Call for submissions: Top tips for tanks
by Lisa Poisso 
May 23rd 2010 at 2:00PM
This week, we're looking for your top 10 tips for tanks. What's your spin on this topic -- can you tell us the most important things to that tanks should know, or perhaps the handiest little-known tricks used by experienced tanks? Maybe you have tricks and tips to calm the nervous first-time tank, or perhaps you've collected some obscure strategies applicable only to the hardest of the hardcore. Whatever your angle is, it should provide a top 10 list worthy of bookmarking; we'll only be accepting the very best article.
Submissions should be between 500 and 1,000 words. Art work is not mandatory, but should you choose to include a screenshot, please make sure that it is your own work or from creative commons; images should be 580 pixels wide and between 175 and 350 pixels high.
Ready to submit? Read up about the Seed program, sign up and then submit your article here (you can't see the article page unless you have a Seed account). Unfortunately, we are currently only able to take submissions from individuals living in the United States; we hope to be able to accept international submissions in the future. We'll accept submissions for this assignment until 11:59 p.m. EST on Thursday, May 27.
Filed under: WoW Insider Business, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
jsz May 23rd 2010 2:15PM
Turn on Rightous Fury.
Jamie May 23rd 2010 3:43PM
Non-Tank Paladins: Turn off Righteous Fury.
Valt May 23rd 2010 4:59PM
Jamie stole words from my mouth. I hear so many times from healer or dps that
"Im talented http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20470 so I take less damage"
You are taking 99% less damage when you dont pull aggro how about that =(
icis May 24th 2010 12:15AM
As a Holy Pally I spec into RF and if I pull a boss from healing aggro then the tank is seriously under geared. "You are taking 99% less damage when you dont pull aggro how about that =("...yea cause the direct damage from the boss that tanks take is the only damage being done. And before you say anything about heroics no i dont use RF then.
Potvorka May 24th 2010 4:59AM
"As a Holy Pally I spec into RF and if I pull a boss from healing aggro then the tank is seriously under geared." - you take 6% less dmg (you should take no dmg except aoe) but you do like 80% more thread from spells...
Komiroya May 23rd 2010 2:54PM
from one tank to another... move mobs out of fire or purple death voids
Squatstopee May 23rd 2010 2:19PM
Frost Presence.
ash May 23rd 2010 2:22PM
Line of sight
protect your healer
Bill May 23rd 2010 2:30PM
I'm a great tank, I do ICC25 as OT for my guild. I would give you tips in the comments section, but I'm a Canadian citizen, sorry.
Drilski May 23rd 2010 2:45PM
Agreed, I'd love to do this but hey, since I'm British and therefore European as well I'm an inferior internet persona, so I can't contribute. Hopefully the "future" will be soonish. Ah well.
Same old, same old.
Unknown May 23rd 2010 3:12PM
One of the best tanks i know is Mexican like me, he is truly great... but he cant help, he lives in Mexico...
Shade May 23rd 2010 4:27PM
You realize they can't modify the SEED program, right? And AOL is probably forcing them to use SEED, exclusively, to perform some function or another on the site. Get them a new sponsor and they might be able to solve your problem.
Nirva May 23rd 2010 6:23PM
Sure does suck not be blessed enough to be born in the US of A. However just some ideas....
1. Use grid or another decent mod to see which members have aggro and if they're in range or not. Using a mouse over macro can be very useful as well ' /cast [target=mouseover, harm] [] *insert spell name here e.g. growl* ' this will use your taunt spell on the mob you have you mouse hovered over, if your mouse isn't hovered over a mob it will just use taunt on your current target.
2. Have health bars of you, target, and target of target near the middle of your screen. Using pitbull or x-pearl helps with this or a nice addon called 'move anything' will just let you move around your normal health bars.
3. Make sure you have your fellow tank's health bar visable (focus frames?) and debufffs preferably.
4. Keep your camera zoomed out ' /script SetCVar("cameraDistanceMax", 50) ' pretty sure this is the right command to enter to chat to allow you to zoom out much more.
5. Check your healers' mana before pulling, and don't pull a boss (in a raid) without a readycheck.
6. DON'T STACK STAMINA, if you have 40k+ unbuffed that'll see you fine though ICC normal modes, stamina won't do much for you, armour at the moment is a really good stat if you want to stay alive. If you're doing ICC heroic modes, you will need lots of stamina though, however you should really know how to tank by now if you're on that content. Stop reading this...
7. If you have a high aggro dps like a lock or a hunter or w/e, check omen regularly. They should themselves learn to not over aggro but they're often very silly people, if need be use abilities on them which will reduce their aggro (vigilance / hand of salvation / shouting at them).
8. Often you will find your job being very easy, at these moments be vocal, key an eye on DBM, call out when stuff is happening. Even if you aren't the raid leader (as long as you aren't calling out the wrong stuff) it can't be a bad thing
9. Check your buffs. This should go without saying, but the first commenter here made a very valid point. A paladin tank without RF, a DK in blood presence, a druid forgetting thorns, and a warrior who pressed battle shout instead of commanding shout without realising are all bad situations to be in. Ofc flasks / elixirs / food as well.
10. Keep your action bars clean or key bind your spells. There's no point having a spell if when the time comes, you forgot where you put it. Key binds will be hard to get used to / remember at first but doing heroics to used to using them is a good way to not cause your guild to kick you while you learn your way around the key board.
briand1408 May 24th 2010 2:44AM
#1 Rule....Hit EVERYTHING...if its not near you LOS or silence...
Dril May 24th 2010 2:31PM
@Shade: Yeah, it's great to say that, but why did AOL bother to release the program in the first place if it only takes U.S. residents? Whilst there are tons of great writers from the U.S, one would think that a concept that relied on user generated content would, you know, WANT user generated content rather than making it restricted.
suh8lim3 May 23rd 2010 2:37PM
The main tips I can give are to pay attention and not go afk every 5 min. I think 2/3 of instances Ive been in the tank went afk right off the bat (from anywhere from 10-20 min) or went afk periodically throughout the instance. I get it that they understand we need the tank to move on but it seems a lot of tanks take that as an advantage to run the instance how they want or take as long as they want. I don't think im asking much for you to be ready to do an instance and not appear in one and say something like "hey guys. gonna go make a sandwich and maybe learn to play piano, we gotta wait for the priest to fill up on mana anyways". Inexcusable.
BritishBulldog May 23rd 2010 2:43PM
I hear you bro! Damn priests, always taking so long to fill up their damn mana...
unforgiven710 May 23rd 2010 3:52PM
Vote kick FTW
Rmschoir May 23rd 2010 2:43PM
1. Get hit.
2. Don't die.
Rmschoir May 23rd 2010 2:44PM
Everything else?
Details.