Understanding threat / TotTFollow

Boo, a rogue has snuck into your boards, and he has just managed to place a question in your pockets.

As some of you might already know, at level 75 rogues recieve a new ability called Tricks of the Trade. Basically, it works like this: I cast it on you, and wait. Then, as soon as I hit a mob, it's effect comes into play. For 6 seconds long, all my threat gained will be transferred to the tank, you in this case. In addition, during these 6 seconds you will get 15% extra damage for free (hoozay!). Seeing as I'm mutilate spec (for the people in here who don't know every class in the game), it basically means my initial burst will be a pretty bad *** amount of damage and aggro to go with that. Once I've left stealth, I can if needed wait until I have the energy for another burst before using the ability.

Now I can go into very specific detail from this point, but I think I'll just stay with asking the tanks among you the following question:
Since you are the master of threat in the group, where, when, and even on who do you want me to use this skill?

Should I use it on you and burst the second target until the duration wears off? Should I use it on you and simply hit the skull to give you a little more aggro on him? Should I use it on that annoying mage who just ninja'd your boots? If you get low on health, is it a good idea to use it in combination with burst damage to get a mob off you onto another plate wearer (full of hp)? Or should I just stfu, stick to AOE pulling tricky groups and furthermore forget about the ability?


P.S. I realize I could've posted this on the paladin, druid or death knight forums as well, but... I don't know, for some reason the warrior boards feel like the right place to me. Lets just say the paladin bubblehearthed, I couldn't find the feral druid and the Death Knight is still doing his class specific questline.

It prolly doesnt matter a whole lot, we warriors are threat machines. I would say most importantly, if you go with the x over the skull, be sure to explain to your tank what you are doing. This will save you an earful for not following the kill order, at least from me anyways :P

So in general, bursting an off target with it is considered beneficial enough when compared to simply bursting the skull?

I take it you meant rogue?

A mark for it doesn't sound like a bad idea to me, it's just that I yet have to meet a tank who knows the ability (granted, I'm not 80 yet). I'm just trying to make the most of it. And if following the kill order is beneficial, could it be used simply for the 15% damage effect? I suppose I have to stick it on the tank since 15% damage isn't going to help a dead mage, but who knows.

It depends on how fast the skull goes down. A good group will probably kill skull very fast even if 1 dps is sleeping ,smoking ,drinking ,etc. If the skull dies slowly then y need to focus on skull.

So mesure your party strengths and weakness each time your in a group and act accordingly.
Usually tanks will not be irritated if skull and X die almost at same time IF they die fast.The faster the better.


So basically that means if your tanks can hold good aggro and dps is super cool then go for it.

Remember to ask your Warrior to put his Vingilence buff to someone else and not you if you plan to apply your ability a lot.

It's not castable on myself though... If I want to use it for the 15% damage, I'll have to throw it on another DPS.

My take on this is that you will always always always cast the ability on the tank. There's no reason I can think of (aside from playing the fool) to put it on anyone else.

The question is, once you've cast it on the tank, which mob do you wail on to glue it to the tank. There are 2 options here - Firstly, on the main target, which should allow every DPS to open the taps on that target - however, as pointed out, warriors don't really have much problem building single target threat (never used to, but it's even more insane now).

The other option would be to pick a mob lower down the attack order, and unload a mass of damage on that mob .... you'll therefore assist the tank in getting and keeping agro for one more mob ... a mob he then doesn't really have to concentrate on to keep agro. This is probably more of a aid for the healers than anything else, but then again, keeping aoe threat to overcome healing agro is also not a problem (any more).

ofc, on a single target fight ... it's pretty straightforward - pop TotT on the tank, pop your trinkets and cooldowns, and open the throttle ... this allows you other DPS to do the same a lot earlier than they would have.

Best thing is for all tanks to know about the ability and what it can do, and then maybe even mark one up for TotT before the enoucnter starts ... it's essentially another mechanism to make sure than you don't have mobs running around causing problems (the other mechanisms being CC in the form of sap and sheep, and off tanking).

honestly, id use it with this priority in mind:

is there a ranged/caster dps mob that isn't being nice and following the tank? use it on that.
are all the mobs on the tank like they should be? go ahead and **** up the primary target.
is another dps in the group being annoying? use it on that ******* and watch him/her die.

thats how id like rogues to use TotT for me.

I doubt you'll do much else than increasing his damage. Hunters sort of have Vanish, only with a 30 sec CD.

Very helpfull post about this rogue ability.

I m thinking that in an instance if the group is good and the last boss is close I d run a damage meter ,see which is on top then Under Utarius comment:

I would tell the rogue to cast the ability on the super DPS.Then I would cast vigilence on that dps.
I dont know if it will work well though...It might go well or cause super wipes...must be tested....

In a bad group? Allways on the tank I guess...

Quor, isn't Shadowmeld only a temporary aggro drop? I'm not sure, because my Night Elf is a Rogue and I always used Vanish instead.

So basically; it depends on the run? Since I realize that while threat usually isn't an issue, helping out with it makes everybodies life a bit easier, right?