05-27-2005, 02:24 AM
Olon97,May 26 2005, 04:28 PM Wrote:Point taken. I haven't been in many situations where a heal potion + cleansed whipper root wasn't enough to cover for a gap in healing, but maybe I haven't been actively looking to note such times. If I ever do try a build with last stand, I will make a macro that sends a whisper to every healer assigned to healing me when I use it and another set of whispers when the backend is about 5 seconds away. Considering how rare crits are once you have enough +def gear, a 30% instant HP drop will take people by surprise if you don't communicate what's about to happen. In scenarios where mana isn't likely to be a bottleneck, predictability of incoming damage becomes pretty key to effective healer/tank dynamics.
While in principle, extending the life bar is a handy tool, without a "full heal" spell in the game, there is such a thing as enough life. That would be enough to take the worst case scenario of the pull in question (usually back to back crits on a boss) and still leave healers time to get in their biggest heals. Some discussions I've read (either on the Steel Warrior forums or Conquest guild) estimate that ~5000 life unbuffed is generally enough for MC/Onyxia main tanks, and giving up other useful stats (or talents) to go beyond that mark does not improve the tank's durability enough to justify the loss.
That's PvE, however. PvP it can be a bit harder to predict how much burst damage might be coming your way, or whether you'll even be targetted before the healers in your group are dead anyway. If you're using this sort of PvP tactic (taking point with heal support), having 10k+ life (counting last stand) might be an excellent idea. Granted, that life extension is only once every 10 minutes, but I can definitely see the potential.
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Last Stand... I'm assuming you've tried it, and are passing on it this time round due to poor performance. Oh well, if it's one of those things you forget to use, that makes it pretty useless. I found that, when I remembered to use it, it was relatively helpful. Not great, but certainly a nice boost.
As for those tactics in that video... near as I can tell Pat has @5-5.5k HP unbuffed (he's got 6k with MotW and PW:F), which is nothing unusual, I guess... It seems that this is a good deal of stamina for most purposes, though I wouldn't mind more faced with a barrage of spells.
Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children, is increased with tales, so is the other.
"Of Death" Sir Francis Bacon
"Of Death" Sir Francis Bacon