The following is specifically for large packs in 5mans. Not “the only way”, but this stuff works well for me
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never ever tclap (less rage=less aggro), unless you’re literally gonna die without it. Blood furnace H caged guys u will def need it.
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demo shout only if really needed for inital aggro. if there’s like 6+ mobs u often need to demo just to keep the pull clean. No demo shout = more rage coming in = more aggro
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spec imp cleave, literally spam cleave. U can mouseover macro it or just spam tab. Put this on an easy button, i use Q. Included my macro at the end
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zerk rage → charge → whirlwind on pull, followed by D.stance cleaves
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i almost never use devastate unless u have 3 non-cleaving melee or hunters, and u are just burning targets 1 at a time. otherwise waste of rage when u could just cleave every gcd
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Latro’s is gonna be ur best threat wep for these situations. until t6 weps.
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shield slam: on large packs, i only start using it once the pull is rolling and ton of rage is coming in. Exception is for a bit of threat on a mob you weren’t cleaving in the first few gcd’s, maybe a ranged mob
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stacking nameplates is a must, not overlapping. for mouseover interrupts
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block value =shield slam threat, this includes the prot talent for 30% block value.
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Tac mastery is a must so u can intercept → taunt and also mocking blow whenever. Whirlwind in zerker too (risky on some heroics if not geared.)
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revenge stun is kinda overrated imo, not reliable enough, i do take it tho . The imp shield bash is great for rounding up caster mobs.
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Pick fat dps who can basically delete a mob during a taunt or conc blow.
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Get piercing howl (u already have imp cleave) If a mob is “chasing” a ranged, but slowed, it’s nbd. long as they kill it quick
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target marker hotkeys are essential, as others have said. if u have rgb keyboard u can colour the keys so u know what is skull X etc
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Always get an enhance or some sort of shaman and request Wf totem, massive aggro boost. or a pala and ask him for salv on everyone. If you have druid, request thorns
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priest healer is ur worst option, the shield gives u 0 rage. sham is ur best friend since the earth shield buffs your aggro a lot, even on ranged mobs casting/shooting you
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Always b.shout even if you’re the only melee. More aggro. Commanding basically means “i expect to lose aggro so good luck”. It’s almost never needed, except unavoidable 5-person damage situations like SL on the Inciter, or the mana tombs H first boss.
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Dual freezing band really helps on the large packs like sethekk hall birds, combined with piercing howl nothing will reach your dps
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battlemaster enchant on ur 5man trash wep (even if you play perfect, dps are life tapping, getting cleaved, standing in poison lol) U will get laughed at by nubs cuz “the guide says mongoose”
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sporeggar shield (kind of a joke till u have good block %)
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basically gear on the extreme edge of dying lol for max threat. within reason of course. also for your “5man hero” gear set you dont need full stam gems, u can gem for threat
and with all that said, a geared paladin can literally like body pull, LOS on a corner, and hit 3 keys and out threat you while eating chips
And i have to disagree with the BOMBS idea, (yes they work well) unless ur a gold buyer or something. ur running 5mans to make ur character stronger, not waste gold every pull so some guildless mage can hit aoe 1 second sooner.
Here is the macro i have made for cleave and i pretty much hammer it all the time in 5 man trash lol. If u are in zerk, it throws a whirlwind too. Doubles as a dps spec macro, if u are talented for sweeping, start spamming it around 80+ rage at end of your swing timer, and keep spamming until sweeping ends. If ur in prot spec+dstance it just cleaves as normal. it pops your top trinket with “13” so take that out if you don’t want it, or change to 14 for bottom trinket
#showtooltip sweeping strikes
/use 13
/cast sweeping strikes
/cast bloodrage
/cast [form:3]whirlwind
/cast !cleave
/startattack