lol it's hitting me: a tanking tip threadFollow

I was asked to put together something on the way to tank easily. So here it be. This is really just a post for them, but I figured it might as well be shared.

Step 1: Open your key bindings. Find the controls for zooming in and out. You should find these bound to mouse wheel up and mouse wheel down. Change them. You will want them to be shift-mouse-up and shift-mouse-down. That accomplished...


Step 2: Go down the list until you find Right Action Bar 1 or 2. Find two of these slots that will be out of your way from what you normally use and bind them to mouse-up, and mouse-down. Now, open your spellbook and drop Heroic Strike on the slot you've bound to mouse-down. You can drop whatever you wish on mouse-up, although blood rage is probably the most effective thing you can put in that slot.

Step 3: Fix in your head that Heroic Strike is not on the global cooldown. Now that you've done that, you can see that as long as you have rage, you can easily just keep spinning your mousewheel down and pump out heroic strikes *without interrupting what else you're doing*. This was a particular sticking point for me, as I used to have heroic strike bound in a spot that wasn't easy to get to in the first place, and even when I moved it to be easier, I still did not have an easy time spamming it *and* doing other things.

Step 4: Look at Shield Slam. Realize that this ability is Epic. Shield Slam is perhaps one of our strongest abilities period because of one thing: it allows you to hit one target with it, and (provided you didn't miss) switch to another to apply 1-2 sunders before returning to the initial target. Once your block value is up to a reasonable amount, you can dish out something along the lines of 1.7-2k threat with a single shield slam. This is very nice for when people engage early. For multi-target situations, shield slam is very very nice, for single target. Well it's still nice, it just doesn't have to hold that target while you do something else.


Step 5: Consider the GCD. Sometimes known as the Global Cool Down, sometimes known as Enemy #1. Shield Block and Heroic Strike, two of our important abilities don't care about the GCD. But Shield Slam, Demoralizing Shout, Bloodrage, Revenge, Thunderclap, Devastate. These all represent choices we have to make with our GCD. So, the simplest way to make that choice is to prioritize them.

?) Bloodrage - The reasons I give this ability a ? is because its priority is variable. If you rage bar is pretty full, obviously it would be a waste to pop this. If a fight is about to end, it will probably be A) a waste and B) ***** you on the next pull, when you will pull and find you have no rage to shield slam with. Just the same, with a rage-bar under 50%, if the fight isn't going to end soon, pop it.

1)Shield Slam - This should always be on cooldown. Always. I kick myself every time a GCD starts and this ability is ready. What's more, this should be your opener. Every time. If it means waiting a second or three to pop that shackle or sheep, it will almost always be worth your while to go ahead and get the good threat opener. The fact that DPS will be able to open up with less fear of pulling aggro makes up for the time lost waiting for the cooldown.

2) Devastate - We're warriors. We sunder. End of story. This ability drops in priority after you've got 5 on there, but for the bulk, as you're opening a fight, shield slam and devastate will be what you do. There's no reason to neglect this ability once it's fully stacked, as it gains bonus damage based on the sunders, which of course translates into more threat. This is what I mainly devote my GCD to when Shield Slam is not up.

3) Demoralizing Shout and Thunderclap. I spam these during AOE pulls, and I maintain them if I'm fighting something that hits very hard. Destroyers in Heroic Mechanaar come to mind. Most raid bosses as well (yes, there are some I just don't bother with. Attumen and Moroes come to mind). Now, their utility in AOE pulls. Trying to pull off sunders and shield slams on everything by clicking or tabbing... well, it does work to an extent, but demoralizing shout spam coupled with thunderclap spam is usually a better opener. Use thunderclap first, then spam demoralizing shout (since it has no cooldown other than GCD) until thunderclap comes up again. It is best to move around some while doing this, as thunderclap only hits 4 targets, and by shifting you get a chance to hit different targets than you'd hit before. I do this for about 10 seconds or so and then start devastating every mob I can. It's not a great solution, but it's the most effective one I've come across so far.

4) Revenge - I won't lie, I don't give this ability anywhere near the attention it deserves. The fact that it costs as little as 2 rage depending on your talents, and is another high threat move should cause it to be a high priority. But I rarely use it. Why? It's only available when you perform one of the actions associated with avoidance. So I don't expect it to come available. While trying to max threat output, I'm usually waiting on the next GCD to finish so I can toss another devestate or shield slam in. So depending on when Revenge lights up, and when I notice it lit, I could, and do, lose it simply due to it fading before my next available GCD. The bottom line? I hit it if I can, and I don't sweat it if I can't.

5) Commanding Shout - This is actually one of my lowest priorities unless it's a boss fight. Because threat doesn't mean much if I'm not alive to be hit. But on pretty much anything else, I hit it largely on a whim. That's largely my tanking style. The only time I view this to be a priority is if I'm worried that the members of my party in range need the health.

Damn that was a long step. Moving on.


Step 6: Consider your offtargets. There are often targets that have to be offtanked. First thoughts: No big deal, right? I shotted the skull, so they all come to me right? Well, yes. But staying? Even if you don't have a warlock or shadow priest that like to throw dots on offtargets, your healer *will* draw threat just keeping you alive. Also, a lot of warriors and rogues like to pop abilities that let them hit more than one target. I have DPS'd a heroic ramparts run where, with two targets, I died simply because I whirlwinded once, and the tank did not understand off-target threat. Now this is again where shield slam becomes so important. Since we can introduce our main target so intimately to our shield's surface this way, we've got time to throw two devastates on X (or whatever you mark your offtarget) before your DPS rips skull off of you. Depending on how long skull will take to die, you may need to toss one or two more devastates on your offtarget. Now where this gets fun is when you've got two offtargets. The easiest way to deal with this is to shield slam your primary, then drop thunderclap and demoralizing shout. This buys you some time on your third target. Then you can slap two devastates on X, return to skull for one Devastate, by this time shield slam should be up, use it on triangle (what I like to mark my third target with). In this scenario using thunderclap every time it's up will help to keep the offtargets glued to you.


Step 7: Consider the target's HP bar. Here's the situation. It's nearly dead. You've got a decent lead on threat. You're still sundering and shield slamming away. Why? There is a point where you know your primary target (the one your DPS are killing) will stay on you, and you can safely switch to the next target in the kill order for building additional threat before your DPS even starts in on it in earnest. This alone puts you miles ahead of the game. I don't recommend this tactic for people who aren't *very* comfortable with their threat output, but it does work wonders when you know where you are in terms of threat.


Step 8: Consider your rage bar. Does your cup runneth over? Are you starting to run dry to the point you can't shield slam? These are the questions you should be thinking about when you're using your beloved mousedown to spam heroic strike. While an excellent source of TPS (Threat Per Second), heroic strike spam can run you dry of rage depending on the fight. It's best to think of your rage bag as a cylinder under pressure, with your heroic strike as a vent. If you're reaching the top, it's time to spam. If you're sitting toward the bottom, you probably don't need to open the vent. Stick with that, and you should be saved from A) wasting rage with a full bar and B) being unable to Shield Slam for lack of rage. ....I won't lie, I oftimes overdue it and get stuck with the second. Fortunately, the lovely grey bar of abilities unable to be used for lack of rage snaps me out of it.


Step 9: ??????


Step 10: Profit






P.S. These strategies are based on a tank who gears for block value and stamina. Your mileage may vary.

How to keep Revenge available:
Shield Block (improved), then use revenge. Problem solved. It will always be available if you're doing what you should be. It is more threat and less rage than spamming devastate, so you make out ahead when using shield block to proc the ability. And you take less damage as well. Win Win.

In short, always always use revenge after shield slam. They share about the same cooldown, so it shouldn't even mess up your rotation.

Edited, Jun 1st 2008 12:46pm by Zeynothix

Revenge should have higher priority than devastate after the sunders are capped.

Hmm. Been a long time since I checked this but yeah... As far as the whole offtarget threat. You have skull, and you have X. They are both on the tank. Warrior DPS runs thus: Bloodthirst, whirlwind, Bloodthirst, Bloodthirst, whirlwind. And it's not exactly just warriors. Rogues will use blade flurry to increase their combat speed, which has the side effect of hitting other targets. While I totally agree that anyone who is *focusing* on an offtarget is a ******. If you're not going to bother to keep your offtargets off your dps when they happen to hit an ability which will hit more than one target, you're failing as a tank, because you're crippling your DPS just as much as if you were putting out jack **** for TPS. The other side of this coin is, if I can pull threat off a target with one whirlwind that will stay on me, pretty much any healer will be next. 1000 damage ww on an offtarget only needs to be outdone by 2600 healing (yeah, yeah, not threat reduced) for it to say 'zomghealer'. Again, failure as a tank. I should mention this same tank let a paladin healer (y'know, the healers whose heals only generate 60% in the first place)die no less than 8 times before first boss.

Generally, I hold off on the WW until later, or a Pally is tanking ;-> *ducks the flames and sucks up the down-ratings*

Not sure if TC would hold agro there ... my WW's can crit for around 1700 (mh) and 1000 (oh) - and this is unbuffed... that's a massive threat spike, and not something I would imagine TC being able to keep above.

TC generates (123 * ability mods * stance mods * 175%) threat.

For a level 70 with 3/3 improve TC and in def stance that is: (123 * 2 * 1.465 * 1.75) = 630.

A WW generates threat by the (formula damage * stance mod) if it is a fury warrior that is doing any sort of reasonable dps using decent weapons and who is using WW in a rotation with bloodthirst:

Short answer: no.

Long answer: h* no!



Edited, Jul 18th 2008 3:48pm by kingpatzer

On a multimob pull where I have to tank more than one:

1. mark the kill order
2. remind the party that i need to actually build threat on all the mobs, so hold off a bit (a good theat meter such as Omen works great here)
3.a. get a HoT from the healer
3.b. fire off bloodrage
3.c. if pulling, shoot at something other than the first kill, if charging, charge something other than the first kill
4. TC
5. Demo Shout
6. mouseover and devastate, shield slam or revenge around the pack
7. start regular threat cycle on the primary target, if your DPS is good, this is when they start attacking
8. every cycle, apply a devastate to a different mob in the pack, paying attention to which one's need attention (again, threat meter!)
9. re-apply TC and Demo shout as threat allows
10. use Cleave as a rage dump

When in a group, I always have the healer set as my focus, and I have a macro to intervene on my focus.
If something goes off on the healer, I taunt it. If it's more than one, I concussion blow the second. If it's 3 (boy I must suck) then mocking blow the 3rd. If there's a 4th, I back off and intervene it.

If something goes off on the DPS, it is because they failed to follow the kill order or over-used their high dps abilites. In either case, i let them buy the farm, then re-aquire the mob.

Just so I understand this correctly, it sounds like the DPS should hold off on attacking for about 8 seconds once the mobs start hitting you (1.5s for TC, 1.5s for DS, 1.5s for SS/Dev/Rev on each mob). That just seems like a long time, but it makes sense. So, basically tell them to wait until they see me start smacking the "skull" mob, then unload.

The problem I keep running into is that the DPS wants to unload on the "skull" as quickly as possible. I'll keep working at this to try and get faster at it. Thanks for the clean and clear advice.



This is awesome advice. I never even thought of that. Thanks.

As a fury warrior I usually like to give the tank a few seconds to gain aggro before going apesh*t on the mobs. If it is a multi-pull, I let the tank tab through the targets for a few seconds before even thinking about a WW. Once I see his attention back on the skull is when i start blowing cooldowns like WW or SS.

WW is part of the max dps rotation for a fury warrior. While a lot of them know not to do that on a group pull, muscle memory just sometimes takes over :)

Not that having an excuse makes it acceptable. But I can understand why it happens once or twice a run. But if it's every multi-mob pull, then I note the guy as "moron" on my player rating mod, and start scanning for a dps replacement ;)

When you take CD's into account, however spamming TC extensively (something that I do on every multi mob pull) will let you hold aggro when someone fires off a WW.

Or rather; you're the tank. You control how much DPS the others are allowed to do by your threat. All DPS warriors do a hell of a lot of damage with WW on a multi mob pull. While you might not be able to do it every CD, you're still boosting the DPS a lot by TC:ing.

Edited, Jul 24th 2008 2:41am by Utarius

LOL! Once I saw this I stopped reading. You shouldn't be making tanking threads if you don't even know how your 41 prot talent works.

Edited, Jul 24th 2008 2:37pm by Tugnus

That 630 is divided over the number of mobs hit.

(if it wasn't, no one would do anything but spam TC! :)

So for 4 mobs hit that is 630 / 4 = 175 threat per mob
For 3 mobs it is 630 /3 = 210 threat per mob
For 2 mobs it is 630 / 2 = 315 threat per mob
For 1 mob it is 630 threat

So for 1, it's actually not a bad ability to use! For more than 1 the utility as a threat generator drops quickly.