And then there were three...

Yes, three level 80 toons.

Vanco got the last ding until the next Xpac doing his Sons of Hodir dailies and immediately went back to Dalaran to try on all his new tank gear.

I'm sitting at:
551 Def
24.5K health
17% dodge
14% parry

Not bad, if I do say so myself. I still have to do two more days of Argent Crusade dailies to get the head enchant and a couple of more days on Sons of Hodir for the shoulder enchant and some dungeon grinding for Wyrmrest rep for their cloak.

I forgot to check, but I do believe that I can replace my "of the Champion" sword with a titansteel destroyer and still be above the defense cap. That will be a nice boost to both my strength and stamina.

So, other than gear, I'm looking to do a couple of things:

1. I need to find out what food I should be eating. Of course, if someone throws down a feast, I'll be partaking, but other than that, what food do tanks eat? Hit? Crit? I'm already def capped, so I shouldn't need to eat def food. Must...find....out....

2. Tanking practice. We'll just have to see if I jump right into Heroics or I try out some level 80 instances. I know I need to do UP on regular for the quest reward - a nice tanking chest piece. Also, a nice trinket drops out of reg HoS. And someone suggested that reg ToC has some good stuff for me.

3. Epic Flying. I've already hit Exalted with Valiance Expedition, so now I just have to scrap together the 4K gold. I also might try to get in on a HCoS timed run for the Bronze Drake.

4. Grind that rep. Sons of Hodir, Wyrmrest, Knights of the Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor (they have nice gloves for me!), blah blah blah. Oh, and the JC daily too.

5. Figure out who's next. I have three hunters, one priest, and a pally that are all begging for my attention; the problem is that I'm planning on adding a Worgen when the Xpac comes out, and I only have one slot left. One solution is to make one of my hunters into my banker and delete my level one pally banker. Or just fill up that last spot and then deal with it down the road if I need another spot and hope that Blizzard gives us some more slots.

Yep, still plenty to do, and I'm not bored yet.

Thoughts on Tank gear

Vanco is approaching the level cap (4 bubbles of rest XP to go), and I'm looking at tank gear for him.

Now, I've already crafted all the Blacksmithing stuff for him, sans the Titansteel Destroyer (I have to see if I have enough Defense without my current tank sword). I've also started the rep grinds while leveling him, so he has a jumpstart on those.

And I've also crafted the epic tanking jewelry as well as the tanking JC trinket. I bought a tanking cloak and enchanted it with 16 def.

Anyways, I'm really curious about how close I will be to the 540 def cap. See, all this gear has "defense rating" on it...not defense, and from what I've read:

Roughly 5 defense rating = 1 defense.

So, what do I need?

400 base defense - This is what every toon's maximum defense is.
140 additional defense, which translates to approximately 689 defense rating.
Or 115 additional defense if I'm two-handed tanking (due to the +25 def Runeforging available for two-handed weapons), which translates to approximately 566 defense rating.

Oh, and there's this scaling issue, because I actually was rockin' 543 defense at level 78 with my crafted blue gear.

Let's switch gears to weapons. Anything that has defense on it is considered a tanking weapon, and it appears that there's very little in the way of two-handed weapons with defense. Thankfully, I do have Runeforging and can throw a +25 defense (not rating, actual, honest to goodness defense) on any two hander. Also, luckily, I have a level 77 weapon that is "of the Champion" that has 53 defense rating on it that I may use if I need the defense.

Now I understand why Teurion was always complaining about weapons. Besides his vow to never use maces 'cause they're gay (who's wearing a dress??? yeah, he is....), Teurion was always looking for a good tanking weapon.

Our situations are slightly different, but you can bet your boots that I'll be going for the Red Sword of Courage for when I can switch to dual wield tanking. Yes, Virginia....you can dual wield them!

The Melting Continues

190.8 lbs.

I'm gonna be just a wisp of a guy by the time I leave for Hawaii on the 16th.

Encouragement

Last night, my oldest son dropped by to pick up some stuff, and we had a really good conversation. First of all, he's starting to show some maturity as a result from getting kicked out - he realizes that he has to get a steady job. Not only that, but he also has taken steps to actually GET a steady job.

Wonders never cease....

Anyways, I told him that I was proud of him for growing up and taking responsibility for his life. I also took the opportunity to reinforce the fact that now that he's out of the house, there's no turning back, and it would only help him to put any thought of moving back behind him. I also told him that he probably wouldn't have grown if he was still living at home.

What surprised me is his agreement. He seems to realize that what we had been trying to tell him for months was actually true. Yeah, he's hard headed like his Dad.

Anyways, I just figured I'd let you guys know how he's doing and that I am really proud of the direction he's taking. I only hope he continues on this track and figures it out soon.

Diagnosis

Well, my wife went to the neurologist yesterday and found out she has a screw loose. Literally. Ok, not literally, but there's this little, uh, thing (that's a medical term, ya know. I DO WORK IN THE MEDICAL FIELD!! I KNOW STUFF!!!) in the inner ear that can break off and cause havoc like my wife's condition.

The remedy is to strap her to a table and rotate her around until the particle is in a safe, non-dizzy spell inducing place. I'm not sure if it's going to get up to centrifuge speed - around 7200 rpms, but I'm a bit jealous. I mean, I went all the way to Cedar Point last Saturday to get what she's going to have right here in Indy!

At least Cedar Point is less expensive...and, hopefully, after tomorrow's procedure, she'll be back to her normal, beautiful, sexy self. Of course, right now, she's pretty darn attractive as her dizzy, beautiful, sexy self, so there won't be that much change.

Puppy Power!!

It's been a while since I made a puppy post; sorry, I don't have any pictures to go along with it.

Last night, we continued working with Larry in training Denali on the Heel command. Unfortunately, Denali won't Heel without being directed to my ankle, but we are persevering.

We took her for a walk with her in the Heel position. She did NOT like that. She is used to being able to roam where ever she feels like (within certain boundaries) to the length of the leash. Well, we gave her just enough leash for her front legs to meet the ground with about two inches of slack or so.

We then walked. If she stopped to sniff something, we continued on, and she got dragged. If she tried to run ahead, we would give her slack and then snap the leash and pull her back to the Heel position. She pretty much fought with us the whole way, so I figured she'd be a bit tired when we got back to Larry's house, which would be a good thing for what we were doing next.

After the walk, we tested Denali on how long she would stay in a Down/Stay position with me out of sight. Our goal was 5 minutes. She made it 2 at the most.

Previously, we did pass a test where we put her in a Down/Stay position, but we remained in sight and were able to remind her to "stay."

So, we have our work cut out for us this week to get her to stay when we are out of sight.

In other puppy news, I put up the warning flags for the invisible fence and started the training, which, on the first two days, consists of letting Denali get to the flag line and jerking back on the leash.

Days 3 and 4 are a lot like the previous ones, but the shock collar is attached, and Denali is allowed to feel the shock. Ouch! Do not want!!

Days 5-8 still involve the leash and shock collar, but also involve distractions that tempt her to break through the fence. Things like balls rolled or thrown out of the yard, family members outside of the fence, or other dogs outside of the fence. This will be Denali's hardest stage as she's just a puppy and has some issues with self control (don't we all!!).

Hopefully she'll be fully trained to the fence in two weeks so my mom and T will have an easier time with her while my wife and I are off to Hawaii.

BTW, my wife did go to work today, so she's feeling a bit better, and I'm optimistic about our upcoming trip. Yay!

Back to Work

My wife isn't that much better, but I had to get back to work. An unscheduled week off wasn't exactly what I was hoping for at this juncture.

Let me say this: I would much rather have my wife healthy than being able to sit around and play WoW for most of the day.

I feel pretty helpless. Sure, I can try to make her more comfortable; I can make meals, get her whatever, try to keep things from interrupting her sleep. But, I can't do anything about her dizziness and suffering. And that sucks.

Ok, enough of the pity party.

I did play WoW, and I got Vanco the DK up to 77. I dropped Herbalism on him and picked up Jewelcrafting. I'd forgotten what a pain it is to level that profession, but I am persevering.

Yesterday afternoon, I tanked Halls of Stone, and I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. We had one wipe - totally my fault for fighting in an unsafe spot and drawing adds....and more adds.... and then one death on the last boss. There wasn't any good loot that dropped for me, but I was just happy that I did so well.

I also did the ground work for my invisible fence. No, really, the literal ground work as in burying the wire. That sucked too. I got my youngest son involved in the project, and we finally finished it up last night. So, tonight, I get to run around with the collar and place warning flags for little Denali. Then, the training process starts. Hopefully, she'll pick up quickly on the warning flags and won't have to be shocked too much by the system.

Our Hawaiian vacation is a little over two weeks away, and now, we're not sure if we're going to be able to take it due to my wife's illness. I really hope she gets better soon....