LOL you scare me Tobold!

I did the same thing, and actually made an Excel spreadsheet that calculates the values for my warrior!

Then I looked at the time cost to make the gear improvements I wanted to make, and abandoned the idea to continue to concentrate on my shadow priest...
 

As far as I know, warrior tanks don't necessarily go all into defense rating because with some high avoidance they don't really fear occasional crits.
Critical immune is a must for bear tanks because we don't have much avoidance usually and we suffer from crushing blows a lot, too; but warriors and paladins should mostly consider upping their avoidance - a mix of dodge and parry rating stuff is nice too.
 

I'm gob smacked!

I have learnt more as a warrior in that article than playing the game!

I know it all seems a little retentive... but it gives some idea on the complex mechanics the game is built on.

Next time a mate says... "It's a silly computer game, grow up!"... I'm gonna email them that link!
 

Out of a perverse curiosity, I copied the entire text of that guide into Word to see how long it would be. The result: 51 pages.

I don't play WoW, so I didn't bother reading it, but it's amazing people as gamers spend so much time analyzing games to this extent.
 

I'm way too much of a trial-and-error-kind of player, that I don't care too much about this kind of information. Of course, it's interesting to know what the 'best' combination would be, but then again, the reality in the game decides what approach and goal is viable for the toon in question.

I hate the idea to grind for a gear, thus I will do my best to utilise what I get and try to steer the development to the 'right' direction.

Copra
 

There is more to the article than that Copra.

For example, tanking rotations. I've seen it mentioned for hunters, shot rotations etc.

But the most effective threat generation rotation in that article makes so much sense. Especially when consider high ping times into the rotation, the author even considers players with poor connections.

I would suggest any tank read about the rotations in that article.
 

That suggestion coming from you, eldric, forces me to read the guide.

Thanks for the pointers!

Copra
 

Tobold, have you considered the idea that this information makes the min-maxers more efficient at WoW, which forces Blizzard to raise the difficulty of endgame encounters?

In the end, WoW is somewhat of a zero-sum game. If everyone could kill Illidan, then there is no rarity and no value to the accomplishment. Blizzard must want, say, 0.1% of the population to do that, so they design and tweak the encounter to achieve that success rate. Which means that, like arena PvP, there is fierce competition among the top players to beat each other in efficiency.
 

Very good point, changed, but if that is the case than it is bad game design. MMORPGs are not sports, not the olympics, where by definition only one guy can have the gold medal in each category. MMORPGs are entertainment. Creating content with huge effort and then only selling it to 0.1% of your potential customers is bad business. (And reminds me a bit of the PS3 launch)

MMORPG content should be designed in a way that reaching the top is a challenge, but one that can be overcome with time and effort by the average player. Blizzard should want 50% of the population to have killed Illidan by the time WotLK comes out, not 0.1%. If they really want something for the 0.1%, then that should be killing "heroic Illidan", because adding that to the game is a matter of copy&paste with changing some numbers, thus the effort is in good relation to the number of people actually using that content.
 

@Copra

As I am sure you know, I pretty against or don't partake in the hardcore aspect of the game.

However, the article is very interesting to me.

On the face of it, the article could be very boring, and still is I guess to a few people. However, the author has gone to great pains to present information in a clear fashion and makes very little assumptions about the readers style of play. It makes sense if you spend a little time thinking about what he/she is trying to say.

I personally wouldn't go to all the extremes that article suggests one could. But it does clue potential tanks up to what is possible if they consider the mechanics.

Would be interested to know what you think about it. I have it bookmarked.