The Daily Quest: Me tanks
by Anne Stickney 
May 31st 2010 at 10:00PM
It's Monday, which means I'll be plunking around on a troll warrior this evening thanks to the Choose My Adventure program. Shamefully, while I've done plenty of questing, I haven't really done much in the way of instances or tanking. This is due to some deep-seated fear that I'm going to be the horrible tank that gets the healer killed by a runaway add, the obnoxious tank that lives by the philosophy "Continuously pull threat off of me and I will let your cloth-wearing hiney tank that mob" or just simple fear of complete and utter incompetence in general. Thankfully there's plenty out there in the WoW blogosphere regarding tanking:
- The Wayward Initiative likes to stand in front of things that mean them harm.
- Righteous Defense serves up three impenetrable facts about armor as well as introducing the cooldown you can chug.
- Tankingtips reflects on 6 or 7 tanking mistakes you'll consistently make, as well as discussing the Dungeon Tool and how it is ruining your chances of Raid Tanking.
- This is doing little to ease my fears. Let's go to The Stoppable Force for a reassuring and cheery musical number instead.
Filed under: The Daily Quest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Redielin May 31st 2010 10:13PM
Best tip for new tanks is to be aggressive. Pull what you can handle, but try to get the jump on your DPS. That extra threat can really help smooth out tricky pulls and give your healer room to spam heals on you.
Dreamstorm Jun 1st 2010 7:37AM
Hijacking the first post with the awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXnXC_75SHI
Modpapa May 31st 2010 10:37PM
yeah, if you pull off me you ARE tanking it. That's not obnoxious that's called letting you learn your place. Bad DPS that can't watch their aggro are the reason most tanks hate randoms. Bad author is bad.
Anne Stickney Jun 1st 2010 12:07AM
Oh I know - I'm just trying to find a way to politely inform them rather than you know, /giggling over their corpse after they get two-shotted. :D
james Jun 1st 2010 4:43AM
For dps, it's a nice reminder to us that we shouldn't be doing something when we get the 'release spirit' screen.
You should also /pat us and tickle our bellies when we dont pull aggro, we're a bit like a pack of dogs.
Woof
Tomatketchup Jun 1st 2010 11:04AM
[DPS Food]:
Reduces the threat of your party members by 100% for 5 minutes, and gives them a 10% moral increase. Useable on yourself, but it would be kinda nasty if you did.
Seth May 31st 2010 11:08PM
I actually have this exact same fear myself! I started my very first Horde toon as an Orc Warrior, and loved him! I enjoyed leveling him and level almost straight to level 12 with just one break for dinner. However, I had to leave him for the night, and as I was going off to sleep I started to think, and then fear the beginning of my tanking career. This fear gnawed away at me for the next day, and the day after (mean while I didn't play my new warrior), and eventually I just deleted him because of this fear. Looking back, this has become one of my most regretted actions.
I've recently started thinking about this again, and how much I would enjoy starting another Orc Warrior, but then the fear of tanking comes to mind and holds me back. I was actually seriously thinking of writing the Insider Show put on by WoW.com to ask Mr. Rossi for any tips and suggestions for getting over this tanking fear of mine. However, your article does just that! So I thank you so very much for posting these links to some good sites to help people like me who are afraid of their first tanking encounter! I haven't gotten the chance to read through the links your provided, but I'm sure they'll go a long way to alleviate my apprehensions.
Thank you!
blissfire Jun 1st 2010 4:23AM
Oh, do I know how you feel. I've had a full-prot specced and geared baby pally in her forties for months. Finally, what I decided to do was this: Carry all your tanking gear with you, but queue as dps. In a very few number of runs, you'll get a tank who bails. While the party is waiting for another tank, volunteer to *try* tanking the next few trash pulls, just until a tank comes in. Equip your tanking set, switch specs if you're over 40, and do your best. If you do it well, you'll have that experience to encourage you to do it again, and if you muck up horribly, just shake it off and maybe make a joke at your own expense to keep spirits up. ;)
I did this not long ago, and it went very well. We even went on to queue up for another couple randoms together with me tanking. I'm still nervous and will have to talk myself into queueing as a tank on purpose, but that method got me over the Very First Time fear hurdle at least.
Killik Jun 1st 2010 4:28AM
My main advice is: grab a shield and do some tanking while you're levelling.
At level 12, for example
* pretty much everyone will be playing terribly
* the mobs won't hit hard so you don't have to worry too much about losing aggro
* everybody's repair bill will be about 5 copper.
It's much easier, and less nerve-wracking than your first instance being, I dunno, pugging heroic Halls of Stone as soon as you hit 80. Well, that's the advice I wish somebody had given me anyway :)
PistolPeet Jun 1st 2010 7:17AM
I had the exact problem with my pala-tank and the way I got around it was to make friends with a levelling healer while questing and jump in a queue with them as a heal/tank pair.
A few things to bear in mind though:
1. Low level runs almost always degenerate in to chaos, do not let this influence your view on tanking. It's actually MUCH easier to tank 5-man HCs with experienced players than it is to tank a Deadmines run with DPSers who pull, healers who don't heal, etc.
2. Let the drama dissolve itself and the whiners leave, keep hold of the decent players and re-queue.
3. Think about joining a guild and get some higher level players with alts to help you learn how to tank. It's much easier and people can give you tips as you go along.
4. Read the wow.com guides on tanking for your class. Not all of the abilities will be available but make sure you know which ones you've got to build/transfer threat and have them all available on your bars beforehand. Also, read this: http://www.wow.com/2010/05/29/take-your-tanking-to-the-next-level/
If you have an 80 already that can off-spec tanking then build up a set of tank gear with emblems & OS rolls and try your hand at 80 once you're def-capped.
Kole May 31st 2010 11:08PM
"Continuously pull threat off of me and I will let your cloth-wearing hiney tank that mob"
That's exactly what every tank should do...and I primarily play DPS. There are plenty of addons to track threat so DPS has NO EXCUSE for it to happen all the time. If you are overgeared compared to the tank...take your pants off, lol...oh and Fade, MD, TotT, etc etc etc.
michael.dunkerton May 31st 2010 11:40PM
My main is a mage, but I've got a warrior tank almost to 80. I certainly appreciate what tanks go through to keep aggro, but there is a line to draw with these kinds of attitudes. Most of the tanks I've met who say this kind of thing, are also the tanks who let an add beat on the healer for the entire fight.
The fact is, a group is a team. Everyone has to do their part. We say, "The DPS' job isn't to dps, it's to stay alive," but that's not true. A Dead dps is no dps, yes, but a living dps that can't dps b/c of a bad tank is just as useless. I've heard countless tanks say, "It's not my job to taunt." Taunt is a key tanking spell which for warriors and pallys at least, is on an 8-SECOND COOLDOWN! How is that not your job?
So whose responsibility is it that the tank keep aggro? The tank and the dps together. If either doesn't do their job right, things go wrong.
And hey, if it's not your job to taunt, then I guess I don't have to counterspell that guy. Healer...you can't look over at a second health bar to toss me a topoff after that big aoe? I guess I can't be bothered to watch health bars and toss up a decurse. Exceptional players are the ones who go above and beyond what "their job" is to do. So if I, as dps, run into a bad tank, I'll just adjust my playstyle accordingly. As a tank, I'll do the same thing.
Kole Jun 1st 2010 12:13AM
As a tank, I expect to pull. As a tank I expect, and do my best to, keep the mob on me at all times. As a tank I use all my CD's when appropriate to pull threat back to me if it is taken. If the healer pulls threat, I will pull it back. But if threat is continually taken from me by a DPS (regardless of armor) then something needs to change.
But maybe I am just doing it wrong...and I am OK with that.
Ger Jun 1st 2010 2:12AM
@michael.dunkerton -I don't necessarily agree. If a tank is so bad that they refuse to taunt then that's just a bad tank, but you being the DPS still have to deal with that tank -or simply not group with him. There's a reason that DPS are always looking for healers and tanks.
So if you get one of those bad tanks, leave the group and wait in queue for a good tank... but a good number of the players who take on the responsibility of tanking are going to do the work to keep the aggro and those of us that are good are pretty fed up with DPSers who are more interested in their recount than waiting for a tank to generate aggro. At least let me get off a thunderclap for pete's sake!
It's this reason I don't tank pugs -I'll LOL at guildmates who need to be taught a lesson. I just get frustrated with that situation in a PUG.
michael.dunkerton Jun 1st 2010 2:23AM
I'm mainly just trying to present that every member has a responsibility. And certainly there are more bad dps-ers than bad tanks, because there's more of them in general, and I'll definitely admit that dpsing is easier. But I think the number of bad dps players is causing people to think that only dps are bad. If something goes wrong in a dungeon, maybe, just maybe, it wasn't the dps' fault. That's just up to individual situations to figure out.
Killik Jun 1st 2010 4:21AM
If you're pulling aggro of the mob the whole group is focusing on - that's a joint tank/dps responsibility.
If you've decided to unleash hell on a completely random mob in the mass the tank is trying to hold, then complain about getting aggro? That's being a bad dps player.
I'd still taunt though - even bad hunters* can remember to feign death and then their mistake will often go for the poor healer.
* just for example
AltairAntares May 31st 2010 11:27PM
I had exactly that thought when I wanted to start tanking on my pally, but ultimately I went ahead and did it. Sure you might (actually certainly) will mess up, but (a), that doesn't mean you'll wipe, especially with BOAs and good competent healers/dps (b) it doesn't matter. Learning to tank/heal/dps is what the lower level instances are for, and they're a great place for that since there's so little differentiation between classes- it's the same gear for a pally tank as it is for a pally dps, and spec means nothing since you've put only a couple points into your spec.
Now is when Blizz wants you to learn to tank, not in 40 or 50 levels when you're bored with your spec and want to do something different. Simply looking at the aggravation that DKs cause when they suddenly appear in the newbish-ness when we learned what we were doing long ago.
Tanking is fun too at early levels. With a good healer you can do some amazing pulls in SM and other places.
Teron May 31st 2010 11:54PM
The "DPS can tank their pull" idea's not a bad one at all, as long as that's not the first or second time they've pulled. If it is, try and pull it away from them if they can, and attempt to explain what they should have done after the fight, as long as it's something you know yourself, and it's not your own fault they got aggro.(if they pull off of you with battle shout, it's your own fault)
Also look at your abilities, and know what they do. Sunder/devastate's a good threat generator on a single target, demoralizing shout'll drop the incoming damage by an amount that's higher than some realize, and thunderclap should be used whenever the debuff's not on the enemy, or is about to run off, as well as whenever you have extra rage and aren't expecting adds in.
There's a lot about tanking that reminds me of pvp. You'll be stunned. You'll be silenced. You'll get blasted off bridges if you don't pay attention. (and watch that mage blast wave shit off of a cliff and pull the instance on you) You'll need to learn to expect where threats might come from and manage, both from enemies, and from allies. You'll need to work even more within the group makeup than you do as dps, even in pugs. And you'll need to develop a situational awareness that's uncommon to normal dps.
Sorry if this post scares you, it's not meant to. What I'm attempting to say is that tanking is a job that's more tense than dps, and possibly heals(depends on the fight), but it's also really fun, and I refuse to dps in instances any more simply because I get bored. You may want to scream at the dps, you may want to shoot your own healer, and you'll probably not want to do many runs in one sitting. But you'll have a ton of fun doing it. Just make sure to tell them that you're new to tanking, have a bottle of headache meds nearby, and keep an eye on any mages or warlocks in your groups.
Teron Jun 1st 2010 12:04AM
Also, the warrior is the most stressful type of warrior to play as, but it's what I find the most fun due to having a massive toolbox. Don't expect your first run to be flawless, or your second, or any for a long time in fact. But once you get used to it and know your abilities you'll find that you can master any situation you'll ever be in.
mord Jun 1st 2010 1:07AM
I was healing a dungeon the other day and the boomkin pulled multiple mobs off the tank on the first pull. Also, it was a fairly large pull (first room in H UK) which caused me to stress out a bit since the tank and owl are both taking lots of damage. Now, I can understand that this might happen on the first pull when you don't know just how much threat this random tank can put out. However, after we killed them all the boomkin linked recount so we could all see his 9k dps. Now THAT is completely obnoxious.
Basically, I don't think tanks should worry too much about this stuff. For healers it can be stressful when squishies take a lot of damage. Fortunately for us we can choose to teach them a lesson by not healing ;)