Stop Firing

This is a copy from the XII-site

"STOP FIRING, ASSHOLES!"
--Dark Helmet

If the Healer dies, it's the tanks fault,
if the Tank dies, it's the healers fault.
if the DPS dies, well...

Something strange happened last night, Curator was pulled of me. I was not happy with smokee at that moment, but looking back, what happened is logical.
You see, I have been in this fight multiple times now, and because dps needs to kill the flares first, I could always steadily build up threat without going full. In the past that meant that the DPS couldn't actually fire a shot at Curator outside the last 6 seconds from Evocation. So thread was really never a problem. But as I said, last night, Curator was pulled of me, and looking back, I think the flares were killed that quickly that DPS was actually able to fire 1 or 2 shots at Curator between flares. So I am partly to blame for loosing aggro, and next time, I will tank him in my (uncrittable) SpellDamage-gear. And probably using One complete Mana-Injector/Kara-run.

But...
There is off course no excuse, DPS should never draw aggro of the tank, period. Invisibility/Shatter/Feign Death/etc. should be used as often as possible (especially if we are going for Void Reaver). Do not wait until you get aggro, because then you are to late, just use it every time the CD is over.

Now what happens if you do draw aggro, well, the mob turns away from the Tank, and comes running to you. So you use your IB/FD to get the mob of you. The Mob, out of melee-range of the tank, will, mostly go to number three on the aggro-list, and he one-shots a healer....he, wait...if the healer dies....

But luckily your Tank gets aggro back in time, by charging the mob...charging??? where is that in my spellbook??? I am a tankadin, I generate aggro, because I am being hit (reflective damage). That's why I generate a high TPS on fast-hitting mobs (Romeo/Prince). But if the Mob is not hitting me... no TPS. I also have a strange 'Taunt'. It has a 30-yard range, but it has a CD of 15 seconds, and it actually targets the player instead of the mob, pulling up to three mobs from target player.

So, now what actually happens when you draw aggro from a Tankadin. So everyone is firing away at the Boss, and Smokee (sorry to use you crit-master :p), has 4 crits in a row, and aggro is on him. The boss turns away from Gowron, and goes to Smokee. The rest of the Group just keeps firing away at the Boss. Smokee thinks "SHIT" and hits IB, while Gowron at the same time uses his Taunt. The problem is that the Boss is now out of melee-range of Gowron, and the rest of the Raid is still firing away, building threat on the Boss, while Gowron isn't being hit, and is TPS is almost zero at that moment.... so someone (mostly hunters) get aggro, Gowron is swearing because his taunt is on CD, the hunter uses FD, and mob goes to the next on the aggro list...it will take another 10 seconds before Gowron gets aggro back...a lot can happen in 10 seconds...

So, if the boss gets loose from the Tank (also partly applies to Druids/Warriors):
STOP FIRING

And not actually applying to the guild-members, but most PuG-DPS I tanked for have damage meters and an aggro-meter. And IMHO they tend to look only to the DPS-meters :P and they always spam it when they are on top...
So, in my last Heroic SP-run, it was amusing that only one DPS-chart was printed in /p. I did it, at the end of the run....which I did do in Spelldamage-Gear, and I was 6% ahead in Damage over #2. LOL

CC?

This is a copy from the XII-website


So how do we tank?
..or, using CC.

Simple rule with a tankadin, only CC the mobs that are marked to be cc-ed, if there are 3 mobs, and I moon one of them, I WANT 2 mobs on me, if 2 are cc-ed, I will try to break one of the cc, with the added danger that I probably break 2.

Why?

A tankadin generates threat by being hit, we are a little masochistic :), hit me baby one more time... every time a mob hits me, he gest angrier at me :) Well, thats not an excuse to break a cc you think, let one mob hit you, and then the next... There's also the matter of mana, it doesn't matter for me if I tank one mob, or 27, I will use the same amount of mana.

So back to the 3 mobs above.
If only one gets sheeped, I use around 2500 mana on the first two, and 2500 mana on the last.
If two got sheeped, I use 3 times 2500 mana... which is akward, because I only have around 5200 mana...

Then there's also Spirital Attunement, which gives me 10% mana of the amount I am being healed (6k-critheal=600mana), so when more mobs are hitting me, I get more heals, and I get more mana. The trick for a tankadin is to find the balance, because the heals still need you to keep alive :)

Golden Rule:
Rather have one mor mob hitting you, then loosing aggro:
I will break sheep/sap/seduce/trap/whatever if that is placed in my CC-range, where CC mean CONTINUOUS CONSECRATION.
...and if a non-healer happens to get aggro, while the mob isn't in my CC-range, well, then they should tank it, they should have watched what I am tanking. (that also counts for rogues who stun-lock mobs before they get to me, have fun with them, I pick them up, when your leather is all bloody)

oh, and tanking 27 mobs is something I do as grinding :)

T5

XII is now officially a T5-guild.

And guess who was tanking him :p

We almost died at 2%, fish returned.

Great Job from healers/tanks and dps :P

too bad all hunters lived.

The Lurker Below

Oh my, the BoJ-vendor opened, everyone waiting for that last one percent, on top of the questgiver, so no one could actually click him :p

So I got my new trousers, and my new ring, I am full epic now. After regemming I found out that I lost another 70 health. But I gained 3% dodge and 10% Block Value (regemming Meta), looks like a good trade-off, although that 15k is tempting.

So after everybody in the guild got their new gear, we wanted it to try out of course. So on to Maghteridon, problem, only 2 locks. Well, lets try Void Reaver then. So XII went to Tempest Keep, and found out that the raid-instance was down :P
After some talking, and finding out which raid was open, we opted to visit Lurker. The Trash was nice there, dropped two epics, one was the Spyglass, which went to Annya, the other Tankadin.
We had some good tries on him, and brought him to 53%. The last try even went better, but alas, the Fish respawned.

I found out that actually tanking Lurker IN the water is better, 250dps from water is nothing. And the mobs that spawn in between are excellent to get mana back (SoW/JoW). We also had more people online than needed for the raid, so we can actually pick players, so, Lurker is going down.

Now, lets find out how to place pictures here :p

Really need to use this.

I really need to use this, so 2 months later lets really start :p

In the mean time, XII, with me as one of the Main Tanks, has HKM on farm (sort of), having trouble at Prince again (no safe spots), problems with Gruul (to many melee), and has wiped on Maghteridon,Void Reaver and Lurker Below. We are also 4/6 in ZA, having released two hostages.

XII will get one of those in the very near future, no doubt about it. The new Badge Vendor will open up this week on Ghostlands, and I have 199 BoJ's now. So I will get new pants (the Aldor-ones) and the Tank-ring. The tank Ring will make Gowron fully epic, finally.

With a little regemming, I may be able to get over 15k health (sitting at 14997 now), and stop using the Libram of Repetenance. My estimate dodge will be 25% then, and my threat will get better with the SoR-badge. Which is good, because XII has some crit-happy mages.

The last few weeks, I also have been looking at a spec I am absolutely not familiair with, Retribution. I have been collecting some retri-gear, and I think I can come to 1600AP/23%crit/7hit if I should respec. which I will do for a week, just for fun :P
I have 2 weeks vacation coming up, so I am gonna farm retri-specced with Gowron, and also hoping on some instances, to see if retri really works. Hey, as Pala-Class-Leader, I should now :p
On the other hand, I really should get that Trinket from MagT, maybe Egon can take a Ret-Pally along :p

nah, I will at least try it out, now... GIEF GOREHOWL :p