I'm not going to pretend for a second that I spent the weekend mastering tanking and am the best tank on server.
Far from it, actually.
For one thing, I realized that I don't have a clue what I'm doing. For once, I'm not even just referring to my rotation. I'm referring to a general knowledge of the mobs I'm facing, how to mark them for crowd control, which abilities to interrupt, and how to get them to do what I want them to do without being overly rambunctious. Oh...and feral charge? Still gets me into trouble. (Sorry Kon).Anyway...AoE tanking seems to be something along the lines of this rotation: charge > hit any and every button you can and hope you get all the mobs on you > taunt - wipe > apologize.
If you'd argue that I'm wrong...well...You'd be right...sort of.
Unfortunately, Heroic groups are very unkind to new tanks, especially tanks that have gear that IMPLIES they've been tanking all along...
Dear DPS,
Just because I look like I know what I'm doing...doesn't mean I do. L2patience plz?
Your Bear
It's got to be pretty misleading for a group to come in, see a tank with a handful of epic pieces and heroic drops and not be able to unleash their full fury because the tank is incredibly rusty. So, to any random puggers I've allowed to die or otherwise annoyed: I'm really sorry. I'm trying my best...at least in most cases I'm trying my best.
Rotation?
Oh, right...before I forget...I mentioned in the last post that I was going to share with you my thoughts on rotations.
Here's the thing...I tend to panic a bit on bigger pulls. So the rotation I posted earlier where I said to just hit every button you can find and pray everything wants to hit you instead of your dps? That's, unfortunately, how it's going for me right now.
The correct thing to do is tell your dps to sit back and give you a sec...seriously. Have them get their CC's cast and give you a sec to gather everything up. Remind them that their dps will suck if they're licking floor the whole time. If you get a couple that are overzealous, just go back to the old classic/BC mantra: "If you pull it, you tank it." Generally, after a few deaths, your dps will calm down and give you a quick second to at LEAST get a swipe in there.
Mr. OMG-GO-ALREADY needs to sit back and stfu, too (I know you've either BEEN the omg-HURRY person or you've at least run with one of these darlings). Chances are the one saying that is a hunter anyway and well...we all know my feelings on hunters, right? (If not, I'd LOVE to share with you my stance on hunters...really...I would.)
The correct thing to do is tell your dps to sit back and give you a sec...seriously. Have them get their CC's cast and give you a sec to gather everything up. Remind them that their dps will suck if they're licking floor the whole time. If you get a couple that are overzealous, just go back to the old classic/BC mantra: "If you pull it, you tank it." Generally, after a few deaths, your dps will calm down and give you a quick second to at LEAST get a swipe in there.
Mr. OMG-GO-ALREADY needs to sit back and stfu, too (I know you've either BEEN the omg-HURRY person or you've at least run with one of these darlings). Chances are the one saying that is a hunter anyway and well...we all know my feelings on hunters, right? (If not, I'd LOVE to share with you my stance on hunters...really...I would.)
Anyway...back to what we were talking about here.
Wait...what were we talking about?
OH! Right! Rotations and threat and...well yeah!
Wait...what were we talking about?
OH! Right! Rotations and threat and...well yeah!
A fellow bear, Roars (aka Kon), let me copy a few of his Maul Macros. Right now, I only have Lacerate and Mangle connected to Maul, mainly because I find that it just eats up WAY too much rage. I'm thinking about dropping the Maul from Lacerate...rage starvation makes aoe tanking incredibly difficult...
Anyway...I'm finding that when you gather up a bigger group, Swipe > Mangle > TAB > Thrash > Mangle > TAB > Swipe...etc seems to work alright...at least...it worked in my first full on PuG last night. (Assuming the dps let's you throw that first swipe...doesn't fail at CC...and you, as the bear, don't feral charge into a group that's next to some neutral mobs, swipe, then pull them along with the NEXT entire group of mobs...again, Sorry Kon.)
Well, that rotation seems to work when I'm calm enough to make it work. If I'm feeling extra jittery (which is always on trash pulls), I tend to mess things up a bit, I'll blow a Thrash cooldown too early or I won't tab before I hit my second mangle. I need to get a group of folks willing to just run and hang back a little bit so that I can go in, start my rotation and get used to using a trash rotation instead of running in, hitting swipe, having everyone target something OTHER than our primary mark and then scrambling to regain aggro.
I try to remember to throw Demoralizing Roar up on trash pulls, but since my first priority is getting everyone's attention and DR has not so much threat benefit, I seem to forget it fairly often. Maybe I'll try to find a macro for it. We'll see.
Anyway, single target tanking is pretty easy. Pull with Faerie fire or whatever works for you, mangle, laceratex3, Pulverize, maul maybe - doesn't really matter what order as long as you get your boss/mob focused and don't lose him to a hyperactive dps. Unless you're incredibly undergeared versus your dps, you shouldn't have any issue with single target threat. Just blow it up quick in the beginning and then it's a matter of maintenance. :D
Oh, and if anyone tells you it's "noobie" to throw out a Demoralizing Roar...they're wrong. Any reduction in damage you can get is worth it. I've been standing in the healer's shoes since the launch of Cataclysm and stuff hits HARD. Do your healers a favor and throw up DR whenever you can.
I try to remember to throw Demoralizing Roar up on trash pulls, but since my first priority is getting everyone's attention and DR has not so much threat benefit, I seem to forget it fairly often. Maybe I'll try to find a macro for it. We'll see.
Anyway, single target tanking is pretty easy. Pull with Faerie fire or whatever works for you, mangle, laceratex3, Pulverize, maul maybe - doesn't really matter what order as long as you get your boss/mob focused and don't lose him to a hyperactive dps. Unless you're incredibly undergeared versus your dps, you shouldn't have any issue with single target threat. Just blow it up quick in the beginning and then it's a matter of maintenance. :D
Oh, and if anyone tells you it's "noobie" to throw out a Demoralizing Roar...they're wrong. Any reduction in damage you can get is worth it. I've been standing in the healer's shoes since the launch of Cataclysm and stuff hits HARD. Do your healers a favor and throw up DR whenever you can.
Until then...happy face-smashing!
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