969 Rotation Video Demonstration

I thought this may be helpful for newer tankadins working through the 969 rotation. I remember when I first started tanking I struggled with threat issues and didn't really catch on to TPS rotations (this was back in early BC) until I spent a lot of time reading through the theorycraft behind them. In case the written explanation is confusing this video (I think) makes it really really simple.

http://www.pinkraidframes.com/blog/?p=317

That's pretty neat.

Odd... i can't see the video.

Strange, the video is actually an embedded YouTube video at our site - www.pinkraidframes.com.

Here is the direct YouTube link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZyOoMKtREI

xstrykr wrote:Odd... i can't see the video.

You have to give it a good couple of minutes to load...

I had no issue loading. Good work btw.

Very nice.

No problem loading, very nicely done! I'm going to send people to that page whenever they ask about 969 from now on.

Stolen for Basic FAQ

/happy to have been ripped off

Nub question:

It looks like paladin in the video alternately uses a 9 skill and a 6 skill.

I was under the impression the 96969 rotation repeated those 5, such that there are actually two 9s in a row (the last 9 of the first 5 and the first 9 of the next five)

as in:

969699696996969...

What I saw in the video was 96969696969696...

Am I wrong?

In practice I use more of a 969696 etc. rotation but I always figured it was because with my latency I could not hit the sequence optimally (overseas player on ~450ms latency).

the idea is to alternate a 6 skill and a 9 skill, the 96969 is just a common example, a longer one would be 69696969696969696969.

The reason for this is very simple
Time:
0.00 6.1 skill
1.50 9.1 skill
3.00 6.2 skill
4.50 9.2 skill
6.00 <<< 6.1 skill just came off CD, how convenient
7.50 9.3 skill
9.00 <<<6.2 skill just came off cd, how convenient
10.50 << 9.1 skill just came off cd, how convenient (technically it usually gets off CD 1 sec earlier due to being an 8 sec cd but meh)

I was chatting to a few friends about the 969 and was surprised that two of them actually though 969 rotation is made up of:

96969n96969n96969n96969n

where n is one of the AS, Exor, HW. When I point out that they're letting HS fall off with this rotation, they say it's acceptable. Maybe it was because one of them used to play a warrior?

Mozen wrote:where n is one of the AS, Exor, HW. When I point out that they're letting HS fall off with this rotation, they say it's acceptable. Maybe it was because one of them used to play a warrior?

The only time I could see it being acceptable is if you're taking very little damage and need the mana for SA or if Redoubt has proc'd. I wouldn't do it while tanking a boss (with heavy physical damage). HW's single target threat is meh. You're probably loosing TPS by using it. AS (glyphed) will probably boost your TPS (if the mob is a slow hitting boss) but do you really wanna start taking unmitigated blows for the small boost to your TPS? If the boss hits fast you'll likely generate more threat with HS than with AV (just my guess based my experience looking at the parsing data from MT'ing Patchwerk). Exorcism is the same. Stick to the 969 rotation, imho.

Hey...great video. However, I have a few questions about the rotation. I'd like to first note that I don't have any problems with threat. In fact, most times, I have so much threat, that in my old guild where I was the primary OT, I was always pulling off of the (Warrior) MT.

I'm just curious why Exorcism and Holy Wrath aren't included in the rotation. With as many Undead mobs in LK, I can't imagine tanking in Naxx without using them, considering the amount of dmg that Paladins do to Undead; especially if one uses the Glyph of Sense Undead. Of course adding those in, is definitely dependent on what mobs you're tanking, as it would be useless to use these in places where there weren't any Undead. Other than that, my rotation is pretty much the same, which makes me happy Oh, also, I will through out the ocassional AS on particularly long fights, because it does a lot of dmg. But, even adding in the extra spells, I never run out of mana, unless I'm questing.

Anyway, thanks for listening!