expect the fight to last? If the boss is alive for 6 minutes instead of 5, you might be able to squeeze in an extra CD.
• Even little things like how fast he melee swings can be useful information. Chimaeron swings every 5 seconds when he's debuffed, so if it's been 4 seconds and you're still below 10k, you might want to pop a HS.
• Communicate with your healers and be vocal in vent. If you're going to get crushed every 60 seconds, let them know you'll SW the first, LS + ER the second, SW the 3rd, use a healer CD for the 4th, and so on. On the tougher fights there should be a purpose in everything you do; if you just randomly hit buttons because your health went down it's probably going to be a wipe.

Stabandtwirl, on 13 April 2011 - 04:23 PM, said:

Also I wanted to add, my opening rotation is a bit different, I personally think it works better for me.

Whatever you find works best for you. If you're maximizing GCDs and it's still not enough you can shift things around. Now that we have 2 hunters it should be a little easier for the tanks. If you're not having any issues with threat then you can tclap/demo earlier, throw up sunders earlier, etc.