So, I've had almost a week to try out the changes since they removed vengenace from PvP.
The result is, hardly surprising, that our damage has become insubstantial. This, in itself, created less than a problem from one point of view than I was afraid of. Competent enemies still bash the healer when we're carrying a flag or defending a base, and under those circumstances our damage was already pitiful to begin with as we received very little damage for vengeance to scale from.
More problematic are the situations when we participate in a general large scale mayhem. Our low damage makes a difference, but what hurts more is that the selfhealing we have from WoG also falls into the basement. In other words, we're much less able to make a difference when defensively defending a last stand position. Think bosses in AV or IoC.
On a positive note, however, quite a few pet-look-alike abilities still give us vengeance. If this is an error to be removed or not I don't know, but as long as it remains I'll continue to taunt pets, be they hunter pets or other classes' temporary pets.
All in all we stillfunctoin as decent flag carriers and defenders of bases. The latter case sees us shine a little less than before since dimishied damage output sometimes enables a shielded enemy to shake off our AoE damage and cap the base anyway.
Taking on another payer one on one, however, is fairly pointless now. At least if they're geared in proper PvP gear. Our pitiful damage is still more than sufficient to wear down someone in PvE gear, and since our mitigating effects haven't been diminished in any major way (WoG shield lowered) we're very hard to kill for a single oppoenent.
Showing posts with label tactics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tactics. Show all posts
Monday, February 6, 2012
Monday, October 24, 2011
Random battlegrounds: Arathi Basin
This is possibly the BG I like the most.
Five objectives, two teams.
I prefer getting a solid hold on the Lumber Mill because you can stand there and call incomings. Conversely the Gold Mine leaves you blind to what's happening.
Obviosuly you should capture your own 'starting' objective and keep a defensive force there or at least ready to intercept anyone going for it.
The Blacksmith in the middle is usually heavily contested. I'm not entirely certain why as it can be attacked from all sides and is the objective with the longest distance to another objective. In my mind it's best used to tie up enemy resources while your team holds on to Farm/Stables, LM and GM. A decent alternative is holding LM with an oversized force, and smaller defensive force at BS and an even smaller at Farm/Stables. At least if you have a decent number of people who can parachute down from LM.
As a tank I prefer defending LM for the duration of the battle, calling out incomings and notifying my team of the number of defenders at enemy held objectives. Well, barring GM which is invisible to be.
Being a random BG you can sneak in in full sight and snag Farm/Stables all too often, and swarming the enemy starting objective is quite often a solid response to them zerging one of our bases. You're not planning to hold it, just force them to return back home. In such a scenario a tank is quite useful suiciding at the enemy starting objective in a fruitless attempt to 'defend' it.
Five objectives, two teams.
I prefer getting a solid hold on the Lumber Mill because you can stand there and call incomings. Conversely the Gold Mine leaves you blind to what's happening.
Obviosuly you should capture your own 'starting' objective and keep a defensive force there or at least ready to intercept anyone going for it.
The Blacksmith in the middle is usually heavily contested. I'm not entirely certain why as it can be attacked from all sides and is the objective with the longest distance to another objective. In my mind it's best used to tie up enemy resources while your team holds on to Farm/Stables, LM and GM. A decent alternative is holding LM with an oversized force, and smaller defensive force at BS and an even smaller at Farm/Stables. At least if you have a decent number of people who can parachute down from LM.
As a tank I prefer defending LM for the duration of the battle, calling out incomings and notifying my team of the number of defenders at enemy held objectives. Well, barring GM which is invisible to be.
Being a random BG you can sneak in in full sight and snag Farm/Stables all too often, and swarming the enemy starting objective is quite often a solid response to them zerging one of our bases. You're not planning to hold it, just force them to return back home. In such a scenario a tank is quite useful suiciding at the enemy starting objective in a fruitless attempt to 'defend' it.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Random battlegrounds: Battle for Gilneas
This is a three flag competition.
Each faction starts close to one flag of their own, and there's one in the middle.
The battle is very much about holding two flags, or rather rotating forces so that you always hold one flag more than the opponents. My experience is that you want to zerg the middle one as quick as possible while avoiding a humiliating loss of your 'starting' flag.
As a tank I've come to the conclusion that the best job I can do is to head for the enemy starting flag immediately. Not to take it, but to suicide. The reason for this is to tie up resources. In a best case scenario I'll have three or four enemy players spend well over half a minute killing me when I do my lonely assault. That is almost always enough for us to get the middle, or Water Works, flag.
After this the fight usually splits into one out of two scenarios. The enemy tries to hit WW while being careful not to lose their starting flag. I spend those fights rushing their flag alone, which is usually enough to see us winning by keeping two flags for the entire battle, and obviously never getting close to taking the third.
One useful trick is to get 'caught' by the enemy respawned players as they rush to hit WW again. As I play horde I also get the benefit of getting trapped in plain sight of those defending the Lighthouse, so they tend to stay there while I get chewed up by the force who ought to have let me be and hit WW instead.
The second standard battle is when the enemy hits our starting flag instead of getting caught up in a slug-fest for WW. Defending our flag is very often the most important job I can do now. The point isn't to kill the enemy players but rather to disable them from capping our flag by being a general PITA and refusing to die. If things start to get really dirty, a lonely rush for the enemy starting flag surprisingly often pays off. Just make sure noone else in your team isn't already trying to ninja-cap it before you head away, though.
It's also highly important to remember that this is a Random BG. You'll have players leaving their toons at the flag and going AFK in the hope noone will notice (players never leaving the spawn points are always noticed). Thus it's perfectly viable to hit the enemy starting flag in plain sight and cap it. You're likely to find out if there's really a player behind the keyboard of the defending toon.
I've used this defensively as well. As I can't see a stealthed player I'm forced into a guessing game. However, stealthed players tend to CC me before trying our flag, in which case I'll have to lay down AoE and notify my team. The best way to handle a plain-sight ninja attempt isn't to attack the enemy immediately though. Wait for them to start capping. Make sure you can break CC, and give them a slap. Preferably a ranged attack. Sometimes they'll try the flag again, and get slapped, and try again. Normally, though, you'll get caught up in a duel none of you can win, but that's good enough. The flag stays secure.
All in all this is a BG where you'll doing your job best if you keep dying slowly against multiple opponents killing you rather than doing tehir job -- capping or defending flags.
Each faction starts close to one flag of their own, and there's one in the middle.
The battle is very much about holding two flags, or rather rotating forces so that you always hold one flag more than the opponents. My experience is that you want to zerg the middle one as quick as possible while avoiding a humiliating loss of your 'starting' flag.
As a tank I've come to the conclusion that the best job I can do is to head for the enemy starting flag immediately. Not to take it, but to suicide. The reason for this is to tie up resources. In a best case scenario I'll have three or four enemy players spend well over half a minute killing me when I do my lonely assault. That is almost always enough for us to get the middle, or Water Works, flag.
After this the fight usually splits into one out of two scenarios. The enemy tries to hit WW while being careful not to lose their starting flag. I spend those fights rushing their flag alone, which is usually enough to see us winning by keeping two flags for the entire battle, and obviously never getting close to taking the third.
One useful trick is to get 'caught' by the enemy respawned players as they rush to hit WW again. As I play horde I also get the benefit of getting trapped in plain sight of those defending the Lighthouse, so they tend to stay there while I get chewed up by the force who ought to have let me be and hit WW instead.
The second standard battle is when the enemy hits our starting flag instead of getting caught up in a slug-fest for WW. Defending our flag is very often the most important job I can do now. The point isn't to kill the enemy players but rather to disable them from capping our flag by being a general PITA and refusing to die. If things start to get really dirty, a lonely rush for the enemy starting flag surprisingly often pays off. Just make sure noone else in your team isn't already trying to ninja-cap it before you head away, though.
It's also highly important to remember that this is a Random BG. You'll have players leaving their toons at the flag and going AFK in the hope noone will notice (players never leaving the spawn points are always noticed). Thus it's perfectly viable to hit the enemy starting flag in plain sight and cap it. You're likely to find out if there's really a player behind the keyboard of the defending toon.
I've used this defensively as well. As I can't see a stealthed player I'm forced into a guessing game. However, stealthed players tend to CC me before trying our flag, in which case I'll have to lay down AoE and notify my team. The best way to handle a plain-sight ninja attempt isn't to attack the enemy immediately though. Wait for them to start capping. Make sure you can break CC, and give them a slap. Preferably a ranged attack. Sometimes they'll try the flag again, and get slapped, and try again. Normally, though, you'll get caught up in a duel none of you can win, but that's good enough. The flag stays secure.
All in all this is a BG where you'll doing your job best if you keep dying slowly against multiple opponents killing you rather than doing tehir job -- capping or defending flags.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Random battlegrounds: Eye of the Storm
This one is rather fun for a tank. Four towers, one flag.
The general strategy is to leave the flag alone and capture towers ASAP. A semi-decent team will have two smaller groups capture the two towers closest to your starting spawn, and either one massive or two smaller zergs fighting for the tower/s closest to the enemy starting spawn.
For a tank this presents a golden opportunity to do it all wrong, provided that you clearly state what you're up to before the battle starts. You're hitting the flag, and you don't want any help.
Most often this is a suicide mission. You get to the flag and blow every defensive CD in your arsenal in order to keep enemy players tied up by a flag they shouldn't have come to in the first place. If you can keep four or five players busy there for some thirty seconds, then your reward is likely to see three towers captured in the absence of defenders.
Sometimes the enemy team has a working leadership, and you'll end up by the flag alone. Not much to do about it. Collect and head back home to capture it. The lack of a single tank at the towers is outweighed by the extra points you get by capturing the flag.
If you're followed by a bunch of teammates to the flag, just ride through the area and attack an enemy tower. You're up for a bad start with a group of people hitting the flag instead of the towers, and the best way to do something about it is to go suiciding at one of the enemy towers in the hopes that your presence there will see the enemy team move more players to defence. It's unlikely, but I've seen it happen.
After the battle has started in earnest you should rotate between three types of duties. Defend an undermanned tower, attacking an undermaned enemy tower or hitting the flag if there is an enemy group at it.
If you're defending, do call out incoming enemies. Your job isn't simply to suicide. Your job is to stay alive until reinforcements can arrive.
If you're attacking a tower alone, then you are indeed suiciding. Make an effort to get inside, or behind a corner, or whatever you can do to move the defenders away from a position where they can see incoming forces. Chances are they'll call out for reinforcements to a defence which really doesn't need any.
If you're hitting the flag, then you're suiciding to keep enemy players busy at a location they shouldn't be in.
Sometimes you can even help your team by fighting on the roads. This will only be true if you can grab the attention of three or more enemy players.
The general strategy is to leave the flag alone and capture towers ASAP. A semi-decent team will have two smaller groups capture the two towers closest to your starting spawn, and either one massive or two smaller zergs fighting for the tower/s closest to the enemy starting spawn.
For a tank this presents a golden opportunity to do it all wrong, provided that you clearly state what you're up to before the battle starts. You're hitting the flag, and you don't want any help.
Most often this is a suicide mission. You get to the flag and blow every defensive CD in your arsenal in order to keep enemy players tied up by a flag they shouldn't have come to in the first place. If you can keep four or five players busy there for some thirty seconds, then your reward is likely to see three towers captured in the absence of defenders.
Sometimes the enemy team has a working leadership, and you'll end up by the flag alone. Not much to do about it. Collect and head back home to capture it. The lack of a single tank at the towers is outweighed by the extra points you get by capturing the flag.
If you're followed by a bunch of teammates to the flag, just ride through the area and attack an enemy tower. You're up for a bad start with a group of people hitting the flag instead of the towers, and the best way to do something about it is to go suiciding at one of the enemy towers in the hopes that your presence there will see the enemy team move more players to defence. It's unlikely, but I've seen it happen.
After the battle has started in earnest you should rotate between three types of duties. Defend an undermanned tower, attacking an undermaned enemy tower or hitting the flag if there is an enemy group at it.
If you're defending, do call out incoming enemies. Your job isn't simply to suicide. Your job is to stay alive until reinforcements can arrive.
If you're attacking a tower alone, then you are indeed suiciding. Make an effort to get inside, or behind a corner, or whatever you can do to move the defenders away from a position where they can see incoming forces. Chances are they'll call out for reinforcements to a defence which really doesn't need any.
If you're hitting the flag, then you're suiciding to keep enemy players busy at a location they shouldn't be in.
Sometimes you can even help your team by fighting on the roads. This will only be true if you can grab the attention of three or more enemy players.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Random battlegrounds: Isle of Conquest
So, let's have a look at the other mass combat BG.
Just as when comparing WSG with TP, you'll notice how Alterac Valley is positively huge when compared to IoC. Just as with TP this means you can actually change your mind as for wether going defensive or offensive.
As with Alterac there's very little you can do as well as any other role until the enemy boss is engaged. Go for a siege engine and get those gates down, or follow a parachut drop team to get inside and do the same job withou having to get gates down.
To a minor degree you can defend objectives, but the fight lasts for so short a time that taking enemy held objectives are rarely worth it.
You should expect the team rush madly for either the workshop or the docks initially. Preferably they should do both, but in a random BG with 40 players on each side there's very little coordination going on.
You'll just have to go with one group. Preferably the smaller one as you could make a difference in how long it takes your team to finally lose the initial struggle for that objective, and time is worth gold.
When the time comes to tank the boss, swap to PvE gear, pray enemy players are removed and make sure the boss stays in his room. You don't want the wiping buff to kick in. Use your raidwall (if specced into it) for the first jump (one of two boss special attacks) and drop your area heal at the same time. It's helpful if someone in the assaulting team could drop a bloodlust or similar just after the pull. Hence it's a good idea to communicate this on chat before pulling.
Just as when comparing WSG with TP, you'll notice how Alterac Valley is positively huge when compared to IoC. Just as with TP this means you can actually change your mind as for wether going defensive or offensive.
As with Alterac there's very little you can do as well as any other role until the enemy boss is engaged. Go for a siege engine and get those gates down, or follow a parachut drop team to get inside and do the same job withou having to get gates down.
To a minor degree you can defend objectives, but the fight lasts for so short a time that taking enemy held objectives are rarely worth it.
You should expect the team rush madly for either the workshop or the docks initially. Preferably they should do both, but in a random BG with 40 players on each side there's very little coordination going on.
You'll just have to go with one group. Preferably the smaller one as you could make a difference in how long it takes your team to finally lose the initial struggle for that objective, and time is worth gold.
When the time comes to tank the boss, swap to PvE gear, pray enemy players are removed and make sure the boss stays in his room. You don't want the wiping buff to kick in. Use your raidwall (if specced into it) for the first jump (one of two boss special attacks) and drop your area heal at the same time. It's helpful if someone in the assaulting team could drop a bloodlust or similar just after the pull. Hence it's a good idea to communicate this on chat before pulling.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Random battlegrounds: Alterac Valley
This is one of the large scale battlegrounds, and to be honest my knowledge of the overall strategy for this one is rather shady.
With very little to do when it comes to handling enemy players I usually ride to the very opposite end and start picking off archers and burn down two bunkers.
While I wait for more people to join I continue killing off the NPC:s, and eventually I swap to my PvE tanking gear and hit the enemy boss when we're ready for the final assault.
I'm a bit unclear as to how important it is to clear out every NPC at the enemy starting base, but in order to make the ordeal as short as possible I'll drag the elite ones out of their buildings and tank them in plain sight of my team mates. This almost inevitably leads to them being burned down in seconds as people have a tendency to attack anything that is being fought close by.
The final fight is a pure tank and spank fight with no finesse involved at all. Don't forget to swap to PvE tanking gear as it makes the fight a lot easier for your healers. You can't do anything about remaining enemy players more than pray your team keeps them CC:d rather than getting involved in in an outright fight as this slows down the boss fight considerably.
With very little to do when it comes to handling enemy players I usually ride to the very opposite end and start picking off archers and burn down two bunkers.
While I wait for more people to join I continue killing off the NPC:s, and eventually I swap to my PvE tanking gear and hit the enemy boss when we're ready for the final assault.
I'm a bit unclear as to how important it is to clear out every NPC at the enemy starting base, but in order to make the ordeal as short as possible I'll drag the elite ones out of their buildings and tank them in plain sight of my team mates. This almost inevitably leads to them being burned down in seconds as people have a tendency to attack anything that is being fought close by.
The final fight is a pure tank and spank fight with no finesse involved at all. Don't forget to swap to PvE tanking gear as it makes the fight a lot easier for your healers. You can't do anything about remaining enemy players more than pray your team keeps them CC:d rather than getting involved in in an outright fight as this slows down the boss fight considerably.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Random battlegrounds: Strand of the Ancients
Let's have a go at what I believe is the most tank-hostile BG of them all.
Basically, we have nothing to offer here, or almost nothing.
The battle is split into two rounds. One attacking and one defending. Attackers protect siege engines, pick up bombs and commit general mayhem to gates in a wild race to the last gate. They need to remove slowing debuffs from the engines, slow defenders, capture graveyards and get to the final goal in short time.
Defenders, well, they have to make this not happen. So, slow engines, slow attackers, defend graveyards (within reason) and overall become a major PITA at all natural choke points.
We have poor snaring abilities, a stun on a long CD, are suspectible to CC, do abysmal damage at close range and more or less no damage at all at long.
Attacking:
As an attacker, try getting up on an engine. The driver doesn't use any abilities anyway. Just drive and destroy. When your engine is about to blow up, desert it and get up on your mount. Ride the hell away if possible and pick up a new engine.
Later, always pick up bombs before picking up your engine. Same rule as above for almost destroyed engines, but this time you drop at the gate and deploy the bomb. Now our much maligned Consecration shines. People taking damage don't defuse bombs. Stay on top of the bomb and suicide while using every AoE attack in your arsenal. Anything that makes that bomb go off is a bonus.
If you're at the relic chamber when the gate breaks, and if you have the ability available, bubble immediately and rush for the relic.
Defending:
Don't bother getting down to the dirty job. We have little to offer. Go grab a cannon instead. Bomb away at anything that moves, especially engines. When the gate you defend goes down, jump down on the enemy side of the gate. Take the portal to get back home faster.
We're doing poor damage, but we're still good at AoE tanking. Tank the graveyards. People taking damage can't capture any graveyards, and you can survive longer than a squishy. Suicide time again.
At the last choke point, and definitely at the Relic Chamber, please do bubble your healers. You're on defusing duty if the attackers allow you. Doing poor damage, remember?
So, are we entirely worthless? Well, we share a small benefit together with Frost DK. When a gate breaks down, ride at +20% speed and capture the graveyard associated with the gate that is still intact. Chances are you'll be alone capturing it, and you'll get a head start at picking up bombs and start driving for an undefended gate. It's not much, but it's something.
Basically, we have nothing to offer here, or almost nothing.
The battle is split into two rounds. One attacking and one defending. Attackers protect siege engines, pick up bombs and commit general mayhem to gates in a wild race to the last gate. They need to remove slowing debuffs from the engines, slow defenders, capture graveyards and get to the final goal in short time.
Defenders, well, they have to make this not happen. So, slow engines, slow attackers, defend graveyards (within reason) and overall become a major PITA at all natural choke points.
We have poor snaring abilities, a stun on a long CD, are suspectible to CC, do abysmal damage at close range and more or less no damage at all at long.
Attacking:
As an attacker, try getting up on an engine. The driver doesn't use any abilities anyway. Just drive and destroy. When your engine is about to blow up, desert it and get up on your mount. Ride the hell away if possible and pick up a new engine.
Later, always pick up bombs before picking up your engine. Same rule as above for almost destroyed engines, but this time you drop at the gate and deploy the bomb. Now our much maligned Consecration shines. People taking damage don't defuse bombs. Stay on top of the bomb and suicide while using every AoE attack in your arsenal. Anything that makes that bomb go off is a bonus.
If you're at the relic chamber when the gate breaks, and if you have the ability available, bubble immediately and rush for the relic.
Defending:
Don't bother getting down to the dirty job. We have little to offer. Go grab a cannon instead. Bomb away at anything that moves, especially engines. When the gate you defend goes down, jump down on the enemy side of the gate. Take the portal to get back home faster.
We're doing poor damage, but we're still good at AoE tanking. Tank the graveyards. People taking damage can't capture any graveyards, and you can survive longer than a squishy. Suicide time again.
At the last choke point, and definitely at the Relic Chamber, please do bubble your healers. You're on defusing duty if the attackers allow you. Doing poor damage, remember?
So, are we entirely worthless? Well, we share a small benefit together with Frost DK. When a gate breaks down, ride at +20% speed and capture the graveyard associated with the gate that is still intact. Chances are you'll be alone capturing it, and you'll get a head start at picking up bombs and start driving for an undefended gate. It's not much, but it's something.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Random battlegrounds: TP
Twin Peaks is WSG on speed. They're very much alike, but they aren't identical.
To begin with the flag areas don't have the excessive amounts of attached areaas where you can run around and hide. They also lack the opportunity to back into a corner at the very place where you want to dump your flag.
TP is also smaller than WSG. Swapping between defence and offence is a lot faster.
All in all this calls for a slightly different strategy for the PvP tank.
When you collect the flag, ride in through the front door, but exit through the side entrance. Don't stay, just grab the flag and get the hell out.
When returning home I personally prefer going back through my front door. The reason for this is that I've seen too many abyssmal accidents result from having your team split in two groups because you're trying to sneak in through the side entrance together with your escort.
Going home through the front door means hacking your way through the choke point. Again this isn't as bad as it sounds if you have solid team mates. You take fire because the flag you carry aggroes just about every enemy in sight, and your healers keep you up, remove snares and occasionally Holy Leaps you a bit closer to home. During the entire chaos your escort gets the opportunity to give enemy healers a hefty gift of hurt.
Obviously, if your team sucks, then going through the front door is suicide, but you're likely to get stomped all over anyway, so it really doesn't matter all that much.
Well back at home you'll want to stick close to the flag until you have incoming enemies. Then you should move to a corner which can't be targeted from the platform above you. That way ranged enemies have to get down on the floor where they can be targetted by your own melee. Make sure your healer stands close to you as well.
As with WSG, hiding above the flag is taking a huge risk. You can be separated from your escort and go down in seconds.
TP also differs from WSG in another way. Three tanks isn't all that excessive in TP. The reaon is that even a short delay can be golden. If you have three tanks in your team, then having one suiciding by crashing into the enemy train heading for your flag is good use of your money. If the enemy dismount to kill your offending tank (and they usually will) then you've just split the enemy into two separate groups even before they collected the flag.
In the best scenario this results in a slug-fest when your own flag carrier returns with their flag and they're still busy collecting your flag. You can afford going all out aggressive here, because even if you lose your flag by getting killed you still have ample time to collect theirs long before their flag carrier can return back home. Obviously you could get lucky and down most of their team before they can exit the building, and if that happens you're very likely to kill their flag carrier during the next wave of combatants incoming from the grave yard.
Just as with WSG the battle will usually boil down to you waiting at home with the enemy flag while your stacks of damage debuff tick away. The difference is that incoming waves of enemies come quicker compared with WSG, and an offensive team have a far greater chance of going defensive due to the shorter distances involved.
In the three tank team (or a two tank one with a squishy collecting the enemy flag and returning for a drop off) this means you want one tank being a major PITA on the bridge separating the playing fields. If that tank and a healer can keep three or four enemies busy in the middle you're likely to have superior numbers where it matters. It also slows down incoming attacks.
As for the flag carrier back at home, you'll have to take much higher risks compared to WSG. You're a weak damage dealer, but a damage dealer still. During enemy waves you'll simply have to take an active part in reducing them. This will mean you risk being CC when your own team kills the enemy flag carrier, in which case they'll pick up the flag before you can capture it. If your healer is a priest this isn't a problem as long as you have spoken beforehand. Have your priest healer heal you from the capture point and Holy Leap you immediately if your own flag is returned home. Obviously never fight out of reach from your healer.
To begin with the flag areas don't have the excessive amounts of attached areaas where you can run around and hide. They also lack the opportunity to back into a corner at the very place where you want to dump your flag.
TP is also smaller than WSG. Swapping between defence and offence is a lot faster.
All in all this calls for a slightly different strategy for the PvP tank.
When you collect the flag, ride in through the front door, but exit through the side entrance. Don't stay, just grab the flag and get the hell out.
When returning home I personally prefer going back through my front door. The reason for this is that I've seen too many abyssmal accidents result from having your team split in two groups because you're trying to sneak in through the side entrance together with your escort.
Going home through the front door means hacking your way through the choke point. Again this isn't as bad as it sounds if you have solid team mates. You take fire because the flag you carry aggroes just about every enemy in sight, and your healers keep you up, remove snares and occasionally Holy Leaps you a bit closer to home. During the entire chaos your escort gets the opportunity to give enemy healers a hefty gift of hurt.
Obviously, if your team sucks, then going through the front door is suicide, but you're likely to get stomped all over anyway, so it really doesn't matter all that much.
Well back at home you'll want to stick close to the flag until you have incoming enemies. Then you should move to a corner which can't be targeted from the platform above you. That way ranged enemies have to get down on the floor where they can be targetted by your own melee. Make sure your healer stands close to you as well.
As with WSG, hiding above the flag is taking a huge risk. You can be separated from your escort and go down in seconds.
TP also differs from WSG in another way. Three tanks isn't all that excessive in TP. The reaon is that even a short delay can be golden. If you have three tanks in your team, then having one suiciding by crashing into the enemy train heading for your flag is good use of your money. If the enemy dismount to kill your offending tank (and they usually will) then you've just split the enemy into two separate groups even before they collected the flag.
In the best scenario this results in a slug-fest when your own flag carrier returns with their flag and they're still busy collecting your flag. You can afford going all out aggressive here, because even if you lose your flag by getting killed you still have ample time to collect theirs long before their flag carrier can return back home. Obviously you could get lucky and down most of their team before they can exit the building, and if that happens you're very likely to kill their flag carrier during the next wave of combatants incoming from the grave yard.
Just as with WSG the battle will usually boil down to you waiting at home with the enemy flag while your stacks of damage debuff tick away. The difference is that incoming waves of enemies come quicker compared with WSG, and an offensive team have a far greater chance of going defensive due to the shorter distances involved.
In the three tank team (or a two tank one with a squishy collecting the enemy flag and returning for a drop off) this means you want one tank being a major PITA on the bridge separating the playing fields. If that tank and a healer can keep three or four enemies busy in the middle you're likely to have superior numbers where it matters. It also slows down incoming attacks.
As for the flag carrier back at home, you'll have to take much higher risks compared to WSG. You're a weak damage dealer, but a damage dealer still. During enemy waves you'll simply have to take an active part in reducing them. This will mean you risk being CC when your own team kills the enemy flag carrier, in which case they'll pick up the flag before you can capture it. If your healer is a priest this isn't a problem as long as you have spoken beforehand. Have your priest healer heal you from the capture point and Holy Leap you immediately if your own flag is returned home. Obviously never fight out of reach from your healer.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Random battlegrounds: WSG
Two flags, get the enemy one, stay alive and have your friends kill the enemy flag carrier.
This is a BG where a tank shines.
I've learned to dispense with all finesse. Just ride across the field, keep a little bit to the right to avoid getting caught up by enemy CC. Ride straight through the front door and keep running.
This can be done even without escort, but if the flag is guarded by more than two people you're dead. Preferably you have a squishy with you to grab enemy attention.
Get the flag, and avoid getting involved in any fights unless you're zerging the place. Run back out the same way you came. Don't forget to check for the speed-buff.
What I've found working out best is to cross the field somewhat on the outskirts of where fighting is going on. You're likely to draw attention, but unless the team you're grouped with are hopelessly bad you'll also get yourself a pretty strong escort.
The reason getting slightly caught up in battle mid-field is actually pretty good is that you'll draw fire onto yourself. Your healers are likely to be left alone, and with a live healer you can crawl all the way to the flag-deposit point without going down. I even go as far as backpedalling the last bit to make sure enemy players don't lose interest in me. By that time I've stacked up an impressive amount of vengeance, and reds quickly learn that a flag carrier actually hurts pretty bad.
The kind of attrition fight described above should normally give your dps a decent opportunity to catch the enemy flag carrier in superior numbers. The reason for this is that while you slowly fight your way home, the closer to your own spawn point you get. As players die left and right you'll generate a continuous superiority in numbers simply because the enemy has longer to ride to get back in action.
Back at home you just cram yourself into a corner by the deposit point. Hopefully you have a small escort including a healer staying with you.
I know a lot of people prefer staying upstairs, but my experience is that this is all too often a very bad idea. If an enemy DK pops into the fight you're likely to be physically separated from your healer. It's a lot harder to split up the defending group if they're close to the flag.
When the enemy arrive, and they probably will, you'll need to check their numbers. If they're few you most likely want to leave your protected position and assault in order to help with local numerical superiority. Use SoT and let them eat shield.
If they're a crap-ton, make sure you're seen and back into that corner again. Hopefully one or two enemy melee dps beeline directly for you, giving you a superb opportunity to tank them PvE boss-style. Even though some 25% block chance is rather poor, it's a lot better than zero. Add that your measly dodge and parry both activate if you're fighting frontally. It all adds up. Your stun is a defensive cooldown as well. Use it.
This is also the point when you need to decide if you're going to bubble before going down or if you're going to risk being CC when you need to pull the LoH off. Always remember that bubbling makes you drop the flag, so this has to be timed. As for the general fight just distribute your defensive cooldowns evenly and keep a very close eye on your healer health. You'll want to bubble him/her when things look dark.
Also don't forget your raidwall (if you're specced into it) and the measly area heal you have available. You should probably fight with SoI rather than SoT when overwhelmed numerically as well. WoG at CD, so use that SotR sparingly. If you have time and are able to see anything, free friendly melee dps from slows.
Usually nothing funny will happen until the flag carriers have collected four stacks or more of the damage debuff. This is also when enemy zergs usually occur. Eat food, bandage and throw self-heals between attack waves. Also, don't forget to buff up occasionally.
When the flag has been captured you need to know if you're one or two flagcarriers in your team. Sometimes a squishy grabs the enemy flag. In that case you need to get out to orchestrate a drop off. If you have a proper tank picking the flag up, then you should join the offensive team. Not because you're especially good at killing anything, but because you want to be close to the enemy flag when it spawns after the next capture.
Now get out there and tank your way to glory.
This is a BG where a tank shines.
I've learned to dispense with all finesse. Just ride across the field, keep a little bit to the right to avoid getting caught up by enemy CC. Ride straight through the front door and keep running.
This can be done even without escort, but if the flag is guarded by more than two people you're dead. Preferably you have a squishy with you to grab enemy attention.
Get the flag, and avoid getting involved in any fights unless you're zerging the place. Run back out the same way you came. Don't forget to check for the speed-buff.
What I've found working out best is to cross the field somewhat on the outskirts of where fighting is going on. You're likely to draw attention, but unless the team you're grouped with are hopelessly bad you'll also get yourself a pretty strong escort.
The reason getting slightly caught up in battle mid-field is actually pretty good is that you'll draw fire onto yourself. Your healers are likely to be left alone, and with a live healer you can crawl all the way to the flag-deposit point without going down. I even go as far as backpedalling the last bit to make sure enemy players don't lose interest in me. By that time I've stacked up an impressive amount of vengeance, and reds quickly learn that a flag carrier actually hurts pretty bad.
The kind of attrition fight described above should normally give your dps a decent opportunity to catch the enemy flag carrier in superior numbers. The reason for this is that while you slowly fight your way home, the closer to your own spawn point you get. As players die left and right you'll generate a continuous superiority in numbers simply because the enemy has longer to ride to get back in action.
Back at home you just cram yourself into a corner by the deposit point. Hopefully you have a small escort including a healer staying with you.
I know a lot of people prefer staying upstairs, but my experience is that this is all too often a very bad idea. If an enemy DK pops into the fight you're likely to be physically separated from your healer. It's a lot harder to split up the defending group if they're close to the flag.
When the enemy arrive, and they probably will, you'll need to check their numbers. If they're few you most likely want to leave your protected position and assault in order to help with local numerical superiority. Use SoT and let them eat shield.
If they're a crap-ton, make sure you're seen and back into that corner again. Hopefully one or two enemy melee dps beeline directly for you, giving you a superb opportunity to tank them PvE boss-style. Even though some 25% block chance is rather poor, it's a lot better than zero. Add that your measly dodge and parry both activate if you're fighting frontally. It all adds up. Your stun is a defensive cooldown as well. Use it.
This is also the point when you need to decide if you're going to bubble before going down or if you're going to risk being CC when you need to pull the LoH off. Always remember that bubbling makes you drop the flag, so this has to be timed. As for the general fight just distribute your defensive cooldowns evenly and keep a very close eye on your healer health. You'll want to bubble him/her when things look dark.
Also don't forget your raidwall (if you're specced into it) and the measly area heal you have available. You should probably fight with SoI rather than SoT when overwhelmed numerically as well. WoG at CD, so use that SotR sparingly. If you have time and are able to see anything, free friendly melee dps from slows.
Usually nothing funny will happen until the flag carriers have collected four stacks or more of the damage debuff. This is also when enemy zergs usually occur. Eat food, bandage and throw self-heals between attack waves. Also, don't forget to buff up occasionally.
When the flag has been captured you need to know if you're one or two flagcarriers in your team. Sometimes a squishy grabs the enemy flag. In that case you need to get out to orchestrate a drop off. If you have a proper tank picking the flag up, then you should join the offensive team. Not because you're especially good at killing anything, but because you want to be close to the enemy flag when it spawns after the next capture.
Now get out there and tank your way to glory.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Random battlegrounds: general
I'll give my input as a casual tanking PvP player. Hence BG are always the atrocity called random battle grounds.
I'm assuming that you're joining in some kind of tank spec, possibly in your main tank spec.
I'm also assuming that you have access to a semi-decent set of PvP gear. Say the 371 you collect for honor. If you don't, just don't bother. You're made of paper the moment a caster shows up.
You'll be doing bloody awful dps, so your goal is to stay alive in a constructive way. Or you'll suicide in an equally constructive way.
When suiciding, try getting a message away that you're planning to do so, and that you don't want any help. Your mission is to buy the rest of the raid a few extra seconds by keeping some opponents busy killing you. Just burn every CD you have available for survival and pop whatever CD you have for getting out of CC.
When staying alive you're either waiting for reinforcements to arrive, in which case you do as when suiciding, or you're jogging around with a flag. In the latter case you're trying to reach teammates unless you already have an escort with you. Use defensive cooldowns sparingly if you have a healer with you. In that case, attack as many targets as possible. You want people hitting you and leaving your healer alone.
When people refuse to hit you, or you're getting chain CC:d, Hand of Sacrifice a friendly target who's taking a beating.
I'll follow up with some more specific articles for casual BG-playing as a tank.
I'm assuming that you're joining in some kind of tank spec, possibly in your main tank spec.
I'm also assuming that you have access to a semi-decent set of PvP gear. Say the 371 you collect for honor. If you don't, just don't bother. You're made of paper the moment a caster shows up.
You'll be doing bloody awful dps, so your goal is to stay alive in a constructive way. Or you'll suicide in an equally constructive way.
When suiciding, try getting a message away that you're planning to do so, and that you don't want any help. Your mission is to buy the rest of the raid a few extra seconds by keeping some opponents busy killing you. Just burn every CD you have available for survival and pop whatever CD you have for getting out of CC.
When staying alive you're either waiting for reinforcements to arrive, in which case you do as when suiciding, or you're jogging around with a flag. In the latter case you're trying to reach teammates unless you already have an escort with you. Use defensive cooldowns sparingly if you have a healer with you. In that case, attack as many targets as possible. You want people hitting you and leaving your healer alone.
When people refuse to hit you, or you're getting chain CC:d, Hand of Sacrifice a friendly target who's taking a beating.
I'll follow up with some more specific articles for casual BG-playing as a tank.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Short piece of advice, Molten Front
Actually two pieces.
The first was found out independently by several members of Maintankadin. The quest Burn Victims is best solved by throwing an occasional Holy Radiance while doing the other quest.
The second concerns the quest Solar Core Destruction. For some reason the clicky can be done while bubbled. As you can't take any damage while bubbled you won't get interrupted. Before the bubble drops (and you get a horde of angry flame druids crawling all over you) you'll get thrown to the pillar.
The first was found out independently by several members of Maintankadin. The quest Burn Victims is best solved by throwing an occasional Holy Radiance while doing the other quest.
The second concerns the quest Solar Core Destruction. For some reason the clicky can be done while bubbled. As you can't take any damage while bubbled you won't get interrupted. Before the bubble drops (and you get a horde of angry flame druids crawling all over you) you'll get thrown to the pillar.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Threat 2
Ok, now it's time to break the rule.
What rule?
To never ever gear away from survival.
Why would we ever gear away from survival?
Because it's damn fun.
OK, so it's fun. Even tanks like to watch big yellow numbers from time to time. Even a raiding tank could find pleasure with it. There are, however, a few rules we ought to keep.
Your fun shouldn't:
1) Make the run unfun for the others.
2) Disabling you from properly tanking the content.
3) Disabling an eventual co-tank from properly tanking the content.
So it all boils down to being distinctly overgeared for the content. How much is overgeared? I'd say it depends on you and your group. I have fun in the old Cata five man heroics during pugs. I also have fun in an average ilevel 355 set designed to kill stuff. That's grossly overgeared.
Some have fun in content at their own gearlevel, or at least not very much below their own gearlevel. Like having fun in 359 gear with the earlier bosses in Cata raids. I doubt they're pugging it.
That said, how do your start having fun?
Kick your hit-rating to whatever means never missing your target. I hiked it to 8% because I consider the BH 10-man raid to be distinctly easier than some of the old Cata hc:s, and hence I tank it as one. If you'd never consider tanking anything but five-mans in a threat set, then you only have to get hit rating enough to fight level 87 targets.
Kick your expertise to 16. That makes you soft-capped with glyphed SoT. Then kick it as high as you can without feeling squishy, but never higher than 46, because then you hard-cap expertise with glyphed SoT.
Rather obviously, glyph SoT.
Take the best weapon you don't need for surviving stuff that actually tries to kill you and enchant it with Landslide.
Take a very, very greedy look at the PvP gloves, especially if the Conquest Point version is available to you. +5% damage to the attack you'll use almost 50% on boss-fights is an appealing reason.
Glyph SotR and HotR if you feel like having really fun.
Go kill stuff and match DD dps.
There are ways of having even more fun, as can be seen from the link in this post, but this is The Pugadin blog, and pugging tanks don't get to have fun in proper raids, at least not until 4.2 is released.
Now to some stuff to keep having fun without getting kicked.
You'll take a lot more damage than you're used to. The difference between my MDR raiding set and my threat set is a hulking 19% CTC. That's a LOT more physical damage incoming. That's the main reason I don't have fun in the troll heroics. I'd give my healer a heart attack.
While things running away from you basically becomes a non-issue, that extra damage warrants the use of your stun just after you pull a big pack of mobs, and you do want to mark skull. The combined result of DD focusing on your target, your own higher dps and six seconds of target inactivity makes life a whole lot easier for your healer. In effect that target will die very shortly after it's allowed to attack you. Use glyphed Holy Wrath early on stunnable targets for the very same reason.
The above tactics will actually lower your dps a little bit as you take less than maximal damage, but I strongly advice you to follow them until you feel confident that you'll survive the extra damage anyway.
In difference from what I have done, which should work as a reminder to myself to get my act together, don't nerf mastery to increase hit and expertise. Now I didn't go and actively nerf my mastery, but I have been lazy.
When a piece of gear comes with avoidance and hit/expertise I simply don't reforge away from threat into mastery. That's stupid. Mastery is better than avoidance for survival, point by point. What I should do is to reforge, for example, hit rating into mastery and then reforge, for example, parry into expertise. That way I get the same amount of fun, but I effectively convert avoidance into mastery, which is a net gain in survival.
For the very same reason I should probably see if it is at all possible to keep one of my Tol Barad mastery trinkets, preferably the one with strength on-use, and convert 321 points of avoidance into hit/expertise instead of blindly slapping in a hit-rating trinket. This would also allow me to get rid of the inferior 'fun-trinket' with agility.
Then, of course, as gear become more and more grossly better than the content we want to eradicate, we can give survivability less and less of a thought. Eventually we'll tank the content in pure dps-gear, but honestly, I doubt it'll be as fun.
What rule?
To never ever gear away from survival.
Why would we ever gear away from survival?
Because it's damn fun.
OK, so it's fun. Even tanks like to watch big yellow numbers from time to time. Even a raiding tank could find pleasure with it. There are, however, a few rules we ought to keep.
Your fun shouldn't:
1) Make the run unfun for the others.
2) Disabling you from properly tanking the content.
3) Disabling an eventual co-tank from properly tanking the content.
So it all boils down to being distinctly overgeared for the content. How much is overgeared? I'd say it depends on you and your group. I have fun in the old Cata five man heroics during pugs. I also have fun in an average ilevel 355 set designed to kill stuff. That's grossly overgeared.
Some have fun in content at their own gearlevel, or at least not very much below their own gearlevel. Like having fun in 359 gear with the earlier bosses in Cata raids. I doubt they're pugging it.
That said, how do your start having fun?
Kick your hit-rating to whatever means never missing your target. I hiked it to 8% because I consider the BH 10-man raid to be distinctly easier than some of the old Cata hc:s, and hence I tank it as one. If you'd never consider tanking anything but five-mans in a threat set, then you only have to get hit rating enough to fight level 87 targets.
Kick your expertise to 16. That makes you soft-capped with glyphed SoT. Then kick it as high as you can without feeling squishy, but never higher than 46, because then you hard-cap expertise with glyphed SoT.
Rather obviously, glyph SoT.
Take the best weapon you don't need for surviving stuff that actually tries to kill you and enchant it with Landslide.
Take a very, very greedy look at the PvP gloves, especially if the Conquest Point version is available to you. +5% damage to the attack you'll use almost 50% on boss-fights is an appealing reason.
Glyph SotR and HotR if you feel like having really fun.
Go kill stuff and match DD dps.
There are ways of having even more fun, as can be seen from the link in this post, but this is The Pugadin blog, and pugging tanks don't get to have fun in proper raids, at least not until 4.2 is released.
Now to some stuff to keep having fun without getting kicked.
You'll take a lot more damage than you're used to. The difference between my MDR raiding set and my threat set is a hulking 19% CTC. That's a LOT more physical damage incoming. That's the main reason I don't have fun in the troll heroics. I'd give my healer a heart attack.
While things running away from you basically becomes a non-issue, that extra damage warrants the use of your stun just after you pull a big pack of mobs, and you do want to mark skull. The combined result of DD focusing on your target, your own higher dps and six seconds of target inactivity makes life a whole lot easier for your healer. In effect that target will die very shortly after it's allowed to attack you. Use glyphed Holy Wrath early on stunnable targets for the very same reason.
The above tactics will actually lower your dps a little bit as you take less than maximal damage, but I strongly advice you to follow them until you feel confident that you'll survive the extra damage anyway.
In difference from what I have done, which should work as a reminder to myself to get my act together, don't nerf mastery to increase hit and expertise. Now I didn't go and actively nerf my mastery, but I have been lazy.
When a piece of gear comes with avoidance and hit/expertise I simply don't reforge away from threat into mastery. That's stupid. Mastery is better than avoidance for survival, point by point. What I should do is to reforge, for example, hit rating into mastery and then reforge, for example, parry into expertise. That way I get the same amount of fun, but I effectively convert avoidance into mastery, which is a net gain in survival.
For the very same reason I should probably see if it is at all possible to keep one of my Tol Barad mastery trinkets, preferably the one with strength on-use, and convert 321 points of avoidance into hit/expertise instead of blindly slapping in a hit-rating trinket. This would also allow me to get rid of the inferior 'fun-trinket' with agility.
Then, of course, as gear become more and more grossly better than the content we want to eradicate, we can give survivability less and less of a thought. Eventually we'll tank the content in pure dps-gear, but honestly, I doubt it'll be as fun.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Threat 1
Threat is a joke -- don't flask, eat, pot, gear, gem, enchant or reforge to get more.
Well, that would make this a very short blog post. Especially as the above statement basically is all that you need to know.
That's also the short short version.
The short version is that if you don't know what to do, then you should follow the above statement.
Then there is a long version as well, and this is where my blog post stops being very short.
Threat is a joke unless you have zero vengenance and zero threat lead. That's usually just before you start pulling, but it sometimes includes tank swap situations, new adds that have to be picked up and fights with threat reset mechanics. While you should have some vengenace up at the moment when these exceptions occur, your vengenace could very well be low enough that threat initially isn't a joke.
If you can rely on hunters and rogues diverting threat your way, then you're potentially not being very casual about your tanking. Sure, member of a casual raiding guild where players still do their job, but those groups tend to be the exception.
Now, if you can't rely on anyone helping you during those moments when threat is not a joke, how should you handle my first statement in this post? Exactly the same way as if you could rely on help.
The thing is, if you're geared for threat in a fight that could kill you even if healers do their jobs decently enough, then you're gearing wrong. Does that mean you just have to bite the bullet and watch stuff run all over the place and then complain about careless dps? Well, both yes and no. Yes, you have to bite the bullet. No, stuff isn't allowed to run all over the place. It depends wether you should complain about careless dps.
Just bite it.
A dead tank generates zero threat. You absolutely have to cover the gearing needs to stay alive. That's simply not optional.
Don't allow stuff to run away.
You have two taunts on an eight second CD each, and they're off the GCD, and they can't miss. If you lose threat, just taunt. Effectively you just got a 10% threat lead against melee dps and a 30% leads against anything else (provided healers are standing away from melee range).
If you're raiding then pots are worth it. Break my initial rule and drink one for a big strength increase just prior to pulling.
Use Divine Plea and Inquisition pre-pull for some extra threat. Use glyphed SoT seal for the pull. When things are under controll you can swap to SoI for increased survivability.
If you know well before the fight that adds are going to pop up with the intent to eat your healers (and the occasional dps) for dinner, glyph dazing shield. While it delays the time it takes the adds to reach you, it also delays their dinner preparations.
Taunt. The two taunts are still there long after your initial pull. Be careful with the RD though. You might taunt something you didn't want to.
If you're tanking one caster add and you realize you have to walk over and disrupt that dinner making mob, there are a few options. AS available? Taunt the far away mob, AS the one you're tanking and start walking. No AS? Stun your current target and walk away. Either you'll have to get back to the caster, or your AS came off cooldown and you can order it to come over to you.
You're truly stuck in place with your current target. There is simply no way you can walk away from it for one reason or another. And a caster chef just popped up a bit away. And AS is on cooldown. Taunt the new mob. Divine Plea, Inquisition, taunt it again and Judge it. AS still off cooldown? Stun your current target and cast Exorsism on the far away mob. AS still on cooldown? Your first taunt just came off cooldown, use it again. AS still on cooldown and that mob starts working on your healer? Well, HoP your healer.
And then there are the oddball situations when you're seemingly out of options. You're getting swarmed and nothing could possibly make you collect all those adds. Well, there are oddball solutions. They're likely to fail, but if the alternative is a guaranteed fail, well. You have two instant heals. Lay on Hands is a nice threat spike, and while Holy Radiance only ticks for about 1k health per second, if you're standing among melee dps it stacks up pretty decently. You're having RF turned on, but your healers aren't. Instant healing might be enough to make anything in the area lose interest in them.
And finally there are the situations where you're simply doing it wrong. You have AoE attacks for a reason. What works on a single boss doesn't always work on a group of targets. You also have a tab key. Noone's going to yell at you for changing target, get in a good smack and continue to the next, all while keeping your AoE attacks up. Just make sure to get back to your primary one rather quickly.
To complain or not complain, that is the question.
If you haven't tried beefing up your initial threat, then you have no right to complain. Now, if you truly believe you've done your part (and haven't been proved wrong) then some complaints might be in order.
If the dps are hysterically outthreating you during pull and they still want you to tank the content, then they should take it easy at the start.
If the dps are still outthreating you after thirty seconds of the fight has passed, then either you can't tank for them, or they'll need to accept to perform under their level. This would most likely be a bad case of tanking, ie you need to learn how to tank, or they're outgearing you badly. The latter might be the situation when you're replacing a previous tank in a guild but simply lack the gear to do the job as well as they're used to.
If you're outthreating every dps minus one, who isn't doing noticeably higher damage than the rest, then that tank wannabe should be told to turn off threat increasing abilities.
But what about threat gear? Well, the exceptions to my first statement is not a topic for this post, but I'll cover that later.
Well, that would make this a very short blog post. Especially as the above statement basically is all that you need to know.
That's also the short short version.
The short version is that if you don't know what to do, then you should follow the above statement.
Then there is a long version as well, and this is where my blog post stops being very short.
Threat is a joke unless you have zero vengenance and zero threat lead. That's usually just before you start pulling, but it sometimes includes tank swap situations, new adds that have to be picked up and fights with threat reset mechanics. While you should have some vengenace up at the moment when these exceptions occur, your vengenace could very well be low enough that threat initially isn't a joke.
If you can rely on hunters and rogues diverting threat your way, then you're potentially not being very casual about your tanking. Sure, member of a casual raiding guild where players still do their job, but those groups tend to be the exception.
Now, if you can't rely on anyone helping you during those moments when threat is not a joke, how should you handle my first statement in this post? Exactly the same way as if you could rely on help.
The thing is, if you're geared for threat in a fight that could kill you even if healers do their jobs decently enough, then you're gearing wrong. Does that mean you just have to bite the bullet and watch stuff run all over the place and then complain about careless dps? Well, both yes and no. Yes, you have to bite the bullet. No, stuff isn't allowed to run all over the place. It depends wether you should complain about careless dps.
Just bite it.
A dead tank generates zero threat. You absolutely have to cover the gearing needs to stay alive. That's simply not optional.
Don't allow stuff to run away.
You have two taunts on an eight second CD each, and they're off the GCD, and they can't miss. If you lose threat, just taunt. Effectively you just got a 10% threat lead against melee dps and a 30% leads against anything else (provided healers are standing away from melee range).
If you're raiding then pots are worth it. Break my initial rule and drink one for a big strength increase just prior to pulling.
Use Divine Plea and Inquisition pre-pull for some extra threat. Use glyphed SoT seal for the pull. When things are under controll you can swap to SoI for increased survivability.
If you know well before the fight that adds are going to pop up with the intent to eat your healers (and the occasional dps) for dinner, glyph dazing shield. While it delays the time it takes the adds to reach you, it also delays their dinner preparations.
Taunt. The two taunts are still there long after your initial pull. Be careful with the RD though. You might taunt something you didn't want to.
If you're tanking one caster add and you realize you have to walk over and disrupt that dinner making mob, there are a few options. AS available? Taunt the far away mob, AS the one you're tanking and start walking. No AS? Stun your current target and walk away. Either you'll have to get back to the caster, or your AS came off cooldown and you can order it to come over to you.
You're truly stuck in place with your current target. There is simply no way you can walk away from it for one reason or another. And a caster chef just popped up a bit away. And AS is on cooldown. Taunt the new mob. Divine Plea, Inquisition, taunt it again and Judge it. AS still off cooldown? Stun your current target and cast Exorsism on the far away mob. AS still on cooldown? Your first taunt just came off cooldown, use it again. AS still on cooldown and that mob starts working on your healer? Well, HoP your healer.
And then there are the oddball situations when you're seemingly out of options. You're getting swarmed and nothing could possibly make you collect all those adds. Well, there are oddball solutions. They're likely to fail, but if the alternative is a guaranteed fail, well. You have two instant heals. Lay on Hands is a nice threat spike, and while Holy Radiance only ticks for about 1k health per second, if you're standing among melee dps it stacks up pretty decently. You're having RF turned on, but your healers aren't. Instant healing might be enough to make anything in the area lose interest in them.
And finally there are the situations where you're simply doing it wrong. You have AoE attacks for a reason. What works on a single boss doesn't always work on a group of targets. You also have a tab key. Noone's going to yell at you for changing target, get in a good smack and continue to the next, all while keeping your AoE attacks up. Just make sure to get back to your primary one rather quickly.
To complain or not complain, that is the question.
If you haven't tried beefing up your initial threat, then you have no right to complain. Now, if you truly believe you've done your part (and haven't been proved wrong) then some complaints might be in order.
If the dps are hysterically outthreating you during pull and they still want you to tank the content, then they should take it easy at the start.
If the dps are still outthreating you after thirty seconds of the fight has passed, then either you can't tank for them, or they'll need to accept to perform under their level. This would most likely be a bad case of tanking, ie you need to learn how to tank, or they're outgearing you badly. The latter might be the situation when you're replacing a previous tank in a guild but simply lack the gear to do the job as well as they're used to.
If you're outthreating every dps minus one, who isn't doing noticeably higher damage than the rest, then that tank wannabe should be told to turn off threat increasing abilities.
But what about threat gear? Well, the exceptions to my first statement is not a topic for this post, but I'll cover that later.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
The strength of a pug
"We haven't done it this way before."
That's at least something you're unlikely to see the entire party fall back on when things don't work as you want.
The true pug, by definition, hasn't done things in any way before. You're recently gathered, and when you run into an obstacle you're left with either following well known tactics or trying something new. While there is, admittedly, usually a preferable way to solve a problem, the pug offers you the option to try a diferent way to handle it.
A new way is more often than not a worse way, but it is also the strength of a pug. It is a new way, and as such it offers a possible insight into how to handle the given problem. It also offers insights into how to handle similar problems, and while the new way is likely to be discarded as the wrong way, from time to time you'll learn something.
Sometimes you even learn the road to a new established way of solving this type of problems.
That is the strength of the pug. It's not set in its ways.
That's at least something you're unlikely to see the entire party fall back on when things don't work as you want.
The true pug, by definition, hasn't done things in any way before. You're recently gathered, and when you run into an obstacle you're left with either following well known tactics or trying something new. While there is, admittedly, usually a preferable way to solve a problem, the pug offers you the option to try a diferent way to handle it.
A new way is more often than not a worse way, but it is also the strength of a pug. It is a new way, and as such it offers a possible insight into how to handle the given problem. It also offers insights into how to handle similar problems, and while the new way is likely to be discarded as the wrong way, from time to time you'll learn something.
Sometimes you even learn the road to a new established way of solving this type of problems.
That is the strength of the pug. It's not set in its ways.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Controlled ninja pulling
So, you're standing ready to pull those mobs. They're marked for CC and it's time to throw that shield, or is it?
What does your party look like? Some specs can only CC efficiently pre-pull, others can peel a target after the pull is initiated.
A rogue or hunter can pull for you. While this might seem counter intuitive, if you have a multi-mob pull that could go astray, decide which of them you want to handle yourself. Most likely we're talking casters now. That melee mob could preferably be misdirected by that hunter.
One of the more problematic archetype of mobs is the archer. It just won't move unless you run around a corner, and that isn't always an option. If you have a DK with you that's not a problem at all. Have the DK Deathgrip the archer and stun it as soon as it lands.
The long corner pull. For some reason you realise you simply won't make it around that corner before the pull goes pearshaped. But for reasons of gear you still want to make it a corner pull. Again no problem. Is there anyone in hte party with a sprint or jump ability? Stand closer to the corner, let the player body aggro the entire group. Lay down a consecrate and bubble the player. Now run like mad. Or a priest could leap you the distance needed to make it around the corner in time.
The insanity race. You're trucking down everything in sight. Give that sweet group the go ahead for starting to CC and peel the next group before the current one is down. A boring dungeon is turned into an endless combat that doesn't stop until the last boss is down.
Before you're standing there ready to pull those mobs, be prepared by knowing beforehand the assets presented by your party. Don't be afraid to ask. Next time you'll know when a controlled ninja pull is the best way to start the fight.
What does your party look like? Some specs can only CC efficiently pre-pull, others can peel a target after the pull is initiated.
A rogue or hunter can pull for you. While this might seem counter intuitive, if you have a multi-mob pull that could go astray, decide which of them you want to handle yourself. Most likely we're talking casters now. That melee mob could preferably be misdirected by that hunter.
One of the more problematic archetype of mobs is the archer. It just won't move unless you run around a corner, and that isn't always an option. If you have a DK with you that's not a problem at all. Have the DK Deathgrip the archer and stun it as soon as it lands.
The long corner pull. For some reason you realise you simply won't make it around that corner before the pull goes pearshaped. But for reasons of gear you still want to make it a corner pull. Again no problem. Is there anyone in hte party with a sprint or jump ability? Stand closer to the corner, let the player body aggro the entire group. Lay down a consecrate and bubble the player. Now run like mad. Or a priest could leap you the distance needed to make it around the corner in time.
The insanity race. You're trucking down everything in sight. Give that sweet group the go ahead for starting to CC and peel the next group before the current one is down. A boring dungeon is turned into an endless combat that doesn't stop until the last boss is down.
Before you're standing there ready to pull those mobs, be prepared by knowing beforehand the assets presented by your party. Don't be afraid to ask. Next time you'll know when a controlled ninja pull is the best way to start the fight.
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