Svenn's Survival Guide to Alt Tanking

Svenn has been doing a fair bit of tanking on Gundther as of late. As a new "under-geared" tank, he has experienced tanking challenges Svenn never faced tanking back when Heroics were "hard". Here are a few of the observations garnered from his recent trials:

1. You are NOT on your main! Slow down, chain pulling is fine if your healer can keep up, but no amount of healing awesomeness will be able to save you if you have the entire instance beating on you at once (especially when the 6k gear-score mage has more health than you).

2. Don’t sweat the aggro. The same 6k gear-score mage that has more health than you, will also be able to pull threat off you at will. Well, maybe not at will, but certainly if he/she is doing massive AoE damage or hitting mobs at the same time you just hit charge. Now, if toons the same gear level as you are ripping threat or your healer is a favorite target for mobs, you may need to reevaluate your tanking.

3. Ninja happens. DPS (I’m looking at you DKs!) will roll on “your” tanking drops. Work it out if you can, vote kick if you feel that strongly about it, but don’t sweat it or let it discourage you too much. At the end of the day, you will get 2-3 times the runs per hour than some ninja DPS guy. More runs = more badges =better gear anyways.

4. When in doubt whip it out, kill order that is. If you are having troubles with AoE, marking a kill order can go a long way to keeping mobs attached to you. If the DPS is insistent on hitting everything around at least you will have the peace of mind that you tried and they just can’t follow instructions well. Which leads me to my next point…

5. Grab it back! If you lose a mob, taunt it back. Trying to teach DPS a lesson about ignoring kill orders is futile. Chances are they can kill the mob before it kills them, the healer won’t let them die anyways, and it will just starve you of rage/procs/mana/etc.- thus reinforcing their poor performance. Make an assist macro to quickly switch targets (invaluable with melee DPS who will start getting smacked as soon as they pull aggro and are often difficult to distinguish in a crowd). This may seem counter-intuitive, but it will save you headaches in the long run while making your run smoother.

6. You lead the charge so lead! To make it clear, Svenn is not advocating for the “gogogo” crowd- they can all go die in a fire. Rather, while there may be others in your group that feel they know better, the burden will most likely fall on your shoulders so you may as well take charge. Good tanking takes confidence; you pick the pulls, you decide the kill orders, you set the pace. If you cede that control early, you wind up just being the designated meat shield along for the ride and won't be able to establish a good flow, protect your healer’s time to drink between pulls, plan for achievements should you choose to go that route, etc.

In the end, as with all PuGs, patience is the order of the day. Take solace in the fact that you are taking the hard road, tanking for tanking gear as opposed to DPSing until your tank set is stacked. Take each PuG as a learning experience, enjoy the good groups, learn from the bad, and strive to emulate the great. Every DPS in the queue appreciates your decision to tank, whether they act like it or not!

Side by Side

So Gundther is finally nearing the end; lvl 80 is a mere 12 bubbles of Xp away. While real life as well as raid commitments have kept play time on the warrior to a minimum, Svenn has been able to squeeze in a regular random just about every day (insta-tank queues FTW!) While this hasn’t been great from a leveling standpoint it sure has been a great train-up for warrior tanking, as well as accumulating a fair number of badges (38 to date). Along the way, Svenn has come to see warriors in a slightly different light….I may have to change the tag line under the banner heading now :(

Anyways, the similarities between Warrior and Pally tanking are a lot more numerous than Svenn would have expected when compared side-by-side.

AoE hate:
While the AoE aggro generating tools may not be quite as good or “instant” as the Pally’s they are there (given you have the rage to use them).
Thunderclap is basically a non-persistent Consecration
Cleave a slightly less hard-hitting Hammer of the Righteous
Damage Shield roughly equates to Retribution Aura
Defensive Stance is similar to Righteous Fury though it is not quite as good
There are no directly related talents to Avenger Shield or Seal of Command but Shockwave adds to the Warrior AoE toolkit, as well as Improved Revenge which operates very similar to a Druid’s Maul (glyphed).

Defense:
Shield Mastery is equal to Redoubt; when augmented with Shield Specialization actually results in higher block percentages.
Shield Block gives more extra block than Holy Shield but is offset with a longer cooldown and no damage component.
Improved Defensive Stance is similar in function to components of Devotion Aura and Blessing of Sanctuary, focusing more on spell damage mitigation as well as damage (TpS) increase.
Defensive cooldowns see a bigger divergence between the Warrior and Pally. While Shieldwall is similar in form to Divine Protection, Last Stand is more in line with a Druid’s Survival Instincts than anything in the Pally arsenal (Ardent Defender being their other main CD, though it is proced not activated).

Taunts:
Taunt is Hand of Reckoning minus the damage component, while Mocking Blow has the damage component but lacks the range
Challenging Shout is Righteous Defense minus the target limitations but at the cost of a hefty cooldown

Buffs:
There is no way a Warrior can match a Pally for group buffs, however Commanding Shout is a nice HP increase comparable to BoS/Kings from a Pally in the +Stam arena, and they have a few more debuffs than a Pally.

With all these similarities, and substituting a rage bar for a mana bar, the actual tanking mechanics become much more familiar. The differences are much more striking in nature. Warriors can apply the scalpel where Paladins must necessarily use a hammer. That is to say, Warriors have a much more varied toolkit at their disposal. Spell Reflect and Demoralizing Shout add survivability to magic and physical damage respectively, Shield Bash/ Shield Slam add interrupts and silences, while Devastate does good damage /great threat and debuffs the target (disarm is also a nice debuff when available). The ability to use Charge and Intercept in combat (Warbringer talent) combined with Intervene are great for zipping around, while Shoot and Heroic Throw add to your ranged options. Stance swapping opens even more possibilities; offensively with Whirlwind and Execute, and defensively with Overpower and Retaliation.

Overall I am finding the Warrior an engaging tank to play. While I still prefer the Pally for Off Tank duties/ 5mans due to its increase “utility” and self heals, I can see Gundther becoming a favorite for Maintank roles. I’m sure I will have more observations once I get some more exposure to tanking at level 80 and do a raid or 2 with him.

Gundther Goes to Northrend

Waaay back in January Svenn posted a poll as to which class to level next; Warrior won and Gundther was promoted from banker to alt (“once a tank - always a tank” I suppose). As Inno alluded to in his guest post, Svenn has been quietly leveling Gundther between raids and real life commitments…not quite the fast grind to 80 he envisioned back in Jan.

Anyways, this being the 7th toon to make the march to 80, Svenn decided to level a bit differently. A lot of the inspiration for this came from Vidyala, frequent commenter and mastermind behind the Pugging Pally. While Gundther hasn’t limited himself solely to PuGing instances, he’s done far more than he would have otherwise.

At 40 he dual specced to Prot as promised, but quickly found that tanking Fury in defensive stance was more than enough for the pre-outlands instances. Having skipped all but Ramps and Blood Furnace as far as instances go in Outlands, Gundther was ready to jump back into the que upon hitting Northrend. Unfortunately, the full set of craftable cobalt tanking gear that Svenn made, required him to be level 70 to equip. 68-70 flew past and, armed with the quests for UK and Nexus, Gundther entered the que as a no kidding tank for the first time.

I would love to say that, that 1st run was flawless but, the truth of the matter is unfamiliarity with the warrior’s tanking tools made for a few silly mistakes. Even so, it wasn’t that bad (having tanked on the Pally, druid, dk, and even on the ‘lock makes for pretty good muscle memory as far as setting up pulls, etc.). It is a good thing I like UK, as the random dungeon finder proceeded to que me for it 5 more times in a row. In fact, all of lvl 70 was spent in UK; Gundther isn’t sure how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie-pop, but he is sure it takes running UK 6 times to ding 71.

With the new baby keeping me busy, I have had limited play time, so Gundther has been queing for a random each day (hence the UK 6times) which has pretty much been the extent of my online time. This has made for some slow leveling, but has the advantage of piling up badges at 2 a day. As well as netting some fancy blue gear.

So, Gundther is lvl 72 now, sitting on a heap of rested xp and it will probably stay that way for the foreseeable future, creeping along 1 random dungeon at a time (at least until Finn starts a decent sleep schedule). For far more entertaining stories involving leveling through LFG be sure to check out Vid over at the Pugging Pally and remember, “always look on the light side of LFG!”

Growing Up Fuzzy

I've seen them, I've cuddled them and now I've rolled one... Fuzzynip started life off as a secondary bank toon since Zombiecat was stingy with spending money on extra guild tabs to hold all my stuff (she refuses to buy a fourth tab). I finally became bored chasing raids as the times on the server that I play on do not coincide with the time that I am able to play. Six level 80s later and I'm bored. Alright Fuzzy I'll get you some BoA gear (armor, trinkets and weapon) and send you on your way. You know what? Pick up herbalism and alchemy too. I want you to be a flask master to compliment my transmutation specialist. Make me proud Fuzzy!

I won't spend all that long discussing the leveling process. We've all been there and done that. Constant dps + healing = Win! When it looks bad stack HoTs and roll in bear form. Running away? Not an option... but the tools are there. Looting while in flight form? Almost feels like cheating. When it's all said and done, leveling a druid today with BoA gear = way too easy. I swear I gained three to four levels every time I logged off.

My entire leveling experience consisted of kitty fun with the occasional bear form. I dabbled in instances in both kitty and bear form, but the tools at your disposal weren't really there. Instances did help with the transition from 40-50 as I find this the most boring leveling area. As fast as I thought I was leveling I was not prepared for Outlands. I'm pretty sure that I blinked once or twice and it was all over. There was a small delay in hitting Northrend since I decided to backtrack to Azeroth and level herbalism and alchemy from 1/1 to 350/350 before heading off to the frozen North. I encountered another small delay once I hit Northrend since I elected to get epic flight form from the trainer at level 71 instead of questing for the form at level 70. Shadow meld + epic flight form = kiss my tail feathers silly mobs. Did I mention how unfair it is to loot quest items or pick herbs while still in epic flight form.

Ding, 80! Damn, my BoA gear is still nice. I've got some nice quest gear from Icecrown. I'm gonna queue for dps in a heroic! ...WTF?!1!!1! I don't have good enough gear to queue for a heroic?! With nobody to ask for a few gear runs through some heroics I decided to queue as dps in a normal random instance (through a series of events I left my guild when I was throwing a tantrum and didn't have anyone to beg for support). 17 minutes later I gave up and left the queue as dps and changed my selection to include tanking. In the queue for something like 30 seconds and BAM! I'm tanking. Holy hell I haven't tanked before (not really anyway, last bear tanking I did was maybe in my 20s). I think I Svenn said something once about swipe macroed with maul. What? Faerie fire does damage as a bear? Nice. Okay, this instance is over and I received two triumph badges. Didn't I receive two triumph badges when I queued for and instance at level 69? Why yes, yes I did. Okay I'll queue as a tank again since it's fast. Wait a second... I don't get badges for this run? I'm not going to deal with this, especially after people questioning if I'm really a tank. 21K hp not enough for a normal instance? That's silly. (see screenie). Alright, I have have a leatherworker that could use some work. It's time to grab some HPs and become a stamina stacking polar bear.

Alright here we go! I'm off to tank. Five seconds into the instance and here comes the question again (no screenie this time...) "are you really a tank?". Is this guy serious? This is a normal everyday five man heroic.This is where I should be... Anyway here we go... swipe, swipe, maul, maul, shake my fuzzy tail, shout, swipe, swipe... I can see now that bear tanking is going to give me carpal tunnel... More heroics, more badges, more questions (who the hell are these people?). How dare you question my tanking I HAZ A WARRIORZ! comparatively speaking tanking on this bear is tanking on easy mode. Defense Cap? No, I'm not chasing it as I spent a whopping three talent points. I can haz tanking! If you choose to AoE like a mad man then don't worry. Wanna single target nuke something that I'm not tanking to make your dps look better in a heroic? That's okay too. It's very difficult to focus on the mob marked with a raid skull icon. I also understand that your dps is very very important on trash mobs in an instance. It's okay that you have a 5.7k gearscore and the tank and healer have a 2.7k gearscore. I also understand that you question this tank "Hey Fuzzy, OMG, why can't you hold aggro?!". Why do I not have a problem with this? Is it because I have raiding type dps toons? Well yes that is exactly why I understand. I can even go into and instance on my descent dps raiders and not pull threat from the "undergeared" tank. I don't expect to come to his sand box and mke myself feel good since I'm in a heroic when I should be raiding. Is it because I'm a fail tank? Not, it's because I understand that you are truly fail dps as your dps is actually descent. You're just raidtarded. You know it and I know it. It's just easier to hide your fail in a 25 main raid instead of a five man heroic.

Six days into tanking heroics and I'm in full T9. Stamina gems coming out my ears and a little under 40k health. Defense cap not an issue and now the bad news. I have the Bluechicken blues. Fuzzy has tanked up to PoS heroic with little to no effort. The only reason I haven't tried HoR heroic is that Blizz has determined that I need better gear. It's been a fun but it's time for a break. On the seventh day I put Fuzzy down and decided to revisit the horde and see what Innoculated was up to. She needs lots of work so I spent Fuzzy's seventh day farming up some mats and some BoA equipment for hordie side Inno. Silly crusader mats cost way too much for how simple they are to come by. I also harassed Svenn to help mule some money over to the horde side for me. Nice loss of gold using the neutral AH (15% cut). After selling one gold plated thistle tea my hordie will be able to afford dual spec and epic flying.

I will hit up Fuzzy again soon. I did receive some "nice tanking" comments the other day from from raid geared players. These guys were not raidtards and actually wanted me to tank another instance for them. I can't complain as they had allowed me to chain pull a few instances as they effortlessly mowed down the mobs. I will write updates for Fuzzy if anything catches my attention, but I prefer to see what Svenn's thoughts are on his up and coming Warrior. You all remember the voting poll right? Well a warrior was voted for his next toon and it's creeping up to level 80.

Inverse Relations

DPS often gets maligned in WoW. The common perception is that there are too many of them, they are all "noobs", and there is never enough Tanks and Healers to go around. On one level this conception is true. As seen in figure 1 below, there are too many DPS. Compound that the DPS in this situation may be somebody's alt with sheer numbers, and you almost always insure at least one unskilled player in the group.

figure 1.

This labeling however, is unfair as we will see in figure 2. At the high end of raiding, healers and tanks are the first to get benched. Each encounter requires a set number of tanks, there is no room on the roster for an "extra" tank, and if you can get it done with less-great! Likewise with healers; while a 25 man raid may start its progression with 6 healers rostered, as the raid group becomes familiar with the content/ gear-up, extra healers become a liability. After all, excess healers and tanks are taking up valuable slots that could be filled with more Pew-Pew.

figure 2.

So, what is Svenn trying to say? No idea, really, I think he just likes making graphics... or maybe, next time he is in a group he will try and cut everyone some slack and remember he is a lot more replaceable than a good DPS :)

Weapons Workout

Over the course of the last week, Svenn has been working out some theories on fast and slow weapons for tanking. While this is a much developed topic for dual-wield classes, little heed has been paid to it for one-hand weapon wielding tanks. The following results were formulated using Ghoulslicer (slow 2.6 speed, ilvl 219 “DPS weapon”) and Falric’s Wrist-Chopper (fast 1.6 speed, ilvl 232 “tanking weapon”) in 2 separate settings: IF Target dummies and ICC full trash rep runs (no bosses).

IF Target Dummy (Boss) self buff only, rotation 1*, duration 5mins:
Ghoulslicer- 800 DPS
Falric’s Wrist-Chopper- 1.2k DPS

IF Target Dummies (Heroic x2) self buff only, rotation 2*, duration 3mins:
Ghoulslicer- 2.1k DPS
Falric’s Wrist-Chopper- 1.6k DPS

ICC Rep Run (Trash only) raid buffed*, rotation 2, duration variable:
Ghoulslicer- 6.2k DPS
Falric’s Wrist-Chopper- 4.1k DPS

Aside from the duration of the test run on the AoE target dummies being shorter than desired (due to mana considerations while spamming high cost AoE abilities with no replenishment from BoS/Spiritual Attunement/class abilities), the weapon is isolated as the “only” variable…understanding Svenn may not have activated every ability perfectly after each global cooldown.

As we can see, slow outperforms fast by a huge margin when dealing with groups of 2 or more. This is based on the damage range of the weapons, NOT the DPS of each weapon. Slower weapons get swung less often and so hit harder to average out the DPS of faster weapons which get swung more often, but hit for less damage. Since abilities like Seal of Command and Hammer of the Righteous do damage based on maximum weapon damage in the “damage range” rather than the DPS of the weapon, slower weapons make for better returns when tanking groups of mobs.

Additional conditions to consider:
Hit Rating. Being at hit cap is essential to slow weapon wielding. A tank cannot afford to wait 3 seconds after a miss for another weapon swing, thus the popularity of fast weapons for tanking. While hit is not a stat worth going out of your way for as a Pally tank, the higher ilvl tanking gear usually has enough +Hit on it to get you where you need to be.

Defense Rating. It should go without saying that maintaining the 450 defense cap is a must. Slower weapons normally assigned to the DPS arena don’t come with +Defense stats, again contributing to the fast weapon popularity among tanks. As with the +Hit, heaps of defense on higher ilvl tanking gear make obtaining the cap without any defense on your weapon easily attainable at higher gear levels.

For optimal performance, one of each type (fast and slow) weapon should be carried, with the slow weapon equipped for AoE pulls, and the fast weapon equipped for single target fights. While customization of this level usually will result in a defense cap overage when the traditional fast “tanking weapon” is equipped (if it has +defense on it), the resultant DPS gains will more than make up for it, appeasing even the most ardent of the MIN/MAX crowd.

Above: Screenshot with slow main hand weapon. Below: Screenshot with fast main hand weapon.

Rotations: Seal of Command, Retribution Aura, and Sanctuary are up for all test incidences.
Rotation 1: Judgment of Wisdom, Hammer of the Righteous
Rotation 2: Consecration, Judgment of Wisdom, Hammer of the Righteous, Holy Wrath, Avenger’s Shield, Shield of Righteousness

Raid Buffs: Blessing of Sanctuary, Blessing of Might, Ret/Devo Aura, 8% Kings from LW Drums, Mark of the Wild, +STA Inscription Raid Wide Fortitude Scroll, Trueshot Aura, and some Shammy Totems (no idea what they all were, but they were the same through both iterations of trash clearing. Any shammies out there that can ID them from the above screenshots?).

Warlock Tanking Part 2

Tactics:
Aggro management will be one of your biggest issues when Lock tanking. As VW lacks any AoE attacks, you will have to rely largely on single target attacks and Crowd Control (CC) from your group. The use of tab targeting and VW’s AoE taunt can be used for groups lacking CC but you will need to be extra vigilant to ensure VW stays on top of the threat meter. Additionally, any means of threat transfer such as a Hunter’s Misdirection or Rouge’s Tricks of the Trade should be used as often as possible. Demonic Empowerment can also provide temporary threat boosts to VW.Should a mob still get away, or CC break early, it now becomes your job to pick up and tank that mob either until it is down, or VW has established aggro on it.

This can be done in a variety of methods:
1. Threat transfer, again utilizing one of the earlier techniques, one of your party members can direct the mob back to VW (provided their ability is not on cooldown
2. Use your VW’s Sacrifice ability to give yourself a damage absorption bubble and quickly establish threat on the target yourself. Once threat is established, you can then kite the mob until it is dead, or back to VW for your minion to reestablish aggro through direct attacks (soul shatter can be used to drop your aggro back down, though there is a longish cooldown associated with its use)
3. Activate Metamorphosis, taunt the target to you and tank it in normal fashion. While this may split your healer’s focus between 2 tanks, there shouldn’t be too much concern if it is just trash mobs. Activate VW’s Sacrifice ability in conjunction with Metamorphosis if you are short on heals for extra insurance.
4. If there is no space limitation/ worry about pulling the next group of mobs, you can always fear the loose mob (though this is probably a rare occasion and as such should not be counted on).

Positioning of mobs will be your second biggest challenge. Some mobs require tanking facing away from the rest of the group. Depending on the situation this can addressed as simply as having the group reposition themselves behind the mob or through more challenging techniques. In fights where space is limited or very specific positioning requirements exist (think: Ingvar in UK) a more creative approach must be taken. In these instances you can position the mob yourself before sending VW to tank. To do this, activate VW’s Sacrifice while placing VW on passive, body pull the mob into position and quickly have VW taunt it off you. Since VW will have been on follow he should now be facing the proper direction and tanking can continue as normal. Alternatively you can position the after activating Metamorphosis, however Cromm recommends saving Metamorphosis till later on in most boss fights, as the access to the extra taunt that comes with it is too valuable to use at the front end (in case VW loses aggro or goes down for some reason).

Other Tips:
Knowing when big damage spikes are coming, and using Improved Health Funnel during them, will go a long way to keeping VW at full health. (20% damage reduction while channeling).

There are a lot of tools at your disposal to refund health, Drain life, Death Coil, Healthstones, etc., use them!

Don’t underestimate Demonic Circle: Teleport. This can be used effectively when kiting, or to get yourself back out of harm after a body pull/ positioning VW pull. Cromm puts one up before almost every fight.

Cromm hopes you have enjoyed this little guide to 'lock tanking, and Svenn will be back to business as usual on Monday.

Warlock Tanking Part 1

As you all know, Svenn is a man of many Alts. Svenn also has a, some would say, unhealthy fixation with tanking. With 2 supposedly "pure" DPS classes on his lvl 80 roster, he has decided to give some time over to documenting some of his "tanking for DPS" experiments. While hunter pet tanking has been covered at length by various other sites (Big Red Rhino is an excellent resource for all things tenacity related), little attention has been given to the field of Warlock tanking. Over the next 2 days, Svenn will be handing the reigns over to his Lock alt Cromm for some in depth analysis and a how to guide for lock tanking. This series was originally written for his guild forums, but is good enough (IMHO) to be worthy of the Svenn blog readers as well....if there are any of you left.

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So you want to be a Lock tank? You have questions. How do I get started?What gear do I need? What spec? What glyphs? What minion? Am I crazy? Don’t worry, all these questions and more, answered below.

Part 1: Talent Selection, Gear and Glyphs

Talent Selection: Cromm recommends a 3/60/8 but there are some points to play around with here, so he will focus on the must have talents from the build rather than try and put too fine a point on it.

3 points in Affliction for Suppression- you will see later on in the gear selection section that +hit gear will not be a priority so you will need to pick up hit wherever else you can get it.

~60 points in Demonology- obviously your minion is going to be doing most of the actual tanking, so a lot of the points spent here will be focused on improving him.

Effective Health:
Demonic Embrace
Fel Vitality
Demonic Empowerment

Damage Mitigation:
Demonic Aegis
Master Demonologist
Demonic Resilience
Metamorphosis/ Nemesis
Molten Skin (from the Destruction tree)

Healing:
Improved Healthstone
Fel Synergy
Improved Health Funnel (has a damage mitigation aspect to it as well)
Soul Link
Fel Domination/Master Summoner (think of it as unlimited battle rez’s)

Aggro Generation:
Demonic Brutality
Unholy Power
Demonic Empowerment
Demonic Knowledge
Demonic Tactics/ Improved DT
Demonic Pact

8 points in Destruction- these points are just to get you down to 3/3 Molten Skin.

Minion Selection: Void Walker is the only viable option for tanking instances. Your VW should have around 30k health (Cromm will get to how you can achieve that kind of health pool further down in the guide). Due to his AoE taunt, single target taunt, and increased threat generation from attacks as well as his extra 10% damage mitigation from the Master Demonologist talent, he will outperform the Felguard when tanking. (Though with good heals, you can switch back and forth using the Felguard for trash pulls and VW for the bosses.)

Gear Selection:
Your minion’s attributes scale with yours; as you will be tanking, you will want a fair amount of stamina. In fact, stamina is your number one priority. A few pieces of “of stamina” gear will go a long way to increasing your VW’s effective health pool. Your need for stamina however, will be offset to an extent by a need for resilience. Ideally, tanks should be crit immune, unfortunately the Demonic Resilience talent will only get you half way there (3%). To make up the difference you will need a fair amount of resilience (useful to both you and your summoned demon). The good news in this is that PvP gear, which has all the resilience, focuses largely on stamina as its primary “white” stat, so you can build towards crit immunity even as you build up your demon’s health. Finally, when considering gear, make sure you do not neglect +hit. While it is unlikely that you will be hit capped when lock tanking, you should shoot for at least 8%.

Glyph Selection:
Glyph of Voidwalker (20% extra health for VW)
Glyph of Metamorphosis (we will see further down why this extra 6 seconds is worth it)
There is some freedom of choice for your last glyph, but Cromm would recommend Glyph of Siphon Life, Healthstone, or Health Funnel

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In Part 2, Cromm will cover tactics for pulling, positioning, and maintaining aggro, along with other helpful tips to get started.

Tanking for Trees

Yesterday Svenn wrote about his “L337” tanking DPS in ICC, which prompted some questions. Tanks are supposed to be built to survive, go the distance, in it for the long haul, etc. right? Who cares about their DPS as long as they maintain threat and nobody dies?

Well, putting aside the continuing need to compensate for lower DPS toons in order to beat enrage timers (Raid Centric), there are several good reasons to build a Tank/DPS hybrid spec.

Svenn finds himself tanking for Druid Healers much of the time. Now trees are some of his favorite people (/wave at Star and Raen), but unlike other healing classes, their ability to DPS from their shifted form is minimal. In raids healers have their hands full chasing bars back up to full, but anyone who has ever healed a heroic for a tank in full epics knows how boring it can be. In the ongoing quest for badge efficiency, healers have taken to “pitching in” as DPS to help speed things along. As speed tanking becomes the norm, the trees have been relegated to the woods, so to speak. That’s not to say they get any fewer invites to heal- everyone needs healers and trees are great for the job. Rather, they don’t get as many highlights in the speed runs because their options for “pitching-in” are limited (in the DPS arena).

As such, Svenn has forgone several of the more “traditional” tanking talents in favor of higher DPS choices. The same goes for stat priorities; while stamina remains the stat of choice and the 540 defense rule remains inviolate, other tanking stats such as Dodge and Parry take a back seat to stats more traditionally assigned to the DPS arena. Shield Block (both value and rating) remains a good choice for its utility as both a defensive stat (mitigation) and an offensive stat (damage done by Shield of Righteousness is based on block value while Holy Shield deals damage on each successful block). While these choices lead to more incoming damage for Svenn, they are great way to leverage a dedicated healer’s mana into increased DPS output for the group.

In this way, Svenn maintains the traditional tank cooldowns for damage spikes while hitting like one of the DPS.

ICC Iced

Svenn had his first look into Icecrown Citadel this weekend. After completing a quick trash clear as DPS on Saturday, he was asked to Off-Tank another rep run on Sunday. While no bosses were downed, he had some surprising insights into Pally tanking in ICC.

The 20% dodge reduction aura makes Pally tanks an attractive option for ICC. While mitigation remains less desirable that huge amounts of total health, the hit to dodge makes Pallys’ high block chance shine all the more.

The presence of all those undead also makes Pally tanks an attractive option. No one does undead like Pallys, and ICC is chock full of them. With a fairly diverse raid composition, Svenn was able to pull over 4.5k DPS as a tank. Being able to throw decent DPS as a tank is important as many of the mobs (at least the ones that come from the traps) are taunt immune.

Svenn used a modified tanking build that takes Seal of Command and most of the improved crit talents out of the Ret Tree. Additionally, Svenn glyphed for improved Holy Wrath (lowering the cooldown by 15secs), as well as Hammer of the Righteous (hit one additional target). Aside from the increase in DPS provided by the Holy Wrath Glyph, the ability to AoE stun all undead every 15secs is huge-making Holy Wrath a must have Glyph for ICC (a must for Ret as well and even Holy Pallys should consider getting it for ICC).

All in all it was a good time, and Svenn was able to get about halfway to friendly with the Ashen Verdict.

SIDE NOTE: Svenn was able to solo the first pull in ICC. How it works: Range pull the 1st bone skeleton guy [note to self:look up name of bone dude] using a taunt or dynamite, judge wisdom (you will be burning through mana) when he comes in range (let the friendly NPCs pick up the other mob). Throw your shield to slow his movement while you begin kiting him around the front “lobby” area. Keep judging wisdom and throwing exorcisms while kiting. Rotate between Avenger’s Shield, Holy Wrath and Hammer of Justice to keep the mob at range while the friendly NPCs at the entrance help DPS it down. You can use fear too, but you need to be careful with that and be ready to stun/break fear, if it looks as if the mob may pull others. As long as you maintain aggro, and do a modicum of DPS on the mob you will get the rep when it finally dies.While not a very time effective way to earn rep, it is doable if you have the inclination to try.

EDIT: It seems Blizzard may have hot fixed some of the ICC mobs. Svenn went in last night with Smanthakitty to clear the first trash pull, and the friendly NPCs at the front did not pick up the second skeleton. While he still managed to down the first one and net the 19 rep, he also could not DI any of the NPCs and ended up eating the repair bill when the 2nd skeleton guy killed him :(

Crowd Control Comeback?

Svenn finally had a chance to tank through the new 5mans over the weekend. On the whole, he found them much more entertaining than previous releases such as ToC. Blizzard seems to have gotten the scaling just about right too. While the boss fight mechanics are not all that novel, they provide enough of a challenge that even OP raiders need to pay attention during their execution... unless of course you want to try and kill off an unpleasant DPSer during Mirrored Soul or some such :)

What really caught Svenn's eye during the initial run through, was the trash pulls' positioning and composition. Many of the trash pulls include larger numbers of mobs, which in and of itself is nothing new. However, the numbers of casters and spacing between them make for more challenging pulls. Svenn could not just run in and throw down consecrate and hit all the mobs at once. In the Forge of Souls for example: with his improved shield toss silencing 2 casters and pulling them to a 3rd, Svenn still usually left 1 caster free to do as it pleased. While this was not necessarily a problem for him (taunts and the occasional stun did the trick), it could in fact be a hindrance to groups lacking in the healing arena, without a good AoE type tank, or light on DPS.

All this leads to the titular question, could Blizzard be seeking a return to the days of crowd control?

Growing up Tank

It's Friday and Svenn is tired. Rather than dig deeper into patch 3.3 today, he has decided to share the below quote from a post by Rohan over at Blessing of Kings, talking about the updated LFG tool. A pretty good observation... if it holds true. As always, you can check out the whole article by clicking the link above.

"You know, in a few months there are going to be some sick skilled tanks available. Imagine levelling to max purely by running dungeons with PuGs. Those tanks who come out of that are going to be really good."

Lets hope so!

Adding on Add Ons

It has been awhile since Svenn has talked about tanking. The last topic he dug into was that of running Healbot as a tank. This prompted some good discussions in the guild as well as quite a few Google queries. So, to expand upon that topic, Svenn will share some other must have and some nice to have Add-ons for tanking.

Deadly Boss Mods (DBM): This add-on is indispensable for all raiders, and tanks are no exception. It tracks the cool-downs on boss abilities, shouts raid warnings as things happen, and in general makes life so much more manageable when raiding. MUST HAVE

Omen: This add-on tracks aggro levels, which is good for DPS so they don’t pull the boss by accident, but it is also useful for tanks. As a tank your name should always be on the top of the aggro list, but there are other factors to be concerned with as well. Omen also tracks Threat per Second (TpS) which will give you a better understanding on how fast you build aggro, and as such how long you need to wait before telling the DPS they can open up (not long if you’re a Pally :). Additionally, it will let you know which DPS or healers you need to keep an eye on. The person throwing the most damage is not necessarily the one you need to worry about. There are various threat reduction talents, as well as enchants (Wisdom for example) and Meta-Gems that can further reduce threat. A DPSer with none of these is likely to be a bigger threat for pulling aggro than the 10k DPSer with all of them. MUST HAVE

Recount: This add-on tracks more than just DPS. It is invaluable for analyzing raid performance as a whole, but has some specific applications for tanks as well. For example; should you die, you can pull up the number of deaths options- click on your name and get a log recounting the final few seconds of your life to include damage in and healing received. This enables you to better determine what went wrong and devise strategies for overcoming it in the future. There are so many other options built into recount, Svenn recommends you download it and scroll through all the selection screens, making sure to click on your name, as this will in most cases bring up a window with more detailed breakdowns. MUST HAVE/NICE TO HAVE

Tank Totals: This add-on consolidates your tanking stats into a useful easy to read format. Svenn originally downloaded it in order to calculate total avoidance, but it does much more than that. It calculates effective health (based on actual health pool + damage mitigation from armor, etc. Svenn was surprised to learn that 40k health translate into him being able to eat a 60k hit unblocked or 70+k hit blocked). It can also be configured to shout raid warnings when an ability like Argent Defender is procced, or a special “tank” ability like Shield Wall or Last Stand is activated (HoS, Lay on Hands, Divine Sacrifice, etc. for us Pally types). NICE TO HAVE

Auctioneer: This add-on tracks prices at the AH along with a whole host of other options. While it has nothing to do directly with tanking, it does help when buying consumables for the next raid :) NICE TO HAVE

It is important to note: there are some risks associated with running add-ons. Never download add-ons from an unknown source. Svenn gets all his add-ons through Curse.com. He has never had a problem to date, and they have their own client which can also be downloaded to help manage your add-ons and inform you when there has been an update released for one of your current add-ons. Have some add-ons that you run that didn’t make the list? –Leave a comment.

Healbot Hero

Svenn posted a few pics recently of FIST's latest progression kills in Ulduar; among which was a screen shot of his UI with Healbot up and running. This has prompted several questions as to why a tank would want to have Hbot taking up valuable real estate on an admittedly already over crowded screen. There are several reasons Svenn will attempt to lay out as he tries to makes the case for all tanks to run Healbot or some similar type addon (and yes healing is one of them, but a very minor one, so all you warriors don't tune out quite yet).

Situational Awareness. Svenn is huge on being able to see everything that is going on around him. Maybe it comes from to many years in the Army, but he feels it important to his decision making cycle to know everyone else in the raids status. Healbot allows this through an easy display which can be set up to show all members of the raid's health bars with their mana/energy/rage/ etc. levels underneath their health bar. This allows Svenn at a glance to see who is taking damage.

Someone besides another tank taking damage prompts questions:
Did an add get lose that Svenn needs to pick up?
Is it splash damage Svenn can direct the player to reposition out of?
Is it just the normal AoE damage inherent in the fight?

This also enhances the knowledge of the flow of the fight damage wise, and allows Svenn to anticipate when he will be getting those big single target heals or when the healer will be busy spamming group heals.

Hbot also allows Svenn to keep tabs on the healers' mana situation. This alows for anticipation of when to use cooldowns, or when off tanking to pitch in a few heals when possible. Additionally, he gets to see everyone else's resources as well, which can be invaluable to help direct the tempo of a fight, ie. "hey rouges, you need to save some energy for the interrupt coming up soon." etc.

Targeting. Svenn uses Healbot in lieu of some macros. Essentially, Healbot allows for "mouse over" targeting of players. Any spell or ability (as far as I know) can be typed into it and assigned a "hot key", ie. Right click= Righteous Defense, ALT+ Right Click= Blessing of Protection and so on.

This allows Svenn to hover over a particular player's frame in Hbot, cast a spell, all while never deselecting his current target. This makes for incredibly fast reaction times while maintaining TPS on your current target. As far as Svenn has tested it, it works for all abilities, though he needs to test if further on other classes. Combine this with the /focus target and /target of targets and /assist functions and it is instant "slew to cue".

Peace of Mind. Healbot can be set up to display incoming heals from other healers (at least other healers running Hbot). This can make the difference between burning a cooldown unnecessarily or waiting for the heal you now know is coming to hit.

Svenn is not trying to sell Healbot to anyone, and is not getting any money from the Healbot creators (though if they are interested we may be able to work out an endorsement deal:). Rather, he is simply trying to say that it is another useful tool in a tank's "kit bag" to help keep a raid up running. Healbot, it's not just for healers anymore.

Speed Tanking

It has been awhile since Svenn dug into some real tanking issues. Since the patch he has seen a gradual return to action, mostly in the "speed tank" department. It is all about the badges and so he has been helping farm heroics while FIST takes a break from raiding. The group he runs with consistently has great heals (ty Shadow:)), and usually 1 solid DPS and a couple under-geared Alts.


Outside of the Daily Heroic, we usually try to hit CoT4 (best Badge per minute yield at 5 badges in ~20mins), and one other Heroic. For CoT4 Svenn needs to keep the pace up to make the timer for the optional mount boss, while everyone has the mount by now, he still drops a badge and so is a must from an efficiency standpoint. For the other Heroics, Svenn keeps the speed up for other reasons; primarily because we have done these instance Sooo many times (still fun though), and also because the time spent in them may make the difference between tacking a quick VH run on the end of the night for 3 more badges or prolonging the "badge grind" another couple days.


That being said, Svenn has focused his tanking priorities along different lines than his raid priorities.


Total Health: For Heroics anything over 30k is overkill, therefore Svenn doesn't use any elixirs/flasks to boost his sta. He does still use Blessing of Sanctuary with the 10% stamina increase. While you could use Blessing of Might to further boost AP, as a pally tank, you really can't overlook the mana return from BoS, so Svenn will continue to self buff Sanctuary.


Total Armor: Armor as a mitigation stat is not all that impressive, so Svenn tanks heroics with Retribution Aura up (though he may switch to Devotion Aura on single target boss fights- it really depends on how much he wants to make Shadow sweat).

Total DPS: Svenn has switched out of some of his "better" tanking gear to ensure he is hit capped. Getting hit capped is the first step to more DPS, the second step is a bit trickier. Unlike normal melee DPS, the tank by definition stands in front of the mob, and thus suffers the full chance to be blocked/dodged/parried- all of which results in a loss of DPS. In order to mitigate this, Svenn has stacked Expertise where feasible. By no means is he expertise capped, and indeed you shouldn't go out of your way to get there, but every little bit helps. Furthermore, Svenn makes use of the Flask of Endless Rage or the less spendy Wrath Elixer to boost his AP/DPS. Additionally, the Glyph of Sense undead comes in handy in a place like CoT4.

Svenn is averaging 2k DPS as the tank with this setup, which is about right I think.

Gear/Buff selections aside, the other, and arguably more important part of speed tanking, is tempo. As the tank, you set the pace. These days, running a healer out of mana is a tough chore, one which you should undertake in speed tanking. The idea is to pull smoothly but continuously until you come to a boss or until somebody calls uncle. While this may seem reckless, remember, you are well past the requirements necessary for the encounters and time is of the essence.

That being said, when pulling, the bigger the better. Obviously you want to keep the pulls manageable, but if you can safely pull a group of 3-4 mobs plus the 2-3mob pat, go for it. Most AoE DPS are based on given area (Consecration) not a number of mobs in an area (Hammer of the Righteous), thus if you are going to be doing the damage to an area, may as well try and fill that area with mobs, rather than just empty floor space. If you are short on AoE DPS this is still the way to go, as you can keep the AoE up with Consecration and minimize the amount of repositioning DPS would otherwise need to do when running to the next pull.

Judge Wisdom! As a pally tank your mana pool is necessarily low ~6k, and you will be pulling continuously for effieciency sake. Even with the mana return from blocks (BoS) and Spiritual Attunement, you will consistently be low on mana. Judgeing Wisdom is key to keeping up the mana while spamming high cost abilities like Consecration. It should go without saying that your divine plea should always be on cooldown as well.

Don't freak out! If your healer is sitting down to take a drink between pulls, no prob. Top yourself off, its OK you're a pally- you can heal, and keep going. There are few pulls in any heroic that you can't tank for a few seconds on your own while your healer catches a breather. If it doesn't look like you are going to get that heal in time, use Lay on Hands or better yet, bubble and sick all those meanies on him- that will teach 'em to sleep on the job!

So, speed tanking- a great way to get badges fast. Using these steps, Svenn tanked through Nexus in ~30mins with a less than stellar DPS makeup. All in all, its about your confidence as the tank: make the pulls fast, clean, and continuous, push the pace, and provide your own DPS in as much as it is possible. You will find that speed tanking can make heroics fun again, so enjoy.

Post Patch Pallys

Since patch 3.2 hit Svenn has been conspicuously absent, and for that he apologizes. Rather than forge ahead with the normal Monday Montage, Svenn will be running down his initial impressions of the patch.

First, how all the pally changes played out. There has been plenty of commenting pre-patch on the changes to pallys, but now having experienced them “live” Svenn has a better grasp of what all they mean.

Instant exorcism is sorely missed. Once an integral part of the rotation, Svenn now finds himself waiting on cool downs between Hammer of the Righteous and the next Judgment/Shield of Righteousness. Talenting into the reduced cool down on judgments may be the solution to this dilemma, but Svenn hasn’t tested it out yet.

The damage increase to hand of reckoning is nice, and may find its way into single target fights as an extra bit of DPS to help fill the spot left by exorcism (this would be very situational, as the taunt is too valuable to burn for extra DPS in AoE pulls/ fights with adds).

Block Value has been buffed, while this has given a slight boost to damage from Shield of Righteousness, it is still not the mitigation method of choice.

The new 5man is tailor made for Paladins. The AoE agro generation on round 1 combined with self heals (to compensate for a healer slow off the jousting transition or flying back in from an unlucky death) makes the start of the run so much easier. Phase 2 is nothing to write home about, but in phase 3 the tankadin once again shines. Consecration + Holy Wrath + Shadow Protect Aura = I win button. Top it all off with plenty of plate drops which, on average, seem to be slightly better than Naxx10 gear, and Svenn now has a reason to tank Heroics again (sorry Haager, back to the bench for you).

In other news, Svenn may not be seeing as much raiding as previously. This is due in part to the patch changes, part due to tanking burnout, part due to a slew of somewhat willing successors, and mainly due to the face melting awesomeness that is Cromm (he’s so humble isn’t he). In his defense Cromm was the main show pre Wrath. He was the first toon to hit seventy, and the only toon that ever saw the inside of a instance let alone a raid in the Burning Crusade.

Last night in Naxx, Cromm hit 3.9k DPS in the single target “gear check” boss that is Patchwerk. That in a hodgepodge of craftable/ heroic epics and more than a few item lvl 187-200 “blues”. He is not trying to brag, just, it’s hard to walk away from that kind of pew-pew from an under geared toon.

Anyways, the newness of the patch has already started to wear off and, it is back to business as usual here at the Misadventures…. At least until Svenn’s folks come visit.

A short guide to Tanking Consumables

While this guide will probably leave you muttering sarcastically to yourself something along the lines of, "Wow, you're breaking some new ground there Copernicus" bear with me. (Note: Svenn had to google "bear vs. bare" to make sure he used the right one. It seems there is much debate on the point but in fact bear the verb comes from the root to forebear and is correct. To "bare with me" would involve us all taking off our clothes and I don't think anyone wants that to happen).

Ideally, going into a raid you want a flask and a food buff. Flasks give you more bang for your buck, as compared to Elixirs, as well as persisting through death; while food buffs are pretty much the only other "consumable" buff that can stack with a flask (flasks count as both a battle and guardian elixir).

Flask of Stoneblood is the current "best in slot" flask for tanking. The case can be made for using Flask of Endless Rage if your effective health pool is already sky high, or you are having trouble generating enough threat but in general, the extra health is the way to go.

However, if you don't have any flasks available for whatever reason, you can stack two elixirs to help make up some of the shortfall. For tanking, the cheap way to maximize the dual elixir buff from an effective health increase standpoint, is to stack a Guru's Elixir with an Elixir of Mighty Fortitude. Other viable options are:

Battle Elixirs (by order of preference):
Elixir of Mighty Strength -more strength equals higher block value and a bit more damage
Elixir of Expertise -less dodge/block/parry by the boss equals less damage taken from instant counter attacks (if you aren't capped)
Wrath Elixir -more damage equals more TPS
Elixir of Accuracy -more hits equals more TPS (if you aren't already hit capped)
Elixir of Deadly Strikes -more big hits equals more TPS (not as reliable as the AP increase from the Wrath Elixir)

Guardian Elixirs (by preference):
Elixir of Protection -the damage reduction from the extra armor makes this a close second to Elixir of Mighty Fortitude.
Earthen Elixir -steady damage reduction from all sources is good
Elixir of Mighty Defense -good for new tanks struggling to make it to the defense cap, otherwise not much use (It could possibly allow a well geared tank the option to switch out some +def gear for higher +sta or resist gear, but that would be very situational ie. Sapph)
Sheen of Zanza - old school quest reward; don't hold your breath on this one, but its worth a mention if you haven't already done it and want to get back into some of the older content
Bloodkelp Elixir of Dodging - same as above


Fish Feast is the best source of food buff for tanks (and everyone else for that matter). It is however, BOP so, if no one in your group has any on them here is a list of alternative foods that can substitute in for tank chow:

Great Feast -one step down from the Fish Feast (2nd best option for Pally tanks, all other tanks should probably opt for one of the other foods with +40 Stamina on them)
Dragonfin Fillet -strength equals increased blocked value and minor AP increase
Mega Mammoth Meal -AP equals consistent TPS
Poached Northern Sculpin -the fishy version of the Mega Mammoth Meal
Rhinolicious Wormsteak -(if you aren't expertise capped)
Worg Tartare -(if you aren't hit capped)
Snapper Extreme -fishy version of the Worg Tartare
Spiced Worm Burger -TPS gain not as consistent as the AP buff food
Spicy Blue Nettlefish -fishy version of the Spiced Worm Burger
Blackened Dragonfin -increased agility indirectly increases armor and crit (wouldn't be my first "second choice")
Slippery Eel -more avoidance at the cost of 40 stamina
Stormchops -just plain fun

In addition to the standard "food & flask" combo, tanks can use Runes of Warding to help "soften the blow". These are Outland Blacksmithing items and have probably been forgotten by most. While they aren't game changers by any means, why not stack some extra damage absorption on? The Greater Rune of Warding is obviously preferred, but as it is made from rare Khorium, the Lesser Rune of Warding will probably be the more accessible option (made from Adamantite). The 25% proc rate pretty much ensures that with as often as a tank is getting hit (physical damage only), you will get the damage absorption pretty much every time the cooldown is up. Like I said, not great, but for the little bit of effort required to makes these things why? Plus, it shows everyone who cares to check that you are doing all you can to be prepared.

Finally, scrolls are a possibility for a little extra buffage. Changes with the Wrath expansion, make it so that you can only use one scroll at a time. Most scrolls have player buffs that they will not stack with, so check your raid composition prior to using one so you don't waste them. The following list contains the scrolls and their corresponding buffs:

Scroll of Stamina -Priest's Power word: Fortitude
Scroll of Spirit -Priest's Prayer of SpiritScroll of Protection -Paladin's Devotion Aura
Scroll of Strength -Death Knight's Horn of Winter
Scroll of Agility -Death Knight's Horn of Winter
Scroll of Intelect -Mage's Arcane Brilliance

This is Svenn's first attempt at a guide of any sorts, I hope it is at least helpful in some small way. If there is something he left off, leave a comment and we will get it updated.

Tank Talk pt.2

Yesterday, Svenn started talking about tanking and aggro generation. Threat per Second (TPS) is the metric by which tanks measure their aggro generation. As long as the DPS does not exceed the threat threshold for a given mob, that mob will remain focused on the tank. In order to keep this from happening, DPS can wait to open up on the mob until the tank has built a sufficient lead in threat, scale down their DPS (equivalent to waiting to open up), change the focus of their damage, or artificially lower their threat through reduction talents. Svenn further proposed that slowing down on DPS will no longer be an option in Ulduar. So then, how can tanks keep mobs "glued" to them while DPS continues to crank out damage far exceeding the tank's TPS?

There are a number of options available here, and a combination of some or all may be necessary for future fights.

1. Crowd Control. CC used to be a necessary part of running instances, but has become superfluous in the content FIST has been running to date. While a defense capped/ avoidance capped tank like Svenn still has nothing to worry about from most trash mob pulls (the more the merrier) CC is emerging once again as a critical component of trash pulls. This is in part due to the increased damage output of AoE DPS classes. With fewer "active" mobs in a pull, the tank has to build aggro on fewer targets and can thus keep his threat paced with the DPS' threat easier. Additionally, if the tank's threat falls behind and aggro is grabbed by the DPS there are fewer targets running around, thus simplifying the throwing of taunts and ensuring that there are enough taunts available to regain control of the mobs.

2. Talents. All DPS classes have some form of threat reduction. These talents come in various types, from passive abilities which apply a constant threat reduction to a particular class of damage (ie. Shadowform), to castable threat reduction (ie. Feign Death), to threat masking (ie. Fade). These are just some of the examples for class specific threat reduction talents, and should be used by DPS when necessary. Svenn isn't the authority on every DPS class out there and so, does not propose to tell them how and when to use their specific threat reduction talents.

3. "Buff" Talents. These are other threat related talents, which Svenn is treating as a separate entity, that are castable on others to help with threat. I am talking about things like Hand of Salvation and Misdirection. These talents are key to sustaining high DPS while helping the tank maintain aggro. Specifically, DPS with huge amounts of damage output may lack the ability to shed enough threat with their inherent class talents (Damage Over Time(DoT) classes in particular may have problems if DoTs continue to tick on mobs while they are "unhittable" by the tanks) may need the added threat reduction offered by these classes. In the past the thinking has been to let DPS manage their own threat, whether by talents or slowing down their DPS, and to save these "buff" talents for the healers for which slowing down their healing aggro isn't an option. Now, especially in a group were several heavy hitters need to do max DPS in order to compensate for lower DPS raid members, it may be necessary for these talents to be applied to DPS instead.

4. Taunts. While these don't necessarily change the overall threat picture (some do, some don't), they focus the mob/mobs' attention back on the tank for a period of time. That window allows the tank to surge threat on the mob through direct targeting (as in AoE pulls when lose of aggro is likely if the mob in question is not the tank's main target) or from spike damage. It also allows for DPS to do a "quick burn" on the mob in order to kill it before the taunt wears off. In a previous post, Svenn talked about saving his taunts for the healers; that was before Ulduar and mainly in the context of 5man heroics. Now, taunts are another integral part of the threat control matrix.

5. TPS Increase Talents. Much time has been spent explaining the options available for decreasing/ controlling DPS threat, with the assumption that the tanks are doing all they can to max their TPS. Svenn would be remiss if he didn't at least mention the existence of TPS multipliers (ie. Pally's Righteous Fury, Enchant Gloves-Armsman, etc.).

This article is not a comprehensive list of talents and items available to reduce or increase threat. Rather it is meant to serve as a vehicle for discussion among raid groups as to how to balance the economics problem of "Threat vs. DPS" when excessive lead times for tanks or damage gimping for DPS just isn't an option. It's not just a DPSer's problem anymore.

The new "PTSD"

Alternately Titled: Tank Talk part 1

No, Svenn has not succumbed to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from too much tanking. Rather, while discussing some tanking tips with Bluechicken, he inadvertently coined a new acronym- Pally Tank Simplicity Disorder.

The issue being discussed was the trouble warrior tanks have holding aggro with group pulls and the lack of restraint/ willingness to use Crowd Control (CC) by the DPS. FIST (at least the late Raid Group) runs with two Pally tanks; Pally tanks are built for AoE pulls and as such generate a good amount of AoE damage/aggro relatively quickly; Pallies are good verses undead; Naxx is full of undead. Thus our raid group has become accustomed to pouring on the AoE damage with no little to no regard for CC or threat, and there hasn't been a reason for either. Simply put, us Pally tanks made things too "simple".

Enter the Warrior tank. They too can generate good threat on mobs, even larger groups of mobs, but they need some time to do so (stack sunders, thunderclap, cleave, etc.). When DPS classes accustomed to Pally tanks make the transition to Warrior tanks, they tend to continue in their massive AoE damage ways. This inevitably results in aggro being pulled and making the run more painful.

That being said, why is this an issue if both current raid tanks are Pallys? Well, there are several reasons.

1. When FIST 1st started raiding Naxx, our Tanks and Healers had far out geared most of their DPS counterparts. (There are many reasons for this as well, but foremost among them are: trepidation- it is clear that under-geared tanks and healers are harder to overcome than 1 or 2 slack DPSers and as such, ours worked hard to ensure they were as geared as possible before even setting foot in the door, heroics- by and large tanks and healers are in demand and as such have an easier time of getting in the runs they need for gear).

Now that, I hesitate to say this, Naxx is on "farm" that gap is closing quick. Higher DPS outputs equal less lead for the tanks in aggro generation. No longer will Svenn be able to throw a shield, hit the consecrate "I win" button, and expect all the mobs to remain glued to him.

2. Raid Absences and tank burnout are inevitable, especially with summer vacation season upon us. With no available "AoE" tanks waiting in the wings, tanks with different abilities will have to step in to fill the void. These tanks require restraint to some extent on what the DPS can and cannot do.

3. As FIST moves further into Ulduar, DPS restraint will not be a viable option. With "trash" mobs hitting harder and bosses on tight enrage timers, the raid will need every bit of damage it can muster. While this seems like a reversal on the whole position thus far, it isn't and tomorrow Svenn will go further into how this apparent contradiction can work out.

For now however, Svenn will attempt to see things from a warrior's point of view while tanking Heroics, and in some small ways try working some CC into runs (where time isn't crunched of course).

Note: this is in no-ways meant as a bash on DPS. Rather this is an attempt to reconcile the differences in tanking styles presented by two different classes, and figure out a better way to do buisness.

K'T, K-Fed, and a T-K-O

The resemblance is uncanny.

Last night FIST defeated K'T for the first time, and as such defeated Naxx in its entirety! Svenn was hoping to do something truly epic for this post, (it has been a long time coming) instead all he could come up with was a lame K-Fed joke. Oh well, it will have to do.

Anyways, by all accounts, it was a fantastic night despite the rocky start. The raid was plagued with technical troubles and lag from the start. This prompted us to bring a third healer to cover any gaps in case one of the healers got DCed or missed a heal due to lag. These difficulties also delayed our start and ruined our first attempt; which saw K'T down to about 34% health. They say the third time is the charm, but FIST is a somewhat impatient group and forced its will upon K'T, dropping him on the second attempt.

The Fight:

Phase one saw us swarmed by skeletons, banshees, and abominations. Ginn was on skelly duties, the mages (Inno and Grayce) took on the banshees, and Svenn and Corday took on the abominations. Jazz and Ark DPS'ed anything and everything that showed up and the healers (Shadow, Qwen, and Giaia) kept everyone topped off on health.

Phase two started as K'T became active. Corday picked him up as DPS finished off the remaining adds from phase one. Once all the adds were down, all focus was shifted to the boss and the DPS race began in earnest. Svenn came up with a little trick that may or may not have helped out; he popped his divine shield and then his divine sacrifice allowing him to soak up some of the raid damage and hopefully give the healers a little break.

Phase three started once K'T hit 45% health and two Crypt Lord type adds were spawned. Svenn grabbed them up and brought them over by K'T so that he could continue to contribute to the fight with AoE damage against K'T while still keeping the attention of the mobs. From there the rest was history. Kel'Thuzad was burned down the rest of the way, and just like that, Svenn's chat pane was filled with achievement announcements.

Phase four was loot distribution and picture time.* Since the fight went so well and was over so early in the evening, the raid split into two groups and headed off to do some celebratory runs through heroic nexus (the daily). Needless to say, both of those runs were successful, and quite a bit easier than ol' K'T.

*Svenn will get up some screenies of FIST's triumphs soon.