Pfft. I’ve bumped that ceiling at least three times since I first started playing…
Started queing for heroics last night and got an interesting comment when we were starting. Someone said “Wow Bear Tank! Been a long time since I’ve seen one of those!”
Does anyone here agree with that? Is there something I should know about bear tanks being worse than other tanks? Assuming playskill is equal, which are the best tanks so far in Cata?
Agree with what? You’re making a pretty big leap from “it’s been a long time” to “bear tanks are worse.”
Bear tanks are perfectly capable, but gearing them is difficult, as they compete for leather DPS pieces rather than plate tanking pieces. There’s a few other reasons, but that’s the primary one I recall, plus Druids need to be adept in general at form-switching and Feral Druids especially. There’s also an old stigma that’s persisted from when they weren’t the best, but that was a long time ago. Most people who play Druids play them as healers or caster DPS. Lastly, I’d venture that bear tanks are played by veteran players who choose to remain within their guilds or social circles and don’t want to PUG much.
I’ve had a fair number of bear tanks in heroics I’ve been pugging. Of the four tanking classes, I probably see paladins the least often and warriors the most. Bears probably about even with DKs.
I haven’t seen it to this degree, but I first saw a spot of it on my new warlock yesterday. I sent my voidwalker in to take care of business and it looked like they were dancing, while moving away. The NPC died before they got to far.
I’m wondering if it is a problem with each npc trying to find their fighting position. IIRC there was a problem awhile back where npcs wouldn’t orientate themselves correctly when fighting players. I’m wondering if this is resurfacing. I’ve noticed it once and awhile when I’m on my tank. I’ll try to grab a npc/boss and turn him around, but he keeps readjusting himself to more-or-less attack me from side more than face-to-face.
Anyone else remember this? SFG probably will as a fellow tank.
Second time raiding with my guild’s off-10-man group, and. . .well, I’m not sure if I should be disappointed or not. I’m by no means good–I don’t devote a ton of time to gearing and raiding, and only recently got my gear to the point where I felt comfortable in a raid (I’m 348 equipped now, if I stick with my crappy green wand; I’m a bit higher than that if I equip the arguably much better PvP wand, but I’m still not sure if the intel boost is worth the useless resil, so I’m keeping it in my PvP set for now. Don’t start me on the ease of getting relics and shields as compared to the pain in the ass that is getting a wand). Last week, we got Halfus down; this week, not even close.
I’m really not sure what the problem is. The raid has me bringing out my Felhunter for the mana pool/MP5 boost (I’m Destro, btw), so I know the healers were at one point having issues with mana. I’ve noticed, looking on the armory, that two of their equipped sets are under 346, but I don’t know how hard of a cap that is. I also know, looking at logs, that I seem to be taking more damage than I should–I can’t figure out what the warning graphic is for the damn fireballs, though. Is there a trick to that fight, other than the drake order?
Depending on the drakes there are two types of raid damage that may be present. The whelps cause increased AoE damage that is, as far as I know, unavoidable. The Time Warden adds the fireball barrage ability. I’ve been told you can reduce the damage by moving after you get hit the first time (basically a fire effect on you) - I’ve never confirmed this but move anyways to keep from getting yelled at. Once you release the Time Warden a target reticule appears under you (fire circle) before the barrage hits - just step out of it.
As far as the healing goes, it is intense at the start and gets better and better.
Also, this week had one of the harder combos - both the mortal strike and the AoE ability, as well as the increased unavoidable raid AoE. That alone can make it much tougher than last week (which was a simple combo). If you miss an interrupt or two and have tanks take too many stacks the damage is unhealable.
… or is that something I don’t need to know? If not just say that, but one of Clawdie’s shape shifts is a bear, so I was wondering…
Also, and this is kind of a biggie, so please be patient explaining it (knowing it’s me whom you are explaining it to, I mean:D), but I am confused about “undercutting” in auctions (seems like I used to know what that meant, but don’t now).
I have started farming leather for my alt kids to have some gold, and I always check auctioneer to see what they recommend as the “going price” and offer just a tad below that (1g to bid or +1g to buyout). So if the going price is 11 to bid and 12 to buy out, then I’ll offer 10 to bid and 11 to buyout.
Why is it a bad thing for me to do that? I have read comments on the WoW community forums about this, and people don’t seem to like it.
Also, why, sometimes, does auctioneer make “undercut” even HIGHER than their auction/buyout prices.
I try to make my prices competitive, but if I can get even more g’s than I want for my leather and silks, then I’d like to do that. Also, I like repeat buyers.
Very confusing to your ol’ pal Quas, so thanks for helping me out.
Here is a screenshot to help you help ME. 
Ain’t I a CHALLENGE???
Damn if I ain’t!
I bet y’all pass me around from week to week with my dumb-ass questions, dontcha?
“You’re up, SFG, it’s Quasi again!”
Hell, I don’t mind. Wadn’t for y’all, I wouldn’t be having this much fun with WoW!!!
Love y’all
Q
It’s only the massive undercutting that people get mad about. If the “going price” is around, say, 40g/stack, and you post yours for 39g 50s, nobody’s going to get mad about that. What makes people mad is when the “going price” is 40g/stack, and somebody comes along and posts a stack for 20g. Because then the next person comes along and undercuts that price, and the next thing you know the “going price” is 15g/stack for something that had been selling consistently for 40g/stack. Suddenly, everybody’s making less gold.
Quasi, a bear tank is a druid in a Feral spec who goes into bear form to be a tank in dungeons and raids - the person who gets all the mobs to beat on them while the other players (DPS, healer) do their jobs.
So if you were inclined, you could use Clawdie in bear form to tank. But since you mainly do solo questing and grinding you probably won’t use bear form that often; you do a lot more damage in Cat form if you are in a Feral spec.
Thanks, Rik and Skammie!
I kinda suspected that about a bear tank, but I don’t have Clawdie change into a bear that much because the panther seems much faster, and yeah, like you said, I’m mostly solo.
Man! I wish my brain weren’t so fried! I think I’d really be a great asset to a dungeon raid otherwise! 
And Rik, thanks for explaining. I feel much better now… Dave…I have the utmost confidence in this auction… Dave?..
Rik, that wasn’t meant as a critisism (sp) against you - NOT EVER MY FRIEND - just at me because I don’t seem to be able to grasl elementary things any more as I used to do, and I was just acting out HAL 2000 as he’s being disconnected.
Sometimes I’m on it, but most times I’m off it.
Sucks to be me, I reckon!
Thanks for helping me out!
Bill
I’ve seen this, but frankly, I’m not a seller, but a buyer. If I do have a stack of a commodity I just want to get rid of, or a pressing need for a little bit more gold, I may radically undercut for one sale. And if I’m in the buying market, I always hope I can catch a posting from someone using the same “Crazy Eddie” pricing strategy.
That said, even if I’m just putting up a single stack, I will usually just go with what Auctioneer says, 'cuz I’m lazy. Right now, it’s configured (default) for a 2.5% undercut, I think, so I can crash the entire economy of Azeroth only if I really try.
The “Auctioneer DETAILS” is what I didn’t understand, I guess.
There are so many figures and numbers there that I only pay attention to the ones which say “sample auction” and stuff, and do the best I can, remembering that I needed a big hand up as well!
I think that this kind of game strategy is what slows me down and at my now level with Wolkie makes people think I know more than I do. :)
Q
gno, that is one of the things I was puzzled about: you can actually program all your auctions to undercut automatically?
Can you explain, please?
Thanks
Q
Hey Quasi, you use Auctioneer, right? Here’s a screenshot of the posting interface in Auctioneer. Under ‘Options’ on the left-hand side, there’s a checkbox for ‘Undercut Competitors’. If you check that, it’ll always stay on.
Don’t worry about all the fandangled stuff in Auctioneer. I only use the Browse and Post tabs.
For casters Int is worth so much more than any secondary stat that it is definitely worth using the PvP wand for that alone, especially if your alternative is a green. This is generally the case with primary skills in cata.
Bear tanks are currently the best tanks in the game. My main being a bear tank in no way influences my opinion. The other tank classes will do in a pinch… i suppose. 
I left work at 10am yesterday to go home sick - my sinuses were giving me an unbelievable headache. I figured I wouldn’t be able to log into WoW because of the weekly updates, but they must have been done pretty quickly because I was able to bring my laptop to my bed and play for most of the day, doing almost nothing but leveling archeology. I did get a couple of Tol’Vir relics but nothing too special except the cat figurine that vendors for 200g. I also got the Vul’kryul Bearded Axe epic and the level 51 cloth robe - but any level 51 clothie I have is going to be wearing the heirloom robe so it’s kind of useless. Still hoping to get one of the level 85 caster/healer items, one of the mounts or the sand drake recipe one of these days.
Just make sure you fight in “Cat Form”, not “Travel Form” 
I swear sometimes the game conspires against me. Over on Cenarion Circle, I tried to buy glyphs for my lowbie (sub-30 at the time) orc warlock and tauren paladin, but was unable. I noticed three things: the prices were sky-high, there were very few glyphs posted, and they all seemed to have been posted by just two or three different scribes.
“Well crap,” I said, “It would appear that there is a shortage of Horde scribes on this server, and that’s keeping the prices high.” So I did the sensible thing: my warlock dropped her barely-leveled Tailoring and trained Inscription instead (she already had Herbalism) and got busy leveling it.
So of course, once she started posting her glyphs, there were suddenly a couple dozen other scribes doing the same thing and the prices dropped to about a quarter/third of what they had been.
grumble
Thanks to all of you for helping me play.
There’s no way to explain to you how much this “game” and its quests mean to me.
It has become a part of my life, and I am grateful for it.
shrugs
Quasi