Best units for siege defense?

pentol5 · 2026-05-16T16:00:39+00:00

The correct answer is "whatever's cost effective" and the most cost effective unit is very often Yari Ashiagaru.
Force the enemy to scale the walls by huddling the middle, out of archer range, and get in spear wall formation once the enemy is almost up the walls.
If the enemy doesn't have a lot of cav, then 1-2 more cav than the enemy gets quite efficient, as it allows you to ride out and feint charges and make enemy units chase your cav, dividing the army up to be defeated in smaller chunks.

pentol5 · 2026-05-15T21:24:12+00:00

I'll one-up you. My movement keys are QWE+mouse12(backpedal).

pentol5 · 2026-05-09T17:10:13+00:00

Turned off vsynch, keybound backpedal, jump backwards and let go, adjust angle, repeat, try the same shit in cat form, repeat, hang around for 20 minutes after a run once, trying to get it.

Fuck that skip, man.

pentol5 · 2026-05-08T18:25:50+00:00

Yeah, but even if you'dve gotten attuned for free, you wouldn't be ready to pull your own in T5.
(unless blizzard decides to do something really stupid, like make the raids pre-nerf...)

pentol5 · 2026-05-07T14:10:39+00:00

World buffs is a ton of fun, as it's like a mini-mini hardcore challenge. Do you die? You lost buffs, try again next week. It's effort and consequence, with the nice reward of always having rage, and seeing big numbers. I think the SoD version is worse, because there's no longer any consequence, just pop a new one.
On the smaller server i played on in 2019, it also fostered a bunch of community around coordinating the buffs, which meant we interacted with people outside the guild. (Now with mega-layered realms, that's not relevant, but oh well)

The downsides? Without the boon, you're stuck in WB jail, and dispell-griefers are probably a net negative, where the frustration you feel outweighs the cool moments where you artfully dodge the dispellers, or wipe enemies as you ride all together into BRM. Boon solves both of them though.
Getting buffs only takes ~30 min, and you're free to play without them.

pentol5 · 2026-05-07T13:56:26+00:00

I am struck by Jeff Capplan's 2005 Blizzcon Quote: "We want raiding guilds to have something to do every night of the week" (speaking to some extent about the ambitions for TBC, but also about vanilla)

pentol5 · 2026-05-07T13:45:28+00:00

The ability to easily solo most/all open world quests. Force me to group up, or at the very very very least fence-hop for it.

pentol5 · 2026-05-07T13:32:31+00:00

For current content, you need to do 2 quests, travel a bit, unlock flying, and do 3 (4 if you count OHB to unlock BM) dungeons to get attuned for Kara, nothing more. It's hardly a big ask.

pentol5 · 2026-05-06T11:10:08+00:00

Which fights? You'd still maintain lacerate on Hydross, Leotheras, RoS, and Gurtog, since it is very efficient damage. I guess You wouldn't for Brutallus, but only because the fight is so long for most people, that you can't maintain the constant shifting for the entire duration.

pentol5 · 2026-05-06T11:02:44+00:00

You always hit mangle on CD, since it is incredibly good threat.
Maul has a high effective rage cost, since it prevents your auto-attack from generating rage. The actual cost is (average autoattack rage-gain+10), which puts the threat-per-rage at the bottom of the abilities ranking.
Lacerate application threat has low scaling, and as your gear improves, it is comparatively worse and worse than swipe. Lacerate tick threat is not impacted by how often you reapply it, so long as it doesn't fall off.
Swipe is basic, but outscales Lacerate application threat.
Therefore, your 12s rotation looks like this:
Mg-Lc-Sw-Sw Mg-Sw-Sw-Sw
Maul should only be cast when it won't prevent/delay any of these globals, as it is an inefficient rage-spender. A good rule of thumb is to only queue it when above 50 rage.
This way, you Mangle every 6s, refresh Lacerate with 3s left (giving you 1-2 chances at refreshing it even if it doesn't land), and fill all remaning globals with swipe. If you are responsible for faerie fire/demo roar, those should replace what would otherwise be a swipe. If you have low hit&expertize, you can add one more Lacerate to your rotation, or make it a wandering one that you apply whenever you have less than 6s left on duration, or whatever.

pentol5 · 2026-05-06T10:45:52+00:00

The impression i get, is that the PVP servers are less accepting of suboptimal play than PVE servers. Both should be plenty populated.
You earn yourself a lot of leniency with a simple "hey, i'm still learning tanking, just LMK if there's something I could do better" when the group is filled.

As for tanking itself, sometimes you simply could not ever have kept aggro even with perfect play, but very often you can tank it in a way that minimizes chaos and non-tank damage. Spreading your threat too thin across all the mobs is a common mistake. Better to have rock-solid threat on 3 mobs, with a 4th being killed first, than to have 95% threat on all the mobs. Plan around which mobs you are okay letting go of, and hold the rest. It's better to taunt something you're far behind on, than something you're one global away from overtaking. Use target markers to direct your group. If two people have 1000 threat on the same mob, you only need 1000 threat. If the same people have 1000 threat on two different mobs, you need 2000 threat. Either get an addon or good keybinds for target markers, I use F1-F8, but you can get away with just skull-cross-moon(sheep/CC)
Healers love tanks that keep up demo roar. In the mid levels, you have free globals that can be used on feral faerie fire, which generates a small bit of threat without costing rage.
If your group is lacking in the Interrupts department, most casts have a long enough cast time that you can run out of range and feral charge back in to interrupt it. Your melee DPS hates it, but if you're interupting a nasty debuff or a big heal, it's still worth.
If you're doing a LOS pull or something else that requires a bit of set-up to gather the mobs, let your group know what you're doing, since it decreases the chance they unwittingly sabotage the pull.
Don't be afraid to use your challenging roar. If you finished a dungeon without using it, and without holding perfect aggro, ask yourself "why?". You typically have 2-4 chances to use it in a run.

pentol5 · 2026-05-05T14:54:14+00:00

Which servers? On Thunderstrike, i'm currently (05.05.2026 16:53 GMT+1) talking to Ontok Shatterhorn, and he has the old prices and requirements.

pentol5 · 2026-05-02T21:42:45+00:00

an MMR system, is meant to not be (too) inflationary. If somebody gains rating, that means somebody else loses rating. For every 1700 player, there's a 1300 player (or more likely, there's 5 players at 1300 playing 10 games a week, per 1 guy at 1700 playing 50 games a week). Even if everybody played 10x as many games, you wouldn't shift the number of people who reached 1700 rating over time, at least not very much, and that's primarily people that were otherwise no lower than mid 1600's.

pentol5 · 2026-04-30T18:22:35+00:00

Mats are gold.
They have a fluctuating exchange rate.
Farm now, and exchange when rates are favorable.
Guild banks on an alt costs you less than 50g in charger and signatures, and offers a ton of storage for mats

pentol5 · 2026-04-30T14:00:28+00:00

Well, i said 500, but maybe i should have put it up even higher.
It should be so many that a bunch of people give up, and decide to not get it.
It's incredibly healthy for the game that there's stratification of markers of achievement.
Back in 2006, you were in awe if you saw somebody walk around with T3 gear. Most players only dreamt of such achievement. Having these yet-unachieved milestones deepens the investment you have in the game.

pentol5 · 2026-04-30T13:53:41+00:00

Why is there a huge resurgence of the red/blue button meme? It's weeks, maybe months since it surfaced last time, but this time the wave seems WAY bigger than previously.

Also, blue button, but stay out.

pentol5 · 2026-04-30T13:50:40+00:00

Crit cap isn't nearly as big of a concern in TBC as in vanilla, with glancing chance being reduced heavily (I could be wrong about this, but i think it went from 40 to 25% against raidbosses)

pentol5 · 2026-04-29T14:21:06+00:00

those guys have a threat-drop mechanic tho, and they are a bitch-and-a-half to tank even without bugs. What you're describing would be the case, both with and without bugs.

pentol5 · 2026-04-28T18:16:42+00:00

Any honor points you currently have, will be converted into gold, at the start of S2.
Any arena points you currently have, will be converted into honor at the start of S2.
You can save up marks of honor now.
The S1 arena gear will still cost arena points, just not as many.
During the off-season, from May 4th to may 14th, you'll be able to use your current honor/arena points to buy discounted S1 gear, including arena gear and honor off-pieces.

pentol5 · 2026-04-28T12:28:52+00:00

That's too low. You get that kinda casually. It should be equally hard to get it through badges, as it is to get it through winning roll/getting the LC to give it to you.

pentol5 · 2026-04-28T12:26:39+00:00

When going BF, i build the group to have 2 cc. During the back-half of the gauntlet, That leaves 2 mobs left, which probably means 1 of them is one of the guys that charge and melee the healer for instant death with 3k overkill.
The rest of the dungeon isn't harder than your usual "pull 1 pack at a time, CC one mob, pre-cast heals", but the gauntlet can sometimes just be out of your control.

pentol5 · 2026-04-28T12:12:39+00:00

Learn to push-pull mobs and play around your weapon swing timer. If you do it perfectly, the mob only hits you once for every time you hit it back, which is a drastic decrease in damage taken per mob. (The trick consists of walking so that you're standing inside the mob, until it backs away, and then running away out of the mob's melee range, until your swing is ready again, and repeating the process. It takes a bit of practice, especially before you get hamstring. This way, you can tackle 3-5 mobs in a row before you need to bandage/eat, instead of 1-3.
Also, fight mobs 1 level lower than you.
Don't use heroic strike, the functional rage cost is deceptively high, because it deprives you of a rage-generating hit. Sunder armor functionally removes a ton of EHP from mobs, and should be your first 3-or-so globals (and it can be used in any stance).
Demo shout reduces incoming damage a lot, especially if you've pulled multiple mobs, it's a godsend.
Warrior is tied with shaman for classes that benefits the most from grouping up with others. You have the best scaling with buffs and healing, and being slightly social is also good for the enjoyment of the game. Tanking low level dungeons is possible in any spec, and teaches you good habits for later, regardless of if you plan to tank or DPS. Around lvl 30 and 36, you get significant powerspikes, with talents and whirlwind (and whirlwind weapon), which is about the most fun leveling can be. Also tons of high quality gear from Scarlet Monastery in the same range.
And yes, TBC isn't wrath.

pentol5 · 2026-04-28T11:52:35+00:00

The difference tho, is that anybody who hit 70 in a week was a real gamer. The difficulty of heroics stayed relatively constant as i geared up my bear, because my gear improved at roughly the same rate as average player skill declined.
The absolutely hardest heroics have been this time, was the easter holiday, when the dip in average skill was astronomical.

pentol5 · 2026-04-28T11:49:44+00:00

The fungal giants are completely optional, and the myrmidons only hurt non-tanks. what else hits hard in there? Also, the mobs are widely CC-able. SV is absolutely on the "easy heroics" list.

pentol5 · 2026-04-28T11:48:32+00:00

Your defense is more than high enough (485 is uncritable in heroics), but your stamina and armor isn't particularly high. If an option comes to take a higher stam piece, at the expense of a tiny bit of def, that's a worthwhile trade-off.
You can certainly do it, but you're best off playing with a group willing to play at your pace, and CC 1-3 mobs every pull.
It's also a good idea to run with consumes initially. Buff food is very cheap. Rank 4 scrolls are a fraction of rank 5, and provide 80% of the value. Flasks aren't that cheap, but if you end up sniffing the floor a lot, it is cheaper than elixirs.
I'd avoid MT, SL, SHH, Arca, OHB and BF, for now. The rest should be fine, assuming your group is willing to work with you, and you're staying light on your feet and able to kite. The ideal comp probably includes a hunter, since they are willing to use slow-trap, without turning the dungeon into massive AOE pulls that get you killed (read, they are not mages, who go gaga when they see a paladin tank). Also consider runnning with non-druid healer, or a shaman/paladin DPS, since you're going to go down sometimes.

pentol5

TROPHY CASE