Tank Talk: All about aggro
by Michael Gray 
Aug 21st 2008 at 9:00PM
Tank Talk is WoW Insider's tanking column, promising you an exciting and educational look at the world of getting the stuffing thrashed out of you in a 10- or 25-man raid. The column is rotated amongst Matthew Rossi (Warrior/Paladin), Adam Holisky (Warrior), Michael Gray (Paladin), and Allison Robert (Druid). Our aim is to use this column to debate and discuss class differences, raid-tanking strategies, tips, tricks, and news concerning all things meatshieldish.
This week's Tank Talk is a little bit of a public service. Recently huddled around the ticker-tapes of WoW Insider, we came to realize that your intrepid Insider lacked a particular resource: a basic guide to aggro.
Certainly, this most important of subjects is old hat to us meatshields ... but maybe not quite so much to everyone around us. And gosh, who better to talk about this subject than your devoted Tank Talk tanks!
And, really. If your team doesn't know aggro, then you're going to have a hell of a time as a tank. So, let's Tank Talk about aggro. What it is, where it comes from, why you want it, and why they don't want it.
If you consider the general flow of World of Warcraft, it tends to boil down to "kill that mob." (Yes, I'm focused on PvE here.) And I am talking about, here, the very fundamental core of what we're doing when we play the game. You, the hero, the protagonist, the righteous defender!, are trying to kill that critter, villain, demon, or otherwise evil bastard.
Sure, there's a lot of bells and whistles. The Auction House is keen, and crafting sure takes up a bunch of time. Gold's worthwhile, and Elune knows I spend way too much time sweating my vanity mounts. But really, when it comes down to the brass tacks -- we're killin' that mob. But there's a key: we're trying to kill that mob, before it kills us.
The method we use, built into the very backbone of the game's design, involves the Holy Trinity of group composition: Tank, Healer, Damage. There's a second cousin to tanking called Crowd Control. Some tanks love their cousin, and prefer to have them involved in every outing. Other tanks aren't such a fan of their relative, and prefer to keep Crowd Control at the little kid's table.
The great Trinity of group composition works like this. Your Damage folks kill the mob, while the Tank holds it back from killing the Damage folks. The Healer keeps the Tank on his feet, and tops off the Damagers whenever they take some incidental damage. If the mob has friends that the Tank can't keep off the Damagers, cousin Crowd Control steps in and removes them from play until later.
But, why should the mob -- hereafter, the Bad Guy -- attack the Tank, instead of coming around to take huge, slavering bites out of the squishy Damagers? That, my friend is simple: aggro.
Aggro can be called a bunch of stuff: hate, threat, anger, for example. But it's all the same thing. Aggro is a "list" that compiles in the subconscious of the Bad Guy's thoughts, and (usually) he's going to attack whoever is at the top of that list.
The Tank's challenge, then, is to stay at the top of the aggro list. While the Damagers deal in damage-per-second, and may healers operate in heals-per-second, a Tank's output can be referred to as "threat-per-second." And, boy, do we love getting into discussions about what generate the most threat-per-second.
Just about everything generates some level of threat. Heals, damaging abilities, and taunts form the top of the list. I've seen even a mage's Evocate draw aggro -- and that doesn't hurt anyone! It doesn't take much of an accident to find yourself pulling aggro away from the tank, so it's pretty key that we're constantly monitoring it.
There are a handful of mods that you can use to keep an eye on your threat output. Omen and KTM are just two of the available Add Ons. In Wrath of the Lich King, there's going to be a built-in interface for threat control, but it still seems a long way from being completed.
So, if you're watching your threat meter, and you realize "Oh, noes! I have stolen aggro from the tank!," you have the option to hit your "aggro-dump." Most classes have one of those abilities. A few have no ability to lose aggro (Warrior, Shaman) except. . .die. And yeah -- when you die, you lose all of your aggro. Of course, keep in mind -- some classes dump aggro entirely (Hunter's Feign Death), while others kinda mask it for a bit (Priest's Fade). If all you're doing is masking your aggro, your full amount of threat will be right back when the ability wears off. Be sure you know which your aggro dump does before you get into the instances, if you can.
The fundamental principle of tanking is that we can take the hit, or at least take enough hits that the healer has time to keep us alive. Most Damagers don't, which is why you need us. So, mind your aggro, and all will be well.
This simple explanation is all for this week's Tank Talk. It's a pretty basic idea, so I tried to keep it short. We want to make sure it was quick to read. Get out there, and kill some stuff!
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Instances, Guides, Tank Talk
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ZachCarson Aug 21st 2008 9:43PM
Pretty weak article, honestly. Considering tanking is the main point of this column, i would think you would have put some more effort into talking about it. Maybe covering the fact that different actions cause different amounts of aggro? Healing aggro is 1 threat for ever 2 healing done, unless your a paladin, where its 1 threat for ever 4 healing done? Instead, you give a bare minimum outline about what aggro is... weak
Rhoan01 Aug 21st 2008 10:13PM
"Weak" only from someone experienced with the background mechanics of the game; I remember back to when I started playing WoW, my first MMO, and this would have saved me a lot of grief.
Yes, Mike talks about how other classes can dump aggro, but successful tanking is a two-way street; a tank generating enough threat to hold the mob, and his companions knowing how to help him do that.
And by the way, Cousin Crowd Control is just fine sitting at the kids' table, watching the tank get bum-rushed... they'll learn to love us sooner or later. :)
Station Aug 21st 2008 10:16PM
I agree. Maybe explain the little comment about pallies not liking CC (not exactly true, but I will accept you little nod at consecrate). Maybe explain base threat, threat generation, or maybe even go over the main 3 tank classes differences in threat generation, main moves, white damage versus yellow, Swipe, Cleave, initial aggro, threat per second, initial threat generation, SOMETHING. My wife, the warlock, knows more about threat than this.
FireStar Aug 22nd 2008 9:40AM
Both sides here have valid points. Perhaps you would both be satisfied to call the post "intro to aggro"?
yicheng04 Aug 22nd 2008 1:30PM
I think it's pretty weak too. While, it does give some good introductory info, the whole article pretty much boils down to "Don't aggro if you're not a tank". Some crucial information (like it takes 130% threat to pull aggro at range and 110% to pull threat at meelee) would be nice to have. An explanation of how healing aggro works (ie distributed across all mobs) would also be good, as I've ran into more than 1 player that didn't understand why the tank had to attack and hold aggro on more than 1 mob. Extra links to wowwiki would be good here.
jay Aug 21st 2008 9:57PM
Blizzard should add another form of taunt - Head Cold Spit -
Paul Aug 21st 2008 10:08PM
If you're going to write an article about tanking, is it too much to ask that you use the terms "threat" and "aggro" correctly?
niko Aug 21st 2008 10:45PM
^ THIS.
Many times the author calls threat "aggro". There's no such thing as an "aggro list".
Sorry, nice attempt, but ya gotta get the right terms together, otherwise the point of the article does nothing but make the reader a little dumber instead of smarter (the original intent).
epsilon343 Aug 21st 2008 10:16PM
Technically we Shamans *do* have a threat lowering ability, Nature's Guardian. Obviously, if it gets proc'd then someone, somewhere screwed up royally but there is a way for us to slip a little bit in the threat table.
Angus Aug 22nd 2008 7:55AM
Technically we do.
But a 50% chance to drop threat when the mob can 1 shot you is not really all that useful, wouldn't you say?
I've had it work once in a situation where I didn't get killed. Not very useful. It's a PVP talent that got a PVE benefit added.
obarthelemy Aug 21st 2008 10:30PM
And i thought Aggro meant being hit by a mob, and Threat, the "hate" we generated towards the mob (via DPS and various taunts), which then resulted in us getting the Aggro.
jbodar Aug 21st 2008 11:49PM
I'm surprised there was no mention of taunts, really. Keeping it simple is one thing, but there's a bit more to just the basics.
And yes, aggro and threat are used too interchangeably here.
threat = hate =/= aggro
Everyone's got threat on a mob, but only one has aggro at any given time.
Jackson Aug 22nd 2008 12:31AM
I would have enjoyed this more if it were a bit deeper than "LIST OF PLAYERS, THE TOP GETS DAMAGED."
I used to have a problem with a Druid tank being outagro'd by Priest healing early in a fight. Of course once he's established a good amount of threat on a target, there's no danger. I think that a good overview on what talents/abilities actually produce the quickest threat for each tanking class would have been helpful.
Where a tank's TPS is outclassed by DPS or (forbid it,) HPS, is it the tank's fault for holding back DPS? If a healer's afraid to pull agro, the tank is at fault because their TPS isn't matching the damage they're taking.
And missing that healing's output is half (or a quarter,) of what the heal lands for, and is split up equally to each mob in the battle is a big oversight.
I expected this column to be for endgame/raid tanking, where a defacto class capable of being uncritable and offset crushing blows is needed. Where defining the basics wasn't needed. And when you're raiding and doing level 70 endgame dungeons, the directed audience of this column (tanks) already should have an idea on what mechanics they work on. I feel it's directed at the same audience that WoW Rookie reaches to.
Turtlehead Aug 22nd 2008 2:04AM
The site could use a threat & aggro explanation (most important mechanic in the game!) but this ain't it for any player. It's useless.
BraveJoe Aug 22nd 2008 2:34AM
I agree to an extent that article is a little "weak" but not really if you think about it.
If you are 70 and doing pve content than you already know the tank/dps/healing system (I made an effort to level 3 pve 70s to fit each of these roles, I never respec them) . This does not make these comments useless just trivial. For a new player (not even tank) this knowledge is paramount to playing the game.
This article is "weak" to people who know their roles. If you want to know how to max tps read elitist jerks forums, same goes with uncrushability.
The thing I most have a problem with is saying a tank should count on the aggro dump aspect of dps, or even healing. These abilities are, at best, an "oh shoot" (substitute another word for shoot for profanity) and the same, but opposite, goes for the taunts. Also something should be mentioned about the 110% rule for threat to = aggro and that healing threat is dispersed based on how many mobs are in the pull.
Next, despite what the comments say tankadins do not like CC, this article is completely right, and it has little to do with, as the comments say, about consecrate breaking CC.
Paladins get threat from getting hit. For a pally, especially in 5 mans, most avoidance stats (dodge, miss, parry) has a reverse correlation with threat. Consecration is 2ndary to holy shield but VERY helpful. Consecration, will for the most part, get rid of healing aggro. We get hurt; we get heals; we get mana; we more get threat; hit again, is the circle of life for a tankadin (and actually the fact that we get mana gives threat, as implied ^^ with mage evocation pulling aggro, it is hard to figures but 50 mana = 1 threat).
I do not believe this article is as "weak" as some say, the advice is true and I believe helpful to some. I just believe that many 70s that read this will find it a refresher.
Balius Aug 22nd 2008 3:07AM
While I understand the basic goal of this particular article is to inform people with exactly no idea about how to tank, it doesn't really seem to cover the necessary information very well. Jumping from "Everything creates aggro" (and the aggro-threat differences have been covered by other commenters, so I won't get into that error myself) to advising the absolutely clueless to download a mod displaying approximations of a threat meter? That's not teaching anyone anything.
At the most basic level, threat on an individual mob is generated by dealing damage at a rate of one threat point for every one damage point. At this most basic level, a person who has dealt 201 damage will be higher on the threat list than a player who has only done 200. If that player is highest on the list, he can be said to "have aggro" (i.e. be the current target of the enemy).
The game, however, is more complicated than that; for example, a rogue creates less than one threat for every point of damage. If the tank (i.e. the person you want to have the attention of the enemy) has created 701 points of threat on an enemy, a rogue is able to do 1000 points of damage and will only have 700 threat. This is one example of threat management, the tools that allow the damage dealers (usually called "the DPS") to do more damage than the tank does without drawing aggro themselves.
The rogue class has that to avoid generating too much threat, and shares it with the cat form of druids. Warriors in the berserker stance, similarly, receive only 80 threat for every 100 damage they do. In general, however, threat is reduced through the use of skills each class has at their disposal. Rogues get the skills Feint (which removes a set amount of their threat from the mob they use it on)or Vanish (which completely removes the rogue from combat and gets rid of all their threat on all mobs). Druids in cat-form get the skill Cower, which is identical in mechanic to feint. Mages get the skill Invisibility (which removes threat on all mobs between the time it's cast and the time it actually makes the mage invisible, at which point it removes them from combat and gets rid of all their threat from all mobs). Warlocks get the skill Soulshatter (which removes half their threat from all mobs within 50 yards). Hunters get the skill Feign Death (which completely removes them from combat and removes all threat that they've generated.
There are also threat reducing abilities, like fanaticism in the retribution tree for paladins, that dps and healing characters can choose to put ability points into.
On the other side of the spectrum, the typical "tank" classes (druids in bear form, warriors in defensive stance, and paladins) have ways to generate MORE than one threat point for every point of damage they do. Bears and Warriors (in defensive stance) both get the passive ability to generate 30% extra threat for every point of damage. Paladins use the skill Righteous Fury to put a buff on themselves that causes their holy spells to cause 60% more threat. In addition, many of the skills that a "tank" has available to them cause additional threat.
Healing also causes threat, even when it doesn't damage an enemy. In general, healing creates half as much threat as it heals, spread out over all the enemies that are attacking. If one enemy is in the fight, and a healer heals for 1000, the healer will have 500 points of threat on that one enemy. If five enemies are attacking, and the healer heals for 1000, the healer will have 100 points of threat on each of those enemies. Because healers create threat on all the enemies, crowd controlled enemies often prefer the healer as their first target if they break free, and it's also possible that the healer may pull aggro on an enemy that the rest of the party isn't focussed on.
In order to "pull aggro" a player in melee range must have 10% more threat than the person who already has aggro. For someone further away to pull aggro, they need to generate 30% more threat than the person that has the mob's attention. That means that the person who has aggro is likely to keep it for a while, which is a good thing when the tank has aggro and a bad thing when someone else does. It's therefor very important that threat be managed throughout a fight, rather than waiting until aggro has been pulled. It's also important that people who deal damage or can heal from range stay at range, and don't join the melee kerfluffle.
In general, the way threat and aggro are set up is designed to keep aggro on the tank and off the DPS. As long as everyone understands how they create threat and how to lessen or raise it, fights will go much more smoothly.
Aerei Aug 22nd 2008 3:23AM
As a paladin who sometimes tanks, I have to say that I looooove my crowd control cousins when there's caster mobs about.
BraveJoe Aug 22nd 2008 3:33AM
"As a paladin who sometimes tanks, I have to say that I looooove my crowd control cousins when there's caster mobs about." This is true, tankadins are weak against caster mobs for damage and threat. But that is why (Jebus praise it) line of sight is so cool.
Legather Aug 22nd 2008 5:51AM
As someone who will be coming fresh into tanking when the Death Knight lands, I must say for a tanking article concerning aggro/threat I had hoped for a little in the way of advice on strategies, plans and rotations to generate and keep aggro.
Mark Aug 22nd 2008 11:30AM
Good start! I would like to see some more basic articles like this on tanking or perhaps refreshed links to ones you have written. It seems like tanking is a lost art for most these days, like when the tank runs off and pulls a mob just when a pat comes by and everyone else is still sitting and drinking or chooses to use damage-increasing abilities rather than aggro-increasing abilities resulting in "mage tanking for the win!"