Taunt and Growl to be increased to 20 yards
by Adam Holisky 
Oct 3rd 2008 at 8:00PM
Warriors, Druids, and Death Knights are going to be creating their own version of a very happy dance soon. The range on Taunt, Growl, and Dark Command will be increased to 20 yards.This is a big change. Now the other tanking classes will have equal ability to ranged taunt mobs off other players, pulling the mob to them. Often times warriors and druids have to either Intervene or Charge around in order to taunt a mob, and that can lead to a whole kaboodle of mobs following the tank. It often is not the ideal situation, especially if the mobs cleave or otherwise do AoE damage.
Now the whole process is simplified immensely and made much more efficient. Quite an awesome change, and one that has put a smile on my face today.
Filed under: Druid, Warrior, News items, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Razhlok Oct 3rd 2008 8:07PM
The Death Knight taunt (Dark Command) was also given a 20yard range.
Enaress Oct 3rd 2008 8:09PM
How about hunter pet's Growl? 20 yards plz?
shinken Oct 4th 2008 1:51AM
No.
SpaceDog Oct 4th 2008 3:50AM
Pet growl isn't a taunt, it's just a high-threat ability.
Ash Oct 3rd 2008 8:13PM
yet another way to take away from the uniqueness of playing one of the 4 tanks, everyone is the same now, its great that we are on a more stable playing level but wtf is blizzard thinking, they might as well jsut make a single class called "tank"
Kastirin Oct 3rd 2008 10:00PM
I still think each tank has uniqueness. In terms of mitigation, paladins and warriors are fairly similar (block mechanics) but one is limited by mana while the other is rage-based. Druids too are rage-based but rely more on dodge + armour, whilst death-knights mitigate via parries (and other absorption abilities) .
The differences between tanks are far more evident than say, between warlocks, mages, shadowpriests, boomkins and elemental shamans. They all use mana to cast spells at their target from a distance using a mix of the same five schools. Spells are either direct damage, channeled or DoTs.
andyjay220 Oct 4th 2008 8:31AM
They better give pallies a distance closer now. This is BS we are getting short-sticked by giving all our unique things to other classes and getting none of their stuff.
Kaylek Oct 6th 2008 8:34AM
@andyjay220
Yup. I smell another couple years of being pigeon-holed into healing.
Andrige Oct 3rd 2008 8:15PM
Uhm... am I the only one who think this change is a bit on the boring side...?
So in my case I'm just supposed to stand and spam Swipe in an AoE pack and then whenever a add gets loose I can just target it and Growl, and get it back?
Some mobility to our tanking is a welcomed thing, honestly.
Tenbushi Oct 4th 2008 9:10AM
No one said that you HAVE to use this ability at max range... it just adds a little more flexibility. I'd also like to point out that they didn't remove feral charge by changing this, so by all means... go run amok.
Andrige Oct 4th 2008 9:21AM
Well of course Feral Charge is still there, but there's no real need to use it if you have Growl up.
It's a nice change but not really something I'd want for my Druid who has to press only Swipe, Mangle, Faerie Fire and Maul constantly anyway to get through all content as a tank. It's just looking so... uninteresting, gameplay-wise, to do this for a Feral tank especially since we haven't recieved anything new into our rotations besides Berserk and Survival Instincts which both are on not-to-use-so-frequently cooldowns.
It's fairly stupid too, your argument that "I still have Feral Charge"; it IS better to use Growl. Simple as that.
The mob runs towards you, you don't have to run with all the mobs you have around you and risk getting hit from behind where you can't dodge.
It's oversimplifying the game for tanks, and I just don't think I like it all that much. It may of course be different for Warriors, but they have a much more fun experience tanking anyway with reactive defensive abilities and the new WotLK stuff they've gotten.
Manatank Oct 3rd 2008 8:22PM
Please let this mean they will let us protection paladins have a single target taunt, and a charge or death grip like ability to close the distance with our targets.
Brownjohn Oct 3rd 2008 8:27PM
I think that would be fair, and we should get something that can reflect spell damage, and an ability that gives us a temporary boost in health, and all the other things that other tanks have that we don't. Since every class is getting every other class' abilities, I think that's fair.
Matthew Rossi Oct 3rd 2008 9:49PM
At this point a single target taunt for prot pallies on the same timer as the warrior/druid ranged group taunt would be fair. Avenging Shield should be your charge/Death Grip, changed to remove the daze, less of a cooldown, possibly less damage to make up for being able to use it more often.
Heck, put it on a 30 second cooldown, lower the damage enough and give it a mocking blow/taunt capacity, maybe.
f Oct 3rd 2008 11:10PM
lawladins
homogenization sucks.
i already miss burning crusade.
Manatank Oct 3rd 2008 11:14PM
Avengers Shield certainly has its uses, but some times you really just need to be somewhere else not just throw some threat somewhere.
Kay Oct 3rd 2008 8:25PM
Hard to complain about making tanking easier...(PuGs anyone?)
Finality Oct 3rd 2008 8:26PM
Part of the fun of bear tanking is rocketing after a stray mob with a Feral Charge and taunting it back to me all in one motion. This is, imho, a net loss of fun. Sure, I'll get used to ranged taunt (if it stays in), but it's just not as satisfying. Like going to an automatic transmission after a lifetime with manual.
Manatank Oct 3rd 2008 8:44PM
As a prot paladin who has had a ranged taunt all along, let me tell you that there will certainly be times when a ranged taunt is not enough. If you ever end up tanking a PuG, and some DPSer manages to pull agro off you, don't assume that a ranged taunt will bring it back to you. Far too often you will find that after the taunt the mob starts running back to you, and the DPSer just keeps hitting it. If you don't have any way of building more threat after the taunt, then it will never make it back to you and you'll end up having to do your charge anyway.
That said, of course when you are playing with people who have a clue this wont be an issue.
Heilig Oct 3rd 2008 8:29PM
And here i am still waiting for pallies to have a real taunt instead of this crapfest we call Righteous Defense. The only thing it had going for it was its range. This change has removed any situational advantage it might have had.
Still waiting for that final prot review, Blizz.