Tanking CastersFollow

I had my first real tank run in Ramps last night. I've leveled up prot from about 40, but this was my first instance as a tank.

First few pulls went really well. We accidentally agro'd a pat while fighting a group of 3, but there were no problems downing 6 mobs at once. I felt pretty invincible :) However, as soon as we started hitting the caster groups, things went poorly.

Our group was me (paly tank), healer (priest), feral kitty, rogue and hunter. Apart from Sap, (which can't be done in combat), we really had no effective crowd control for casters. In the end we tried getting the druid to pull with faerie fire, while we all stood out of line of sight, forcing the casters to run to us. Is that the best way to do it?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

The key is finding the line of sight spots and forcing them to run up and pound on you from behind that box or around that corner, etc. If all you're doing is standign back for the distance, they'll just step up and cast once they get in range. You've gotta make that range within consecration range.

Having the feral druid pull does sound kind of odd, but as long as you were able to get around a corner or otherwise out of line of sight so they had to come to you and get in melee range, it at least got the job done as long as you were able to pull aggro back off of the druid.

I totally agree though that you need to use Avenger's shield to pull in circumstances like that. It has a nice long range and is the Prot Paladin's main pulling tool on virtually every pull. In the case of casters, your two choices are genearlly pull with avenger's shield and then run back/around a corner, or pull with Avenger's Shield and charge madly into the middle of the casters.

Only use #2 if it isn't going to draw any adds.

I was Ret until level 61 and then went Prot. I did Ramps probably 7 times before I finally felt that I had every pull right. It is a great instance for learning to tank because of the mix of melee, casters, patrols, and the end fight where you have to keep the dragon off of the rest of the party and get him turned around, all while switching Auras in order to minimize fire damage. I learned a LOT tanking Ramps until I felt I had it down pat.

Edit: Also, the rogue face-pulling was probably a result of him being detected while stealthed. If he was the same or lower level than the elite mobs, this has a fair chance of happening. As for the hunter, they shouldn't be shooting anything until you have pulled with AS and the mobs have actually walked into your consecrate field. Any shooting before then by the hunter could be VERY painful for the hunter unless they are good at trapping.

You could recommend that the hunter use the experience to learn to trap though... have the hunter stand away from you and shoot 1 of the mobs (usually marked with a blue square) just as you throw your shield. The hunter can lay an ice trap and the mob will be CC'd for the duration of the trap. The hunter has to stand far enough from you that the trapped mob will be outside of your consecrate so the trap doesn't break early, but hunters in a raid setting are asked to do this often, so practicing it now in regular ramps would just give the hunter a head start.

Edited, Oct 24th 2008 10:41am by jeromesimina