Off-tanking Karazhan

[Garinn]

Hey guys, I've been lurking the forums for a bit since I'm still a fledgling tankadin and really don't have much to offer. I just got geared enough to start off-tanking Karazhan for my guild, but I'm having trouble staying second on threat for the important pulls like moroes and his trash. Any suggestions?

[Bryne]

Exorcism. Mana pots.

[Nobot]

Exorcism. Mana pots.

and Avenging Wrath, Wizard Oil, spell dmg food/elixir/flask

Or demand to MT certain bosses (like Moroes) so you don't have to blow money on mana pots.

[Garinn]

Last night I would have been hesitant to try to main tank moroes, but the Kara god was extremely good to me. A grand total of five new pieces of gear (two healing and 3 prot) brings me up to a total of 498 defense and 95.113 uncrushable without the libram from heroics or agi buffs. After we finish out the second half of kara on sunday I should be just breaking uncrushable! I would have had the libram but I spent the badges on a nether to get my Tankatronic goggles.

[Unforgetible]

Well gz about the drops.

[grymwulf]

I normally offtank Kara - here's how we do it:

Boss 1: Attuman
I pull Hunstman's horse - tank until they join - then just lolhit until dead.

Boss 2: Moroes
I MT Moroes, Prot War OTs - we have a demo warlock stand on top of Moroes - she manages to grab half the stuns

Boss 3: Maiden
I Offheal maiden - Blessing of Salvation on MT keeps me up to throw lolheals on MT during Repentence

Boss 4: Opera
Depending on the event
I tank Romulo
I offtank Strawman/Toto
I offheal for big bad wolf

Boss 5: Curator
I offheal the Warlock soaker - constant spammed flash of lights usually keeps them up with Blessing of Light

* Optional * Boss 6: Illhoof
Depending on Warlock situation we either do it, or if feeling adventurous I try to AoEtank the Imps, or without Warlock and low on AoE (mages/hunters) skip

Boss 7: Shade
Offheal

Boss 8: Prince
Offheal stay in range of MT for devo aura - basically sit out Phase 1 throwing flash of light and spot-heal during Phase 2 and call out Infernals. Phase 3 heal/bl. of Prot anyone dying from the Axes

* Optional * Boss 9: Nightbane
Offtank during flight phase - using seal/judgement of wisdom during ground phase to rebuild mana. Fire aura helps dps if two charred earths down.

* Not Done Yet * Boss 10: Netherspite
Haven't done this boss yet.

Offtanking/Offhealing is a VERY good way to get geared up. Esp if you are the only pally you get all healing plate drops, and 2nd option on the tanking pieces.

[Catriona]

* Optional * Boss 6: Illidan

I choked on laughter at this. It should say Illhoof, not Illidan.

[grymwulf]

Thanks for pointing that out! I would have laughed myself.

[guillex]

Why ... aren't you MTing Curator? Seriously ... You can get such a huge lead on threat before the first evocate, then pop wings/AS/Consecrate/Judge to get an even higher lead ...

I dunno, seems silly that you're "healing" for it.

[Duzzit]

I solo tank everything except netherspite and moroes.

[grymwulf]

Why ... aren't you MTing Curator? Seriously ... You can get such a huge lead on threat before the first evocate, then pop wings/AS/Consecrate/Judge to get an even higher lead ...

I dunno, seems silly that you're "healing" for it.

Basically we normally have 2 holy priests who keep everyone else healed - and I am concentrating completely on keeping up the soaker and throwing spot heals on the tank.

We usually kill after just two evocates, so time hasn't been an issue and things work. Why fark with it at that point?

[Njorde]

I have been getting geared up off-tanking in kara, and the easiest way for me to stay up on threat and not have to use mana pots is to judge wisdom, and use Blessing of Sacrafice on the MT.

This mitigates a bit of damage onto the MT but allows me to get heals, which give me mana back and then I pop wings when they are up and use SOR and excorsism and consec rank 4, allows me to stay decently on the treat meter for a bit, but allows me to do some dps without going oom so quick...

[rodos]

Offtanking/Offhealing is a VERY good way to get geared up. Esp if you are the only pally you get all healing plate drops, and 2nd option on the tanking pieces.

You're not wrong there. I have it even better. MT is a bear so I get ALL the plate by default. When our lock is on his lock and not his shammy, I get uncontested access to all the healing mail (= godly for off-spec healing because it all has mp5 and no spirit or spell crit) and the shields too.

And don't be afraid of Illhoof. I just run in there and tank him and the imps. The bear takes the big imp so I don't get the debuff, and holds him in the AoE while single target dps go nuts on Illhoof himself. With cons going all the time for the imps and exorcism whenever it's up and the dps switching to the chains a couple of times this is usually a lol-huge-threat-lead fight for me.

[Thundergust]

Well I’ve done Kara 3 times with my Dwarf Paladin now. In those 3 runs I’ve got shield off nightbane, tier 4 off prince, eternium greathelm off opera, bracers off attumen, gloves off maiden, boots off chess and shoulders off netherspite.

The first week I went the guild MT, a warrior, dropped out last minute and I – at that point still crushable and crittable – maintanked all the way to aran with no wipes, mostly pulling all trash or ccing one or two here and there with another paladin who had slightly better gear but didn’t know the instance (nor did I tbh) offtanking. We absolutely rocked the place and everyone loved it.

Now I’m going as OT for this warrior MT and he’s a right battleaxe. He’s good at his job, that much is true, but he won’t let me MT anything. If there is a pack of four (say, for example, the horses and stablehands before attumen), he insists on us taking one each and cc’ing two others. WHY?!?! I’ve told him I can easily take all four. He says he knows, but doesn’t care. He has better gear than me – but after my extremely lucky three runs this gap has closed significantly (he’s been waiting months for his Shield of Impenetrable Darkness and then two drop in as many weeks) and I think he’s getting worried that I’m going to usurp him or something, which I'm not at all.

Another example is the ghost mobs before aran (can’t remember their names, sorry). I can easily tank all of them. Someone else pointed this out and the warrior went mental saying ‘I’M TANKING ONE! HE TANKS ONE! THE OTHERS ARE CC’D!’. He also has a habit of taunting off me when I’m OT’ing another mob and his dies.

Methinks he’s jealous

But anyway, as an OT I find kara incredibly dull. Exorcism here, holy wrath there for giggles and basically just doing everything I can to pull aggro for a laugh.

I’m pretty new to the guild so atm I’m just kinda grinning and baring it for the moment.

[guillex]

Well I’ve done Kara 3 times with my Dwarf Paladin now. In those 3 runs I’ve got shield off nightbane, tier 4 off prince, eternium greathelm off opera, bracers off attumen, gloves off maiden, boots off chess and shoulders off netherspite.

The first week I went the guild MT, a warrior, dropped out last minute and I – at that point still crushable and crittable – maintanked all the way to aran with no wipes, mostly pulling all trash or ccing one or two here and there with another paladin who had slightly better gear but didn’t know the instance (nor did I tbh) offtanking. We absolutely rocked the place and everyone loved it.

Awesome That's the way it should be ... But effin' Grats on those drops ... a LOT of people run for months without ever seeing the SoID and shoulders.

Now I’m going as OT for this warrior MT and he’s a right battleaxe. He’s good at his job, that much is true, but he won’t let me MT anything. If there is a pack of four (say, for example, the horses and stablehands before attumen), he insists on us taking one each and cc’ing two others. WHY?!?! I’ve told him I can easily take all four. He says he knows, but doesn’t care. He has better gear than me – but after my extremely lucky three runs this gap has closed significantly (he’s been waiting months for his Shield of Impenetrable Darkness and then two drop in as many weeks) and I think he’s getting worried that I’m going to usurp him or something, which I'm not at all.

You know ... we're infinitely better equipped to tank kara than warriors and bears are ... We just make everything easier. As long as he knows that you're not trying to take over his spot... I mean, he'll be tanking a lot in SSC/TK and beyond... Just needs to cool it. You could even suggest one day "Hey, I'm not trying to kick you out or anything, but why not come see what I can do. Spec fury for a run and enjoy being able to DPS. Just once." If he's open to that, then maybe he'll cool it a bit and not get into the whole WARRIORS ARE MT NOBODY ELSE RESPECHOLYL2PLAYNUB mentality.

Another example is the ghost mobs before aran (can’t remember their names, sorry). I can easily tank all of them. Someone else pointed this out and the warrior went mental saying ‘I’M TANKING ONE! HE TANKS ONE! THE OTHERS ARE CC’D!’. He also has a habit of taunting off me when I’m OT’ing another mob and his dies.

Methinks he’s jealous

But anyway, as an OT I find kara incredibly dull. Exorcism here, holy wrath there for giggles and basically just doing everything I can to pull aggro for a laugh.

I’m pretty new to the guild so atm I’m just kinda grinning and baring it for the moment.

Not that he's jealous ... I believe he thinks that, because he's MT, all mobs that need to die should be on him. It's happened to me before, and it's actually happened with other prot pallies in the group. Just goes to show that it's not only warriors with this mentality.

Don't be a jerk with things, show him slowly what you're capable of in Kara.