for anyone new to tanking and just trying it out, here are a couple of my thoughts on how to get started.
I am an avowed “serious casual” who lives the puglife in a small guild. YMMV
PRIORITIES
Here are your priorities, in my opinion, in order:
- keep yourself alive
- keep the healer alive
YOUR ROLE
- know your abilities: avoid damage, prevent damage, do damage
- understand the content - you are the quarterback and part of “staying alive” is knowing what you are contending with.
- gather mob packs and keep them on you. “hold aggro”
- set the pace for the group. monitor your cooldowns, health bar and healer mana. this is what fundamentally sets the pace.
- communicate when necessary. whether a pug or not, there is a party chat. use it. a 5 second message can save a lot of headaches.
MINDSET
I feel that there are two general mindsets of successful tanks:
-steady is smooth, smooth is fast
-zugzug
To start out as a new tank, I suggest being a smooth tank.
what is smooth? think of consistently moving from one group to another (chain pulling).
as one group is being finished off, you will have so much aggro on that pack that you can leave it to go gather the next.
If you are doing on-level content, as long as the healer has ~50% mana, keep moving. but always have your raid frames display power bars so you can see and monitor the healer’s mana - especially before a boss.
as you progress, better understand your class, abilities and content, you can start to get a little zuggy.
eventually, you can find the sweet spot for managing the pace, your CDs, the healer’s mana, the group’s damage dealing abilities (and patience).
find your comfort zone. then learn to push it. groups today expect a quick pace. if you offer to tank, especially mythics, you need to know/meet this expectation.
LEARNING HOW TO PULL
You have to develop strategies for how to gather groups. some of this is just plain trial and error and could vary considerably depending on the tank class you are running.
some tanks are squishy at the pull and others have good mitigation right from the start. those differences are beyond this post.
but here are a couple of thoughts to consider when planning your pull:
is it a group of melee or are there casters in the group?
are you going to fight them where they are or are you going to bring them to you?
are they very close to other mobs?
are there patrols?
are there mechanics that will take up a lot of space? if so, which direction will i go? note that you can always kite mobs/packs back to an earlier spot in your dungeon.
here is my biggest tip with pulling:
learn how to use line of site (LOS)
to many people, this is basic, but it is the bread and butter of good tanking. it is useful for doing more aoe damage for the whole group and for your survivability. damage you don’t take can’t kill you.
in the avoiding damage arena, learn how/when to kite. sometimes, you are taking too much damage. if you are mobile, get out.
when considering your kill spot, don’t forget the places just behind you. just make sure you can keep your front to the mobs so your avoidance mechanics work.
there is nothing wrong with telling your group “wait here” or “let me gather”, then pull the groups you want into the LOS spot and let 'er rip.
just like you will get the feel of your group, they will get the feel for your pulls.
but never hesitate to type a quick note into chat to let people know what you are doing.
as you start to get a little zuggier, be nice to your healer and say “big pull” if that is what you are about to do.
But LOS is your friend.
DEALING WITH “TOXICITY”
just like your toon has thick armor, you need to have thick skin.
some people will be helpful when you say “I am new”. other people just don’t care. they will flame you for mistakes or for anything, really. let it roll off.
I know that I am a decent tank. I have been told to uninstall the game after a crappy run (we all have crappy runs that actually are our fault) and I have been called a gigachad tank for soling bosses. i am the same guy. whatever.
You have to care for the group, but you don’t have to care about getting insulted. it will happen. Hit shield block and move on.
ALWAYS REMEMBER RULES #1 and #2
- Keep yourself alive
- keep the healer alive.
If you find that you are in a run and some dps keeps pulling like crazy, don’t panic.
Keep yourself alive and keep the healer alive.
chances are that if you are learning, you are not doing very dangerous content. use your CDs to stay alive and your abilities to protect the healer.
If the pulling DPS dies, then they didn’t know how to manage their threat. that is not your problem.
save your taunt button for the healer.
on the other hand, “good dps” will have an idea of how to actually help the group move along. but they will also know how to manage their own threat, if in no other way than simply making sure they come to you and stand within your AOE range so your abilities naturally generate threat on the incoming mobs.
CONCLUSION
Know your priorities.
Know your role.
be patient. tanking can be a lot of fun. but as the point person, you get a lot of BS. keep at it.
this isn’t exhaustive, obviously.
Quazii has a great video on “tank anxiety”. look it up on youtube. if you really want to try tanking, it is a great 22 minutes spent.