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by Matt Maynard 
May 29th 2010 at 6:00PM
Whether you are a first-time tank or a grizzled hardcore raid veteran, a death knight, druid, paladin or warrior, you will find some useful nuggets in these top 10 tank tips.
10. Pay attention to what abilities trigger the global cooldown (and pay more attention to those that do not). For example, warriors can generate threat on a large group by charging a mob in the back and using Thunder Clap on the mobs in the front as you pass through them. This is possible because Charge does not trigger the global cooldown. Likewise, abilities like Concussion Blow and Rune Strike can be macroed into other abilities.
9. Use a unit frames addon. An addon like Grid, which is generally regarded as specific to healing can be invaluable to a tank because of the sheer amount of information that can be concisely displayed. Grab a few additional Grid modules like GridStatusThreat and GridStatusRaidDebuffs and, at a glance, you can see your threat situation, major debuffs, etc. as well as having a handy mouseover frame for the next tip.
8. Become familiar with mouseover macros. Using them with Grid can be an extremely powerful combination. I use Clique to bind /cast [target=mouseover] Righteous Defense to my right click for my paladin. Whenever I see someone get aggro on Grid, I just right click their unit frame to taunt the mobs. No target switching, no break in my rotation. This is very helpful on Faction Champs. A warrior could use this for Intervene, either to protect a squishy or get himself out of trouble. Mouseover macros can be used on objects in the game world too, not just unit frames. A mouseover taunt can be used on a specific mob (or its nameplate) as you see it slipping away without ever switching targets.
7. Use abilities to increase your health pool, right before using abilities that heal you for a percentage of your health pool. This is somewhat obvious, but I've been amazed at the number of tanks who don't do it. Every tank but paladins has a combination of abilities to use in this situation: DKs use Vampiric Blood before Rune Tap or Death Pact; druids use Survival Instincts before Frenzied Regeneration; and warriors use Last Stand before Enraged Regeneration.
6. Learn how to deal with casters. I like to smash them in the face, but what if they have a friend or two? Death knights have Death Grip, Strangulate and Mind Freeze. Warriors have Heroic Throw, Shield Bash and Spell Reflection. Paladins have Avenger's Shield. Druids have ... well ... druids have jack. The basic idea is to silence one caster (racial abilities like Arcane Torrent work here, too) while attacking the other, to make him run to you and hit you with his stick. If there are too many to deal with, ask your party for help. If you are a druid, stick your nose in one mob and your butt in another and swipe. (It's a caster -- who cares if it has your back?) Even if you can't group them up, you can use damage-mitigating abilities; any of your stuns work (pallies, don't forget Holy Wrath).
5. Use nameplates. An addon like Tidy Plates will allow you to display custom information in the nameplates, keep nameplates from stacking, automatically turn them on or off when entering or leaving combat, and allow nameplates to "glow" if you aren't securely tanking them. In addition, when nameplates are on in combat, you are much more aware of when adds spawn or aggro. You may not see the mob, but you will see the nameplate.
4. Learn and use the double pot trick. If a healer is a tank's great love, then we are cheating on them with Indestructible Potions. Swill one of these seconds before entering combat and you can hit the bottle again two minutes later, giving you an additional 3,500 armor for four minutes of any fight.
3. Combine ranged-only and melee-only abilities in a single macro. A great example of this is the macro I use on my warrior:
Only the usable ability is fired, so when I'm within melee range of a mob, I use Devastate; if I'm 8 yards or more away, I use Charge./cast Charge
/cast Devastate
2. Use your camera abilities. Tired of looking at bear behind? Add SET cameraMaxDistanceFactor 4 to your \WTF\config.wtf in your WoW installation directory. Zoom out and pan your camera. Watch the Awareness and Camera Control video on TankSpot. Learn to tank while looking at your character from the front.
1. Roll alts ... lots of them. Your tanking will greatly improve as you become more familiar with the abilities of other classes and how they are used. Ask classes that can interrupt to help you draw casters into melee range. Ask a rogue to dismantle a rifleman in HHoR to bring him into tanking range. Understand when a hunter pulls aggro that he did it on purpose and has a plan to deal with the mob, so let it go. (If he didn't have a plan, he sucks and deserves to die -- but watch your healer!) Understand why melee players hate it when you move a mob, so move it only when you have to. Did you know hunter shots can be blocked? When possible, turn your mob's back to the rest of your party. Melee and hunters will love you for it. Especially learn the healing classes. When tanks and healers coordinate the use of cooldowns, it is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Have you ever wanted to write for WoW.com? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions for articles via Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The next byline you see here may be yours!Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Death Knight, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
cidninja May 29th 2010 11:00PM
yes they can.
zweitblom May 30th 2010 1:47AM
http://www.mmo-champion.com/class-hunter/blocked-shots/?action=printpage
Live and learn. First hit on Google ;)
McRaider May 30th 2010 5:15PM
I play a prot paladin and I've got a hunter friend who always tries to beat me in duels... and he can confirm (too well) that hunter shots can be blocked.
One weird thing though is that if an explosive shot hits the tank, he can still block individual ticks from it. Dunno how it is possible; maybe he just puts his shield next to the arrow and it somehow repels the damage o_O
zdave May 29th 2010 11:00PM
i
zdave May 29th 2010 11:02PM
hmm, what i meant to say was:
i heart my warrior tank. and spell reflect. use spell reflect on any boss that casts anything, you'll be surprised how often it works (i'm looking at you devourer of souls).
Edge May 30th 2010 12:29AM
I've heard so much about pug groups being crazy elitist and impatient on newbie tanks. So far on my Warrior, the pugs have been excellent. Kudos to the Whirlwind Battlegroup for being awesome. Running some of the high level regulars like ToC, or HoR really help to get you geared fast. That tip about charging past and thunder clapping halfway was a good one I never thought of. I usually just have every starter rage generating non gcd spell bound to charge so you start with good rage, and have it available to you faster (throw a shield block in their for good measure). I am very excited to start doing some raids with friends when they come back for Cata.
Rodderz May 30th 2010 1:57AM
Good article. Some fairly obvious tips, think camera play and situational awareness should have been number one though, and some really good add-on tips.
Brasson May 30th 2010 2:05AM
Re: "Druids have... well... druids have jack."
It's so true! *sob* *chug* *hic*
The worst part is that people expect druids to have something, so when one line-of-sight pulls a group, they open up before the group hits the corner and immediately get curbstomped.
"y u lose agro?"
nekorion May 30th 2010 3:37AM
I endorse tidy plates and grid.
There's really nothing more annoying to me than having ANYONE ask "is X raid member dead?" Tanks should know whats going on in their group, more than anyone really. Did your co-tank drop? You should be the first one to know. I personally kept the topleft red "I have aggro" option in grid. That's the first thing to let me know if one of my co-tanks lost one of his group, and its mercilessly beating on my healer.
Otherwise tidy plates grey theme, was great for me. Easy visual indication of which one of the 30 whelps thats around is killing the mage.
Yeah visual information! love that.
Trotline May 30th 2010 4:09AM
The double-pot trick is a great one, and I never fail to use it, as a Fury dps, except when the tank PULLS WITHOUT WARNING!!!!!
I'm not talking about 5-mans, here, and I'm not talking about trash, I'm talking about ICC. Tanks, for the love of all that is good and right, please take the time to say "Pulling" in Vent, you pull.
Think of it as one more burden on your souls, if necessary. I know it kills you, just a little, but do it anyway, for the team. The extra half-second is survivable. That's why you have a dedicated healer. :)
Downfall Jul 1st 2010 2:06PM
Ahh...the days of facepulling festergut and surprisingly not wiping! Hah i have learned to either do a 3,2,1 countdown in vent or raidwarnings. Great way to save the day as a tank
Trotline May 30th 2010 4:16AM
The left / right arrow keys should be avoided, as a means to accentuate a word, here. I'll use quotes to correct the typo above.
Please take the time to say "Pulling" in Vent, "before" you pull.
Thanks :)
Aesof May 30th 2010 2:15PM
"3. Combine ranged-only and melee-only abilities in a single macro. A great example of this is the macro I use on my warrior:
/cast Charge
/cast Devastate
Only the usable ability is fired, so when I'm within melee range of a mob, I use Devastate; if I'm 8 yards or more away, I use Charge."
This only works for that macro because Charge is off the global cooldown. So the tip in general is false, because you can't just combine any long ranged and melee ranged ability to this effect.
For example, if I on my paladin did a macro like this:
/cast Avenger's Shield
/cast Hammer of the Righteous
To follow your tip and copy your template, it would not work, no matter what range only Avenger's Shield would fire, and if it is on cooldown the whole macro would fail.
So yes, that macro works for warriors, but it's not a good tip in general. Because most long range and melee ranged abilites can not be combined in a macro to this effect, since most abilities are tied to the gloobal cooldown.
Schwef May 30th 2010 6:51AM
Wow, great coincidence. I quit WoW just over a year ago, leveled my DK to 80 from launch date and geared him up for and tanked all of Naxx before quitting. Having just come back, I was looking for some tank advice columns and this hits the nail on the head. Would be nice to see the class specific columns maybe going in to detail over some of these points. For example the ranged only and melee only abilities macro's. Have even considered submitting my toon to your 'help my gear' section as I am at a loss gearing up with gear that was absolutely fine and the norm for heroics back in the day, but now is a case of LOLOLOL 28k health wut? /leave group. It's not that I'm a bad tank, ok maybe my first few pulls were iffy but I did notice no-one attacking the skull I marked and therefore pulling aggro which never helps.
dalroi May 30th 2010 7:40AM
"6. Learn how to deal with casters. I like to smash them in the face, but what if they have a friend or two?"
If there are multiple casters you should do a corner pull; Find a nice corner to hide (the whole party) behind, aggro them and get back behind the corner. The casters can't get line-of-sight (LOS) on you so they'll come running to you. The surprise is on them for finding themselves suddenly in melee range while rounding the corner that you're hiding behind. That's the best possible scenario to fight a caster in, they're awful at melee fights.
Sometimes corners to hide behind can be a bit away from the group you're pulling, don't let that stop you from doing a corner pull anyway.
The alternative, especially if you're a druid like me, will be a messy fight with good chances one of the DPS buys it for attacking a target that you can't build threat on.
One other thing I missed in this article:
Mark at least the priority targets and focus on those. As a tank you're often made group leader, but these days everyone can mark in heroics - it's useful! If both you and the DPS are attacking the same target it's near impossible that they steal aggro.
It also allows to mark some mobs for CC so that DPS know to not touch these and so that you can see which mobs to steer clear of with any AOE abilities. Admittedly you probably won't need CC in most heroics these days, but it is at least still useful if certain stuff hits the fan.
Unain May 30th 2010 9:11AM
This is my charge/intervene/taunt macro for 1 button:
/castsequence [nomod] reset=15 Charge, Intercept, Charge
/cast [nomod] Taunt
/cast [mod:alt] Taunt
/cast [mod:ctrl] Charge
/cast [mod:shift] Intervene
What if a mob gets loose? Np, just press the button without modifiers and charge/taunt at the same time :). If he's too close for charge it will automatically only taunt.
Charge on CD? Np, Intercept! I put Charge in there twice because it sometimes doesn't switch back to Charge.
Only need to taunt an add from range while staying still (LK ghouls for instance). Press alt+button.
Only need to charge without taunt (other tank tanking atm). Press ctrl+button.
Want to get around the battlefield quickly? Press shift+button.
It can probably be shortened, but this is to make it more readable :).
Heimdallw32 May 30th 2010 1:14PM
Me: "Going to LoS this pull, please stand here, everyone. -marks with smoke flare-"
Mage: "y u not pull"
Me: "Please move around the corner so I can cluster these mobs into a clump for AoEing"
Rogue: "its fine just go lol"
Healer: "C'mon guys, please move here so he can los"
Hunter: -casts misdirect, pulls-
Me: -grinds teeth, fantasizes about feeding the dps through a sawmill-
Conclusion: I'm only trying to make the run go more smoothly, you guys! Honest, I'm not trying to waste your valuable dps time, I usually chug through dungeons at a steady pace (unless the healer needs mana), I don't pause every other pull for five minute breaks...so please cut me some slack when I try to have a little fun my way, by doing my darndest to clump up mobs into a neat pack for AoEing...it's for you guys, afterall!
Is the seconds it takes to move around a corner and wait for mobs to run around it, really that agonizing? ._.
booker.wall May 31st 2010 7:30PM
Why does every tank not understand Threat . If you Faerie Fire/Avenger Shield/DC or ranged shot a mob and then hide behind a corner they will run right by me ( doing nothing) and you will still have your LOS Pull. Don't assume because your DPS didn't move they don't understand what you are attempting. I always wonder why they want everyone to move to that corner it makes no sense and if someone doesn't move it usually starts a fight. When a tank advised me to move I understand at that point I may have a tank I don't want to run with. At that point my healer goes away.
sidhebane Jun 1st 2010 9:56AM
The simplest answer the that is "Do you really expect DPS who answer in that fashion to NOT open up as soon as the mob twitches"? Asking the DPS to move gives them a clear signal of what you intend to do, and gives YOU (the tank) a clear indication of whether or not you will be successful in the manoeuvre you are about to attempt.
Besides, if they run right past you and around the corner, how are you going to DPS them? You may have LoS issues of your own, or range issues if you're melee. IF the tank is asking politely for what he considers valid reasons, does the few extra seconds cost you so much?
Drache Jun 1st 2010 3:44PM
I understand threat. Let's see - even on my pally, I pull with Avenger shield, generating threat on max. 3 mobs, I can control the first mob, the additional 2 are random.
On the 4th+ mob do, I do not have any threat - it's like a body pull, where I'm on the aggro table due to my presence, not any of my damage or threat generating abilities.
Those mobs do walk past you as well, and in doing so, you generate the same amount of threat on them as I had.
Did you pay attention to which mob I truly have threat built up on? Are you really hitting "skull" first (preferrably after I have more than Avenger Shield etc. on it)? Might some accidental auto attack by you hit the one mob I only have "proximity threat" on? Some AoE attack?
Yes, *that* is why tanks ask DPS to stand behind the corner. You may be the perfect DPS in my pug, but truth be told, I probably won't notice 'til half way through, because I'm dealing with the other 2 DPS who don't know what they're doing, and by experience, the odds of getting you in there are very slim.
On top of that, are you aware of the range and CD of all my abilities and capabilities, and are you sure that you're not LoS-ing me? There are mobs that have a tendency to come to me and then shadow-step (or similar) to random party members, potentially you.
If you tank for people who can't hit skull first or look at threat, and your "pocket healer" starts mumbling "by god, that rogue's gonna die, I *need* to miss the next heal", then you start doubting DPS. And, sorry to sound calleous, but a DPS dropping my group isn't much of a set-back. If it's not in HoR-H, we probably just 4-man it.