doh

*before it reaches the tank

No, you had it right the first time. TANKING LIKE A BOSS!

Just going to say, it's not dumb to taunt a new add ... as was mentioned in the column, healers can pull adds, as well as dps with incidental damage even when not actually targeting, so I find that when I'm tanking and need to pick up an add it normally starts heading right toward someone else before I have a chance to a single thing. Sure, I could just throw whatever ranged attacks I have at it and hope I out-threat whoever has aggro before it hits them, but why not just hit one button, have it focus on you for a couple seconds and give you that extra bit of time to then firmly establish threat? If you don't taunt then you're starting from behind; taunting puts you in the lead with threat and you can build off it.

He's not saying it's always the tanks fault, he's saying that it isn't always the DPS' fault.

If I'm in BWD throwing nasty at Arcanotron while standing on top of a goo puddle (the good kind that boosts your damage, I forgot what they're called) in the middle of a Bloodlust when Magmatron is activated, then I need to keep in mind that I'm turning a LOT of damage at the moment and need to give the tank a sec to hit it once or twice. If I dont do that and I rip the boss across the room before the tank can get it's attention, then it's my fault. However, if the tank who is supposed to be picking him up isnt paying attention and is on the wrong side of the room rather than standing next to it with his finger hovering over Shield Slam, then it's his fault.

However, if you're 2 minutes into Baleroc and you're creeping up on the threat table and in danger of pulling, then there's something seriously wrong and it IS the tank's fault. Threat has been neutered to the point that if a DPS just plain outthreats a tank, then the tank is either 1) Vastly outgeared (333's and leveling greens against FL gear) or 2) doing something horribly wrong.

It's a failing of the teamwork of both the tank and the DPS. It is collectively both of their fault when aggro is not established and maintained where it's supposed to be.

Cooperative acceptance of failure is something we're generally really bad at.

We lost the game because the offense scored fewer points than the defense allowed.
We lost the game because the defense allowed more points than the offense scored.

Both. The same thing. We lost.

How do we win? Well there isn't just one simple answer. The tank should always be striving to block one more shot, and the DPS should always be striving to get one more yard.

- "Just going to say, it's not dumb to taunt a new add ... as was mentioned in the column"

The column didn't say that. It said that a Taunt will put you on top of the threat list, but it won't make an add run across the room through AoE's and healer aggro to get to you unless you're generating more threat on top of it.

Taunting an add is good, expecting it to be enough is not.

If a tank can't hold threat after the recent changes. He is absolutely doing something wrong. There is almost no excuse for not being able to hold threat, after say the first 5 seconds of picking up a mob (or mobs). I actually struggle to not hold threat and during tank swap bosses (Rag most often) I have to stop hitting him till my OT gets enough vengeance to compete with me (threat-wise).

I also disagree strongly with taunting being your first action to pick up an add. All tanks have at least some form of ranged attack that is better to gain threat with (that should always outthreat "incidental" damage/heals from other people). If your mage decides to blow his **** on the mob and pull threat, this is when you hit your taunt, suddenly all the wonderful threat your mage just pumped into the add is now yours, and if you're lucky, all his cooldowns have been used.