What every tank, dps or healer should know in theory

Hiya,
This article is not necessarily intended as criticism, but since many negative articles have already appeared on the forum …

Tanking is not difficult, but can quickly become a nightmare for both the tank and the healer due to bad behavior or ignorance. Warrior tanks in particular have been under fire since the launch of wow classic. Many players don’t seem to know the difference between threat and damage. A warrior tank has to do almost all its capabilities with rage, and at the start of a pull or run that counter is on zero. By doing damage and getting damage, a warrior builds his rage and can start using his abilities. If a fight stops, the rage will gradually disappear.
With the pull of a mob or mob pack it usually goes wrong because dps’n get involved in the fight much too quickly. In a defensive stance, a warrior has almost no options to taunt mobs on a distsance. I use my bow to get the mob to me. Now that the mob (s) are in front of me, I still have no real control over it, my rage is still zero. By systematically making hits and getting hits, my rage will rise and I can start using sunder armor. Sunder armor does no damage, but reduces the armor content of the mob by 90 and it can stack up 5x. It does give the tank a lot of treat on the mob. From now on, it is actually safe to start with dp’s with damage. Ofcourse you have more spells and techniques to build damage vs aggro, learn to use them well. If a warrior changes his stances, he has lost his rage, keep that in mind as a tank.

Threat works based on a formula, You hit a mob with 100 damage and you generate 100 threat. Some spells or options have a multiplyer and regenerate more threat than damage. If I do 50 damage with my bow and a mage does a 150 bolt frostbolt, I run behind 100 threat and the mage will pick up the mob. Healers, too, can pull aggro through healingspells because these too are converted into threats to the mob. This theory is really just the basis, there are loads of articles and videos that go much deeper into these things. Try to remember and avoid not going over the tank in terms of aggro and that limit is different for every tank.

So if next time a Warrior tank is asked to give him the opportunity to build up aggro, respect this. Let the tank pull and stay behind untill the agro is on the tank. As a tank I know what is expected of me, if you can keep control as a tank it is also more pleasant for the healer and for the mood in a group. Suppose it goes wrong once in a while and you get mobs on your neck as a healer or dps, then don’t run around like a possessed person or go fear the mobs, which can attract even more mobs. Stop your damage and bring the mob to the tank. As a tank I will always try to protect my healer from damage and keep an eye on his mana. If you die as a dps, don’t start nagging at the tank or even worse the healer, only if you as a dps pay as many repairs as I do, you can come forward and complain :slight_smile:

As a tank, try to inform your fellow players with the order of attacks: Skull = first, cross = second, moon = polymorph, circle = sap, square = hunter trap, diamond = fear … Dare to give orders to your fellow players and make sure that your battleshout stays up. Are you an experienced melee dps, help your colleague tank by pulling in mobs into his group … IF and I repeat IF he has the pack under control, I myself greatly appreciate this. Hunters and Warlocks, do not use pets that tank or keep them under control. In the dealing of loot, I leave the cloths and leathers for what they are, unless I could sell an item on the AH, the same with weapons, staves are caster weapons unless you can choose it from a quest. It saves you a lot of drama and last but not least, I would like to say that a healer or a tank also needs to complete collection quests and perhaps also do herbalism or mining. This entire article is just a basis for becoming a better tank or for getting a bit of the tanking phenomenon. Try to live with criticism or learn your lessons from it :wink:
Success and have fun

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So, basically in short, DPS pls let tank get abit of aggro before the pew pew!

6 Likes

Basically yes…but the trutht is that in almost non of my tanking groups ,specialy the dps know what “a bit of aggro” is… as soon my arrow leaves the bow all hell break loose…

Healer - drink between pulls so theres little downtime / Tank - save rage between pulls you dont need to use all rage on every grp / DPS - let the mobs in melee range of tanks before you start to dps / General - melee threat value needs to be 110% of the tanks to overaggro, ranged is 130% - also overaggroing once mobs get to 30% ish will happen so just deal with it.

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I just say “I’m a firm believer in pulling things back” and… pull things back. It works wonders.
Otoh, as a druid getting aggro is a lot easier, I think.

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Yes it is! because we can throw rank 1 regrowths on others & max rank on ourselves before we pull so any damage taken by allies will heal & generate threat

Eh, it’s not that much threat. Most of my threat on the main target comes from autohits / maul, most of the threat on the other targets from swipe (or if it’s a lot of targets then thorns / naglering)…

The people that need to understand this are the people who are not listening. They aren’t going to come here and read this any more than they are going to listen to a tank in a 5-man try to patiently explain the need for them to wait a few seconds on each pull.

It’s pretty much why it’s so hard to find a tank now. The few good ones are doing so only for their guilds and will flat-out avoid PuGs. I’ve given up levelling my Warrior as of this weekend because I’m just so tired of PuG idiocy.

I usually wait for 3 sunders.

Dont feel about it man. I am mainly dps but have tanked many times.

When as a dps I charge in instantly and throw 1k whirlwinds instantly of course I ll pull aggro. The tank shouldnt feel bad about it as we clear the dung really fast :).

On the other hand when I tank and dps go like crazy I dont care if I lose aggro. Just try to taunt whatever is best at that moment and the fight will go smooth.

Well this sounds like you and the group doing the equivalent of everything mentioned here, but now it’s the healer having to clean it up.

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