Post by The Zrogfather on May 24, 2005 19:11:12 GMT -5
I noticed that this site had a very old version of my tanking tips guide... which I've been adding to as I talk to other tanks and run into new situations. So... here's some more reading for Alexandra... :-)
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Zrog is probably Dedread's main right now, although I really have 3 "mains": Zrog / Brun / Dedread. This is most of what I've learned about tanking...
Zrog's Tanking Guide
I've seen an awful lot of bad tanks out there, and yet have been complimented many times on my tanking skills. So here's a guide.
1) HIT or TAG ALL MOBS MORE THAN ONCE! This is the one thing that annoys me the most about bad tanks. I have a shaman and a priest, both of whom often act as Main Heal. Nothing aggravates me more than to see a tank run in, MAYBE demo shout or TClap if I'm lucky, and then proceed to pound away on ONE mob. What happens? After 1-2 heals, the barely-aggro'ed mobs break from the tank and turn on the healer (me), and I have to rely on the off-tank to pull them off me (since the MT is probably clueless). WHAT YOU SHOULD DO as a tank is hit all mobs at least a few times with Sunders/etc, while everyone else focuses on one mob to kill it quickly. You can retain aggro on this one mob easily by using Taunt on it and only it, until it's dead, although I prefer saving Taunt for mobs that break, and I usually hit that one mob with a few more Sunders/Revenges instead, plus my regular melee dmg.
2) Unless you are far higher level (6+) than the instance you're in, DO NOT tank with a 2h weapon. Forgoing the use of a shield decreases your damage-mitigation (read: damage-lessening) ability by about half, assuming you have a decent shield for your level. What does this mean? This means that your healer doesn't use up his mana as fast, and even crits against you won't create as sudden drops in your health. You can only tank for as long as your healer has mana, plus one potion... then you are dead.
3) Tank in DEFENSIVE STANCE! Damage is the main generator of aggro, but as a tank, you will very rarely be able to outdamage the rest of your party such that you hold aggro without any aggro-related abilities. Most of these are in defensive stance, with the exception of Thunder Clap. Get used to being in that stance when you are tanking! It gives damage reduction, and the all-important Taunt. I challenge anyone to switch stances and Taunt faster than a mob can reach your priest. If you are in Def stance and are quick, you can Taunt a breaking mob and have it return to you without taking a step. In higher level instances, where mob-AOE abounds and where your priest can be killed in 1-2 hits (3 if he's tough), sometimes you can't let the mobs even get near them.
4) Certain abilities GET aggro, and others HOLD aggro. Know the difference! A short list of your tanking abilities and their uses:
a) Taunt: Takes back aggro, but does not increase your aggro against the target mob.
b) Sunder Armor: generates and holds aggro, better than damage-dealing but not as good as Revenge.
c) Revenge: generates and holds aggro (better than SA)
d) Disarm: generates tons of aggro
e) Mocking Blow: GETS aggro, does not hold it
f) Shield Block: I underestimated this ability until just recently. It sets up for a quick Revenge (cheap and effective for holding aggro) and it gives you a nice 1-2 hit damage reduction (varies by spec).
g) ThunderClap: decent AOE-aggro generator. Use at the start of battle to begin aggro on all mobs, then switch to Def stance. My typical pattern (if not pulling) goes Charge / TClap / Def Stance. If pulling, Rage / Pull / TClap / Def Stance.
h) Demoralizing Shout: Your basic, most-often-used, AOE aggro-grabber. Use at the start of the fight to solidify aggro (and for the debuff). I suspect that multiple shouts may add additional aggro, but I haven't tested this.
5) Your first job is to protect the main healer. If a mob breaks from you, it will (should) target the main healer (or perhaps a squishy mage). Give the priest a second or two to use fade to turn the mob back to you. DO NOT ASSUME YOUR JOB IS DONE AT THIS POINT! Fade only lowers aggro for a smy Tallestl amount of time, at which point aggro returns to its previous level. If you do not increase your aggro on this mob, it will break for the priest again about 8-10 seconds later, ESPECIALLY if he's had to heal you in the meantime.
6) Face back towards your party. As a tank, you're pretty much going to be out in front, and since your job is to protect your party, you need to know what's going on. You can also be the one looking out for adds approaching from BEHIND your party, which no one else will see. Handling these adds is typically the off-tank's job. Some might consider facing backwards as a radical idea, but it's a tactic I use regularly and it helps me keep tabs on my party members and other mobs. The BIGGEST advantage to facing backwards is that mobs with ranged AOE attacks (chain lightning from DM comes to mind) are less likely to hit the rest of your party.
7) SPEND YOUR RAGE. I see many warriors building up tons of rage and having it unused. There is no "emergency" you need to save it for - Taunt does not use Rage, and that's your emergency button. Otherwise, all rage should be spend gluing all the mobs to you through special abilities like Sunder (stacks up to 5 times), or if you REALLY have a lot of rage and are tanking a single big mob, Heroic Strike (which I usually view as a waste of rage because Sunder is so much more aggro-effective). The ONLY time I ever see extra rage happening for myself is when I'm soloing 3+ much-lower-level mobs, and I'm waiting for my Cleave to cool down, having already used Demo & Battle shouts, TClap, and 1 Sunder + Rend on each opponent. NOTE on SUNDER: even though it only stacks 5 times, it STILL produces additional aggro after the 5th application. Feel free to spam Sunder endlessly (although Revenge is cheaper and better for aggro).
8) GET TACTICAL MASTERY! Even as a pure defensive tank, there are abilities, such as TClap and even Mocking Blow (if your taunt is on cooldown) that you can make use of. With careful management, you won't waste (much) rage by stance-switching, and if you've been following my above advice on rage-spending, you won't have much extra anyway. EDIT: I have seen builds that do well without tactical mastery, but I don't like them - sometimes being able to switch out of Def stance and WW or Hamstring is VERY nice.
9) Be the first to die! As a tank, your death may precede a party wipe, but if you're doing your job properly, your death will only happen when the rest of your party is out of mana and running, or just about to finish off the rest of the mobs. YOU ARE NOT THE MOST EFFECTIVE DPS! It's far better that your DPS and healer stay alive to finish off the last 1-2 mobs, than if you stay alive and have to solo these last mobs. You are also not a rezzer, and you cannot prevent or heal damage except by taking it yourself (except for first aid, which you should remember to use in the toughest battles when everything else has gone to hell). Note: if you, as the tank, are the last one alive, that's an obvious sign that you need to brush up on your tanking skills.
10) Die well. When you die, try to be in a place where a rezzer can get to your body without being attacked, and DO NOT lead mobs back to the door of the instance, or to any space that could be a good "regrouping" place for the other party members, or to where the Shaman's / soulstoned rezzer's body is lying (self-rez).
11) Use all your special abilities! You might have any of the following abilities, all of which you should use, if possible, before you drop (exception: because of long cooldowns, you might want to save these for upcoming boss fights):
- Mocking Blow (e.g. Charge -> Mocking Blow -> Def Stance)
- Piercing Howl
- Shield Wall (especially vs. hvy magic dmg!)
- Last Stand
- Intimidating Shout (situational!)
- Potions / Healthstones (not an ability, but must be remembered!)
12) Use a Shield Spike. This is a shield upgrade that dmges mobs that hit you, thus creating aggro. Thorns buff is nice for this too, if you can get it.
13) Scan your surroundings. You should be using your mouselook at least a few times each battle to watch for patrols, runners, etc. Even if you have your hands full with the mobs you are holding, you can at least tell your group or reposition yourself to grab aggro on the add. Normally, someone else with less to do will be assigned "watch duty", so you can focus on the aggro-holding, but if you can make scanning into a habit, you'll do it with your non-warrior alts, too. :-)
14) Watch the Chat. Barring the use of Teamspeak or Ventrillo, your only form of communication between players is the text-chat, and it's REALLY easy to forget about it when you're busy with combat. Aside from noticing your healer's health bar going down, your best non-visual cue that they've taken aggro is the chat. This is yet another reason I face backwards - it's easier to see when a mob breaks, because it doesn't immediately run behind you and out of your field of vision.
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Zrog is probably Dedread's main right now, although I really have 3 "mains": Zrog / Brun / Dedread. This is most of what I've learned about tanking...
Zrog's Tanking Guide
I've seen an awful lot of bad tanks out there, and yet have been complimented many times on my tanking skills. So here's a guide.
1) HIT or TAG ALL MOBS MORE THAN ONCE! This is the one thing that annoys me the most about bad tanks. I have a shaman and a priest, both of whom often act as Main Heal. Nothing aggravates me more than to see a tank run in, MAYBE demo shout or TClap if I'm lucky, and then proceed to pound away on ONE mob. What happens? After 1-2 heals, the barely-aggro'ed mobs break from the tank and turn on the healer (me), and I have to rely on the off-tank to pull them off me (since the MT is probably clueless). WHAT YOU SHOULD DO as a tank is hit all mobs at least a few times with Sunders/etc, while everyone else focuses on one mob to kill it quickly. You can retain aggro on this one mob easily by using Taunt on it and only it, until it's dead, although I prefer saving Taunt for mobs that break, and I usually hit that one mob with a few more Sunders/Revenges instead, plus my regular melee dmg.
2) Unless you are far higher level (6+) than the instance you're in, DO NOT tank with a 2h weapon. Forgoing the use of a shield decreases your damage-mitigation (read: damage-lessening) ability by about half, assuming you have a decent shield for your level. What does this mean? This means that your healer doesn't use up his mana as fast, and even crits against you won't create as sudden drops in your health. You can only tank for as long as your healer has mana, plus one potion... then you are dead.
3) Tank in DEFENSIVE STANCE! Damage is the main generator of aggro, but as a tank, you will very rarely be able to outdamage the rest of your party such that you hold aggro without any aggro-related abilities. Most of these are in defensive stance, with the exception of Thunder Clap. Get used to being in that stance when you are tanking! It gives damage reduction, and the all-important Taunt. I challenge anyone to switch stances and Taunt faster than a mob can reach your priest. If you are in Def stance and are quick, you can Taunt a breaking mob and have it return to you without taking a step. In higher level instances, where mob-AOE abounds and where your priest can be killed in 1-2 hits (3 if he's tough), sometimes you can't let the mobs even get near them.
4) Certain abilities GET aggro, and others HOLD aggro. Know the difference! A short list of your tanking abilities and their uses:
a) Taunt: Takes back aggro, but does not increase your aggro against the target mob.
b) Sunder Armor: generates and holds aggro, better than damage-dealing but not as good as Revenge.
c) Revenge: generates and holds aggro (better than SA)
d) Disarm: generates tons of aggro
e) Mocking Blow: GETS aggro, does not hold it
f) Shield Block: I underestimated this ability until just recently. It sets up for a quick Revenge (cheap and effective for holding aggro) and it gives you a nice 1-2 hit damage reduction (varies by spec).
g) ThunderClap: decent AOE-aggro generator. Use at the start of battle to begin aggro on all mobs, then switch to Def stance. My typical pattern (if not pulling) goes Charge / TClap / Def Stance. If pulling, Rage / Pull / TClap / Def Stance.
h) Demoralizing Shout: Your basic, most-often-used, AOE aggro-grabber. Use at the start of the fight to solidify aggro (and for the debuff). I suspect that multiple shouts may add additional aggro, but I haven't tested this.
5) Your first job is to protect the main healer. If a mob breaks from you, it will (should) target the main healer (or perhaps a squishy mage). Give the priest a second or two to use fade to turn the mob back to you. DO NOT ASSUME YOUR JOB IS DONE AT THIS POINT! Fade only lowers aggro for a smy Tallestl amount of time, at which point aggro returns to its previous level. If you do not increase your aggro on this mob, it will break for the priest again about 8-10 seconds later, ESPECIALLY if he's had to heal you in the meantime.
6) Face back towards your party. As a tank, you're pretty much going to be out in front, and since your job is to protect your party, you need to know what's going on. You can also be the one looking out for adds approaching from BEHIND your party, which no one else will see. Handling these adds is typically the off-tank's job. Some might consider facing backwards as a radical idea, but it's a tactic I use regularly and it helps me keep tabs on my party members and other mobs. The BIGGEST advantage to facing backwards is that mobs with ranged AOE attacks (chain lightning from DM comes to mind) are less likely to hit the rest of your party.
7) SPEND YOUR RAGE. I see many warriors building up tons of rage and having it unused. There is no "emergency" you need to save it for - Taunt does not use Rage, and that's your emergency button. Otherwise, all rage should be spend gluing all the mobs to you through special abilities like Sunder (stacks up to 5 times), or if you REALLY have a lot of rage and are tanking a single big mob, Heroic Strike (which I usually view as a waste of rage because Sunder is so much more aggro-effective). The ONLY time I ever see extra rage happening for myself is when I'm soloing 3+ much-lower-level mobs, and I'm waiting for my Cleave to cool down, having already used Demo & Battle shouts, TClap, and 1 Sunder + Rend on each opponent. NOTE on SUNDER: even though it only stacks 5 times, it STILL produces additional aggro after the 5th application. Feel free to spam Sunder endlessly (although Revenge is cheaper and better for aggro).
8) GET TACTICAL MASTERY! Even as a pure defensive tank, there are abilities, such as TClap and even Mocking Blow (if your taunt is on cooldown) that you can make use of. With careful management, you won't waste (much) rage by stance-switching, and if you've been following my above advice on rage-spending, you won't have much extra anyway. EDIT: I have seen builds that do well without tactical mastery, but I don't like them - sometimes being able to switch out of Def stance and WW or Hamstring is VERY nice.
9) Be the first to die! As a tank, your death may precede a party wipe, but if you're doing your job properly, your death will only happen when the rest of your party is out of mana and running, or just about to finish off the rest of the mobs. YOU ARE NOT THE MOST EFFECTIVE DPS! It's far better that your DPS and healer stay alive to finish off the last 1-2 mobs, than if you stay alive and have to solo these last mobs. You are also not a rezzer, and you cannot prevent or heal damage except by taking it yourself (except for first aid, which you should remember to use in the toughest battles when everything else has gone to hell). Note: if you, as the tank, are the last one alive, that's an obvious sign that you need to brush up on your tanking skills.
10) Die well. When you die, try to be in a place where a rezzer can get to your body without being attacked, and DO NOT lead mobs back to the door of the instance, or to any space that could be a good "regrouping" place for the other party members, or to where the Shaman's / soulstoned rezzer's body is lying (self-rez).
11) Use all your special abilities! You might have any of the following abilities, all of which you should use, if possible, before you drop (exception: because of long cooldowns, you might want to save these for upcoming boss fights):
- Mocking Blow (e.g. Charge -> Mocking Blow -> Def Stance)
- Piercing Howl
- Shield Wall (especially vs. hvy magic dmg!)
- Last Stand
- Intimidating Shout (situational!)
- Potions / Healthstones (not an ability, but must be remembered!)
12) Use a Shield Spike. This is a shield upgrade that dmges mobs that hit you, thus creating aggro. Thorns buff is nice for this too, if you can get it.
13) Scan your surroundings. You should be using your mouselook at least a few times each battle to watch for patrols, runners, etc. Even if you have your hands full with the mobs you are holding, you can at least tell your group or reposition yourself to grab aggro on the add. Normally, someone else with less to do will be assigned "watch duty", so you can focus on the aggro-holding, but if you can make scanning into a habit, you'll do it with your non-warrior alts, too. :-)
14) Watch the Chat. Barring the use of Teamspeak or Ventrillo, your only form of communication between players is the text-chat, and it's REALLY easy to forget about it when you're busy with combat. Aside from noticing your healer's health bar going down, your best non-visual cue that they've taken aggro is the chat. This is yet another reason I face backwards - it's easier to see when a mob breaks, because it doesn't immediately run behind you and out of your field of vision.