The tanking Rogue strikes again, 5-mans Gruul
by Daniel Whitcomb 
May 20th 2008 at 9:00AM
You may remember Gaeowyn, the Rogue from Shards of Existence who tanked Mother Shahraz thanks to an insane amount of dodge via agility. She's struck again, this time taking down Gruul with herself tanking, along with a Paladin (with Blessing of Kings), a Shaman (with Grace of Air), a Hunter with Scorpid pet Sting, ad a Druid (using Insect Swarm in addition to Mark of the Wild, of course). After all the buffs and debuffs, she had 76.31% dodge, 12.16% parry, and 14.16% chance to be missed, resulting in 102.63% avoidance. She posted a link to her spec and gear for tank mode, too. The video's short, but it took them a little over 23 minutes to down him. They also got to discover that his Growth caps out at a 30-stack, and that it expires after 5 minutes.
Considering the previous Gruul record was an 8 man, and that group used an actual Protection Warrior tank, I'd say this was a pretty staggering achievement. What's even more staggering is that Gaeowyn says she's tanked Reliquary of Souls, Bloodboil, Magtheridon, and even (as was teased at the end of the Shahraz video) Illidan. She plans to make an Illidan video pretty soon too, so we'll definitely be looking forward to that.
I'd imagine Gaeowyn's boss tanking has taken a lot of planning and setup, and it's awesome to see it in action, and she how people can stretch the limits of the game. I just hope my Death Knight doesn't get turned away from tanking dungeon runs in favor of a rogue come WoTLK!
Oh, by the way, the DST did drop. It went to a Warrior who tagged along to be the cameraman.
Filed under: Rogue, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Instances, Raiding, Bosses, Buffs
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
kiaus May 20th 2008 9:21AM
Really cool vid, well made with good camera work and editing. Informative as well. Also good to see Moonkins in on the carnage.
Uzziel May 21st 2008 3:37PM
with 102.63% avoidance you wouldnt even need a healer, with the stats mentioned above i got the overall chance to avoid an attack as:
82.14%
Still pretty darnn good though, will watch the vid tonight :)
BenMS May 20th 2008 9:23AM
So basically, instead of a regular tank going for Uncrushable, or Uncrittable.... this bird has managed to make herself Un-Hittable.
Kudos, my friend. One internet to you, and another for the 5-man Gruul.
Zeplar May 20th 2008 9:30AM
I saw druids on the forums trying to hit 100% dodge...
Apparently rogues beat us.
Fast May 20th 2008 9:31AM
he cant have 100% Dodge all the time... thats stupid
krauser.gto May 20th 2008 9:54AM
with combined parry chance and increased miss chance (also due to buffs from moonkin (-2%) and hunter (-5%). And not to forget Kings, 35Agi Pot and 20 agi food it is actually achievable.
More interesting though is also the aggro generation which is defunct for warriors or palladins if they even try to be near that "no-hit-for-u-boss"-cap.
Only druids because of their massive agi could achieve somewhat respectable aggro with rage on crit as a true tanking class.
Also it shows some design decisions from blizzard to only include very few bosses that stun or knockdown tanks.
I think they failed to create a balance between agility and other stats for rogues, druids and hunters. It is just to good a stat all around for them and just plain bad for warriors, which is a shame i think.
Unmei May 20th 2008 10:24AM
vid proves... that they most likely can.. so :P
Kraf May 20th 2008 9:42AM
Well ya rogues are definatly gonna beat um Zeplar
Aigarius May 20th 2008 9:43AM
That is INSANE!!!!
Emma Marie May 20th 2008 9:51AM
That's an amazing feat on both counts. Congrats all around!
Super_Duck May 20th 2008 10:03AM
Why use a scorpid pet?
I suppose you messed it up with the hunter keeping scorpid sting up? (which is a shot)
Super_Duck May 20th 2008 10:24AM
Forgot to add, i think it's really nicely done :D
Just to 5man gruul must take some work, but with a rogue tanking him! lol
And fun fact that growths apparently reset :O
d503 May 20th 2008 12:39PM
Looked like a Ravager to me...
Manatank May 20th 2008 12:50PM
Lol, I didn't even watch the video and I knew they were wrong when I read it. If the hunter wasn't there for scorpid sting then they wouldn't have been there at all. 5% miss is huge. Please fix the article because it shows a strong lack of knowledge about what would be required to pull this kind of thing off.
I also think many players (hunters included) forget how powerful this ability is.
Cal May 20th 2008 10:04AM
That is just so damn amazing. To even 5 man Gruul is amazing, let alone with a rogue tank. Though, I guess with a lot of their avoidance coming from dodge, there is little need for healers. Even then, you have 3 members of the 'raid' who can heal, albeit not as well as a full specced healer so there was little doubt about the tank dying.
MechChef May 20th 2008 10:09AM
That's just amazing. Interesting build too. Sub rogue = new tank hybrid, ftw.
They took our jerbs!
Jess May 20th 2008 10:08AM
And here I was thinking I was so cool when I had a 60% dodge rating thanks to various buffs. Damn you tanking rogues (and I have a guildie who is trying to create a tanking moonkin, crazy fool) I guess someone won't take a tanking shortage lying down!
Ardal May 20th 2008 11:25AM
Excellent video. Anyone know what that song is? It's stuck in my head now.
Chris C. May 20th 2008 10:15AM
How did they get past HKM? Did they 5 man that one too? If they did, I would like to see that. Anyways, awesome video!
Bob May 20th 2008 10:23AM
There's a Dev meeting going on right now about how to best nerf rogues to solve this problem!