I've got myself into tanking recently, and been tanking hc regularly (used to raid heal). I pugged my way through most of all them hc's. But the few times I got with a new healer, I started using my buttons. This actually made me wonder.
We have 4 "panic" buttons
Survival instincs (glyphed on that one)
Frenzied regenaration (also glyphed here)
Healthstones/potions
and at last, barkskin
But barkskin is only a one minute cooldown. Is it worth using it everytime it gets off CD? Or should I use it for "oh, crap" moments only ?
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For me it partly depends on the healer I'm grouped with. If I'm unsure about the healer's ability to keep me healed well enough, then I end up using it a lot more than when I'm certain the healer has everything under control. Even then I occasionally use it to lighten the burden, like against certain enraged mobs/bosses, or when mana happens to be lowish.
Overall, though, I'm definitely not using it at every possible moment and treat it more like a "panic" button. Just one I'll use quicker than the other ones. :)
Overall, though, I'm definitely not using it at every possible moment and treat it more like a "panic" button. Just one I'll use quicker than the other ones. :)
I've tanked enough things to know which pulls are rough, and I usually hit Barkskin early going into those. In raids it's hit whenever it's up, unless there's a particular ability I want to save it for (XT's tantrums, Gluth's Decimate, that kind of thing).
Barkskin has the lowest CD so should be used more often not less often. If you think you need it use it.
The others are longer CDs so save them a bit more.
Pro tip: SI then FR. Trust me.
The others are longer CDs so save them a bit more.
Pro tip: SI then FR. Trust me.
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idiggory wrote:
Drinking at home. But I could probably stand to get laid.
LibHealComm-3.0 helps a lot when making the decision about whether or not to blow cooldowns since it shows on your health frame (at least with xperl - not sure about others) if there are any incoming heals, and for how much you can expect to be healed.
Keeping an eye on the rest of the party is important as well. I use Barkskin and other cooldowns whenever it seems most likely that the healer is terribly busy keeping everybody else alive. Gives them a bit of a break to catch up, even more so since I am using Tank Warnings to keep people informed.
The rest is experience and knowing the mobs. Could be a Mortal Strike (Bjarngimm in HoL), or maybe armor reduction (Hadronox in AN) or terrible DoTs (King Dred in DTK)
Keeping an eye on the rest of the party is important as well. I use Barkskin and other cooldowns whenever it seems most likely that the healer is terribly busy keeping everybody else alive. Gives them a bit of a break to catch up, even more so since I am using Tank Warnings to keep people informed.
The rest is experience and knowing the mobs. Could be a Mortal Strike (Bjarngimm in HoL), or maybe armor reduction (Hadronox in AN) or terrible DoTs (King Dred in DTK)
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Keeping an eye on the rest of the party is important as well. I use Barkskin and other cooldowns whenever it seems most likely that the healer is terribly busy keeping everybody else alive. Gives them a bit of a break to catch up, even more so since I am using Tank Warnings to keep people informed.
Very smart.
Also using them when you know a damage spike is coming can help greatly as well. Especially if that spike is raid wide.
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idiggory wrote:
Drinking at home. But I could probably stand to get laid.
Horsemouth wrote:
Quote:
Keeping an eye on the rest of the party is important as well. I use Barkskin and other cooldowns whenever it seems most likely that the healer is terribly busy keeping everybody else alive. Gives them a bit of a break to catch up, even more so since I am using Tank Warnings to keep people informed.
Very smart.
Also using them when you know a damage spike is coming can help greatly as well. Especially if that spike is raid wide.
On XT, it's just enough to survive his tantrum without any healing. Great when kittying.
Quote:
On XT, it's just enough to survive his tantrum without any healing. Great when kittying
I use barkskin during tantrums on this fight too, it is great :)
I put Barkskin in the same macro that calls Maul. So yeah, it is used every time it's up automatically. It's probably not the most effective way to go about it, but it is more effective than relying on me to remember to use it ;)
Nuit Midril - White Mage/Scholar on Ultros
Nuit the Insane! - Retired Druid on Sentinels.
Ombre - Retired Dragoon/bard on Phoenix.
As said, saving it for known damage spikes is a good idea. One use I didn't see mentioned was actually for when I'm being healed by another druid. Popping it as soon as I engage gives time for those HoTs to stack up.
You know I was just thinking we were talking and saying how nice the CD is on Barkskin I hope that Blizz doesn't notice it and hit us with the nerf-mallet, lol
Barkskin is used by every spec in PvP - particularly Resto. Bears really aren't very far ahead, if at all, in PvE tanking. If they want to mess around with it, they'll probably change the Resto talent rather than the CD for every Druid.
Quote:
Pro tip: SI then FR. Trust me.
Great tip!
Gonna use barkskin more often now. And on the CD-changing part, I don't think something like that is going to happen. It's the key to resto druids to survive in pvp, and it has been in the game like this pretty long too. Let's just hope blizz never reads this all and changes their mind. You never know what their next move is gonna be.
Edited, Jun 14th 2009 4:25pm by Thorpedro
The Barkskin CD wont change. It is on a shorter CD because it is half as effective as most other tank CDs.
Barkskin is a tanking CD primarily. All the tanking classes use them in PvP if they have a healer spec, well just pallies.
Barkskin is not OP. As someone esle said if a change is made for resto PvP it will be to the Imp Barkskin talent not the cor ability.
Barkskin is a tanking CD primarily. All the tanking classes use them in PvP if they have a healer spec, well just pallies.
Barkskin is not OP. As someone esle said if a change is made for resto PvP it will be to the Imp Barkskin talent not the cor ability.
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idiggory wrote:
Drinking at home. But I could probably stand to get laid.
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