I am not a dedicated raider, but I love raiding. Since I can never commit to the raiding schedules that guilds require of their raiders, I am in a constant state of pugging. When I’m not actively in a pug, I am scanning the trade channel looking for one that will have all the qualities required to be successful- gear, experience, patience, and maybe a little bit of luck. When I find such a group, I’m ecstatic. But more often than not, I face group after group of impatient, inexperienced, and undergeared scrubs who simply want to be carried to the final boss so they can get their [EPIC LOOT] Those groups often end in a way that everyone who has ever pugged is familiar with- people getting frustrated and leaving. But every now and then, there is a group that fails so bad, the fail is almost a win, in and of itself, for being such a unique level of fail.

And it is with that thought that I decided to create this blog. Stories of pugs that have such a catastrophically brain numbing level of fail to them.

In the future, I plan to open wiap to submissions.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

How to tank and kill the Whale Shark

So I guess wow champion didn't like my guide submission, because it got totally deleted last night, along with about 200 others. Whatever. Here's the guide I submitted.


Whale Shark
Level ? Boss
780631 - 11159297 Damage
110920 Armor
9686250 Health
Cannot be tamed

Whale Shark is the giant behemoth that patrols the underwater zone of Vashj'ir and like the Fel Reavers of Hellfire Peninsula, Whale Shark has the uncanny ability to sneak up on unsuspecting players. Unlike the Fel reavers, Whale Shark has an achievement. This guide will talk you through tanking, kiting, and killing Whale Shark.

Rangedisplay addon in action.

  • The first step tanks are going to want to take is to go and get an addon that will display your range from a mob. I used rangedisplay from curse.com.Set it up however you like, but you're going to want Whale Sharks distance from you up front and center.

  • Tanking Whale Shark involves some heavy kiting. You should be constantly moving away from Whale Shark. If you linger too close to Whale Shark, he will one shot you, regardless of class or gear. The closest you're going to want to get to whale shark is 9 meters. At the same time that you're staying away from Whale Shark, you don't want to venture too far. If you get too far away from Whale Shark, he will reset. The furthest you can go is 20 meters. It's best to stay at 19 though, to avoid risking it.

  • Practice with Whale Shark. It's gonna take a little bit of practice to master maintaining the necessary range. Remember- 9-19 meters. There are two methods to doing this. The first is the one I prefer using- the turning method. You face away from Whale Shark while swimming away, then turn and face him when you need to attack, then turn and swim away again. The second method is just to swim backwards while attacking him. Whichever you use, even just a couple minutes of practice will prepare you to not fail once a group is formed.
    This is what you should be looking atwhen you pull.


  • Making the initial pull: The initial pull needs to be done from teeth level of Whale Shark. Just swim right up to his grill, about 30 meters out, then wait for him to come into your ideal tanking range. Do not pull from above or below this area. The reason for this is that the vertical range is not as accurate as the horizontal one and even when your range addon says you're far enough away, your run from the graveyard will say something different.


  • Build threat before letting dps do their thing. I recommend making them wait for at least a minute. If you have rogues, they can start ToTing you on cd. Same with hunters and MD. When dps does begin, they need to do so slowly. Omen is incredibly useful in this fight and dps needs to pay close attention to their threat. Periodically, or whenever they begin to creep up on the tank, dps can reset their agro by swimming out of range of Whale Shark.

  • Take Whale Shark towards the surface. There are fewer mobs up there to agro. If you have issues with your camera clipping above and below the surface, settle for a few meters below. While kiting Whale Shark watch your map, or assign someone to watch their map and give you directions to avoid dragging him out to a fatigue area.

  • DPS should be resetting their agro, but if somebody does pull, tanks can get Whale Shark back under control. Tanks need to get back in the ideal tanking range(9-19 meters) and get a successful taunt off. In this situation, tanks need to be extremely cautious not to get too close.

The above information is for all tanks and groups. Occasionally, dps will be unable to locate a tank for their group. Have no fear- Because Whale Shark is kited, he does not require a traditional tank. Any class can tank and kite him. He can even be solo'd be anyone with the appropriate amount of time and patience. Below is information for groups without a traditional tank. Bear in mind, all of the above still applies.
  • For a group without a traditional tank, I recommend two or three of the highest agro classes in the group go ahead and get an addon to display their range. Rangedisplay is what I use. Again, feel free to configure it how you like.

  • I'm going to put a lot of emphasis on stacking. Place raid markers on your tanks and stack the entire group on those markers. A group without a traditional tank will be lacking the taunts available to other groups. When everyone is stacked on top of each other and somebody pulls off of the tanks, a taunt will be unnecessary because they'll all be stacked. Additionally, stacked groups have a higher chance of survivability when somebody pulls agro than if everyone is spread out.

  • Drop agro. Drop agro, drop agro. As I mentioned before, dps can drop agro by simply swimming out of Whale Sharks 20 meter hitbox. Dropping agro will result in a cleaner kill and a smaller repair bill.

Here is the video tutorial outlining the above information, and showing it all put to use.



You should now be well on your way to your achievement.
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