Random heroics, bad tanks and you.

Every now and then, people stumble upon a bad pug (some of us more then others!). Just yesterday, i died 3 times doing Random heroic, Old Kingdom btw – every time! I don’t know what’s random about that, it’s pretty much guaranteed every time i que up. Now, i’m not accustomed to dying in heroics, being an awesome healer and all (/flex), but being hit by multiple mobs (casters + melee) tend to chop me down.

Now, don’t get me wrong, i can live with the corpse run, and i am a very forgiving person when dealing with new players, especially the tanks (after all, everyone of us started as a lvl 1 noob at some point). I find that flaming the new guy is not helping anyone. Not me, not the group, and especially not the guy that was brave (or ignorent) enough to que for random heroics as a tank.

The nature of death plays the part in my reaction, and my killers attitude.  All three times i died cause of the healing aggro. Rejuv and LB ticks on the tank.  The tank did a death grip on a mob. He kept hitting that mob. Casters started nuking me. He was still hitting that mob he pulled. Then another group (patrol) aggroed, and came for me. He was still hitting that mob he pulled.  I was waiting for a death and decay or blood boil, anything, … but nothing happened, and I died ofc. When that happens, i have three choices:

1. Leave the group.

2. Vote kick.

3. Stick around and educate

::::: i created a poll on the forum with the same questions, cause im curious what do other people do when they get in the bad pug. So, if you have time, do vote or write your reasoning if neither of the choices suits you. ::::

After the first wipe, i was leaning towards choice number one.  But against my better judgement i choose to stick around and educate. After the second wipe, i was really about to choose option 2, then he spoke for the first time, and said he was sorry, and it was his fault (oO). After the third wipe, i was about to nerd rage a bit, but i calmed down since we were really close to the last boss, and i wanted to see how many people will die during the insanity.

In any case, i will gladly help the tanks that just started tanking, if they are willing to listen.  (well, any new player, class doesn’t matter, but the tanks are high on my priority list, especially if I’m the one healing that run).

That being said, this post is dedicated to the newbie tanks, and people that get stuck in the same group with one (and prefer to give a useful advice to the tank, rather then flame him). Point them to this, or any other decent tanking guide, and pray for the best.

There are many good tanking guides on the net, and the one i choose for this post is written on the wow-europe forums by Drarak of Bloodhoof, EU.

I also remember another awesome guide for the new tanks, but can’t find it on the forums, if i do, i will post it.

Tanking for Dummies

So you have just respecced and you want to tank? And you don’t have any idea how to do that?
No problem, read this easy guide and you’ll learn the basis to be ready to tank most of the game content. You will find no numbers here, only a little list of things to do to become a good thank. But remember, most of the work will be leaved to you; I will only put you on the right direction.

How to read this guide?

For each section of this guide there will be three under sections: Lore, Comments and In-depth.

Lore is what you have to know. If you want a fast knowledge or if the wall of text worries you then just read this and skip the rest.

Comments are thoughts and considerations useful to better understand or define what said in the Lore.

In-depth is what you should look for to become a better tank or to go more in the depth in what described in the Lore. I will provide not direct links, but all what is needed to know and researched can be easily found on the web or learned doing some easy experiments in game.

Disclaimer

The purpose of this guide is to teach to the “new” tanks how to move and how to reason.
This is absolutely NOT a guide for skilled tanks who want to improve themselves or who have forgotten what is the expertise cap against level 83 bosses.

The fact is that recently (since the introduction of dual spec) I have seen an increasing number of new tanks who, once in the instances, show themselves as really unaware of everything about tanking.
I hope to be helpful to them.

Last, my native language is Italian, so please if you see grammar errors or a misuse of words please let me know.

Index

1. Basic concepts
2. Classes
3. Gear
4. Abilities
5. Anti panic abiltities
6. Taunt
7. Pull back
8. LoS
9. Turn them
10. Watch your surrounding
11. Movement
12. Trash monsters
13. Marking
14. Friends
15. Professions
16. Knowledge
17. Addons

1. Basic concepts

Lore: The tank is the one who keep the monsters focused on himself. His role is to take most (possibly all) of the incoming damage on himself, allowing the rest of the party to survive. He will resist thanks to his high armour value and his defensive stats and abilities. To get the focus of the monsters (generally known as “aggro”) the tank has to generate an adequate amount of threat in them. He does so using special abilities. Tank and healer are strictly bound to each other: the healer has to keep the tank alive, the tank has to keep mobs away from the healer. Meanwhile the damaging class (also known as “dps”) kill the monsters without overaggroing.

Comments: cooperation is essential to clear any instance. Disrupting the above concepts will guide to certain wipes. You have then to understand what your healer can do and what he can not do. This is important when you have to decide how many monster you can pull and if and when he will need a break.

Comments: While usually is true that more damage you do more threat you generate in a monster, note please that threat and damage are only partially related: in fact some abilities generate low damage but very high threat.

Comments: The threat of the tank has to be superior of the threat of the players in melee radius. Players at range instead can reach an amount of 130% of the threat of the tank before getting the aggro of the monster.

In-depth: Look for every of the underlined terms above

2. Classes

Lore: The only classes able to tank in WoW are: Death Knights, Druids, Paladins and Warriors.
Each of them has his own and unique abilities to tank and each of them has to select a specific talent tree to be able to tank and to maximize his tanking ability; but each of them has his own weakness as well. Easy said, there is no “best tanking” class.

Comments: Little exception to this are the Death Knight, they have in fact more freedom on choosing the tanking talents; for the other three classes the choose is “obligatory”: feral tree for druids, protection tree for paladins and warriors. Choosing a three anyway doesn’t mean to put all your talent points there, just the most of them, usually 51, just the necessary to reach the end tree ability. Note that other trees have often nice “tanking” talents as well.

In-depth: Visit the specific forum of each class and see if there is any class that fits more your play style. Look for “tanking talent trees” for ideas and suggestions.

3. Gear

Lore: The first thing needed to tank is an appropriate gear.
This means that you have to reach some minimum values in few stats to be able to resist the series of attacks you are going to receive.
The stats of interest for a tank are: defence, health points and armour followed by dodge, parry, block, hit and expertise
Be sure to reach the minimum requirements for your class. Don’t start to tank if you haven’t reached them yet, in fact your tanking will be terrible and you will be “blacklisted” by all the healers! And you don’t want to get a bad name, do you?

Comments: A good healer can compensate your lack of gear of course, but the speed of the run will be slowed because of the more frequent mana breaks needed by him (and keep in mind that healers are not happy to do extra work because the tank is not yet geared enough).

Comments: Uncrittability is “necessary”! In fact even the best healer can’t keep you alive if you are critted too often.

Comments: stacking of the defensive abilities vary for each class; for example death knight and druids can’t wear shield, so any block rating or block value are simply useless for them.

Comments: to be able to tank heroics at level 80 the minimum values are: 535 defence, around 20.000 – 22.000 hp and around 20.000 – 23.000 armour. Sadly pugs nowadays pretend a lot more health points to accept you as tank, around 29.000 hp at least.

Comments: to be able to tank in Naxxramas (the “starting” raid at level 80) the minimum stats required are: 540 defence, around 25.000 – 27.000 health point and, around 22.000 – 24.000 armour.

Comments: A good tank has to stack more defensive stats as possible to increase his avoidance (the ability to not being hit) and his mitigation (the ability to reduce the incoming damage). Just beware that some stats have a “cap” (it means a value after which any other point added in that stat is wasted because you already have maximized the benefits from that stat) and beware that some stats suffers from the “diminishing returns” (it means that higher the value of the stat you already have, less will be the benefit you’ll get adding new points in that stat)

In-depth: look for “tanking gear” , “defence rating”, “miss”, “dodge”, “parry”, “block rating”, “block value”, ”avoidance”, “avoidance cap”, “mitigation”, “diminishing returns”, “hit cap”, “expertise cap” and “Effective HP”

4. Abilities

Lore: each class has his own abilities. A good tank knows exactly what each of his abilities does.

1. Take your time and read them. Try to understand how they work. Experiment them on normal monsters.
2. Find the single target abilities and find the multiple target abilities.
3. Remember that what you need is to generate high threat, not high damage.
4. Use only instant abilities while tanking, in fact in the time used to cast a spell, you can’t parry, dodge or block!
5. Keep special abilities or abilities with long cooldowns for when you really need them.

Comments: It is important to learn what abilities to use and when. A lot you can understand alone by doing experiment on normal monsters around the wow-world. Remember then that tanking a single boss is different than tanking a pack of monsters; each situation needs the use of different abilities and the right timing

In-depth: Find an experienced tank and ask him about his “opener” (the abilities used to open a fight) and about his “rotation” (the skills used once the fight is started). Look for class specific tanking forums.

5. Anti Panic abilities

Lore: Some abilities (usually they have a long cooldown) have so big effects that are called anti panic abilities or life saver abilities. Each class has his own. Find them, learn them and experiment how and when to use them. Those abilities aren’t usually used during a smooth run, but if something goes wrong it is good to know how to use them.

Comments: Most of these abilities have strange mechanics and if you drop them at the wrong time you will surely waste them. A good tank with a good group will not use any of his special abilities during the run. But a good tank has to be prepared for the worse.

In-depth: Again find an experienced tank and ask him about the “anti panic abilities” and let him tell you some tricks about how and when use them.

6. Taunt

Lore: maybe the most important ability of a tank. The name “Taunt” comes from the ability of the warrior (who once was the most effective if not the only tank available) but the real ability’s name vary from class to class while the effect is the same for every class: forces a monster focused on another player to aggro you. This allow fast recovery when necessary; for example if you are overaggroed by the healer or by the dps or if a new monster join the battle.

Comments: Be sure to be able to use it even with closed eyes! If a taunt is needed then it is always needed fast!

Comments: some monsters and bosses are immune to any taunt mechanic; be sure to know them and be sure to build enough threat on them.

In-depth: Learn how to use it; ask a friend to aggro a normal monster and then taunt it from him; study the reactions times and the effects of the taunt on the mob (Is it permanent or provisory? What is the range of the taunt? What happens if I cast it on a monster that is already attacking me?).

7. Pull back

Lore: A sadly frequent way to pull monsters is the so called “body pull”; it happens when you pull monsters not using any ability, but simply by entering their aggro radius (the zone around them where they can spot enemies). You can do an unwanted body pull by many reasons: for example when a patrol of monster reaches you, or under the effect of a fear spell you and your party to run in new monsters, or when a push back spell casted on you sends you directly in the middle of another group of monsters.
To avoid all these bad situations, if you are not 100% sure about the surrounding, pull back the monsters you want to kill. There are many way to do so. What is important is the result: bring the monsters away from where they are and away from other monsters; possibly in a zone that you and your party have already cleared.

Comments: Every class has his own ways to pull back. Every player has his own way to do so. Not all the monsters can be pulled back in the same way. But every time you want to pull back be sure the party is informed about that. Otherwise things can go really bad.

Comments: once you have learned the disposition and the abilities of the monsters in a instance and once you have learned the paths of the roaming monsters, the “pull back” will be needed a lot less frequently. This will speed up the run.

In-depth: Experiment with normal monsters. Try with melee monsters and with ranged monsters because they react in different ways.

8. LoS

Lore: It is the acronym for Line of Sight. It means if your character (not you, player sit at PC, but your toon in game!) can see or not a target. If you go behind a pillar you’ll be out of LoS for the healer. If you run behind a corner you will be out of LoS for the monsters. In the first situation the healer can’t cast his beneficial spells on you. In the second situation the monsters can’t hit you so they will need to run at you to be able to hit you.
Never go out of LoS of healers.
Learn how to pull back monsters by going out of LoS of them.

Comments: beware that not all the environment interrupts the LoS mechanic. Walls usually do, but learn how to use the corners in instances: you need to move few step behind them and not just stopping behind the corner. The furniture of an instance instead rarely interrupts LoS (a wardrobe, a table, a brazier and so on).

Comments: some aoe spells are affected by LoS, some others not. Learning which one are and which one are not is very important.

In-depth: Again do experiments with monsters. Search for ranged monsters and try to experiment which obstacles force them to regain the LoS and which aren’t breaking it. Do the same with a friendly healer.

9. Turn them

Lore: some monsters have frontal attacks that can hit multiple targets. To avoid unnecessary damage on dps and healer, when you have pulled one or more monsters turn them so that they show their back to the healer and to the dps. As general rule turn any monster, not only those with multiple targets frontal attacks

Comments: By turning them back you will get another benefit: you will be able to see your team. If and when a monster is overaggroed it will be easier for you to target him and to taunt him back

In-depth: Learn always the special abilities of the monsters you are going to tank. A good tank knows all the tactics and the most important monsters abilities.

10. Watch your surrounding

Lore: A patrol can come unexpected, some monsters can summon adds, in some fights the area where you are fighting changes and you have to move according to it, a boss can cast aoe spells under your feet. Always watch what’s happening around you and be ready to react.

Comments: put all your tanking abilities in the same bar and in a position where you feel comfortable. If you want use keybindings, they can be very useful. This can be very helpful when fast reactions are needed.

Comments: Keeps your eyes open. Some video settings (especially those under the visual effects section) can be very helpful to spot dangerous aoe spells/zones.

In-depth: ask experienced players about “critical frequent situations” in the instance you are going to tank.

11. Movement

As general rule the boss has to be kept in the same spot as long as possible. But some bosses requires to be moved. Some only when they cast a special ability, like an aoe for example, some others have to be kited all the time.
When moving try to not show your back to the boss: in fact from behind you can not parry, dodge and block and the incoming damage will be too great for the healer to keep you alive.
If you have to move, then do it for the minimum distance required. Never run. Never move for huge distances.
This because healers and dps have abilities that can require even 2-3 seconds to be casted. To move too much will cause them troubles at keeping the healing and the dps up.
Remember, if you move, to not go out of healing range from healer.
Even at pull, don’t rush versus monsters if the healer isn’t aware of it, you again risk to go out of his healing range.
Remember that melee dps usually stand behind the boss, when you move keep them as well in mind.
In some situations (very rare to be honest) you are required to move away from the front of the boss or to turn him your shoulders: the fastest way to do so is to run through him!

Comments: The movement is directly related to the tactics and to the boss abilities. But as general rule always step out from fire, clouds, strange coloured zones, pillars of light and in general from everything that is not casted by your party. If you need to kite a boss or many monsters walk backwards.

In-depth: Look for “Boss tactics”

12. Trash monsters

Lore: The monsters you meet in instances and that you have to kill before be able to engage the bosses are called “trash”. They fall under these three categories: melee, ranged and healers.
Melee are the dumbest, they will follow you wherever you want, just be sure to keep aggro on them. All the defensive abilities you have are perfect for melee damage. So they are the last of your problems.
Ranged instead should worry you; they don’t move till you don’t break LoS and against casters your defensive abilities are reduced. The damage they can do to you is huge. Luckily most of them will not flee once you reach them, but will stay in melee range. Catch them as soon as possible; if forced to stay away from them use any mean you have to keep aggro on them, otherwise the healer will be killed soon.
Healers can be very annoying; in many fights you will have to ask to your dps to kill them as soon as possible.

Comments: again the LoS is a very useful tool in our hands. Breaking the LoS from ranged monsters will force them to run to you. Once they are close it will very easy for you to keep aggro on them.

Comments: in some situations you can ask to special classes to control and take out of the battle an annoying enemy. For examples mage can transform humanoids in sheeps, druids can put dragonkin asleep and so on.

In-depth: learn the differences between the “races” of the monsters (undead, beasts, giants, mechanical, ecc.). It is possible that some of them are immune to something or that an ability you can cast has special effects on them.

13. Marking

Lore: The tank usually has the duty to place marks on monsters. As general rule you will mark with a skull the first target that your party has to kill and with a cross the second one. But beware that this may vary from server to server and from group to group. Just be sure that all in your party have understood the mark order.

Comments: More experienced groups mark only the skull (the first target) or don’t mark at all. This will come with time and with experience. But usually all groups place well visible marks on monsters that have to be controlled (sheep, traps, banish, etc.)

In-depth: you are the one who decides the kill order and you have to base your decision following your skill and the skill of your party. Learn the base spells of all the in game classes. Learn who can control an undead and who can interrupt a spell, learn who can remove fear and who can abolish a poison debuff. Learn to “use” your party potential to have a smoother and faster run. To do this you have two ways: practice and talking with your party.

14. Friends

Lore: Sometime the “feeling” between players can be greater than any skill. If you find such players be sure to add them on your friend list. Not only healers; if you find good dps players add them as well. Play “well” and they will add you to their list for sure.

Comments: Avoid childish behaviour. Don’t leave a party only because of few wipes. Be mature and polite. Those things help a lot if you want to become a “wanted” tank. Try to understand if a wipe was your fault. Accept mature criticism and always try to improve yourself. Be ready to experiment different tactics.

In-depth: go and read some book about social interaction

15. Professions

Lore: There is NO “necessary” profession for tanking. Many grant nice bonuses, but none is dramatically useful. So pick whatever profession you like most. Really.

Comments: Just to name few that can give some bonuses: blacksmithing (2 more slots for gems), mining (stamina increased), jewelcrafting (special gems and jewellery), enchanting (special enchants on rings), alchemy (increased effects from potions), etc.

In-depth: Usually the specific tanking guides of each class have a list of bonuses you can get from different professions, read those guides and you will have a perfect snapshot of the professions bonuses.

16. Knowledge

Lore: Knowledge is the key. For everything.
Be prepared. Surf on the web. Read forums. Talk with other tanks. Study tactics. Watch monster and bosses reactions. Evaluate your healer.
Tanking is first of all a strategic duty.

Comments: You will never end to learn as tank. Me for example, I consider myself an experienced tank, but when I go in instances as healer or dps, every time I learn new tanking “tricks” or “tactics” simply by watching at the current tank. Keep in mind that the goal is to grant to your party the most secure and fast run possible.

In-depth: finally some links!
Official Blizzard forums at http://forums.wow-europe.com/?sid=1
Read player comments about everything at http://www.wowhead.com/
Deep knowledge at http://elitistjerks.com/forums.php
Tanks forum at http://www.tankspot.com/forums/
Read boss tactics at http://www.wowwiki.com/Portal:Main
More raid tactics at http://www.bosskillers.com/

17. Addons

Lore: Addons are NOT needed. Addons are strongly recommended. Addons are very very useful.

Comments: As said before tanking is first of all a strategic duty. And a good strategist need fast and reliable informations. Addons cover the lack of the WoW interface. There are many useful addons, maybe too many and maybe the choice is too subjective; but if have to name two then I would say Omen ( it is a very good threat meter) and Deadly Boss Mod (keep track of the abilities and timers of the bosses and warns you for incoming dangers)

In-depth: search for “wow addon”